The Spanish Navy Royal Observatory leads the ‘ElGeoPower’ scientific project.

The Spanish Navy Royal Observatory (ROA in its Spanish initials) leads the research project called ‘Lithospheric and Geodynamic Structure of the Powell-Drake Bransfield Rift’.

The project tries to provide answers to one of the fundamental aspects in the theory of Plate Tectonics, namely, the formation of an Ocean seen from its initial to final stages. The study will be carried out in two different scenarios: the Bransfield Sea and the Powell Basin, near the South Shetland Archipelago and the Antarctic Peninsula.

On board the Oceanographic Research ship ‘Sarmiento de Gamboa’, ample data will be obtained on the value of the Earth's magnetic field, gravity field, bathymetry, seismic and heat flow in the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, a magnetic survey of Deception Island will be carried out using an unmanned aerial vehicle, which will make it possible to know the distribution of magnetic sources in the interior of the volcanic island.

The campaign is led by the Head of the Geophysics Section of the ROA, but other institutions also collaborate, like the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), the National Institute of Aerospace Techniques (INTA), the ‘Complutense’ University of Madrid (UCM), the University of Salamanca, the ‘Goddard Space Flight Center’ (NASA) and the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of ‘Ensenada’ (CICESE, Mexico).