bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sea level/ODP workshop
Authors: Mountain Gregory , Watkins Joel
Published: October 2006

Sixty‐six scientists from academia, government, and industry met recently for a 3‐day Joint Oceanographic Institutions/U.S. Science Advisory Committee workshop in El Paso, Tex. Their purpose was to consolidate strategies for the study of sea level change within the Ocean Drilling Program. A document summarizing their findings will be available this spring from JOI, Inc., while the following is a report outlining preliminary workshop conclusions.

Three facts provided the incentive to convene this workshop: an international array of marine scientists [COSOD II, 1987] determined that a major goal of ocean drilling in the next decade should be to improve understanding of the timing, magnitude, and causal mechanisms of sea level change; the complexity of deriving a eustatic signal from the rock record underscores the importance o f a carefully organized approach; and acquiring adequate survey data and developing critically important technologies requires a lead time of several years ahead of ODP drilling.
Downhole seismometers in the deep ocean
Authors: Purdy G. M.
Published: October 2006

The advances made using data from the sparse land‐based digital seismic networks operating since the mid‐1970s have been spectacular. There are now tomographic maps of the Earth's interior, reaching from the lithosphere to the inner core of the Earth. A clear potential has been demonstrated for the mapping of temperature anomalies and flow in the mantle by the determination of velocity anomalies and changes in azimuthal or polarization anisotropy. The first maps of the topography of the core mantle boundary were published last year. However, the resolution of these studies and the uniqueness of their results is limited by the lack of adequate spatial sampling of the seismic wave field over the entire globe.
A. M. Quennell Father of Transform Faults and Poles of Rotation?
Authors: Girdler R.W.
Published: October 2006

In the 1940s and 1950s, A. M. Quennell (1906–1985) was using, in a very practical way, many of the concepts of plate tectonics which were to become so important in the 1960s and 1970s. He spent most of his working life in the Middle East and Africa and made the Dead Sea Rift his special study. In his first major publication on the geology and mineral resources of former Trans‐Jordan in 1951, he came down firmly in favor of the views originally proposed by Lartet [1869] that the Dead Sea Rift is due to shear and the Red Sea to drift, the shear zone being the boundary between the “Palestine block” (Sinai plate) and the “Arabia block” (Arabian plate).
Oil spill shows on satellite image
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Colder water off Seward, Alaska, imaged by the NOAA‐11 polar orbiting satellite coincides with the leading part of the oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez. Visual observations from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration airplane suggest that the location of the cooler radiant temperature on the image (Figure 1) was the leading edge of the spill, which was about 180 km southwest of Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, where the tanker ran aground March 24.

The spill was carried to its April 7 position by wind and the Alaska Coastal Current at an average speed of 15 cm s−1 (about 13 km a day). Wind and fresh water discharge drive the coastal current, which is unusually slow due to record low precipitation in southeastern Alaska in February.
Record aurora over North America
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

White‐light image of the U.S. and Canada taken from space near 10 P.M. local time Monday, March 13, 1989, near the maximum phase of the largest auroral event since 1972. The bright band of light across southern Canada and northern U.S. is the visible aurora, or northern lights. The aurora was so bright that many fine details of auroral “bands,” “folds” and “curtains” are blotted out. At the maximum, auroral features were seen as far south as Houston, Tex.

The image was taken by the F9 satellite of the Defense Meteorology Satellite Program. City lights of the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada and some clouds and ground features illuminated by moonlight are seen in the image on the right, and in the Western half in the image on the left. The left image was obtained 100 minutes later than the right image. There is some overlap in the two images; for example, city lights of Dallas, Tex., appears in both images. The black line on the western image is a data‐processing artifact.
Geoid and density anomalies
Authors: Christou Nikolaos , Vaníček Petr , Ware Colin
Published: October 2006

Geoid undulations reflect density contrasts within Earth. In this study we show that many features known from other geophysical sources, such as gravity and magnetic anomaly maps, tectonic and geological maps, are also discernible in an accurate geoid. This suggests an association between these features and density anomalies. To demonstrate the usefulness of the geoid for geophysical interpretation we have chosen to use the “terrestrial contribution” to the UNB Dec. '86 Canadian geoid. This is a high‐resolution shorter wavelength (of degree and order higher than 20, or half wavelength less than 1000 km) part, which is readily available as a natural product of the geoid compilation when the UNB formulation of the geodetic boundary value problem is used. To facilitate the recognition of different features we have employed different image enhancement techniques. Hill shading combined with hypsometry (color coding of heights) appears to be the most promising in our context.
Global climate change linkages
Authors: White James C.
Published: October 2006

About 200 leading scientists and policymakers from 30 states and provinces met in Washington, D.C., in mid‐November to consider Global Climate Change Linkages: Acid Rain, Air Quality and Stratospheric Ozone. Participants included atmospheric scientists, chemists, geologists, biologists, and engineers, as well as attorneys, government agency representatives, environmentalists and representatives of trade and professional associations.

The issues of acid rain, air quality and stratospheric ozone depletion are usually considered in isolation. The purpose of this meeting was to examine the potential linkages among them and the implications for decision makers. The meeting, the fifth annual conference sponsored by the Center for Environmental Information's Air Resources Information Clearinghouse, Rochester, N.Y., was cosponsored by 25 agencies and organizations in the U.S. and Canada.
CASA Central and South America GPS geodesy
Authors: Kellogg James , Dixon Timothy , Neilan Ruth
Published: October 2006

In January 1988, scientists from over 25 organizations in 13 countries and territories cooperated in the largest Global Positioning System (GPS) campaign in the world to date (Table 1) [Neilan et al., 1988]. From January 18 to February 5, 1988, 43 GPS receivers collected about 590 station‐days of data in American Samoa, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Sweden, United States, West Germany, and Venezuela. The experiment was entitled CASA UNO, an acronym for Central and South America—and “uno” is Spanish for “one,” designating first‐epoch measurements. The CASA UNO experiment was the first civilian effort at implementing an extended GPS satellite‐tracking network and established the first major GPS network in the northern Andean margin and the western Caribbean.
ECHO 7: An electron beam experiment in the magnetosphere
Authors: Winckler J. R. , Malcolm P. R. , Arnoldy R. L. , Burke W. J. , Erickson K. N. , Ernstmeyer J. , Franz R. C. , Hallinan T. J. , Kellogg P. J. , Monson S. J. , Lynch K. A. , Murphy G. , Nemzek R. J.
Published: October 2006

Particle beams released from space vehicles provide a unique way to study many problems in basic plasma physics in the ionosphere and magnetosphere. Electron beams, for example, may act as probes or tracers in the large‐scale magnetosphere but also generate waves, plasma heating, and current systems in the local ionosphere. Such experiments are a natural extension of laboratory plasma physics to a regime where there are no walls, but where a high degree of control may still be achieved.

The first electron beam experiment in space was the Hess Artificial Aurora Experiment [Hess et al., 1971], which was launched in 1969 from the NASA Wallops Island Range, Wallops Island, Va., not only to generate auroral streaks but to map magnetic field lines between conjugate regions above the Earth's surface. This was followed in 1970 by ECHO 1, also from Wallops. Since that time, a multitude of electron beam experiments have been carried out on sounding rockets, and some at orbiting altitudes on the Space Shuttle. In the ECHO program, six additional experiments have been flown, culminating in ECHO 7, which is the subject of this paper and the last of the series. The history of the subject up to 1980 has been covered in a review paper [Winckler, 1980]. Particle beams in space plasmas were the subject of an extensive symposium in 1981 [Grandal, 1982]. This symposium includes a review of ECHO results [Winckler, 1982].Abe et al.,[1988] have analyzed ELF wave generation observed during the previous flight, ECHO 6, and referenced recent papers under the ECHO program.
WRR: Highest‐impact journal in 1987
Authors: Dagan Gadeon
Published: October 2006

Citation analysis has become an important tool for assessing the impact of scientific publications, and one of its applications is the evaluation of different journals. The Institute for Scientific Information publishes annual reviews of the journals it covers in terms of different scientometric indices. One of them is the impact factor, defined as the number of citations in the given year of the articles published in a particular journal in the preceding 2 years. Thus the impact factor can be defined as the average number of citations of an article in the second year after its publication.
To the Ocean Sciences section
Authors: Hickey Barbara
Published: October 2006

To maximize our ability to obtain recognition of Ocean Sciences Section members as Fellows of AGU while minimizing the associated workload, I have, in consultation with our executive committee, established an Ocean Sciences Fellows Committee chaired by the President‐Elect to oversee and assist in the nomination process.

The committee asks that anyone wanting to sponsor a nomination send a one‐page proposal telling why an individual should be made a Fellow. Proposals will be reviewed by the commitee, and a number equal to 1 ½ to 2 times our nomination quota will be chosen for full presentation. Committee members will then work with nominators to select and contact seconders, while the nominator provides the required curriculum vitae and publication list. The committee will assist in any manner possible to insure that the files that go forward are both timely and well documented.
NASA solicits space physics research proposals
Authors: Mellott Mary
Published: October 2006

Research opportunities sponsored by the Space Physics Division of NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications are currently becoming available. This article outlines the programs, which include the division's research and analysis support programs, U.S. participation in the Soviet ACTIVE and REGATTA‐EQUATOR programs, and a general space plasma physics guest‐investigator program (see Table 1). These programs will be described in detail in a series of NASA Research Announcements (NRA's) and an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) scheduled for release soon.
Marine Science Graduate Program at UT Austin
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

Beginning this fall, students at the University of Texas at Austin will be able to earn master's and doctoral degrees in marine science for the first time.

Degree programs will be available in marine biology, marine chemistry, marine geology, and physical oceanography. The new program is the result of a review of the Department of Marine Studies that Robert Jones started in 1985 after he was appointed the department chairman.
A modern perspective on the Conrad Discontinuity
Authors: Litak Robert K. , Brown Larry D.
Published: October 2006

V. Conrad in 1925 postulated that seismic energy propagated in a lower crustal layer with a velocity intermediate between that of the upper crust and mantel. That suggestion led to the idea of a universal or at least pervasive midcrustal velocity discontinuity, a concept that soon became widely, albeit not universally, accepted. As early studies of earthquake records were supplanted by data from controlled‐source refraction surveys, references to the “Conrad discontinuity” in the continental crust became common in theliterature.

As more and increasingly detailed data have been collected, the nature and even the existence of this feature has been called into question. However, some results of deep seismic reflection profiling seem to indicate a distinction between upper and lower crust, which suggests that a midcrustal boundary may indeed exist in some areas. In light of these developments and the continuing debate over the nature of the continental crust, it is appropriate at this time to examine the historical development of the concept of the Conrad discontinuity and the objections and responses and how recent data affect perspectives on the Conrad discontinuity.
James Roy Barcus 1930–1988
Authors: Brown R. R. , Goldberg R. A. , Rosenberg T. J. , Patel V. L. ,   colleagues
Published: October 2006

James Roy Barcus, professor of physics at the University of Denver, Colo., died January 3, 1988, at his home in Denver after a long battle with lung cancer.

Barcus was born in Kansas City, Mo., on September 30, 1930. He served in the U.S. Navy before enrolling as an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico, where he obtained his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees. His doctoral research was on extensive air showers of cosmic radiation, under J. R. Green.
Direct/delayed response project: Predicting future long‐term effects of acidic deposition on surface water chemistry
Authors: Church M. Robbins
Published: October 2006

In 1984 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as part of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, initiated a project to estimate potential future effects of acidic deposition on the chemistry of lakes and streams. This project, the Direct/Delayed Response Project (DDRP), has focused its attention on surface waters in regions of the eastern U.S. thought to be most vulnerable to effects of acidic deposition. The project hascombined regional surface water chemistrydata gathered by EPA's National Surface Water Survey with a unique regional watershed and soil survey under take n within the DDRP.The project is applying a variety of analyses, including the use of three independently derived watershed models of acidic deposition effects. This article describes the design of the DDRP and presents some of its preliminary products.
Magnetic domains
Authors: Worm H.‐U. , Banerjee S. K. , Ryan P. J. , Hoffmann V. , Appel E. , Soffel H.
Published: October 2006

At the recently concluded International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy Assembly in Exeter, U.K., magnetic domain observations on magnetite imaged for the first time by the magneto‐optic Kerr effect were reported. The picture (Figure 1) shows domains on a synthetic magnetite grain where magnetic contrast is achieved by the longitudinal Kerr effect using a polarizing light microscope with an attached high‐sensitivity video camera, a digital video processor and a graphics computer.

Previous domain studies on magnetite were done by the Bitter technique, where magnetic colloids are attracted by magnetic gradients over domain walls. Results were at odds with theoretical predictions concerning domain sizes, and it has been questioned whether the colloid actually leaves the domains themselves unaffected or whether there are (Néel‐type) domain walls that are not associated with a significant gradient.
Active and recent strike‐slip tectonics
Authors: Nur Amos , Boccaletti Mario
Published: October 2006

An international workshop cosponsored by the Department of Geology, University of Florence, Italy and the Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., was held in Florence, Italy, April 18–20, 1989,on the topic of active and recent strike‐slip tectonics in the continental crust. Workshop participants from Turkey, Ethiopia, Israel, Greece, and various universities in Italy, Spain, West Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and the United States reported on a broad range of studies involving strike‐slip faulting in continental crustal setting. As it turned out, much of the work reported on involved aspects of strike‐slip faulting that are only poorly understood, especially crustal deformation, which is distributed over a multiplicity of faults, or even fault domains.

One of the rewarding aspects of this workshop was the diversity of geographic areas and geological settings covered by the reporters. The north and east Anatolian faults, the Dead Sea transform zone, western Turkey, north and central Greece, Malta, Sicily, southern Italy, the bethic Cordillera in southern Spain, Tunisia, Tibet and southwest China, offshore Brazil, Alaska, Nevada, and California. A recurring observation reported for all those areas was mixed mode faulting, i.e., the coterminous or sequential occurrence of strike‐slip and normal faulting, or strike‐slip and thrust, and in many instances also strikeslip, normal and thrust faulting in a single tectonic setting.
Candidates for Office, 1990–1992: Union Candidates: President‐Elect
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

AGU member since 1957. Fellow since 1983. Prof, of Oceanography, Scripps Instit. of Oceanography, and 1989–90 Chair., Univ. of Calif., Academic Council. Broad involvement in ocean science and technology with recent concentration on deep sea floor environment. B.S. 1941 and Ph.D. 1951, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley; M.S. 1946, Harvard. Directed Univ. of Calif, marine research organizations, 1958–88. Fellow, Acoust. Soc. of America and Marine Tech. Soc.; member, AAAS, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi and others. Served on Ocean Sciences Board, Committee on Geodesy, NSF Advisory Committee on Ocean Science, Naval Research Advisory Committee, etc. Author or coauthor of over 100 publications. Honors include Franklin Inst. Wetherill Medal, AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize, AGU/Navy Ewing Medal, ASA Pioneers of Underwater Acoustics Medal, Member National Academy of Engineering. AGU Ewing Medal committee, section fellows committee, History committee. Currently President‐Elect of Ocean Sciences Section.
Perspective on the 1988 midwestern drought
Authors: Kunkel Kenneth E. , Angel James R.
Published: October 2006

The drought of 1988 had widespread impacts in the midwestern United States. Crop yields were reduced significantly. Barge traffic on the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers was severely disrupted. Municipal water supplies in some communities were reduced to critically low levels. In the face of these and other serious impacts, it is worthwhile to examine the climatological severity of this drought. For instance, was this drought comparable to the worst droughts in this century, as was frequently stated in news reports? Or, alternatively, were these serious impacts at least partially the result of a lack of flexibility in our socioeconomic system and in the experience of decision makers to adapt to serious drought?
Downstream fining in gravel bed rivers
Authors: Paola Chris , Wilcock Peter
Published: October 2006

The special session Equal Mobility and Downstream Fining in Gravel Bed Rivers held May 8, 1989, at the AGU Spring Meeting in Baltimore, Md., examined the apparent contradiction between two observations: that bed grain size in aggrading rivers decreases downstream, mainly through selective deposition of the coarse clasts, but that measurements in gravel channels and flumes indicate that all grain sizes in a mixture are transported at the same rate, when scaled according to their proportion in the bed. If all sizes are transported at equal rates, how are the coarser clasts selectively deposited during aggradation?.
Shaded relief map of U.S. topography from digital elevations
Authors: Pike Richard J. , Thelin Gail P.
Published: October 2006

Much geologic and geophysical information that lies encoded within land surface form can be revealed by image processing large files of digitized elevations in fast machines and mapping the results. This convergence of computers, analytic software, data, and output devices has created exciting opportunities for automating the numerical and spatial study of topography. One recent result is the accompanying shaded relief map of the conterminous 48 states.

A shaded relief image of topography mimics a cloud‐free monochrome aerial photograph taken at low Sun. Gray tones represent different terrain slopes and azimuths calculated from adjacent elevations stored in a uniform grid, or digital elevation model (DEM). Sun elevation and direction can be varied to generate complementary views of the same area. The synoptic coverage of these computer images is a major advantage; unlike a photograph, image extent is limited only by size of the elevation array. Shaded relief maps also are free of the distortion found in radar images and of the vegetation and cultural features that mask topographic form on Landsat and SPOT images.
Space Science in the Twenty‐First Century: Imperatives for the Decades 1995–2015 (Solar and Space Physics)
Authors: Kivelson Margaret Galland
Published: October 2006

We are told by those who were fortunate enough to have participated in National Aeronautics and Space Administration missions in the 1960s that mission time scales were measured in months. Ideas transformed themselves into hardware and launches in less than a year. Little in‐depth analysis of the anticipated findings was required to justify a project. A spacecraft with functioning instruments was sure to discover something new, different, and probably interesting.

In 1989, as NASA resumes launching spacecraft (including the first planetary missions since Pioneer Venus was launched in 1978), missions evolve from ideas to implementation to the beat of a different drummer. With more than a decade not atypical of the period between concept and fruition and with a mature discipline calling for data pertinent to clearly defined scientific questions, planning has become an essential element of the space program. Plans a r e developed and updated frequently by committees of the Space Science Board and internally by NASA offices. Unofficial grass roots groups have added their voices, most recently at a session on Magnetospheric Missions Beyond International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) held at the Spring Meeting of AGU. A cynic might regard more science and less planning as desirable, but such a flippant view ignores the complexity of the process of assigning priorities among challenging, difficult, and costly options for future missions.
Latin American Geophysicists
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Three Latin American geophysicists have been selected to receive travel support under AGU's Latin American Visting Geophysicist Program. They will attend the 1989 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, where all three plan to present papers. They will visit several U.S. universities and research institutions. The geophysicists selected are described in the following paragraphs.
Geoid Commission
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The International Geoid Commission was formed by the International Association of Geodesy at the 19th General Assembly of the IUGG in Vancouver, 1987. The commission operates as Commission XII of Section III (Determination of the Gravity Field) of IAG.

A Commission of the IAG considers those activities for which close international cooperation or organization is necessary. Each member country of IUGG is entitled to nominate one representative to this commission. Forty representatives have been appointed. U.S. representative is Richard H. Rapp.
PC workshops
Authors: Lettenmaier Dennis P. , Van der Heidje Paul , Cohn Timothy A.
Published: October 2006

During May 15–17 at the IAHS Third Scientific Assembly, 57 presentations were made in three workshops: PC Methods for Groundwater Quantity and Quality Analysis and Modeling (15 presentations); PC Methods in Water Resource Systems, Precipitation Analysis, and GIS (21); and PC Methods for Flood Frequency Analysis and Flood Forecasting (21). Each presentation consisted of a PC with a demonstration program and a poster, both of which were available for one day of audience examination. Most of the PC programs were operable on a “standard” system consisting of an 80286 processor with 80287 math coprocessor, 20 Mb hard disk, EGA graphics, and 640 Kb memory. No proceedings were published.
Who will lead quake program?
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

While federal, state, and local officials are still totaling the damage from the October 17 Loma Prieta earthquake in northern California, Congress is undecided on which agency should lead national efforts to prepare for earthquakes.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency currently runs the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP), coordinating earthquake hazard research supported by itself, the U.S. Geological Survey, National Science Foundation, and National Institute of Science and Technology. Now several longtime supporters of NEHRP in the Senate, unhappy with FEMA's performance, want the “lead” agency role to be turned over to USGS. Seismologists, members of Congress, and emergency response experts have been critical of reduced spending and disorganization within the program.
New head of ocean service
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Virginia K. Tippie has become director of NOAA's National Ocean Service, which is responsible for collecting and distributing information about oceans and coastal areas.

As leader of one of NOAA's five major offices, Tippie's title is Assistant Administrator of Ocean Services and Coastal Zone Management. She oversees offices that compile ocean maps, predict tides, monitor global climate and pollution, and manage coastal programs like the National Marine Sanctuary and the National Estuarine Research Reserve. Tippie was previously director of the NOAA Estuarine Program Office, which recently was made part of the office of the NOAA Administrator. From 1981–86 she directed the EPA's congressionally mandated Chesapeake Bay Program. Before that she directed the Center for Ocean Management Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Tippie has also been a special assistant to the chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere.
How Volcanoes Work
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Volcanism and associated plutonism have been dominant geologic processes from the earliest beginnings of our planet. Indeed, more than 80% of the Earth's surface is now, or originally was, of magmatic origin, and the distribution of volcanoes, past and present, reflects mantle and crustal dynamics within a context of plate tectonics. In recent decades, increasing attention has been paid to the study of the role of volcanism in global climate change. It is hardly surprising that since the flowering of the natural sciences in the 19th century, the question of how volcanoes work has been and remains one of the most fascinating and fundamental questions to challenge Earth scientists.
Research in rock deformation: Report of the Second Rock Deformation Colloquium, 1989 AGU Spring Meeting
Authors: Green Harry
Published: October 2006

In response to the considerable interest expressed at the first Rock Deformation Colloquium held at the Fall 1988 AGU meeting in San Francisco, a second dinner meeting was held on Monday evening, May 8, 1989, at the Omni Hotel in Baltimore. The principal business items were a report by Steve Kirby (U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.) concerning the meeting the previous day of the rock deformation steering committee and an after dinner presentation by Steve Freiman of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., entitled “The Environmental Effects on Subcritical Crack Growth.” Kirby reported that a technical committee for rock deformation has been established within the Tectonophysics Section of AGU; the steering committee will attempt to establish constructive working relations with allied societies and disciplines, such as ceramics, metallurgy, materials science, structural geology, and surface science. Brian Evans of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Terry Tullis of Brown University in Providence, R.I., and Harry Green of the University of California at Davis agreed to be a subcommittee to propose a name for the technical committee, for discussion at the next steering committee meeting to be held before the 1989 Fall AGU meeting. Green also agreed to investigate the possibility of convening a special session at the Fall Meeting on the nature and mechanism of deep‐focus earthquakes. (The session is Deep Slab Deformation and Faulting, T21B and T22A, organized by Harry and Ken Creager of the University of Washington, Seattle; it will be all day on Tuesday, December 5.)
Forecasting Gulf Stream meanders and rings
Authors: Robinson Allan R. , Glenn Scott M. , Spall Michael A. , Walstad Leonard J. , Gardner Geraldine M. , Leslie Wayne G.
Published: October 2006

The deep open ocean exhibits energetic space‐time variability phenomena that are the counterpart of atmospheric weather systems. The internal weather of the sea occurs on the scale of the internal deformation radius (depth times the ratio of buoyancy to Coriolis frequencies), with features called “mesoscale” fronts and eddies, although the dynamical analogy is with the atmospheric synoptic scale [Charney and Flierl, 1980; Robinson, 1983]. Space scales range from tens to hundreds of kilometers and time scales from days to months; features extend from surface to bottom intensified in the upper ocean main thermocline.

Mesoscale effects include the intermittent energization of regions; the shifting of currents; the location of air‐sea interaction events; the transport, entrapment and dispersion of such things as heat, chemicals, nutrients, larvae, and pollutants; and the alteration of sound propagation. Forecasting the internal weather of the sea is important scientifically and practically and is now feasible [Mooers et al, 1987; Robinson, 1987] due to rapid, recent advances in physical oceanography and related technologies, especially satellites and computers. We have established a forecast system for the Gulf Stream Meander and Ring (GSM&R) region, called GULFCAST, that provides predictions one week ahead in real time and on an ongoing basis.
The case for planetary sample return missions: Origin and evolution of the Moon and its environment
Authors: Ryder Graham , Spudis Paul D. , Taylor G. Jeffrey
Published: October 2006

The Apollo missions established the Moon as a cornerstone in planetary science: insights gained from this coign of vantage have stimulated research and influenced ideas for the Earth and other planets subsequently investigated using spacecraft. The history of lunar studies emphatically demonstrates the enormous progress in knowledge and understanding—a giant leap—that is made when samples from another planet become available for study in sophisticated laboratories. A few pebbles kicked loose are enough to start an avalanche, and the lunar samples are used as test beds for hypotheses about planetary, and even solar, evolution. The Moon is more accessible than any other body in the Solar System and is a potential home for a permanently occupied base with multiple purposes; it remains an important target for future work in planetary science.
NORCSEX '88: A pre‐launch ERS‐1 experiment
Authors:   NORCSEX '88 Group
Published: October 2006

The first European Space Agency (ESA) Earth Resource Satellite (ERS‐1) will be launched into polar orbit in the winter of 1991, almost 13 years after the launch of the U.S. ocean radar satellite Seasat in July 1978. ERS‐1 will be equipped with the same active microwave sensor package as Seasat, including a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), a scatterometer, and a radar altimeter.

To demonstrate the potential of these active microwave sensors for mapping near‐surface wind, ocean waves and current and their interaction, the ERS‐1 NORwegian Continental Shelf EXperiment (NORCSEX) was carried out in March 1988. NORCSEX was centered at 64°N, off the west coast of Norway (Figure 1). An experiment to detect ship wakes using ship‐based and airborne SAR was carried out simultaneously. In this and many other coastal regions subject to extensive cloud cover and to a weakening in the surface temperature gradient across ocean fronts during seasonal warming, satellite infrared radiometers are of limited use. The instruments on ERS‐1 will provide the first regular observations of these marine variables.
Precipitation committee
Authors: Smith James A.
Published: October 2006

The Precipitation Committee of the AGU Section of Hydrology has placed major emphasis in past years on fostering interaction between the research communities in hydrology and meteorology. The 1986 Chapman Conference on Mesoscale Precipitation, co‐organized by Ignacio Rodriguez‐Iturbe and the Precipitation Committee, exemplified the benefits accruing in both disciplines from an interdisciplinary approach to hydrometeorological problems. A collection of papers derived from the conference appears in Journal of Geophysical Research (Atmospheres, Volume 92, Number D8, 1987). A second Conference on Mesoscale Precipitation, cosponsored by AGU and the American Meteorological Society and organized by Rafael Bras, was held in 1988. A collection of papers from the conference will again appear in JGR. The Precipitation Committee is participating in planning for the third Mesoscale Precipitation Conference which will be held in fall of 1990.
Canadian Absolute Gravity Program: Applications in geodesy and geodynamics
Authors: Lambert A. , Liard J. O. , Courtier N. , Goodacre A. K. , McConnell R. K. , Faller J. E.
Published: October 2006

The vast distances, poor accessibility and need for uniform accuracy in the Canadian Gravity Standardization Network (CGSN) have required that stations be connected by numerous interlocking gravity ties involving expensive air transportation of relative gravimeters. It is expected that the introduction of regular high‐accuracy absolute gravity measurements into the Canadian network will ensure that the accuracy of the network is sufficient to meet modern geodetic requirements and will render a selected number of stations suitable for geodynamic studies.

As the first step in providing the required absolute measurements, the Geological Survey of Canada has acquired an absolute gravimeter of the direct free‐fall type developed by the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado, Boulder [Faller et al,1979, 1983].
Effects of the March 1989 solar activity
Authors: Allen Joe , Sauer Herb , Frank Lou , Reiff Patricia
Published: October 2006

On Monday, March 6, 1989, a very large and complex sunspot group, Region 5395, rotated into view around the east limb of the Sun and quickly gained attention when it produced an X15/3B flare (N35, E69). The event began a period of high solar activity that lasted two weeks and had many important consequences at Earth and in near‐Earth space.

From March 6–19, Region 5395 produced 11 X‐class and 48 M‐class X ray flares. Prolonged proton events occurred that lasted several days and had an unusually high proportion of lower‐energy particles. The solar activity produced an historically “great” magnetic storm, long‐lasting Polar Cap Absorption events, and a major Forbush decrease, which is a decrease of the galactic cosmic ray flux observed at Earth. The ionosphere was greatly disturbed.
Quake hearing at Fall Meeting
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The House subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology held a hearing, “The Loma Prieta Earthquake: Lessons Learned” December 4 at the AGU Fall national meeting in San Francisco. A House hearing hosted by a scientific society is a rare if not unique event.

The chairman of the subcommittee, Douglas Walgren (D‐PA) was joined at the meeting by House members Barbara Boxer (D‐CA), George Brown, Jr., (D‐CA), Tom Campbell (R‐CA), Norman Mineta (D‐CA), Nancy Pelosi (D‐CA), Don Ritter (R‐PA), and James Sensenbrenner (R‐WI), who took testimony from three panels after making opening statements. About 250 people attended the hearing, which was preceded by a n informal lunch with most of the congressmen and AGU officials.
Two ways to erupt
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

Sometimes volcanos erupt violently, sometimes they don't. A simple new model of the physical interaction of magmas and the volcanos they build may explain why.

Developed by John Eichelberger and Charles R. Carrigan of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., the theory suggests that magmas from the same source contain similar amounts of water and other volatile compounds, rather than differing widely in composition.
Put space science first, NASA advised
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The first priority of the U.S. space program should be scientific research, not manned spaceflight, according to a high‐level NASA advisory committee, chaired by Martin Marietta chief executive officer Norman R. Augustine, that reported its findings in December. The committee's recommendations, which also include a 10% annual increase in NASA's budget through the 1990s and a cost‐cutting redesign of Space Station Freedom, were well received January 3 on Capitol Hill during the first of a series of Congressional hearings on the committee's report.

The report identifies four content areas that make up the U.S. civil space program—space science, Earth observation missions, manned exploration of the Solar System, technology and launch systems—and states that “the civil space science program should have first priority for NASA resources.” That funding level is to be maintained at a constant level of approximately 20% of NASA's budget. The report also recommends that NASA increasingly use universities and other organizations as “prime contractors for space research instruments and projects.”
Quaternary stress‐field change in the Gregory rift, Kenya
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

In areas of continental extension, many regions are now known that have recorded kinematic changes in the course of their evolution [lilies and Greiner, 1978; Zoback et al., 1981; Golombek et al., 1983; Doser and Yarwood, 1990]. Different kinematics can be introduced by rotations in the direction of the least horizontal stress direction ( Shmin) by permutation of the principal stresses.

A reoriented stress field in a rifting environment may cause the structural framework to become unsuited to accommodate extension, so that strike‐slip faulting may assume a major role. This appears to happen in some areas of advanced rifting that have many strike‐slip earthquakes, and where the rift‐related faults are oblique to the modern extension direction [Doser and Yarwood, 1990].
Geosat ends
Authors: Cheney Robert E. , Douglas Bruce C.
Published: October 2006

The Geosat satellite altimeter mission ended January 5 after nearly 5 years of highly successful operation. Geosat data collection had already been dramatically curtailed since October 1989, when the remaining operable tape recorder failed. The mission was terminated when the altimeter output power dropped below acceptable limits.

Following NASA's abbreviated Seasat altimeter mission in 1978, Geosat was conceived by the U.S. Navy as a means of obtaining high‐resolution maps of mean sea level for geodesy. The satellite was designed and constructed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., and launched in March 1985.
Congress has full science agenda
Authors: Jones R.
Published: October 2006

Congress reconvened last week, and if early indications are correct, its various committees will have plenty to keep them busy in the area of science policy.

The Senate, in addition to authorization and appropriations legislation, must act on a number of nominees for various high‐level science positions.
Next generation of seafloor samplers
Authors: Johnson H. Paul
Published: October 2006

The University of Washington, Seattle, has successfully completed the first stage of a proposed multiphase program to develop small rock drills as a new generation of seafloor sampling tools. Phase I of this program, a basic 3‐m drill, was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and Washington Sea Grant. The drill was designed and built for the university by Williamson and Associates of Seattle and was successfully deployed, in 2400m of water on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, during August 1990. The present drill can penetrate and sample 3 m of vertically oriented core from crystalline igneous rocks, lithified sediments, and sulfide and carbonate deposits. It is deployable to a depth of 5000 m (limited by the cable and drill weight) by conventional research vessels using the NSF‐standard armored conducting cable. The drill is presently undergoing post‐test modifications at the University of Washington and will be available to the scientific community through a Regional Facility by summer 1991.
U.S. Science agencies unveil FY 92 budgets: National Science Foundation
Authors: Bush Susan , Simarski Lynn Teo
Published: October 2006

NSF's budget request is $2.72 billion for FY 1992, 17.5% above what it received last year. In introducing the budget, Frederick M. Bernthal, NSF acting director, stressed the critical role that scientific research and education must play to keep America competitive in the world economy—a context that has shaped the budget. Bernthal called the request “an extraordinarily good budget,” characterizing NSF's allotment as “favored treatment.”

NSF cited two major objectives behind its budget: to “strengthen the research base and infrastructure,” and “to develop human resources, broaden participation, and improve science and engineering education and training.”

Bernthal ranked NSF's priorities as people first, instrumentation next, and facilities third. About three‐fourths of the budget would fund research and infrastructure. One special high‐priority area is high performance computing and communications ($213 million, up 26%), “to provide the cutting‐edge computing and networking technology and the development and infrastructure necessary for advanced research in all science and engineering disciplines,” according to NSF. Another special area is global change research, receiving $118.5 million (up 36%) for basic research on “future changes in the Earth–s environment.” Eight other federal agencies are part of this initiative. Education and human resources also receives priority ($582 million, with $390 million devoted to education).
Magnetosphere lecturer chosen
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

George L. Siscoe has been chosen as the second James Van Allen Lecturer in magnetospheric physics. Siscoe will present “The Magnetosphere: A Union of Different Parts“
The deepest rocks in the world
Authors: Morse S. A.
Published: October 2006

New discoveries and new experimental techniques are beginning to open an unexpected window on the hidden depths and workings of the Earth. The Earth's deepest rocks that can be held in the hand were delivered to us 100 million years ago by explosive eruptions of diamond‐bearing kimberlite magma. For many years, the depth of wall‐rocks carried to the surface has been estimated at about 150 km. Some nodules of the rock known as eclogite, however, may have come from at least 300 km, and perhaps more than 400 km, deep. If the latter figure is correct, the rocks could be samples from the enigmatic transition zone that is defined by changes in earthquake wave velocities, and whose origin is the subject of much debate.
History of Geophysics Encyclopedia planned
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

A new volume of historical papers in all areas of geophysics is being planned for publication by Garland Publishing. The volume, titled “History of the Geosciences: An Encyclopedia,” is scheduled for release in 1993. Contributions in all areas of geophysics are needed.
MSA short course: Mineral‐solution interface geochemistry
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

As science advances, important changes rapidly ripple through many disciplines and lead to radically new interpretations of old data, so argued Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago, 1970). Such a scientific revolution is now taking place, as scientists revise models of the mineral‐solution interface. These revisions extend through such disparate fields as materials science (for example, the synthesis of thin oxide films) and medicine (for example, biomineralization), as well as through the Earth sciences.

The Mineralogic Society of America sponsored the short course “Mineral‐Solution Interface Geochemistry,” to summarize some of these advances. The course, organized by Michael Hochella of Stanford University and Art F. White of the U.S. Geological Survey, was held at the Tanglewood Resort near Dallas, Tex., October 25–28, 1990. Hochella and White also edited a book to accompany the short course, which is published as volume 23 of the Reviews in Mineralogy and available at low cost through MSA.
Lunar samples, lunar accretion and the early bombardment of the Moon
Authors: Ryder Graham
Published: October 2006

Recent advances in lunar sample science and planetary accretion theories demand a new look at the bombardment history recorded by the Moon. Among lunar samples there are no impact melts dated older than about 3.9 Ga, yet a heavy bombardment of the Moon from its birth until 3.9 Ga should have produced many melts to be sampled by Apollo, Luna, and the meteorites of lunar origin. The absence of older impact melts cannot be explained by continued isotopic resetting because ejecta blankets are mainly cold and ancient igneous rocks including mare basalts exist. The common 3.85‐Ga melt ages cannot be ascribed to a single or even a few basin events (e.g., Imbrium) because the samples show wide differences in chemistry and real, if small, differences in ages; the ages also appear in the lunar meteorites and thus are Moon‐wide.
Solar activity
Authors: Siscoe George L.
Published: October 2006

Perhaps the most newsworthy item of recent times concerning solar activity is its unprecedented strength during the rising phase of its current 11‐year cycle. Examples of its potency include a major, well‐observed solar flare in March 1989 that launched an unusually powerful blast wave that, hitting Earth, caused spectacular low‐latitude auroras and induced currents that disabled the Quebec power system for 9 hours (6 million customers). From August through October 1989, solar flares emitted the most intense levels of solar cosmic rays measured since the beginning of the Space Age; one flare produced more cosmic rays than the previous solar cycle in total. Radiation damage to the Magellan spacecraft, en route to Venus on a radar mapping mission, permanently reduced its solar‐cell output by 10%. Excessive heating caused the Earth's upper atmosphere to rise, prematurely downing the one spacecraft capable of monitoring solar activity from orbit, the Solar Maximum Mission. Implications for the manned and unmanned space program of record‐breaking solar activity are still being assessed.