bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
T. C. Chamberlin and H2O climate feedbacks: A voice from the past
Authors: Fleming James R.
Published: October 2006

The interaction of positive and negative climate feedbacks has become a central issue for the global change science community. With many expecting surface air temperatures to rise several degrees due to increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gases, the response of H2O (water vapor, liquid, solid) is critical. Will higher temperatures and increased evaporation lead to an enhanced greenhouse effect, especially over the tropical oceans, or will increased cloudiness effectively cap the increase in temperatures? [see Ramanathan and Collins, 1991, 1992; Stephens and Slingo, 1992].

“Greenhouse Warming and Cloud Thermostats” is the name of a talk to be given by V. Ramanathan during the Atmospheric Sciences Section luncheon at the AGU 1992 Fall Meeting on December 8. This topic invites comparison between the current H2O feedback hypotheses and work begun almost a century ago by the celebrated geologist Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin (1843–1928) at the University of Chicago [Gillispie, 1970–1980; Schultz, 1976]. Briefly, here are some of Chamberlin's ideas on the roles of water vapor and clouds.
Status of hazard mitigation studies
Authors: Blue Charles
Published: October 2006

This year has been one of the most costly years ever recorded for natural disasters. Researchers now studying these events are trying to better understand their evolution and impact to help minimize losses from future disasters.

In “Rapid Response to Natural Hazard Mitigation,” a special Union session at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, researchers studying natural hazards will discuss the current status of hazard mitigation and reveal how new technologies are being applied to earthquake, tsunami, and volcanic monitoring programs to reduce future losses.
Comments on “As the World Turns, II”
Authors: Carter W. E. , Robertson D. S. , Eckhardt D. H. , Shaw G. L.
Published: October 2006

B. Fong Chao's article entitled “As the World Turns, II” (Eos, Dec. 3, 1991), was written in an informal manner appropriate for a broad spectrum of readers, many of whom might otherwise have had little interest in the subject of Earth rotation. Unfortunately, the article contains a serious conceptual error concerning the ability of a gyroscope (or “gyrometer”) to sense certain components of the Earth's rotation. The problem begins with the statement that “the gyrometer will record no change in reading so long as Ω is constant in the terrestrial frame (and hence rigidly connected to A) even if it (Ω, the rotation vector of the Earth) actually varies in space, as in the case of the Earth under precession and nutation.”
222Rn Premonitory signals for earthquakes?
Authors: Fleischer Robert L. , Mogro‐Campero Antonio
Published: October 2006

Are changes in 222Rn concentrations in the Earth of use in predicting earthquakes? This is a nagging issue, there being many scattered data that are suggestive of useful signals, but none that have been established firmly by accepted statistical analysis. Figure 1 illustrates the quandary. Radon measurements show a striking factor‐of‐40 increase prior to an Ms = 6.3 earthquake (and a return to background after), even though the epicenter was 178 km distant and the fault diameter was about 15 km, far less than the ∼180 km to the site of the radon measurements. One must ask whether the coincidence could be purely statistical. How frequent are such radon changes, and do they regularly correlate with known earthquakes? Radon was monitored here for 3 years—a short time relative to the incidence of nearby earthquakes. Therefore, the decisive, valid answers to the question of statistical significance cannot be supplied. Significant earthquakes are rare; and continuous, properly done, long‐term 222Rn measurements in earthquake‐regions are correspondingly rarer.
Global forcing and regional interactions
Authors: Pielke R. A. , Schimel D. , Kittel T. G. F. , Bretherton F.
Published: October 2006

The Climate System Modeling Program (CSMP) sponsored a “Global Forcing and Regional Interaction Workshop” from October 21 to 23, 1991, at Colorado State University's Pingree Park campus, to evaluate the relationship between global climate forcing and the response of the land surface on a regional scale.

The general aim of the workshop was to develop specific action plans and preliminary science research strategies for regionalglobal interactions. Each participant was invited to identify tractable, high pay‐off science issues related to global forcing and regional interactions. The workshop, with twenty‐six participants about evenly split between atmospheric scientists, hydrologists, and ecologists, was also designed to facilitate a network of collaborators to prepare multidisciplinary research proposals. Discussion also focused on regional climate over the last 200 years and included the influence of atmosphere‐land surface processes on natural climate variability. Several major recommendations were made on topics discussed.
WHOI Receives $500,000 Grant
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has received a $500,000 grant from the Palisades Geophysical Institute, Inc., to establish the J. Lamar Worzel Assistant Scientist Fund. WHOI must raise an additional $500,000 to match the challenge grant. The $1 million will be used as endowment to support bright, young scientists pursuing careers in geophysical oceanography at WHOI.
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit
Authors: Lang Valerie
Published: October 2006

For concerned scientists frustrated by more than a decade of “business as usual” national economic and energy policy in the face of growing environmental consequences, Al Gore's book, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, can be viewed as a source for optimism.

Twenty‐five years of world travel and studies of the Earth's ecological problems led Gore to publish his conclusions on the environment during his campaign for vicepresident of the United States. As a member of a Congressional system that relies to a great extent on the news media, legislative staff, and second‐hand reports as information sources, Gore is to be commended for devoting so much time to his personal study of the environment.
The Age of the Earth
Authors: York Derek
Published: October 2006

Time is the most elusive of fundamental concepts. Yet we are in every sense creatures of time, the progeny of 4.5 billion years of it. Some of us spend our lives trying to understand time. And if that has so far proved impossible, at least in post‐Newtonian time we have produced an apparently reliable measure of just how much time has elapsed since planet Earth condensed from the solar whorl.
JGOFS: Measuring CO2 in the ocean
Authors: Dickson Andrew G.
Published: October 2006

Scientists are now measuring carbon dioxide in the ocean as part of a coordinated international study of the carbon cycle in the oceans known as the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). Current plans for JGOFS include a variety of surveys, process studies, and time‐series observations. Such an ambitious field program is extremely demanding; the scientific goals require careful and accurate chemical analytical techniques, and the global coverage needs substantial international collaboration. The quality of these measurements is a key concern, as the eventual success of such a survey requires that measurements made at different times, by different investigators from laboratories around the world, be comparable and correct.
NASA's small planetary mission plan released
Authors: Jones Richard M.
Published: October 2006

A ten‐page report just submitted to Congress outlines a new strategy for NASA planetary programs emphasizing small missions. If implemented, this plan would represent a shift away from large “flagship” missions that have characterized many programs of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division.

There are a number of reasons for this shift in strategy. The current NASA appropriations bill requires “a plan to stimulate and develop small planetary or other space science projects, emphasizing those which could be accomplished by the academic or research communities.” Budgetary realities make it more difficult to fly large missions. There is also concern about a “significant gap” in data from planetary missions between 1998 and 2004.
Cory Dean receives AGU Journalism Award
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Cory Dean of The New York Times received AGU's Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism for her article, “Army Corps of Engineers Struggles to Alter Mississippi's Fate.” Dean's strong interest in coastal erosion and ecology led her to write the story, which explores the engineering and scientific difficulties associated with trying to control the natural evolution of a river delta. The story reports on the ongoing efforts of the Army Corps of Engineers to keep the Mississippi flowing along its traditional course. The river, however, is inexorably fighting to change its course, as it has many times in the past.
Satellite probes plasma processes in Earth orbit
Authors: Christensen Andrew B. , Reasoner David L.
Published: October 2006

The Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES), launched on July 25, 1990, is a joint Department of Defense/NASA mission to provide better understanding of the physics of the Earth's near space environment including the radiation belts and the ionosphere. New data has already been obtained that will help spacecraft designers protect against radiation belt particles that adversely affect sensitive electronic parts in satellites, degrade solar panel arrays, and pose hazards to people living and working in space.
Workshop on electromagnetic induction in the Earth
Authors: Jones Alan
Published: October 2006

Working Group 1.2 of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) will hold its 11th Biennial Workshop on Electromagnetic Induction in the Earth, at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, from August 26 to September 2, 1992. Over 100 abstracts have been submitted for presentations in nine sessions focusing on topics of current interest in the induction field.

Included is the session, “Distortion Effects in Magnetotellurics and Their Removal,” that will concentrate on attempts to retrieve structural conductivity information from data distorted by extreme local variations in measured regional electric fields. Such variations can be the source of static shift of apparent resistivity curves and can also twist and skew the electrical impedance tensor to mask details of regional conductivity structure.
Tracking the movement of contaminants into groundwater
Authors: Gee Glendon
Published: October 2006

The study of how contaminants move from the soil surface to the underlying water table—through the realm hydrologists call the vadose zone—is an area of hydrologic research that is just in its infancy. Recent studies seeking to unravel the mysteries of contaminant movement in the vadose zone and predict when, where, and how much groundwater contamination will occur indicate that the flow and transport may be chaotic and hard to measure.

Contamination has become a major threat to present and future uses of groundwaters. The vadose zone has gradually be‐come a repository for massive quantities of wastes, which in far too many instances have leached and subsequently recharged aquifers with contaminants. In this zone water enters the Earth's surface via rainfall, irrigation, or snow melt and cycles through porous soils and fractured rocks. Here it may be either intercepted by plant roots and returned to the atmosphere or moves deeper until it recharges underlying aquifers. In the past this process has provided a seemingly endless supply of high‐quality groundwater that has been available for industrial, agricultural, and human consumption.
Results from the Magellan mission to Venus
Authors: Plaut Jeffrey J.
Published: October 2006

NASA's Magellan radar mapping mission to Venus is approaching its third global mapping cycle and continues to return highresolution image, topography, and radiometry data. Nearly 95% of the surface of Venus has been mapped, with excellent performance by the spacecraft and radar systems.

Since the 1960s, Earth‐based and orbital radar have been used to map the surface of Venus because of the dense cloud cover that hides the surface. Results from the Earthbased observations were instrumental in defining the gross surface features of parts of the planet, while NASA's Pioneer Venus probe provided a global low‐resolution topographic map. The Soviet Venera missions obtained orbital radar images of about 25% of the planet at a resolution of 1 km. However, these earlier studies did not allow identification of surface processes or the major factors that have shaped the surface of Venus. The Magellan mission, with approximately 100‐m resolution, is providing the first detailed look at this planet to determine its geological evolution.
Are autoregressive models sensitive to initial conditions?
Authors: Chao Benjamin Fong
Published: October 2006

The answer is, it depends. If the poles of the autoregressive (AR) model all lie inside the unit circle on the complex z‐plane, then it is not sensitive to the initial condition. Otherwise, it will be.

The question in the title arises from a discussion between Gray and Woodward [1992] and Tsonis [1991, 1992] concerning the sensitivity of climate models to initial conditions. It is an interesting, well‐posed mathematical question which, unfortunately, was not treated mathematically in their comments. The answer given above is closely related to whether the AR process is stationary or minimum‐phase; here I would like to offer a simple, analytic, intuitively clear proof, the essence of which can be traced back to a work by Prony [1795], which has been known for nearly 200 years.
New technologies for lunar resource assessment
Authors: Elphic Richard C. , McKay David S.
Published: October 2006

The Joint Workshop on New Technologies for Lunar Resource Assessment, sponsored by NASA, the Department of Energy, and the Lunar and Planetary Institute, was held in Santa Fe, N.Mex., from April 6 to 7. The workshop grew out of discussions between Los Alamos National Laboratory and the NASA Johnson Space Center in which it was realized that new technologies useful in assessing lunar resources might exist, and that these technologies could extend beyond the usual NASA circle of experimenters and investigators. We also realized that non‐NASA people could probably use some information on NASA needs and requirements as well as some general background technical information about the Moon.

The purpose of the workshop was to bring together a number of experts from NASA, DOE national laboratories, industry, and the university community to address topics related to the exploration for and assessment of lunar resources.
North American Jurassic APW: The current dilemma
Authors: Hagstrum Jonathan T.
Published: October 2006

Geologists are in a quandary over the correct interpretation of paleomagnetic data for Jurassic rocks of the North American plate. Conflicting reference paleopoles and alternate methods of constructing apparent polar wander (APW) paths have led to a controversy regarding the configuration of Jurassic APW for cratonic North America. These differences have been recently disputed at meetings (see Eos, Spring Meeting Supplement, April 7, 1992, p. 94) and in an exchange of letters in the Journal of Geophysical Research‐Solid Earth [Butler et al., 1992; Van Fossen and Kent, 1992a]. At stake is important information concerning the Jurassic paleogeography of North America and the whole of Pangea, as well as the nature and driving mechanism of plate movements. In addition, cratonic paleopoles provide a reference frame for measuring relative displacements of tectonostratigraphic terranes.
Examining Guyots in the Mid‐Pacific Mountains
Authors: Firth John
Published: October 2006

The Western Pacific is strewn with chains and clusters of seamounts, many of which are now flat‐topped submarine seamounts, or guyots, with summit depths of about 1500 m. Many guyots are capped by shallow‐water carbonate platform sediments overlying volcanic substrate. Guyot sediments can serve as “dip sticks” to monitor subsidence rates and relative changes in sea level for times when upward carbonate‐platform growth occurred during tectonic subsidence of their foundations. Such sediments encode the timing and sense of sea‐level rises and falls in their mineralogy, textures, and fossils. Guyot volcanic pedestals preserve, in their mineralogy and chemistry, clues to the nature of their parent mantle materials and the processes of melt extraction and differentiation.
Experimental petrology applied to volcanic processes
Authors: Rutherford Malcolm J.
Published: October 2006

Interest in volcanism has been stimulated by recent eruptions at Mount St. Helens, Kilauea, Pinatubo, and in the Aleutians, and by intrusive activity in Long Valley, Calif. The improved scientific understanding of magma systems and volcanic processes that has developed from theoretical modeling and field and analytical studies of these and other volcanic centers has been complemented by recent results from experimental petrology. The experiments make it possible to determine the conditions (for example, pressure [P], temperature [T], oxidation state [fO2], and the volatile content [fH2O, fCO2]) of the pre‐eruption magma. This information provides an estimate of the magma storage region depth, the potential role of volatiles in the eruption process, and compositional zoning in the subvolcanic magma.
Basaltic injections into floored silicic magma chambers
Authors: Wiebe R. A.
Published: October 2006

Recent studies have provided compelling evidence that many large accumulations of silicic volcanic rocks erupted from long‐lasting, floored chambers of silicic magma that were repeatedly injected by basaltic magma. These basaltic infusions are commonly thought to play an important role in the evolution of the silicic systems: they have been proposed as a cause for explosive silicic eruptions [Sparks and Sigurdsson, 1977], compositional variation in ash‐flow sheets [Smith, 1979], mafic magmatic inclusions in silicic volcanic rocks [Bacon, 1986], and mixing of mafic and silicic magmas [Anderson, 1976; Eichelberger, 1978]. If, as seems likely, floored silicic magma chambers have frequently been invaded by basalt, then plutonic bodies should provide records of these events. Although plutonic evidence for mixing and commingling of mafic and silicic magmas has been recognized for many years, it has been established only recently that some intrusive complex originated through multiple basaltic injections into floored chambers of silicic magma [e.g., Wiebe, 1974; Michael, 1991; Chapman and Rhodes, 1992].
ROV samples vents on Juan de Fuca Ridge
Authors: Embley Robert W. , Franklin James M.
Published: October 2006

In 1991, the JASON Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) successfully performed high‐resolution imaging within complex vent fields on the northern Juan de Fuca Ridge. From June 22 to July 16, 1992, a team of Canadian and U.S. scientists and engineers joined in an expedition to develop sampling capabilities for a HYSUB 5000 ROV in a mid‐ocean ridge hydrothermal vent environment. Our experience on the Juan de Fuca Ridge is another starting point for pursuing the science capabilities of deep‐water ROVs.

The Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Science (ROPOS) was built by International Submarine Engineering and is operated by the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia. The cruise was staged off the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ship Discoverer, based at NOAA's Pacific Marine Center in Seattle, Wash. Support for the expedition came from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Department of Energy Mines and Resources Canada, the NOAA Vents Program, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Canada.
Bottle appeal drifts across the Pacific
Authors: Ebbesmeyer Curtis , Ingraham W. James , McKinnon Richard , Okubo Akira , Wang Dong‐Ping , Strickland Richard , Willing Peter
Published: October 2006

Pacific drift currents were used by a group of oceanographers to estimate the path of a drift bottle that was found on a beach of Barkley Sound in Vancouver Island by Richard Strickland on June 10, 1990. The Chinese rice wine bottle, which remained unopened until December 18, 1991, contained six leaflets, one appealing for the release of China's well‐known dissident, Wei Jingsheng. The bottle was one of thousands set adrift as part of a propaganda effort from the islands of Quemoy and Matsu off mainland China shortly after Wei was sentenced in 1979 to 15 years in prison (see Figure 1 for locations). Wei was in poor health and still in prison when the bottle made its way across the Pacific Ocean.
Great subduction earthquakes studied
Authors: Wyss Max , Christensen Douglas , Davies John
Published: October 2006

Great subduction earthquakes are the largest earthquakes on Earth, and they are associated with the subduction of lithosphere. They rupture the shallow dipping megathrust interfaces between the plates along areas with dimensions up to 1000 km by 200 km. Recent studies on great subduction earthquakes was the focus of the Wadati Conference on Great Subduction Earthquakes, held at the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute in Fairbanks from September 16 to 19, 1992. About eighty scientists participated in the conference, which was sponsored jointly by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey.
New technology allows remote areas to be probed
Authors: Brozena John , Chalona Marc , Forsberg Rene , Mader Gerry
Published: October 2006

For the first time on a continent‐wide scale, scientists have applied new airborne remote‐sensing techniques that push beyond long‐standing limits to geophysical, geodetic, and glaciological studies. In the process, they have delineated several major crustal boundaries beneath the Greenland ice cap and possibly traced the path of the Iceland hot‐spot across central Greenland (see Figure 1). They have also greatly improved the geoid, or gravity reference surface of the Earth, for the region; provided ground truth for satellite altimeter studies; and established a baseline for determining the growth or shrinkage of one of the world's major ice sheets. The data will aid understanding in areas ranging from the geologic structure of Greenland to global climate change.
The mechanism of deep earthquakes
Authors: Green Harry W.
Published: October 2006

Most earthquakes occur within a few tens of kilometers below the Earth's surface by the familiar processes of brittle fracture and frictional sliding along preexisting faults [Scholz, 1990]. However, about 20% of all earthquakes occur at great depth (up to 680 km) where the high pressure prohibits conventional faulting. At these pressures, rock should flow rather than break, hence deep earthquakes would appear to be impossible. This paradox was recognized shortly after the discovery of deep earthquakes in the 1920s and it has remained unresolved since then.
Mantle plumes and magnetic reversals: A surprising link
Authors: Larson Roger L.
Published: October 2006

The history of magnetic field reversals has been described as one of the best known, but least understood, geophysical records on Earth. In contrast, it is only recently that attempts have been made to quantify the history of mantle plume activity. Mantle plumes consist of large volumes of material from the lower mantle that occasionally rise, by buoyancy, from just above the core/mantle boundary.

There is no agreement on the cause of magnetic field reversals, nor on how processes above the core/mantle boundary might influence processes below in the outer core, or even if such influence is possible [Loper, 1992]. However, the suggestion by Larson and Olson ]1991[ that mantle plume activity controls magnetic reversal frequency follows a trail of thermodynamic logic that could shed light on these questions, and thus it is important to understand the basis of such a premise, and how it might be tested.
Angular momentum exchange between atmosphere and Earth
Authors: Dickey Jean O.
Published: October 2006

The study of the Earth's rotation involves the characterization of the complex nature of Earth orientation changes, the identification of the mechanisms exciting these changes, and their interpretation in terms of a broad variety of geophysical processes. Without internal sources of energy or interactions with astronomical objects, the Earth would move as a rigid body with its various parts—the crust, mantle, inner and outer cores, atmosphere, and oceans—rotating together at a constant fixed rate. In reality, the Earth's rotation is considerably more complicated, as Figure 1 schematically illustrates. The rotation rate of the Earth's crust is not constant, but exhibits complicated fluctuations in speed amounting to several parts in 108 (corresponding to a variation of several milliseconds in the length of the day [LOD]; see Figure 2).
A new perspective on global warming
Authors: Karl Thomas R.
Published: October 2006

Until recently, virtually all studies of changes and projected changes of near‐surface temperature focused on the mean temperature. This value is often derived from the average of temperatures selected at various times of the day or from the daily maximum and minimum. Information on mean temperatures has been exchanged throughout the world and, in many areas, it extends back for well over a century. Unfortunately, even elementary observations such as the daily maximum and minimum temperatures have not been routinely available, despite their fundamental importance to understanding the impact of climate change in such spheres as agriculture, water resources, and the atmosphere.
A Goddess Uncloaked: Magellan reveals Venus' Highlands
Authors: Bindschadler Duane L.
Published: October 2006

The highlands of Venus are large elevated regions over 1000 km across that display the most diverse and extensive volcanic and tectonic features on the planet's surface. The unprecedented details of surface tectonics and volcanism revealed by the Magellan mission have added significantly to our understanding of how these continent‐sized regions formed, and shed new light on the tectonic style and interior dynamics of Earth's sister planet. Comparisons between the two planets may help us to better understand how plate tectonics began and how the process operates on Earth.

Venusian highlands fall into two distinct categories: volcanic rises and plateaushaped highlands. Volcanic rises were relatively well‐understood even before Magellan, although the new images and gravity data will illuminate more of the details of these features. The volcanic rises appear to be the result of large upwellings of hot, buoyant material from deep within Venus' mantle. The upwellings may take the form of mantle plumes, which on Earth are responsible for hotspot features such as the Hawaiian‐Emperor seamount chain and Iceland.
Hot and cold rifts
Authors: White R. S.
Published: October 2006

When continents break apart to create new ocean basins, rifts of remarkable diversity form at the continental edges or margins. Seismic studies show that at one extreme, the 25'30‐km‐thick continental crust is stretched like gum until it finally breaks to allow a new oceanic spreading center to form. This is a cold rift with little accompanying volcanism. At the other extreme is a hot rift, created when the stretching and rifting of some continental margins produce huge volumes of molten rock. The rock pours out of the rift or becomes trapped and solidifies at the base of the crust.
Harmful UV radiation may increase after volcanic eruptions
Authors: Vogelmann A. M. , Ackerman T. P.
Published: October 2006

The most biologically harmful of the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the Earth's surface is UV‐B, which spans wavelengths from 290 to 320 nm. In appreciable doses, UV‐B harms plants and animals by damaging cellular DNA. The atmosphere's ozone layer absorbs this radiation and protects us from its more harmful effects. Recent theoretical and observational evidence shows that large volcanic eruptions, like that of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, may cause shor‐term ozone depletions, thereby enhancing the amount of UV‐B that reaches the Earth's surface.
Radical revisions to the ruler of deep time
Authors: Miller Kenneth G.
Published: October 2006

Stephen J. Gould [1987] argued that one of the greatest scientific realizations was the concept of “deep time,” a phrase coined by John McPhee to encompass the breadth of geological time. We rely on measurements of geological time to provide rates of geological and geophysical processes and a chronology for the evolution of the Earth. Geological measurements of deep time rely on a limited number of radiometric ages that provide the only true clocks. Our chronometer is the geological time scale, and it is based on these ages and interpolations between them. The most precise ruler for these interpolations is provided by minor variations in the Earth's orbit, which control solar insolation and global climate changes; this “astronomical pacemaker” has provided a precise chronology (one with 5,000‐year resolution) for the past few million years. It has proven difficult to extend this astronomical time scale to the geological record older than about 5 m.y. However, for the Late Cretaceous to Pleistocene (approximately the last 150 m.y.), another ruler is available: reversals of the Earth's magnetic field provide a Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale (GPTS) that serves as a framework for a limited number of radiometric ages.
Geology and biology of North Pacific cold seep communities
Authors: Robison Bruce H. , Greene H. Gary
Published: October 2006

Because of crushing pressure, low temperature, and stygian darkness, the floor of the deep sea is one of the most hostile habitats on Earth. Until recently it was widely believed that the base of the food chain for all deep‐sea communities was plant life in the ocean's sunlit upper layer. With the discovery of hydrothermal vent and cold‐seep communities, which are based on chemical rather than solar energy, those beliefs were overturned. New studies focused on the animals that inhabit cold seep regions have begun to throw light on the geological basis of chemosynthetic communities. The initial results suggest a strong relationship between geologically determined fluid flux, and the diversity and abundance of animals at the seeps.
Consolidating Federal Earth science agencies
Authors: Moors Christopher N .K.
Published: October 2006

In the September 1, 1992, issue of Eos, Carl Kisslinger constructively proposed that, in conjunction with the Decade for Natural Hazards Reduction, AGU convene a panel to examine possible improvements in the structure of federal agencies involved in Earth‐oriented science. This is a sensible and timely action, and the AGU membership has too much at stake on this issue to leave it to the bureaucrats and politicians. We would probably be surprised at our different perspectives on the missions and roles of the agencies and our collective ignorance of what functions they actually perform.

Some consolidations may be in order, but there are many dimensions to any possible restructuring. For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is ostensibly the “national environmental prediction agency,” although it has survey and regulatory functions, too. The Environmental Protection Agency is primarily an “environmental regulatory agency,” although it has clean‐up and research functions as well. Would it be wise to place the environmental prediction and protection features in the same organization, and how could it be made safe to do so? Or would it be better to join NOAA and the U.S. Geological Survey (and other elements of the Department of the Interior, a high‐quality geophysical survey, monitoring, and process‐knowledge agency)? Also, how will the civil and military Earth and environmental science entities be best connected in the future? A very careful examination of functionalities as well as disciplines is needed.
World Organization of Volcano Observatories
Authors: Tedesco Dario
Published: October 2006

The World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) is a branch of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI). WOVO was founded in 1981 as an independent association of observatories and other institutions that monitors active volcanos. Since WOVO represents volcano observatories worldwide, IAVCEI wished to develop a formal tie between itself and WOVO.

The main objectives of WOVO are to create or improve ties between observatories and institutions directly involved in volcano monitoring, facilitate the exchange of views and experience by convening regular meetings, maintain an up‐to‐date inventory of instrumentation and manpower of the member institutions, and raise financial support from international organizations to help defray travel and related expenses of scientific teams sent to assist local scientists during a volcanic episode.
Deep seismic surveys in the Mediterranean Sea
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

As part of a European multinational collaboration, 1104 km of deep seismic reflection data were collected in the Mediterranean Sea during February and March 1992 under the technical supervision of the British Institutions Reflection Profiling Syndicate (BIRPS), based at the University of Cambridge. The surveys were centered over the southern Ionian Sea between Italy and Greece and over the Valencia trough and Balearic ridge offshore Spain (Figure 1).

Principal funding for data acquisition was provided by the European Economic Community under the auspices of Project STREAMERS and by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) in Barcelona, respectively. The STREAMERS Project, coordinated by Alfred Hirn at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, is based on a collaboration between the Institut Physique du Globe de Paris, Istituto di Miniere e Geofisica Applicata Universita' Degli Studi Trieste, Public Petroleum Corporation of Greece, the University of Athens, the University of Lisbon, the CSIC, and the BIRPS team (Universities of Cambridge, College Wales, East Anglia, Leicester, and London).
Seismology in Lebanon
Authors: Hamilton Robert M. , Rouhbon Badaovi
Published: October 2006

During the last several years, while civil war raged in Lebanon, the Bhannes seismograph station near Beirut continued to operate and provide seismograms and phase readings on a regular basis.

Seismologists around the world owe gratitude to Charles Tabet, an employee of both the Lebanon National Council for Scientific Research (NCSR) and the American University of Beirut, for his daily dedication to maintaining the station's operations. In addition, Iskandar Sursock, also of the NCSR, has provided essential support and personal resources to continue the seismological program in Lebanon.
AGU journals need accessible indexes!
Authors: Lanzerotti L. J.
Published: October 2006

On numerous past occasions over many years I have written to the officers of the Union, the editors of some of the journals, the Publications Committee, and Union employees that AGU journals should be more than vanity presses for the authors, no matter how good the published papers are. In particular, the continued lack of provision of easily accessible comprehensive indexes (on CD‐ROMS, diskettes, electronically, whatever) for the journals means that the overburdened readers'users of the journals (many of whom are personal subscribers) are really the losers. The users are being told that they don't count. Maybe this is one reason why personal subscriptions are decreasing? It does appear that the Union is only interested in selling a printed page, not in whether it is ever read or looked up in an index.
Bromley issues reports on research‐intensive universities
Authors: Jones Richard M.
Published: October 2006

In one of his final acts as President Bush's science adviser, D. Allan Bromley released two reports authored by White House panels: “Renewing the Promise: Research‐Intensive Universities and the Nation,” and “In the National Interest: The Federal Government and Research‐Intensive Universities.”

“I have had the opportunity to work on a wide range of issues as the Assistant to President Bush for Science and Technology, but none has been more important to me than those issues involving the health of this nation's research‐intensive universities,” he said.
Environmental impact of population growth
Authors: Naylor Rosamond , Matson Pamela
Published: October 2006

Earth's population currently numbers 5.4 billion; even given optimistic assumptions for reduction in growth rates, the number will double by the middle of the next century with most of the increase in the developing countries. Rapid population growth in the developing world raises the fundamental dilemma of how to alleviate chronic hunger and poverty in the short run while preserving the atmosphere and ecosystem services required for long‐term human and biospheric sustenance. This dilemma, and the compromises required to solve it, were discussed by twenty‐five researchers from five countries at the Aspen Global Change Institute 1992 Summer Science Session III, Food, Conservation, and Global Environmental Change: Is Compromise Possible?, held from August 16 to 28, in Aspen, Colo.
NASA workshop for heliospheric physicists
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Experimentalists and engineers working on small detectors, data‐processing units, and other instrumentation technology that is suitable for smaller, faster, cheaper heliospheric missions are invited to present their concepts to a Code (SS) Space Physics Division Small Instrument Workshop to be held from March 29 to 31 in Pasadena, Calif.

The purpose of the workshop is to help NASA miniaturize instruments and electronics as much as possible for space physics experiments on future small solar system exploration missions and for heliospheric missions that must be constrained in mass, power, and cost, including lightweight versions of Solar Probe and Interstellar Probe.
Anthony J. Erlank (1937–1992)
Authors: Haggerty Steve
Published: October 2006

A sad loss to science and many VGP friends throughout the world came on October 24, 1992, when Anthony J . Erlank passed away in the shadows of Table Mountain after a year‐long battle with cancer. Table Mountain, a mariner's landmark on the Cape of Good Hope, overlooks the meeting of oceans and the fusion of people, and Tony savored its every quality. He was born in 1937 in the farming community of Ooudtshooren, South Africa, the ostrich capital of the world. Far from burying his head in the sand or flashing his plumes, Tony sought, as proverbial ostriches do, objects of brilliance, the gems of scientific discovery.
Stratospheric project studies climate
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Until now, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) has emphasized the ocean‐troposphere system in its studies of climate, but in implementing the Stratospheric Processes and Their Role in Climate (SPARC) project in March 1992, the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) of the WCRP has recognized that one must understand stratospheric behavior in many studies of climate change. For instance, one should consider what effects anthropogenic changes in stratospheric ozone might have on climate. Also, the recent eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines has once again illustrated how volcanically induced changes in the stratospheric aerosol veil can influence climate. It is finally becoming clearer that the stratospheric changes resulting from the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases must be considered both in identifying and evaluating greenhouse influences on the troposphere.
EqPac benthic leg completed
Authors: McManus James
Published: October 2006

In December 1992, the U.S. JGOFS Equatorial Pacific Process Study (EqPac) completed a 43‐day cruise on which benthic processes affecting carbon fluxes were studied. One of the major goals of EqPac is to understand the role of deep water and benthic processes on the cycling and ultimate removal of carbon and related elements from the oceans.

Like the other U.S. JGOFS EqPac studies, the benthic expedition followed a track along 140°W from 12°S to 9°N. Data from deep hydrocasts, in‐situ measurements of benthic fluxes, and several coring techniques were used to test four hypotheses: that benthic fluxes and burial rates are a function of particle rain rate, bottom‐water chemistry, and bioturbation; that regions of high burial and benthic flux coincide with areas of surface upwelling and enhanced primary production; that destruction of particulate organic matter below a depth of 1 km in the ocean is dominated by the decomposition that takes place in surface sediments; and that accumulation of biogenic phases in surface sediments is proportional to the present‐day export production modified by benthic fluxes.
A global archeomagnetic intensity data bank
Authors: Liritzis L. , Lagios E.
Published: October 2006

An up‐to‐date list of global archeomagnetic intensity (AI) data has been made [Lagios et al., 1992]. The data meet certain reliability criteria and the regional graphs produced were used to draw some geophysical conclusions.

This compilation needed to be completed before new data was accumulated since existing models are tenaciously adhered to and can lead to misleading conclusions. This article is a response to the call for the compilation of worldwide archeomagnetic results expressed at the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy meeting in the summer of 1989. Though our data bank is not the IAGA sanctioned effort, it is one example of how such a data bank could be set up.
Glaciers‐Ocean‐Atmosphere Interactions
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

V. M. Kotlyakov, A. Ushakov, and A. Glazovsky (Eds.), International Association of Hydrological Sciences Publication 208, Great Yarmouth, Great Britain, 1991.

This volume consists of fifty‐five papers presented at an international symposium held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in September 1990. The papers are divided into nine subsections covering ice cores, sea ice, modeling of ice sheets, glaciation and sea‐level variation, mass and heat balances, paleoclimatic studies, and glacier‐atmospheric interactions. The majority of authors are Russian, although Estonian, German, French, Chinese, American, English, Dutch, Polish, Norwegian, Uzbekian, and Japanese authors are represented. As stated in the preface, this symposium was convened by the International Commission on Snow and Ice “to consider fundamental questions of the interactions which are of great importance to global change processes.”
Blending ERS‐1 altimetry and tide‐gauge data
Authors: Miller Laury , Cheney Robert , Lillibridge John
Published: October 2006

The European Space Agency's (ESA) remote‐sensing satellite, ERS‐1, launched in 1991, is the first in a series of satellite altimeters that should provide uninterrupted global coverage of sea level throughout the 1990s. We have analyzed these new data, together with Geosat data from the 1980s, to derive time series of sea level throughout the tropical Pacific. While altimeter observations are unique in their ability to provide sea‐level descriptions that are both large‐scale and detailed, these data suffer from a variety of errors. Currently, the biggest source of error for ERS‐1 is uncertainty in the satellite orbit at wavelengths corresponding to one revolution around the Earth. Conversion of ERS‐1 data into sea‐level deviations requires that this error be removed by some form of long‐arc adjustment.
Parkfield: First short‐term earthquake warning
Authors:   Parkfield Working Group
Published: October 2006

In April 1985, the U.S. Geological Survey issued a prediction that a magnitude 6 (M6) earthquake would occur before 1993 near Parkfield, Calif. (Figure 1). That September, the USGS and the California Division of Mines and Geology (CDMG) began developing the Parkfield Earthquake Prediction Experiment, which has become the most densely and comprehensively instrumented earthquake source region in the world. The experiment has two goals: a detailed understanding of the geologic processes that precede the anticipated earthquake and a public warning, if possible, shortly before the earthquake occurs. Additionally, since there is a high likelihood of a moderate‐sized earthquake within a small area, several engineering experiments have been installed to test the performance of man‐made structures.
Sources, transport, energization, and loss of magnetospheric plasma
Authors: Horwitz J. L. , Moore T. E.
Published: October 2006

Sources, transport, energization, and loss of magnetospheric plasma was the theme of the third Huntsville Workshop on Magnetospheric Plasma Models, which was held in Guntersville, Ala., from October 4 to 8, 1992. Approximately ninety researchers attended the workshop, which was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The first topical session summarized our knowledge of plasma distributions and set the stage for the later sessions. Dennis Gallagher reviewed the distributions of bulk parameters and reported on the new results of his empirical model of the plasmasphere. Ed Shelley traced the origins of the plasma sheet, concluding that medium‐energy magnetospheric plasma is of between 5 and 50% ionospheric origin. Tony Lui addressed the distribution of energetic particles and noted that the observed pressure gradients account for the field‐aligned currents in the inner magnetosphere. Dan Baker pointed out the glaring problem of how electrons gain relativistic energies during substorms.
Earthquake prediction lessons from Parkfield Experiment
Authors: Michael Andrew J. , Langbein John
Published: October 2006

In 1985, the National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council (NEPEC), and later its California counterpart (CEPEC), approved an earthquake prediction for the first time. This was the Bakun and Lindh [1985] forecast, with 95% confidence, that an M = 5.5 to 6 earthquake would rupture along the San Andreas fault near the town of Parkfield before 1993. This forecast was an important factor in selecting the Parkfield area for a major geophysical and geological monitoring study. The experiments installed there are aimed at producing a better understanding of the earthquake generation process and earthquake effects, gaining experience with real‐time monitoring of a variety of geophysical data, and, if possible, making a short‐term prediction of the future earthquake. Twenty‐eight different observational networks now exist in the Parkfield area. The forecast also generated interest that led researchers to reexamine past Parkfield earthquakes with current knowledge and to develop new models of the earthquake cycle.
Comment to “History of solar coronal expansion studies”
Authors: Duhau Silvia
Published: October 2006

One of the main conclusions that Peter Alexander states in the last paragraph of his article (Eos, October 13, 1992, p. 433) is:

“It is also desirable to find an appropriate description of the electron heat conductivity for the distant collisionless solar wind because the classical Spitzer‐Harm conductivity represents an inadequate expression for that fluid.”