bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Valdivia receives 1998 F. L. Scarf Award
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Juan Alejandro Valdivia was awarded the F. L. Scarf Award for his thesis entitled “The Physics of High Altitude Lightning.” He will be formally presented during the AGU 1998 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California, December 6–10,1998. The award is given annually to a recent Ph.D. recipient for outstanding dissertation research that contributes directly to solar‐planetary science.

Valdivia's interests in science, astronomy, and physics began as a child in Chile, when besides playing soccer, he had the chance to routinely observe the southern sky with his father's telescope. When he finished high school he decided to take the opportunity to study physics in Washington, D.C., since during that time his mother was assigned at the International Monetary Fund. Very soon he realized that he had brought interests that enticed him to pursue majors in physics, in astronomy, and in mathematics. Upon completion of the three majors, he started graduate school in physics at the University of Maryland. After working on different subjects, always encouraged and supported by his advisors, he wrote his Ph.D. thesis under the supervision of Dennis Papadopoulos, Surja Sharma, and Gennady Milikh. After obtaining his Ph.D., Juan went to work at NASA Goddard with a NR Fellowship with Alexander Klimas and Dimitrios Vassiliadis on nonlinear dynamics in space physics.
Fundamentals of Acoustical Oceanography
Authors: Farmer David
Published: October 2006

Over a wide range of wavelengths the ocean is opaque to electromagnetic radiation but relatively transparent to sound. This property motivates a growing band of oceanographers to explore the possibilities of underwater acoustics as a tool for ocean measurement. The applications span a wide range. At the largest scales, the temperature dependence of sound speed allows monitoring of path‐averaged temperature variability over ocean basin scales with great precision. This is the principle on which acoustic thermometry of ocean climate is based, a remarkable story in its own right with political as well as scientific challenges.
Exotic rodent species threatens many U.S. wetlands
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

As a sole canoe navigated the lazy flatwater bends of Maryland's Blackwater River on a perfect summer afternoon last June, fish jumped, dragonflies zigged across the open water and through the tall grass in the brackish tidal marshland, and in the distance several young eagles drifted in the blue sky.

On the way back to the boat landing, a furry mammal casually paddled across the water: too big for a muskrat and not quite a beaver, the creature slinked into the marsh vegetation bordering the river. Then another appeared and perhaps a half‐dozen more that day, an abundance of wildlife.
Rain forest mapping project to release CD‐ROMs
Authors: Chapman Bruce , Taylor Victor , Rosenqvist Ake
Published: October 2006

Imagery of the world's major tropical rain forests gathered from data collected by the Japanese JERS‐1 satellite is now being released on CD‐ROMs. Begun in 1995, the Global Rain Forest Mapping (GRFM) project has collected contiguous, high‐resolution L‐band imagery of rain forests in Central and South America, central and west Africa, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia (Figure 1).

The JERS‐1 satellite is equipped with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to gather the data. Each of the major rain forest regions was observed at least once during a “single season” between September 1995 and January 1997.
Survey yields data on unique metamorphic rock complex in China
Authors: Schulze A. , Jiang M. , Ryberg T. , Gao R.
Published: October 2006

Seismic data from survey work last year in Dabie Shan, China, are giving scientists their first view of the subsurface structure of a unique metamorphic rock complex. The work, in which a joint Chinese‐German research team surveyed possible sites for a super deep borehole, set the stage for more intensive petrological and seismic investigations this year and next.

Data were collected by near‐vertical seismic imaging at Dabie Shan, the Earth's largest outcrop of ultra‐high pressure metamorphic (UHM) rocks, some exhumed from depths of 100 km. Processing so far has revealed unexpectedly strong mid‐and lower‐crustal reflections, predominantly dipping west to east, indicating the involved tectonic history of the region. Upcoming research will look more closely at the three‐dimensional structure of the rock and other matters. Scientific deep drilling is essential in addressing a wide range of major geoscientific problems of global importance. The International Continental Scientific Drilling Programme (ICDP) coordinates such, and one key target of ICDP is the Dabie Shan. To find the most appropriate location for a drill site and to extend the findings of the drilling beyond the drill hole, geophysical methods, especially seismic investigations, play an important role. Integrated interpretation of seismic and drill results in the Dabie Shan will lead to a better understanding of the structure and dynamic processes of the collisional history of the Yangtze and Sino‐Korean Cratons. The Dabie Shan is located in the eastern part of the Qinling orogen in Anhui province, central China. The rocks there contain microdiamonds and coesite within a 20‐km‐thick eclogite zone representing a part of the lower lithosphere of the Yangtze Craton [Okay, 1993]. Such rocks suggest that continental crust had been subducted to depths greater than 100 km and exhumed afterwards [Hackeretal, 1995].
Industry report attempts to position nuclear power as environmentally friendly
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

A new report by the Nuclear Energy Institute claims that nuclear power has played a significant and largely overlooked role in reducing acid rain in the United States, and that the industry should receive Clean Air Act financial credits for the avoided production of sulfur dioxide—an acid rain ingredient—as well as for other avoided pollutants.

The late August release of the industry group's report, ”Phase ISO2 Emissions Avoided by Increased Nuclear Generation,” is timed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) forthcoming regulation that will set nitrogen oxide limits during the summer ozone season for 22 states in the eastern part of the United States. The agency currently is putting finishing touches on the regulation, and the nuclear industry hopes that it—and other “nonemitting” energy sources, including solar, wind, and renewable energy—receives financial credits for avoided nitrogen oxide emissions.
Mass Media Fellow Westley spends summer publishing in Newsweek
Authors: Leifert Harvey
Published: October 2006

If you are a subscriber to Newsweek, you probably remember these stories from the past few months: “Vaccine Revolution,” “Aliens Invade America!,” “A Gymnast's Long Fall,” “Is AIDS Forever?,” and a cover story, “Science Finds God.” They all had something in common, aside from their science focus: at the end of each article was the credit line, “With Marian Westley.” In addition, a story titled “A Long, Wacky Summer,” on recent weather patterns, carried Marian Westley's byline. Who, you may have wondered, is this Marian Westley, who reports with equal aplomb on matters as diverse as epidemiology, meteorology, the predations of nonnative plant species, and the interface between scientists and theologians? Actually, Westley is a graduate student in biological oceanography at the University of Hawaii and a member of AGU. She spent the summer of 1998 as the AAAS/AGU Mass Media Fellow at Newsweek in New York.
Scientists mount search for Greenland Bolide
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Throughout history, many people have sought and utilized meteorite fragments for harpoon blades, domestic tools, and export, according to Holger Pedersen, an astronomer and guest researcher at the Niels Bohr Institute for Astronomy, Physics, and Geophysics in Copenhagen, Denmark, who has participated in many expeditions to find meteorites.

But Pedersen and several other scientists are searching for evidence of one particular bolide fall over Greenland last December 9 not for its utilitarian or trade value, but to catch a glimpse of its short‐lived isotopes and perhaps its origin, and to confirm its path through the Solar System.
Outstanding student paper awards
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Space Physics and Aeronomy (SPA) Section presented the following outstanding student paper awards at the 1997 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California, last December.

Peter M. Giles presented a paper titled “Time‐Distance Measurement of Solar Meridional Circulation and Rotation from MDI.” After receiving his B.Sc. in physics from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, Peter studied for several years at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. In 1993 he was accepted into the Ph.D. program in applied physics at Stanford. He received his M.S. from Stanford in 1995. As a research assistant with the Sollar Oscillations Investigation, Peter has been using time‐distance helioseismology to measure large‐scale flows beneath the solar surface. The results presented at the Fall Meeting will form part of his doctoral thesis. He has also served as the resident observer at the Wilcox Solar Observatory.
Conference emphasizes mitigation of natural disasters through modern instrument systems
Authors: Bolt Bruce A.
Published: October 2006

Modern instrumentation systems that collect, analyze, distribute, and archive data on earthquakes and associated hazards have already been put in place successfully in a number of countries. These systems have improved the accuracy of long‐term assessments of the likelihood of future hazards, including earthquakes and tsunamis, and also have improved the speed of emergency response through rapid determination of earthquake location and the extent and level of damage.

Reduced costs are making such interactive communications affordable and cost‐effective for Latin American countries and many developing countries. The role of instruments was emphasized at the International Conference on Modern Preparation Response Systems for Earthquake, Tsunami, and Volcanic Hazard held earlier this year in Chile. In the opening address, Philippe Boulle, Director of the United Nations Secretariat for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, stressed that the most effective approach to reducing losses is prevention. “There is an unfounded tendency to consider that the investigation to strengthen the existing infrastructure before disasters will cost much more than the cost of response after disasters. It is exactly just the reverse,” he said.
Coalition runs anti‐Kyoto ads
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Politicians running for office are not the only ones taking to the airwaves during this election season in the United States. A new series of television ads by the Global Climate Information Project (GCIP) opposes the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change and says the treaty would financially harm the United States.

However, a leading conservation organization says these claims are “unsubstantiated.”
Examining the overlooked implications of natural reactors
Authors: Herndon J. Marvin
Published: October 2006

On April 7,1972, scientists at the French Atomic Energy Establishment at Pierrelatte discovered a 0.4% anomaly in the uranium isotopic ratio of a sample of natural uranium. In a masterful example of analytical detective work, the French scientists traced the anomaly to a particular area of a uranium mine located at Oklo in the Republic of Gabon. In that area they found uranium that was deficient in U‐235 and was accompanied by fission‐produced isotopes of Nd and Sm. On September 25, 1972, the French Atomic Energy Commission announced their conclusion that self‐sustaining nuclear chain reactions had occurred on Earth about 2000 million years ago [Neuilly et al., 1972]. Later, other natural nuclear fission reactors were discovered in the region [Gauthier‐Lafaye et al., 1996].
Student awards given at 18th Annual Hydrology Days
Authors: Morel‐Seytoux Hubert
Published: October 2006

Four students received awards for best student presentations at the 18th annual Hydrology Days (HD) held earlier this year at Colorado State University. The event is sponsored by AGU's Hydrology Section.

Mohamed Bennani Lakhim, Colorado State University, received the award in the Ph.D. oral presentation category for developing a stochastic risk‐assessment methodology, based on numerical modeling of contaminant fate and transport in a heterogeneous aquifer, to better estimate the potential magnitude of exposure of an individual. His study analyzed the effects of the uncertainty of different groundwater parameters on the uncertainty of contaminant concentration in the aquifer. The Ph.D. poster category award went to Tarek A. Saba from the University of Colorado, Boulder, for his studies of the effect of groundwater flow dimensionality on mass transfer from entrapped nonaqueous phase liquid contaminants.
Glaciers and Glaciation
Authors: Clarke Garry K. C.
Published: October 2006

Scientific interest in glaciers and glaciation dates back at least 200 years, but the knowledge explosion of the past 20 years has been truly breathtaking. Milutin Milankovitch's once unpopular belief that periodic variations of Earth's orbit regulate the timing of the glacial cycle is now embraced as mainstream orthodoxy. The detailed record of Ice Age climate preserved within the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is slowly being decoded and completely upsets the comfortable assumption that extreme climate change necessarily proceeds at a slow pace. Hoary discussion of the processes of glacial erosion and sedimentation has been replaced by serious attempts to observe the mechanical and hydrological processes active beneath mountain glaciers and polar ice streams.
Conservation groups say legislative “riders” threaten environment
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Conservation groups count more than 50 instances of antienvironmental language, or “riders,” attached to appropriations bills to fund the U.S. federal government that Congress will vote on before it adjourns in early October.

This “stealth” legislative strategy of relying on riders rather than stand‐alone bills could determine whether the 105th Congress is the most antienvironment Congress in history, says Roger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife.
Hot Talk, Cold Science
Authors: Oglesby Robert J.
Published: October 2006

One of the hottest topics in climate science is understanding and evaluating the impacts of possible global warming caused by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. In Hot Talk, Cold Science, S. Fred Singer does not accept global warming. Singer says in his preface, “The purpose of this book is to demonstrate that the evidence [for global warming] is neither settled, nor compelling, nor even convincing. On the contrary, scientists continue to discover new mechanisms for climate change and to put forth new theories to try to account for the fact that global temperature is not rising, even though greenhouse theory says it should”.
Outstanding student paper awards
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Geodesy Section presented the following outstanding student paper awards at the 1997 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California, last December.

Gerald W. Bawden presented a poster titled “Constraints on Crustal Rheology from Viscoelastic Models of Time Dependent Strain after the 1952 Ms 7.8 Kern County Earthquake, Southern California.” Gerald graduated with honors in 1991 with a B.S. in geology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He also attended the University of California, Davis, for both his M.S. and Ph.D. in geology/geophysics. Gerald currently is a postdoctoral research geophysicist at the USGS. in Menlo Park, California, working with Wayne Thatcher and Ross Stein, using INSAR, leveling, and GPS to assess anthropogenic deformation in the greater Los Angeles region. His research interests include active tectonics, geodesy, INSAR, numerical modeling of geological processes, seismotectonics, fault mechanics, and GIS.
Atmospheric sciences students present papers, get career tips
Authors: Van Doren Jane M.
Published: October 2006

At AGU's Spring Meeting the Atmospheric Sciences Section hosted a series of special sessions to highlight student research and provide advice and information about securing successful careers in the geosciences. Eighteen graduate students presented papers and posters covering field, laboratory, and modeling efforts. Subject areas included aerosol chemistry, morphology, physics, sources and transport of atmospheric species, and issues relating to regional and global climate. The panel discussion on successfulcareers drew a wide audience, from students to accomplished researchers. Topics discussed included postdoctoral positions job applications, research funding proposals, and time management.
Principles of Rock Mechanics
Authors: Beeler N. M.
Published: October 2006

Imagine for a moment that you are a field structural geologist, and you have just realized that your star graduate student does not know how to estimate the failure strength of intact rock at 10 km depth in a normal faulting environment. Or perhaps you are a geophysicist with graduate students modeling mantle convection who, as you come to find out, do not know what a dislocation is. You might decide that your students need to take a course in basic rock mechanics, but, and this may be easiest to imagine, you are the only staff member in your department available to teach such a course.

If you are developing an introductory course in rock mechanics or you have been teaching such a course without a suitable text, this new book by Ruud Wiejermars was written specifically for you and your students. Principles of Rock Mechanics is a textbook to a one‐semester course for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. There are 13 chapters, a math review section, and the obligatory introduction and final overview chapters. Each chapter is designed to be covered in two 50‐minute lectures and one laboratory session. Following a formal introduction to the topic, the subsequent seven chapters serve as an introduction to the physical concepts and processes; physical quantities in rock mechanics, force and pressure, stress, elasticity, brittle failure, and ductile creep, taking the students to midterm. An unusual and welcome feature appears at the midsemester point—a math review of notation and associated concepts: differentiation of vectors and scalars, differential equations, tensors, matrices and determinants, and complex variables. This review provides an indication of the rigor to follow.
Dim prospects for earthquake prediction
Authors: Geller Robert J.
Published: October 2006

I was misquoted by C. Lomnitz's [1998] Forum letter (Eos, August 4, 1998, p. 373), which said: [I wonder whether Sasha Gusev [1998] actually believes that branding earthquake prediction a ‘proven nonscience’ [Geller, 1997a] is a paradigm for others to copy.”

Readers are invited to verify for themselves that neither “proven nonscience” norv any similar phrase was used by Geller [1997a].
Tullis wins Outstanding Educator Award
Authors: Thornburg Janet Bauder
Published: October 2006

Jan Tullis, an AGU Fellow and a professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, has been selected to receive the 1998 Outstanding Educator Award from the Association for Women Geoscientists Foundation. The award will be presented on October 27, 1998, at the Geological Society of America Convention in Toronto, Canada. Through her encouragement and professional success, Tullis is credited with drawing a high percentage of women students to Brown's Department of Geological Sciences. Currently half the undergraduate students and nearly half the graduate students are women.
Krajick receives 1998 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism
Authors: Stutz Bruce , Krajick Kevin
Published: October 2006

Kevin Krajick was honored as the recipient of the 1998 Walter Sullivan Award for excellence in science journalism at the 1997 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California, on December 10, 1997.
Our Changing Planet: An Introduction to Earth System Science and Global Environmental Change, 2nd Edition
Authors: Hollingsworth Will
Published: October 2006

Anyone who has taught in Earth systems science is aware of the difficulties in making the subject accessible and understandable while at the same time not losing the “big picture.” It is easy to get lost while traipsing through the myriad contributing sciences. The field is evolving rapidly given the exigencies of current global concerns. Resources such as the book under review, directed as they are toward the nonspecialist college audience, have the chance to influence how the field will actually be taught and practiced.
AGU announces fellowship program for teachers, scientists
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

AGU is launching a new fellowship program to encourage communication and learning between pre‐college science teachers and AGU scientists.

The program, called STaRS, for “Science Teacher and Research Scientist,” plans to provide at least 200 fellowships for teachers to participate in research conducted by scientists and for scientists to participate in classes conducted by teachers. The program will begin in December 1999 and information about applying for fellowships will be announced next year.
Adventures in Celestial Mechanics, Second Edition
Authors: Harris Alan W.
Published: October 2006

Adventures in Celestial Mechanics, Second Edition is written as a textbook, apparently for undergraduates, though this is never specifically stated. The book is engaging and surprisingly easy to read; I recommend it to anyone who wants just a bit of background in celestial mechanics or a brief introduction before plunging into graduate‐level texts.

The book's strength lies in its historical and heuristic introduction of the various fundamental concepts of celestial mechanics in easy‐to‐follow detail. Such concepts include Kepler's laws of motion as a consequence of Newton's law of gravitation, the solution of Kepler's equation, and the rocket equation. Kepler's equation, which relates the position in an orbit at a given time, is annoying in that it can only be solved iteratively in the direction one usually wants to go (where in the orbit is the body at time t). Many of the greatest minds in physics and astronomy have searched for compact, quickly‐converging, or just plain understandable solutions to this problem. Feynman's recently made famous “lost lecture” was his second attempt to present a comprehensible derivation of Kepler's equation to Caltech freshmen. I was subjected to the first version when I was a freshman and can attest that it needed a second try. At least I did.
Miocene Stratigraphy: An Integrated Approach
Authors: Berggren W. A.
Published: October 2006

“Stratigraphy is a magnificent subject—magnificent in its breadth and scope, magnificent in its importance to so many lines of human endeavor. It is essentially that branch of geology which deals with the arrangement, the distribution, and the chronological succession of rock strata (and other associated rock bodies), with respect to any or all of the various characters, properties, and attributes which rocks may possess.“ Hollis D. Hedberg, the leading figure in the field of stratigraphy for over half a century, defined the subject in those words in a paper titled “Stratigraphic Classification and Terminology,” published in Volume 42 of the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in 1958. Since that time the field has grown tremendously in both breadth and scope and now comfortably incorporates under its aegis such diverse disciplines as paleomagnetic, stable isotopic, and seismic stratigraphy in addition to the more classic biostratigraphy and geochronology.
Outstanding student awards
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The AGU All‐Union Committee for Mineral and Rock Physics (M&RP) will present their 1998 Outstanding Student Awards to Tye Gribb and Abby Kavner during the M&RP and Nonlinear Geophysics Reception. The reception will be held during the AGU 1998 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., USA.

Tye Gribb is being recognized for his innovative experiments to determine elastic attenuation in silicates and silicate partial melts. Tye received his B.S. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Wisconsin‐ Madison. He is presently completing his Ph.D. under the supervision of Reid Cooper at the University of Wisconsin‐Madison. Gribb is being honored for his experimental studies of the shear and Young's modulus attenuation responses of polycrystalline silicates and silicate partial melts. He is cited as an exceptionally talented experimentalist—one who can design an experiment to test a theory or observation, build the apparatus to carry out the experiment, fabricate appropriate materials for testing, and rigorously analyze the results.
Mission to L1
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

NASA has chosen a proposal from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., to lead the implementation of the Triana Earth Probe mission that will study the Earth from a unique vantage point a million miles away.

The satellite is scheduled to be launched by December 2000 to a position at LI—the Lagrange libration, or neutral gravity point between the Earth and Sun. From LI, Triana will have a continuous, full disk, sunlit view of the Earth, and plans call for the image to be distributed over the Internet.
Program in environmental sustainability uses interdisciplinary approach to cross‐train students
Authors: Arvidson Raymond E. , Johnson Sarah S.
Published: October 2006

The Hewlett Program in Environmental Sustainability, an experimental educational pathway for undergraduate students interested in the study of the environment (http://wundow.wustl.edu/hewlett), is now in its third year at Washington University. About 90% of incoming students have stayed with the program through the first year and about 80% through the second year.

The program's objectives and implementation closely follow the recommendations presented in a 1998 Boyer Commission Report on emphasizing and improving undergraduate education at research universities (http://notes.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer/nsf). A clustered, interdisciplinary approach is used for coursework, with key environmental problems viewed from scientific, political, cultural, and ethical perspectives. Courses are taught by instructors who conduct research in environmental areas. The program's multidisciplinary nature is considered a strong draw for faculty involvement, though retaining faculty is still an issue.
Geophysics contributed to the radical change from classical to modern physics 100 years ago
Authors: Schröder W. , Wiederkehr K. H.
Published: October 2006

Several major developments in the 1890s resulted in radical changes in physics. These developments included the discovery of X rays and of uranium radiation, or Becquerel rays, and the confirmation of electricity's substantial character—an idea considered by most physicists at that time as obsolete and without foundation. The first measurements of e/m (negative elementary charge divided by mass of the electron) also were taken and, before the decade was over, the elementary charge of an electron was shown to exist.

Research in geophysics, especially the research about the formation of fog and atmospheric electricity, found new paths because of these discoveries. However, work in geophysics also led to the further development of atomic and nuclear physics. It was a give and take situation, benefiting both geophysics and physics.
Interball auroral probe studies Earth's ionized regions
Authors: Dubouloz N. , Delcourt D. , Berthelier J.‐J. , Malingre M. , Galperin Y. , Chugunin D.
Published: October 2006

Research has shown that spectrometers measuring low energy ions are essential tools for investigating both the spatial extent and the physical nature of ion acceleration processes in the Earth's ionized environment. Such a device was one of a number of experiments onboard the Interball Auroral Probe (Interball AP) launched by the Russian Space Agency in 1996. Such in situ measurements are crucial for understanding the dynamics of the Earth's ionized environment and offer an excellent opportunity for analyzing fundamental plasma processes that usually can be observed only remotely.

In a way similar to the solar corona, the Earth's ionosphere and low‐altitude magnetosphere are affected by an expansion process. At high latitudes in the auroral and polar regions, pressure gradients and ambipolar electric fields are responsible for a so‐called “polar wind” flowing out of the topside ionosphere at low energies (several eVs). In addition to this “classical” polar wind picture, other processes also lead to significant plasma ejection into the magnetosphere.
VAN method of short‐term earthquake prediction shows promise
Authors: Uyeda Seiya
Published: October 2006

Although optimism prevailed in the 1970s, the present consensus on earthquake prediction appears to be quite pessimistic. However, short‐term prediction based on geoelectric potential monitoring has stood the test of time in Greece for more than a decade [VarotsosandKulhanek, 1993] Lighthill, 1996]. The method used is called the VAN method.

The geoelectric potential changes constantly due to causes such as magnetotelluric effects, lightning, rainfall, leakage from manmade sources, and electrochemical instabilities of electrodes. All of this noise must be eliminated before preseismic signals are identified, if they exist at all. The VAN group apparently accomplished this task for the first time. They installed multiple short (100–200m) dipoles with different lengths in both north‐south and east‐west directions and long (1–10 km) dipoles in appropriate orientations at their stations (one of their mega‐stations, Ioannina, for example, now has 137 dipoles in operation) and found that practically all of the noise could be eliminated by applying a set of criteria to the data.
VAN method lacks validity
Authors: Jackson David D. , Kagan Yan Y.
Published: October 2006

Varotsos and colleagues (the VAN group) claim to have successfully predicted many earthquakes in Greece. Several authors have refuted these claims, as reported in the May 27,1996, special issue of Geophysical Research Letters and a recent book, A Critical Review of VAN [Lighthill 1996]. Nevertheless, the myth persists. Here we summarize why the VAN group's claims lack validity.

The VAN group observes electrical potential differences that they call “seismic electric signals” (SES) weeks before and hundreds of kilometers away from some earthquakes, claiming that SES are somehow premonitory. This would require that increases in stress or decreases in strength cause the electrical variations, or that some regional process first causes the electrical signals and then helps trigger the earthquakes. Here we adopt their notation SES to refer to the electrical variations, without accepting any link to the quakes.
Climate negotiations bring modest results
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Diplomats at the November 2–13 climate negotiations in Buenos Aires, Argentina, have cobbled together a modest plan of action to follow up on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change.

But one of the most dramatic gestures during the meeting took place thousands of miles away, in New York City. Peter Burleigh, acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, added the nation's signature to the treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 5Percnt below 1990 levels by the year 2012.
Space observations of ocean surface winds aid monitoring of Northeast Pacific climate shifts
Authors: Otterman J. , Starr D. , Atlas R. , Ardizzone J. , Terry J.
Published: October 2006

Wind data from special sensor microwave imager (SSM/I) measurements indicate that winter climatic conditions along coastal areas of the northeast Pacific Ocean show pronounced interannual, month‐to‐month, and site‐to‐site variability. Site‐specific characterization is therefore needed to better understand conditions for different subregions. Analysis of surface winds and the relationship between wind direction and temperature anomalies is one option for achieving such characterization.

Monitoring climatic conditions of these coastal areas is of special interest, since the northeast Pacific region undergoes periodic climatic shifts from cold‐and‐wet to warmand‐dry conditions and back again, and a shift to a cold‐and‐wet phase appears imminent. The study was motivated by Ingraham et al. [1998]. This earlier study is useful for detecting change. However, as a one‐parameter characterization, such change detection cannot adequately describe multisite climatic conditions for which separate and distinct information is required.
Night Comes to the Cretaceous
Authors: Chapman Clark R.
Published: October 2006

In the 1960s and 1970s, geology witnessed an intellectual revolution. Recognition that seafloors spread and continents drift led to plate tectonics. NNight Comes to the Cretaceous addresses a second, still developing revolution—the view that impact cratering and other catastrophes may be the dominant phenomena driving evolution of the biosphere. The specific case analyzed is the hypothesis of the late Nobel laureate physicist Luis Alvarez and his colleagues that the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K‐T) mass extinctions resulted from the impact of a 10‐km‐wide asteroid or comet. Once Alan Hildebrand focused geologists' attentions on the immense Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan, K‐T deposits bearing impact signatures were found to be arrayed radially to the crater, itself dated precisely at the K‐T age of 65 million years. By the early 1990s, the Alvarez hypothesis was thereby proved, despite protests of a few holdouts, whose scientific sloppiness is repeatedly scorned by this book's author, James Powell, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.
Risk‐Based Contaminated Land Investigation and Assessment
Authors: Davis Donald R.
Published: October 2006

With increasing frequency, problems of environmental contamination are being analyzed from a risk perspective. Risk‐Based Contaminated Land Investigation and Assessment is written for those who wish to present the results of their examination of contaminated land in terms of risk.

The opening chapters introduce the concepts of risk analysis for contaminated land. Risk management and the risk assessment process are based on a source‐pathway‐target framework. Readers are warned against an “over‐reliance on the identification of contaminants rather than the potential pathways by which targets may be exposed to these hazards.” In the risk management framework presented in this book, risk evaluation and resultant decision making are seen as part of both the risk assessment and risk reduction process. The sharp separation of risk assessment from risk management as seen in the National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) risk assessment paradigm is not advocatedsemi; perhaps this is because the NAS' concern was regulatory decision while the book's concern is the assessment of a specific site.
The Antarctic Region: Geological Evolution and Processes
Authors: Quilty Patrick G.
Published: October 2006

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) supports discipline‐ and issue‐based meetings in Antarctic research, and these are forums for announcing developments in Antarctic science. Refereed symposia proceedings normally follow and generate a number of volumes that almost constitute serial publication. Meetings in the Earth sciences occur at roughly 4‐year intervals. The resulting volumes cover Antarctic Earth science generally and provide convenient access to periodic bibliographic updates.

The Antarctic Region: Geological Evolution and Processes is a collection of the Proceedings of the VII International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences, held in Siena, Italy, in 1995 and sponsored by SCAR. It was by far the largest such meeting held to date—the next will be in New Zealand in 1999—but the book, even as large as it is, contains only a portion of the papers presented.
Educational Web site on spacecraft, space exploration
Authors: Stern David P.
Published: October 2006

Although many high school students are keenly interested in space, so far no way has existed for incorporating spaceflight and space exploration studies into regular high school courses in physics and astronomy. “From Stargazers to Starships,” available through the World Wide Web, attempts to do just that. Compiled by a NASA physicist, it is essentially a textbook on the Web, containing over 60 linked files, all connected to its home page at http://www‐spof.gsfc.nasa. gov/stargaze/Sintro.htm.

The new site should be just as useful to anyone else interest in space. Resembling an earlier site, “The Exploration of the Earth's Magnetosphere,” and also linked to it, “Stargazers” consists of three parts of comparable size. They cover the night sky and what it tells, Newtonian mechanics, and space flight and spacecraft. Numerous images illustrate the text files, which also have a guide for teachers, a “timeline” chronology, a glossary, a “math refresher” in nine sections, and a hands‐on project for constructing a paper sundial.
Looking ahead to the future of marine reflection seismology
Authors: Coffin Millard F. , Eldholm Olav , Stoffa Paul L. , Austin James A.
Published: October 2006

Marine geophysical data acquired aboard research vessels operated by academic institutions were critical in fomenting the plate tectonic revolution in Earth science over a generation ago. In the past 15 years, however, the gap between academic and industrial marine geophysical data acquisition and processing, especially seismic, has widened. In the United States, this perhaps reflects the fact that funding for academic ocean science research has fallen from 7% to less than <4% of the nation's total basic research budget. Today, state‐of‐the‐art marine geophysical techniques routinely employed by industry are essentially off limits to academic researchers. The global research community now needs to critically evaluate the historical modus operandi of academic marine geophysical research.
Climate research publication available at no charge
Authors: Duckstein Lucien
Published: October 2006

Single copies of “Use of Fuzzy Logic to Encode Archival Climate Research Uncertainties” by L. Duckstein are available free of charge upon request. The publication was printed by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization/International Hydrological Programme (UNESCO/IHP) in 1998.

A methodology based mostly on fuzzy logic is provided for efficiently using proxy archival data that deal with hydroclimatology. For example, imprecise data on El Nino are combined with information on drought using fuzzy rules to reconstruct an extreme event time series in Mexico from 1720 to 1909.
Stixrude receives James B. Macelwane Medal
Authors: Stixrude Lars P. , Bukowinski Mark
Published: October 2006

Lars P. Stixrude was awarded the James B. Macelwane Medal at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, which was held on December 8, 1998, in San Francisco, California. The medal recognizes significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by a young scientist of outstanding ability.
Aquifer Hydraulics: A Comprehensive Guide to Hydrogeologic Data Analysis
Authors: McPherson Brian J. O. L.
Published: October 2006

The past several decades have produced a surge in numerical methods of aquifer analysis, including more complex and sophisticated analytical approaches. For example, many consulting firms and universities have released graphic‐intensive software packages for aquifer test data analysis, including automated optimization, data filtering, and preprocessing. It is not uncommon to find users of these products who are not versed in basic theory of aquifer hydraulics. Vedat Batu's Aquifer Hydraulics: A Comprehensive Guide to Hydrogeologic Data Analysis provides a valuable service—it teaches readers the most fundamental theory with a comprehensive overview of basic methods.
Von Herzen receives 1998 Maurice Ewing medal
Authors: Uyeda Seiya , Von Herzen Richard P.
Published: October 2006

Richard P Von Herzen was awarded the 1998 Maurice Ewing Medal at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, which was held on December 8, 1998, in San Francisco, California. The medal recognizes significant original contributions to understanding physical, geophysical, and geological processes in the ocean; significant original contributions to scientific ocean engineering, technology and instrumentation; and/or outstanding service to marine sciences. This medal is presented jointly by the U.S. Navy and AGU.
Assessing Climate Change
Authors: Covey Curt , Gleckler
Published: October 2006

Large‐scale climatic patterns, rather than a growing “heat island” effect, are the overriding influence on weather in the Potomac River area, and temperature data in the area can therefore be validly compared to global trends. At least temporarily, however, the area, which includes Washington, D.C., has lost its coupling with global temperature trends.

Short‐term regional anomalies in the Potomac River area's weather, especially high summer temperatures, may promote legislative action in the U.S. Congress on long‐term global climate research. However, the current benign weather conditions in the political center of the United States tend to divert attention away from global climate research, diminishing the likelihood of significant expansion of research funding and greenhouse gas legislation.
Backscattered Scanning Electron Microscopy and Image Analysis of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks
Authors: Mazzullo Jim
Published: October 2006

The publication of Backscattered Scanning Electron Microscopy and Image Analysis of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks marks a significant point in the history of sedimentary petrology. The evolution of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) has now progressed from an interesting but useless machine to a valuable research tool.

I began to use the SEM in the 1970s, shortly after this microscopy technology was introduced to sedimentologists by David Krinsley one of this book's authors. In those days, the SEM was a cumbersome, troublesome machine, more likely to be disabled than operating and incapable of identifying the composition of objects and measuring their properties. As such, it was not an especially useful tool for a petrologist. You could not use it to determine the composition of a sandstone, for instance, nor to quantify properties such as grain size and shape, pore geometry, or the density of surface textures. Indeed the SEM of old offered me and other investigators little more than a tantalizing but frustratingly qualitative view of sedimentary rocks and an ability to acquire great numbers of out‐of‐focus, poorly exposed photographs, all of which are now rightfully buried in the back of my files.
Pattern formation gains interest in the Earth sciences
Authors: Durant Dolores G.
Published: October 2006

A huge diversity of intricate patterns can be found in our environment, ranging from zoned crystals, sand ripples, and columnar basalts to multiringed meteorite impact craters.

Fundamental concepts of pattern formation in the Earth sciences can be traced back through time from Jean Perrin to Mandelbrot, and their studies of the lengths of coastlines. Similar concepts of fractal dimensions, multifractals, and diffusion‐limited aggregation models can be applied to the study of many phenomena including the random walk of molecules in gases and liquids, avalanche dynamics, three‐dimensional basin modeling, salt tectonics, and the spontaneous self‐organization of sand grains. The largest terrestrial pattern is that of the Earth itself, forming from an undifferentiated solar dust cloud into the well‐organized Earth of today (P. Ortoleva).
Johnston receives Revelle Medal
Authors: Cohen Ronald , Johnston Harold S.
Published: October 2006

Harold S.Johnston was awarded the Roger Revelle Medal at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, which was held on December 8, 1998, in San Francisco, California. The medal recognizes sustained and continued superior contributions to the science of climate dynamics and to predictions of expected climate changes.
Exposing the U.S. coastal zone
Authors: Pratson Lincoln , Divins David , Butler Tanja , Metzger Dan , Sharman George , Steele Mark , Berggren Todd , Holcombe Troy , Ramos Ricardo
Published: October 2006

Overdevelopment of shores and wetlands, dwindling sites on land for the disposal of human‐generated waste, contamination of estuaries and nearshore sediments, the disruption of coastal‐water ecosystems by dredging, and the specter of rising sea level due to anthropogenically induced global warming are but a few of the pressures humans are exerting on coastal environments around the world. In the United States, a lot is riding on the response of its coastal environments to these pressures. The majority of the U.S. population resides in the coastal states, where the country's largest cities and most popular recreation areas are located.

If the United States is to sustain the health and beauty of its coastal environments, then they must be managed, not only on the federal scale, but also on the state and local scales. One of the most fundamental types of data required to conduct this management will be detailed elevation data. On land, topography dictates the flow of water and the maximum extent of flooding. Offshore, bathymetry is a major control on shallow‐water ocean currents and the dissemination of sediments eroded from the continent.
Faculty receives Excellence in Geophysical Education Award
Authors: Kruse Sarah , Baldridge W. Scott , Biehler Shawn , Braile Lawrence W. , Ferguson John F. , Gilpin Bernard E. , Jiracek George R.
Published: October 2006

“The second AGU Excellence in Geophysical Education Award was presented to the faculty of the Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (SAGE): Scott Baldridge, Shawn Biehler, Larry Braile, John Ferguson, Bernard Gilpin, and George Jiracek. The persistence and commitment of this group has provided the geophysical community with a superb educational program for over 16 years, reaching nearly 400 students, including undergraduates, graduates, and professionals. The award was presented at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, which was held on December 8, 1998, in San Francisco, California.
State of the Union touches on science
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

With the Senate impeachment trial as a backdrop, U.S. President Bill Clinton delivered a State of the Union address on January 19 that included a number of items related to science policy.

Calling the threat of global warming “our most fateful new challenge,” the President proposed a package of climate change initiatives to help communities reduce greenhouse and other pollution, and tax incentives and investments to spur clean energy technology. He also offered to work with members of Congress in both parties to reward companies that take early, voluntary action to reduce greenhouse gases.
U.S. response to hurricanes Mitch and George incorporates rebuilding and mitigation efforts
Authors: Showstock Randy
Published: October 2006

The hurricane rainfall steadily pounded hillsides into mud slides and pushed rivers far beyond their banks. More than 10,000 people lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Mitch, which stomped through Central America and the Caribbean in October and November 1998. The storm also displaced 3 million people, inflicted billions of dollars worth of damage in the region, and created a public health hazard and a number of other problems, according to a U.S. government analysis.

Mitch “literally was the worst storm in the history of this hemisphere,” said Tipper Gore, wife of the U.S. vice president, who led a U.S. delegation to the region following the hurricane. And Mitch hit just one month after Hurricane George whipped through the Caribbean.