bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
New fifth force experiments
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

While there now appears to be a consensus that no strong evidence for a fifth force has been found, no one has given up trying to find it. Geophysicists continue to come up with novel experiments to test whether a force operating over a range of meters to a few kilometers exists and can be detected by variations in gravity.

Eckhardt and the AFGL scientists are looking for a tall tower in a flat area, possibly North Dakota, where surface gravity can be characterized without doubt. In November some of the scientists who worked on the Greenland experiment have finished a deep water gravity survey in the Pacific Ocean that Robert Parker of Scripps called the “most detailed study yet of gravity on the oceans.”
“Competition” in the 1991 budget process
Authors: Jones R.
Published: October 2006

Although Congress has just completed action on spending bills for fiscal year 1990, which started two months ago, federal agencies are finishing the budget submission for FY 1991 that President Bush sends to Congress in January. Making this complicated process even more difficult is a new system devised by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that is apparently causing many federal agencies to rethink their budgeting strategy.

About a year and a half before the start of a new fiscal year OMB and federal agencies start preparing the budget—a multivolume report setting the future course and identifying the priorities for the administration. OMB, a part of the Executive Office of the President, is crucial in determining spending priorities. It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of OMB, yet it is an agency which maintains a very low profile (often refusing to testify before congressional committees).
Committee views on NSF programs
Authors: Mulhall M.
Published: October 2006

It is worth plowing, through House Report 101–309 for insight into the relationship between Congress and a federal agency. The report reveals that Congress was so annoyed by the budget request from the National Science Foundation that it ordered NSF to submit by the end of January 1990 a description of how it sets priorities.

The House Subcommittee on Science, Research and Technology was asked by Robert Roe (D‐N.J.), chairman of the full Science, Space, and Technology committee, to review the fiscal year 1990 budget request and three‐year budget projection from NSF, now that the agency has multiyear authorization.
Stommel receives Medal of Science
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Henry M. Stommell, 1982 AGU Bowie Medalist, is a recipient of the 1989 National Medal of Science. One of 19 recipients of the award, Stommell was cited for “original and penetrating observations of the circulation of the oceans,” and President Bush recently presented the award at White House Ceremonies.

A graduate of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., with a degree in physics, Stommel currently is a senior scientist in the Physical Oceanography Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass. The general circulation of the oceans, the Gulf Stream, the Kuroshio current off Japan, eddy dynamics, equatorial currents, deep water convection, planetary flow patterns, historical data, climate, the Indian Ocean and the monsoons are his research interests.
IGBP: Crown jewel or prodigal son?
Authors: Roederer Juan G.
Published: October 2006

At its 1986 General Assembly in Bern, Switzerland, the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) launched what promises to be the biggest and most ambitious enterprise of international scientific cooperation (see “ICSU Gives Green Light to IGBP,” Eos, 67, p. 777, 1986). The International Geosphere‐Biosphere Program (IGBP), known also as “Global Change,” has as its main objective to describe and understand the interactive physical, chemical and biological processes that regulate the total Earth system, the unique environment that it provides for life, the changes that are occurring in this system, and the manner in which they are influenced by human actions.

It should be no wonder, then, that this year's ICSU General Committee Meeting at the Academia das Ciencias de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal, October 11–14) was virtually dominated by IGBP matters, even during the discussion of agenda items that did not include this subject explicitly. It is fair to say that the Unions are just becoming fully aware of the real magnitude of the program they themselves helped launch in Bern in 1986—and of how little input and control they have had so far in its development. An indication of this “awakening” was already apparent during the ICSU General Assembly in Beijing in 1988, but the full realization of the enormous impact and ramifications of IGBP inside and outside ICSU is emerging only now.
Space science strategy
Authors: Fraser‐Smith A. C.
Published: October 2006

The headline to a recent news article read “NASA Focuses on Station, Faces Growing Budget Crisis” [Covault, 1989], which I thought summarized NASA's present and probable future succinctly. The article was unusual: it not only discussed NASA's budget options through 2000, a long time by the normal standards of these discussions, but it also pointed out that “major design decisions over the next two years will be critical to constructing a [space] station that will endure 30 years.”

Imagine trying to think 30–40 years ahead in the space program to a time in the middle 2020s when the station will presumably cease to endure! As I will try to show, however, it is crucial for those of us in the space program to think ahead for those 30–40 years if we are going to interpret correctly the events already beginning to shape the program for those years and which must soon begin to have a dramatic effect on its viability.
Magnitudes of Soviet tests
Authors: Vergino Eileen S.
Published: October 2006

To augment my article “Soviet Test Yields” (Eos, November 28, p. 1524) I would like to make available additional mb (Lg) magnitudes from NORSAR, the Norwegian Seismic Array, for four of the events listed in Table 1 (with permission from Frode Ringdal and Roger A. Hansen, from their paper “NORSAR Yield Estimation Studies” presented to the DARPA/AFTAC Seismic Research Symposium held November 28–29 at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida).
Programs at risk
Authors: Jones, R.
Published: October 2006

Declaring that “these lists represent the smoke behind which a fire may be raging,” Senator John Glenn (D.‐Ohio), chairman of the Senate Government Affairs committee, has released a list prepared by the Office of Management and Budget of 73 government programs “in which hundreds of billions of federal dollars are at risk.”

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Department of Energy are among the 16 federal departments and agencies having programs that Glenn feels could be “our next HUDs.” The secret list is not of programs where losses have occurred, but only where safeguards are thought to be insufficient.
IAVCEI Meeting: Continental magmatism
Authors: Lipman Peter W.
Published: October 2006

Eight hundred volcanologists from 34 countries gathered in late June in Santa Fe, N.Mex., for the week‐long 1989 General Assembly of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI). Although such international volcanological meetings have taken place every 4 years since the 1950s, this was the first IAVCEI Assembly ever held in North America, as noted by the president of IAVCEI, Shigeo Aramaki of the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo, during the opening ceremony in Santa Fe. The Santa Fe assembly also was about 50% larger than any previous IAVCEI meeting, attesting to the healthy scientific status of volcanology.
Plate reconstructions and gridded data: A new tool in deciphering correlations across oceans
Authors: Verhoef J. , Roest W. R. , Srivastava S. P.
Published: October 2006

This paper describes a new development in plate reconstruction techniques: the use of gridded data sets. Rotation poles that summarize the evolution of an ocean are used to transform data grids to the reconstruction framework. In this way, information contained in the gridded data is retained for the correlation of features from one side of the ocean to the other. The method is illustrated by a reconstruction of the bathymetry in the Labrador Sea and part of the North Atlantic.
Herbicides in streams
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

Toxic herbicides exist at detectable levels in more than half of the streams in the midwestern United States, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study.

The testing is the first extensive search of surface water in the region for the dangerous chemicals, called triazine herbicides, which are applied to corn, soybeans, and other crops to control weeds. Ingestion of the compounds in even trace amounts can cause organ damage and cancer.
[Comment on “Record aurora over North America,” and “Effects of the March 1989 solar activity” by Joe Allen, et al.] southern aurora
Authors: Schneider Otto
Published: October 2006

The spectacular equatorward extent of auroral displays over North America, along with disruptions of radio communications and a power blackout, on the occasion of the March 1989 solar and geomagnetic disturbances, as reported in Eos (May 16, p. 595; November 14, p. 1479), calls for supplementary information from the southern hemisphere. Immediately after receiving some spontaneous descriptions by private observers in central Patagonia, we started a nationwide enquiry in search of similar data from continental and naval weather stations, as well as from radio and astronomy amateurs.
Seismic glasnost opens U.S.S.R to U.S. researchers
Authors: Simarski Lynn Teo
Published: October 2006

On October 24, the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear test in over a year, an explosion at its test site Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic that was jointly recorded by U.S. and Soviet seismologists. The cooperative seismological program, begun in 1988, helps to verify compliance with nuclear test ban treaties, and furnishes a wealth of seismological information from a region that U.S. seismologists were previously able to monitor only from afar.
Beach erosion rates and the National Flood Insurance Program
Authors: Leatherman Stephen P. , Dean Robert G.
Published: October 2006

Thirty of the nation's 50 states have coastlines on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes. These 30 states contain approximately 85% of the nation's population, and about half of this population resides in the coastal zone. Continued population growth is projected in the future, with a greatly increasing demand for beachfront development. At present, there is considerable public concern over coastal erosion, erosion control measures, and land use regulations [National Research Council, 1990].

Beach erosion is a significant and growing national problem. The National Shoreline Study, conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1971, was the first national appraisal of shore erosion problems. Significant erosion was found to occur along 43% of the U.S. shoreline if Alaska is excluded. Other large sections of sandy shoreline are also eroding, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers categorized it as noncritical erosion largely because of the lack of immediate threat to buildings and infrastructure at that time.
Ellen Druffel receives 1990 Macelwane Medal
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Ellen R. M. Druffel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has received the 1990 James B. Macelwane Medal in recognition of significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by a young scientist of outstanding ability. The award was presented at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony on December 5 in San Francisco. The citation, delivered by Peter M. Williams, and Druffel's response are presented below.

“The use of natural and bomb‐produced radiocarbon to detect, explain, and predict oceanographic and climatic processes has been, by and large, underutilized in the past. Ellen Druffel has done, and is doing, a great deal to remedy this situation. Nine years ago, Ellen set up a high precision, world class radiocarbon‐counting laboratory at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that has enabled her to detect changes in the pre‐bomb and post‐bomb oceanic radiocarbon records. Using banded corals and sclerosponges to reconstruct definitive time histories of radiocarbon and 13C in the surface ocean, Ellen has been able, for example, to observe changes in ventilation rates and circulation patterns in the upper ocean, to reconstruct records of El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, and to deconvolute the excess CO2 signal for the past 150 years into fossil fuel burning and deforestation/soil oxidation sources. These original studies have important implications for projections of future atmospheric CO2 increases and for delineating oceanic circulation patterns during the last glacial period.
FY1991 budget
Authors: Jones R.
Published: October 2006

One of the most discussed topics in Washington this month is the Fiscal Year 1991 budget, which President Bush will send to Congress on January 29, a full week beyond its scheduled date. Making this subject even more of a mystery for the science community is the tight lid that the White House and its budget planning arm, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), have placed on advance information about this greatly anticipated document.

Last year President Bush surprised many people by leaving his predecessor's budget largely intact and instead releasing a document entitled Major Policy Initiatives, Fiscal Year 1990.
EOS and jumpstart
Authors: Schmitt Harrison H.
Published: October 2006

I am happy to see that an AGU panel wants views on the Earth Observing System (EOS) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“EOS Panel,” Eos, October 3, 1989, p. 886).

NASA's EOS program will provide data in the long term through flights of large polar‐ orbiting platforms, each with ten or more scientific instruments. EOS will require a large investment of research and development funds over 10 years or more. The first flight will occur in 1996 under current plans.
Dealing with uncertainty
Authors: Walker Daniel A.
Published: October 2006

Juan G. Roederer raises some difficult questions in his Forum article “The Challenge of Global Change” (Eos, Sept. 18, 1990): “How can we sustain a public sense of the common danger of global change while remaining honest in view of the realities of scientific uncertainties? How can we nurture this sense of common danger without making statements based on half‐baked ideas, statistically unreliable results, or oversimplified models? How can we strike a balance between the need to overstate a case to attract the attention of the media and the obligation to adhere strictly to the ethos of science?”

There are no easy answers to these questions since debate and uncertainty characterize most scientific advancements. Also, it is often very difficult in the early stages of those advancements to determine which ideas are “half‐baked,” which results are “statistically unreliable,” or which models are “oversimplified.”
Earthquake and bay: Response of Monterey Bay to the Loma Prieta Earthquake
Authors: Schwing Franklin B. , Norton Jerrold G. , Pilskaln Cynthia H.
Published: October 2006

The magnitude‐7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake, which ruptured a segment of the San Andreas fault on October 17, 1989, and caused extensive damage over a large area of central California, also produced substantial motions in nearby Monterey Bay (Figure 1). Earthquake effects included a tsunami, or seismic sea wave, and subsequent surface water oscillations that were detected for about 24 hours following the main shock and widespread, substantial slumping of sediments on the Monterey Bay continental shelf and along the walls of Monterey Submarine Canyon.
A Path Where No Man Thought; Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race
Authors: Brasseur Guy
Published: October 2006

In 1982, Paul Crutzen, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, and John Birks, University of Colorado, Boulder, published a provocative paper suggesting that the smoke from the fires triggered by potential massive nuclear explosions would generate profound changes in the chemical composition and physical state of the Earth's atmosphere. A year later, a group of five scientists, Richard Turco, Brian Toon, Tom Ackerman, Jim Pollack, and Carl Sagan, showed, on the basis of model calculations, that the Earth would cool significantly following nuclear explosions and that the climatic impacts of a nuclear war would affect not only the country attacked but also the aggressor. This group, which received the acronym of TTAPS, showed that the number of fatalities resulting from the indirect climatic perturbations could be at least as large as the number of humans directly killed by the explosions.

Two of the authors of the TTAPS theory, Carl Sagan and Richard Turco, have summarized 10 years of extensive research and public controversy following the publication of the nuclear winter hypothesis. In their fascinating book they try to analyze how the concept of nuclear winter has changed the attitude of the political world, has contributed to the improvement of political relations between the two superpowers, and has initiated a revision of geopolitical and military theories.
50 years of membership in AGU recognized
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Recently seven members who joined the Union in 1941 received their gold pins in recognition of 50 years of membership in the Union. They join the distinguished ranks of the other 50‐year members, all of whom are listed below by the year they joined.

1941 Max Bookman, Desmond F. Glynn, William F. Guyton, Kenneth E. Lohman, Charles Miron, Russell W. Revell, and Wilbur T. Stuart
Satellite surveillance of volcanic ash plumes, application to aircraft safety
Authors: Kienle T. , Dean K. G. , Garbeil H. , Rose W. I.
Published: October 2006

The early phreatomagmatic and magmatic explosive activity of Redoubt Volcano, December 14–16, 1989, produced several ashladen eruption columns that caused significant damage to jet aircraft.

The major aircraft‐ash incident occurred December 15 at 1150 AST, when a KLM Boeing 747 jet aircraft, enroute from Amsterdam to Anchorage with 231 passengers and 14 crew members, flew through an ash plume east of Talkeetna, Alaska, at an altitude of 7.5 km and experienced sudden shutdown of all four engines. For 12 minutes the jet glided steeply from 7.5 km to 3.5 km before the crew managed to restart the engines after seven or eight tries. The plane came within about 1500 m of the mountain tops before landing safely at Anchorage International Airport.
Congress hears testimony on Augustine Report
Authors: Simarski Lynn Teo
Published: October 2006

A range of space analysts assessed the future of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on January 29 and 31 before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. The committee's new chairman, George E. Brown, Jr. (D‐Calif.), held the hearing on the Report of the Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program, better known as the Augustine Report, which was released in December.

Most witnesses from government agencies, scientific associations, and universities lauded the report's conclusions, expressing strong consensus that NASA needed new direction. John M. Logsdon, director of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, summed up the report's message as “let's stop 20 years of arguments and uncertainty and get on with a space program that commands stable support from the White House, the Congress, and the American people.”
Aristotle on the magnetosphere
Authors: Siscoe George L.
Published: October 2006

If yours is one of 3000 family names listed in a current glossy magazine two‐page ad (Abbot to Zimmerman—no Siscoe), $30 brings you a “GENEALOGICAL and HISTORICAL study of (your) family from earliest times.” (Prompt orders get a specially designed Ancestry Chart, free!) We have a built‐in thirst to know our pedigree; how else could genealogy pay? Why else would people visit ancestral homesites? And what else let Alex Haley parlay a scholarly study of ship manifests and slave transactions into a best selling novel? Roots symbolizes a literary genre, which includes Oliver Twist and The Prince and the Pauper, that exploits deep emotions evoked by issues of heritage. The genre admits humor; the Mikado's Pooh‐Bah traces his ancestry back to a “protoplasmic primordial atomic globule.”
Wunsch receives 1990 Ewing medal
Authors: Wunsch Carl I.
Published: October 2006

Carl I. Wunsch has received the 1990 Maurice Ewing Medal presented by AGU and the U.S. Navy for leadership in marine geophysics. The award was presented at the AGU Fall Meeting last December in San Francisco. The citation, delivered by Walter H. Munk, and Wunsch's response are presented below.
Kiwi magic: New Zealand paleomagnetism comes of age
Authors: Turner Gillian M. , Roberts Andrew P.
Published: October 2006

When the New Zealand Geological Society held its annual meeting in November 1988 in Hamilton, they scheduled a major symposium, Palaeomagnetism and Its Applications in the New Zealand Region. That interest and enthusiasm for paleomagnetic research in New Zealand has reached such a level is a tribute to those who, over the past 30 years, have built expertise and developed our facilities to international standards.

In 1957 Colin Bull became the first geophysicist appointed to the physics department at Victoria University, in Wellington. He brought with him from the United Kingdom a magnet assembly that was incorporated into an astatic magnetometer by Jim Gellen [1959] as part of his Master's degree project.
First JGG Award given to Tsunakawa
Authors: Kono Masaru
Published: October 2006

Hideo Tsunakawa of Tokai University, Japan, was presented the first Journal of Geomagnetism and Geoelectricity (JOG) Award at the 86th semiannual meeting of the Society of Geomagnetism and Earth; Planetary and Space Sciences, held in October 1989 at Kobe University, Japan. (SGEPSS was formerly the Society of Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity of Japan.) Tsunakawa was given the award for his paper “Geomagnetic secular variation during the Brunhes epoch inferred from the paleomagnetism and the last 200 years geomagnetic field” (J. Geomagn. Geoelectr., 40, 1365, 1988).

The JGG Award will be given annually to honor “the best paper which was written by a scientist under 40 and which appeared in JGG in the last year.” The award carries 300,000 yen travel allowance to enable the recipient, if Japanese, to attend meetings in foreign countries or, if the recipient is from another country, to attend meetings in Japan sponsored or organized by SGEPSS. The JGG Editorial Board will nominate award candidates to SGEPSS; other than age limit, there is no restriction on candidates.
Geophysical grain flows
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The mechanical description of granular‐fluid flow is one of the last frontiers of classical mechanics that remains largely unexplored but has broad application. Geophysical examples of granular‐fluid flow include avalanches, rock slides, debris flows, aeolian, fluvial, and coastal sediment transport, and ice floes. Some examples of industrial problems are the transport of toner in photocopy machines, pellet‐based cooling systems for nuclear reactors, and the material handling of many granular products. Granular‐fluid flows exhibit a rich variety of physical interactions, as simplistically characterized in the qualitative diagram.
1989 Horton Award to William Yeh
Authors: Sorooshian Soroosh
Published: October 2006

The Robert E. Horton Award of the American Geophysical Union's Hydrology Section is presented to the individual who displays “a single outstanding contribution to the science of hydrology made during the preceding five years.”

Those who are involved in the education, research, and practice of hydrology and water resources and follow the literature would agree that Professor William Yeh is most deserving of this award as the 1989 recipient. It is with great pleasure that I present the following citation and highlight some of Bill's accomplishments from the start of his career to the present time.
Extreme rainfall and hydrologic design
Authors: Potter Kenneth W. , Foufoula‐Georgiou Efi
Published: October 2006

In the past few years there has been considerable research on the modeling of rainfall and runoff in space and time. At the same time, there have been a number of technical innovations which have the potential to greatly facilitate modeling. These include hardware and software developments in radar estimation of rainfall, digital topography, geographic information systems, remote sensing, and flow and water‐level instrumentation. It is apparent, however, that very little of this new capability is currently utilized in hydrologic design. This special session, sponsored by the Precipitation Committee of the Hydrology Section at the 1989 Fall AGU meeting, explored various facets of this issue. Participants included representatives of county, state and federal agencies, engineering consultants, and university researchers.
1991 AGU Congressional Science Fellow
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Jeffrey L. Payne, AGU's 1990–1991 Congressional Science Fellow, is actively working in the office of Representative Jolene Unsoeld of Washington State. The science and engineering fellows program, in which AGU participates, is administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The program provides an opportunity for accomplished scientists and engineers with public policy interests to participate in and contribute to the Congressional policy‐making process. Fellows spend one year working as special assistants in legislative areas requiring scientific and technical input on the staffs of members of Congress or congressional committees.
Frogs report: Friends of Granite, Winter 1990
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

FROGS reports present information on current research relevant to felsic magmatism, including commentaries on problems of current interest. Please contact Calvin Miller (Geology, 6028B, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, tel. 615‐322‐2986) about your own research, conferences, and ideas for stimulating commentaries.
Biogeophysical remote sensing: A ground truth data base and graphics system for the northwestern Pacific Ocean
Authors: Harashima A. , Kikuchi Y.
Published: October 2006

The Coastal Zone Color Scanner of the Nimbus‐7 satellite has revealed the global distribution of the chlorophyll‐like pigments. The succeeding ocean color sensors Sea WiFS and OCTS are expected to give more information on the coupled phenomena of biological and geophysical processes in the ocean [Esaias et al., 1986; Brewer et al., 1986; Platt and Sathyendranath, 1988].

We have developed personal‐computer software for searching routine station‐based observations to systematically calibrate satellite products and for visualizing biogeochemical processes in the ocean interior by generating 3‐dimensional perspective views of ocean parameters. Success of our system depends on the spatial and temporal coverage of the routine observations.
Clay Mineral Society 1989
Authors: Moore Duane M.
Published: October 2006

Two themes emerged from the Clay Mineral Society's 1989 meeting: We need to consider larger samples, whether in theoretical or experimental work—count more spacings in HRTEM photos, and take multiple samples from single locations; and the configurations R0, Rl, (R2) and R3 have some kind of distinct stability. Kaolinite also got its share of attention, even though no session was devoted to it.

The society met September 23–28, 1989, at California State University, Sacramento; 195 scientists attended. Although there were fewer presentations than in recent years, participants agreed that quality was improved and that more time allowed for more and better discussions.
Magnetosphere
Authors: Siscoe George L.
Published: October 2006

Research on the terrestrial magnetosphere, above 500 km, continues to focus on how energy gets from the solar wind into the magnetosphere and how it circulates through the magnetosphere. The prime candidate for energy coupling has long been magnetic merging in which the magnetic field that the solar wind carries from the Sun merges with the geomagnetic field. (The result couples the ionosphere, above 60 km, to the solar wind by magnetic field lines that act both as elastic bands, stretching against the motion of the wind and extracting energy from it, and as current conductors, electrically conveying the extracted energy to the ionosphere.)

Only a decade ago, the first direct evidence of merging was uncovered in the form of fast, magnetically driven flows at the magnetosphere's sunward boundary. Narrow and brief, such flows are elusive, rendering synoptic studies difficult. On the other hand, distinctive, common wiggles in the magnetic field near the boundary, called “flux transfer events” (FTE), are suspected of being proxy merging signatures. The problem has been that to learn about merging from FTEs requires a physical model connecting them. A new FTE model postulates that impulsive merging launches tube‐like surges along the boundary and perturbs the field to some distance away. This model, independently proposed by two leading theorists, seems to satisfy all observational constraints (untrue of earlier attempts), and thereby seems to bring the field much closer to exploiting FTE data.
Budget increase sought for global change
Authors: Simarski Lynn Teo
Published: October 2006

A distinct federal budget initiative this year has spotlighted global change research for FY 1992. The budget asks for almost $1.2 billion—an increase of $232 million, 24% more than last year—to be spread among nine federal agencies in the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Climate modelling and prediction is the top scientific priority for 1992, according to the National Science Foundation's Robert W. Corel 1, chairman of the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences (CEES) working group that has assembled the U.S. program for the past three years. The program also has a new participant, the Department of Defense, added this year.
Scientific drilling: Limitations to drilling and logging in thermal regimes
Authors: Lysne Peter , Jacobson Ronald
Published: October 2006

Although many investigators are eager to explore thermal regimes of Earth's crust by drilling, present technologies limit these activities to relatively benign environments. This article enumerates areas of difficulty and offers suggestions as to how they may be addressed.

Over the past century two drilling technologies have evolved, primarily to support extractive industries. The most common involves the “rotary drilling” machinery that is used in the hydrocarbon production industry. It features big rigs capable of drilling deeper than 10 km and is the least expensive way to make large holes necessary for production. Unfortunately, when this equipment is used to take core, costs mount rapidly because the drill string must be removed from the hole after each core run. Thus formation analysis usually depends on downhole measurements that are provided by an aggressive logging service industry. Many of these measurements are, understandably, directed toward hydrocarbon applications. This situation is not always advantageous to scientific drilling programs in volcanic formations [Lysne, 1989].
NSF warned about budget cuts
Authors: Jones Richard
Published: October 2006

Walter Massey had been director of the National Science Foundation for less than 24 hours when Bob Traxler, chairman of the House VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies appropriations subcommittee, and one of the two most important people in Congress with jurisdiction over NSF, provided early warning of cuts in the foundation's proposed FY 1992 budget. “We must tell you that in our best judgement, we're not going to be too successful in matching your allocation of the 302(b) process with the generosity of the president's request,” Traxler told Massey, referring to the process that was largely set up by last year's budget agreement.

The subcommittee hearing—held March 5 and 6 in a room off the main corridor of the U.S. Capitol, with space for only a dozen spectators—was one of the most important congressional events in this year's consideration of the NSF budget. Massey attended with the entire top tier of the NSF staff.
Landsat 5 marks 7th anniversary
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

For Landsat 5, it will be business as usual today—orbiting the Earth 14 times, gathering data. The remote‐sensing satellite has been following this pattern every day since its launch in 1984. Collectively, it has gone around the Earth more than 37,000 times and collected more than 2.5 million images.

Originally planned for a 3‐year orbit, Landsat 5 has exceeded its design life by almost 150%, and its continued success “is a tribute to American space technology,” says C. P. Williams, president and CEO of the Earth Observation Satellite Co. (EOSAT).
Digital elevation data
Authors: Goodrich David C. , Woolhiser David A.
Published: October 2006

The primary goal of the session Integration of Digital Elevation Data into Hydrologic Models, sponsored by the Surface Water Committee of the AGU Hydrology Section at the AGU 1989 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, was to provide an overview of the various types of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data and methods used to incorporate these data into rainfall‐runoff models.
Climate and water
Authors: Stout Glenn E.
Published: October 2006

There is considerable consensus among the international scientific community that we are facing global warming due to increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs and other greenhouse gases. The perceived wisdom is that the average global temperature has increased 0.5°–0.7°C since the turn of the century or, according to some, since the 1860s. Current estimates from models indicate that temperatures may increase 1°–3°C during the next 40–60 years. However, since there are considerable gaps in our knowledge and data availability, reliability of such models leaves much to be desired.
Mixed response to smaller space station
Authors: Simarski Lynn Teo
Published: October 2006

The newly restructured space station Freedom made headlines in March, as supporters and opponents debated the plan for a scaled‐down station, carrying on the controversy engendered by the station over its 8‐year, $4 billion history.

Last October, Congress directed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to reduce the station's cost by $6 billion over 5 years. “The new design is cheaper, smaller, easier to assemble in orbit, and will require fewer shuttle flights to build,” NASA announced. The agency's international partners on the station—the European Space Agency, Japan, and Canada—have supported the new model.
Geotransects in the Taiwan region
Authors: Yen T. P. , Yeh Yih‐Hsing
Published: October 2006

The Republic of China National Committee for the Inter‐Union Commission on the Lithosphere organized an ad hoc working group in 1988 for compilation and construction of geotransects in the Taiwan region, a region considered by the scientific world as a classic example of collision and subduction of plates.

Three geotransects have been constructed, with insufficient data: geotransect N along latitude 24°30′N, geotransect M along latitude 23°30′, and geotransect S along latitude 22°30′N. The data used in the constructions are mainly scattered in publications on the geology and geophysics of Taiwan. The purpose of the study is to promote further investigation of the mechanism of plate motion in terms of geology and geophysics, to improve interpretation of the geotectonics of the region.
A plea for simplicity
Authors: Urrutia‐Fucugauchi J.
Published: October 2006

This comment is a simple plea that authors who wish to introduce a new name for geological/geophysical features into the literature check that the feature has not already been discovered and named, and that the term is suitable. This is of particular concern for researchers working in foreign countries, where the language may be different. Unrestricted and careless naming of features in journals and maps only adds to the confusion and detracts from the scientific work being reported.

Naming new formations, species, and planetary features (asteroids, moon craters, etc.) has been carefully regulated in the fields of geology, biology, and astronomy, both to maintain accuracy and to eliminate unnecessary duplication of terms. Such care should also be exercised in referring to other features, such as faults, volcanos, small hills, paleoelements, tectonic blocks, and terranes. Closely scrutinizing appropriate literature and/or consulting with mapping agencies, institutions, or individual researchers should be completed before a new name is chosen. This will not only be an act of courtesy and good taste, but it will add to the scientific work. A similar plea has been expressed in respect to naming new features in marine sciences [Fisher, 1987; Laughton, 1990].
Basaltic magma from the crust is not a free option
Authors: Morse S. A.
Published: October 2006

Supposing that it is the business of section officers to stir the pot from time to time, I have elected to introduce myself (as President‐Elect of the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section) by way of this small polemic on a matter of general interest, the origin of mafic magma. My hope is to identify a piece of folly so that it will go away. Knowing, however, the Gresham‐Murphy law of information that bad ideas outrun the good, my expectations are somewhat lower than my hopes.

In a recent abstract about the perturbed geochemistry of mafic crustal rocks, the usual options were invoked: enriched mantle source, crustal contamination of basaltic magma, and, in addition, “ … by partial melting of basaltic crust in the lower crust or uppermost mantle.” This last hypothesis appears with some frequency in the literature. Accordingly, I refrain from pointing the finger at the amiably misguided perpetrators by citing references to any of them.
Regional deformation and global tectonics from space geodetic techniques
Authors: Robbins John W.
Published: October 2006

Present‐day plate‐tectonic motions have been estimated from the space‐based geodetic techniques of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) between sites located on seven of the major tectonic plates. The observational history for the two techniques extends back to the late 1960s, but data taken during the last decade is particularly robust and of sufficient quality to resolve relative motions of the observing stations at the 2–4 mm/year uncertainty level. With the continuation of these measurements and the expansion of tracking networks, more detailed interpretations of the surface motions can be made, further deepening our understanding of plate‐driving processes and the lithospheric response to tectonic stress.

Shortly after the Loma Prieta earthquake in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California on October 18, 1989, mobile VLBI systems visited three sites within 150 km of the epicenter and made measurements jointly with other sites in an intensive observational campaign to measure co‐ and postseismic deformation. At Fort Ord (50 km south of the epicenter), the earthquake‐related horizontal displacement was estimated at 4914 mm, oriented in a northerly direction. At the Presidio (in San Francisco, 100 km northwest of the epicenter), the horizontal displacement was estimated at 1215 mm oriented in a southeasterly direction, and further north, at Point Reyes (140 km northwest of the epicenter), no horizontal displacement was detected beyond the noise level of the observations. A coseismic slip model in which slip on the rupture zone's southern segment is shallower than that on the more northern segment predicts static displacements that are consistent with these results [Clark et al., 1990].
Supercomputing research networks
Authors: Mulhall Marguerite
Published: October 2006

The need for a federal high‐performance computing network has been presented before several congressional committees over the last several weeks. Championing the cause is Senator Albert Gore, Jr.(D‐TN), Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Space and Technology. Gore has been trumpeting the creation of computer “superhighways,” which would link supercomputers at universities, national laboratories and in industry and have the capability of transmitting 1000 times more data per second than current networks. The National High‐Performance Computer Technology Act (S.1067) was introduced by Gore in May 1989 and authorizes $1.75 billion over 5 years for the program.

The proposed program would involve the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Energy and Department of Defense. Other agencies such as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, National Institutes of Health and Library of Congress would also play important roles. Gore's bill authorizes specific funds for the NSF in this area; however, to gain authorization for the program for some of the other agencies' “companion” bills must be introduced.
Rainfall mission approved in U.S. and Japan
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the joint U.S./Japan space mission to measure rainfall over the global tropics, has been formally approved in both nations, with launch scheduled for late 1996 or 1997.

As described in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (vol. 69, pp. 278–295), TRMM, in its early planning stages, will be the first space mission to fly a rain radar. The “rain package” also includes a multichannel passive microwave radiometer and a high‐resolution visible and infrared instrument, similar to the AVHRR (advanced very high‐resolution radiometer). Orbiting at 350‐km elevation for high resolution, TRMM is inclined at 35° in order to overfly tropical locations at a different local time each day, and to document the diurnal variability in precipitation. An important TRMM measurement will monitor monthly rainfall over 5° by 5° boxes over oceans to an accuracy of approximately 10–15%, with the largest error arising from sampling by the selected orbit. Rainfall over individual swaths will also be valuable and can become useful data sets, particularly when combined with products from other satellites.
GLOBEC Research
Authors: Taylor Phillip R.
Published: October 2006

The Division of Ocean Sciences of the National Science Foundation has announced the first research opportunities in GLOBEC, an initiative for studying global ocean ecosystems. The announcement is based on research priorities developed by the U.S. GLOBEC Steering Committee. Initial GLOBEC studies will be directed at theoretical and modeling developments.

GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a component of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (see “GLOBEC,” Eos, 70, 82, 1989). The initiative was called for by the oceanographic, marine ecology and fisheries communities to address the question, What will be the effect of the changes in our global environment on the populations and communities of marine animals comprising marine ecosystems?
This Dynamic Planet: A World Map of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plate Tectonics
Authors: Westrich Henry R.
Published: October 2006

Earth's physiographic features are prominently displayed on the map and are overlain by symbols for volcanos, earthquake epicenters, and movement of tectonic plates. The base map is a computer‐generated Mercator projection of the world that shows the topography of the land surface and the seafloor. Addition of colors and shaded relief helps clarify and distinguish important topographic features.
Jesuit Geophysical Observatories
Authors: Udias Agustin , Stauder William
Published: October 2006

Jesuits have had ah interest in observing and explaining geophysical phenomena since this religious order, the Society of Jesus, was founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540. Three principal factors contributed to this interest: their educational work in colleges and universities, their missionary endeavors to remote lands where they observed interesting and often as yet undocumented natural phenomena, and a network of communication that brought research of other Jesuits readily to their awareness.

One of the first and most important Jesuit colleges was the Roman College (today the Gregorian University) founded in 1551 in Rome, which served as a model for many other universities throughout the world. By 1572, Christopher Clavius (1537–1612), professor of mathematics at the Roman College, had already initiated an important tradition of Jesuit research by emphasizing applied mathematics and insisting on the need of serious study of mathematics in the program of studies in the humanities. In 1547 he directed a publication of Euclid's work with commentaries, and published several treatises on mathematics, including Arithmetica Practica [1585], Gnomonicae [1581], and Geometrica Practica [1606]. Clavius was also a Copernican and supported his friend Galileo when he announced the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter.
[Comment to “Response of Monterey Bay to the Loma Prieta Earthquake of October 17, 1989”] Montery Bay
Authors: Schwing Franklin B. , Norton Jerrold G. , Pilskaln Cynthia H.
Published: October 2006

Observations of liquefaction and slumping in Monterey Bay, Calif., described in “Response of Monterey Bay to the Loma Prieta Earthquake of October 17, 1989,” (Eos, February [6], 1990, p. 250), were based on the ongoing work of a team of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML), Hopkins Marine Station, and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), who are continuing to investigate the causes and effects of slumping and other processes that occurred in association with the earthquake.
Horton Falls named for Pioneer Hydrologist
Authors: Schaefer Vincent
Published: October 2006

A beautiful 80‐foot waterfall in the Catskill Mountains was recently named after Robert E. Horton (1875–1945), a pioneer hydrologist and active AGU member for many years. Officially named Horton Falls, the waterfall, located a few miles east of Voorheesville, N.Y., in Albany County, was an important part of Horton's hydrological laboratory. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved the name at its November 8, 1990 meeting.

Horton lived close to the falls and operated his hydrological laboratory at its crest in the old La Grange Grist Mill, which used hydropower generated by the falling waters of the La Grange Mill Pond, originally impounded by a wooden log dam 100 feet upstream of the mill. As far as can be determined, the pioneer La Granges, who built and operated the mill, never used the 85‐foot head made available to them by the waterfalls. Horton, however, did, and ran a vertical and a horizontal iron water wheel to spin a DC electricity‐generating turbine, which he used for heat, light, and power in his home and laboratory.
Satellite positioning
Authors: Stein William L. , Kumar Muneendra
Published: October 2006

The Fifth International Geodetic Symposium on Satellite Positioning was held in Las Cruces, N.Mex., March 13–17, 1989. It was cosponsored by the Defense Mapping Agency and the National Geodetic Survey of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More than 385 geodesists, engineers, scientists, surveyors, instrument manufacturers, and managers from 32 countries attended the symposium.

The keynote address and 96 papers including 9 invited papers and 10 poster papers were presented in the 5‐day meeting. In addition, there were three well‐attended workshops with lively technical discussions. The invited guest presentations at the symposium luncheon and banquet provided very useful and interesting information.