bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Radarsat survey provides accurate map of Antarctica
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Explorers of Antarctica have trudged with dog sleds, wintered in boats trapped in ice, and daringly flown across the coldest, windiest, highest, driest, and most desolate continental expanse. Their names are legendary: Ross, Scott, Amundsen, Byrd. And now add Radarsat.

Taking about 5,500 microwave images over 18 days—from September 26 through October 14—a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) on this Earth‐orbiting satellite completed the first‐ever, real‐time and high‐resolution radar survey of Antarctica last week. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) satellite, orbiting 800 km above Antarctica, accomplished this task by performing an unusual 180° yaw, or rotational maneuver, for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Alley receives Horton Award
Authors: Alley Richard B.
Published: October 2006

Richard B. Alley was awarded the Hydrology section's Horton Award on December 16, 1996, at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco. The Horton Award recognizes a single outstanding contribution to the science of hydrology made during the preceding 5 years.
Crustal deformation measured in Southern California
Authors: Shen Zheng‐kang , Dong Danan , Herring Thomas , Hudnut Kenneth , Jackson David , King Robert , McClusky Simon , Sung Li‐yu
Published: October 2006

Studies at the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) are suggesting that postseismic deformation is significant and long lasting. This seems the case, at least, in a region whose dimension is comparable to the fault rupture length. Researchers at SCEC found strong spatial correlation between the high strain rates and the past large earthquakes at the epicentral areas of the 1952 Kern County, 1971 Imperial, and 1992 Landers earthquakes.

Southern California spans a plate boundary composed of hundreds of faults, major and minor, over a region hundreds of km wide. Measuring the crustal deformation field across this broad and complex plate boundary poses a great challenge. The Crustal Deformation Working Group of the SCEC orchestrated a major effort to provide, for the first time, a unified geodetic crustal deformation field covering southern California.
Upgrading a beginning geophysics course: Taking the “small‐is‐beautiful approach”
Authors: Stein Seth , DeLaughter John E.
Published: October 2006

Considerable attention is now directed toward improving Earth science curricula, as illustrated by both presentations at national scientific meetings and discussions in the literature. Much of the discussion addresses large‐scale changes, such as the development of new degree programs [e.g., Stein, 1996]. Such reforms can be very successful but require lengthy interactions with university bureaucracies.

A complementary approach is to upgrade individual courses or groups of courses. This approach has the advantage of being doable by individual faculty members, without bureaucracy, and on small (or nonexistent) budgets. We have been taking such a “smallis‐beautiful” [Schumacher, 1973] or “faster, camcheaper, better” approach to upgrading our introductory geophysics course. Our discussions with colleagues elsewhere have shown that there is interest in this effort. Therefore we will summarize the effort here in the hope of encouraging discussions of similar experiments.
Mars Pathfinder: Lander is silent, but data tell many tales
Authors: Edgett Ken
Published: October 2006

ARES VALLIS, MARS—Silence. Ares Vallis has been silent for most of its history, and it is a silent place once again. The data gathered from this valley by Mars Pathfinder, however, are not silent, and they still have many stories to tell (Fig. 1).

“I am proud to announce the completion of the Mars Pathfinder Extended Mission,” said project manager Brian Muirhead of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a November 4, 1997, press conference. Pathfinder's last science data transmission occurred on September 27. Attempts to communicate with the lander throughout October were fruitless, except for brief signals on October 2 and 7. Despite the apparent end of the spectacular mission, data analysis has barely begun.
Study deformation processes of the central Andes on‐line
Authors: Mohr S. , Götze H.‐J.
Published: October 2006

Research in the Central Andes is currently providing new insights into the structure and tectonic evolution of this huge mountain range. “Deformation Processes in the Andes” (SFB 267), a Collaborative Research Center project, is employing 17 task groups and a variety of techniques and disciplines to investigate crustal processes near the convergent plate boundary of South America. We are interested in the interactions between the upper and lower plates and between the downgoing Nazca plate and the continental wedge; the state of recent deformation in the continental plate; the generation of magmas through time; and the shortening of the orogen. Field activities are concentrated on a segment extending between 20°S and 30°S, from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern Andean foreland, covering parts of northwest Argentina, southern Bolivia, and northern Chile. The geophysical surveys include active and passive seismology, potential field data, and magnetotellurics, combined with Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring, geological field work, petrological and geochemical analyses, age dating, and remote sensing.
Solid Earth Programs meet Coolfont Goals
Authors: Baltuck Miriam
Published: October 2006

At a 1989 meeting in Coolfont, West Virginia, more than 135 scientists from 14 countries recommended a program for NASA Solid Earth Science for the next decade. The proposal included five new emphases: a global fiducial and strain network using geodetic techniques to measure lithospheric motion and deformation; high‐resolution digital topographic data; land surface studies as records of climate change, tectonic events, and global soil cycles and degradation; studying volcanic processes, with emphasis on their interaction with climate; and using geopotential fields from space to improve understanding of lithospheric structure and core‐mantle dynamics.
Freshwater Ecosystems: Revitalizing Educational Programs in Limnology
Authors: Melack John M.
Published: October 2006

Limnology, the integrative science of inland aquatic ecosystems, is making fundamental scientific advances and playing a critical role in management of inland water while suffering from fragmentation and lack of identity at North American universities. Educational programs at undergraduate and graduate levels require substantial improvement. In light of such concerns, the U.S. National Research Council commissioned a study on the nature and future of the academic teaching of limnology in North America. As is expected from such endeavors, the committee's report, published to high professional standards, combines scholarly background on the development of limnology with recommendations for actions. University professors and graduate students teaching limnology and related fields, as well as managers of water resources, will find the committee's report valuable.
Investigating the lake effect on weather
Authors: Friebele Elaine
Published: October 2006

Scientists from 20 universities began an intensive 2‐month investigation of Midwest meteorology in December.

The Lake‐Induced Convection Experiment (Lake‐ICE) will use airplane‐borne sensing devices and dozens of ground‐based stations to determine how the Great Lakes affect arctic air masses in winter and how the heat and moisture from the lakes circulate on several scales.
Capturing a European legacy
Authors: Miles P. R. , Schaming M. , Casas A. , Sachpazi M. , Marchetti A. P.
Published: October 2006

Marine seismic reflection profiles have been collected in most European waters during scientific surveys by European academic institutions since the 1960s. Today, many of these data remain only as paper record sections, familiar primarily to those who have participated in marine surveys. This is mainly due to the deterioration of recording media (magnetic tape) and the fact that replay instrumentation no longer exists. The records often remain boxed and unreferenced; those of greater interest suffer more by handling and cutting. Generally these data cannot be re‐created and, with few exceptions, have not been archived in any photographic or reproducible form.
Alaskan terrain image released
Authors: Riehle Jim
Published: October 2006

The U.S. Geological Survey has released a shaded‐relief image of the Alaskan terrain (Map I‐ 2585; scale 1:2,500,000, $4.00). An accompanying booklet explains the geologic basis of more than 100 terrain features that can be seen, including recently active faults— of which the Denali and Fairweather faults are particularly conspicuous—volcanoes, and glacial deposits.
Illman and Helmke receive Horton Research Grants
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Walter A. Illman and Martin F. Helmke were each presented with Horton Research Grants during the AGU 1997 Spring Meeting in Baltimore, Md., held in May. The research grant, which is separate from the Horton Award and is awarded annually, supports research projects in hydrology and water resources by doctoral candidates at institutions of higher learning. The Horton Research Grant's objective is to foster graduate student research leading to the completion of doctoral dissertations.
Norwegians led the way in training wartime weather officers
Authors: Levin Sheldon M.
Published: October 2006

The physics majors at The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) were fond of “Big Joe,” as he was called behind his back. There was an air of boyishness about him when playing in the annual faculty‐student softball game. Yet Dr. Joseph Kaplan (Figure 1) could be formal and imposing when discussing a thesis or a research project. He had been the popular chairman of the Physics Department since 1936, when he was 34. The pipe clenched between his teeth was ever present, even when he was sliding into third base.
Scientists question whether large meteorite hit Greenland
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Southern Greenland is especially remote and desolate during the winter months. Since mid‐December, more than 1 m of snow has fallen over the ice cap, and the sun lights up the sky for just five hours during the shortest days.

But some Danish scientists hope that somewhere near 61°25″N, 44°26″W, and not far from the tiny town of Qaqortoq, lie the remains of a large meteorite that lit up the early morning sky for a few very bright moments on December 9, before it disappeared and possibly impacted on the Earth at approximately 5:11 a.m. local time (8:11 UT). If the meteor disintegrated before reaching the Earth's surface, as most do, some scientists at least hope to find bits of extraterrestrial ash from which they might learn more about the origin and make‐up of the Solar System.
Outstanding student paper awards
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Space Physics and Aeronomy (SPA) Section presented six Outstanding Student Paper Awards at the AGU 1997 Spring Meeting in Baltimore last May.
Scientists keep watchful eye on Long Valley Caldera
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Even when Dave Hill's beeper does not sound in the middle of the night to feed him new alphanumeric data about earthquake magnitudes, quantities, and locations, the U.S. Geological Survey scientist often is roused from sleep just by the thought of the swarms of quakes rumbling in the Long Valley caldera in eastcentral California, 320 km east of his home near Menlo Park.

Hill, the agency's chief scientist monitoring volcano‐tectonic activity in the caldera, says most of the quakes are too slight to feel, even when you stand right above them. But he says the quakes and inflation of a resurgent dome within the caldera indicate magma is pushing to the surface.
Lunar craft looks for water; takes Shoemaker along
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

The Lunar Prospector, launched on January 6, could help answer long‐standing questions about the Moon's resources, evolution, and core, as it maps the Moon's surface and its gravitational and magnetic fields during a 1‐year polar orbiting mission, NASA says.

However, Prospector's neutron spectrometer, one of five instruments onboard the spacecraft, is receiving most of the attention. That device will scan for water ice in the deep craters of the Moon's south pole. Radar mapping instruments onboard the United States' 1994 military probe Clementine had suggested the possible presence of water on the Moon.
Auroral Workshop generates U.S.‐Finnish teamwork
Authors: Moldwin Mark
Published: October 2006

Forty scientists from the United States and Finland met last spring at a workshop to develop collaborative studies of magnetospheric‐ionospheric coupling and to synthesize multiple ground‐based and space‐based data sets.

The workshop also provided an opportunity to compare the output of new U.S. and Finnish Global Magnetohydrodynamic models with ground‐based and satellite observations. Some of the missions and facilities that are providing new data within the United States and Finland include the Global Geospace Science/national Solar‐Terrestrial Program Polar and Wind satellites, Interball, the Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, Ulysses, the Svalbard Radar, the new Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) station, digital all sky cameras, and the Magnetosphere Imager (MI) array in Finland. The workshop began with a discussion of dayside magnetospheric‐ionospheric coupling. Dayside ionospheric transient signatures were divided into three types: auroral forms and convection velocity spikes, magnetic and convection events, and twin convection vortices. The three classes differ in size, location, repetition rates, and Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) dependencies. Scientists are addressing whether the transient classes are related, what the transients' role is compared to that of permanent cusp features, and how transients affect mag‐netospheric energetics.
Interest in complexity in brittle and granular systems grows
Authors: Scholz Christopher H.
Published: October 2006

In recent years both physicists and geophysicists have become increasingly interested in macroscopic patterns and features that spontaneously form in space and time during the deformation of brittle and granular media. Such features include faults and shear bands in the shearing of brittle and ductile solids and in the deformation of granular media, spontaneous grain size segregation during flow, and a variety of other patterns formed during oscillatory motion. Often these features exhibit self‐similarity, and their populations have fractal‐size distributions.

These spontaneous formation—or self‐organizing—phenomena are hallmarks of what has become known as the physics of complexity. The study of complexity is in its exploratory phase, past its infancy, but nowhere near the point where a general understanding of these phenomena has been achieved. The youth of this topic makes it one of the hottest topics in both geophysics and condensed‐matter physics.
Aerosol sampling from ocean buoys shows promise
Authors: Sholkovitz E. , Allsup G. , Arthur R. , Hosom D.
Published: October 2006

Tests of a new sampler for collecting aerosols from ocean buoys are showing promising results. The idea of using buoys as platforms for more precise sampling of continental dust falling on the oceans sprang from seeing large quantities of reddish brown Saharan dust adhering to buoy‐mounted meteorological sensors in the ocean off northwest Africa. Deploying meteorological and physical oceanographic instruments from moored buoys is a well‐established and an important tool in studying marine meteorology, atmosphere‐ocean interactions, and upper ocean physics [Rudnick et al., 1997; Weller et al., 1990]. An emerging field of research in oceanography is centered on developing analytical instruments for the chemical, biological, and optical measurements of seawater under moored buoys [Dickey et al., 1997]. Research on aerosols, in particular, and atmospheric chemistry, in general, has not been previously attempted from buoys.
Recounting the History of the Albatross Award
Authors: Knauss John , Lill Gordon , Maxwell Arthur
Published: October 2006

The origin of the Albatross Award can be traced directly to a dinner party in early 1959 at the home of Gordon and Mildred Lill in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. Guests were Arthur Maxwell and his wife and John Knauss. Lill and Maxwell worked at the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Knauss was visiting from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in LaJolla, California. During the evening the subject of the lack of awards and prizes for oceanographers arose. The three decided that perhaps this was a situation that could be remedied by the American Miscellaneous Society (AMSOC).
Cosmic dust research sweeps forward
Authors: Mann Ingrid
Published: October 2006

Four and a half billion years ago, the collapse of a huge cloud of dust and gas caused the solar system to form. Dust particles in cosmic space act as seeds for chemical reactions on the particle surfaces and thus for the formation of complex molecules. These processes are, however, substantially different from those in terrestrial laboratories because of the characteristically long time they take, the lack of thermodynamical equilibrium due to the absence of atmospheres, and the presence of strong radiation fields and penetrating high‐energy particles. While some of the dust grains are produced in cool stars, other components are a product of the socalled hot chemistry of cosmic environmental conditions. Plasma and gas interactions, as well as the influence of radiation, play an important role in the physics of dust in space. One consequence is that the complete history of the evolution of cosmic dust is not yet well understood.
Now Voyager
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Deep in space, more than 20 years after its launch on September 5, 1977, and long after most people have forgotten about it, Voyager I will take over the mantle as the most distant human‐made object in the solar system on February 15, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Somewhere beyond 10 billion km from Earth, the spacecraft finally will outdistance Pioneer 10.

Voyager I, racing through the solar system at 17.4 km/s, is expected to reach another milestone in about the year 2003, when it passes through the “termination shock” on its way to the heliopause. That invisible boundary separates our solar system from interstellar space and marks the outermost edge of the Sun's magnetic field.
Advisor, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Bring a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering
Authors: Fiske Peter S.
Published: October 2006

Mentorship is one of the fundamental keys to growth and learning in any field, not just science. But our profession is unusual to the degree in which mentoring is used to guide and develop scientists, especially during the years of graduate school. While the Ph.D. advisor is rarely the sole mentor in a student's life, the success or failure of this relationship can literally make or break a young scientist. Most advisors I talk to believe they do an effective job of mentoring their students. Most students I talk to disagree.
New tool developed for visualizing and manipulating geophysical data
Authors: Zhou Shaohua
Published: October 2006

Free new software for geophysical data handling and visualization has been released. The software, called the extended Visu, is a public domain program for UNIX machines. It is designed for the visualization and interactive manipulation of two‐dimensional gridded scientific data. This software was developed on top of the previously released free software, Visu‐2.0, by Pierre‐Louis Bossart of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who wrote the original program that performs all the data formatting, color allocation, and display work. The current version of the extended Visu is a Tk extension of the scripting language Tcl/Tk, one of the most powerful software developing languages for writing graphical user interface (GUI) programs.
The Paradigm: Thomas Kuhn and the Trojan Horse
Authors: Advocate Dev L.
Published: October 2006

All scientists, social and otherwise, have heard of paradigms and Thomas Kuhn. No one, it seems, has read Kuhn's book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions but everyone has a sense of what a paradigm is. Kuhn's book is no help on this point, as dozens of authors at the “Philosophy of Science” symposia have pointed out. We need a metaphor to understand it.

Almost all commentators agree that Kuhn's use of the paradigm concept is extremely loose and variable. Some have claimed to find 23 different meanings of “paradigm” in Kuhn's book. In the second edition of Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he adds a 36‐page “postscript” in which he attempts to clarify his thoughts. Kuhn asserts that the scientific community engages in “normal” or “dogmatic” research for long periods between short bouts of “extraordinary” research. During the dogmatic stasis, there is consensus, and controversy ceases; the community concentrates on “puzzle‐solving” to force nature to fit the paradigm. Only during “extraordinary periods” do unsolved puzzles, anomalies, and paradoxes turn into arguments against the paradigm rather than against the data or the observer.
Integrated research program endorsed for prediction of atmospheric, hydrologic change
Authors: Shuttleworth W. James , Shukla J.
Published: October 2006

More than 60 oceanographic, atmospheric, and hydrologic scientists from academia and the government have endorsed the creation of an integrated U.S. research program forseasonal‐to‐interannual prediction over North America.

The endorsement came at a workshop whose primary focus was on modeling studies of mutual interest to the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Continental‐ Scale International Project (GCIP) and the Pan‐American Climate Study (PACS). However, workshop participants recognized that developing the ability to improve seasonal‐tointerannual predictions within the North American continent requires a coordinated U.S. research program. In such a program, PACS will focus primarily on improving the understanding of interactions between the atmosphere and oceans in the Pan‐American region, while GCIP will focus primarily on improving the understanding of interactions between the atmosphere and the land‐surface hydrologic system within North America.
State of the Union: AGU's evolving National Meetings
Authors: Solomon Sean C.
Published: October 2006

“Boston State‐House is the hub of the solar system.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1858 While the AGU Fall Meeting continues to grow, the Spring Meeting is undergoing several changes in venue, procedures, and focus.

The principal purpose of a scientific society is to foster the exchange of scientific information, and AGU's meetings program achieves that aim admirably. Through the two annual national meetings and an everchanging menu of topical Chapman Conferences, AGU members are afforded opportunities to present and hear late‐breaking research findings from every corner of the geophysical sciences. The national meetings, in particular, have become essential gatherings for the international Earth and space science community as well as for students presenting their first public papers.
Geoenvironment: An Introduction
Authors: Boadu Fred Kofi
Published: October 2006

Geoenvironment: An Introduction looks at the geoenvironment not only from an environmental point of view but also in relation to social and economic factors and the perspective of human life. It is very important that global environment issues be looked at from socioeconomic and to some extent political points of view.

The book is written in a way that nonhydrogeologists, nonenvironmental scientists and nonenvironmental engineers can understand the geoenvironment and its impact on human health and life. Theoretical concepts are kept to a minimum while the book conceptually links global contamination of the environment with human health. Based on his longtime experience with the United Nations on health issues, the author makes good efforts in treating the environment from the point of view of the individual's country. This is very desirable since different countries have different environmental policies and regulations as well as socioeconomic conditions. Rules and regulations in effect in developed countries may not be in effect in some third world nations.
Lunar Prospector searches for polar ice, a metallic core, gas release events, and the Moon's origin
Authors: Binder Alan B. , Feldman William C. , Hubbard G. Scott , Konopliv Alex S. , Lin Robert P. , Acuna Mario H. , Hood Lon L.
Published: October 2006

Lunar Prospector, the third mission in the “faster, better, cheaper” NASA Discovery Program, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on January 6, 1998 (see http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov). Lunar Prospector is now in lunar orbit and is the second Discovery spacecraft to visit a major planetary body in less than a year. Its scientific goals are to map the Moon's surface composition, with special emphasis on the search for polar ice deposits, and its magnetic and gravity fields and determination of the frequency and locations of gas release events. These data will provide a basis for better understanding the current state and resources of the Moon, as well as for further constraints on its origin and evolution.
Declassified satellite photos provide first views of Southern Transantarctic Mountains
Authors: Paulsen Timothy , Wilson Terry J.
Published: October 2006

Recent declassification of an extensive database of U.S. intelligence satellite photographs is providing the first detailed spaceborne views of the Antarctic interior, including much of the Transantarctic Mountains. The declassified intelligence satellite photographs (DISP) were collected by reconnaissance satellites. Data acquisition started in 1959, lasted for 12 years, and involved three programs code‐named Corona, Argon, and Lanyard, which differed in mission objectives and system characteristics, such as camera type and film “Wheelon, 1997]. Image collection concentrated on Eastern Europe and Asia, but substantial imagery was also collected from other parts of the Earth, including Antarctica.
Shift in U.S. science advisors
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

On February 13, just a few days after the Clinton Administration released the U.S. fiscal year 1999 budget, which includes substantial increases in funding for many science and environment accounts, the White House announced major personnel shifts for three top science advisors.

Jack Gibbons, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and assistant to the president for Science and Technology, has submitted his resignation effective on March 15. The president plans to nominate National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Neal Lane to these positions. He also intends to nominate Rita Colwell, president of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, to lead NSF.
Greenstone Belts
Authors: Abbott Dallas
Published: October 2006

This book contains the most exhaustive collection of articles on greenstone belts yet assembled and is a vital reference for anyone who is seriously interested in the geology of the early Earth.

The contributions focus on lithology, structure, geochronology, metamorphism, and chemistry of rocks within greenstone belts. Tectonic interpretations are included, but only after a thorough description of the geological relationships within the belt. The emphasis on describing both what is present and absent within individual greenstone belts makes the book a classic that will endure.
Teaching marine science to the next generation: Innovative programs for 6th”8th Graders gain momentum
Authors: Tebbens S. F. , Coble P. G. , Greely T.
Published: October 2006

Three educational outreach programs designed for middle school students (grades 6, 7, and 8) by faculty at the University of South Florida (USF) Department of Marine Science are turning kids onto science. The programs are bringing marine science research and its various technologies into the classroom, where students follow up with hands‐on activities. Project Oceanography (PO) is an interactive broadcast that exposes students to the concepts and tools of current marine science research. The Oceanography Camp for Girls (OCG) boosts girls' curiosity and interest in science and nature. And teachers become better equipped to present current marine science topics and technology to their students at the Teachers Oceanography Workshop (TOW). All of the programs created by USF are provided at no cost to students or their institutions.
Bipartisan bill to support Internet development
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

U.S. federal funding for developing the next generation of the Internet (NGI) would total $110 million for fiscal year 1999, the same amount the Clinton Administration has requested for its interagency Next Generation Internet initiative, under bipartisan legislation introduced in the House of Representatives on March 2.

The House bill calls for an additional $115 million for fiscal year 2000.
Solar‐Terrestrial Symposium examines coupling processes
Authors: Daglis Ioannis A. , Baker Daniel N. , Sarri Emmanuel T. , Wilken Berend
Published: October 2006

Exploration of the space environment has revealed a dynamic and complex system of interacting plasmas, magnetic fields, and electrical currents. Plasma physics determines the behavior of matter in space on spatial and temporal scales vastly different from those that can be duplicated in Earth‐based laboratories. The near‐Earth space environment has traditionally been studied as a system of independent component parts in the interplanetary region, the magnetosphere, the ionosphere, and the upper atmosphere. From such early explorations, it was known that “geospace” is a complex system composed of highly interactive parts. While previous programs advanced the understanding of these geospace components individually, an understanding of geospace as a whole required a planned program of simultaneous space and ground‐based observations and theoretical studies keyed to a global assessment of the production, transfer, storage, and dissipation of energy throughout the solar‐terrestrial system. Prior understanding of the various geospace components plus the availability of advanced instrumentation has allowed, for the first time, a comprehensive, quantitative study of the solar‐terrestrial energy chain to be planned: the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Program.
Perlman receives Sustained Achievement Award
Authors: Petit Charles , Perlman David
Published: October 2006

David Perlman was awarded the Sustained Achievement Award at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, which was held on December 10, 1997, in San Francisco, California. The award recognizes a journalist who has made significant, lasting, and consistent contributions to accurate reporting or writing on the geophysical sciences for the general public.
Varekamp and Strangeway begin terms as Eos editors
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

On January 1, Johan C. Varekamp and Bob Strangeway embarked on 3‐year terms as editors of Eos. Varekamp, new editor for volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology, is a professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. Strangeway, new editor for space physics and aeronomy, is a research geophysicist at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Below are a few remarks from each of the new editors.
Chesapeake Bay subsidence monitored as wetlands loss continues
Authors: Nerem R. S. , van Dam T. M. , Schenewerk M. S.
Published: October 2006

Fragile wetland ecosystems, which support an abundance of wildlife, are being lost around the Chesapeake Bay at an alarming rate due to an increase in sea level. For example, one third of the total area of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (Figure 1) (approximately 20 km2) was lost between 1938 and 1979 [Leatherman, 1992]. Approximately 4,100 km2 of the perimeter of the Chesapeake Bay are covered by wetlands of which 58% forested wetlands and 28% are salt marshes. It is likely that many factors are responsible for the wetlands loss, some that have global implications, and some that reflect local phenomena.

Understanding the mechanisms responsible for wetlands deterioration and loss, however, has been impeded by the lack of adequate data including quantitative monitoring of the types and distribution of flora, Tthe boundaries of specific habitat types, and data on the spatial variations in sea level and land subsidence. This article focuses on the latter problem, which is to determine the relative roles of sea level rise and land subsidence in the region. Over the past four years, a small network of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers have been installed near tide gauges in the Chesapeake Bay to help determine the cause of relative sea level rise in this region. These receivers are just beginning to yield results.
Proposed drilling program backed in China
Authors: Zhisheng An , Porter Stephen C. , Tungsheng Liu , Colman Steven M.
Published: October 2006

Chinese paleoenvironmental experts and their international colleagues enthusiastically supported a proposed East Asian Continental Drilling Program (EACDP) for environmental sciences at a recent gathering. The proposed program, discussed at the 77th Xiangshan Scientific Conference, originated in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is a national‐scale effort that addresses recent recommendations of international scientific organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Past global Changes project of the International Geosphere‐Biosphere Program, and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program. In scale and paleoenvironmental focus, the program would be unique, helping to resolve some basic evolutionary environmental questions and providing an example that might be emulated in other parts of the world.
Outstanding student paper awards
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Hydrology Section presented six outstanding student paper awards at the AGU 1997 Spring Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, on last May.
Legislation would establish commission to assess marine and coastal resources and develop national ocean policy
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

During 1998, internationally designated as the year of the ocean, perhaps more people are paying heed to the deep seas now than ever before.

Transfixed to the big screen by this year's movie blockbuster, they anticipate when the Titanic will scrape into the iceberg and break apart, shiver when household‐name heartthrobs Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet float on the freezing waters, and hum along to the theme sung by Celine Dion.
As the world turns
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

How about another daytime soap opera called “As the World Turns”?

U.S. Vice President Al Gore has taken a fair share of ribbing for his challenge issued on March 13 for NASA scientists and engineers to design, build, and operate a satellite that will make available a live image of Earth 24 hours a day on the Internet by the year 2000.
Brazil prepares for potential conflagrations in vast Amazon region during the coming dry season
Authors: showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

The rains finally came to Roraima State in Brazil's northern Amazon region in late March.

They have been dousing what could be the worst drought of the century in that region, as well as most of the fires that have burned at least 5%‐and possibly much more—of the 225,000 sq km state since last July. Attempts to determine a more exact fix on the amount of savanna, transition forest, and dense, humid tropical forest that have gone up in smoke becomes lost in the thicket, because up to half of the forest damaged by fire may be among the understory vegetation that aerial surveys do not see.
Laboratory Earth: The Planetary Gamble We Can't Afford to Lose
Authors: Dickinson Robert
Published: October 2006

Written for a popular audience, Laboratory Earth: The Planetary Gamble We Can't Afford to Lose gives an overview of the Earth system and its evolution over time. The book answers questions about climate change and climate modeling and assesses options for dealing with the potential effects of the ever‐increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases.

Author Stephen Schneider indicates that large concentrations of greenhouse gases made the early Earth much warmer than it is today, despite the fact that solar radiation was 25% weaker. He presents various ideas about biological and inorganic feedbacks that might have operated on geological times‐cales to bring carbon dioxide levels down to present levels.
Fundamentals of Geophysics
Authors: Frohlich Cliff
Published: October 2006

Choosing an intermediate‐level geophysics text is always problematic: What should we teach students after they have had introductory courses in geology, math, and physics, but little else? Fundamentals of Geophysics is aimed specifically at these intermediate‐level students, and the author's stated approach is to construct a text “using abundant diagrams, a simplified mathematical treatment, and equations in which the student can follow each derivation step‐by‐step.” Moreover, for Lowrie, the Earth is round, not flat—the “fundamentals of geophysics” here are the essential properties of our Earth the planet, rather than useful techniques for finding oil and minerals. Thus this book is comparable in both level and approach to C. M. R. Fowler's The Solid Earth (Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Reply to [“Comment on “Unknowns about climate variability render treaty targets premature’”]
Authors: Singer S. Fred
Published: October 2006

I welcome the substantive comments by Alley et al. They are well taken, but they miss my real point—as did the earlier comment by Dickinson “1997”. Briefly stated: Will a higher level of CO2—or more importantly, a warmer climate—produce a less stable climate or lead to the opposite result? As far as I can tell, this is very much an open question. Yet this crucial issue determines the goal of the Global Climate Treaty and its attempted implementation by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
Underwater film opens a window to life along the ocean ridges
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Robert Gagosian, director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, said that even undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau would be “absolutely stunned” to see a new film that includes pictures of life along the ocean ridges, more than 3 1/2 km beneath the waves.

During the world premiere of the 25‐minute film, “The Ribbon of Life: A New View of the World Encircling Mid‐Oceanic Ridge System,” last month in Washington, D.C., an audience that included U.S. State Department officials and a number of ambassadors from other countries heard Gagosian narrate the film that took them on a remarkable deep sea voyage.
As U.S. Ice Core Lab reaches capacity, scientists plan future storage efforts
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Joan Fitzpatrick, technical director of the U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL), says that most visitors to the curatorial research facility at the Denver Federal Center in Colorado first notice the temperature: −34 °C in the main storage area, and −24 °C in the lab. Afterwards, they may note that the approximately 5000 sq. m repository is packed full with cores, primarily from Antarctica and Greenland.

NICL, which is jointly operated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and jointly funded at $380,000 per year, currently holds about 15,838 m of ice cores in 14,069 canisters of aluminized cardboard. The facility, which houses cores collected through NSF's Office of Polar Programs and USGS' Geologic Division, probably is the most comprehensive collection of ice cores in the world, according to Fitzpatrick.
Ocean bowling
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Coach Scott Carpenter, a biology teacher at Lexington High School in Massachusetts, says that “some [students] want to show that they can win on a football field, and some want to show that they know science better than anyone else.”

His team of four sophomores and one senior proved their mettle when they won the 1998 National Ocean Science Bowl on April 27.
Anderson and Dziewonski to receive Royal Swedish Academy's Crafoord Prize
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has selected AGU Fellows Don L. Anderson and Adam M. Dziewonski to receive the 1998 Crafoord Prize in geosciences for their research into the composition and dynamics of the Earth.

Anderson, of the California Institute of Technology, served as AGU President from 1988 to 1990 and received the Bowie Medal, AGU's highest honor, in 1991. Dziewonski is Frank J. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, where he has been employed since 1972.
Satellite gravity: Insights into the Solid Earth and its fluid envelope
Authors: Dickey Jean O. , Bentley Charles R. , Bilham Roger , Carton James A. , Eanes Richard J. , Herring Thomas A. , Kaula William M. , Lagerloef Gary S. E. , Rojstaczer Stuart , Smith Walter H. F. , van den Dool Hugo M. , Wahr John M. , Zuber Maria T.
Published: October 2006

The Earth is a dynamic system. It has a fluid, mobile atmosphere and oceans; a continually changing distribution of ice, snow, and groundwater; a fluid core undergoing hydromagnetic motion; a mantle undergoing both thermal convection and rebound from glacial loading of the last ice age; and mobile tectonic plates. These processes affect the distribution of mass in the Earth and produce variations in the Earth's gravitational field (Figure 1) on a variety of spatial and temporal scales (Figure 2) . Highly accurate measurements of the Earth's gravity field made with appropriate spatial and temporal sampling can thus be used to better understand the processes that move mass within the Earth and above its surface.
Software available for analyzing GPS deformation
Authors: Crespi Mattia , Riguzzi Federica
Published: October 2006

A FORTRAN 77 software package that analyzes Global Positioning System (GPS) deformation control networks is available free of charge. This package is able to simulate and adjust GPS networks. It can also perform onedimensional, two dimensional, and three‐dimensional statistical analysis to study the significance of coordinate differences coming from two repeated surveys of the same network. In addition, the package computes displacement vectors with error and reliability ellipsoids, and it is suited for both engineering and geophysical applications. It has been used successfully in Italy to analyze small and large networks established for high precision engineering surveys and geodynamic deformation control [Acker et al., 1998; Anzidei et al., 1996].
Reply [to “Comment on ‘Crustal deformation measured in Southern California’”]
Authors: Shen Zheng‐kang , Jackson David D. , Sung Li‐yu
Published: October 2006

Rydelek and Sacks do not dispute the correctness of our method and results. Rather they question whether our result is a new discovery, and whether we have given enough review to the previous literature on the phenomena and modeling of post‐seismic viscoelastic relaxation.

We agree that others before us found evidence for non‐elastic deformation following earthquakes. We cited Thatcher [1983] as an example of such previous studies. Because Eos policy allows no more than 10 references per article, we never set out to do an extensive review on any subject our article covered, including post‐seismic deformation. Had we intended to write a review, there would have been many other relevant papers besides those mentioned by Rydelek and Sacks. Instead, we reported newly available data, remarkable because of their precision, consistency, and spatial resolution, and because the measurements span nearly the entire width of the plate boundary.
Structural Geology and Map Interpretation
Authors: Helper Mark A.
Published: October 2006

Geological maps lay flat the three‐dimensional architecture of a region's rock record. In doing so, they reveal and document geometrical relationships and geological histories that would otherwise be difficult, if not impossible, to visualize. They are a primary data source for a wide range of practical applications, from civil engineering, mining, and energy resource exploration to urban planning and geologic hazard mitigation, and are literally the “ground truth” for understanding environments and processes of the Earth's past. Their utility resides not only in a plan‐view portrayal of surface geology, but in the geometrical information they contain that allows projection of surface geology to the subsurface, or into regions where surface control is lacking. Understanding this predictive capacity and being able to read and truly appreciate a geological map's three‐dimensional character are among the most unique and important skills a geologist masters. These same skills are unfortunately among the most difficult for students to learn.
Precise measurements help gauge Pacific Northwest's Earthquake potential
Authors: Miller M. Meghan , Dragert Herb , Endo Elliot , Freymueller Jeffrey T. , Goldfinger Chris , Kelsey Harvey M. , Humphreys Eugene D. , Johnson Daniel J. , McCaffrey Robert , Oldow John S. , Qamar Anthony , Rubin Charles M.
Published: October 2006

Except for the recent rumblings of a few moderate earthquakes and the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's, all has been relatively quiet on the Pacific Northwestern front. The Cascades region in the Pacific Northwest, a sporadically active earthquake and volcanic zone, still has great seismic potential [Atwater, 1987], as comparisons with other subduction zones around the world have shown [Heaton and Kanamori, 1984]. Recent tsunami propagation models [Satake, 1996] and tree ring studies suggest that the last great Cascadia earthquake occurred in the winter of 1700 A.D. and had a magnitude of −8.9. The North Cascades or Wenatchee earthquake followed in 1872. With an estimated magnitude greater than 7, it was the largest earthquake in the written history of Washington and Oregon.
Environmental consequences of war
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

At the end of the Third Punic War in 146 B.C., Roman legions tore down the walls around Carthage, and salted the Carthaginian fields to make them infertile.

More recent examples of destruction to the environment during wartime include the U.S. military spraying Agent Orange and other chemicals over Vietnam in a massive campaign during the Vietnam War that defoliated much of that country. Also, during the Gulf War, Iraqi forces blackened the skies by detonating more than 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, and threatened drinking water supplies and marine life by dumping more than 6000 barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf.
Stable continental regions are more vulnerable to earthquakes than once thought
Authors: Gupta Harsh K. , Johnston Arch C.
Published: October 2006

Seismic events at shield areas throughout the world suggest that the stable continental regions (SCR) are much more vulnerable to earthquakes than was once thought. Earthquakes have struck SCRs at a number of locations, including the New Madrid Zone, United States; Tennant Creek, Australia; Ungava, Canada; and Kachchh, Koyna, Latur, and Jabalpur, India. In several developing countries, such as India, the problems caused by SCR earthquakes have become very serious because of high population density and the proliferation of structures not built to withstand earthquake damage.

A recent Chapman Conference on SCR earthquakes attracted 90 researchers from 12 countries. Eighty papers were presented. Globally, the stable continental region earthquakes account for about 0.5% of total seismic energy released. The largest SCR earthquakes occurred in the New Madrid zone from 1811 to 1812, when three earthquakes of Mw 7.8‐8.1 occurred within just 53 days.