bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
In Congress: Alliance for planet Earth
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Senator Barbara A. Mikulski of Baltimore, Md., is the new chairman of the Senate Sub‐committee on HUD‐Independent Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations. That sub‐committee oversees funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Administration.

Senator Mikulski has proposed an Alliance for Planet Earth for groups affected by the money her subcommittee budgets. She suggests that the groups work together to maximize their collective funding and urges individuals to write their Senators, particularly if those Senators are members of the Appropriations Committee, suggesting that they support both the science programs and the housing and urban programs that her subcommittee funds.
Seismogenesis in the eastern U.S.
Authors: Chen Wang‐Ping , Seeber Leonardo
Published: October 2006

A National Workshop on Seismogenesis in the Eastern U.S. was held April 12–13, 1988, at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign. The conference was organized by Wang‐Ping Chen of the University of Illinois and Leonardo Seeber of Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, N.Y.

Since plate tectonics does not provide a useful framework for studying deformation in plate interiors, intracratonic tectonism presents a major challenge to basic geoscience. The occurrence of large intracontinental earthquakes also poses complex problems for applied sciences in determining seismic risk and mitigating earthquake hazard. The main purpose of the workshop was to assess critically our current knowledge on intracontinental seismogenesis by comparing results and ideas from diverse disciplines related to this field of renewed interest in geoscience. The conference was also intended as a forum to make available the latest results and issues arising in this rapidly evolving research area to groups that interact within the field, such as earthquake engineers, policymakers, and funding agencies.
Groundwater issues in the Potomac River Basin
Authors: Lehr Jay
Published: October 2006

Great strides have been made by the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania, along with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia, in protecting water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Since these entities joined forces in a renewed effort to protect water quality in the Chesapeake Bay area, a number of useful programs have been established and public awareness has been raised.

The Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers and several regional co‐sponsors presented Ground Water Issues and Solutions in the Potomac River Basin/Chesapeake Bay Region Conference March 14 at George Washington University, Washington, D.C., to provide insight into groundwater‐related issues. Attendance at the conference included 150 groundwater professionals from state, county and private agencies, along with a significant number of students from area universities. More than 30 papers were presented dealing with research projects and field studies. Topics included geohydrologic relationships, groundwater quality impacts, impact of industrial processes on groundwater quality, saltwater intrusion, groundwater protection in the Chesapeake Bay area, land‐use impacts on groundwater quality, groundwater modeling, groundwater withdrawals, and policy issues. In addition to the technical sessions, a debate of “How clean is clean?” was held.
Frost in geotechnical engineering
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The International Symposium on Frost in Geotechnical Engineering was held in Saariselkä, located 250 km north of the Arctic Circle, Finland, on March 13–15, 1989, with an excursion to the northernmost parts of Finland and Norway on March 16–18. The symposium was organized under the auspices of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (ISSMFE) and in cooperation with ISSFME Technical Committee TC‐8: Frost, Finnish Geotechnical Society and Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Earlier, the frost action on soil had been treated in connection with permafrost engineering in five international conferences since 1963 and in connection with artificial ground freezing in five international symposia since 1978. At this symposium the frost action was treated mainly as a problem related to the natural seasonal frost.
Nominations for AGU officers 1990–1992
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The nominees listed below are those of the Union and section nominating committees and have been approved by the AGU Council.

Nominations may also be made by petition. There are no age, nationality, residence or other analogous restrictions on who may serve. As prescribed in the bylaws, each petition must be signed by at least 1% of the members of the Union or Section, as the case may be. Petitions should be sent to the General Secretary, AGU, 2000 Florida Avenue N.W., Washington, DC 20009. They must be received no later than July 7, 1989.
1988 Fall Meeting AGU Fall Meeting and ASLO Winter Meeting
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The 1988 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, with collaboration from the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, was the largest AGU meeting ever, with 3,857 abstracts and 5,247 attendees. The facilities at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium, Brooks Hall, Cathedral Hill Hotel, and Holiday Inn Golden Gateway Hotel were not quite stretched to their capacity, but it appears unlikely that substantial meeting growth can take place without going to even larger percentages of poster papers, which for 1988 made up 24% of the presentations.

Meeting statistics:

Total sessions, 339; oral sessions, 282; poster sessions, 57

Total presentations, 3857; oral presentations, 2933; poster presentations, 924

Total meeting registrants, 5247

Total media registrants, 65

Total exhibits, 101
Exploring the deep continental crust by drilling
Authors: Elders Wilfred A.
Published: October 2006

Although geology transcends national boundaries, geologists are not free of national influences. To the question “Is continental scientific drilling an idea whose time has come?,” answers might range from an enthusiastic “yes” in the Soviet Union and the Federal Republic of Germany, and a qualified “yes” in Sweden, to “We hope so” in Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, but most likely “We don't know” in the United States.

In August 1988 at Jaroslavl in the U.S.S.R., Y. A. Kozlovsky, Minister of Geology, challenged participants in the international seminar Superdeep Continental Drilling and Deep Geophysical Research with his proposal for Project GLOBUS, a very‐large‐scale collaborative study of Earth's crust [Kozlovsky, 1988; Sass and Barber, 1989]. GLOBUS would investigate the crust of all of the world's continents and oceans by a network of geophysical transects, supported by up to 50 deep (5–10 km), to superdeep (>10 km), research boreholes, situated at the nodal points of the net to calibrate the geophysical interpretations and serve as permanent crustal observatories (Figure 1).
Magellan and beyond
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

As Magellan leaves Earth behind on its 15‐month journey to Venus, scientists and NASA officials are beginning to draw up plans for exploration of the Solar System into the next century that will probably not include a return mission to the planet most like Earth. NASA's first planetary mission in 11 years will allow a breathtaking look at Venus. But because no detailed understanding of the planet's interior or atmosphere will be gained, major questions may remain unanswered for many years.

A long‐term agenda to supplement the NASA Office of Space Science and Applications' strategic plan is described by one planetary scientist as a balance between the spirit of discovery and the need to pursue a basic science program. What really drives the debate, however, is money and politics; budget crunches have shaped Magellan and other missions, and a short supply of space policy may make future strategies vulnerable to sudden initiatives from the administration.
TV special on natural disasters
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Nature's destructive forces are brought into view in “Living with Disaster,” the next special of the television series The Infinite Voyage, airing June 7 at 8 p.m. on PBS and the week of June 11 on select commercial stations and nationally on cable.

Several AGU members including former AGU president Charles Drake (Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.) served on the National Academy of Sciences advisory panel for the film. Drake is also on the NAS Film Committee that oversees the entire Infinite Voyage series. The Infinite Voyage is produced by WQED in Pittsburgh, Penna., in association with the National Academy of Sciences and is underwritten on PBS and sponsored on commercial television by Digital Equipment Corporation.
Reconnection in space plasma: An international workshop
Authors: Büchner J.
Published: October 2006

Reconnection is a process in plasma physics whereby released magnetic energy heats plasma and accelerates particles. The process is an important one in solar, solar‐terrestrial and magnetospheric physics. The concept of reconnection was originally introduced in 1946 by Giovanelli [Nature, 158, 81[ when he wrote, “During the growth of a sunspot there must be electric fields induced …” and “there will be places where actual neutral points exist …”

Since that time our idea of reconnection has been refined and amplified. Today we no longer question that the process exists: there is little doubt that it plays a significant role in astrophysical and solar‐planetary plasma dynamics. During the past four decades theory, experiments and observations have made a great deal of progress in gaining an understanding of reconnection but have also posed a number of questions about the process.
Profiles of the hydrologic community
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The National Research Council's Water Science and Technology Board has a Committee on Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences chaired by AGU Past President Peter S. Eagleson (see “Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences,” by Eagleson, Eos, 69, 817). This committee recently conducted a survey of members of the AGU Hydrology Section. The results promised at the time of the survey are in the table below.

A very impressive, almost incredible aspect of this survey is that nearly 75% of those surveyed actually responded. At first glance, the change in the hydrologic community has been spectacular. For example, note the percentage of respondents with doctoral degrees compared to that in 1960. The committee is trying to understand how much of the apparent change shown by this survey might be attributed to a change in the type of database and how much is real. Before the committee's NRC report is completed, there will be further analysis of the data and an interpretation. At this time, these data are drawn only from the working papers of the Committee on Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences. Appreciation is expressed to many members of the AGU Hydrology Section for their cooperation and assistance in responding to the survey. This informaton was provided by Stephen D. Barker, Director of the Water Science and Technology Board, NRC.
Geomagnetics R&D: The future of geomagnetics research and development in the military and civilian sectors: Impact of New Technologies
Authors: Hermance John F.
Published: October 2006

Geomagnetics research and development in both the military and civilian sectors could benefit substantially from recent developments in technology. Among these might be included the use of satellites for navigation, communications, and magnetic field monitoring; the application of supercomputers to geophysical modeling; and the implementation of low‐noise, high‐resolution instrumentation.

A small number of scientists had occasion to discuss these developments during July 1987, on the eve of the retirement of Robert H. Higgs as director of the Geophysics Department of the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Bob is widely recognized among the scientific community as a luminary in what has been one of the most vigorous geomagnetics programs in the country, and the attendees met to pay tribute to his dedicated leadership and service to the science during his more than 31 years in NAVOCEANO. We met to exchange views and, in particular, to glean some insight from Bob on a number of issues facing the Navy and other agencies.
Australian Conference
Authors: Schmidt Phil
Published: October 2006

The one‐day seminar Rockmagnetism, Palaeomagnetism and Geomagnetism: Current Paradigms and Problems was held November 24, 1988, in Sydney, Australia, at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Laboratories, North Ryde. It was convened jointly by the CSIRO and the Solid Earth Geophysics Specialist Group of the Geological Society of Australia and is expected to become a regular event.

Contributions included Geomagnetic changes 1000–1500 A.D. from Thailand (and other parts of the world), from Mike Barbetti of Sydney University; Preliminary paleomagnetic results from Late Devonian redbeds from the south NSW coast, Gordon Thrupp of Macquarie University; Domain structure of PSD and MD grains and its temperature rearrangement‐I, Valera Shcherbakov, Academy of Science, U.S.S.R.; Domain structure of PSD and MD grains and its temperature rearrangement‐II, from Dave Clark of CSIRO; The Tertiary APWP of Australia, from Bob Musgrave of Australian National University (ANU) and NFA.
Deep seismic reflection profiling and continental evolution
Authors: Wright C. , Korsch R. J. , Finlayson D. M. , Goleby B. R.
Published: October 2006

The International Symposium and Workshop, Seismic Probing of the Continents and Their Margins, was held in Canberra, Australia, July 1–8, 1988. It was the third in a series of biennial international meetings concerned with deep seismic reflection profiling of the continental crust. In the 2 years since the last conference in Cambridge [Barton, 1986; Peddy and Keen, 1987], many new deep seismic reflection profiles have been recorded, especially in western Europe and North America.

The use of deep seismic reflection profiling to explore the deep basement of the continental crust was well established by 1984, when the first conference was held at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. By 1986, the deep seismic reflection method had become established as a means of testing models of the rifting or collision of continents, the evolution of mountain belts, and the development of sedimentary basins. Since 1986, new results have emerged for continental crust ranging in age from the Archean and Proterozoic terranes of North America, Scandinavia, and Australia, to the tectonically active regions of the European Alps and California. In some cases, geoscientists can now examine the structure of the continents in three dimensions to depths greater than 50 km in order to improve our understanding of continental tectonic processes.
Gulf Stream dynamic topography measured from space
Authors: Kilgus Charles C. , Hopkins Johns
Published: October 2006

On March 9, 1989, the Navy‐sponsored GEOSAT radar altimeter satellite completed 50 cycles over its 17‐day exact repeat ground track. Results obtained from analyzing the mission data set were presented at the Eleventh GEOSAT Users Meeting held March 23 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Publication of the results is planned for a special 1989 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, which will focus on GEOSAT.

Development of a synthetic geoid processing technique that allows the total dynamic topography of the Gulf Stream front and eddy system to be measured was reported by scientists from the Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity (NORDA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Harvard University and APL. The “synthetic geoid” is realized by subtracting the climatology of the surface topography along a ground track (the mean circulation topography) from the mean of the altimeter data along the track. The technique dramatically increases the scientific value of radar altimeter data by removing the distortion and signal reduction caused by subtracting a mean sea surface that includes the mean circulation.
Macquarie earthquake of May 23, 1989
Authors: Romanowicz Barbara , Ekstrom Goran
Published: October 2006

We read with great interest the news report in Eos (June 16, 1989) on the very large Macquarie earthquake of May 23, 1989, which left U.S. scientists divided as to whether this earthquake was of strike slip or thrust type or a mixture of both.

Indeed, we think we have the solution to this dilemma, since thanks to teletransmitted data from 11 Geoscope stations recording both very long‐period and broad band data, we were able to obtain a reliable preliminary mechanism less than 48 hours after this earthquake occurred. Figure 1 shows this mechanism, which is a practically pure right‐lateral strike slip, consistent with the general trend in the Macquarie ridge area as indicated from the CMT catalog for the past 10 years [Dziewonski et al., 1989], and in particular, very similar to the mechanisms of the two largest events which occurred in this area in this time period (May 25, 1981 and July 7, 1982). By moment tensor inversion of very long‐period Rayleigh waves, we obtained a moment of 2.2×1028 dyne‐cm and a centroid time of 28 s, which yields a rating for this earthquake as “average‐to‐fast” with respect to the moment/duration relation. So far, we haven't found any conclusive evidence for strong horizontal directivity, while it seems that the rupture may have extended down to (or up from) at least 40 km. These features of the solution offer a good explanation as to why no tsunami was observed for this earthquake. The confidence in our “very‐long period” solution comes from its very good compatibility with broad band data from the three teletransmitted Geoscope stations that lie within the epicentral distance range 30°− 90° from the epicenter of the Macquarie event, both in terms of mechanism as well as source duration. For shallow earthquakes the earthquake depth and the vertical dip‐slip components of faulting are poorly constrained by the very‐long period data. The addition of only a few broad band seismograms in the analysis can remove this uncertainty. Figure 2 shows two examples of fits for SH waves obtained in a combined analysis of long‐period surface waves and broad band body waves [Ekstrom, 1989]. The teleseismic SH arrival at Papeete had an amplitude of 0.9 mm. The Macquarie region lies so far south in the southern hemisphere that very few records from existing broad band digital stations appropriate for mantle P and S wave analysis will ever be available. For Geoscope (which presently counts 20 operational broad band digital stations), besides PPT (Tahiti), KIP (Hawaii) and RER (Reunion Island), which were teletransmitted (CAN, Australia,is too close), we still expect data in this distance range from stations NOU (New Caledonia), DRV (Dumont d'Urville), PAF (Kerguelen) and CRZF (Crozet Island), the last three of which will take several months to arrive because they will travel part of the way by ship. Table 1 lists the coordinates and position with respect to the epicenter of the 11 stations whose data were teletransmitted.
Design of water quality information systems
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

AGU cooperated with sponsors Colorado State University, Fort Collins, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in presenting the International Symposium on the Design of Water Quality Information Systems, June 7–9, 1989, in Fort Collins. There were 44 papers presented to the 125 symposium participants (see photo).

In the keynote address, Marshall Moss (AGU General Secretary and U.S. Geological Survey, Tucson, Ariz.) described the evolution of water quality monitoring in an “information” age. He noted that if we are to bring what we have traditionally called “water quality monitoring” into the information age, we must couple decision technology with information technology at the system design stage. Representatives of national and local government and industry described how they are attempting to couple their water quality decisions with their “information” system.
Soviet submersibles visit U.S. for IGC
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

The flagship of the Soviet oceanographic fleet docked near Washington, D.C., July 6 carrying two cargos, a boatload of Soviet scientists and two of five deep‐diving submersibles in the world.

The submersibles have just completed missions that took them into a 5‐km‐deep trough in the Atlantic Ocean northwest of Portugal with U.S. and Canadian scientists June 21–22 and to the ocean bottom off Norway to survey damage to a Soviet navy nuclear submarine that burned and sank there earlier this year. The Soviet marine geologists are in Washington for the quadrennial meeting of the International Geological Congress, which runs through July 19.
Acid rain underground
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The human sources of acid rain and its toll on forests and surface water are plain to see, but the chemical reactions that lead to acidification of soil, lakes, and streams go on out of sight, underground . Some geologists now say that without an understanding of this critical link between the causes and effects of acid rain, it will be impossible to know how to clean up the problem.
Meeting Bromley
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

Congress and the public got their first look at White House science advisor D. Allan Bromley last week. The nuclear physicist from Yale University generally pleased his questioners with polite, cautious statements about science policy and the priorities of the Bush administration.

The scrutiny came July 21 at Bromley's confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee. Bromley is Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and also head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; the latter appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.
House cuts NASA, NSF budgets
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The House passed its version of the Fiscal Year 1990 spending bill July 20, voting less money than requested for NASA, NSF, and other independent agencies. An appropriation of $1.6 billion was approved for the space station despite an effort to cut funding for the project on the House floor.

With a voice vote the House approved a Veterans Affairs‐Housing and Urban Development‐ Independent Agencies subcommittee (VAHUDIA) package totaling $65.1 billion, nearly $2.5 billion more than requested in President Bush's budget. NSF received $1.99 billion in the bill, $150 million less than requested, and NASA $12.26 billion, more than a billion less than the President asked for. The Department of Housing and Urban Development ($2.23 billion more than requested) and the Department of Veteran's Affairs ($908 million more than requested) were the big winners in the bill.
Global paleopoles
Authors: Van der Voo Rob , McElhinny Michael W.
Published: October 2006

In July 1987, Phil McFadden of th e Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources wrote to Rob Van der Voo at the University of Michigan and to several other paleomagnetists in the U.S. suggesting that the time had come for construction of a paleomagnetic data base. He added that Mike McElhinny was thinking of retiring from BMR and might be interested in the project. He thought funding for the project could perhaps be sought from organizations such as the National Science Foundation. To make a long story short we are now, nearly two years later, well on the way with at least one large component of this suggestion: a global paleomagnetic pole data base being constructed by Mike McElhinny for thr entire world.
FROGS Report Friends of Granite Summer 1989
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 (6028B, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235) concerning your own research, conferences, and ideas for stimulating commentaries.
Global water cycle past, present and future
Authors: Barron Eric J.
Published: October 2006

The hydrologic cycle presents one of the critical challenges in understanding the Earth. Water has a central role in a large number of Earth processes. Water is a limiting ingredient in life. The phases of water have a substantial impact on the radiation budget. Water plays a major role in energy transfer, and the hydrologic cycle governs salinity and vertical mixing rates in the ocean circulation.
Jellyfish Lake, Palau
Authors: Burnett William C. , Landing William M. , Lyons W. Berry , Orem William
Published: October 2006

Elemental cycling in suboxic to anoxic marine environments has received considerable attention in the past few years. The recent expeditions of the RIV Knorr to the Black Sea, for example, illustrate the interest in deciphering the geochemical processes active in such environments “Murray, 1988”.

This interest has been stimulated by the recognition that the type of elemental cycling that occurs in restrictive basins such as the Black Sea also occurs in many other environments. Examples include hydrothermal systems, estuarine and marine sediments, and other water columns with restrictive circulation. In addition, evidence that widespread anoxia has occurred in oceans of the geologic past “Fischer and Arthur, 1977; Jenkyns, 1980” requires us to obtain a better understanding of geochemical processes under such conditions. We report here on preliminary geochemical measurements made in a stratified marine lake—an unusual, yet useful environment as an analog of an anoxic ocean.
Polar Anglo‐American Conjugate Experiment
Authors: Baker K. B. , Greenwald R. A. , Ruohoniemi J. M. , Dudeney J. R. , Pinnock M. , Mattin N. , Leonard J. M.
Published: October 2006

Study of the near‐Earth plasma environment and its interactions with the solar wind has reached a stage where major progress will come only from taking a global view of the interactions and coupling between different regions of the magnetosphere and ionosphere. An important aspect o f this global approach is coordinated investigation of ionospheric processes in both polar regions.

The coupling between the two polar regions is determined in large part by Earth's magnetic field. Processes that occur at opposite ends of field lines are called conjugate. (Roederer [1969] has given a more complete definition and classification of conjugacy.)
Geomagnetic paleointensity
Authors: Kono Masaru
Published: October 2006

Paleointensity is the variations in magnitude of the geomagnetic field in the near and remote past. Similar to paleodirectional studies, paleointensity research depends on the ability of a rock to preserve for a geologically long time the information related to the ambient magnetic field existing at the time the rock was formed.

Paleointensity determination is difficult because a quantitative relation should exist between the field strength and the remanent magnetization acquired in it. In contrast, for ordinary paleomagnetic studies seeking the direction of the paleofield, only a qualitative relation that the remanence direction is parallel to the magnetic field is required.
Ozone's Effects on UV documented
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

For the first time, scientists have recorded increases in ultraviolet irradiance through the Antarctic ozone hole. The measurements confirm the predicted effects of severe stratospheric ozone depletion on Earth.

During last year's austral spring, when ozone declined about 15% over Antarctica, mid‐October ultraviolet (UV) levels were as high as those of summer two months later. Because ozone levels during the period of most severe depletion in 1988 were still twice those of 1987, when nearly half the ozone over some areas was destroyed, even greater UV levels than measured last year may occur in Antarctica this coming austral spring, when the ozone layer is expected by some atmospheric scientists to thin as much as in 1987.
Science writing prize to Littmann
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The 1989 American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award in Physics and Astronomy has been given to Mark Littmann for his book, Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System, published by John Wiley & Sons. The prize is awarded annually for exceptional writing about physics and astronomy.

Littmann, president of Starmaster Corporation, an educational publications company, has also written the booklet Reference Guide for the Solar System Wall Chart and coauthored Comet Halley: Once in a Lifetime. In addition, he has written, produced, and directed several planetarium theater programs. Littmann currently is a visiting astronomy professor at Loyola College, Baltimore, Md.
Peck continues as USGS director
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

President Bush has announced that Dallas Lynn Peck will continue as director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Peck has held this position since 1981.

A Fellow of AGU and past president of AGU's Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section, Peck has also served as chairman for the Committee on Earth Sciences since 1987 and was cohost and head of the U.S. Delegation to the 28th International Geological Congress, held in Washington, D.C., in July. Honors include the Presidential Meritorious Executive Award, 1980, and the Alumni Distinguished Service Award, California Institute of Technology, 1985.
Ionospheric data bases
Authors: Bilitza Dieter
Published: October 2006

A guidebook to The Worldwide Ionsopheric Data Base published in NSSDC/WDC‐A‐R&S's report series (No. 89‐03). The document surveys and describes the different information sources about the ionosphere in nearly 100 pages, including ground‐based, satellite, and rocket data, empirical and theoretical models, journals, books, and prediction services. It explains how and where the data, software codes and information materials can be obtained. The book is intended for the novice or expert who needs to find data and information about the ionospheric plasma. It pulls together all the strings leading to the worldwide ionospheric data banks. Data holdings explained in this document include the satellite data base of NSSDC/WDC‐A‐R&S, the ionosonde data base of NGDC/WDC‐A‐STP (Boulder) and the other WDCs, the NCAR incoherent scatter data base and many more.
Greenland Deep Ice Core begun
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

The first season of a multiyear project to drill more than 10,000 feet through the thickest part of the Greenland ice cap has begun to yield the information needed to trace 200,000 years of climatic history by decades or even years.

The high‐resolution climate record geophysicists hope to construct from dust and gases contained in the ice would allow them to gauge the response of Earth to short‐term natural perturbations they think are comparable to the recent buildup of greenhouse gases.
Modeling surface water
Authors: Kavvas M. L.
Published: October 2006

The IAHS symposium New Directions in Surface Water Modeling was held May 15–17, sponsored by the International Commission on Surface Water. The nine symposium sessions were on rainfall fields, physics‐based hydrological models, floods, rainfall‐runoff models, droughts, geographic information systems (GIS), decision‐support systems, and expert systems. There were 38 oral and 11 poster papers from 24 countries.

Using GIS as a tool in hydrology has great potential for improving the spatial description and modeling of basin geomorphology and hydrological parameters. Radar‐ and satellite‐ based studies of rainfall fields show significant advances in the estimation and shortterm prediction of rainfall in time and space.
New observatory for Caltech
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The L. K. Whittier Foundation of Pasadena, Calif., has given the California Institute of Technology $980,000 to build a seismological observatory, to be designed and run by Caltech's Seismological Laboratory.

The Whittier Advanced Geophysical Observatory will consist of three broad‐band, highdynamic‐range, digital seismometers that will be placed to form a triangle extending from near Santa Barbara to central California to near the Mexican border. Exact locations will be determined later.
Potomac Geophysical Society
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Potomac Geophysical Society, an affiliate of AGU, will hold its first meeting of the 1989–1990 season September 21. Wilson Shaffer, who heads the Marine Techniques Branch of the National Weather Service's Techniques Development Laboratory, will describe SLOSH, NOAA's hurricane storm surge model. Future programs include crustal reflection studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in October, Chernobyl radiation effects in November, space as a research platform in December, and the Neptune flyby in January.

Officers for 1989–1990 are Gerald Barton, president; Karl Veith, first vice president; Indra N. Gupta and David Zinzer, second vice presidents; John Coyne, secretary; and David Zinzer, treasurer.
Women in ocean sciences: A status report
Authors: Gross M. Grant
Published: October 2006

Science has long been dominated by men, but women are now entering the sciences [Widnall, 1988[, including ocean sciences, in large numbers. Indeed, women constitute 64% of the entering work force [Task Force, 1988]—white women 42%, nonwhite women 13%, and immigrant women 9%. Thus, meeting oceanography's human resource needs requires that it attract and retain women.

This paper addresses the question, How are we doing? I hope also to stimulate discussion on these issues, leading to identification of activites appropriate for research‐funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, to undertake.
100th anniversary of stream gaging
Authors: Bush Susan M.
Published: October 2006

The first U.S. Geological Survey stream‐gaging station was set up on the Rio Grande at Embudo, N. Mex., in 1889. The site was chosen for its easy accessibility by railroad, a necessity for bringing in scientific and camp equipment, and because funds appropriated by Congress for the Irrigation Survey were to be used only west of the 100th meridian.

Chief hydrologist of the USGS, Philip Cohen, spoke September 20 at the Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., commemorating the 100th anniversary of the station.
Dinosaurs victims of cyanide poisoning?
Authors: Chubb Talbot A.
Published: October 2006

The Eos article, Comets and Life (March 28, 1989), reports on the work of Paul Thomas, Christophere Chyba, Carl Sagan and Leigh Brookshaw on cometary impact production of cyanides and other organics that may have been precursors of life. The article was based on material presented at the 20th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference [Thomas et al, 1989].

As pointed out in the article, comets may contain 20% organic matter in the form of a complex interbonded mass. This kerogen‐like material contains CN bonds as well as CC and CO bonds. Evidence for cyanide protection from light‐element “CHON” solids was observed in the recent Halley's comet encounter in the form of CN plumes [Eberhardt et al., 1986; Schlosser et al., 1986]. An additional, and possibly more important source of cyanide, is HCN, which was observed [Schloerb et al., 1986] to be emitted from Halley's comet as part of the normal neutral gas emission with an abundance equal to 10−3 that of H2O. H2O is the dominant volatile species in comets and appears to constitute 80% or more of the total molecular release [Mendis, 1986].
U.S. WOCE program ready to begin
Authors: Mayes Dave
Published: October 2006

After six years of planning and preparation, U.S. ocean scientists are poised to begin putting instruments into the water for the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), the 40‐nation study of the global ocean that gets underway in 1990.

The world ocean has a profound influence on long‐term climate changes, but relatively little is known about the general circulation of the ocean, how it varies, and why. The goal of WOCE is to describe and understand the ocean circulation and its relationship to climate change over periods of decades and longer.
U.S. JGOFS research
Authors: Livingston Hugh D.
Published: October 2006

The U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (U.S. JGOFS) is moving toward a fully operational phase in the early 1990s and has recommended 1990 research priorities. U.S. JGOFS is a program within the Global Geosciences Initiative of the National Science Foundation and is the U.S. component of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), a standing committee of the Scientific Committee for Ocean Research (SCOR), and a core project of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program.

The broad objective of U.S. JGOFS, to improve our understanding of the processes controlling the cycling of carbon and related biogenic elements in the oceans, has been articulated in detail in a series of reports. These reports are the product of several years of intense planning and are available through the U.S. JGOFS Planning and Coordination Office, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543; tel. 508‐548‐1400, ext. 2834.
High‐risk science
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Proposals for low‐budget, urgent and exciting scientific research will receive special attention from the National Science Foundation in a program intended to provide quick money for small‐scale, groundbreaking projects.

NSF is particularly interested in work on untested ideas or in emerging areas, new approaches to “old” topics, work that crosses NSF program boundaries or that is urgent or likely to catalyze rapid and innovative advances. Scientists who have not had previous support from NSF are encouraged to apply.
Submarine volcano
Authors: McCreery C. , Oliveria F. , Walker D. , Hamada N.
Published: October 2006

An episode of submarine volcanic activity in the northern Mariana Islands, in the northwest Pacific Ocean, has been recorded by the Wake Island hydrophone array. F. Oliveira, C. McCreery and D. Walker of the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics in Honolulu collected the data (see figure) while they were installing upgraded recording equipment for the array.

Intense activity began about 02 hours on September 21 UT and ended abruptly about 23 hours that day. During that time several hundred distinct events were observed. Continuous noise levels in the SOFAR channel were at least 20 dB above normal ambient noise levels at frequencies from 5 to 30 Hz. The location of the activity was about 21.9°N, 145.9°E. N. Hamada reported that it was recorded by ocean bottom seismometers of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) sited off the east coast of Japan. The Polynesian Seismic Network also recorded the episode.
Igneous outbursts and mass extinctions
Authors: White Robert S.
Published: October 2006

Were dinosaurs and their friends done in by external causes, such as cometary impacts or by internal causes, such as massive volcanism? The popular imagination has been caught by the cometary impact hypothesis, perhaps partly because of the vicarious sense of danger it provides for all of us on planet Earth.

One of the major differences between impact and volcanism scenarios in their simplest forms is in the duration of the events. Impacts, by their very nature are instantaneous, even on everyday time scales. By contrast, the volcanism in large igneous provinces such as flood basalts has often been thought to last for tens of millions of years. Recent work using 40Ar‐39Ar dating and paleomagnetic reversals, most notably on the Deccan [Courtillot and Cisowski, 1987; Duncan and Pyle, 1988; Courtillot et al., 1988], indicates that the great majority of the flood basalts in any particular province may be extruded very rapidly, within as little as 0.5–2 m.y. (Table 1). Detailed paleontological studies suggest that a gradual or a step‐wise extinction model lasting of the order of tens of thousands to 1 m.y. or more may describe the disappearance of species better than a single extinction event [Perch‐ Nielsen et al., 1982; Alvarez, 1986; Hut et al., 1987; Hallam, 1987; Keller, 1988; Sepkoski, 1989], although it is worth cautioning that sampling problems may make an abrupt extinction appear like a step‐wise change. With modification of the impact hypothesis to allow for multiple impacts over a period of up to a few million years, both impacts and volcanism provide viable mechanisms for explaining extinctions from the point of view of duration. It is worth commenting, however, that although there were rapid changes in the rate of species turnover throughout geologic time, with particularly marked and widespread extinctions near the Cretaceous‐Tertiary boundary, the reality of periodically repeated mass extinctions is, to say the least, not yet established [Hoffman, 1989].
Budgets approved, but cuts loom
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

Conferees from the House and Senate have finished work on Fiscal Year (FY) 1990 appropriations for NSF and NASA by giving the agencies most of what they wanted, for now.

The conference report on Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies, passed in late October by both bodies, calls for a 10% increase for NSF and a 7.5% rise in NASA's budget. However, unless the Bush administration and Congress reach agreement on a new deficit‐reduction plan, 5.3% mandatory cuts to each line item in all agency budgets will wipe out some of the gains.
Along the Waterfront
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Presented at the 1989 National Convention of the Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers (NWWA), held October 31 in Houston, Tex.:

Leonard F. Konikow, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va., received the Science Award for his major contributions in the area o f solute‐transport modeling.
Barbara: J. Frank: AGU Congressional Science Fellow
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Barbara J . Frank, AGU's 1989–1990 Congressional Science Fellow, has just begun her year's term on Capitol Hill. She recently completed the month‐long orientation period offered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which administers the Fellows program in which AGU participates.

Frank has elected to work for the Subcommittee on International Scientific Cooperation of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The subcommittee oversees international aspects of technology transfer, scientific and technological competitiveness, information and communication policy, agricultural research policy, and intellectual property rights, as well as resolutions of joint cooperation with other national parliamentary committees on science and technology, and international trade policy and its effects on science and technology and on research and development.
Soviet test yields
Authors: Vergino Eileen S.
Published: October 2006

Soviet seismologists have published descriptions of 96 nuclear explosions conducted from 1961 through 1972 at the Semipalatinsk test site, in Kazakhstan, central Asia [Bocharov et al., 1989]. With the exception of releasing news about some of their peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs) the Soviets have never before published such a body of information.

To estimate the seismic yield of a nuclear explosion it is necessary to obtain a calibrated magnitude‐yield relationship based on events with known yields and with a consistent set of seismic magnitudes. U.S. estimation of Soviet test yields has been done through application of relationships to the Soviet sites based on the U.S. experience at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), making some correction for differences due to attenuation and near‐source coupling of seismic waves.
Quake hazard bill put off
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

The House version of an earthquake hazard reduction bill passed by the Senate in the aftermath of the October 17 northern California earthquake will not be voted on until after Congress reconvenes in January.

The proposed legislation (H.R. 3533) would revamp the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program, a federally coordinated effort to learn more about earthquakes and how to prepare for them. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, National Science Foundation, and National Institute of Standards and Technology together spent $66 million in 1989 on NEHRP activities, which include modification of buildings and roads, monitoring seismic activity, and earthquake education.
River basin administration
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Management of international rivers and their basins is the focus of the Centre for Comparative Studies on (International) River Basin Administration, recently established at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Water pollution, sludge, and conflicting interests in the use of water in upstream and downstream parts of a river basin will be addressed by studying groundwater and consumption of water in the whole catchment area of a river.

Important aspects of river management are administrative and policy aspects. The Centre will focus on policy, law, planning, and organization, including transboundary cooperation, posing standards, integrated environmental planning on regional scale and environmental impact assessments.
Change “SPR”?: Use “Space Physics”
Authors: Prölss Gerd
Published: October 2006

In reply to your request for suggestions for a new name for the Solar‐Planetary Relations Section of AGU (“SPR: The Right Name?” Eos, August 1, p. 747) I strongly support changing the name to “Space Physics” without further elaboration. It is to be tacitly understood that the space whose physics we are studying specifically includes the regions occupied by the neutral and ionized upper atmospheres of all Solar System bodies (Sun, planets, moons, comets), their magnetospheres, interplanetary space (which may or may not be considered as part of the upper atmosphere and magnetosphere of the Sun) and the heliospheric boundary region (which, incidentally, is not covered by the name SPR).

I also would like to suggest that Journal of Geophysical Research‐Atmospheres change its order of articles. Thus articles on the thermosphere of Venus, for example, should be published side by side with articles on Earth's thermosphere and not in a separate “planetary section.”
How acid rain can kill trees
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

For the first time, experiments have shown in detail how acid clouds can damage high‐elevation forests in eastern North America.

The study focused on the way that acidic clouds affect red spruce, a dominant species in some eastern forests. Devastated stands of coniferous trees atop Whiteface Mtn,. N.Y., Mount Mitchell, N.C., and Camel's Hump, Vt., have become highly visible reminders of the damage that can be caused by acid deposition, which results primarily from fossil fuel combustion.
No fifth force?
Authors: Maggs William Ward
Published: October 2006

Hopes that geophysicists might be able to document a fifth force of nature have diminished, as new measurements and analyses of earlier geodetic experiments have yielded no solid evidence of a non‐Newtonian component of gravity.

Modern physics recognizes four fundamental forces with distinct spheres of influence: The strong and weak nuclear forces operate over the range of one atom, while gravity and electromagnetism have an infinite range. Gravity measurements over a few centimeters in laboratories and over millions of kilometers in space continue to buttress Issac Newton's conclusion that the gravitational force between two objects decreases as the square of the distance between them.