Images of the Earth's Crust & Upper Mantle

Updated: Jun 02, 2016

IGCP Project 474 Business meeting, 2005

(Extract from the IGCP 474 Annual Report, 2005)

A project business meeting was held on Wednesday 28 September, 2005, in the main lecture theatre of the Western Australian Maritime Museum, at 17.30.

Present: B. Goleby (deputising for B. Drummond, Australia, Chair), O.Oncken (Germany), D. Finlayson (Australia), L. Brown (USA), J. Kayal (India), R. Carbonell (Spain), M. Mints (Russia), R. Korsch (Australia), R. Stephenson (The Netherlands).

The meeting reviewed the project progress during 2005 and considered forward planning. Among the issues considered were:

1. Project Chairman: The project Chairman, Dr. Barry Drummond, indicated that, because of a change in his current major commitments to national projects at Geoscience Australia, he was unable to continue as Chairman of IGCP 474. The meeting called for nominations to fill the position and Dr. Bruce Goleby was unanimously elected the new Chairman.
2. Web compilations: Some concern was expressed about the lack of progress in the compilation of new material onto the project web site. It was emphasised that the future credibility of the web site depended on populating it with material that was of use to the wider research and educational audiences. This should be done in the next 12 months and progress reviewed at the Japanese deep seismic profiling symposium, Sept. 2005.
3. Web site development: During the year a discussion paper had been circulated regarding the form of material for the web site and the introduction of various ways in which the material could be presented. Three recent additions to the web site in the form of brief descriptions of work on 1) the NE Tibetan Plateau, 2) the Urals, and 3) eastern Australia were considered and thought an appropriate way to present material. It was decided that the project should aim to present material from about 30 localities from various tectonic settings during the next twelve months. It was recommended that the material presented on the web site should be sub-divided into images from the various tectonic settings.
4. Web-based publication links: Prof. Larry Brown brought to the meeting's attention the possibility of linking with a newly-developed web-based publication site. This would enable IGCP 474 to link directly with fresh published material and authors would gain citation index merit. This needs to be followed up with the managers of the web site.
5. Copyright: The issues surrounding copyright of material taken from journal publications and presented on the project web site was raised. Attention was drawn to the paper prepared by the Business Manager during the year and the guidelines to be followed to address such issues. This paper should be circulated again to the IGCP 474 Executive and other people preparing web material.
6. Project publicity: It was recommended that, after the number of transects on the web site was increased to about thirty locations that geological surveys be asked to place a link in their national web sites to the IGCP 474 web site for educational purposes.
7. Teacher usage: A teacher from a Sydney high school was approached during the Fremantle symposium and asked to express an opinion on the usefulness of the web site for school educational purposes. He indicated that he would undertake this task and bring the site to the attention of other teachers of science to seek their opinions also.
8. Partnerships: It was thought that partnerships could be sought with agencies and organisations such as ILP, IASPEI, website-based publications, etc. once the material on the web site was increased significantly. It was noted that IUGS had a "Year of Planet Earth" coming up in 2007. Participation in this may be possible.
9. Conference sponsorship for 2006: It was decided to proceed with sponsorship arrangements with the Earthquake Research Institute, Tokyo, as the organisers of the 12th deep seismic profiling symposium to be held during September, 2006.
10. Business plan for 2006-2007: The meeting considered options for 2006 and 2007. The agenda for 2006 was already agreed on, namely that the web site should increase the number of transects available to the public and that the aim should be to leave a lasting legacy for the foreseeable future. The aim should be to have a substantial number of transects available by the time of the meeting in Japan during September 2006. The program for 2007 was less certain but moves should be made soon to choose a conference for the location of 2007 scientific sponsorship arrangements. Suggestions welcomed. It was decided that there had to be a lasting legacy from IGCP Project 474 and that the web site must continue after 2007. It was therefore decided to consider an extension to the project so that web-based material could be added for the foreseeable future.
11. Financial matters: The meeting was briefed on the financial management arrangements of the project. It was emphasised that UNESCO and IGCP Central Office, Paris, required strict accounting guidelines to be followed and that there was not much scope for departing from these guidelines. Hence it IGCP 474 supporters were obliged to find other sources of funds for web-page compilations, etc. through institutional arrangements, either financial or in kind. For example, Geoscience Australia hosts the IGCP 474 web site and contributes in kind to website management. The IGCP 474 budget only allows financial support to attend conferences on a very limited scale.