Images of the Earth's Crust & Upper Mantle

Updated: Jun 02, 2016

Initiation of the IGCP Project 474

(Extract from the IGCP Project 474 Annual Report, 2003)

The project was conceived in 2001 at the 9th International Symposium on Deep Structure of the Continents and their Margins in Norway, with follow-up discussions at Cornell between Dr. Barry Drummond (Geoscience Australia), Prof. Larry Brown (Cornell University and Prof. Fred Cook (University of Calgary). The key issue was to find ways and means of bringing to public attention the very large amount of information on the structure of the Earth's crust that had been obtained using seismic profiling methods that was slowly being lost as a result of technology advancement and the movement of key players into other fields of endeavour.

This information has an important educational role, not just for earth science students and researchers but also for the general public and government who have a stake in resource management (minerals, petroleum, water), geohazard mitigation, and an understanding of landscape evolution for planning, agricultural, commercial recreational and urban use.

There was general consensus that a web-based information system was the best way to go. Previous projects to base information on hard-copy output in the form of transects had largely been lost in the earth science libraries of the world and was not flexible enough to incorporate new data easily and quickly.

Throughout 2002 discussions and were held by email with various seismologists around the world and in May 2002 Doug Finlayson suggested approaching IGCP to see if they were interested in being a sponsor of the project. Dr. Cec Murray, Chairman IGCP Australia, gave encouragement to the idea and a project proposal prepared according to IGCP guidelines was submitted to IGCP Paris by the cut-off date of 15 August 2002, in time for the proposal to be considered by the IGCP Executive Board. On 6 February 2003 the Board approved the project and a confirmation letter from Dr Eder, IGCP Secretary, was dated 1 April 2003.