aethetics only

Updated: Dec 09, 2024

IGCP Project 474 Symposium and Business Meeting
Menlo Park, 13-15 December 2003

Those attending:

  • Dr. Barry Drummond (Geoscience Australia)
  • Prof. Richard Hobbs (University of Durham)
  • Prof. Larry Brown, (Cornell University)
  • Dr. Gary Fuis 9US Geological Survey)
  • Prof Songlin Li (China Seismological Bureau)
  • Dr. Doug Finlayson (Canberra).

Venue:

Conference room of the US Geological Survey, Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA.

This being the first business meeting of the project Executive Committee, some time was spent reviewing the start-up of the project and how the project has been structured.

The first and foremost project objective was to bring into general public view the seismic profiling work that has been conducted around the world in the last thirty years and how this work sheds light on issues arising from the tectonic principles that the seismic profiling work highlights.

There was discussion about the ways and means by which this objective could be achieved. The meeting agreed that different communication styles were needed for scientists and the public at large, and that the scientific compilations would have to proceed first in order to provide feed stock for material prepared for the public at large.

The principle of providing access to deep seismic profiling results through a web site was reaffirmed. The details of how and what to provide data and information via a web site were the main focus of subsequent discussions at the meeting. The principle of using IGCP 474 to make linkages with other national and international earth science institutions was reaffirmed.

The Business Plan prepared for the IGCP Executive was strongly supported. It was acknowledged that personnel on the Executive Committee may change through time and that the order of the work program might have to be adjusted to circumstances as they arose over the lifetime of the IGCP 474 project. However, the meeting confirmed the overall thrust of the project design, based around annual scientific sessions, either at the bi-annual International Deep Seismic Imaging conferences, and through alignment with other national and international conferences. Business meetings of the Project Executive would be held as annually, in association with scientific meetings supported by the Project but also separately. Out-of-session business of the Project would be coordinated by telephone and email and communicated more broadly through the Project web site.

Most of the meeting was spent on discussing the 2003 transect compilations, web site content and design, future project meetings and project financing and promotion. A conference report is available.

Future IGCP 474 meetings

Four types of meetings/activities were envisaged.

  1. IGCP 474 Symposia - Scientific meetings linked to other meetings of the world-wide earth science community; probably with field excursion demonstration of transect information, e.g. deep seismic profiling meetings.
  2. IGCP 474 Sponsorship of scientific meetings - In association with other IGCP projects and/or academic/specialist group/petroleum/minerals institutions.
  3. IGCP 474 Regional/national symposia - Sponsorship of national or regional meetings, especially in the educational area.
  4. IGCP 474 Business meetings - Usually linked to other meetings of seismic profiling specialists and Executive Committee members.

Some of the meetings mentioned that provided suitable venues for Project scientific activities were:

  • 2004 - Deep Seismic Profiling Conference - Ottawa, Sept-Oct 2004 - preliminary approaches have been made for joint sponsorship of the meeting.
  • 2004 - IGC - Florence, Aug. 2004
  • 2004 - Jan. UK Royal Soc. Meeting
  • 2004 - Mantle heterogeneity; March 2004, Copenhagen
  • 2005 - Chile, IASPEI - Santiago, October
  • 2005 - Australia, Perth - Minerals-related orogens; with other IGCP project(s)
  • 2005 - EGU - Easter, 2005 - possible business meeting
  • 2006 - Deep Seismic Profiling Conference - 2006, Japan
  • 2007 - IUGG - Aug. 2007, Perugia, Italy
  • 2007 - China - Oct 2007 IGCP 474 wind up scientific meeting; possible AGU Western Pacific Meeting.
  • 2007-8 - Possible Penrose Conference, Hawaii?

The Executive has made the decision to sponsor a session at the 2004 Deep Seismic Profiling Conference, Ottawa, in September-October 2004 and have approved the allocation of funds for this purpose from its current funding. The conference organising committee has agreed to a poster session proposed by IGCP Project 474 to which a number of researchers will be invited to prepare material for later distribution via the web. The conference organising committee has also invited the Proejct to arrange an oral session on the impacts of classic transects. Funds provided by IGCP 474 will be used to assist travel to the conference by those engaged in transect compilation, and also to ensure that the post-conference field excursion is both relevant to and accessible to people who need transect compilations but are not part of the deep seismic imaging community.