International Lithosphere Program

Abstract

A new program of international, interdisciplinary research in geodynamics was approved by the International Council of Scientific Unions at its meeting in Amsterdam in September 1980. The program, which is planned as a 10‐year effort, is a cooperative activity of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). Management of the new program is the responsibility of a newly created Inter‐Union Commission on the Lithosphere.The research, to be carried out under the program entitled ‘Dynamics and Evolution of the Lithosphere: The Framework for Earth Resources and the Reduction of Hazards,’ will build on the remarkable accomplishments of the Upper‐Mantle Project and the International Geodynamics Project, which ended in 1979. The central theme of the program is the state, origin, evolution, and dynamics of the lithosphere, with special attention to the continents and their margins. The approved plan emphasizes that the program's goals can only be achieved by closely coordinated interdisciplinary efforts of geologists, geophysicists, geochemists, and geodesists. It is also clear that the desired improvement in our knowledge of the continental lithosphere requires additional work on key problems of the suboceanic lithosphere and of the structure, composition, and processes in the deeper parts of the earth.