Geological Observatory Research Articles

GP Section selects Best Student Paper

The AGU Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism (GP) Section has announced its selection of a paper entitled “Multicomponent Magnetization of the Upper Silurian‐Lower Devonian Ringerike Sandstone, Adjacent Dikes, and Permian Lavas, Oslo, Norway” as the best GP student paper presented at the 1986 AGU Spring Meeting. The primary author, Dartmouth College Ph.D. candidate David Douglass, was assisted on the paper by a colleague from Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory. Douglass received his B.S. in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1980, and in 1984, he received his M.S. in earth sciences at Dartmouth. His current studies examine the paleomagnetism, structure, and sedimentation of several North Atlantic old red sandstone basins.

First GP student paper award given

The GP Section has initiated an award to be given to the best student paper delivered at each of the two national meetings. The first award was given to David Douglass (Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.) for a paper entitled “Multicomponent Magnetization of the Upper Silurian—Lower Devonian Ringerike Sandstone,” which he coauthored with D.V. Kent (Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, N.Y.) and presented at the 1986 AGU Spring Meeting in Baltimore, Md. A similar award will be given after the upcoming AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

Ocean Sciences Award

The Ocean Sciences Award is presented by the Ocean Sciences Section of AGU to an individual who has made outstanding and long‐standing contributions to the ocean sciences. Previous recipients are Eugene C. LaFond 1982, Richard C. Vetter 1983, Robert E. Wall 1983, Fennan D. Jennings 1984, Wayne V. Burt 1984, W. Stanley Wilson 1984, Curtis A. Collins 1985.Nominations are solicited for candidates for the Ocean Sciences Award in 1986. Letters of nomination should be sent to Arnold L. Gordon, President‐Elect, Ocean Sciences Section, Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964. The deadline for nominations is May 1, 1986. Nominations may be accompanied by seconding nominations and a resume of the candidate.

Ocean Sciences Award

The Ocean Sciences Award is presented by the Ocean Sciences Section of AGU to an individual who has made outstanding and longstanding contributions to the ocean sciences. Previous recipients are Eugene C. LaFond 1982, Richard C. Vetter 1983, Robert E. Wall 1983, Fennan D. Jennings 1984, Wayne V. Burt 1984, W. Stanley Wilson 1984, Curtis A. Collins 1985.Nominations are solicited for candidates for the Ocean Sciences Award in 1986. Letters of nomination should be sent to Arnold L. Gordon, President‐Elect, Ocean Sciences Section, Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964. The deadline for nominations is May 1, 1986. Nominations may be accompanied by seconding nominations and a resume of the candidate.

Reversals of the Earth's magnetic field and the acceptance of crustal mobility in North America: A view from the trenches

In this paper I shall attempt to give a personal view of the acceptance of ideas of crustal mobility by a key group of scientists at Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, N.Y., which in turn, largely because of the data marshalled by these researchers, led to the acceptance of the concept of mobility by the larger scientific community in the United States. This took place in 1964–1966 and led to are markable and rapid transformation in the way that earth scientists view our planet. In large part the change followed the acceptance of reversals of the earth's magnetic field by earth scientists in general.

Geophysicists as parents

About 30 people attended an evening panel session on combining career and family during the 1985 AGU Spring Meeting in Baltimore, Md. The panel, sponsored by the Education and Human Resources Committee, was moderated by Constance Sancetta (Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory (LDGO) of Columbia University, Palisades, N.Y.) and consisted of Claire Davidson (U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Reston, Va.), M. Grant Gross (Ocean Sciences, National Science Foundation (NSF), Washington, D.C. ) , and Joseph J. Morley (LDGO). Each panelist was asked to describe his or her experiences and the lessons that he or she learned from them.

1984 Joint Congress: CGU and CMOS

The Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU) had a very successful joint meeting with the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 29 to June 1, 1984. Thirty‐five scientific sessions were held in the 4‐day meeting period.The invited speaker for CGU at the plenary session, David Simpson of Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory, spoke about the Halifax Explosion of 1917 in terms of a seismic event. The 2.6‐kt explosion was the largest man‐made explosion prior to the detonation of the first atomic bombs. The effective seismic magnitude of the event may have been m, = 2.5–3.0.

Career and family: Making it work

About 150 people at the 1984 AGU Fall Meeting attended an evening panel session on combining professional and family lives. Panelists were Tanya Atwater (University of California, Santa Barbara), Laurie Brown (University of Massachusetts), Silvia Garzoli (Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory), and Jimmy Diehl and Suzanne Beske‐Diehl (Michigan Technological University). The session was sponsored by the AGU Education and Human Resources Committee. The panelists had been asked to describe their own lives and decisions and to pass on advice or experience that they had gained.

New position at Lamont‐Doherty

Three scientists at the Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory have been appointed to the position of Doherty Senior Research Scientist, newly created to recognize members of the observatory's senior research staff who have demonstrated “the highest levels of scholarship, scientific leadership, and promise of continuing excellence.”William Ruddiman, associate director of the observatory's Oceans and Climate Division, Taro Takahashi, associate director of the Geochemistry Division, and Dennis Kent, known for his research in paleomagnetics and rock magnetism, were each appointed to 5‐year terms as Doherty Senior Research Scientists.

Professorship of Geophysics

Columbia University has established a new professorship of geophysics in its School of Engineering and Applied Science. The Maurice Ewing and J. Lamar Worzel Professorship of Geophysics has been established with an endowment of $1 million. Palisades Geophysical Institute, Inc., a nonprofit research group based in West Nyack, N.Y., provided a gift of $500,000.The late Maurice Ewing, who died in 1974, was the founder of Columbia's Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory. J. Lamar Worzel, a long‐time colleague of Ewing, is now president of the Palisades Geophysical Institute.

Maurice Ewing Medalist: Xavier Le Pichon

Mr. President, fellow members of the American Geophysical Union, and members of the U.S. Navy, it gives me great pleasure to present the citation for the 1984 AGU/USN Maurice Ewing Medal, to be awarded to Dr. Xavier Le Pichon.After receiving diplomas in several disciplines of geology, physics, and geophysics from the University of Strasbourg during the 1950s, Xavier came to the Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory as a visiting scientist where he put his knowledge to practice until 1968. In 1966 he received the Doctor of Sciences degree from the University of Strasbourg. Returning to France in 1968, Xavier spent the next five years at the Centre Océanologique de Bretagne in Brest where he founded the Research Group. From Brest he moved to the headquarters of CNEXO in Paris for 5 years and then to the University of Paris to found the new Laboratoire de Géodynamique. From his present position of professor at the university he will move next year to become director of the Geology Laboratory in the Ecole Normale Supérieure, one of the French Grandes Ecoles.

New TOR editor

David A. Brooks, associate professor at Texas A&M University's oceanography department, has been appointed editor designate of The Oceanography Report (TOR). He succeeds Arnold L. Gordon of the Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory. Gordon, who initiated TOR in September 1981, is the new president‐elect of the AGU Ocean Sciences Section.Brooks, a physical oceanographer, has been at Texas A&M for 6 years. His research interests include waves and tides, the interaction of waves and currents, Gulf Stream fluctuations, and Gulf of Mexico and Gulf of Maine circulation. Before going to Texas A&M, Brooks was a research associate and graduate faculty member at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

New climate center

A center to direct what has been called the most broadly based scientific effort to predict the world's climate has been established at Columbia University. The goal of the new center is to predict with increasing certainty specific climate changes aroud the planet over periods of decades.Formed by the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences (GISS) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory, the new Center for Climate Research was launched by a $1 million gift from the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation.

Practical approaches to earthquake prediction and warning

The title chosen for this renewal of the U.S.‐Japan prediction seminar series reflects optimism, perhaps more widespread in Japan than in the United States, that research on earthquake prediction has progressed to a stage at which it is appropriate to begin testing operational forecast systems. This is not to suggest that American researchers do not recognize very substantial gains in understanding earthquake processes and earthquake recurrence, but rather that we are at the point of initiating pilot prediction experiments rather than asserting that we are prepared to start making earthquake predictions in a routine mode.For the sixth time since 1964, with support from the National Science Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, as well as substantial support from the U.S. Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) for participation of a good representation of its own scientists, earthquake specialists from the two countries came together on November 7–11, 1983, to review progress of the recent past and share ideas about promising directions for future efforts. If one counts the 1980 Ewing symposium on prediction, sponsored by Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory, which, though multinational, served the same purpose, one finds a continuity in these interchanges that has made them especially productive and stimulating for both scientific communities. The conveners this time were Chris Scholz, Lamont‐Doherty, for the United States and Tsuneji Rikitake, Nihon University, for Japan.

Comment on] BOSP members

The new Board on Ocean Science and Policy (BOSP) (Eos, June 7, 1983, p. 402) met for the first time on May 4. John B. Slaughter, former director of the National Science Foundation and now chancellor of the University of Maryland in College Park, is the board's chairman. Other board members are D. James Baker, Jr. (University of Washington, Seattle); Kirk Bryan (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton University); John P. Craven (University of Hawaii); Charles L. Drake (Dartmouth College); Paul M. Fye (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution); Edward D. Goldberg (Scripps Institution of Oceanography); G. Ross Heath (Oregon State University); Judith T. Kildow (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); John A. Knauss (University of Rhode Island); James J. McCarthy (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University); H. William Menard (Scripps Institution of Oceanography); C. Barry Raleigh (Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory); Roger Revelle (University of California, San Diego); David A. Ross (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution); Brian J. Rothschild (University of Maryland); William M. Sackett (University of South Florida); John H. Steele (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution); and Carl Wunsch (MIT). Wallace Broecker (Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory), an original board member, resigned after the first meeting. Broecker told Eos that combining the science and policy boards resulted in a new board whose mission is too broad. A new board member will be appointed in Broecker's place

New atlas focuses on Southern Ocean

Maps, graphs, and computer‐generated contour distributions based on physical and chemical data for the southern ocean are presented in Southern Ocean Atlas, a new publication by Columbia University Press. The atlas organizes the wealth of scientific information on the southern ocean that has been gathered by direct hydrographic observations, primarily under the circumpolar survey conducted by the Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory from 1962 to 1978. Data on temperature, salinity, density, dynamic height anomaly, dissolved oxygen, and chemical composition were used in the compilation of the one‐volume, two‐part atlas. The first part, by Arnold L. Gordon (professor of oceanography at Columbia University) and Eugene J. Molinelli (research scientist at Science Applications, Inc.), covers thermohaline and chemical distributions and the atlas data set. The second part, by Gordon and Ted N. Baker (research assistant at Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory), covers objective contouring and the grid point data set. Computer contour distributions are included in microfiche form with the hardcover volume.

1983 Mediterranean Studies

After a lay‐up of over 1 year and an extensive refit, R/V Robert D. Conrad of Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory has left Port Everglades, Florida, bound for the Pacific Ocean off of South America. Most of the 1982 Conrad operations will be based in the Pacific, highlighted by a deep‐water multichannel seismic reflection study of the Pacific Plate around Hawaii, to be conducted together with R/V Kana Keoki of the University of Hawaii. The scientific equipment on the Conrad is strongly oriented toward marine geophysical studies; however, she is also capable of carrying out limited biological, physical, and chemical oceanographic programs.Although plans are still preliminary, the 1983 Conrad schedule includes 2 months of operations in the Mediterranean Sea during the late spring or summer. This will be the first time since 1979 that a research vessel of the U.S. Academic Fleet has conducted scientific programs in the Mediterranean Sea.

Fram 2 in the eastern Arctic

Fram 2 was a research program conducted from ice stations on drifting pack ice from March 19, 1980 to May 5, 1980. The research concentrated on underwater acoustics, marine geophysics, and physical oceanography in the eastern Arctic Ocean and had the financial support of the Office of Naval Research.Personnel from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory (LDGO), Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO), University of Washington (UW), Naval Underwater Systems Center (NUSC), Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and Polar Research Laboratory, Inc. (PRL), participated in the program. The Fram 2 program had logistic air support by the 317th Tactical Air Wing of the U.S. Air Force, by the Danish Air Force, Greenland Air Charter, Bradley Air, and PolAir. The Polar Science Center of the University of Washington (PSCUW) was responsible for the overall planning and management of the logistics support.

New seismic profiling system

The University of Rhode Island will install a new seismic profiling system aboard its 54‐m research vessel Endeavor. The high‐resolution, single‐channel, digital system will use sound waves to probe layers of sediment and rock beneath the ocean floor. With the data obtained with the system, oceanographers will be able to research further the earth's geological processes.The system will be one of two installed within the newly formed Northeast Consortium Research Fleet (NECOR) (see Information Report this issue). The other seismic profiling system will be placed aboard the Conrad, operated by the Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory.

U.S.‐Soviet team explores Polynya

Satellite pictures in 1973 of the frozen Weddell Sea near Antarctica revealed an unfrozen ‘lake’ surrounded by ice. In subsequent winters, the curiously unfrozen patch appeared, disappeared, reappeared, grew to nearly 300,000 km2, and drifted westward before vanishing. The source and the effects of this unfrozen lake on its surroundings may remain a mystery for not much longer: A joint American‐Soviet team recently began a 2‐month, on‐site investigation of the polynya (that's Russian for ‘unfrozen water surrounded by ice’).Two explanations for the polynya's existence predominate. ‘One is that a strong wind blows ice away before a significant amount can accumulate,’ according to Arnold L. Gordon, Eos associate editor and professor of geological sciences at the Lamont‐Doherty Geological Observatory. He is coordinating the expedition with the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in Leningrad. ‘The other is that for some reason, enhanced convection is going on in this region. Basically, we think that the polynya is caused by upwelling of ocean heat rather than ice being removed by high winds.’