Archive for October, 2005

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Australian Earth Science Week

Saturday, October 22nd, 2005

Submitted by Jeanette Holland,

Public Programs Coordinator,

Geoscience Australia

Geoscience Australia continues to encourage participation in Earth Science Week by all sections of the community. The organisation also maintains the national Earth Science Week web site at www.ga.gov.au/about/event/index.jsp which details activities in each State and Territory.

The site has more information and suggested activities to help celebrate the week. Any organisation, institution or school wishing to share details of their activities with the rest of Australia can submit details and photos to jeanette.holland@ga.gov.au. The information will be included on the national web site.

This year’s Earth Science Week poster is a dramatic submarine composite that represents several areas of current geoscience research. A wave on the cusp of breaking is an uncomfortable reminder of the threat of tsunamis, with gossamer-thin threads trailing from the wave to a satellite highlighting the important role of satellites in a tsunami early warning system. The grid superimposed on the ocean floor alludes to the importance of seabed mapping and characterisation. Strands of seagrass atop sand waves and a coral reef emerging from mysterious emerald green depths include a sedimentary cross section. They represent the use of high-resolution bathymetry in important recent marine research in Torres Strait and the southern Gulf of Carpentaria.

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Promising Earth and Space Science Ph.D. Survey, Class of 2003

Saturday, October 22nd, 2005

by Cindy Martinez

The American Geological Institute (AGI) and the American Geophysical Union have been collecting data on recent PhDs in the geosciences since 1996. Each year, letters are sent to Earth, Atmospheric and Ocean Science departments requesting contact information for their recent PhD graduates. The graduates are then contacted directly and asked to answer questions about their education and employment, information on efforts to find their first job, experiences in graduate school and their demographic information. AGI and AGU compile this information into a report that is distributed to university departments and interested geoscientists, and is available on the web for download.

For the Class of 2003 report, there were 180 participants in the survey. The survey and subsequent data analysis was conducted by the American Institute of Physics’ Statistical Research Center. Highlights of the reports’ results include the following:

  • Employment in the geosciences and salaries earned by the PhD class of 2003 remained stable, despite an economic slow down in recent years. The majority (87%) of graduates found work in the geosciences and earned salaries commensurate with or slightly higher than in 2001 and 2002.
  • Feedback about employment continued to be positive, with most graduates agreeing that their work was challenging, relevant and appropriate for someone with a PhD.
  • The number of PhD recipients accepting postdoctoral positions (58%) increased slightly from 2002. In contrast, there were recent significant increases in postdoctoral employment in the fields of physics and chemistry.
  • Perceptions of the job market remained stable compared to 2002, with about half of the respondents rating the job market neutrally and one-third rating it as bad or hopeless.
  • Recipients of PhDs in the Earth, Atmospheric, and Ocean Sciences are slightly older than PhD recipients in other natural sciences because they are more likely to take time off between completing undergraduate studies and starting their graduate studies.
  • Women in the Earth, Atmospheric, and Ocean Sciences earned 33 percent of PhDs in the class of 2003. This is slightly more than the representation of women in chemistry (32%) and far more than representation among PhDs in computer science (20%), physics (19%), and engineering (17%).

You can download this report on the AGI website at:
http://www.agiweb.org/career/phdreport03.pdf

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AGI “CUES” Up Education

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

By Ann Benbow and Geoffrey Camphire,

AGI Education and Outreach

Project CUES is AGI’s latest middle school geoscience curriculum that focuses on the interrelatedness of earth systems. CUES reflects the priorities underscored in the earth and space content standards of the National Science Education Standards. Moreover, CUES features innovative approaches to help students build vital understandings of Earth systems concepts, scientific inquiry, and the nature of science.

AGI is now field-testing the program in more than a dozen states nationwide as part of its final phase of development. Middle-school students now using the CUES curriculum will be tested this academic year. AGI expects to report on results by fall of 2006. The plan is for CUES to become available for classroom use nationwide by spring of 2007.

Inquiring Minds

Inquiry and the interrelation of Earth’s systems form the backbone of CUES. Too often science is taught passively and as a linear sequence of events, yet inquiry underlies all scientific processes and can take many different forms. CUES strives to engage the students in the inquiry process as a means of not only understanding the process, but the science as well. Students use these inquiry processes to solve problems. Like scientists, they form a question to investigate after first observing the elements of the question. Based on these observations, they create a prediction based on their current understandings, and then proceed to systematically test this prediction.

Unlike professional scientists, however, students may not devote enough thought to these processes. To follow a scientific approach, students must formally recognize these processes as they do them. The design of CUES guides the students to practice thoughtful design of their investigations so that they are able to recognize that the tests they created to evaluate their predictions are fair.

Something for Everyone

The units of CUES cover the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, exosphere, biosphere, and the nature of science. The curriculum package is being developed through funding from the National Science Foundation.

Guiding development of the curriculum is an advisory board of nationally recognized middle school teachers, scientists, science educators, and other professionals engaged in earth systems education. The board is chaired by Harold Pratt, past-president of the National Science Teachers Association.

CUES forms an integral part of the geoscience curriculum materials for K-12 education that AGI began developing several years ago. Earth System Science in the Community (EarthComm), a high-school geoscience curriculum, and Investigating Earth Systems (IES), another set of earth science materials for the middle grades, are currently being used in 49 states and dozens of major school districts. AGI also is currently developing a comprehensive environmental science program for high school that is expected to become available in 2008. Finally, AGI is reaching down into the lower grades with the development of an online Earth science resource for elementary teachers.

For more information on Project CUES and other AGI curriculum products, go to
www.agiweb.org/education or call 703/575-8815.

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Interview with Rhoda Knight Kalt

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

by Emily Y. Butler,

Paleontological Research Institute (PRI)

Rhoda Knight Kalt, granddaughter of artist Charles R. Knight, whose artwork will be on display at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY, talks about her grandfather’s life with Emily Y. Butler.

EYB: How often did you see your grandfather when you were young?

RKK: I spent all of my summers until I was 18 with my grandparents at their home in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where my grandfather often lectured at the Marine Biological Laboratory and Oceanographic Institute. I also spent all of my weekends during the school year at his studio on West 59th Street in New York City, near the Plaza Hotel.

EYB: What are some of your fondest memories of him?

RKK: I went to an all-girls private school, which in those days gave you half the day off on Fridays. I would meet my grandfather at the American Museum of Natural History in the afternoon and listen as he discussed animals and anatomy with the great paleontologists and anthropologists, such as George Gaylord Simpson, William Gregory, and Robert Broom. It was nothing to stand there for two hours as he spoke and sketched; this was his work. If I complained I didn’t get to come back the next week.

On weekends my special treat was to be taken to the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel to have tea with my grandparents. I called my grandfather Toppy and my grandmother Nonnie (no idea why, but I did). We would also go to the Central Park Zoo to see the animals.

He was particularly interested in any that had been ill, which upset him greatly. Often he would gather a crowd of 50 people as he talked, several of whom he would bring home to tea afterwards. He would have tea as he was painting, with his face close to the canvas, and then would step back to get everyone’s opinions. He had very poor eyesight; he was astigmatic, and when young was blinded in one eye by a stone. His sight was very important to him, and he had a tremendous fear of losing what little eyesight he had left. He was very fond of beautiful things; he loved walking down Fifth Avenue to look in the Tiffany windows. He enjoyed the beauty of gemstones, the color and faceting, from an artist’s standpoint.

EYB: What was his studio like?

RKK: His studio was the living room that overlooked Central Park (looking north). They had a railroad apartment on 59th Street, where he could go out the door and go to the zoo or the American Museum of Natural History, or to walk down Fifth Avenue. He was very tidy; the studio was crowded, but everything had a place. He kept all his paints and things in the living room studio, and even though I spent nights in there on a cot, I knew not to touch anything. That was a no-no. The apartment got darker as you went back, and he would sit in a room in the back and draw until all hours. It was all very orderly, not like a lot of artists. In the morning he would make breakfast. My grandmother hated cooking, as do I. He would sing songs while he cooked. He loved opera, and was close friends with the great Wagnerian singer Olive Fremsted. He also loved coffee, and polishing silver; he would polish it until it shined. He was spotless with his clothes; he always wore shirts with cuffs and cufflinks, and a gold watch in his pocket, never a wristwatch. He never wore white shirts; he liked colors, especially blue, lavender, and stripes. He liked to wear tweed trousers, and when he wasn’t wearing his painting smock he wore tweed jackets.

EYB: Which of his pieces is your favorite?

RKK: I love all animals, but like Toppy I love the big cats best. I grew up with snakes, hamsters, domesticated rats, and I have three Maine Coons now. I can’t stand insects, perhaps because he hated them. The only living things he hated were spiders and insects, because they could go in all directions.

EYB: What were his favorite things to paint and sculpt?

RKK: Besides dinosaurs and prehistoric animals (that’s a given), of the living wildlife his favorites were the big cats. He loved the Bengal tigers, all tigers, which later inspired his saber-toothed tiger paintings. And he went across the country to zoos to find what he considered the finest living specimens. He wouldn’t just paint any animal; he traveled far to find the one he felt best represented the species. He painted ‘Bushman, Male Gorilla,’ at the Chicago Zoo.

EYB: What inspired your grandfather’s work?

RKK: His love of drawing and love of animals. He began drawing animals at the age of three. His first job was at J & R Lamb’s stained glass studios, doing little animals for church windows. Money meant nothing to him, he just wanted to draw 24/7. He was blessed to be alive in the era of the patrons; artists today have to struggle, but he never thought about money. Among his great patrons was J.P. Morgan, who also was a major benefactor of many museums.

EYB: What was most important to him in his work?

RKK: He was a perfectionist for accuracy. He always said he could do the prehistoric mammals because he studied the anatomy of today’s living creatures, without which you cannot understand the movements of the other creatures. I remember his insistence that everything be done as accurately as possible, and that anatomy of the modern animals is essential to know. And each animal he drew or painted he envisioned as an individual. Thus each of his animals, both prehistoric and living today, became alive on the canvas. It wasn’t just a T. rex, it was his friend and Charles Knight brought it alive through his pen and brush.

EYB: How did his art influence you in your life?

RKK: I’m a good PR person, but not artistic. He influenced me because he was extremely ethical. He loved people and was very conventional; he was married to my grandmother for over 50 years. He felt very strongly that we must protect what God created, the animals and environment, so relevant today. He very much loved animals and wildlife, and felt we must protect these things; we can’t let greed and power take over. He influenced a lot of that. He had such a drive to preserve all the wildlife and the oceans, in a time when people didn’t even think in those terms. Tigers were killed for their skins, elephants for their tusks. In many ways he was 50 years ahead of his time. He stands out as a scientist and artist of the future.

EYB: Who were some of the people/places influenced by his work?

RKK: There were many people. Stephen Jay Gould, Cecil B. DeMille, Ray Bradbury. Stephen Jay Gould named one of his books Bully for Brontosaurus, and put one of my grandfather’s paintings on the cover. He always refused to call that creature Apotosaurus, because that was not what my grandfather called it. Ray Harryhausen wrote that ‘Bushman, Male Gorilla’ influenced him to do Mighty Joe Young, and the dinosaur murals influenced Willis O’Brien’s The Lost World and King Kong. Today, the American Museum of Natural History is restoring his renowned Neanderthal murals, and the Field Museum is redesigning its dinosaur hall around the many Knight murals. He was the only person allowed to paint Su Lin, the first panda brought into the Western hemisphere from China. She was housed at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. A new book, The Lady and the Panda, by Vicki Constantine Croke, was just published. It features Ruth Harkness, who brought Su Lin over, and speaks of the great wildlife artist, Charles R. Knight, drawing this unique panda.

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Reflections: A Year in Review

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

By Stephen M. Testa

AGI President

As President of AGI, I have wanted to find a means of enhancing communications among the Member Societies, and between the Member Societies and AGI. In an effort to accomplish this goal, I am pleased to re-introduce AGI’s newsletter GeoSpectrum.

GeoSpectrum is not new, however; in late 1995, AGI Executive Director Marcus Milling and President Samuel Adams introduced the newsletter to improve communications between AGI leadership, the officers and directors of the then 28 Member Societies, and its corporate and academic affiliates. This newsletter was episodically published as a paper copy until the spring of 2000. With 43 Member Societies and the changing face of Geotimes, the 2005 AGI Executive Committee sought a mechanism to enhance communications among the Member Societies, and corporate and academic affiliates, and to bring news of interest regarding AGI and the Member Societies, and to all affiliates.

This has been a most interesting year for me serving as your President, and it is hard to believe that my term is near its end. Like the make-up of the 43 Member Societies that supports AGI, and AGI serves in part, most geologists are niche driven. As President, I have had the wonderful opportunity to be involved in the many facets of the geosciences, some outside of my typical arena of operations.

While a student in the 1970s I did not know much about AGI, but I did religiously read Geotimes every month, and growing up in an urban environment, it was my window into what was going on in the geoscience community. I know a lot more about AGI today, and I would like to take this opportunity to share some of the highlights in the areas of AGI’s core functions and programs, including earth science education, teacher enhancement, geoscience outreach and government affairs.

AGI has been having a great year in 2005. AGI is blessed with an exceptional staff that continually makes the most with the resources at hand, and those familiar with AGI over the years would tell you that it is the most talented and capable staff in AGI’s history.

Financially, we are continuing to hold steady considering the questionable stock market, and the numerous natural hazards the country and world has faced. AGI ended 2004 in the black for the twelfth consecutive year, and 2005 looks to offer a similar achievement, with a total net worth of about $7.9 million as of August 2005.

Let’s put this in some perspective. In 1990, AGI had a negative net worth of $130,000. In the mid-1990s AGI turned the corner financially and has since then continued to be stable and economically viable. In 2005, after the first six months of operations, we continue to be solidly on the positive side of the ledger. The reasons for this are many.

The total AGI membership now stands at 43 geosocieties with the recent additions of the History of Earth Sciences Society, commonly referred to as HESS, and the Petroleum History Institute will bring our membership to 44. HESS bridges the gap between the humanities and the geosciences, is international in its scope and membership, and publishes a scholarly journal containing works in the history of the earth sciences. The Petroleum History Institute celebrates all aspects of the history of the national and international oil and gas industry. The Petroleum History Institute also publishes a scholarly journal called Oil-Industry History, which contains works in the history of the oil and gas industry.

Now let me share a few highlights and accomplishments from this past year with you. I will start with AGI’s core functions and programs.

GeoRef remains the largest and most comprehensive geoscience bibliographic database in the world, and is one of AGI’s premier programs. Established in 1966, GeoRef routinely generates about 35 percent of AGI’s annual revenue and continues to run well year after year, providing high quality information services to the geoscience community. In 2004, 86,000 citations were added to the database. The staff of GeoRef, however; has not rested on its laurels! Over the years, information services have expanded to include Antarctic and Cold Regions Science and Technology Bibliographies (NSF and U. S. Army Corps of Engineers). This resource is free of charge on line. In addition, earlier this year GeoRef expanded its services with the launch of its new Australian database (AusGeoRef). Furthermore, with support from AGI, GeoScienceWorld (GSW), an internet resource for research and communications in the geosciences, was launched on Feb. 25, 2005. GSW initial package included the full-text of 30 leading geoscience journals from 22 societies and non-profit publishers from six countries.

AGI continues to press ahead in the area of earth science education. The process of publishing geoscience-oriented textbooks for middle and high school, and general non-science major college level courses is cumbersome and can be agenda and politically driven. AGI is currently developing three earth science textbooks. First is CUES — Constructing Understanding of Earth Systems, a new four-unit middle school Earth systems science textbook. Field testing is underway. Second, through the support of NSF, a 17-chapter environmental science textbook for grades 10 through 12 is currently under development. Draft chapters are being pilot tested and we are evaluating possible publishers. Third, AGI is working jointly with NAGT under NSF support, and with the publisher Prentice Hall, to develop a college level environmental geology textbook for non-science majors. This project is scheduled for completion in 2007.

AGI has long recognized that teachers need the right tools to effectively teach earth science. Chevron is supporting a three-year teacher enhancement program in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The program is being conducted through a partnership between Chevron, “It’s About Time”, LAUSD and AGI. Emphasis of the program is on enhancing skills of classroom teachers to implement earth science curriculum based on AGI’s EarthComm modules. Over 700 teachers have been trained. An independent contractor is conducting a full-scale evaluation of the program this year.

One of the most important ways the geosciences is making its voice better heard in Washington is through the William L. Fisher Congressional Science Fellowship program. This past March we selected Dr. Steve Quane as AGI’s 2005-2006 Congressional Science Fellow. Dr. Quane received his doctorate in volcanology in 2004 from the University of British Columbia. To ensure a permanent status for this seven-year program, the AGI Foundation, with AGI, has established the William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellowship endowment. To date this endowment stands at $1.5 million but is still below the $2 million needed to support a fellow on an annual basis. We are hopeful that targeted mailings seeking additional endowment support will allow us to achieve our goal very soon.

AGI hosted the 2005 Leadership Forum on May 9 in Washington, D.C. Twenty-seven leaders of AGI’s Member Societies participated in the all-day event. The Forum this year consisted of three panel discussions covering natural hazards, geoscience funding of federal agency programs and energy policy. Each panel consisted of 3 to 4 speakers, including directors of federal agency programs, congressional staffers and policy analysts. The resultant discussions provided recommendations on ways AGI and the Member Societies could enhance funding and impact policy making for geoscience research and education.

Notably, the following action items were offered:

  • More geoscientists need to be involved in lobbying, and AGI and its Member Societies should coordinate visits.
  • Determine the supporters of geoscience research and education in Congress and help them gain greater support for the geosciences.
  • AGI should facilitate increased interaction between the geoscience community and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
  • Member Societies should jointly develop briefing materials on key geoscience issues (i.e., energy policy).
  • Member Societies need to work with the insurance and related industries to develop science-based policies for hazard mitigation, environmental issues and resources management.
  • Member Societies and AGI should develop fast fact sheets, briefing papers and other tools for geoscientists to use during their lobbying efforts.
  • Member Societies should increase participation in the National Council of State Legislatures and other associations to provide valuable scientific input to the appropriate state and local policy makers.
  • Member Societies and AGI should organize, update and determine the overall effectiveness of their policy position statements.

AGI received from the Chevron/Texaco Corporation thousands of miles of historic 2-D and 3-D seismic data covering offshore California and other portions of the West Coast of North America. In partnership with the USGS, this data, going back to the 1960s, was placed in a newly developed repository referred to as NAMSS. Seismic data is available to all through a Web site created by the USGS. This data will continue to be important for many reasons including the study of offshore structural geology, marine sedimentology and complex fault systems. The website can be reached at http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/NAMSS/index.html.

AGI’s Outreach program is concentrating its efforts in several exciting areas. Earth Science Week is now in its 8th year and the focal point for activities in all 50 states and in several countries outside the United States. This year’s theme – Careers in the Geosciences – will focus on opportunities to increase geoscience enrollments at the university level. Sixteen thousand kits are expected to be distributed.

This year AGI became the first United States organization to become a Founding Partner of the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) initiative. IYPE was initiated by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), and working through UNESCO will put forward a formal proposal at the next General Assembly of the United Nations in New York to designate 2008 as the International Year of Planet Year. This endeavor brings together numerous geoscience organizations and individuals from around the world in an effort to increase public awareness of earth sciences in society, and to coordinate key research efforts to address society’s pressing issues, such as sustainable development and responsible stewardship of the planet. AGI is looking forward to enhancing the breadth of participation and perspective to the development of this important effort to improve the global standing of the geosciences.

The single largest project AGI has ever taken on is the System Earth television series. With support from the ExxonMobil Foundation, AGI is working with a Science Advisory Committee and The Discovery Channel to develop the television treatment or storyline for the series. The treatment will be used by AGI to secure the remaining required funding for the series from foundations and private sector partners. Total support required for the project is $6 million. The estimated release date is 2008.

I have made appearances this year on behalf of AGI at the AAPG Leadership Conference held in Tulsa, Okla., in April; the joint meeting between AAPG Pacific Section/GSA Cordilleran Section joint meeting held in San Jose, California, in May; and of course, AAPG’s annual meeting being held in Calgary. I have also attended the AGI Education Advisory Committee meeting and National Science Board Awards Banquet held at the U.S. State Department Diplomat Reception Room on May 25.

Over the course of this year, I have accepted requests to share a few words on behalf of AGI at several annual meetings held by Member Societies. It was my intent to attend as many of our Member Societies’ functions as possible. I have appreciated the invitation offered, and hope that the lines of communications and collaborative programs between AGI and the Member Societies only improve over time.

In closing, I thank all of you for the opportunity to serve as President of AGI, and to represent the geoscience community. You will be hearing more about the various AGI programs and activities with future issues of GeoSpectrum. This is your e-zine, and I am looking forward to hearing more about what the Member Societies are doing as well.

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Dallas L. Peck, director of the U.S. Geological Survey from 1981 to 1993, dies at age 76.

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

Dallas L. Peck, of Reston, Va., Director from 1981-1993 of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the world’s largest natural science research institution, died August 21, 2005 as a result of complications from a previous open heart surgery.

Peck’s entire 53-year professional career was with the USGS, a testament to his devotion to the science of geology and his dedication to the integrity and reputation of the Survey. Peck earned his bachelor’s (with honors) and master’s degrees in geology from the California Institute of Technology in 1951 and 1953 and his doctorate in geology from Harvard in 1960. Peck began working with the USGS in 1951 as a geologic field assistant and rose through the ranks to become the Nation’s senior earth scientist in 1981.

Peck, a volcanologist, spent much of his early career studying the volcanoes and volcanic rocks of Hawaii and the Western United States. Much of his career focused on geothermal and geochemical studies at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and studies of granitic rocks in the Sierra Nevada of California. His professional reach and impact included the U.S. Space Program in training astronauts and staffing the science mission control rooms for Apollo 16 and 17.

“Dallas Peck distinguished himself as a scientist and leader. In the tradition of directors that spent many years in the field during their careers, he brought a strong commitment to USGS science excellence to his term as Director,” said former USGS Director Chip Groat.

Within the USGS, Peck served as Assistant Chief Geologist then as Chief Geologist for four years. In 1981, Peck was highly recommended by the National Academy of Sciences for the position as USGS Director. Following Senate action, Peck became the 11th director of the USGS. Under Peck’s leadership, the USGS improved and expanded its national and international work on mineral resources; global change; water quality; and natural hazards, including the risk assessment and management of earthquakes, landslides, land subsidence, and volcanic eruptions.

Following his term as Director, he returned to the Geologic Division of USGS in 1993 to conduct research on the granites of Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada and to serve as adviser in the Office of the Chief Geologist. In 1995 he retired from the USGS, but continued his research as an emeritus scientist until his death.

The Department of the Interior honored his many accomplishments with its Meritorious (1970) and Distinguished (1979) Service Awards, and in 1980 he received the Presidential Meritorious Executive Award. He also received many professional awards and served on a wide range of national and international scientific panels.

Many organizations sought Peck’s scientific and management expertise, including the National Science Foundation, the National Research Council, Sandia Laboratories and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories, as well as many universities. In addition, he was Head of the Delegation to the International Geological Congress in Moscow, USSR, 1984; United States Delegate to the Assembly in Durham, England of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior, 1977; and a Member of the US/USSR Joint Commission on Scientific and Technical Cooperation, 1972. He also served as Chairman of the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology and was a distinguished member of many professional associations and societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and the Society of Economic Geologists.

  • USGS Press Release

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University of California, Berkeley seismic expert Bruce A. Bolt, has died at age 75.

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

Bruce A. Bolt, for decades one of the state’s most visible experts on earthquakes and seismic hazards and professor emeritus of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, died Thursday, July 21, of pancreatic cancer at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland. He was 75.

As director of the University of California Seismographic Stations for 28 years, he traveled the world to investigate the sites of major earthquakes, lectured on earthquakes and earthquake hazards around the country and internationally, and served on numerous local, state and national panels and commissions. He even wrote two popular books: Earthquakes: A Primer (1978) and Inside the Earth: Evidence from Earthquakes (1982).

He served for 15 years on the California Seismic Safety Commission and was its chairman in 1986. According to a statement issued Friday by the California Seismic Safety Commission, “Former Commissioner Bolt was one of California’s most influential policymakers in earthquake safety. … He was particularly renowned for his ability to increase the public’s awareness about earthquakes and motivate legislators to improve earthquake safety. Professor Bolt leaves a rich legacy of public policy accomplishments.”

Bolt, a native of Australia who became a naturalized citizen of the United States, was unique in straddling the boundary between seismology and engineering. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1978, joined the UC Berkeley Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1988, and was a key liaison to engineers seeking information about ground motion so that they could design buildings to withstand the shaking.

“He really was the founder of the modern field of engineering seismology, which is the interface between earth science and the fields of geotechnical and structural engineering,” said Gregory Fenves, UC Berkeley professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering. “He was an indefatigable advocate for communication between seismologists and engineers. He could speak to broad audiences, right at heir level, including legislators and governors.”

As a member of the state’s Seismic Safety Commission, Bolt was instrumental in developing state legislation for seismic hazard mapping, the Southern California and Bay Area Earthquake Preparedness Projects, the California Earthquake Education Project, earthquake safety improvements for mobile homes, private schools, hospital buildings, essential services buildings, and unreinforced masonry buildings, the “California at Risk” earthquake loss reduction program, requirements for the disclosure of earthquake weaknesses to potential homebuyers, and a small building permit fee to fund the Strong Motion Instrumentation Program.

Bolt was a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and of the Geological Society of America, an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and an overseas fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He was president in 1974 of the Seismological Society of America and editor of its bulletin from 1965 to 1972, and president of the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth’s Interior from 1980 until 1983. He won the Alfred Alquist Medal of the California Earthquake Safety Foundation, the George W. Housner Medal from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, and, upon retiring from UC Berkeley, the campus’s highest honor, the Berkeley Citation. Aside from his two popular books, Bolt also wrote Earthquakes and Geological Discovery (1993) and five editions of Earthquakes (fifth edition, 2003).

  • UC Berkeley Press Release, July 25, 2005.

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MSGBI Participates in GeoScienceWorld

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

The Society, along with several other geoscience societies, has taken the unprecedented step of joining a consortium of societies known as GeoScienceWorld (GSW) to publish an aggregate or bundle of geoscience journals, which will make available to institutional libraries around 30 journals for a single subscription. The GSW collection is now available. Visit http://www.geoscienceworld.org/ for more details. Whilst the Society has members in 52 countries we feel that the excellence of our publications demands an even wider readership and we are hopeful that GSW will penetrate markets as yet uncharted by the Society and extend the readership of our publications. Further details on all Mineralogical Society matters can be found on the Society’s extensive Web site at: http://www.minersoc.org.

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Compelling Earth Science for Disaster Prevention

Wednesday, October 19th, 2005

By Linda Rowan, Director, AGI Government Affairs Program

Hurricane Katrina reminded the nation of the power of nature, the folly of complacency and the high cost of not planning for natural earth processes. Earth science has progressed to the point that predictions and understanding of natural hazards makes mitigation and preparation more cost-effective and efficient than ever before. The earth science community needs to increase their efforts to communicate with policymakers the value of sound science in their planning.

AGI’s Government Affairs program posted an action alert about a week after hurricane Katrina asking for earth scientists with expertise in all aspects of this disaster to volunteer their time and knowledge to public policy planning. AGI will maintain a database of experts who can respond to requests from policymakers for information and advice on disaster prediction and prevention. Many Member Societies responded and the list of experts is comprehensive and very informative.

Many of the earth scientists who volunteered are already actively involved in education, public outreach, policymaking and emergency response. For example, Chuck Rosenfeld, a geologist at Oregon State University who studies coastal flooding using remote sensing, is also a Major General in the Oregon National Guard. Professor Rosenfeld is involved in emergency response with the National Guard and he was the Chairman of the Commission on Natural Hazards Studies during the United Nation’s International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) 1990-2000.

Another volunteer is Dr. Lorna Greening, an energy and natural resource economist, who worked as a petroleum geologist discovering several oil and gas sites before concentrating on energy economics. She has worked for the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Information Administration, USAID, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, several national laboratories, and private clients. She also contributed to the Second Assessment of the International Panel on Climate Change.

It is imperative that earth scientists try to help policymakers with all types of natural and man-made hazards. The geoscience community must find effective means to make compelling arguments for sound mitigation and preparation practices. Earth scientists are citizens first and scientists second; a fact that is often forgotten except in time of extreme need and community cooperation. Now is the time to initiate or continue communications with local, state and federal authorities, to find out their disaster plans and help improve these plans. It will take earth scientists working as individuals and as a community to reduce the threat of natural Earth processes to the human-built environment.

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Art and Science

Wednesday, October 19th, 2005

By Warren D. Allmon, Director

Paleontological Research Institute

Museum of the Earth

Paleontology presents us with both a challenge and an opportunity to explore the nature and role of images and art in science. Because paleontologists are observing the remains of long-dead organisms rather than the organisms themselves, they are several steps removed from what they really want to know about. This makes art even more important, for paleontologists rely on artistic interpretation to reconstruct what they do not find in an incomplete fossil record, and to restore the soft parts and behavior that they could never observe. “Good” paleoartists make use of information from fossils and living animals, as well as the hypotheses of scientists, and add their own ideas and interpretations of how ancient animals may have looked and acted. The paleontological restorations that are so familiar to both scientists and the general public are thus in part objective data, but also in part inference, “informed” speculation, and artistic creativity. In this complex process of estimating visual images of life of the past lie important messages about how historical science is done, and how to communicate such science to the general public.

Although this would be true of any fossil, the relationship between art and science is perhaps nowhere more clearly laid out than in the case of dinosaurs. Few other scientific subjects have attracted so much artistic attention. The public’s appetite for and interest in dinosaurs, furthermore, has ensured an almost continuous record of what artists (and their scientific collaborators) thought dinosaurs were like over the 160 years since they were first described. This has produced an extraordinary (but underexploited) opportunity for the historian of art and science.

This situation has also put non-scientists, especially artists, in an unusually central role in the scientific process of reconstructing dinosaurs. Because art is the only means available for visualizing these extinct creatures, it is actually a part of their scientific study. Art itself may be a direct influence on the scientific process of reconstruction and restoration of ancient life; artists have even been said to be “ahead” of scientists in exploring aspects of dinosaurs. Early twentieth century paleontologists, for example, may have seen dinosaurs as clumsy and slow largely because one or a few influential leaders in the field (and their artists) maintained it was so. Similarly, mid-twentieth century dinosaur scientists may well have been influenced by these same views (and the resulting visual images) which had dominated the popular conception of dinosaurs since their childhood. This may have contributed to some of the initial resistance to the idea of more dynamic dinosaurs in the 1970s. Now that “hot-blooded” dinosaurs are more or less the norm in popular art and culture, the same process may be acting to make it more difficult for those paleontologists who have suggested that particular dinosaurs may not have been quite as fleet-footed as has been claimed. Many six-year-olds will tell you that a “modern” can only be drawn with its tail up off the ground.

This vital role for paleo art was essentially the creation of one man: Charles R. Knight (1874-1953). At a time when many scientists were hesitant about making lifelike reconstructions of what dinosaurs may have looked like, and the public had almost no familiarity with ancient life, Knight created images that boldly went where few artists had gone before. His images of ancient life — especially dinosaurs — have influenced science, art, and popular culture for more than a century.

This is why the Museum of the Earth is especially pleased to be presenting a major exhibit of Knight’s work. From October 2005 through April 2006, the Museum will be displaying more than 20 drawings and paintings by Knight, from the collection of his granddaughter Rhoda Knight Kalt (see page 28, this issue), as well as eight of Knight’s dinosaur sculptures from the collections of PRI and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. We call this exhibit “Conquering Darkness” because Knight brought to light the creatures of the dark and distant geological past, but also because from the age of six he was blind in one eye, and struggled all of his life with his vision, obviously a huge handicap for a visual artist.

This exhibit is part of the Museum’s continuing commitment to exploring the connections between art and science. Although they are often seen as separate, these two fields of human endeavor have much in common, and perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in our attempts to bring fossils to life.

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