Alexandria, Va. -- Almost every American probably owns some household or work item that contains
copper from the Grasberg mine, located in the remote Indonesian province of
Irian Jaya (west New Guinea). Known as "Asia's greatest mine," the Grasberg is
one of the highest yielding copper deposits discovered in the past 30 years.
Grasberg, which taps a 1.7-billion-tonne copper-gold orebody, promises to be a
major source of copper through the next century -- and perhaps beyond.
In the January issue of Geotimes, Dr. Mark Cloos, a structural
geology and tectonics professor at the University of Texas at Austin,
describes initial explorations of the Grasberg mine and the rapid development
of an impressive mining complex. His article, "Anatomy of a Mine: The
Discovery and Development of Grasberg," is the first of three features on the
Grasberg mine that will run in Geotimes this year. In a future
issue, Dr. Cloos will explore the environmental and social issues associated
with development of the mine. A third article will examine a model program for
industry-academic research collaboration that uses Grasberg as a "real world"
laboratory.
Other feature stories in the January issue include a report from Gordon
Eaton, director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), on the changes and
upcoming projects for the nation's largest earth and water science agency. In
October, the USGS also became one of the nation's largest biological research
organizations when it absorbed the National Biological Service. In his
article, "Update: The New USGS," Eaton foresees the marriage between physical
and biological science as a promising solution to problems involving public
health and safety, economic development and growth, and environmental
protection and use.
The third feature article, "Dispelling the Myth of Sea-Floor
Tranquility," by Gerald M. Friedman and John E. Sanders, is a historical
account of the research that changed our understanding of marine sedimentology
and the deep sea. Scientists once believed the ocean depths to be a still,
unchanging realm. But research dating from the discovery of submarine canyons
in the 1930s helped geologists identify turbidity currents as important agents
of erosion and deposition in deep-water basins.
Geotimes is published by the American Geological
Institute, a nonprofit federation of 29 member societies representing
geologists, geophysicists, and other earth and environmental scientists. This
press release and other news can be accessed on the World Wide Web at
http://www.agiweb.org/agi/news.html.
