Introduction:
The last two years have seen continued growth in study of the Earth's deep interior. Much of the most exciting new work has taken the form of interdisciplinary, cooperative activities. Internationally, the research initiative Studies of the Earth's Deep Interior (SEDI), continues to grow, while in the United States the NSF has responded to calls from the community to create a new funding initiative in Cooperative Studies of the Earth's Deep Interior (CSEDI).
The role of the AGU SEDI committee is to promote and encourage interdisciplinary activities focusing on the Earth's deep interior within AGU. This work has primarily taken the form of organizing special sessions at the national meetings of the AGU that span several AGU sections, especially the Geodesy, Geomagnetism & Paleomagnetism, Seismology, Tectonophysics, and Volcanology, Geochemistry & Petrology sections. Over the last two years, the committee has expanded its activities to provide information to AGU members about the scientific community's efforts to initiate CSEDI, cooperation with the international SEDI community, and development of a World-Wide-Web page for the AGU SEDI committee. This report summarizes the activities and accomplishments of the AGU-SEDI committee over the last two years.
AGU National Meetings:
At the Fall, 1994 AGU meeting, a Union session on Earth Structure from Crust to Core spanned two full days and attracted a large audience. A Union session entitled From Earth's Deep Interior to Jupiter's Red Spot: The Continuing Legacy of Ray Hide, combined SEDI related presentations with work on other planets. A joint Seismology, Tectonophysics, and Volcanology, Geochemistry & Petrology session on Multidisciplinary Investigations of the Core-Mantle Boundary included 24 talks, while a session on the Bolivia and Fiji Deep Earthquakes demonstrated the important contributions of new seismic data to research on the Earth's deep interior.
In addition to the special sessions, a reception was jointly sponsored by the AGU-SEDI committee and the coordinating committee on Cooperative Studies of the Earth's Deep Interior (CSEDI). The reception was attended by about 80 people, and provided a forum for a presentation by Jim Whitcomb of the National Science Foundation about a new NSF initiative to fund interdisciplinary proposals in Cooperative Studies of the Earth's Deep Interior.
At the Spring, 1995 AGU Meeting, a Union session on Mantle Structure, Dynamics, and Geochemical Reservoirs attracted 24 abstracts and a large audience, while joint sessions on the SEDI theme were held on topics ranging from Deep Structure and Tectonics of the South American Continent to Volatiles in Minerals and the Mantle .
Because of the high level of SEDI activity at the IUGG meeting in July (see below), the committee elected not to offer a Union session on SEDI activities at the Fall 1995 meeting. Instead, joint sessions were held on a variety of topics related to the SEDI theme, including (among other topics): Geomagnetic Field Variability, Seismic Imaging of the Core-Mantle Boundary, Deep Earthquake Processes, and Earth Materials at Extremes of Pressure and Temperature (in honor of Robert McQueen). A joint session was also held on The Earth From Crust to Core, along with a poster session on Earth's Deep Interior.
1995 IUGG Meeting:
The 1995 Meeting on the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, held at Boulder, Colorado with the assistance of the AGU, provided an excellent opportunity for cooperation between the AGU and the international SEDI community. SEDI activities were strongly represented at this meeting during ten different joint symposia and workshops on the SEDI theme. These ranged from very broad topics (Inner Core, Core, Mantle, and Their Interfaces) to sessions focusing on a specific region (Core-Mantle Boundary Region) or topic (Geochemical and Geophysical Signatures of Mantle Plumes). These symposia attracted a large number of abstracts and lively discussion among the participants.
AGU-SEDI on the World-Wide-Web:
A home page has been developed on the World-Wide-Web to contain reports of AGU-SEDI committee activities, links to AGU sessions with a SEDI theme at the Fall 1995 Annual Meeting (links to the Spring 1996 meeting program will be introduced when the Spring Meeting program comes on-line), and links to other pages reporting activities that may be of interest to AGU members conducting SEDI-related work. The AGU SEDI home page is located at: http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~AGU_SEDI. We plan that the AGU-SEDI home page will be linked to the AGU home page.
Recommendations for the Future:
Interest and activity in studies of the Earth's deep interior continues to grow both in the U.S. and internationally. As the NSF CSEDI program begins to fund research programs, there will be an increased need for coordinated, multidisciplinary activities within AGU, including both special sessions at the national meetings and special publications. In addition, there is a continuing need for a strong U.S. presence in SEDI to interact with the international activities. The high profile of SEDI-themed sessions at the 1995 IUGG meeting in Boulder is a measure of how successful such international cooperation can be. The AGU SEDI committee is the only U.S. committee that can facilitate these activities within AGU. In response to these factors there is a clear need for the AGU to continue encouraging cross-disciplinary activities in studies of the Earth's Deep Interior. Therefore, the committee members strongly recommend continuation of the AGU SEDI committee. The AGU SEDI committee should have dual goals of promoting and encouraging SEDI-related activities by AGU membership and continued and interaction with the international SEDI committee.
A note on the name of the committee: The committee is presently named "Study of the Earth's Deep Interior". This is a change from an earlier name, "Study of the Earth's Interior." The change was suggested by both the former and current chairs of the committee to more accurately reflect the focus of the committee. I recommend that AGU SEDI committee continue, with its present name, to focus on studies of the deep interior of the Earth.
Louise Kellogg
Chair, AGU Committee for Study of the Earth's Deep Interior
January, 1996