Date

Call For Abstracts
Special Session: Paleoceanography of the Arctic Ocean at the 2003
EGS/AGU/EUG Joint Assembly
Nice, France
6-11 April 2003

For general information about the EGS/AGU/EUG Joint Assembly see:
http://www.copernicus.org/egsagueug/index.html

Abstract Deadline is 15 January 2003, 24:00 GMT

Dear Colleagues:

We are organizing a session entitled Paleoceanography of the Arctic
Ocean at the next EGS/AGU/EUG Spring Meeting and we invite you to
participate in session CL 11.13 in Climate : Past, Present, Future

The objective of this special session is to encourage discussion about
Mare incognitum - The Arctic Ocean. Despite its critical role in global
climate evolution, it's the only ocean basin whose history is virtually
unknown. We are soliciting papers on all aspects of the
paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic evolution of the Arctic Ocean.

All information regarding oral or poster contributions are available on
the Assembly Website:
http://www.copernicus.org/egsagueug/index.html

See Guidelines for Conveners for Abstract Format & Submission at:
http://www.copernicus.org/EGS/egsga/nice03/convener_guidelines.htm

Deadline for receiving abstracts is 15 January 2003, 24:00 GMT. Oral and
poster contributions are welcome. We look forward to receiving your
abstract.

The scientific exploration of the central Arctic Ocean made huge
progress during the last decade as a result of several successful
icebreaker expeditions. These expeditions had broad scientific mandates
and covered sampling and data acquisition of all natural systems from
the atmosphere to sea-floor. Geological coring and seismic reflection
programs hence were key components of most of the central Arctic Ocean
expeditions. Acquisition of geophysical data sets and sea-floor mapping
were greatly enhanced through a series of yearly expeditions using US
navy nuclear submarines, e.g., the 1999 Hawkbill cruise, collecting
sidescan, swath bathymetry and chirp sonar data. All these efforts
created a wealth of new data and provided a scientific basis for a much
more accurate representation of Arctic processes in, for example, global
climate models. The Arctic Ocean, Mare incognitum, the unexplored sea, is
thus presently undergoing geoscientific investigations of the type that
occurred during the late 1940's through 1960's in the Atlantic, Indian
and Pacific oceans.

We are looking forward to receiving your contributions on Arctic Ocean
paleoceanography!

Jan Backman (backman [at] geo.su.se)
Martin Jakobsson (martin.jakobsson [at] unh.edu)