Date

Dear Colleague,

We would like to call your attention to a special session at the Fall AGU (December 13th to 17th) on Arctic Ocean Geophysics. This session would provide the opportunity to display and discuss data that has been acquired over the last few years as well as two on-going international data compilation efforts which are building complementary gravity and bathymetry maps for the globe north of 64 N (roughly 15% of the earth's surface).

These data sets are already providing the basis for improving our understanding of the Arctic Ocean and planning future cruises to sample the sea floor. It seems that concentrating these talks in a single session will highlight the progress that has been made in data acquisition and processing, provide a context for presenting and discussing new theories about Arctic Ocean basin tectonics, and support planning and coordination of future data acquisition and sea floor sampling.

If you have any questions about this session, feel free to contact any of the convenors listed below.

We hope that both oral and poster presentations will be offered and encourage you to submit abstracts for either type of presentation for this session. Please note that the abstract deadline for postal or express mail submission is September 2nd. The deadline for Web submission is September 9th. Please send a copy of any abstract(s) you submit to each of the convenors.

For your information, AGU policy states:

For the 1999 Fall Meeting, a person as first author may submit one contributed paper and one invited paper approved by a Program Committee member for inclusion in the program. If a person accepts an invitation to be the first author on a second invited paper, this person must forego the first author contributed paper. Acceptance of any additional papers by the same first author requires a joint request from a convenor and Program Committee member to the Chairman of the Fall Program Committee, Robert Duce, for approval.

We anticipate being able to issue no more than 6 invitations. Our highest
priority is to issue these invitations to those who can use them to garner
travel support, who might not otherwise be able to attend.

For further information on this meeting visit the AGU web site;
http://earth.agu.org/meetings/fm99top.html

Here is a brief description of our proposed session;

T-f Arctic Basin Geophysics; New Data, New Theories, Future
Opportunities.
(Joint with G, GP)

Our understanding of the Arctic Basin has been substantially advanced in recent years due to acquisition of new data from US Navy submarines and aircraft and the release of classified data sets, both from the Russians and the US Navy. SeaMARC type swath data and chirp sub-bottom profiler data, collected during the last two SCICEX cruises on US Navy submarines, are the first routine imaging of the sea floor and sediment column across the entire deep Arctic Ocean. These data are the largest addition to the unclassified data base for the Arctic Ocean since the flurry of ice island activity in the 60s and 70s. These gravity, bathymetry, backscatter, chirp, and magnetics data form the basis for new, comprehensive maps of the Arctic Ocean and detailed study of the tectonic history and active processes in this poorly understood ocean basin, enabling the formulation of new questions and planning of future cruises to sample the sea floor. For this session, we would welcome talks on new data sets, data compilation projects, and new data analyses relevant to the development of the Arctic Ocean basin. This session will highlight the progress that has been made in data acquisition and processing, provide a context for discussion of new theories about Arctic Basin history and support planning and coordination of future data acquisition and sea floor sampling.

Convenors:
Bernard Coakley, Department of Geology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118; Tel: +1-504-862-3168; Fax: +1-504-865-5199; E-mail: bcoakle [at] mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu;

Margo Edwards, HMRG/HIGP, School of Ocean and Earth Science and
Technology, University of Hawaii, 1680 East-West Road, POST Bldg 815,
Honolulu, HI 96822; Tel: +1-808-956-5232; Fax: +1-808-956-6530; E-mail: margo [at] soest.hawaii.edu;

Rene Forsberg, National Survey and Cadastre (KMS), Geodynamics
Department, Rentemestervj 8, DK-2400, Copenhagen NV, Denmark; Tel:
+45-3587-5319; Fax: +45-3587-5052; E-mail: rf [at] kms.dk;

Lawrence A. Lawver, University of Texas at Austin, Institute for
Geophysics, 4412 Spicewood Springs Road #600, Austin, TX 78759; Tel:
+1-512-471-0433; Fax: +1-512-471-8844; E-mail: lawver [at] ig.utexas.edu


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