Support will involve travel costs of speakers to a Penrose conference on the paleoenvironmental interpretation of paleosols. Penrose Conferences are approved after review of the Geological Society of America, and operate under strict guidelines. Their purpose is to foster free discussion among a carefully chosen group of experts in the field, with the aim of identifying new directions in Earth sciences. This meeting will effect a reconciliation of two separate scientific traditions: agriculturally-oriented soil science and geologically-oriented sedimentology. Each research tradition has much to offer in the exploration of what has become known as paleopedology. The fossil record of soils can be viewed as a long term natural experiement in pedogenesis in which there were fundamental changes in soil-forming factors. It also can be viewed as a new line of evidence for the interpretation of major events and environments on land in the geological past. Ten keynote speakers and twenty discussants have been invited. Airfares and expenses for 6 foreign speakers, and airfares for 24 speakers from North America are requested.
