The Gordon Research Conference on the Interior of the Earth, to be held June 10-15, 2007 at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, will address major unresolved problems at the frontiers of our understanding of the dynamics, composition, structure, and evolution of the earth's crust, lithosphere, and deeper mantle, and their connections to surface observations. G"oran Ekstr"om (PI) and Bruce Buffett (University of Chicago) are the Chair and Vice-Chair, respectively for the 2007 meeting. The meeting will bring together researchers from a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, disciplines, types of institutions, career stages, and demographics. The sessions will be:
- The Continental Lithosphere: Where did it come from, where does it go? - The Asthenosphere I: What is the asthenosphere? - The Asthenosphere II: How do the lithosphere, asthenosphere and deeper mantle interact? - Oceanic Lithosphere from Ridge to Trench - Anisotropy: Fabric development, maintenance, and destruction - Subduction Zones: What goes down and what comes up? - Why is the transition zone important? - Deglaciation and Sea-Level Change: Earth's response to loading on multiple time scales - Unresolved Questions
This is the sixth Gordon Research Conference on the Earth's Interior. The previous five have been remarkably successful as documented by evaluations required by the GRC organization. Gordon Research Conferences provide a unique setting for the exchange of scientific ideas in which the opportunities for formal and informal discussion are optimized. The conferences are administered through a central office in Rhode Island, which takes no overhead; the conference infrastructure leaves the conference organizers free to focus on the content of the meeting.
Intellectual Merit. The conference will address major unresolved problems at the frontiers of our understanding of the dynamics, composition, structure, and evolution of the earth's crust, lithosphere, and deeper mantle, and their connections to surface observations.
Broader Impacts. The requested funds will be used primarily to encourage and support the participation of young scientists who might not otherwise be able to attend, including graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. The conference is an excellent educational opportunity for this group, not only for the formal presentations, but for the chances to interact informally with leaders in the field, and to present their own work in the form of posters. NSF support of previous conferences on the Interior of the Earth has helped tremendously to facilitate a diverse group of attendees.
