Return to IASPEI Home Page / Who We Are and What We Do/ Annual Reports
Workshop of Eastern and Southern Africa Working Group, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 7-15 March 1996 - Sponsored by Committee for Developing Countries (see below).
Methodology of Seismic Risk and Loss Estimation, Stanford, USA, 23-27 April 1996 - Organized jointly with World Seismic Safety Initiative (WSSI) of International Association of Earthquake Engineering by Working Group on Seismic Risk and Loss Estimation.
North London Workshop, North London, UK, May 1996 - Organized by Commission on Controlled Source Seismology.
Fourth International Workshop on Heat Flow and the Structure of the Lithosphere, Trest, Czech Republic, 10-16 June 1996 - Organized by International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC). Support provided for participation of scientists from developing countries and former eastern European bloc countries.
International meeting on Geodynamics of the Lithosphere and Earth's Mantle, Czech Republic, 8-13 July 1996 - Organized by Commission on Geodynamics and Tectonophysics.
IASPEI Regional Assembly in Asia, Tangshan, China, 1-3 August 1996 - The Regional Assembly was sponsored by IASPEI, the IASPEI Asian Seismological Commission, the State Seismological Bureau (SSB) of China, and the Municipal Government of Tangshan city, China, and was organized by the SSB. The assembly was attended by a total of 278 delegates, 92 of these from outside China, representing 29 countries and regions. The assembly scientific program consisted of 9 Technical Sessions ( Earthquake Precursors; Earthquake Prediction, and Physics of Earthquake Sources; Strong Ground Motion and Earthquake Hazard; Wave Propagation and Tomographic Imaging; Geothermics and Volcanology; Recent Devastating Earthquakes in Asia and Southern Pacific Region; Subduction Processes; Seismic Tectonics and Space Geodesy; Societal Impact of Earthquakes; and Triggered/Induced Seismicity) and 3 Workshops (Implementation of Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP) in Central and Southern Asia; Gaps in the World-Wide Seismological Publication Web; and Earthquake Scenario Seismic Risk and Loss Assessment). In all 185 oral and 95 poster presentations were made.
Although at its 1995 General Assembly IASPEI had already granted commission status to the Asian Seismological Commission (ASC), it remained necessary to complete this process by taking the steps required to formally establish the ASC. This was accomplished at the first ASC Council meeting, held on 3 August 1996 during the IASPEI Regional Assembly in Asia, at which statutes for the commission were adopted, officers elected (President, H. Gupta; Vice Presidents, K. Hamada and G. Gibson; and Secretary-General, Zhu Chuanzhen), and a time and venue for the next ASC General Assembly set (NGRI, Hyderabad, India, 1998).
30th IGC Symposium D4, Terrestrial Heat Flow, Hot Spots, Mantle Plumes and Thermal Structure of the Lithosphere, Beijing, China, 4-14 August - Organized by IHFC. Support provided for travel expenses of key speakers.
25th General Assembly of the European Seismological Commission, Reykjavik, Iceland, 9-14 September 1996 - Support provided for participation of young scientists.
7th International Symposium on Deep Seismic Profiling, Asilomar, USA, 16- 20 September 1996 - Organized by Commission on Controlled Source Seismology. Proceedings to be published in Special Issue of Tectonophysics. IDNDR Workshop on Earthquake Risk Management Strategies in Central Asia, Alma-Ata, Kazakstan, 22-25 October 1996 - Sponsored by IASPEI Commission for IDNDR (see below).
IASPEI intends to continues to make seismic risk reduction a top priority during the second half of the Decade. It has called upon seismological groups in member countries and individual Earth scientists to participate in the effort to reduce the great danger from earthquakes in many places around the world. IASPEI through its Commission for IDNDR has expanded its programs to study the main attributes of earthquakes and to disseminate globally knowledge on earthquakes to governments, engineers, planners, and the public.
The Workshop on Earthquake Risk Management Strategies in Central Asia brought together experts from around the world to confer with Central Asian experts on seismology, earthquake-resistant design, and emergency response. For the Central Asian participants (from Kazakstan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Russia, Greece, and Turkey) it was the first time they had met as representatives of independent counties).
A Committee on Education was formed by IASPEI at its 1995 General Assembly to promote sharing of seismological knowledge worldwide, to transfer technology to developing countries, and to ensure the continuation and coordination of training courses. A Sub-Committee on Training is now being organized to develop teaching materials and to provide training courses on seismic instrumentation and data acquisition, processing and analysis. Under this Sub-Committee, IASPEI can respond to training requests and requests for development of teaching materials on earthquakes and volcanoes from elementary school to college and post-graduate levels.
A major project of the committee is to prepare an IASPEI Centennial Volume celebrating the 100th anniversary of IASPEI in the year 2001. This volume will summarize our present knowledge about earthquakes and Earth's interior. The aim is to summarize the well established facts, to review relevant theories, and to survey useful methods and techniques.
The Eastern and Southern Africa Working Group of the IASPEI Committee for Developing Countries has already held five active workshops at different centers in Africa at which regional seismological analysis has been carried out and regional bulletins of events and associated readings produced. These are the only such comprehensive bulletins in the region, and form a useful starting point for further analysis such as that at ISC, and also for hazards studies as part of programs such as GSHAP. The countries involved are Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with South Africa also participating. At a 1996 workshop records for the period March-August 1995 were analyzed, and a bulletin produced. The working group held a formal meeting during the workshop and, as well as discussing technical problems, adopted a set of statutes which state its main aim as to 'encourage co-operation and promote research among seismological agencies in the Eastern and Southern African region'. A 'Report on the Seismic Hazard Analysis in Eastern and Southern Africa' was also prepared.
IASPEI, and its Committee for Developing Countries , is deeply aware that in many countries of the developing world there is a lack of even basic texts and publications on seismology and related earth sciences. IASPEI therefore has set up a mechanism to help transfer books and publications from individuals and institutions that have surplus stocks to institutions in developing areas that have need of them. To prevent duplication, the IASPEI Secretariat is prepared to act as a clearing house for such offers and requests. Those with surplus publications, including back runs of journals, are invited to supply a list to the IASPEI Secretariat. Institutions in developing countries with specific needs are also invited to make these known to the IASPEI Secretariat.
The IASPEI Secretary-General prepares and distributes irregularly an Association Newsletter. The content is primarily personal reports by IASPEI Commission Chairs, meeting organizers, and other member scientists involved in IASPEI sponsored activities. The last issue in 1996 was the first to be distributed using the IASPEI bulk E-mail system to those who have Internet addresses. Hard copy versions of the Newsletter will continue to be distributed to those without Internet addresses with the assistance of the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad, India.
The IASPEI Committee for Developing Countries circulates bi-annually from Hyderabad a Newsletter intended to provide a forum for exchanging news and views of geophysical importance among geoscientists, particularly from developing countries.
The IASPEI/IDNDR Secretariat in Beijing, China, circulates irregularly a Newsletter concerning IASPEI/IDNDR activities. The Secretariat also publishes a news magazine in Chinese.
Cermak, V. and Rybach, L. (Editors). Special Issue. Geothermal Aspects of Lower Crustal Structure, Heat Flow and Hydrothermal Circulation, Proceedings of the IASPEI Symposium held during the 27th General Assembly in Wellington, New Zealand, Tectonophysics, v. 257, 1996.
Reyners, M. and Hasegawa, A. (Editors). Special Issue. Subduction Zones and Back Arc Basins, Proceedings of the IASPEI Symposium held during the 27th General Assembly in Wellington, New Zealand, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, v. 93, 1996.
Schenck, V. (Editor). Earthquake Hazard and Risk, Papers selected by the Sub- Commission on Earthquake Hazard and Risk from Symposia and Workshops held during the 27th General Assembly in Wellington, New Zealand, Kluwer series 'Advances in Natural and Technological Hazard Research' No. 6, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht-Boston-London, 287 pp., 1996.
Engdahl, E.R., Castano, J.C., Berrocal, J., (Editors). Special Issue. Selected papers from the 1994 Regional Seismological Assembly in South America held in Brasilia, Brazil, Geofisica Internacional, v. 35, 1996.
Young, J.B., Presgrave, B.W., Aichele, H., Wiens, D.A., and Flinn, E.A., Special Issue. The Flinn-Engdahl Regionalisation Scheme: The 1995 Revision, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, v. 96, 1996.
Anderson, O.L., Jackson, I. (Editors), Special Issue, Thermoelastic Properties of Deep Mantle Phases, Proceedings of the IASPEI Workshop held during the 28th General Assembly in Boulder, USA, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, v. 98, 1996.
IASPEI also continues development of a home page on the World Wide Web (http://www.seismo.com/iaspei/index.html) which contains organizational information, a publications list, meeting announcements, and Internet connections.
The common affiliation of seismic hazard is within the scientific community represented by IASPEI. Several IASPEI commissions and working groups have an active role in the GSHAP implementation. In particular, in 1996 the Committee for Developing Countries and the Commission for IDNDR have been in close contact with GSHAP and the European and Asian Seismological Commissions have supported GSHAP activities and hosted special sessions within their general assemblies. An association lecture and a workshop dedicated to the GSHAP implementation, as well as a GSHAP Steering Committee meeting, are planned at the 1997 IASPEI General Assembly.
IASPEI participates in STEND, an information exchange program aimed at increasing awareness of available technology which is being developed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Contributors supply 'components', each describing some piece of technology, which are listed in a "STEND Reference Manual" that will be available in a computer- readable form as well as in a printed version at regional and national centers.
Volumes 4 and 5 of the IASPEI Software Library are now available. Volume 4 is a toolbox for managing bibliographic information and includes programs to automate the reference preparation in manuscripts and to manage a user's own references. Volume 5 is A Programmable Interactive Toolbox for Seismological Analysis (PITSA) and includes a short course on "First Principles of Digital Signal Processing for Seismologists." Each software volume includes the executable code, examples on floppy diskettes, and printed documentation.
Under the auspices of the Working Group on Personal Computers, a PC shareware library is being published on diskette, including files with short-form manuals of the programs. The Library provides for fast and wide distribution of geophysical programs and utilities, reduced or demonstration versions of geophysical software, and beta-versions of new programs to be included in future volumes of the SSL.
This Commission was established following the 1995 IUGG General Assembly (Co-Leaders - S. Mackwell and W. McDonough). The stated goal of this Inter-Association Commission is to promote interdisciplinary research and discussion on the nature and dynamics of the Earth's interior by encouragement and facilitation. Through experimental and theoretical studies of the physical and chemical behavior of Earth materials we can further our understanding of the planet's complex and dynamical evolution since accretion. Such studies provide constraints on the structure and composition of the planet's interior and characterize the important physiochemical exchanges between the metallic core, the silicate earth, and the atmosphere/hydrosphere. New understandings of earth processes and evolution will only come about through a strong interdisciplinary approach to the characterization of the nature and dynamics of the minerals, melts and magmas that are the fabric of the interior of the Earth. Moreover, by promoting interdisciplinary research and discussion, we hope to bring forth a greater appreciation of the measurements and uncertainties in the measurements made by geophysicists and geochemists studying the Earth's interior, and thereby facilitating a more informed application of these constraints in models developed in geophysics, geochemistry, petrology and volcanology. A major goal of the Commission is the coordination of international symposia and workshops that will promote the discussion of such interdisciplinary studies of Earth's interior. The Commission will be organizing a Continental Roots Workshop in 1997.
This Commission was established following the 1995 IUGG General Assembly (Co-Leaders - B. Chouet and Y. Ida) to provide stronger links between IASPEI and IAVCEI in the field of seismic monitoring. Advances in this area are critical to an understanding of the deep interior of volcanoes (their 'plumbing systems') and how potentially threatening magmas move towards the surface and erupt. Volcano seismology is the major tool used in monitoring volcanoes throughout the world, and advances in the subject therefore are likely to be of considerable humanitarian value, particularly in developing countries where most of the Earth¹s active volcanoes are to be found. The Commission will be organizing joint symposia on volcano seismology at the IASPEI and IAVCEI General Assemblies to be held in 1997.
The workshop was attended by an expert panel and 16 participants from developing and earthquake-prone countries. The emphasis was mainly on seismic, geodetic (GPS), magneto-telluric, gravity and magnetic instrumentation. In addition to theory lectures, arrangements were made for direct handling of the instruments in real field conditions. Manufacturers of geophysical instruments displayed and demonstrated their latest products.
Return to IASPEI Home Page / Who We Are and What We Do/ Annual Reports
Last modified:
November 20, 2007
Maintained by: Alice Walker abw@bgs.ac.uk at the British Geological Survey