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INQUA Commission on Neotectonics
BUSINESS MEETING
Minutes of the Business Meeting of 13 September 1998, held in
Corinth, Greece, under the auspices of the IGCP Project 367
conference on ‘Rapid Coastal Changes in the Late Quaternary’
Present:
C. Bartolini (Chair), I. Stewart (Secretary),
T. Bardaji, K. Berryman, T. Boski, H. Bruckner, C. Kraft, A. Cundy,
S. Dawson, T. Dewez, G. Ferentinos, J.L. Goy, A. Hinton, I. Kayan,
A. Koutsouveli, J. Laborel, G. Mastronuzzi, M. Matova, C. Morhange,
N.-A. Mörner, A. Nikonov, Y. Ota, S. Papageoghiou, P. Pirazzoli, H.
Regnauld, P. Sanso, D. Smith, M. Tooley, G. Valensise, H.I. Yi, C. Zazo.
AGENDA:
The Chair welcomed both Commission members and non-members to this open business meeting of INQUA’s Commission on Neotectonics, the second business meeting since the establishment of the present committee in August 1995.
2. Commission Activity 1996 - 1998
The main scientific activities and events organised by, or in partnership with, the Neotectonics Commission during this period were:
2.1 Conferences/Meetings/Workshops
1996 ‘International meeting on the May 13 1995 Kozani-Grevena earthquake’,
Kozani, Greece, May 24-26. Convenor: S Pavlides.
1996 Conference on ‘Lignes de rivage et zones côtieres au Quaternaire’,
Perpignan, France, December 2 - 4. Convenor: P.A. Pirazzoli.
1997 Conference on ‘Late Quaternary Coastal Tectonics’ held in London,
UK, 18-19 June. Convenor: I. Stewart & C. Vita-Finzi.[1]
1998 Open session on ‘Recent crustal movements of coastal regions:
new geodetic, geologic and geophysical results’ held at European Geophysical
Society XXIII General Assembly, Nice, France, 20-24 April. Convenors: P.A.
Pirazzoli & L. Bastos.
1998 Workshop on ‘Fission-track analysis: theory and application’ held
on May 19, in Florence, Italy. Convenor: M.L. Balestrieri.
1998 Workshop on ‘Formalisation of Neotectonic Maps’ held in Patras,
Greece, 28 May - 2 June. Convenors: I. Mariolakos & P. Silva.
1998 Workshop on ‘The resolution of geological analysis and models
for earthquake faulting studies’, Rome and Camerino, Italy, 3 - 6 June.
Convenor: A. Michetti.
1998 Conference and fieldtrip on ‘Rapid coastal changes in the Late
Quaternary, processes, causes, modelling and impacts on coastal zones’
held in Corinth/Samos, Greece, 10-20 September. The meeting, the final
meeting of IGCP Project 367, was jointly sponsored by the Commission. Convenors:
S. Stiros & P.A. Pirazzoli.
Note: A fieldtrip and workshop on ‘Morphotectonics in the Apennines’, co-sponsored by the Commission at the 4th International Association of Geomorphologists and scheduled for 22-28 August 1997, was cancelled due to the limited number of participants.
2.2 Proposals for 1999 Durban INQUA Congress
Several proposals for Commission symposiums, poster sessions and/or workshops for the 1999 Durban INQUA Congress were submitted to the Executive Committee in November 1997. Those accepted by the Executive Committee are:
Symposium 10.5 Ice sheets, crustal movements and seismicity: neotectonics of glaciated and deglaciated terrains. Convenor: I. Stewart (UK) & J. Sauber (USA)
Poster Session (P7) Impact of tectonics on Earth surface processes.
Convenors: C. Bartolini (Italy) & F. Audemard (Venezuela)
Poster Session (P4) Quaternary geology, paleoseismology and seismic
hazard for critical facilities such as Nuclear Power Plants. Convenors:
A. Michetti (Italy) & L. Serva (Italy)
The following poster session was also co-proposed by the Commission:
Poster session (P9) Extreme events in the Quaternary record. Convenor: A. Dawson (UK)
2.3 Research Projects
Two research projects proposed by the Commisison were approved and funded by the INQUA Executive Committee in April 1997. These were:
• Multi-proxy high-resolution studies of earthquakes in Mediterranean
coastal and lacustrine environments. Leader: I. Stewart (UK)
• Timing and rates of uplift affecting the Apenninic Chain. Leaders:
C. Bartolini and M. Boccaletti (Italy)
2.4 Commission Web Page
A glamorous and exhaustive web-page for the Commission has recently been set up by Maria Assunção Araújo (Porto University, Portugal). The web site can be found at:
http://www.letras.up.pt/geograf/neotect.html
2.5 Membership Survey
An updated survey of the Commission membership undertaken by the Chair and Secretary in 1996-1997 has revealed that there are presently 162 active members of the Commission. Since the bulk of these members are now contactable via e-mail, an electronic mailing list has been established to permit the rapid and wide dissemination of information about the Commission’s activities and events.
3. Reports from Working Groups
The Committee noted that they had received formal progress reports from Working Groups 2, 4 and 5. Oral reports were invited from members of the other Working Groups present. Two oral reports were presented by N.-A. Morner.
3.1 W.G. 1 - Formalisation of Neotectonic Maps
N.-A. Mörner reported orally that there had been much progress in the activities of this group, culminating in the successful summary workshop held in Patras, Greece, in 1998. The results of questionnaires sent to 350 scientists were presented and discussed at this meeting and, on the basis of this, discussions are continuing about the future direction of research within this group.
3.2 W.G. 3 - Mountain-building
N.A. Mörner reported that research over the last few years had revealed considerable new insights into mountain building process at a global scale. The topic had benefitted from major conferences in China and Canada and Mörner commended the role of the Commission, and in particular its Vice-President C. Ollier, in raising the profile of this important area of study.
The Chair reminded the meeting the activities of all five of its working groups will be assessed by INQUA Executive Committee and that following the INQUA Congress there may be new or modified working groups.
4. Experiences with project-oriented activity
The Chair reminded the meeting that the current policy of INQUA was oriented towards promoting international collaborative research projects, with the exception of a small $500 budget, for administration purposes. The new policy had resulted in considerable debate over the last few years, and a brief outline of the Commission’s experience with this was given. In particular, the Chair reported that the Commssion had originally proposed 3 projects early 1996 and that all were rejected. Two revised projects were accepted at the end of 1997, one led by C. Bartolini and the other by I. Stewart. These had each received ‘seed’ funding of $1600. The Chair noted that discussions with members of the Exceutive Committee suggested that a less-rigid policy might be adopted by INQUA in the future, but welcomed comments from the membership on this issue.
N.-A. Mörner commented on the fact that the Commission had developed from research projects but stressed that they needed to be adequately funded. C. Zazo noted that it was unclear if projects would continue beyond the 1999 Congress because of the insufficient administrative funding for projects. Other members were more critical, stating that the new project-approach was a disaster for some Commissions, such as the Shorelines Commission, which had had no projects approved, and arguing for a more equitable distribution of project awards between Commissions.
Invited to respond to this criticism, Y. Ota, a member of the Executive Committee, reaffirmed the policy agreed by INQUA in 1995: that $500 annual funding was available to Commissions on request and that INQUA’s remaining funds were directed towards special projects. Budget limitations meant that only projects with a clear purpose could be funded, but she reminded members that anyone seeking ‘seed money’ could submit research proposals, via the Commission, for annual funds of $2000-3000, though the requirement to involve young scientists was emphasised. In response to M. Tooley’s statement that the INQUA webpages indicated that each Commission could receive upto $4000 per year and that each project received $2000 per year, Y. Ota agreed to check that the webpages did conform to the officially agreed Excecutive Committee policy.
The Chair invited members to consider what type and number of projects the Commisison ought to propose for the next Congress period, reminding them that no funding is allocated to the compilation of information for databases. N.A. Mörner proposed that two topics - (1) Formalisation of Neotectonic Maps and (2) Palaeoseismology - ought to be developed further. No other suggestions were made.
5. XV INQUA Congress in Durban
Y. Ota reminded members of the new policy adopted for INQUA’s 1999 Durban Congress. In contrast to the previous emphasis on oral sessions, the new policy is to limit oral presentations to a few key symposia on specially approved topics, and to present the majority of conference papers to poster sessions. In addition, there would be specially arranged workshops on a range of topics. Proposals for poster sessions and workshops were still welcomed.
6. Formal proposal of a Subcommision on Palaeoseismicity
The Chair explained that the Palaeoseismology working group was the most active of the Commission’s working groups, with numerous activities including the publication of a special volume of papers arising from a session on Palaeoseismology at the 1995 INQUA Congress. The Committee had received a formal proposal from A. Michetti to upgrade the Working Group on Palaeoseismology to a Sub-Commission.
Although there was support for the proposal, there was considerable discussion over the proposed scope of the new sub-Commision, and in particular its aim of appraising ‘the seismic component in recent landscape evolution’. Several members felt that this definition conflicted with the objective of most mainstream palaeoseismological research, which was directed at the identification of active faults and past earthquakes. Several members welcomed the new approach, arguing that it was innovative and timely, but argued that it was not strictly ‘palaeoseismology’ and that redefining the topic in this way would bring the Commission into conflict with other international programmes, such as the ILP’s Working Group on Palaeoseismology. Due to these concerns, no formal adoption of a subcommission was recommended.
There was no other business.
[1] A mid-intercongress business meeting of the Commission was held during this conference. The minutes of the meeting are published in the Neotectonic Commission's Bulletin and on the Commission's WWW site (http://www.letras.up.pt/geograf/minute.html).
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Comments and suggestions to:
Maria Assunção Araújo: m.a.araujo@netcabo.pt