Minutes of the Business Meeting of 19th June, 1997, held at the Geological Society of London, Burlington House, London, UK.

Present:

Maria Araujo, Carlo Bartolini (Chair), Syridon Bellas, Kelvin Berryman, Alastair Dawson, Sue Dawson, Alain Demoulin, Dale-Dominey-Howes, Jean-Francois Dumont, Nick Flemming, Anne Hinton, Nicole Lenôtre, Colin Murray-Wallace, Patrick Nunn, Yoko Ota, Paolo Pirazzoli, Iain Stewart (Secretary), Michael Tooley, James Wales, Robert Yeats.

• 1.1 The Chair welcomed the Commission members present to the first business meeting of the Commission on Neotectonics since Berlin 1995 when the present committee was established.

• 2.1 After outlining the main working groups of the Commission, the Chair briefly reviewed the activities of these groups over the last 2 years.
• 2.2 W.G. I - Formalization of neotectonics maps - Coord.: I. Mariolakos (Athens) and P. Silva (Salamanca).


2.2.1 The Chair reported that a workshop on the Formalisation of Neotectonic Maps' had been planned by I. Mariolakos to be held in Greece (most likely Crete) in either early June or early September 1998, but no firm details of this had yet been confirmed.

2.2.2 The Chair invited N. Lenôtre (BGRM, Orleans) to convene a workshop on this theme at the INQUA Congress in Durban, 1999. Dr Lenôtre confirmed that she was happy to organise this. Dr P. Silva suggested that the Commission should communicate with Prof. Mariolakos to confirm if a similar workshop, provisionally scheduled for the Geol. Soc. of Greece conference this year, would go ahead. The Chair agreed to contact Prof. Mariolakos, but noted that someone had to organise a workshop for this working group at the INQUA congress and that in the absence of other offers, Dr Lenôtre would have responsibility for this.

• 2.3 W.G. II - Paleoseismicity: methods, criteria and dating - Coord.: A.M. Michetti (Rome) and F.M. Audemard (Caracas).


2.3.1 The Chair reported that this group had organised a very successful symposium on Palaeoseismicity during the Berlin conference and that a thematic set of papers arising from this was being published as a double-volume special issue of the Journal of Geodynamics (A.M. Michetti and P.L. Hancock, Editors). Publication date is around July 1997.

2.3.2 A forthcoming activity associated with this group will be an Open Session on 'Earthquake Risk Mitigation: Active Fault Mechanics', convened by M. Cocco (ING, Rome) and I. Stewart (Brunel University, London) at the European Geophysical Society XXIII General Assembly, to be held at Nice, France, 20-24 April 1998. Further details of this will be posted to Commission members when available.
 
 

• 2.4 W.G. III - Mountain building - Coord.: F. Dramis (Rome) and N.-A. Mörner (Stockholm).


2.4.1 The Chair announced that a 1-day session on "Tectonic geomorphology in Mountain Belts" planned for August 25, 1997, as part of a 7-day field trip on "Morphotectonics in the Apennines", had attracted only eight registrants. As a result, the Organizing Committe of the IV International Conference on Geomorphology (co-sponsor of the event together with the Commission on Neotectonics) decided, during its meeting of December 10, 1996, to cancel both events.

2.4.2 The Chair reported that a project "Timing and rates of uplift affecting the Apenninic Chain" put forward by this working group had been approved by INQUA Executive in March, 1997. Funding of $3000 per year had been made available to this 3 year project. The Chair, who is the project leader, welcomed broader participation in the project by any interested Commission members and agreed to circulate further details of this project.

• 2.5 W.G. IV - Coastal tectonics - Coord.: C. Zazo (Madrid), P. Pirazzoli (Meudon-Bellevue) and I. S. Stewart (Isleworth-London).


2.5.1 The Chair noted that this was currently the most active working group, having organised the current conference on Late Quaternary Coastal Tectonics which was hosting this business meeting. The conference, co-convened by Dr. Stewart and Prof. Vita-Finzi (London), will give rise to a thematic set of papers on the theme of Coastal Tectonics published as Special Publication of the Geological Society of London. The expected publication date will be September 1998.

2.5.2 Dr Pirazzoli (Meudon-Bellevue) was invited to report on a previous meeting, a colloquium which he organised on "Lignes de rivage et zones cotières au Quaternaire" and which took place in Perpignan, France, December 2 - 4, 1996 . Although essentially a national meeting, researchers from 5 countries resulted in more than 50 participants and led to a very successful meeting.

2.5.3 Dr Pirazzoli also reported two future events associated with this working group.

• (1) An Open Session on "Recent crustal movements of coastal regions: new geodetic, geologic and geophysical results" (Convenor: P.A. Pirazzoli; Co-convenor: L. Bastos) at the European Geophysical Society XXIII General Assembly, to be held at Nice, France, 20-24 April 1998. Further details of this will be posted to Commission members when available.

• (2) The final business meeting of IGCP Project 367 meeting, jointly sponsored by the Shorelines and the Neotectonics Commissions, on "Rapid coastal changes in the Late Quaternary: processes, causes, modelling, impacts on coastal zones" which will take place in Corinth and Samos, Greece, 10-20 September 1998. The second circular for this is now avaliable and can be obtained from Dr Pirazzoli (pirazzol@cnrs-bellevue.fr) or from his co-convenor, Dr Stathis Stiros (IGME, Greece).

 

 

2.5.4 The Chair reported that a project on "Multi-proxy, high-resolution studies of earthquakes in Mediterranean coastal and lacustrine environments" put forward by this working group had been approved by INQUA Executive on March, 1997. Funding of $1600 per year had been made available to this 2 year project. The project leader, Dr Stewart, outlined that the project was primarily aimed at identifying and characterising recent earthquake activity in the stratigraphic and geomorphic record of low-lying coastlines. Although based on the Mediterranean region, the INQUA Executive has encouraged the Commission to extend its research interests beyond this area, and for this reason Dr Stewart particularly welcomed broader participation from workers engaged in similar research in other parts of the world. Details of the project would be made available on the Commission's web page. It was also proposed that a workshop on the theme of 'Coastal Records of Earthquakes and Tsunamis: methods, criteria and applications' would be organised at the INQUA Congress in Durban, 1999.

• 2.6 W.G. V - Tectonic hazards - Coord.: K. Okumura (Higashi), S. Pavlides (Thessaloniki).


2.6.1 The Chair reported that an "International Meeting on the May 13, 1995 Kozani-Grevena earthquake" took place from May 24 to 26, 1996, in Kozani (Thessaloniki, Greece). The meeting was organised by Dr Pavlides and had been attended by several members of the Commission, including Dr Okumura. A thematic set of papers arising from this conference was being prepared by Dr Pavides for publication in a special isssue of the Journal of Geodynamics.

2.6.2 The Chair reported that a Theme Session "Advances of the Neotectonics in Latin America", convened by J.E. Costa (San Luis) and co-sponsored by the Commission, was to be held at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, in Salt Lake City, Utah, from October 20 to 23, 1997. Further informations at: moya@ucsub.colorado.edu.

• 3.1 The Chair reported that the newly elected Executive Commission had decided to focus Commission activities on research projects rather than on conferences, workshops, field trips, newsletters etc. It was noted that in addition to the two Commission projects outlined above which were approved by INQUA (after modification), a third project (Are today's Neotectonic maps an adequate tool? - P. Silva & I. Mariolakos) was rejected for funding.
• 3.2 It was announced that it was likely that there would be another call for proposals in December 1997 for new 1 - 1.5. year projects for the period extending up to the INQUA Congress in Durham in August 1999. In inviting Commission members to submit proposals for funding, Dr N. Flemming (Southampton) suggested that he was currently working with arcaheologists on Palaeolithic occupation of the continental shelf and that a 1 year programme of bringing together interested researchers from oceanographic, geological and archaeological disciplines would be extremely useful for establishing a subsequent high-profile, international research initiative. In welcoming this proposal, the Chair suggested that Dr Flemming communicate thse ideas formally to the Secretary.
• 3.3 Prof. M. Tooley (St Andrews), in outlining how the change of policy by the Executive Committee had been disasterous for the activities of the Quaternary Shorelines Commission, asked why unsuccessful projects could not be approved even in the absence of funding. In response, Prof. Y. Ota, a Vice President on the INQUA Exceutive, explained that the new policy only approved projects that could be completed within 1, 2 or 3 years and that projects were strictly evaluated according to criteria. She reminded members that Commissions could request administrative funding of up to £500 per year as a minimum support for Commission duties. Prof. Tooley replied that he appreciated the INQUA did not have access to much funding, but repeated that it could still approve projects without funding thereby enabling them to gain financial support from other bodies. Following Prof. Tooley's suggestion, it was agreed that Profs. Tooley and Bartolini would write jointly to members of the INQUA Executive Committee raise this issue formally with them.


[Due to time constraints, the business meeting was adjourned at this point, and re-convened 1 hour later to complete its business]

• 4.1 On invitation from the Chair, Prof. Yeats (Oregon) asked the Commission to nominate a member to represent the Commission formally on a new International Lithosphere Programme task group on 'Paleoseismology' led by D. Pantosti (Rome) and A. Hull (Wellington): ILP task group II-5 'Earthquake Recurrence through Time' (http://gldage.cr.usgs.gov/paleosei/ILPhome.htm).

It was proposed to nominate Dr F. Audemard, who co-leads the Commission's working group on this subject and who has been involved with the new task group, to be its formal representative. The nomination was approved by all members present and Franck Audemard has agreed to be our formal link with ILP task group II-5.

• 5.1 The Chair outlined how the Bulletin of the Neotectonics Commission had previously been an important and effective way of spreading information about the Commission's activities. It had been going since 1978, almost single-handedly because of the efforts of Nils-Axel Mörner. Recently, with the INQUA Executive Committee's decision not to encourage Commission newsletters, and with Prof. Mörner being increasingly busy with other scientific work, it was likely that the Bulletin would not continue. For this reason, the Chair suggested that the Commission should move to the electronic spreading of information in two ways: (1) via the INQUA web page, and (2) via an electronic mailing list.
• 5.2 With the Neotectonics Commission already displayed on the main INQUA web page (http://inqua.nlh.no), it was proposed to update material on this far more frequently. For this reason, the Commission would designate a member to be responsible for updating the Commission's page. As Secretary, Dr Stewart will contact leaders of the working groups and get them to submit short reports on their activities together with some photos/diagrams which will go on a web page. It is also intended to have short summaries of the INQUA-approved projects.
• 5.3 Following general discussion, it was agreed not to establish a Neotectonics Discussion Group on the internet, but instead to utilise other appropriate discussion groups (e.g Quaternary, Geo-tectonics, Eq-net etc.) and to establish a comprehensive Commission mailing list of member's e-mail addresses. This would allow rapid circulation of important announcements to a significant majority of the membership. The Commission is currently undertaking an update of the membership list to ensure that as many members as possible have their e-mail details listed.

• 6.1 The Chair reported that all commissions had been requested to submit proposals for symposia for the XV INQUA Congress in Durban (Aug. 3 - 11, 1999). The symposia themes, which ought to be attractive to about 20% of INQUA members, will be selected by the Executive Committee in early October. In addition, the Commission would be expected to organise workshops and poster-sessions on more specific themes, particularly those related to INQUA projects.
• 6.2 Proposals for INQUA symposia were:

 
• 'Extreme geological events in the Quaternary Record' (Note: this was recognised as a very broad theme to which Neotectonics would be one of a number of Commissions contributing) (Proposer: I. Stewart)
• 'Ice sheets, crustal movements and seismicity: neotectonics of glaciated and deglaciated terrains' (Proposer: I. Stewart)
• 'Neotectonics and Palaeoseismology as tools in seismic hazard assessment' (Proposer: A. Michetti)
• 'Fluvial network responses to neotectonic and active deformation' (Proposer: J-F. Dumont)
• 'Impact of tectonics on Earth Surface Processes' (Proposer: C. Bartolini)
• 'Neotectonics of coastal Africa: integrating onshore-offshore studies of tectonism along a passive continental margin' (Proposer: I. Stewart)
Proposals for Workshops were:
• 'Coastal records of Earthquakes and Tsunamis: methods, criteria and applications' (Proposer: I. Stewart)
• 'Timing and uplift rates in mountain building' (Proposer: C. Bartolini)
• 'Formalisation of Neotectonic Maps' (Proposer: N. Lenôtre).
• 6.3 It was noted that there was a potential overlap in the scope of the prosed symposia on 'Fluvial network responses....' and 'Tectonics and Earth Surface Processes'. It was agreed that the more specific focus of the former was preferred over the latter. Dr Stewart noted that an additional proposal for a symposium might emerge from discussions with Dr Flemming (see 3.2).
• 6.4 In the absence of any other suggestions for symposia and workshops emerging from the membership in the near future, it was agreed that the Chair would submit a revised version of these proposals to the INQUA Executive.

• 7.1 The Secretary outlined that since one of the objectives of Commissions was to 'improve the quality of INQUA research', he was prepared to offer an informal editorial service to Commission members. The service would be available to any member preparing a manuscript for publication in an international, peer-review journal, and would involve Dr Stewart proof-reading manuscripts and correcting English language grammar and/or spelling errors. The aim was to better prepare Commission members for sending their papers to journals for formal review. In return, it would be expected that the Neotectonics Commission would be acknowledged by authors for help in the preparation of the manuscript in any resulting publication.

• 8.1 Members were reminded that a full listing of the details of current Commission members were available, and a number of modifications were made. New members added to the list were S. Bellas, Y. Cornet, D. Papanasatssiou, K. Gaki-Papanastassiou, H. Maroukian and Umberto Fracassi.

• 9.1 It is proposed to hold the next formal business meeting of the Commission at the European Gepphysical Society congress in Nice, France, 20-24 April, 1998. Confirmation of this, and further details, will be circulated at a later date.