Dec. 2, 2005: Previewing a Week at AGU |
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Enlarge ImageHugh Powell writes the daily blog from AGU. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst)
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 | Hugh Powell Dec. 2, 2005
A Firehose Doesn't Even Begin to Describe ItWelcome to our blog from AGU. Over the next week, I will
be posting daily reports about what's happening at the American Geophysical Union
fall meeting. This is the premier meeting in the field of Earth
sciences, and it has the attendance statistics to show it: More
than 10,000 Earth, space and ocean scientists will converge on San
Francisco to present as many as 2,000 talks and posters every day, for
a week. Check back during the day and each morning by 10 a.m. EST
for the latest posts. Two thousand 15-minute talks
and 4' x 8' posters each day. A lesser blogger might ask you to imagine
drinking from a firehose (about 20,800 lesser bloggers, to be specific). But in terms of information stream, AGU is more of an ocean current. Put
it this way: imagine the stream of water coming out of a
firehose. Now add to that all the rest of the water in all
the world's rivers. In oceanographic units, that flow
rate is around 1 Sverdrup , or a million cubic meters per second. That's the scale at which oceanographers start measuring ocean currents (the small ones). That's why WHOI sent a reporter like me to post
about what's interesting, including some of the 186
presentations involving WHOI investigators, as well as hot topics from the rest of the Earth sciences world. Next week, we're expecting to hear about new results from research on hydrothermal vents, ocean ridges, earthquakes, a giant flood in the Black Sea and the workings of ocean circulation (Sverdrups and all). We'd love it if you'd join us here.
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