Large iceberg (~42 km in long dimension) breaking up after calving from the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica. Image aquired by NASA using the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 on December 15, 2017 (pineisland_oli_2017349_lrg.jpg).

A perspective on revolutions, revisions, rights, and responsibilities in the geosciences

Revised October 9, 2024

Description: Dr. Vince Cronin will present a one-day lecture on Revolutions, Revision, Rights and Responsibilities in the Geosciences.

When he was born in early 1957, no human-made satellites orbited Earth. Most geoscientists were fixists and thought climate variations were defined mainly by Milankovitch cycles that resulted in periodic ice ages. Since then, geoscience has undergone two revolutions — plate tectonics and global warming — that have altered our views dramatically. Those new paradigms continue to evolve through new data and revision of initial models.

The latter part of the workshop will focus on practical geoethics in applied geosciences.

• The plate tectonic revolution as viewed from more than half a century later.
• How geophysical/geodetic networks used to describe earthquakes and lithospheric motions, as well as insights from rock-deformation experiments, can provide insights about present-day stresses and fracture development in continental crust.
• Solution of the three-plate problem and revision of old plate-tectonic ideas.
• A primer on global warming, its impact on society, and the changing role of engineering geoscientists, hydrologists, and hydrogeologists working in the public interest.
• Community and personal perspectives on geoethics for applied geoscience.

Other Links

• Vince Cronin's (not very) brief biography
• Luminary Lecture Series web page and flyer
  
  
• Jahns Lecture Series, 2022-23 homepage

If you have any questions or comments about this site or its contents, drop an email to Vince_Cronin(at)CroninProjects.org.