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From: Edgardo Cañón <ecanon@xxxxxxxxx>
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Dear All,
We would like to call your attention to the session V16: "What is a
volcano? New answers to an old question" at the 2007 Joint Assembly in
Acapulco, Mexico, May 22-25. This session promises to be exciting
because it's focused on the basic question of "What is a volcano?" We
propose to address a number of basic questions related to our
discipline's conceptual core, including terminological issues.
Contributions from planetary volcanology, experimental and theoretical
approaches are sought along with those describing unusual volcanic
processes and features or even challenging the traditional conceptual
basis of volcanology. To further encourage contributions to our session
from people that might have problems in identifying trouble-spots in our
discipline we considered
important to elaborate a little bit on the session description offered
at the AGU web-site. The shorter rationale for our session can be
consulted online at http://www.agu.org/meetings/ja07/, where abstract
submission also
takes place. Remember: the deadline for abstract sumbission is 1 March
2007 2359 UT.
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Session V16: "What is a volcano? New answers to an old question"
Modern volcanology is characterized by progress in four main directions.
First, important practical knowledge is obtained in an almost daily basis
through volcano monitoring, hazard and risk assessment studies. Second,
results from experimental and theoretical modeling of the physical nature
of volcanic phenomena are used with increasing frequency in the
interpretation of old eruptive products, which in turn encourages the
development of ever more sophisticated models. Third, important scientific
findings obtained from beyond Earth have widened the spectrum of conditions
over which we need to consider volcanic phenomena. Fourth, most
cutting-edge volcanological research is now performed across the borders of
classical disciplines, therefore making this science a truly
interdisciplinary scientific activity.
All of these developments use an arsenal of high-tech research equipment
and powerful computing facilities that were not available until relatively
recent times. As a byproduct of this progress, a plethora of new concepts
and terms has been introduced by ultra-specialized researchers.
Unfortunately, part of the new terminology used in such ultra-specialized
research is introduced into volcanology at an exceedingly fast rate,
therefore resulting in a sometimes arbitrary and chaotic growth of terms,
some of which remain incomprehensible for the volcanological community as a
whole. Paradoxically, some newly discovered volcanic processes and features
are named by stretching the meaning of available terms rather than by
creating new names reflecting more adequately the characteristics of the
new discoveries. Consequently, modern volcanology is also a scientific
discipline in which terminological confusion often arises.
Commonly, time settles down terminological issues in any scientific
discipline through a kind of "natural selection", but this process takes
place at a very slow rate relative to the rate at which modern volcanology
is progressing. To avoid the future collapse of any scientific discipline
under the overburden of a tangled mass of new and old, ultra-specialized
and general-purpose terms, its conceptual basis needs to be revisited
periodically. We believe that time is ripe for such a task in volcanology.
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See you all in Acapulco.
Conveners: Edgardo Cañón-Tapia
CICESE
Km 107 Carretera Tijuana-Ensenada
Ensenada, BC, MEX 22860
+52646 1750500 xt 26049
ecanon@xxxxxxxxx
Alexandru Szakács
Sapientia University
Dept. of Environmetal Science
Str. Matei Corvin nr. 4
Cluj-Napoca, ROM RO-400112
+40 264 439394
Szakacs@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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