INHIGEO： The International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences

INHIGEO is a long-standing Commission of the International Union of Geological Sciences (lUGS) and an Affiliate of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science (Division of History of Science) (IUHPS (DHS)). Of late, its activities are funded by these two bodies in a ratio of about 4:1.     

李四光和卡尔宾斯基金质奖章

中国地质学家李四光与当时苏联地学界来往交流紧密,他对地质学的贡献得到了苏联地质学家的高度评价。1958年,苏联科学院全体大会选举李四光为苏联科学院院士,并授予卡尔宾斯基金质奖章;该奖章是1947年由当时的苏联科学院和俄罗斯科学院共同发起的、对地质科学有突出贡献的科学家最高单人奖励,李四光是第六位获奖人,也是至2017年止唯一获此殊荣的外籍地质学家,他的获奖理由是:在地质、古生物、地层和矿产研究工作的综合贡献。李四光有两部著作在苏联被译成俄文出版,分别是1952年的《中国地质学》和1958年的《中国西北部的旋卷构造》,这两部译作对当时的苏联地质界产生了很大影响,极大地推动了李四光学术思想的广泛认知;"地质无国界",中国地调百年的发展历程也有着俄罗斯地学理论、规范、方法实践的烙印,在新的"一带一路"合作倡议和李四光学术精神传承下,中俄、中国与中亚在地学领域的交流合作将不断深化,硕果累累。      

James M. Harrison Awards

The James M. Harrison Award for Outstanding Achievement was established by the IUGS Executive Committee in 2004 to honor individuals who have served the Union in an extraordinary fashion for a long period of time, and who have no recognized position as an officer of the Union. The award is named for the late James M. Harrison, an internationally known and universally respected Canadian geologist (Geological Survey of Canada) who was one of the founding fathers of the IUGS and its first President (1961-1964).     

Britons abroad or European citizens? The negotiation of (trans)national space and citizenship by British migrants in France

This paper uses the concept of ‘ordinary citizenship’ (Staeheli et al., 2012) to explore the relationship between mobility, citizenship and political space in the European Union. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Britons living in South West France, the paper examines the ways in which citizenship is meaningful to migrants as a complexity of legal frameworks, normative structures and everyday activities. While EU citizenship has been advanced to underpin the formation of a closer Union, we demonstrate that contemporary forms of citizenship among these lifestyle migrants are shaped to a large extent by performances of national belonging, and individual interactions with other people at the local or community level. We argue that a bi-national structure of citizenship, or one based on domicile better accounts for the experiences of these migrants than supranational EU citizenship.     

Ingria: The broken landbridge between Estonia and Finland

Ingria, or Ingermanland, is the historical province between Estonia and Finland, in the vicinity of the present St. Petersburg. Ingria is the ancient homeland of the Baltic Finns — the Votians, Ingrians and Ingrian Finns. The oldest inhabitants of Ingria were the Votians and Ingrians who were christianized by the orthodex popes. By language and culture, the Votians are close to the Estonians; and the Ingrians to the Karelians and the easternmost Finnish people. In the 17th century in Ingria, one part of the Votians and the Ingrians together with the Finnish-speaking ethnic groups who had immigrated from East Finland, began to evolve into a group of Finns who professed the Lutheran faith and came to call themselves Ingrian Finns. They succeeded in surviving as a viable ethnic group until the end of the 1920s. After that the Soviet Union pursued genocidal policy towards them. Before and after World War II the indigenous people of Ingria were deported to different parts of the Soviet Union. Now the Union of Ingrian Finns is working for the right of the Ingrian Finns to return to their homes in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast (Region). Nowadays the remaining Ingrian Finns live in different parts of the world. In 1989 16,622 Finns were recorded as living in Estonia, where they are organized into 12 societies.     

SYMPOSIUM OF TUFF LAVAS AND IGNIMBRITES IN THE SOVIET UNION

A summary of the proceedings of the "Symposium of Tuff Lavas and Ignimbrites in the Soviet Union." Most of the papers given are named. A summary remark is given as to their contents, and for some how the paper was received by attending scientists.--R. V. Dietrich.     

Military geology and the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863

Gettysburg – the most costly of all battles of the American Civil War, and one of the most significant battles ever fought. Contested in rural Pennsylvania, the Battle of Gettysburg took place after a chance encounter by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (General Robert E. Lee) with the Union Army of the Potomac (Major-General George Meade). It was to prove the turning point in the war, the so-called 'high tide' of the Confederacy, as after Gettysburg the fortunes of war turned in favour of the Union. Fought over three days in early July 1863, the battle continues to be analyzed and re-analyzed from all perspectives. Significantly, it was the first battle to be re-interpreted from the perspective of its geology, by Andrew Brown of the Pennsylvania State Survey in the early 1960s. It continues to fascinate geologists interested in the overall impact of geology and terrain in determining the outcome of battle. This article examines why Gettysburg has been so influential in shaping our understanding of geology in warfare.     

The UG2–Merensky Reef interval of the Bushveld Complex northwest of Pretoria

Northwest of Pretoria, the UG2-Merensky Reef interval overlies a Critical Zone-Lower Zone sequence that contains numerous large blocks of floor material. Nevertheless, individual layers can be correlated with equivalent units at Crocodile River mine, the Rustenburg, Impala, Union, and Amandelbult sections. Concentrations of platinum-group elements in two borehole intersections of the UG2 chromitite are 4 ppm over 1.2 m and 2.4 ppm over 2.2 m. Therefore, bulk PGE levels appear to be only moderately lower than those at Western Platinum mine. This renders models explaining PGE enrichment by upward percolating melt or fluids problematic. The Merensky Reef, although containing sulphides, is only weakly mineralized with PGE (0.6 ppm). The UG2 pyroxenite is separated from the UG2 chromitite by a 15 m noritic layer. The introduction of feldspathic cumulates between two units that elsewhere directly overly each other may be explained by the more evolved composition of resident magma in those parts of the chamber distally located with regard to a major feeder zone at Union Section. It also suggests that the UG2 unit is a multiple rather than a single cyclic unit.     

Collaborative governance and territorial rescaling in the UK: a comparative study of two EU Structural Funds programmes

Contemporary capitalist development facilitates the large-scale geographical reorganization of economic activity, involving both spatial clustering and decentralization. In the European Union the resulting regional disparities have provoked concerns about growing inequality on the one hand and poor competitiveness on the other. The concept of ‘territorial cohesion’ has been adopted to address such issues, with the need for co-operation across local, regional and national boundaries encouraged as a means of constructing more effective economic zones. This then raises the question whether the European Union’s own Structural Funds programme has been able to contribute to such collaborative working. Evidence from South Yorkshire/Sheffield in England and the Central Valleys/Cardiff in Wales suggests that any contribution is likely to be modest. Both areas were covered by Objective 1 programmes between 2000 and 2006, but differed markedly in the extent to which collaborative governance structures and processes developed. Key factors were the extent to which moves in this direction were already under way, and the extent to which management and decision-making were devolved from the centre to local and sub-regional actors.     

The European system of capital cities

Capital cities reflect the nature and organization of the states they control. Their functional role is higher in centralized systems, societies where the state is the source of all legitimacy, and countries using Continental Law. It is lower in federal systems, pillarized societies and countries, which are ruled according to a Common Law. The symbolic status of capital cities is higher when the state is the source of all legitimacy, lower in consociationalist societies. Theses processes were responsible for the development of two types of political capital cities and one type of economic and cultural capital cities during the nineteenth century. A partial standardization of the functions and statuses of capital cities occurred later. The European Union is neither a state nor a super-state since its main responsibilities are still in the economic field, it lacks a huge administrative bureaucracy and does not have definitive territorial limits. The European Union has officially three capital cities, Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Brussels. The really important one is Brussels. Its functions are nevertheless quite different from those of national capital cities during the first half of the twentieth century. European capital cities are thriving because most of them managed to become economic metropolises. The result is that the European Union has a complex and rapidly evolving system of capital cities.     

Reconstruction of a Civil War landscape: Little Folly Island,South Carolina

The inlet dividing Little Folly Island and Big Folly Island was relocated through the use of Union Navy and Army maps and a global positioning system device. Identification of the inlet was confirmed through foraminiferal analysis of marsh sediments retrieved with gouge‐auger cores. The inlet was 1.8 km closer to Confederate batteries on Morris Island than previously believed. In addition to identifying the inlet, sedimentary structures were used to differentiate anthropogenic and natural sand mounds and dunes, resulting in the identification of four previously undocumented Union gun parapets. The results of this study suggest foraminifers are a useful tool for reconstructing coastal military landscapes from the Civil War and potentially earlier conflicts. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Groundwater resources of Uzbekistan: an environmental and operational overview

As a result of the massive irrigation development during the Soviet Union era and intensive chemization of agriculture, the surface runoff quality has been degraded in this arid and endorheic region. Moreover hydraulically related groundwater has also been affected. Excessive irrigation has lead to land salinization, which now threatens the soil quality of significant areas where crop yields would be at risk in the future. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, institutional changes have been undertaken for the management of natural resources and water infrastructure. At present, underdeveloped and inadequate systems have been practiced with respect to groundwater use and management. This paper analyzes the present extent of groundwater resources with consideration to their reserves, quality evolution, and to technical, institutional and transboundary management practices in Uzbekistan.     

国外水资源开发利用的经验教训

合理开发和利用水资源是西部大开发成功的关键。通过对美国水资源管理政策的演化及前苏联的“咸海生态灾难”的研究，总结其正反二方面的经验教训，以进一步提高水资源开发决策的科学性。     

The ideas and scientific works of F.I. Wolfson and their current implications for the geology of uranium deposits

The outstanding contribution of Professor F.I. Wolfson to the origination and development of Russian science and practice in the field of geology of uranium deposits is emphasized. Under his guidance, a team of highly skilled specialists on uranium deposits was gathered at the Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, in Moscow. Owing to their efforts, all significant uranium deposits in the former Soviet Union and socialist bloc countries have been studied comprehensively. A theory of uranium ore formation was developed on this basis, and elaborated practical recommendations promoted the creation in the Soviet Union of the world’s largest uranium resource sources. Today, Wolfson’s ideas and works are widely used in planning and carrying out complex investigations at operating uranium deposits and in new promising uranium districts.     

Future of rail container transport in Eurasia

Conclusions Transport via the Siberian railway in trade between West Europe and Japan is clearly advantageous compared with sea transport. Whether the Siberian transport route is productive for the Soviet Union measured by Western standards is difficult to say. Some Western experts at least have expressed their doubts.It is known that some industrial western market-economy countries have been asked to invest in the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway in return for promised supplies of earth gas and oil. The development of the Siberian transit transport route may also be taken as a sign of an opening up of the Soviet Union to Western countries in a wider sense, and her growing interest in forming trade relations with the West.From the start the Siberian transit transport route was intended, in addition to the Soviet's own transport needs, for goods traffic between West Europe and Japan. Since then connections have been made with Hong Kong and the Philippines. In the future connections via Siberia may be made with Taiwan, South Korea and other East Asian countries and Australia. Thus the international significance of the Trans-Siberian railway in trade between the Far East and Europe will increase considerably. This will mean that the Soviet officials will be faced with what may prove a difficult decision concerning the growing demands of international transit traffic in relation to the increasing domestic transport on the same rail network.It seems likely that the Soviet Union will obtain an increasing proportion of the foreign exchange she needs from this growth in transport. In 1975 this sum was estimated at US $ 150.000.000. With the development in traffic the Soviets are also obtaining and developing new technological know-how. The biggest losers are the shipping lines belonging to the Far-Eastern Freight Conference. They are mainly from Western countries, but there are also members from Poland and East Germany who will lose freights to the Siberian transport route.     

Six new stromatolitic microbiotas from the Proterozoic of the Soviet Union

Diverse assemblages of cellularly preserved Precambrian microorganisms have been discovered in cherty stromatolitic sediments from six formations in the Soviet Union: Sukhotungusin Fm. (Middle Riphean, Siberia); Valukhtin Fm. (Middle Riphean, Siberia); Shorikha Fm. (Upper Riphean, Siberia); Minyar Fm. (Upper Riphean, Bashkiria); Olkhin Fm. (Upper Riphean, Siberia); and Chichkan Fm. (Vendian, Kazakstan). These cyanophyte-dominated microbial communities, occurring in both stratiform (cf. Stratifera) and columnar stromatolitic deposits (Baicalia hirta and Conophyton gaubitza), are the first stromatolite-building microbiotas to be reported from the Soviet Union; collectively they comprise more than one-fifth of all such Precambrian assemblages now known.     

XX. General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics in Vienna,Austria, 11–24 August 1991

Report

XX. General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics in Vienna, Austria, 11–24 August 1991     

IGU Study Group on Development Issues in Marginal Regions

The International Geographical Union Reports

IGU Study Group on Development Issues in Marginal Regions     

Redefinition of the international spheroid 1930

The equatorial value of normal gravity and the length of the semi-major axis of the currently used International spheroid 1930, appear to be mutually inconsistent in the light of the new astronomical values forKM and ω adopted by the International Union of Astronomy in 1964. This note accordingly suggests a new value for the length of its semi-major axis to remove this inconsistency.