Tephra
2014 - Maximizing the potential
of tephra for multidisciplinary science
|
Dates:
|
August 3-7, 2014
|
Venue:
|
Portland State University, Portland,
Oregon, USA |
Conveners:
|
Marcus
Bursik, Stephen
Kuehn, and Solene
Pouget |
Purpose:
|
This workshop will discuss major
developments, best practices, and future
directions/needs in tephra studies from both
volcanological and tephrochronological
perspectives. By bringing together a broad array
of scientists who study tephra for different
purposes, we intend to enhance
interdisciplinary collaboration and data
sharing. To provide training, the workshop will
also incorporate hand-on sessions on optimal
sample collection, dispersal modeling, age
modeling, and database submission.
|
Audience:
|
Volcanologists, tephrochronologists,
archaeologists, paleoclimatologists,
paleoecologists, paleolimnologists, glaciologists,
petrologists, geochronologists, tectonophysicists,
Quaternary scientists, atmospheric scientists,
data managers, and others who work with tephra,
who could benefit from tephra data, or who work in
settings which may contain tephra. Interested
persons are also invited to join our Tephra
2014 VHub group. |
Significance:
|
Tephra deposits form a common thread
that connects diverse, multidisciplinary research
directions that share overlapping data needs.
Tephra beds reflect the magmatic, eruptive,
dispersal, and depositional processes involved in
their eruption, as well as the tectonic
environment from which they originate. They
are globally important for examining links between
tectonics, magma chemistry, volcano behavior, and
environmental effects. They are fundamental for
understanding past eruptions and future hazards,
and they are key for dating both geologic and
prehistoric events. It is, perhaps, in
tephrochronology that tephra beds find their most
diverse applications: providing isochrons of
nearly unmatched temporal precision across
regional to continental and even inter-continental
distances; tying together glacial, marine,
lacustrine, and terrestrial records; and helping
to answer major questions in climate change,
archaeology, paleontology, paleoecology,
paleolimnology, paleoseismology, paleomagnetism,
and geomorphology, among others.
Because of their fundamental importance across the
sciences, tephra layers are looked upon in very
different ways by the different communities that
come into contact with them. They thus represent a
major, missed opportunity for synergism across
science disciplines. To give an example,
volcanologists are interested in characterizing
grain size and primary depositional thickness to
understand eruption intensity and dispersal
characteristics. Yet these two pieces of data are
rarely collected by tephrochronologists or
archeologists working with the same tephra layers.
This is a missed opportunity to collect data in
common that could help us more thoroughly
understand how tephra is transported. Similarly,
complete eruption catalogs are important for
volcanic hazards assessment, but near-vent records
are often incomplete. Paleoenvironmental
scientists studying more favorable depositional
settings such as lakes often obtain cores which
contain tephra. Working together can result in
both improved understanding of volcano behavior
and better chronologies.
|
Application:
|
Applications are due 1-May-2014.
Application information will be available by
1-March. The workshop is limited to 100
participants. We ask that applicants commit to
attending the full four days of the workshop.
|
Registration and Abstract Deadline:
|
Registration is due 30-May-2014.
All participants will present a poster relating to
their research and the themes of the workshop.
|
| Registration cost: |
Pending |
| Travel Support: |
Pending |
| 50 Questions: |
In conjunction with the workshop, we
plan to conduct a 50 research questions,
challenges, and opportunities in tephra studies
exercise. The opportunity to submit questions will
soon be available at VHub.
|
| Affiliated and sponsoring
organizations: |
|
|
Created 7-January-2014. Last revised
27-January-2014.
|
|
|
