<p>Man's understanding of how this planet is put together and how it evolved has changed radically during the last 30 years. This great revolution in geology - now usually subsumed under the concept of Plate Tectonics - brought the realization that convection within the Earth is responsible for the origin of today's ocean basins and conti nents, and that the grand features of the Earth's surface are the product of ongoing large-scale horizontal motions. Some of these notions were put forward earlier in this century (by A. Wegener, in 1912, and by A. Holmes, in 1929), but most of the new ideas were an outgrowth of the study of the ocean floor after World War II. In its impact on the earth sciences, the plate tectonics revolution is comparable to the upheaval wrought by the ideas of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), which started the intense discussion on the evolution of the biosphere that has recently heated up again. Darwin drew his inspiration from observations on island life made during the voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836), and his work gave strong impetus to the first global oceanographic expedition, the voyage of HMS Challenger (1872- 1876). Ever since, oceanographic research has been intimately associ ated with fundamental advances in the knowledge of Earth. This should come as no surprise. After all, our planet's surface is mostly ocean.</p>

The Sea Floor

Science & Math

Seibold, Eugen

Berger, Wolfgang H.

Biological Sciences

Springer

In the summer of 1994 (Aug. 15 - 18) about 220 oceanographers and paleoceanographers from Western Europe, the USA, Africa, South America, Russia and Lithuania met at Bremen University to present and discuss the results of recent research on present and past circulation in the South Atlantic. The symposium was organised by Gerold Siedler (University of Kiei) and Gerold Wefer (University of Bremen), assisted by a "Scientific Programme Committee," which included W.H. Berger, K. Herterich, N.G. Hogg, Y. Ikeda, J.H.F. Jansen, J.R.E. Luetjeharms, J. Merle, R.G. Peterson, and DJ. Webb. The local organisation was in the hands of Barbara Donner. A symposium on the South Atlantic seemed timely and appropriate because the results from a number of recent projects in oceanography and marine geosciences needed to be integrated into existing knowl edge. Thus, monitoring programs have been in operation since 1991 as part of the World Ocean Circu lation Experiment (WOCE). These programs included studies of the meridional water-mass and heat transports, the western boundary currents, and deep- and bottom-water transports in the Brazil Basin. Also comprehensive studies are being carried out in the context ofIGBP Core Projects PAGES (Past Global Changes) and JGOFS (Joint Global Ocean Flux Study), generating new data for the various current and production systems of the South Atlantic."

The South Atlantic: Present and Past Circulation

Webb, David J.

Wefer, Gerold

Siedler, Gerold

Earth Sciences

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