Hurricane Sandy gives Geological Society of America meeting something to debate

Boulder, CO, USA – In response to the devastation caused last week by Hurricane Sandy, organizers of the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting technical sessions on rapid sea-level rise and its impacts have created a break-out discussion panel consisting of geoscience experts. The idea is to relate early findings and discuss how the changes caused by Hurricane Sandy to the U.S. East Coast tie into the scientific papers already scheduled for presentation.

Session organizers George T. Stone of Milwaukee Area Technical College, Michael E. Mann of The Pennsylvania State University, Stanley R. Riggs of East Carolina University, and Andrew M. Buddington of Spokane Community College recognized early the need to discuss the effects of Hurricane Sandy. The newly revised discussion panel will follow morning talks in room 219AB of the Charlotte Convention Center on Monday, 5 November.

Five GSA Divisions (GSA Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology; Environmental and Engineering Geology; Geology and Society; Hydrogeology; Sedimentary Geology) and GSA's International Section have teamed up with the Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists and the National Association of Geoscience Teachers to bring a multidisciplinary perspective to the problem.

This is a NASA Earth Observatory image of Hurricane Sandy taken on Oct. 29, 2012.

(Photo Credit: NASA)

Other talks in this two-part session (morning and afternoon) include "Pulses of rapid sea level rise: Their effect on past, present and future coastal environments and sequences"; Anthropogenic sea-level rise: ethical transgressions; and "Sea-level change during the last 2000 years in southern Connecticut."