Pinxian Wang

Continent‐ocean interactions within the East Asian Marginal seas

Interactions between continents and oceans are a frontier area for the Earth sciences in the 21st century. An AGU Chapman Conference, Continent-Ocean Interactions within the East Asian Marginal Seas, examined the nature of these interactions in the marginal seas of east Asia. The objective was to highlight both recent advances, and especially the contributions made by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP)semi; as well as to identify key future science goals. The types of continent-ocean interactions discussed were wide-ranging, including climate-tectonic interactions, continental-oceanic climate linkages, and the material flux from the rivers of Asia to the ocean, as well as how continental tectonic evolution since the India-Asia collision has influenced the tectonics of the western Pacific and vice-versa. The marginal seas of east Asia form the transition between the worlds largest continent and its largest ocean, and are major repositories of information on the interaction between the two.

Eighth International Conference on Paleoceanography

Every three years since 1983, the paleoceanographic community has come together at a different venue to share new data and discoveries at the International Conference on Paleoceanography (ICP). For the recent ICP-8, France was the host country for a conference focused on the theme of “An Ocean View of Global Change.” The Environnements et Paleoenvironnement Oceanique (EPOC) paleoceanography group of the University Bordeaux I acted as the local organizing committee. n nScientific presentations at ICP-8 addressed the latest discoveries in paleoceanography and highlighted both emerging and as-yet-unsolved questions on global climate change. Thirty-five speakers, invited by the ICP-8 Science Committee, gave overview talks during morning sessions organized around five major scientific themes. These themes were Cenozoic-Mesozoic Oceans; Carbonate and Silica Systems of the Pleistocene Ocean; Biogeochemical Cycles of the Past; High-Frequency Climate Variability; and Interhemispheric Ocean-Continent-Climate Linkages.