International Geology Conference in Bar Harbor
Contact: Joe Kelley, Dept. of Earth Sciences, 207-581-2162, jtkelley@maine.edu; Joe Carr, Dept. of Public Affairs, 207-581-3571, joecarr@maine.edu
Note: news media representatives are welcome to cover the meeting or participate in field trips. Arrangements can be made by calling Joe Kelley, 581-2162, jtkelley@maine.edu. On field trips, reporters must provide their own transportation and meals.
ORONO, Maine — The geological forces shaping the Maine coast will be a focus of an international conference in Bar Harbor Oct. 14-17. Sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and hosted by the University of Maine Department of Earth Sciences, the meeting will bring together more than 50 scientists for presentations and field trips.
Organizers of the event include UMaine geologists Joseph Kelley and Daniel Belknap, Duncan Fitzgerald of Boston University and Ilya Buynevich of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The meeting is titled Quaternary Land-Ocean Interactions: Driving Mechanisms and Coastal Responses, and will be held at the Atlantic Oaks by the Sea in Bar Harbor. It is part of a series of meetings known as the International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP).
The purpose of the IGCP meetings is to encourage international cooperation in research on geological problems, to promote the wise use of the Earth as a human habitat and a source of natural resources and to reduce the effects of natural disasters.
Speakers in Bar Harbor will address research on changes in sea level and coastal land forms around the world during and following the last Ice Age, a period known as the Quaternary. Topics will range from sea level change on the Maine coast and coastal salt marshes in Newfoundland to sea level fluctuations in Brazil, India and Scotland.
After presentations at the Atlantic Oaks all day Thursday and Friday morning, the participants will take a field trip on Friday afternoon to visit coastal sites on Mt. Desert Island in Acadia National Park. Field trips will continue through the weekend with visits to Downeast sites on Saturday and mid-coast Maine on Sunday.