RAPID AND CATASTROPHIC ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES IN THE HOLOCENE

I have the permission of Professor Suzanne Leroy
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> to repost the following from the CCNet
mailing list:

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Suzanne Leroy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 

Dear all,

We would like to attract your attention on the new series of
conferences, training and field expeditions to be held in the next 5
years, starting in Jan. 2004.

I contact you as former participant to the Brunel conference in 2002
or as someone with interest in the new IGCP 490 on "The role of
Holocene environmental catastrophes in human history".
You will be pleased to hear that we have now also received the support
of ICSU for a project on "Dark nature: Rapid natural change and human
responses".

Please see our webpages:

- ICSU Dark Nature: www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/ges/ICSU-DN/ICSU-DN.htm
- IGCP 490: www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/geo/igcp490/igcp490home.html
- 1st joint meeting -Mauritania 4-18 Jan. 2004:
www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/ges/igcp490/maur2004.htm
- 2nd joint meeting - Turkey 20-30 June 2004:
www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/ges/igcp490/turk2004.htm

We have also two sessions linked to this theme at the next
International Geological Congress in Florence.
- convener  M. Cremaschi and S. Leroy: session T 16-04 on
"Geoarchaeology for climatic changes and catastrophic events in human
history", - convener A. Berger and S. Leroy: session G03.12 ""Rapid
and Catastrophic Geological Changes and Societal Response".

We invite you to participate.

Hoping that you will be able to take part to some of these  activities
and to see you again.
Regards,

Professor Suzanne Leroy
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Brunel University,
Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, (West London), UK. 
[EMAIL PROTECTED], 
direct: +44-1895-20 31 78; fax: +44-1895-20 32 17, secr: +44-1895-20
32 15
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/geo/people

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Rapid and Catastrophic Environmental Changes during the last 10,000
years.

Nature is not always the benign provider of shelter and the carer to
all needs. Nature has a dark side, capable of extreme and sudden
geological violence. The International Council of Scientific Unions
(ICSU) and the International Geological Correlation Programme of IUGS
and UNESCO have recognised this by funding two new projects.
-ICSU Grant, category I, on "Dark nature: rapid natural change and
human response", from 2004 to 2005  -UNESCO-IGCP 490 project grant on
"The role of Holocene environmental catastrophes in human history",
from 2003 to 2007.

Indicators of these changes are available. We should watch them
carefully! The two first meetings are currently being organised. The
first one will be in Mauritania in January 2004 where scientists will
forget about electricity and venture into the Saharan desert either on
camels back or in four wheel-drive
(http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/ges/igcp490/maur2004.htm). Out in the
desert, under the shelter of an acacia tree, presentations and
discussions will be held on desertification, coastal wetland
protection, ground water, dust, upwelling strength, tsunami, health
and the collapse of past civilisations. Contact:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

The second one wild be held in Turkey in June 2004 and will bring
earth scientists, archaeologists and anthropologists together to
examine human responses to past rapid environmental change in the
ancient world. After the three-day discussion meeting, a field trip
will take participants around some of the spectacular cultural and
geological sites of western Turkey. Contact:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

The other meetings are planned for Mozambique in Autumn 2004
([EMAIL PROTECTED]), Argentina (Eduardo Piovano,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] and Jose Sayago, [EMAIL PROTECTED]), and
the Canadian Arctic in spring 2005 (Tony Berger [EMAIL PROTECTED]).
Finally, a wrap-up symposium will take place in Como, Italy, in Autumn
2005 (Alessandro Michetti, [EMAIL PROTECTED]). The IGCP 490
programme, which is for five years, will have additional meetings in
Papua-New Guinea in 2006 (Hugh Davies, [EMAIL PROTECTED] and Ted
Bryant, [EMAIL PROTECTED]) and Egypt in 2007
([EMAIL PROTECTED]).

The outcomes of these multidisciplinary meetings will be a series of
conference proceedings, many of them in the Geological Society of
London and a contribution to the webcyclopedia of IUGG.

For IGCP 490 see:
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/geo/igcp490/igcp490home.html
For ICSU-DN see: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/ges/ICSU-DN/ICSU-DN.htm
Sponsors: IUGS, IGU, IUGG, INQUA, IUGSGeoind, UNESCO, WAC, IAG

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Eric Stevens