Committee On Interdisciplinary Lithospheric Surveys
(COILS)

A Coordinating Committee of the
International Lithosphere Program

Contents

Goals

• promote international coordination of funding targeted for lithospheric surveys
• foster identification of global scientific priorities for future surveys (via focussed international workshops, for example)
• facilitate participation of scientists from countries lacking the resources to mount a major experiment independently
• identify and facilitate access to instrumentation, on an international basis, for carrying out future surveys
• preserve and facilitate access to the valuable archives of data already collected, large portions of which are in danger of evaporating due to neglect just when global syntheses are ripe for development
• establish and maintain an up-to-date website reporting on the status of continental lithospheric initiatives worldwide

Introduction

The past two decades have seen major leaps in our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the continental lithosphere. These advances are due in large measure to the application of new technologies in such fields as deep seismic imaging, magnetotelluric sounding, deformation monitoring, geochemical tracing, and geodynamic modeling. In particular, systematic national programs cored by deep seismic profiling,such as COCORP (US), BIRPS (UK), DEKORP (Germany), ECORS (France) and LITHOPROBE (Canada), among others, have been especially effective in making major discoveries about the continents: lithospheric-scale detachments, deep fluid accumulations, mobile Mohos, laminated lower crust, and fossil subduction zones in the upper mantle being just a few.


The continental lithosphere remains a global priority for both societal and scientific concerns. Key issues remain unresolved and much of the world, including many critical geological features, remain unprobed. This is especially true outside the industrialized nations, where intrinsic resources for such efforts are particularly difficult to obtain.


It is therefore not surprising that the scientific exploration of the lithosphere has reached a new, more international phase. Multinational consortia such as EUROPROBE, and multinational projects such as URSEIS and INDEPTH, are an attempt to martial international expertise and resources to investigate structures and processes of the continental lithosphere that represent global scientific priorities. However, experience with such efforts has also led to recognition that the science could benefit from a more coordinated approach at the international level.


With this in mind, the International Lithosphere Program has approved a new international committee with responsibility for stimulating, coordinating and reporting new continental lithospheric studies from a global viewpoint. The objective of the proposed committee is not to supplant, nor to hinder, nor to constrain any individual, national or international effort to study the continental lithosphere. To the contrary, it is to help stimulate and facilitate such efforts.

This committee is an outgrowth of grass-roots discussions held at the international deep seismics symposia held at Asilomar, CA, in 1996, and Barcelona, Spain, in 1998.

For more information, please contact one of the committee chairmen:

Larry Brown, Cornell University, U.S.
Onno Oncken, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Germany
Barry Drummond, Australian Geological Survey Organization

This web site is in the early stages of development. If we have overlooked a website that should be listed in our references, please accept our apologies and forward an appropriate link. We appreciate you help in making this as complete an information source as possible on the subject of deep lithospheric studies.

Coming soon:

Committee Members

Reporters

Liasons

Related Organizations

Last Updated 4/9/99

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