Workshop Announcement Geochemical Earth Reference Model (GERM) May 20-23, 2003 Venue Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon 46 Allee d'Italie 69364 Lyon Cedex 7 Lyon, France Conveners Francis Albarede (Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon) Rob van der Hilst (Universiteit Utrecht, Faculteit Aardwetenschappen) Bill McDonough (University of Maryland, Department of Geology) Hubert Staudigel (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics) Hosted by Francis Albarede and Janne Blichert-Toft		GERM Reservoir Database GERM Partition Coefficient (Kd) Database Program Abstract Volume Previous GERM Abstract Volumes Map Payment

Workshop Program Description

One of the central themes of the GERM Initiative are the elemental and isotopic inventories of global scale geological units (i.e. geochemical reservoirs) and the geochemical mass balance of transfer processes between them. This includes long-term geological processes, as well as the controls of the Earth's System by higher frequency phenomena such as those arising in the ocean, the atmosphere, and under biological influence. The study of geochemical inventories and fluxes also typically requires the inclusion of a wide range of geophysical, geological and modeling approaches that often critically limit our understanding of geochemistry. GERM specifically includes these integrated approaches, through workshops and through support of high quality data bases or other Information Technology tools.

The 2003 Lyon Workshop will offer a wide range of keynotes and extended discussion periods on all GERM themes, typically illuminating a particular topic from several angles, where we explore both the geological/geophysical, as well as geochemical constraints, on our understanding of a particular aspect of a GERM-Earth, including chemical inventory fluxes, and most importantly, the uncertainties. This will commonly be accomplished in presentations by two keynote speakers that include geochemists and geophysicists, whenever the confrontation of different background and experience is perceived as beneficial.

In a wide sweep through the GERM-Earth, we will address topics that include the bio, hydro- and lithosphere. This will include a discussion of the relationships between biological and geochemical processes and a range of current themes in ocean chemistry and the impact on recent instrumental advances. We will dedicate two sessions to mass transfer between continents and the oceans, including solute and suspended matter as well as the chemical and mass transfer within the crust during tectonic processes. The nature, composition, and evolution of the sub-continental lithosphere still represent a major obstacle to the understanding of global budget and will receive full coverage. The recent progress on constraining geochemical exchange within the mantle through convection models will be confronted with the nagging constraints imposed by rare gas geochemistry. Finally, the last developments on the chemistry and the structure of the lower mantle will be reviewed.

Keynote speakers will include: Geoff Abers, Claude Allègre, Ed Boyle, Rick Carlson, Jacqueline Dixon, Christian France-Lanord, Mark Harrison, John Ludden, John Milliman, Graham Pearson, Rob van der Hilst, William Schlesinger and Paul Tackley.

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to contribute to discussions with small contributions including one or two overheads, and by submitting an abstract for a poster presentation.

The 2003 Lyon GERM meeting will feature several "breakout sessions" that will advance a variety of important issues. Breakout leaders will be charged with writing reports or white papers that will be presented and discussed in a plenary session. Current themes include: the GERM handbook of geochemistry; a cyber-infrastructure in geochemistry; river database development; and a review of the GERM website.

Pre-Workshop Geochemical Modeling Short Course

May 19, 2003;  08:30 - 17:00
Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon

by Lou Derry, Bernard Bourdon and Yves Godderis

This one-day modeling course will offer lectures and hands-on-computer exercises in three major sections: (1) A general introduction to geochemcial modelling (Derry), (2) Modeling the carbon cycle (Godderis), and (3) Uranium Series modeling (Bourdon). Overall the course is structured such that it will covers basic principles as well as exploring some state of the art applications and recent modeling advances. Most programs used were written as MatLAB scripts. Experience in MatLAB will be useful, but MatLAB programming skills are not required.

If you would like to participate in this modeling course, please check the option on the Downloadable PDF Form at the bottom of this page.

Venue for the 2003 GERM Meeting

The 2003 GERM meeting will be held in Lyon, France, located 500 km to the southeast of Paris, not too far from Geneva. It is a fairly big but charming city (1 million inhabitants) endowed with fair weather, a long history (it was the capital of the three Gauls) and a very scenic old town. You may have a chance to catch a glimpse of the Mont-Blanc from the upper steps of the Roman amphitheater. Food is remarkable and very reasonably priced and wine is a dream. The meeting will be held on the premises of the Ecole Normale Supérieure. Lyon has a large airport but is most easily reached in two hours by fast train (TGV) from the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. ENS is easily accessible by metro. A range of accommodations, from dormitory rooms to budget and plusher hotels, will be available.

For directions use the following Map and Instructions.

Time Table

Wine Tasting and Conference Dinner

A wine tasting will be organized on the 21st of May before the conference dinner and a professional sommelier will lead the attendees through a selection of several wines from Southern France. This region is a rising star on most wine expert guides: a large variety of grapes (notably syrah, grenache, cabernet-sauvignon, mourvedre, carignan for the reds) producing rich wines, a new generation of talented wine producers, and fairly reasonable prices are attracting increasing attention from the international amateurs.

The costs of the wine tasting will be €5. If you want to join us for the wine tasting let us know by checking this option on the Downloadable PDF Form at the bottom of this page.

Please let us know that you will bring a guest, so we know the number of participants for the conference dinner. Guests will be charged  €45 per person to be paid at the time of the workshop.

Workshop Registration and Abstracts

Registration is closed.All communications regarding workshop registration, abstract submittal and logistics are to:

Patty Keizer
UCSD-IGPP 0225
La Jolla, CA 92093-0225, USA

The deadline for abstracts is March 15, 2003.Every participant in the GERM workshop is invited to contribute an abstract to the conference volume. These abstracts may be given as a discussion contribution, as a poster, or by title (to be available for reference in the conference volume). The Lyon GERM Workshop will feature keynote talks, with extended discussions, where participants will have the opportunity to make short relevant presentations during the discussion periods. These contributions may include up to two overheads. There will be poster boards that will stay up for the duration of the entire workshop with ample time for discussion during coffee hours and designated poster sessions. Abstracts may include original scientific contributions, suggestions about the contents or formats of GERM, and reviews.

Abstract format.Two pages text, 1000 words or less, with up to two pages of figures, data tables and references. All abstracts have to be submitted electronically in PDF format. In addition, send us electronic copies of your diagrams in either the PS/EPS or Adobe Illustrator format. This will ensure that we can reproduce your diagrams with the best quality in the workshop volume. If you cannot easily produce these formats, please send us the diagrams as high resolution bitmaps (300 to 600 dpi) in the JPEG, TIFF or GIF format. Please follow the AGU abstract format for title, addresses and text.

Travel Assistance.If you like to participate in GERM 2003 but you don't have funding, you are encouraged to apply for partial or full travel support using the email or address above. We obtained funds from the National Science Foundation and from CRNS for participant support, in particular supporting student and young scientists. We will contact you by e-mail. Travel costs will be reimbursed after travel, through the ENS Lyon or the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Registration Fee

The registration fee is €150 for professionals and €75 for students. Fees will cover ice-breaker, coffee, a reception, conference dinner and the abstract volume. All registration fees must be paid by April 1, 2003, and registration will close on this date, or earlier, if all 100 participant slots have been filled. Payment must be made by credit card and the conference fee eventually will be processed by the European Association for Geochemistry (EAG).

To make your registration fee payment use the Downloadable PDF Form at the bottom of this page.

Hotels and On-campus Housing

ENS School, On-campus housing (possible from May 18)
46 Allée d'Italie, Lyon 7

Hotel Mercure (possible from May 19 to May 24)
70 Avenue Leclerc, Place Jean Verrazana, 69363 Lyon

Hotel Ibis (possible from May 19 to May 24)
246 Rue M. Merieux, 69007 Lyon

Hotel Ibis (possible from May 19 to May 24)
68 Avenue Leclerc, 69007 Lyon

Your credit card information will be used as a security deposit on your hotel or on campus housing reservation. Note that the hotels and the on-campus housing have a cancellation policy. If you wait too long to make a hotel reservation we may have to move you to another than your preferred hotel if it is fully booked. Participants that have requested financial support and students will be encouraged to stay in the ENS school on-campus housing.

To make your hotel reservation use the Downloadable Payment Form (PDF) at the bottom of this page.

Downloadable Payment Form

Please fill in this Downloadable Payment Form (PDF) to make the payment for the registration fee, your hotel preferences, participation in the modeling short course, and if you would like to join us for the wine tasting. Print out and complete this form and fax (or email) this form to:

Agnes Ganivet
Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon
46 Allee d'Italie, 69364 Lyon cedex 7, France
Tel: 33+ 472-72-84-99   Fax: 33+ 472-72-86-99

You will receive separate receipts for your hotel and registration payments.