The first joint Assembly of European and

American Geosciences Unions (EGS–

AGU–EUG), held in Nice on 6–11 April

2003, was a spectacular week of new science,

with packed sessions for planetary science,

astrobiology, solar–terrestrial science and all

aspects of geophysics. It combined meetings of

the European Geophysical Society, the American

Geophysical Union and The European Union of

Geosciences, with the result that the convention

centre, at the Acropolis, came close to failure

because of the numbers attending. Over 12 000

people registered, leading to long queues for reg-

istration and admittance. Heightened security

meant a 30 minute wait simply to enter the

building on the first two days. Once inside, a

vast choice awaited participants. With 20 par-

allel sessions, about 8000 posters and almost

8000 oral presentations, most delegates were

spoiled for choice. An excellent programme

book, plus a CD of abstracts, was a big help in

planning attendance at the sessions.

Session organizers largely succeeded in keep-

ing to schedule, so it was normally possible to

navigate between two or three sessions at any

one time. And for those who could not find a

talk or a poster of interest, display booths beck-

oned in the exhibit area. One book publisher

reported the highest level of sales ever made at

a geosciences meeting. In the late afternoon

abundant free wine flowed in the poster area,

where the population density of drinkers made

it difficult to study the posters.

Mars reports

The programme organizers embedded a week of

talks and posters about Mars into the planetary

science coverage, with presentations from Mars

Odyssey a meeting highlight. At the date of the

conference it had completed one year of its

2.5 year mission, and results were announced

from the Thermal Imaging System, Gamma

Ray Spectrometer, and Martian Radiation

Environment Experiment.

Martian water ice is abundant in the upper

metre of the subsurface at latitudes polewards

of 60°. At the south pole the ice is exposed at

the surface. The Odyssey team rolled out a

hypothesis for gully formation, which they

attribute to the melting of remnant snow

packs. At low latitudes, hydrated soil is

commonplace. Among the details that stood out

are kilometre-wide stretches of bare bedrock

that were unexpected, given Mars’ known

dustiness. Such large areas of exposed rock

indicate that strong environmental forces are

currently at work, scouring sediment from the

surface. Also unexpected were the accumula-

tions of loose rock, without a coating of dust,

that are common on martian hillsides, indicat-

ing continuing weathering.

From an analysis of the spectra from 10 dif-

ferent bands of infrared light, the thermal imag-

ing team has begun to identify specific mineral

deposits, including a layer of the mineral olivine

near the bottom of a four-and-a-half-kilometre

deep canyon known as Ganges Chasma. Olivine

is significant because it decomposes easily in the

presence of water. Odyssey has also found sig-

nificant spatial variations in K, Th, Fe and Si.

The Odyssey presentations concluded with an

overview of the science in the pipeline. We can

expect high-resolution mineral mapping and

thermal mapping, and a full year of the CO2/

hydrogen cycles. The Mars Odyssey session was

complemented by a half-day of talks on future

missions and their instrumentation.

For the first time at an EGU meeting, astro-

biology had a thorough airing, with sessions

devoted to the theme “Water and life”. Not sur-

prisingly, most of these papers had a martian

theme, with the talks from biologists giving the

planetary scientists something new to think

about. A second astrobiology focus came via

two-dozen talks and posters on exoplanets and

planetary formation models.

The US National Climatic Data Center also

made a debut appearance, by deciding to use

the AGU meeting to roll out its annual State of

the Climate survey, an essential reference work

for newspaper meteorologists. 2002 did not dis-

appoint those who follow extremes in the

weather: in terms of global temperature it was

the second warmest year on record, beating

2001 into third place. Most of the temperature

records were highs rather than lows. North

America endured a serious drought at levels last

seen in the 1930s, and Russia was notably hot-

ter than average. Australia, meanwhile, had the

fourth driest year on record. Antarctica had a

temperature anomaly of +10.3 °C in the strato-

sphere, due to a splitting of the ozone hole, and

this gave the continent its warmest spring on

record. Global precipitation is going up, with an

increase of 10% in northern latitudes, and the

biggest weather story of 2002 was the extensive

flooding in Central Europe, with Germany tak-

ing a $9 bn hit in flood damage.

Followers of natural catastrophes and disas-

ters had food for thought in 70 presentations of

new results from a worldwide collaboration on

marine gas hydrates. Hydrates are solid com-

pounds of ice-like substances which host low-

molecular-weight gases (CH4, CO2, H2S) in

cages formed by water molecules. They are sta-

ble only under the high pressures and low tem-

peratures associated with the deep sea, and are

found worldwide below 700 m depth.

Geochemists announced the discovery of free

methane gas in coexistence with seafloor gas

hydrates. This is a surprise: the free methane

may be coming from a huge subsurface bio-

sphere. There were lively clashes over the

“hydrate gun” hypothesis, which explains the

origin of extreme warm events via massive

eruptions of gas hydrates on very short time

scales, releasing greenhouse gases.

This exciting meeting was notable for the high

proportion of younger delegates, from first-year

research students through to postdocs, who

were using youth hostels and budget airlines to

keep their costs down. The poster sessions

(changing daily) are a splendid opportunity for

younger colleagues to meet new collaborators

and extend their networks. The sheer breadth

of the topics on display could be overwhelming

at times, and a certain discipline was needed to

cover the papers of personal interest. Overall

this was one of the most stimulating meetings

I’ve attended, and I’ll certainly return next year,

when it will not clash with the National

Astronomy Meeting. �

Simon Mitton (smitton@cambridge.org) is SeniorFellow, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge CB3 0BN,where he writes on a wide variety of topics inphysics, astrophysics and geophysics.

Meeting report

5.25October 2003 Vol 44

Geosciences at Nice 2003Simon Mitton reports from the joint meeting in April of the European Geophysical Society, the American

Geophysical Union and The European Union of Geosciences, the largest geosciences meeting in Europe.

Ganges Chasma in false colour IR showing olivineas the purple band on each side of the valley.(NASA/JPL/Arizona State University)