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San Francisco, CA, December 14-18, 2009

Author Michael Towle shows off Moscone South. Photo by Melissa Driskell

The AGU fall meeting is a five-day scientific convention where the most intelligent minds in the earth sciences present research findings. The fields span from the earth’s core all the way out to the far reaches of the universe. The earth’s deep interior, climate change, nonlinear geophysics, near surface geophysics, seismology, hydrology, atmospheric sciences, geodesy, natural hazards, heliospherics, and geomagnetism were but a few of the research areas covered at AGU. There were multiple fields of research presented that I did not even know existed.

	Moscone Center West, home to meeting registration and oral sessions. Photo by Michael Towle

The meeting took place in two gigantic convention centers, both part of the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. Moscone West is a three-story behemoth of a building which was home to the registration booths and scientific talks. Moscone South primarily held poster presentations and exhibitions. It was truly an amazing sight to see the thousands of attendees, poster tubes over their shoulders, flocking between the two buildings to experience all the science they could handle. I attended the meeting from Monday to Thursday, and spent the majority of my time doing the same; either listening to the oral sessions or perusing the thousands of posters.

Because I foolishly did not use the online itinerary tool, I would start each day by snagging one of the complimentary session schedules, which came in the form of a fifty-page newspaper that listed all of the talks and poster sessions for that specific day. There wasn’t even a crossword in this thing! Needless to say, I was impressed and a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of presentations. I felt like a kid in a candy store with all the intriguing science; yet at the same time, I felt frozen by indecision when I could not immediately determine what to see first. It was then that I would see something of interest and go dashing for the poster hall.

The poster sessions and exhibitions took place in a room that was bigger than most airplane hangers. The occasional pigeon would fly overhead (yes, there were pigeons in the convention center) and give me the distinct impression that I was not merely attending an annual conference, but that I would be living in a small scientific city for the remainder of the week. The poster sessions were spectacular, particularly because they gave me the opportunity to talk one-on-one with the researchers. This allowed me to ask questions that I might not be brave enough to ask at the end of an oral session.

Author Michael Towle presents his research at AGU. Photo by Kent Moran

Going through the poster area I realized that there was a large representation of international research. For example, I had the opportunity to speak with a graduate student who had just flown in from Japan and we discussed her research on how cumulus clouds excite spherical harmonic modes of the earth. While there was a small portion of undergraduate students presenting their research, most of the presenters were either professors or graduate students. There were salted veterans who had attended AGU for about thirty years; as well as people like me, who were attending for the first time.

As a graduate student of geophysics from the University of Memphis, I presented my research on the seismic quality factor Q for the Mississippi Embayment. The seismic quality factor is a physical property that tells how well or how poorly a medium will attenuate seismic wave energy. Since the Mississippi Embayment was home to a large magnitude earthquake sequence in 1811-1812, it is important to know how earthquake wave energy will diminish with distance. Presenting my research at AGU was very satisfying because I got to talk to people who were interested in what I was doing; from the conversations I held with individuals, I also gathered new ideas and approaches to my future research. I ended up staying at my poster for four hours because of the interest in my research. It was fun, and a trifle challenging, to explain my poster to those who were not familiar with my field of study. The knowledge that people were fascinated by my research was greatly rewarding, and encompassed the best part of the meeting: a place for scientists to gather and freely exchange and discuss ideas.

In the other half of the poster room there were many exhibits including: NASA, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA), the National Science Foundation, Google, and many educational institutions. NOAA had an interesting demo, which utilized dropping small chunks of dry ice into a pool of water to show how storm systems move and interact (see video). Google had a multi-screen display that demonstrated new features of Google Earth—taking tours of the moon, Mars, and even seeing recreations of Apollo moon landings (see video). The largest and most acclaimed booth was held by NASA, which gave away beautiful calendars. They also had a three-dimensional planet display that projected images of planets on a blank sphere and allowed the user to spin the planet with a track ball and see the planet from every angle. They had lots of other freebies too: posters, cookie cutters, and informational brochures to hand out to the masses. Walking around the exhibition area, you could pick up a backpack full of free items such as decorative pins, LED’s, stickers, and pamphlets. Everyone loves a freebie!

USGS Director Marcia McNutt. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

McNutt then discussed research which could lead to an earthquake warning system, potentially giving people about thirty seconds to “drop, cover, and hold” before a main shock. She also listed other research projects, such as volcano studies from helicopters, remote sensing via unmanned aircraft, and atmospheric rivers due to the differing amount of water in the surrounding air. My inner geek was in heaven.

It appeared to me that a more politically charged area of USGS research deals with the hyperspectral survey of Afghanistan. The survey, which utilizes the reflectance of visible and infrared light, identifies the location and composition of minerals. Afghanistan is rich with mineral content. The politics: McNutt stated that some Afghan citizens join the Taliban because they provide jobs in a country that lacks job opportunities. The knowledge of mineral locations could potentially create alternative jobs in mineral extraction that could pull people away from joining the Taliban.

	The USGS has created man-made moon dirt, or regolith, to help NASA prepare for upcoming moon explorations. NASA has requested that 100 tons be made over the next few years. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

The topics of her talk were not limited to earthly studies, however, but expanded into space as well. As recently revealed in the international news, McNutt relayed that through spectral image analysis and infrared studies, scientists have found water on the moon. When McNutt relayed that the USGS was making “moon dirt” for NASA training purposes, there were chuckles and a modest round of applause from the audience. Now, before you go thinking “Great, now my tax dollars are going toward making dirt!” rest assured that this dirt is very special and very difficult to make. The process for creating moon dirt involves mixing exactly the right proportions of materials with properties similar to those of the moon’s composition, and then cooking the mixture at 37,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The end result—NASA gets a material that will ultimately assist them in future space exploration and research. Speaking of exploration, McNutt stated that researchers have also discovered Martian caves that will provide astronauts with suitable shelter if and when people decide to go to Mars. Personally, I cannot wait to have my own cave-side domicile on the red planet.

In short, I am very grateful for the opportunity to have attended and presented research at such a spectacular scientific convention as AGU. San Francisco was beautiful, and though AGU was a bit overwhelming at first, the convention was educational, awe-inspiring, and downright fun. I returned to Memphis with a new, revitalized outlook and appreciation for scientific research and the earth sciences, and I eagerly anticipate next year’s convention.