Notes on the 1975 summer study program in geophysical fluid dynamics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Abstract

The central topic of this seventeenth Geophysical Fluid Dynamics program was fluid motion in the earth's mantle and core. Our principal lecturer, Dan McKenzie, first addressed himself to the task of separating solid behavior of the mantle from fluid behavior. When the level of protest diminished Dan advanced to his numerical studies of mantle convection. The relationship of these numerical experiments and geophysical observables was impressive indeed for this first generation of mantle modeling. Intertwined seminars from P. Molnar, B. Parsons, J. Sclater and T. Atwater exposed us to data gathering and its rationale at the frontiers of geophysics. The fluid properties of the core may be less suspect than those of the mantle, but how and why the core fluid moves is still a mystery. Our associate principal lecturer, Fritz Busse, discussed the geomagnetic evidence for core motion. Then moving quickly to the more abstract problems of model geodynamos, Fritz described in five lectures his achievement of a first complete dynamic dynamo driven by convection.