新的挑战 新的使命——附记国际地层委员会2002年6月全会

NEW CHALLENGE AND NEW MISSION FOR THE ICS

新世纪初国际地层委员会 (ICS)面临着来自两方面的挑战 :一是国际地质科学联合会 (IUGS)向 ICS提出硬性要求 :2 0 0 8年必须完成显生宙各个系、各个阶的全球层型剖面和点位 (GSSPs)的选定工作 ,有关分会不能再无限期地拖下去了 ;二是 ICS的自身思考 :将来是就此停步还是继续履行其职责、但改变其方向和托管方式 ?ICS必须面对现实 ,改革思变。动力地层学显示高分辨率的全球变化的地质过程是激动人心和具有强烈社会责任的一个挑战 ,因为当今全球环境的恶化是人类所面临的一个极其紧迫的重大问题。地层学在这项研究中将扮演重要角色。根据详细的化石记录 ,可以进行精确的地层对比 ,洞察控制全球变化的动态驱动力。将这个给地层学定向的地质过程作为一个新的任务是最有意义的。2 0 0 2年召开的 ICS会议主要目的是让各分会主席对 ICS未来的方向和组织结构取得一致意见 ;加强内部交流与合作 ,企划将来的活动 ;讨论如何应对来自 IU GS的挑战。文内简述各分会 (包括末元古系、寒武系、奥陶系、志留系、泥盆系、石炭系、二叠系、三叠系、侏罗系、白垩系、古近系、新近系、第四系等 13个地层分会 )在会上交流的情况 ,并对 ICS的未来发展方向、ICS的组织和机构性质、ICS的强项和弱势、GSSPs的综合地层学、建立新的?

The special planning meeting of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) was held in Urbino, Italy on 14—16, June, 2002. This meeting has focused on “Future Directions in Stratigraphy” and has been successful. The ICS is in an important scientific phase, facing two challenges. The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS)has strongly urged the ICS to have the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for all Phanerozoic stages in place by the year 2008. After 2008, there will be no funding for work on GSSPs. At the moment, the question before the ICS is not only can the ICS complete this primary mission but also what is the task of the ICS after all GSSPs are in place. New challenge and new mission of ICS were discussed by the chairs of various subcommisions of the ICS in the Urbino meeting. The primary goal of the Urbino meeting is to achieve a degree of consensus among the chairs of the subcommission on the future direction and organizational structure of the ICS. The detailed 2001 Annual Report of each subcommission, plus an updated status of GSSPs for each period are posted on the ICS website (www.stratigraphy.org). The selected highlights of the subcommission reports are given in this paper. They include Cambrian (by John Shergold), Ordovician (by Stan Finny), Silurian (by Rong Jia-yu), Devonian (by Pierre Bultynck), Carboniferous (by Richard Lane with contribution by Phil Heckel), Permian (by Bruce Wardlaw), Jurassic (by Nicol Morton), Cretaceous (by Peter Rawson), Paleogene (by Hans-Peter Luterbacher), Neogene (by Domenico Rio, reading summary submitted by Neogene Subcommission), and Quaternary stratigraphic subdivisions (by Philip Gibbard). Andrew Knoll (Chaiman of the Terminal Proterozoic), Phil Heckel (Chairman of the Carboniferous Subcommission), and Michael Orchard (Chairman of the Triassic Subcommission) could not attend this meeting, but the 2001 annual reports of these three subcommissions have been known. Summary of the ICS Standards-International Stratigraphic Chart and GSSPs was given by James Ogg, Secretary General of ICS. The future directions of the ICS include new mission and goals. The Commission is the primary body for facilitation of international communication and scientific cooperation in stratigraphy, defined in the broad sence of multidisciplinary activities directed towards better understanding of Earth history. The ICS needs to excite the next generation with new tools, high-resolution event correlation on a global scale, and other projects with relevance to public concerns and imagination. The ICS are developing a common lan-guage, then achieve global understanding of Earth history. The ICS is responsible for standardization of stratigraphic concepts and the continued improvement of resolution of the International Geological Time Scale. Stratigraphy has evolving methods that will require new standards and provide progressively more depth in regional to global correlation. The chronostratigraphy time scale does not stop with just stage-level GSSPs. The ICS will provide international networks for thematic studies that require precise stratigraphic correlation (such as paleoclimate, tectonics, glacial episodes, eustatic sea-level). There is a CHRONOS-Earth History Database Concept under scientific auspices of ICS. The mission of the CHRONOS is to produce a dynamic, global timescale to frame Earth History events and processes for societal benefit. It has been recognized that a major direction of geoscience in the 21 st century is the improvement and extension of facilities to collect and analyze data on local, regional and global spatial scales and appropriate temporal scales in which massive data archiving and distribution systems, both hardware and software, are required to provide access to geodata. A group of 30 international stratigraphers and information-technology specialists that represented the spectrum from paleontology to cycle-stratigraphy to paleomagnetism assembled at Amherst, Massachusetts in Nov. 2001 to prepare a plan for a comprehensive suite of g