Minutes of the Multinational Meeting held at Guangzhou, China

 during April 17-19, 1995

 in connection with establishing an Asian Seismological Commission (ASC)

1.      In response to an invitation from Prof. Zhu Chuanzhen of the Institute of Geophysics, SSB, a meeting was held among the representatives of IUGG Member Countries in Asia and southern Pacific region to discuss the need and formation of an Asian Seismological Commission, at Guangzhou, China from April 17 through 19, 1995.

2.      The meeting was attended by the representatives of Asia and southern Pacific region countries, IASPEI and SSB.

3.      The Agenda adopted is placed at APPENDIX I.

4.      Prof. Zhu Chuanzhen, Chairman of FSC for the ASC, who presided the meeting. Prof Chen Yong, Deputy Director of SSB of China, gave an opening address to welcome the participants and pledged SSB`s support to ASC.

5.      Dr. E. R. Engdahl, Secretary-General IASPEI, briefly reviewed the various steps taken by IASPEI in connection with the formation of ASC; the resolution passed by the IASPEI General Assembly at Wellington, N.Z., in January 1994 in support of forming ASC; genesis of European Seismological Commission and made other observations relevant to ASC in his capacity as Secretary-General of  IASPEI.

6.      Prof. Zhu Chuanzhen informed of the support of countries in Asia and southern Pacific region to the formation of ASC. He read messages from European Seismological Commission (ESC) and eminent scientists wishing ASC well. Further, he supplemented to information already given by Dr. Engdahl in connection with the formation of ASC. In January 1995 it was decided to hold the present meeting and invitations were sent to IUGG representatives in 20 countries of Asia and southern Pacific region. Fourteen countries had responded positively and ten countries had agreed to send representatives to the present meeting.

7.      Prof. Zhu Chuanzhen then invited the participants to offer their comments.

Following is a summary of the points made:

a)  Dr. Ishikawa informed that Prof. Oike, President of National Committee for IASPEI of Japan was very busy after the occurrence of the Kobe earthquake and hence could not come. Although, there is some concern among the Japanese seismologists about the very rapid steps being taken to form the ASC, Japan, however, is in principle not against the formation of the ASC.

b)  Dr. Myung-Soon Jun informed that there is not much seismicity in Republic of Korea. There are only about 20 seismologists in the whole country and one-half of them are employed in mineral- and oil- exploration related activities. He opined that the countries hosting the meeting of ASC should subsidize such meetings as the costs as very high. In principal Republic of Korea strongly supports formation of the ASC and other IDNDR related activities.

c)   Dr. Gheitanchi appreciated the formation of ASC and suggested that in the first stage the concept of formation of an ASC should be accepted and the details of its functioning, etc should be worked out later on.

d)  Dr. Nguyen observed that in Asia the earthquake risk is very high and hence the formation of ASC is very important. He suggested that membership of the ASC should not be limited to only those countries who are members of IUGG.

e)  Mr. Piyabhan informed that he is a meteorologist working for the Meteorological Department of Thailand. However, there are many seismologists in his department as well as in the Asian Institute of Technology and many universities in Thailand. There is a long term forecast of a moderate size earthquake on a known fault in Thailand. Thailand supports the idea of forming the ASC.

f)   Dr. Gupta supported the idea of forming the ASC. He mentioned that the geographic spread of the area to be addressed by ASC is very large. It may be good idea to address the problem of continental seismicity (intra-plate) and subduction related seismicity (inter-plate) and having ASC meetings focused on one of the two mentioned areas. However, at the moment, it is important to take the necessary steps to form ASC and hold the IASPEI regional Assembly during 1996.

g)  Dr. Engdahl clarified several points raised by the participants, and informed about the special funds that may be available for holding the IASPEI Regional Assembly in China.

8.   Having agreed in principal to form the ASC, the draft statutes were discussed in detail. There were several iterations during the afternoon of April 17 and morning of April 18 and finally the version placed as Appendix III was accepted.

9.      The next important step was to appoint an Acting President and An Acting Secretary-General of the ASC for doing the need for organize the Regional assembly of IASPEI in 1996. After some discussion, Dr. Harsh K. Gupta and Prof. Zhu Chuanzhen were unanimously appointed to the office of Acting President and Acting Secretary general of the ASC till the IASPEI Regional Assembly to be held in 1996.

10.  It was also decided that statues of the ASC finalized during the present meeting will be circulated the IUGG member countries of Asian and the southern Pacific region for their comments by the Acting Secretary-General, and the final version presented to IASPEI at the forthcoming IUGG General Assembly in Boulder.

11.  At Boulder, a Nominating Committee of ASC will also be appointed.

12.  The matter of holding the IASPEI Regional Assembly was deliberated in great detail. All the participants, Mr. Zhu Shilong and Ms. Dai Yuejun made very useful comments and observation, several options were discussed and finally the following recommendations were made:

a) The IASPEI Regional Assembly shall be held on August 1,2 and 3, 1996; immediately before the IGC.

b) Mr. Zhu Shilong and Ms. Dai Yuejun of SSB will examine the logistics of holding this meeting at Tangshan. Should they find it difficult, the assembly shall be shifted to Beijing.

c) A list of broad scientific topics has been prepared. Special attention has been paid to regional requirements, societal impact of earthquakes, etc.

d)  IDNDR, GHAP and ILP will be invited to participate and have special sessions.

e)   IASPEI is invited to hold its Bureau meeting just before the Assembly.

f)   Necessary efforts will be made to raise adequate so that about 50 participants from outside China and about 100 from china could participate.

g)   Special invitation will be issued to important speakers.

h) There shall be oral presentations as well as poster sessions. Two parallel oral sessions shall be kept in the morning. Afternoon shall be dedicated to posters.

i) There shall be opening and closing ceremony and plenary sessions of the Assembly.

13.  The participants expressed their thanks to the hosts, SSB, for excellent hospitality, arrangement for the meeting and all the care.

14.  The meeting closed with a vote of the Acting President and the acting Secretary-General of the ASC.

Appendix I

AGENDA OF GUANGZHOU MEETING

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