Geoff Abers and Goran Ekstrom co-chaired a significant workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday - planning an exciting (ARRA funded) combined onshore and offshore seismic experiment around Cascadia in the north west US. Not only was the attendance a veritable who's who in US seismology (along with three program managers and one section head from NSF) but also, most importantly, it represented real progress in attaining the long held goal - one that I certainly failed to achieve during my time at NSF - to get NSF Earth Sciences Division and the NSF Ocean Sciences Division working together cooperatively to tackle the many significant and relevant problems that cross the shore line.
Wednesday was spent on a day trip to DC for a set of meetings about Langseth operations and funding. I think these were productive and useful, but it is sometimes hard to tell. The Marine Office will be subjected to a formal NSF Business Systems Review early in 2010 that promises to be just a whole bunch of fun.
I am keeping a close eye on the weather for the Holiday weekend thinking about sailing up to Port Jefferson on Long Island if the density of thunderstorms is low enough.
Have a Happy July 4th
Mike