Geophysics and the IGY – Proceedings of the Symposium at the Opening of the International Geophysical Year V2

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 2.

The present volume assembles a group of papers covering a wide variety of topics in geophysics. These papers were presented at a special symposium, June 28 and 29, 1957, conducted by the U.S. National Committee for the International Geophysical Year just before the IGY program formally began.
The papers are not only of general and historical interest, but many of them contain reports on early results of the IGY. Although the IGY formally began on July 1, 1957, a number of our own projects had been initiated considerably before that time; moreover, certain geophysical research which formed the basis for the IGY departure is also encompassed in this volume. Finally, the papers provide not only the status of our projects at the beginning of the IGY but often present reviews of the general status of a discipline. For all of these reasons, the Committee believes that the present volume may be of value to geophysicists broadly.