The twelfth General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics was held in Helsinki from 26 July to 6 August 196o at the invitation of the Finnish National Committee of Geodesy and Geophysics, and under the presidency of Professor J. T. Wilson, a member of this Society.
The meetings of the Commission were held in the fine new University building which houses the Department of Forestry and lies close to the centre of the town. The first meeting took place on Thursday, 28 July and a final meeting was held on Thursday, 4 August. Eight sessions were devoted to sea and lake ice, snow accumulation and ablation, general glacier studies and glacio-meteorology, response of glaciers to climate, glacier surveying and thickness measurement, and to glacier flow; in three further sessions the Commission, working in co-operation with the Special Committee for Antarctic Research, held a special symposium under the Chairmanship of Dr. G. de Q. Robin, on Antarctic Glaciology during the International Geophysical Year.
An unprecedented number of about 100 papers had been submitted for the Meeting, including 25 for the Antarctic Symposium, and it was fortunate for those who attended the meetings that about half the authors were absent and not able to present their papers for discussion. Even so many of those present did not have a reasonable time in which to present their papers. This situation arose because there were no restrictions on the topics covered by the papers and the International Geophysical Year had stimulated a much wider interest in the subject. About 5o people with active interests in snow and ice attended each of the sessions and more would have come if there had not been three other conferences with kindred interests in Scandinavia at about the same time. As a matter of fact the geographers and geologists had an important excursion and symposium on the glaciers of Swedish Lapland the same week. This was a most regrettable clash; there was not a single representative from Norway, or Denmark, and steps must be taken to avoid a similar situation in the future.
Several important decisions were taken on the future policy of the Commission. In a special meeting between officers of the Association of Hydrology and the Commission, it was agreed that a Russian proposal for the Commission to become an Association separate from Hydrology should not take place in the next three years, that the National Committee of Hydrology be asked to appoint National Correspondents and sub-committees to the Commission.
The President of the Commission, Professor R. Finsterwalder, proposed that the Commission should undertake the regular task of recording the variations of existing glaciers in all countries. The Commission agreed to his proposal and set up a sub-committee, with Professor A. Bauer as Chairman, to prepare by 1 February 1961 a document detailing the measurements, the means by which the work could be accomplished, and the results collected together and published.
The Commission further agreed to hold a symposium at Obergurgl in Tirol in September 1962 on the variations in the regime of existing glaciers; this was approved by the Association of Hydrology. Professor H. Hoinkes of Innsbruck kindly agreed to act as the local organizer, and it is hoped that the first circular giving details of the symposium will be issued early in 1961.
For the purpose of organizing future assemblies and symposia it was agreed to divide the work of the Commission into four sub-divisions: (I) Glaciers; (2) Seasonal snow cover and avalanches; (3) Sea, lake and river ice; (4) Ground ice. The existing organization would deal with (1), while Dr. de Quervain (Switzerland), Dr. E. R. Pounder (Canada) and Dr. M. Meier (U.S.A.), would be responsible for fostering the development of sub-divisions (2), (3) and (4) respectively.
The following officers were elected for the ensuing 3 year period:
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Professor P. A. Shumskiy (U.S.S.R.) as President;
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Professor A. Bauer (France), Mr. W. O. Field (U.S.A.) and Professor G. Morandini (Italy) as Vice-Presidents;
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Mr. W. H. Ward (United Kingdom) as Secretary.
The next General Assembly of the Union of Geodesy and Geophysics will take place in 1963 in the United States of America at Berkeley, California.
W. H. Ward
