The evolving role of the U.S. Geodynamics Committee

The U.S. Geodynamics Committee of the National Research Council (NRC) has a long history of producing reports and organizing symposia that have fostered pacesetting geophysical research. The Committee, which is part of the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, within the Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources develops and undertakes studies of the dynamic history of the Earth. Upon completion of the Upper Mantle Project, the Committee helped focus the research agenda for much of geophysics with its report, U.S. Program for the Geodynamics Project. In subsequent years, the Committee through its reports was influential in the development of the continental scientific drilling program, the International Lithosphere Program, and the continent‐ocean transects program. The Committee recently produced two reports: The National Geomagnetic Initiative (1993) and Mount Rainier Active Cascade Volcano (1994).