Chinese Science Bulletin www.scichina.com 50 vol. No 15 1537-1672 August 2005 In this issue: Great Plume Debate! A case for mantle plumes (Geoffrey F. Davies, p. 1541-1554) Mantle plumes: Why the current skepticism? (Gillian R. Foulger, p. 1555-1560) preceded by News & Views (Yaoling Niu, p. 1537-1540) NEWS & VIEWS Chinese Science Bulletin 2005 Vol. 50 No. 15 1537—1540 2 About the authors Geoff F. Davies is currently a Senior Research Fellow On the great plume debate of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics at Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University. He Yaoling Niu received a B.Sc. with honours (1966) and an M.Sc. (1968) Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK from Monash University in Australia, and a Ph.D. from (email:
[email protected]) California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the USA DOI: 10.1360/982005-1156 (1973). His PhD thesis dealt with mineral physics titled ‘Elasticity of solids at high temperatures and pressures: 1 Introductory note Theory, measurement and geophysical application’. He held positions at Harvard University, University of Roch- Geological processes are ultimately consequences of ester and Washington University in the USA before he Earth’s thermal evolution. Plate tectonic theory, which took his present post in 1983. He is an expert on mineral explains geological phenomena along plate boundaries, physics, very knowledgeable on geology and geochemis- elegantly illustrates this concept. For example, the origin try with deep interest in dynamics and evolution of the of oceanic plates at ocean ridges, the movement and earth's mantle: plate tectonics, mantle convection and growth of these plates, and their ultimate consumption chemical evolution.