Subcommittee annual report 2021
Annual report of the Subcommittee on Geonomy and Planetology for 2021.
Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), Section X (Earth Sciences) – Committee on Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrology (GÁK) – Subcommittee on Geonomy and Planetology
Meetings
19 May 2021, Wednesday
- Opening remarks by the chair: on the Hydrosphere volume – recognition of, and thanks for, the work of Weidinger Tamás.
- Kubovics Imre: opening thoughts. Work plan: lecture topics, new speakers, new members (?). The results of Nagy Bertalan in the search for traces of life.
- Kordos László: prospects with the two conference volumes (Pedosphere, Hydrosphere). The aim is to obtain the status of a Committee on Geonomy. Other: the chair of the GÁK, M. Tóth Tivadar, has accepted the invitation to the inaugural meeting.
- Vizi Pál: the electronic lecture lines were inaugurated with the 52nd NASA LPSC (Lunar and Planetary Science Conference).
23 June 2021, Wednesday
Planning of the autumn talks.
- Polgári Márta: Microbial ore formation (lessons of 40 years)
- Study of biomineralisation transformations. Background. Results of terrestrial and cosmic materials analyses (three papers in the journal Open Astronomy, 2019).
- Our chapter in the volume on Martian terraforming: an overview of a group of biomineralisation events in chondrites and in lunar and Martian meteorites, based on terrestrial parallels.
- A major synthesis: a thematic special issue of Ore Geology Reviews on this topic, at the proposal of Polgári Márta.
- Talk by Illés Erzsébet and Vincze Miklós: Circulation in Earth’s oceans and its connection with atmospheric circulation.
- Academician Szarka László on climate change.
- Kálmán Béla: the solar activity cycle has started.
- Kereszty Zsolt: Chang’e-5 brought back 1.7 kg of lunar rock samples.
- Vizi Pál Gábor: education on space defence has begun.
- Hargitai Henrik presents his newly completed Mars Atlas.
- Kordos László reports on his Rudapithecus book.
22 September 2021, Wednesday
- Talk: Illés Erzsébet and Vincze Miklós: Circulation in Earth’s oceans and its connection with atmospheric circulation.
- Three of our members – Polgári Márta, Gyollai Ildikó and Bérczi Szaniszló – will have a book chapter published in December by Scrivener–Wiley.
3 November 2021, Wednesday
- Talk by academician Szarka László on climate change, followed by discussion and debate.
8 December 2021, Wednesday
- Talk by Horváth István on the book Kozmogenezis körvonalakban [Cosmogenesis in outline] by Lukács Béla and Paál György, which the two authors wrote in 1993 for the MTA Scientific Committee on Geonomy.
The talk was given electronically: Horváth István broadcast it from the National University of Public Service, and the members of the Subcommittee listened to it in the Mathematics Museum of ELTE. Several members followed it online from home. The talk was followed by discussion and debate.
Scientific results and significant events
- Viczián István: opponent’s review of the DSc thesis of Kovács János, Sedimentological, mineralogical, geochemical and palaeoenvironmental aspects of Plio-Pleistocene red clays.
Relations with other organisations
- MANT (Hungarian Astronautical Society): several of our members are also members of its board (Horváth A., Vizi P. G., Bérczi Sz.).
- MTM (Hungarian Natural History Museum): participation in preparing the exhibition of the NASA Apollo lunar rocks at the museum, October–December 2021 (Hargitai H., Kereszturi Á., Bérczi Sz., Vizi P. G.).
- MMT (Hungarian Meteoritical Society): several members of the Subcommittee take an active part in the work of the Society (Kereszty Zs., chair; among the members Polgári M., Gyollai I., Bérczi Sz.).
- NASA LPSC (Lunar and Planetary Science Conference): conference participation with papers (Vizi P. G., Hargitai H., Kereszturi Á., Gucsik A., Polgári M., Gyollai I., Bérczi Sz.).
- Palace of Miracles (Csodák Palotája): Apollo memorial exhibition, updated every year (Vizi P. G., Bérczi Sz.). Paper in 2020: LPSC 2020, #2916 (PDF); poster: e-poster (PDF).
Publications and references
- Hidroszféra (Hydrosphere). Conference of the MTA Subcommittee on Geonomy and Planetology, 2018. Ed. Weidinger Tamás. Egyetemi Meteorológiai Füzetek 32. ELTE Faculty of Science, Budapest. The articles of the talks were put on the ELTE website in 2021: table of contents and articles (in Hungarian).
- Polgári, M., Gyollai, I., Bérczi, Sz. (2021). Terraforming on Early Mars? In: Beech, M., Seckbach, J., Gordon, R. (eds.): Terraforming Mars. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119761990.ch10
- Kereszturi, A., Barta, V., Bondar, I., Czanik, Cs., Igaz, A., Monus, P., Rezes, D., Szabados, L., Pal, P. D. (2021). Review of synergic meteor observations: linking the results from cameras, ionosondes, infrasound and seismic detectors. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 506, 3629–3640.
- Kereszturi, A. (2021). Record of environmental changes based on a low latitude martian crater. Icarus 357, 114296.
- Kapui, Zs., Kereszturi, A., Józsa, S., Király, Cs., Szalai, Z. (2021). Analysis of surface morphology of basaltic grains as environmental indicators for Mars. Planetary and Space Science 208, 105338.
- Hargitai, H. (2021). Mars Pocket Atlas. 88 pp. Budapest.
- Simon Tamás (ed.): Magyarország és a világűr [Hungary and outer space]. Authors of the background material: Bérczi Szaniszló, Horváth András, Illés Erzsébet, Kálmán Béla, Kereszturi Ákos, Vizi Pál Gábor.