20th CGS Academic Annual Meeting

The 20th CGS academic annual meeting, with 556 participants and 534 papers, was convened in Xi’an on 16-20 October 2004. Seminars, discussions and forums were organized covering 23 special topics. The meeting was characterized as follows. 1. New viewpoints and research directions were put forward such as the earth nutations and the coupling of magnetic fields inside the mantle; interpretation of seafloor topography and thermal flows by means of heat generated inside tectonics, convections in variable dimensions and their interactions; and the central fault in west Kunlun being the driving force to separate the Qinghai-Tibet plateau from the Tarim block and becoming the true "fourth suture zone" of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau.