Charlie McClennen         Just over a decade ago Albert Ammerman, now a Senior Research Associate in the Colgate Department of Classics, asked if I could possibly use marine and coastal geological techniques to search for and identify archaeological artifacts buried in the submerged sediments of the lagoon of Venice. An upcoming sabbatical enabled me to review the literature and organize an exploratory sonar survey. Published reports made it clear that sub-bottom seismic-reflection profiling had been limited to the early seventies and consisted of just a few lines in the main channels. Dating of shell material from early cores taken along the barrier islands of the Lagoon showed inconsistent age to depth relationships. Reworking of inlet deposits including robust shells was not appreciated nor was the migration of the several 20 meter deep inlets to the lagoon.       High-resolution equipment has come a long way since then particularly with the utilization of chirp technology, signal correlation filtering and real time computer processing of signal echoes. Radiocarbon dating has similarly been enhanced with the development of the AMS (Atomic Mass Spectrometer) which allows dating of very small amounts of organic material. During a series of field expeditions using sonar equipment and hand auger coring we have sampled the range of depositional environments within the lagoon. Funding has been provided by the Colgate Research Council, Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation and the National Geographic Society. Equipment use has been facilitated by Hobart William Smith Colleges and EdgeTech.       Most lagoon sediments are only five to six meters thick and date back to a marine transgression roughly five to six thousand years ago. Mudflat and salt marsh deposits prevail on the surface. However channel bank (meander point-bar) deposits prevail on the subsurface. In most of the lagoon the channels are only a few meters deep so their channel bank deposits are rather restricted in depth. But their deposition rate is one to two orders of magnitude greater than on mudflats. Tidal channel deposits can also be up to twenty or more meters thick around lagoon inlet channels which have scoured into the older and underlying river deposits. Commercial cores taken by Italian government agencies have provided a deeper look into the sediments under Venice, which are mostly composed of river flood plain deposits associated with early-Holocene and Pleistocene deposition of the Po River and other more local rivers. Radiocarbon dating of plant material recovered in cores has enabled the establishment of a consistent time frame for the deposits.       The realization that tidal channel meander migration is an active process (10 to 20 meters/century) and causes major reworking of the older mudflat, salt marsh and channel deposits, brings a whole new view of what we used to describe as the quiet water lagoon depositional environment. Subtleties in grain size from laminated fine sandy to silty channel deposits to silty mudflats help us to recognize the origins of the dipping channel bank deposits and less-stratified units seen on the sub-bottom profile survey records.       While the initial archaeological motivation for exploring the lagoon deposits has not been fulfilled, we have also been able to determine the rise of sea level in the lagoon and in considerable detail over the last two thousand years. The relative rise of sea level is critical because of the fact that the city buildings have been built on pilings driven through the salt marshes down to the underlying sands and have floors that stand only about a meter above normal high tide. Global sea level rise combined with regional subsidence, caused by dewatering of the thick (one to two kilometer) of Pleistocene flood plain deposits, place Venice in great danger of flooding when storms drive Adriatic Sea waters north into the Lagoon. We used this new information in our note of caution published in Science (August 25, 2000) to explain that the proposed MOSE gates for the Venice Inlets could well have serious environmental consequences. With a higher and more rapid rise of sea level the flood control gates would have to be closed more frequently and for greater duration during progressively less violent storms in the effort to protect the many historic treasures seen by so many tourists. The city of Venice, without an integrated municipal sewage system, would obviously suffer serious environmental consequences without the twice daily tidal flushing of the canals when the gates were closed. Italian government action on this issue has continued with more than two decades of study and demonstration modeling. The recent decision to proceed reported in the news media is somewhat ambiguous in that the source of the funding for this three to four billion dollar project has not been identified and an "environmental review"{ may also prevent final installation. Some of these issues and Colgate research were highlighted in the WGBH - NOVA program entitled "Sinking City of Venice" which was initially aired in November 2002 and recently rebroadcast. It was satisfying to see that the research done at Colgate with the help of numerous geology students enriched this well received program.       I have also been active in a study of eastern Lake Ontario barrier beaches and lake-bottom sand deposits funded by The Nature Conservancy and the New York Department of State. The collaboration with Don Woodrow of Hobart William Smith Colleges (now retired) and others has provide an assessment of the magnitude of shifts in shorelines based on GIS plotting of aerial photographs over a six decade time span. Sub-bottom profiling and side scan sonar of the lake bed provided a basis for selecting coring sites. One of the most interesting findings was the evidence for a reduced lake level of 20 meters or more dating from around five thousand years ago. Submerged wetland peat and beach deposits were the key evidence.       Work on Antarctica data collected during the cruise 0101 of the R/V N. B. Palmer with Amy Leventer (Chief Scientist) has been distracted by my efforts to move the new Interdisciplinary Science Building project along. Planning for a new home for Environmental Studies, Geography, Geology, Physics and Astronomy and a part of Biology, as well as other offices important to the sciences, includes constructive links with Olin and Wynn so as to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations in teaching and research. My chemotherapy for lung cancer over the spring semester produced welcome reduction in the tumors but not total elimination.