A workshop on geomagnetism, sponsored by the Geologic Division of the U.S. Geological Survey, was held in the Denver West Office Complex in Golden, Colorado, April 13–15, 1982. There were 90 registered participants from government agencies, academic institutions, and industry.

This effort stemmed from the realization that geomagnetism, once a small but coherent discipline, has now expanded into numerous areas of the geosciences, yet those doing research in these specialties seldom make contact outside their area of immediate interest. The impetus for this event came from the members of a committee formed to review the geomagnetic activities within the U.S. Geological Survey. They observed that the level of communication between the various elements of this now diverse discipline was inadequate, not only within their organization but also between federal agencies, academia, and the private sector. While the desire was to cover as much of geomagnetism as possible, it was necessary for a workshop of reasonable size and length to exclude some important areas of the subject: magnetic reversal chronology, studies of the externally produced variations, and most aspects of internal induction. The plan was to give emphasis to some of the newer areas: those which have recently seen a high level of activity and those with increasing activity abroad compared to that in the United States. The purpose was to evaluate the status and problems in selected areas with an eye to those whose emphasis might produce fruitful results in the next decade.