This year marks the beginning of the second 50 years of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and, effectively, it is also the start of the second half century of what may be termed the modern application of geophysical exploration techniques.

Will there even be a need for geophysics by the year 2030? The answer must be an unqualified yes.

The total worldwide demand for energy and raw materials will increase as population and industrialization grow. Nuclear, synthetic, and renewable energy supplies, such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, and biomass plus conservation efforts, will moderate the demand. Exploration plays will be smaller, deeper, more difficult to locate, and more costly to produce than in the past. As a result there will be a critical need for a strong exploration industry--one that combines the best techniques and efforts of both geology and geophysics--to discover and develop the resources of the future.

What will geophysics be like 50 years from now and what new tools and methods will be brought to bear? This is a difficult question to answer. The key to such long-range prediction is the identification of specific technologic advances. Further refinements in existing techniques will occur, but undoubtedly the application of yet undiscovered principles also will be made.

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