Taking a global view, a group of geologists have identified what they believe are three of the most pressing questions in mantle convection research: how plates interact with the mantle, whether plates penetrate the boundary between the upper and lower mantle, and if the deep core-mantle boundary is a region of intense chemical activity. "Mantle convection is the slow, creeping flow in the earth's mantle that drives plate tectonics," says Louise Kellogg, a geology professor at UC Davis. The consensus on future research in mantle dynamics came from a small symposium specially focused on identifying the frontiers of Earth science. The symposium findings on mantle research were presented at the recent American Geophysical Union meeting by Kellogg and Peter Olson, a geology professor of Johns Hopkins University. Calling their fledgling plan Cooperative Studies of the Earth's Deep Interior, the loosely organized group represents geologists specializing in seismology, mineral physics, geodynamics, geochemistry, geomagnetism and geodesy who hope to establish a nationally funded collaborative research program within the next year. "A lot of advances have been made in the last five years in a variety of subdisciplines, and there is a perceived need to talk to each other to keep abreast of rapid changes in the field," says Kellogg, who uses computer modeling techniques to study mantle convection.