The Center for Short-Lived Phenomena (CSLP) was an office at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

from 1968 to 1975 designed to assist Smithsonian scientists in studying unusual short-lived natural phenomena such as meteorite impacts, volcanic events,

earthquakes An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they c ...

, and unusual ecological events such as plagues, extinctions, fish rains, and the effects of oil spill events. CSLP published a series of

scientific reports ''Scientific Reports'' is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific mega journal published by Nature Portfolio, covering all areas of the natural sciences. The journal was established in 2011. The journal states that their aim is to assess solely ...

on unusual phenomena, as well as a 1972

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...

collection of unusual phenomena entitled ''Strange, Sudden, and Unexpected: True stories from the files of the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Short-lived Phenomena'' (), which covered topics including: *The

1970 Ancash earthquake The 1970 Ancash earthquake (also known as the Great Peruvian earthquake) occurred on 31 May off the coast of Peru in the Pacific Ocean at . Combined with 1970 Huascarán debris avalanche, a resultant landslide, it is the most catastrophic natura ...

and mudslide on

Huascarán Huascarán (), ( Quechua: Waskaran), Nevado Huascarán or Mataraju is a mountain located in Yungay Province, Department of Ancash, Peru. It is situated in the Cordillera Blanca range of the western Andes. The southern summit of Huascarán (Huasc ...

that consumed the town of

Yungay, Peru Yungay, also known as Yungay Nuevo (Spanish language, Spanish for "New Yungay"), is a town in the Ancash Region in north central Peru, South America. Geography Yungay is located in the Callejón de Huaylas on Río Santa at an elevation of approx ...

. *

Floating island A floating island is a mass of floating aquatic plants, mud, and peat ranging in thickness from several centimeters to a few meters. Sometimes referred to as ''tussocks'', ''floatons'', or ''suds'', floating islands are found in many parts of t ...

s *A short-lived volcanic island in

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

*A report on the extinction of the

Kouprey The kouprey (''Bos sauveli''), also known as the forest ox and grey ox, is a possibly extinct species of forest-dwelling wild Bovinae, bovine native to Southeast Asia. It was first scientifically described in 1937. The name ''kouprey'' is derive ...

, later found to be incorrect. *The 1970 flood of

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. CSLP restructured in 1975, with some activities moved to other portions of the Smithsonian to become the Scientific Event Alert Network, and eventually the

Global Volcanism Program The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP) documents Earth's volcanoes and their eruptive history during the Quaternary Period of Earth's geologic history, with particular emphasis on volcanic activity during the Holocene Epoc ...

. Some of its activities and data were subsequently maintained and operated as an independent non-profit entity under the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena name. CSLP was hired by Cahners Publishing Co. (since acquired by Reed-Elsevier) in 1977 to provide the pilot editorial content for the Oil Spill Intelligence Report newsletter. That publication was the first for Cahners' Newsletter Center business unit, later spun off as Cutter Information Corp (now

Cutter Consortium Cutter Consortium, founded by Karen Fine Coburn in 1986, is an information technology research company based in Arlington, Massachusetts Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is six miles (10 km) ...

). CSLP continued under contract to Cahners and then Cutter for such content for several years. The CSLP features as a plot point in

Renata Adler Renata Adler (born October 19, 1937) is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for ''The New Yorker'' for over thirty years and the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1968 to 1969. She h ...

's influential novel

Speedboat A motorboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine; faster examples may be called "speedboats". Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the intern ...

References

Scientific organizations established in 1968 Organizations disestablished in 1975 1968 establishments in the United States 1975 disestablishments in the United States Smithsonian Institution research programs {{Smithsonian-stub