While expanding a reservoir in Snowmass Village, Colorado, workers stumbled upon a big bone. And then another, and another, and another. Realizing they found something special, the workers called in the experts at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS), who drove several hours to examine the site. Scientists quickly realized that this was no ordinary boneyard. Work on the reservoir halted, as DMNS scientists called in dozens of volunteers and experts from around the country to help excavate the site before construction continued. In a few weeks of excavating, the scientists and volunteers of the Snowmastodon Project uncovered an entire Pleistocene ecosystem, including fossils of giant ground sloths, long-horned bison, North American camels, mammoths, mastodons, insects and ancient plants.

Next week at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, geoscientists will be meeting to discuss findings from the April 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, which devastated Nepal and killed approximately 8,900 people. EARTH Magazine brings you a special feature that describes how initial data informed relief efforts and a community ranging from mountaineers to geophysicists to engineers is helping Nepal rebuild.

The Visualizing My Earth Challenge invites full-time secondary and postsecondary students (ages 14 and older) to submit visual representations of natural phenomena from a geoscience perspective.

The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is pleased to announce the release of "America's Geologic Heritage: An Invitation to Leadership," prepared by the National Park Service's Geologic Resources Division staff in cooperation with the American Geosciences Institute.