Scientific and technologic advances related to hydraulic fracturing have dramatically increased the supply of U.S. oil and gas; because of this, a methane economy – in which natural gas provides the leading share of primary energy consumption – is now a possible scenario for U.S. energy development.

As NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto reaches its destination, join EARTH Magazine to learn about the latest spacecraft to study the furthest reaches of the solar system.

The Association of American State Geologists (AASG) has recognized the Executive Director of the American Geosciences Institute, Dr. P Patrick Leahy with its prestigious Pick and Gavel Award. This award was initiated by AASG in 1999 to recognize distinguished friends of geology who have made major contributions to advancing or facilitating the role that geoscience plays in our society.

Children born during, and up to three years after, the devastating 1997-1998 El Niño event in northern Peru were found to be shorter than their peers in a new study covered in EARTH Magazine. The rising waters wiped out crops, drowned livestock, cut off bridges, and caused prolonged famine in many rural villages. Now, a new study that tracked long-term health impacts on children from the affected region has found that a decade later, the children continue to bear signs of the hardship endured early in their lives.