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Displaying 1 - 10 of a total of 17 items
September 05, 2018
By the numbers: Missouri
5,401 geoscience employees (excludes self-employed)1
1.74 billion gallons/day: total groundwater withdrawal3
$2.54 billion: value of nonfuel mineral production in 20174
68 total disaster declarations, including 33 severe storm, 21 flood, and 6 severe ice...
August 30, 2018
By the numbers: Washington
12,118 geoscience employees (excludes self-employed)1
1.53 billion gallons/day: total groundwater withdrawal3
$901 million: value of nonfuel mineral production in 20174
132 total disaster declarations, including 78 fire, 28 flood, and 16 severe storm disasters (...
June 01, 2018
Introduction
Methane is the main component of almost all natural gas, and gas delivered to end-users is purified to 95-98% methane.1 There are three main sources of methane emissions from the oil and gas industry:
When a well is being drilled, cleaned out, or hydraulically fractured. As the...
June 01, 2018
Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Demand
Hydraulically fracturing a modern well can require millions of gallons of water for the initial fracturing process. This is a potential problem in arid regions with competing demands for fresh water (i.e. high water stress), such as Colorado and West Texas (...
June 01, 2018
Introduction
The oil and gas industry consumes and produces water. Water is used to drill and hydraulically fracture (“frack”) wells, refine and process oil and gas, and produce electricity in some natural gas power plants. Water is also naturally present in the rocks that contain oil and gas and...
June 01, 2018
Overview
Regulation of oil and gas operations has existed in various forms for over 100 years.1 Regulation has several objectives: protecting the environment (including air and water quality), protecting cultural resources, protecting workers’ and the public’s health and safety, and reducing...
June 01, 2018
Opportunities and Concerns in Using Produced Water
Produced water is natural groundwater that is extracted along with oil and gas. It is commonly salty and mixed with oil residues,1 so it must be either disposed of or treated and reused. About 2.5 billion gallons of produced water are extracted...
June 01, 2018
Introduction
The Arctic hosts large oil and natural gas resources both onshore and offshore.1 However, the harsh climate, extreme weather, remote locations, and limited infrastructure make exploration and production expensive and sometimes hazardous. In recent decades, decreased summer sea ice has...
June 01, 2018
Introduction
When oil and gas were first extracted and used on an industrial scale in the 19th century, they provided significant advantages over existing fuels: they were cleaner, easier to transport, and more versatile than coal and biomass (wood, waste, and whale oil). Diesel and gasoline...
June 01, 2018
Introduction
Many of the world’s oil and gas resources lie beneath the oceans. Advances in exploration, drilling, and production technologies allow production in water more than 10,000 feet deep and more than 100 miles offshore. Major spills are rare but damage sensitive ocean and coastal...
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