A decrease in the number of undergraduate geoscientists indicating that they would be enrolling in graduate school immediately following the completion of their degree, as well as a shift in employment from oil and gas industries to environmental and engineering fields, are among the highlights of the latest American Geosciences Institute’s (AGI) Geoscience Student Exit Survey. “I feel the drop in students heading to grad school could be reflecting the increasing difficulty students might be experiencing trying to gain admission into graduate geoscience programs,” report author Carolyn Wilson said. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - The challenge of feeding our planet’s growing population is a critical one. As the human population continues to rise, geoscience is informing experts, suggesting major shifts in agriculture must be taken to prevent rampant food insecurity by the year 2050. Based on model estimates, remotely sensed data and agricultural studies, scientists have been able to identify approximately how much food needs to be available to feed the 11 billion people expected on Earth by 2100. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - Toba volcano erupted 74,000 years ago, and is thought to have been the largest eruption in the last 2.5 million years. Some scientists have thought the fallout from the eruption caused a volcanic winter so catastrophic it almost drove humans to extinction. A new high-resolution study of lake sediments from East Africa disputes that idea, however, suggesting that the early humans in the area probably experienced little or no cooling following the massive eruption. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA – The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is pleased to announce that the theme of Earth Science Week 2016 is “Our Shared Geoheritage.” This year’s event will promote awareness of the many ways that science helps us understand, appreciate, and make the most of our geoscience heritage, or, as it is commonly known worldwide, “geoheritage.” Geoheritage is the collection of natural wonders, landforms, and resources that have formed over eons and come to this generation to manage, use, and conserve effectively. [Read More]

The study was conducted on water from the Orange County Water District, which purifies wastewater with a comprehensive process including microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and UV light treatments. That purified water is then injected into a local aquifer. Over an approximately six-month residence time, that purified water accumulated trace amounts of arsenic. Geoscientists were called in to help solve the mystery of its occurrence. Learn the source of the arsenic and how the local geology and water chemistry interacted in the latest story from EARTH Magazine: http://bit. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - While expanding a reservoir in Snowmass Village, Colorado, workers stumbled upon a big bone. 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. [Read More]

Do mantle plumes exist? EARTH Magazine explores one of the most hotly debated topics within the geoscience community. From the origin of plate tectonic theory to the results of the most recent experiments using techniques like isotope geochemistry and seismic tomography, the results of mantle studies are often contradictory, giving rise to the longstanding debate. It’s not just the lack of clarity in the data that opponents of the mantle plume hypothesis find frustrating, but the fact that plumes are taught as a settled scientific fact about how the planet’s mantle functions, as early as grade school. [Read More]

At the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting next week, geoscientists will discuss findings from the April 2015 Gorkha Earthquake that devastated Nepal and killed approximately 8,900 people. EARTH Magazine brings you a special feature that describes how initial data informed relief efforts and how a community ranging from mountaineers to geophysicists to engineers is helping Nepal rebuild. EARTH spoke with a mountain climber whose summit plan was cut short by shaking on Annapurna, but whose trip wasn’t wasted: Instead, he and his fellow mountaineers turned into rescuers, coming to the aid of those in need by seeking donations from engaged online social communities, and by hiking from village to village to deliver necessities from aid agencies. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute welcomed its 2015-2016 executive committee at the Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting held last month in Baltimore, Maryland. New officers include: Jean M. Bahr, President-Elect, currently a professor at University of Wisconsin at Madison, and holds degrees from Stanford and Yale. She is a fellow and was the President of GSA from 2009-2010. She currently is an editor of the AGU journal Water Resources Research. [Read More]

The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) and the Center for Geoscience and Society are pleased to extend the celebration of Earth Science Week 2015 with the announcement of a new Visualizing My Earth Challenge. This contest invites full-time secondary and postsecondary students (ages 14 and up) to submit visual representations of natural phenomena from a geoscience perspective. “What if you had a window that showed raindrops magnified 100 times?” the contest guidelines urge students to consider. [Read More]