Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) congratulates Master’s candidate Elaine Young and Ph.D. candidate Andrea Stevens as the 2016 recipients of the Harriet Evelyn Wallace Scholarship. The scholarship, awarded to women pursuing graduate degrees in geoscience, is a $5,000 award for the academic year, with the opportunity to renew for an additional year of support if qualified. Elaine Young is working towards a master’s degree at the University of California Davis. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - As skiers hit the slopes this winter, EARTH Magazine explores the science of how to keep them and other winter explorers safe. Every year, hundreds of people are killed by avalanches. Understanding the science of the frozen environment is only part of this story; communicating the risk is a field as dynamic as the weather systems and terrains that foster avalanches. The story of avalanche science starts in the decades after World War II with troops trained to work in snowy mountains and the earliest extreme skiers of the 1970s and 1980s forming the foundation of the community. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - Tsunami hazard maps exist for California coastlines, but recent geological studies have indicated that some faults may be capable of unleashing more powerful quakes than previously thought. Given this new information, researchers at the University of California Riverside wondered if the current tsunami hazard maps adequately predict inundation zones, or if they need to be updated. To test their idea, they modeled an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 on the Red Mountain and Pitas Point submarine faults off the coast of Los Angeles. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is pleased to announce the release of its upgraded Glossary of Geology app for the Android and iOS platforms. To celebrate, the apps have been discounted to $19.99 until March 31. This indispensable reference tool contains definitions of nearly 40,000 terms used in the earth and environmental science literature. The AGI Glossary of Geology has long been considered the definitive reference by geoscientists and other students and professionals needing fully-supported and detailed definitions of earth science terms. [Read More]

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]