Answering a Community-Wide Call, AGI Releases Report on Academic Geoscience Program Accreditation Answering a community-wide call from geoscience societies and employers, an American Geoscience Institute inter-society ad hoc committee examined the issue of academic geosciences program accreditation. The committee has concluded its two years of study, and released a report that details three observations regarding the classification of college and university geoscience programs. The committee’s three major observations are about distinctive approaches: program accreditation by a board or community, classification of programs, and student competency-based badging/portfolios. [Read More]

##EARTH Magazine: The Trouble With Turtles Alexandria, Va. - Turtles are the last major living vertebrate group to be placed firmly on the tree of life, and the arguments are getting messy. Three fields in particular — paleontology, developmental biology and microbiology/genomics — disagree about how, and from what, turtles may have evolved. In the latest EARTH Magazine feature story, contributing writer Naomi Lubick investigates how these creatures confound scientists on many levels — from their morphology in the paleontological record and in modern day turtles, to the analysis of their genome. [Read More]

Alexandria, Va - Robert D. Hatcher Jr., Distinguished Scientist and Professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and former President of the American Geosciences Institute (AGI), has been unanimously approved by the AGI Executive Committee to receive the 2014 Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal. This award honors a lifetime contributor of high quality scientific achievements and service to the Earth sciences, and the Selection Committee’s nomination report highlighted his achieving legendary status for his lifetime of commitment to field mapping-based research, combining the latest geophysical, geochemical, isotopic and modeling techniques. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) congratulates the latest recipients of the Wallace Scholarship for women in geoscience. The newest awardee is Penn State doctoral candidate Elizabeth Denis and 2013 awardee, University of Florida doctoral candidate Kelly Deuerling, has received a second year of funding in a re-compete application. Denis’ research integrates geochemistry and sedimentology to investigate fire and aridity relationships during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) a past hot, CO2-rich climate. [Read More]

Alexandria, Va. — Join EARTH Magazine and guest writer Irina Overeem on an expedition that pitted a team of scientists against rapid erosion in the Arctic. Overeem transports readers to the edge of the North Slope of Alaska where her team explored the effects of rapidly thawing permafrost on cliff erosion — a process that’s resulted in an annual average of 15 meters of shoreline recession in recent years. The researchers expect that, with continued warming, the processes responsible for erosion will only accelerate. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — The American Geosciences Institute has sought out the most exciting and relevant news from around the geosciences and brought it all together in the latest GeoSpectrum. With stories, awards, and meeting information from nearly 30 of AGI Societies — GeoSpectrum has it all! This issue covers a range of topics, including: The economics of soil Unconventional uses for coal, from rare elements to cancer treatments How the removal of a dam was celebrated as the best environmental and engineering geology project of 2013 A book review on sex in the paleontological record Much more This issue also features a special insert from EARTH Magazine, their interview with U. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA – Each day during Earth Science Week 2014 (October 12-18), students and the public are invited to focus on a different area of Earth science. To view a new webcast about “Focus Days” of this year’s celebration, visit: International Earthcache Day (October 12) Earth Science Literacy Day (October 13) No Child Left Inside Day (October 14) National Fossil Day (October 15) Geoscience for Everyone Day (October 16) Geologic Map Day (October 17) This free webcast, narrated by AGI Outreach Assistant Katelyn Murtha, provides an overview of opportunities, activities, and resources available. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) and Schlumberger welcome former Peace Corps volunteer and geoscientist, Stephanie Tubman as the AGI/Schlumberger Geoscience Communication Fellow. Through a generous donation from Schlumberger, a global service provider to the oil and gas industry, Tubman will be working with AGI’s Critical Issues Program to disseminate geoscience information to help support decision making at the federal, state and municipal levels. “The goal of the Critical Issues program is to provide decision makers with clear, relevant and quickly digestible information about the geosciences, without oversimplifying the science. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — Laura Finney, a teacher at Chamberlin Hill Intermediate School in Findlay, Ohio, has been named the 2014 recipient of the Edward C. Roy, Jr. Award for Excellence in K-8 Earth Science Teaching. Finney, who earned her master’s degree in curriculum and teaching from Bowling Green State University, has spent her career challenging students in kindergarten through ninth grade with what she calls “authentic experiences” and inquiry-based learning in the Earth sciences. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - On a beautiful, clear June morning in 1954, a massive wave suddenly swept Michigan, killing at least seven people along the Chicago waterfront. At the time, the wave was thought to be caused by a storm that had earlier passed over northern Lake Michigan. However, it wasn’t until recently that scientists unraveled how a storm can create and propagate these far-traveling waves, called meteorological tsunamis or meteotsunamis. [Read More]