Alexandria, Va. — In the American Geosciences Institute’s newest Status of the Geoscience Workforce Report, released May 2014, jobs requiring training in the geosciences continue to be lucrative and in-demand. Even with increased enrollment and graduation from geoscience programs, the data still project a shortage of around 135,000 geoscientists by the end of the decade. “Industry has recognized, and is mitigating the upcoming shortage of skilled geoscientists in their employ, but the federal geoscience workforce is still demonstrably shrinking” report author Carolyn Wilson said, noting that the federal geoscience workforce decreased in all sectors except meteorology; this includes geoscientists skilled in the energy, mining/minerals and hydrology fields. [Read More]

This publication is volume 11 of the Society’s Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology book series, and is now available in print or digital (CD) formats at the Society’s Bookstore. Review copies requested from Howard Harper (hharper@sepm.org). This publication combines the interpretations of two major sets of data. One is the geophysical data that is used to interpret the position of the tectonic plates through geologic time. The other is based on a long-term search of the geological literature to find, record and evaluate the lithologic descriptions of countless reports around the globe; paying careful attention to those lithologies that have climatic implications. [Read More]

Alexandria, Va. — Since hydraulic fracturing operations began in the Marcellus Shale region, debate has raged over whether drilling operations are causing high levels of methane in drinking-water wells. But few systematic scientific studies have been published to date, so it’s unknown if high methane levels are natural or the result of contamination from nearby gas wells. Now, a new study is adding some much-needed baseline data for methane levels in groundwater in New York. [Read More]

Each year the Society recognizes excellence in several areas of sedimentary geology with the awarding of honors to scientists selected by special committees made up of specialists in that topic. The awards are presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society, which will be held in Denver, Colorado, May 31-June 2. The 2015 awardees are: Honorary Membership for excellence in professional achievements and extraordinary service to the Society: Steve Driese, Baylor University, Department of Geology, Waco, Texas, USA James Lee Wilson Award in recognition of “Excellence in Sedimentary Geology by an Early Career Scientist”: Nathan Sheldon, University of Michigan, Department of Geological Sciences, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Francis P. [Read More]

Alexandria, Va. — Global Positioning System (GPS) technology was conceived in the 1960s to provide precise time and location data to the U.S. military, but it was soon embraced by geodesists and earth scientists. The first major test of GPS as a seismic tool occurred on Oct. 17, 1989, when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck San Francisco just as the third game of the World Series was about to begin at Candlestick Park. [Read More]

Princeton PhD candidate, Joseph Majkut, has been selected as the 2014-2015 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow. He will spend a year in Washington, DC, working as a staff member in the office of a member of Congress or with a congressional committee. Majkut is completing a PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies at Princeton University. He is studying the ocean carbon cycle and how CO2 emissions and the associated warming affect the ability of the natural carbon sinks to remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere. [Read More]

On a muggy day in mid-July 2009, a lone seven-story condominium complex northwest of Kobe, Japan, was violently shaken by an earthquake. The 23-unit, wood-frame tower swayed and bounced while, inside the building, furniture toppled and plates clattered to the floor. No one was hurt during the highly localized event and there was only minimal damage, in part because the building’s wooden skeleton had been augmented to better resist earthquake shaking, but also because the whole event — from the seismicity to the partially furnished building — was just a test. [Read More]

Alexandria, Va. - The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is proud to announce the adoption of a new domain name: www.americangeosciences.org. This change reflects both AGI’s heritage and recent developments in the geosciences. Over 250,000 scientists with skills acquired through geoscience degree programs contribute to various aspects of U.S. energy production, resource development, environmental management, hazard mitigation, and education within the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The new domain name is a part of AGI’s efforts to represent all geosciences, which began with changing its name from the American Geological Institute to the American Geosciences Institute in 2012 and launching the “I’m a Geoscientist” campaign in 2013. [Read More]

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]