Alexandria, VA - When individuals die in a natural disaster or property damage is costly, can anyone be blamed? After the 2012 conviction of six Italian geoscientists on manslaughter charges related to communication about the hazards prior to the Aquila earthquake in 2009, scientists worldwide are keen to understand the risks of their hazards research. EARTH Magazine investigates the complicated and often nuanced risks scientists face in hazard research. From the meaning of liability - defined on an international spectrum - to the legal lessons learned from climate scientists, researching the point at which Earth’s hazards impact society’s economic or morbidity appraisals requires a balancing act. [Read More]

On March 11, 2011, Norwegian citizens living along fjord coastlines were perplexed as rare waves sloshed along local docks and seawalls. The waves almost seemed like tsunami waves. Naturally, the residents grabbed their cell phones to document. The video and photo coverage of the rare waves would eventually help scientists identify and describe the phenomenon: seismically generated water waves called seiches, which had been set in motion by the massive Tohoku earthquake half a world away. [Read More]

The Critical Issues program, part of the American Geosciences Institute’s (AGI’s) Center for GEducation and Public Understanding, has just released the preliminary results of the “Defining Critical Issues” survey. The survey results can be accessed from the Critical Issues program website. The majority of responses to the web-based survey were from geoscientists in the post-secondary academic sector, while the number of responses from the public and the decision-making community was substantially smaller. [Read More]

Geoscientists using every resource available to them — from bare-earth LIDAR technology to knowledge of turn-of-the-century fashion — have helped correct a 100-year-old mistake about where the San Andreas Fault rupture point was for the historic 1906 earthquake. Braving poison oak and complicated earthquake policy, scientists spent years trying to locate California’s Portola Valley and finally succeeded courtesy of old photos. Read how the San Andreas Fault was rediscovered in the December issue of EARTH Magazine: http://bit. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — The American Geosciences Institute (AGI), in collaboration with the Geoscience Energy Briefing Coalition, announces the debut event of the Energy from the Earth: Practical Geoscience to Inform Energy Legislation briefing series. The Energy from the Earth congressional briefing series will highlight the importance of geoscience information for sound energy and environmental legislation. The series will focus on the geological resources (petroleum, natural gas, coal, uranium, thorium, geothermal, and water) that supported almost 90 percent of the energy consumed by the United States in 2011. [Read More]

Traditionally, Earth Magazine has published a “highlights” or “year in review” issue at the end of the year. This year for our December issue, we decided to try a different approach: instead of focusing on the top news and research highlights of the last year, we asked our staff and some frequent contributors to write a short commentary on something that grabbed their attention in 2013. We ended up with a collection of extremely varied, often personal insights into how the planet impacted each individual. [Read More]

Geoscientists studying paleontology, paleoclimatology, and ecology have paid homage by naming a newly identified extinct lizard species after him. The November issue of Earth Magazine introduces B. morrisoni, a giant vegetarian lizard thought to live alongside mammals during the Eocene. Discover which “Lizard King” this ancient lizard king is named after and what gave it the evolutionary edge to successfully live alongside mammals in Earth Magazine: http://bit.ly/19Xdv9g. Read the entire issue on the Earth Magazine digital bookstand: www. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is pleased to welcome its new officers elect. Dr. Eric M. Riggs of Texas A&M University will serve as the 2013-2014 President-Elect; Katharine Lee Avary, former West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey scientist, and current consultant is the newly elected Member at Large; and Richard Lambert, chief operating officer of the mining and geological consulting group Roscoe Postle Associates, and former Vice President-Finance for the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — Saber-tooth tigers, dire wolves and woolly mammoths conjure up images of a past when large beasts struggled against the elements, each other, and even against humans for survival. Thousands of these creatures met their demise in the muck of the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, where they slowly sank into the tar and were fossilized. Now, scientists are using traces from hungry, bone-eating insects on these fossils to investigate how long it took for the giant beasts to be swallowed up by the sticky, oozy substance. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - Following the release of data about graduates from over 71 geoscience departments who took the National Geoscience Student Exit Survey, Currents #81 examines preliminary results on where geoscience students found employment following graduation and at which salary level. Graduating geoscience students came from institutions nationwide; however, the majority of those who found employment did so in Texas, California, and Oklahoma. Those who found employment in Texas and Oklahoma were predominantly hired into the petroleum industry. [Read More]