The competition is open to all students at any level of their academic career (B.S., M.S., or Ph.D.) who have created a geologic map through recent field work. Winning students will receive field tools such as a Brunton Compass or rock hammer, and will be given the opportunity to publish their map in the Student Edition of the Journal of Maps. Each map should stand on its own without explanation by the student author, and the competition website defines the specific judging criteria for the Best Student Geologic Map Competition. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — One of the greatest controversies in science is what’s underneath the Yellowstone supervolcano. The controversy surrounds a unique relationship between a mantle plume (like the one that powers Hawaiian volcanoes) and the subduction zone off the Washington-Oregon coast. Cutting-edge research using a model created with corn syrup, fiberglass and a series of hydraulic pistons reveals a plume sliced in half by the subducting plate. Before this research, different scientific teams had only investigated the subducting tectonic plate or the mantle plume, but not both at the same time. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - Scientists have recently confirmed the existence of an impact crater buried below the town of Decorah, Iowa. Scientists first discovered what they thought resembled a crater in 2008, but now it has been corroborated by an airborne geophysical survey. Scientists estimate the diameter of the crater at 5.5 kilometers wide, nearly five times the size of the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona. Based on the crater’s size, scientists calculate that the region was likely hit by a meteorite roughly 250 meters in diameter about 500 million years ago, and could be related to other Midwestern impact craters. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is sponsoring three national contests honoring this year’s theme “Mapping Our World.” This year’s competitions will feature a photography contest, a visual arts contest, and an essay contest. Photography Contest: Mapping My Community Students, geologists, and the general public are invited to participate in this year’s photography contest, “Mapping My Community.” Entries must be composed of original, unpublished material, and show how maps are used in your community. [Read More]

Of all the water on Earth, less than 3 percent is available for human use, and as climates change and populations boom, the strategies used to extract it will become increasingly complex. With increasing demand, policymakers, scientists and leaders must recognize the energy-water nexus. The energy-water nexus describes an interdependent relationship that exists between availability of water resources and the energy required to obtain, distribute and utilize them. The way we manage the delicate relationship between energy and water will have major implications for the future of both critical resources, as EARTH explores in the July issue. [Read More]

Community colleges provide a strong foundation for the nation’s graduating STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) workforce. In its latest Geoscience Currents, the American Geosciences Institute documents the flow of geoscience students from 2-year to 4-year institutions in Texas, adding to an earlier report on similar data from California released in 2012. In 2012, 70 percent of geoscience students in Texas public universities had transferred from Community Colleges. In particular, Texas A&M University admitted students from 32 community colleges statewide, followed closely by Texas Tech which admitted students from 25 2-year institutions. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — As the Colorado River winds through the Colorado Plateau’s soft sedimentary strata, it picks up a tremendous amount of sediment. This sediment — which once left the river’s waters so muddy that Spanish explorers christened it El Rio Colorado “the reddish river” — is a vital component to the unique ecosystems of the river. However, with the construction of the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams, which trap the sediment, the once-turbid waters have become a dazzling blue-green, signaling major changes with serious implications for the health of the river’s native ecosystems. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — To what extent is the United States energy independent? In recent years, Americans have heard about the need to be unconstrained from foreign energy sources, but what do the numbers really tell us about the current state of independence? Historically, the United States has relied on a diverse energy mix. From our founding through the final years of World War II, the country was nearly 100 percent energy independent: relying on coal- and oil-fired power plants, as well as a series of massive hydroelectric dams. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — Congratulations to Kristen Mitchell, the 2013-2014 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow for the American Geosciences Institute (AGI). Mitchell graduated with her B.S. in Marine Chemistry from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2005. After graduation, Mitchell moved to Europe for a Fulbright Student Fellowship where she studied microbial sulfate reduction at the University of Southern Denmark. During the course of her Ph.D., Mitchell studied at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Georgia Institute of Technology, and finally the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — For decades, scientists have used sophisticated instruments and computer models to predict the nature of droughts. With the threat of climate change looming large, the majority of these models have steadily predicted an increasingly frequent and severe global drought cycle. But a recent study from a team of researchers at Princeton University and the Australian National University suggests that one of these widely used tools — the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) — may be incorrect. [Read More]