Alexandria, VA — Resting in the Karakoram Range between northern Pakistan and western China, the Karakoram glaciers are stumping scientists. Unlike most mountain glaciers, the Karakoram glaciers, which account for 3 percent of the total ice-covered area in the world, excluding Greenland and Antarctica, are not shrinking. On the contrary, a team of French glaciologists has recently confirmed that these glaciers on average have remained stable or may have even grown slightly in recent years. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is pleased to announce its intention to launch a new initiative to address the critical need of increasing geoscience literacy. AGI’s new Center for Geoscience Education and Public Understanding will serve as a centralized ‘go to’ hub for essential geoscience educational material, current information on geoscience topics, new educational tools, and a home for Geoscience Critical Issue Forums to define the state of the science knowledge on key topics relevant to society. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - What are today’s biggest unanswered questions in earth science? In the July issue of EARTH Magazine, experts from a variety of disciplines weigh in on what they consider to be the biggest unsolved mysteries across the geosciences and how they think we may solve them. Of course, in science, answering one question typically floods the field with new questions and thus new lines of investigation. For example, the discovery in the mid-19th century that carbon dioxide traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere led scientists to engage in lengthy studies — many that continue today — on the mechanics of the greenhouse effect, emission sources and impacts on global climate. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - In the 1980s, acid rain was a big topic of conversation. Everyone knew about it, but a couple of decades later, it’s all but been forgotten. Why and how did this happen? As EARTH explores in the July issue, the problem of acid rain has largely been solved. The solution started with congressional amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990 that called for government regulation of sulfur dioxide emissions, a known cause of acid rain. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - Big Ideas in Geoscience, a DVD created by AGI to bring the Nine Big Ideas from the Earth Science Literacy Principles to life, has just won three prestigious awards: Digital Video (DV) Winner in Education, DV Winner in Nature/Wildlife and Videographer Award of Excellence. These video awards are the latest in a series AGI has garnered over the last few years for its video productions. These include six Telly Awards, six Videographer Awards, two Marcom Awards, and now four DV Awards. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is sponsoring three national contests in celebration of Earth Science Week 2012, which honors this year’s theme “Discovering Careers in the Earth Sciences.” This year’s competitions include a photography contest, a visual arts contest, and an essay contest. The photography contest, “Earth Science is a Big Job,” is open to students, geologists, and the general public. Entries must be composed of original, unpublished material and should capture how Earth scientists work in your community. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - In the Late Quaternary, Australia was home to an array of megafauna, including the half-ton Palorchestes azael, the rhinoceros-sized Diprotodon, and even the giant koala, Phascolarctos stirtoni, which roamed Australia’s interior. However, between 50,000 and 45,000 years ago, they all vanished. Although recent studies indicate human colonization as a potential cause of their extinction, the exact mechanism has never been resolved. Now, geologist Gifford Miller from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his colleagues believe they have uncovered the answer. [Read More]

The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is now accepting advance orders for the Earth Science Week 2012 Toolkit. The Earth Science Week 2012 Toolkit contains educational materials for all ages that correspond to this year’s event theme, “Discovering Careers in the Earth Sciences.” Materials include the traditional program poster and school-year activity calendar, as well as exciting materials from distinguished program partners such as the National Park Service, NASA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Esri, and professional geoscientific societies. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - Global seismic hazard maps exist to help societies and decision-makers anticipate and prepare for earthquakes. These maps are supposed to depict the maximum level of ground shaking likely to be produced by an earthquake in a given area. In the past decade, however, ground motions and death tolls in areas struck by earthquakes have far exceeded these maps’ projections. Thus, scientists are calling into question the standard methods used to estimate seismic risk, and accepted assumptions and calculations have come under fire. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA - The Geoscience Academic Provenance research series conducted by Houlton presents quantitative data in Geoscience Currents 59. Participants were asked to rate their feelings toward geoscience on a scale from 1 to 7 through a Likert-based survey. The aggregated responses illuminated the changes over time in students’ attitudes toward pursuing geoscience. A copy of Geoscience Currents 59 can be found online and downloaded here. Geoscience Currents are quick snapshots of data released by AGI on the status of the geoscience workforce, representing data collaborations with other societies, employers, and professionals. [Read More]