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Welcome to December! Here’s what’s new from the Critical Issues Program:
- We have renovated the Case Studies section of our website, which you can now browse and search much like the Frequent Questions and Maps & Visualizations pages. In addition to case studies from past AGI publications, we have posted 12 new case studies from the U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. These data-rich case studies provide information on the geology, employment, costs, and revenues associated with mining and oil & gas production in specific parts of the United States. Visit the Case Studies page to learn about coal mining in Wyoming and West Virginia; copper mining in Arizona’s Greenlee and Pima counties; gold mining in Nevada’s Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, and Lander counties; iron mining in Michigan and Minnesota; natural gas production in Louisiana and Texas; and oil production in California and Alaska.
Click "Read More" to see more news.
- We’ve further expanded our Maps & Visualizations page, adding 4 new interactive maps covering surface water quality in North Dakota, the geology of North Carolina, historical coal mine maps from Pennsylvania, and environmental quality information in Montana.
- We are always updating our Frequent Questions pages to make them more useful and informative. This month we have newly updated and expanded answers on energy consumption in the United States and the uses of underground injection wells.
- We have added a new search feature to the Critical Issues homepage so that you can search all Critical Issues content in one place. Try it out here.
- Rex Buchanan, one of our speakers in last year’s webinar on Induced Seismicity in the Midcontinent, has kindly provided us with a Fall 2016 update on induced seismicity in Kansas – you can watch the short video here.
- We continue to use this blog as a platform to report back to you on current issues in geoscience and society with our customary state and local focus. In November we reported on earthquake and tsunami risk monitoring and mitigation in the Pacific Northwest, and frontier issues in mineral and energy resources. Today and tomorrow we are at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences’ Roundtable on Unconventional Hydrocarbons – watch this space for a report on that meeting, covering legacy issues in the oil and gas industry.
- For more updates and information from the Critical Issues Program, including details of upcoming events, follow us on Twitter @AGI_GeoIssues or subscribe to our mailing lists.