In the Witwatersrand goldfields, not far from bustling Johannesburg, South Africa, more than a century of mining has left the region littered with mounds of waste and underlain by a deep underground network of abandoned mine shafts, which are gradually filling with water. Today, the mines are producing less and less gold and more and more sulfuric acid.

Nearly 30 educational activities and resources have been added to the newly updated SEED Earth Science Week Online Toolkit, a partnership of Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development (SEED) and the American Geological Institute (AGI), which provides earth science education resources in both Spanish and English.

As EARTH details in its September feature, Thinking Outside the Rocks in the Search for Ancient Earthquakes," modern-day scientists are getting creative in the search for information about past quakes. Read more about how researchers are turning to old newspaper articles and photographs, folklore, petroglyphs, crumpled buildings and toppled monuments - and how learning about past quakes can help seismologists to assess future seismic risk."

On a clear night in March, engineers and researchers gathered in Southern California and tuned into NASA TV to watch the launch of Glory, a potential game-changer in the climate change debate. Glory, a satellite a decade in the making, was designed to deliver critical information about small airborne particles called aerosols. The elusive particles account for much of the uncertainty in climate models, and data from the satellite would have helped scientists determine more of the aerosols' key properties than ever before. Instead, just minutes after launch, the rocket carrying Glory into space failed catastrophically and Glory's remains crashed into the southern Pacific Ocean near Antarctica. What happened? In A Day Without Glory" in the September issue, EARTH explores how Glory came to be, what scientists hoped it would show us, and ultimately, how it failed. The loss was heartbreaking."

Earth Science Week 2011 will kick-off with the fifth annual International EarthCache Day on Sunday, October 9th. The public is invited to join the Geological Society of America (GSA), organizer of the global EarthCache program, and the American Geological Institute (AGI), Earth Science Week coordinators, in exploring this exciting and educational earth science experience.

The American Geological Institute Foundation announces Mr. William N. Barkhouse as its new Executive Director.

Shipwreck enthusiasts find a bounty of nautical relics preserved in the chilly depths of the Great Lakes. But only within the last decade have explorers and scientists begun to reveal the secrets of a much different - and much more ancient - sunken treasure in Lake Huron: sinkholes.

The American Geological Institute (AGI) is sponsoring three national contests as part of Earth Science Week 2011, celebrating the theme of "Our Ever-Changing Earth," October 9-15.

For breathtaking volcanic scenery, few places have the variety found in Lassen Volcanic National Park in the Cascade Range of Northern California. The park boasts five varieties of volcanoes plus a vast volcanic landscape, with devastated areas, bubbling hot springs, boiling mud pots and fumaroles. The park also hosts multiple hiking trails.