Author: Board on Earth Sciences and Resources

People are constantly changing the land surface through construction, agriculture, energy production, and other activities. Changes both in how lan...

Energy and mineral resources are essential for the nation's fundamental functions, its economy, and security. Nonfuel minerals are essential for th...

For thousands of years, the underground has provided humans refuge, useful resources, physical support for surface structures, and a place for spir...

The U.S. Gulf Coast provides a valuable setting to study deeply connected natural and human interactions and feedbacks that have led to a complex, ...

The extraction of mineral resources provides the raw materials necessary to produce the products and technologies on which the global economy depen...

Development of Unconventional Hydrocarbon Resources in the Appalachian Basin is the summary of a workshop convened by the National Research Council...

The central purpose of all research is to create new knowledge. In the geographical sciences this is driven by a desire to create new knowledge abo...

There is little dispute within the scientific community that humans are changing Earth's climate on a decadal to century time-scale. By the end of ...

Coal remains one of the principal sources of energy for the United States, and the nation has been a world leader in coal production for more than ...

Steel is a common component of U.S. infrastructure, but that steel can corrode when buried in soil, rock, or fill. Steel corrosion is estimated to ...

Earth science, which in this context does not include oceanic, atmospheric, and space sciences, is vital to the wellbeing of the United States and ...

Reliable, affordable, and technically recoverable energy is central to the nation's economic and social vitality. The United States is both a major...

From the oceans to continental heartlands, human activities have altered the physical characteristics of Earth's surface. With Earth's population p...

Science is increasingly driven by data, and spatial data underpin the science directions laid out in the 2007 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Science...

The hominin fossil record documents a history of critical evolutionary events that have ultimately shaped and defined what it means to be human, in...

Volcanic eruptions are common, with more than 50 volcanic eruptions in the United States alone in the past 31 years. These eruptions can have devas...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) mission is to provide reliable and impartial scientific information to understand Earth, minimize loss of life an...

Oil and gas well completion and stimulation technologies to develop unconventional hydrocarbon resources in the United States have evolved over the...

In some coalbeds, naturally occurring water pressure holds methanethe main component of natural gasfixed to coal surfaces and within the coal. In a...

Produced waterwater from underground formations that is brought to the surface during oil and gas productionis the greatest volume byproduct associ...

The Earth system - the atmospheric, hydrologic, geologic, and biologic cycles that circulate energy, water, nutrients, and other trace substances -...

Satellite remote sensing is the primary tool for measuring global changes in the land, ocean, biosphere, and atmosphere. Over the past three decade...

As a living substrate, soil is critical to the function of Earth's geophysical and chemical properties. Soil also plays a major role in several hum...

The Earth system functions and connects in unexpected ways - from the microscopic interactions of bacteria and rocks to the macro-scale processes t...

Modern geoscience research informs many important decisions and projects, such as geological disaster preparation, natural resource extraction, and...

During geologic spans of time, Earth's shifting tectonic plates, atmosphere, freezing water, thawing ice, flowing rivers, and evolving life have sh...

Understanding, quantifying, and tracking atmospheric methane and emissions is essential for addressing concerns and informing decisions that affect...

While the public is generally aware of the use of hydraulic fracturing for unconventional resource development onshore, it is less familiar with th...

Sediments, ice, corals, and trees are just some of the natural storehouses of information that help tell the complicated history of Earth's climate...

During the 20th century, the city of Los Angeles diverted surface water flowing into Owens Lake for water supply, transforming the large, closed-ba...

To achieve goals for climate and economic growth, negative emissions technologies (NETs) that remove and sequester carbon dioxide from the air will...

The 2001 National Research Council (NRC) report Basic Research Opportunities in Earth Science (BROES) described how basic research in the Earth sci...

Tide gauges show that global sea level has risen about 7 inches during the 20th century, and recent satellite data show that the rate of sea-level ...

Science at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is intrinsically global, and from early in its history, the USGS has successfully carried out internat...

Natural disastersincluding hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floodscaused more than 220,000 deaths worldwide in the first half of 20...

Although advances in engineering can reduce the risk of dam and levee failure, some failures will still occur. Such events cause impacts on social ...