General170
-
Off to Lima, World’s Second Largest Desert City
18th June 2011 Lima, Peru Our 2011 field season is underway. After a full day’s travel from New York, we arrived in Lima, the capital of Peru. This sprawling city perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean is home to more than nine million people and, after Cairo, is the largest desert city in…
-
How Far Can a Bicycle Take You in Uganda?
In rural Uganda a bicycle is the key to many destinations. It can take you to be an entrepreneur offering delivery and taxi services, it can also increase the revenue from the crops since you will be able to transport your “Matoke” bananas to the nearest town and boost the price. A bicycle here means…
-
Deciphering Past Climate Change in the High Andes
High above the tropical lowlands, the Andes form a formidable topographic barrier separating the coastal deserts in the west from the Amazon rainforest to the east. The Peruvian Andes are the highest peaks in all the tropics and, despite their proximity to the equator, are mantled with snow and ice. However, the glaciers clinging to…
-
Mapping the Alaska Megathrust
Two tectonic plates converge along a 2,500-kilometer-long subduction zone offshore southern Alaska. Stress builds up at the contact between these plates, which is released in large, destructive earthquakes like the recent event offshore Japan. One of the big conundrums about these settings is how large of an area locks up on the contact between these…
-
SEDAC Data Featured via New Discovery Tool
Gridded Population of the World (GPW), the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), and the Last of the Wild/Human Footprint collection are just a few of the many SEDAC data holdings that can now be found via the improved search interface Reverb—NASA’s Next Generation Earth Science Discovery Tool.
-
17th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference
“We have in the world today two dangerously different views of the future,” the view of natural scientists and the view of economists, says Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute and a keynote speaker at the 17th annual International Sustainable Development Conference.
-
Hands-on Earth Science Book Wins Education Award
A new book of puzzles on earthquakes, weather, climate and hydrothermal vents has been recognized for distinguished achievement by the Association of Educational Publishers. Using real-world scientific data, Earth Science Puzzles lets students practice key earth science skills and concepts such as locating an earthquake or figuring out what controls the amount of water flowing…
-
New working paper: India’s Decade of Development II
In 2000 Drs. Sachs and Bajpai called for a ‘Decade of Development’ in India. Now in 2011, a new working paper reflects on progress and propose strategies for strengthening India’s growth in the next 20 years.
-
New Resource Center for Preservation of Geospatial Data
Geospatial data–including digital maps, imagery, and a variety of other digital files–are valuable resources for many different types of research, applications, and administrative functions. But unlike physical maps and documents, digital data can be difficult to reuse and preserve in the long run, because of changing software and formats, inadequate documentation, loss of media, and…
