Taxonomy term

Features

Getting there and getting around Easter Island

Easter Island has just one gateway, tiny Mataveri International Airport (IPC), to which only one airline, the Chilean carrier LATAM, offers regular service. This includes one flight weekly from Tahiti, as well as daily service from Santiago, a five-hour flight. Airfares are high, ranging from about $400 to $1,500 round trip. The island’s unusually long runway once served as an emergency U.S. space shuttle landing site; today, it allows LATAM to land large Boeing 787s there, a rarity among small islands.

27 Mar 2017

Travels in Geology: Exploring Maine's magnificent Mount Katahdin

Mount Katahdin marks a fitting end to the Appalachian Trail: It’s a nontechnical, but grueling, climb, not to be underestimated or attempted without preparation, that affords spectacular views of igneous and glacial geologic features.

 

08 Mar 2017

Getting there and getting around Mount Katahdin

Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park is about 120 kilometers northwest of Bangor, Maine, and its international airport. Once in Maine, you will need a car to get around. You can rent one at the airport or drive in from another large regional city like Boston. Plan to visit in the summer months before Oct. 15, when the campgrounds close. Bear in mind, they can be closed earlier due to weather.

08 Mar 2017

Assessing how well earthquake hazard maps work: Insights from weather and baseball

Seismologists can gain insights about how well earthquake hazard maps work and how to improve them from other forecasting applications, like weather forecasting and baseball statistics. 

28 Feb 2017

Saving Mongolia's dinosaurs and inspiring the next generation of paleontologists

Paleontologist Bolortsetseg Minjin and her team are bringing dinosaurs home to the children of rural Mongolia any way they can: via fossil repatriation, workshops, new permanent museums and even a roving museum.

15 Feb 2017

The Dinosaur Garden of the Gobi: Motivating future paleontologists

In June 2016, the tourism board of Dalanzadgad, a small city in the Mongolian Gobi, opened a new dinosaur theme park on the outskirts of town. It was paid for with a government grant awarded before the 2016 economic downturn. The night we arrived in town, our Gobi team was given a tour by two of the project’s biggest advocates.

15 Feb 2017

Travels in Geology: The Dead Sea Rift: Salty soaks and ancient earthquakes in a storied land

The Dead Sea and the surrounding area boast impressive geology — from ancient earthquake records to pillars of salt — that bears witness to civilization-shaping stories.

09 Feb 2017

Getting there and getting around the Dead Sea rift

Most flights into Israel from the U.S. and Europe go through Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV), located 19 kilometers south of Tel Aviv. The most flexible and convenient option for getting to and from the airport and for exploring the region is to rent a vehicle; the airport and downtown Tel Aviv offer many rental options. Cars drive on the right, and road signs are marked in Hebrew and English. From the airport, the Dead Sea is about a three-hour drive (170 kilometers).

09 Feb 2017

Temblor: An app that brings home your seismic hazard

The public has a serious thirst for seismic knowledge. But the language that matters to homeowners is dollars and safety. Temblor was founded with the goal of making seismic resilience personal and the language accessible.
30 Jan 2017

A new — and more toxic — normal? Harmful algal blooms find new habitats in changing oceans

A massive and deadly algal bloom along the West Coast of North America in 2015 is just one example of the growing number of severe algal blooms that are occurring throughout the world's oceans. Scientists are studying how toxic species are adjusting to a warming climate. 

16 Jan 2017

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