Audio

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Volcano Hazards Program has adopted an alert-notification system nationwide for characterizing the level of unrest and eruptive activity at volcanoes.

Early this morning, April 06, 2009, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck near Rome, Italy.

We spoke with Stuart Sipkin, a geophysicist at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center to fill us in on the details.

• Studying Arctic Changes during the International Polar Year
• Why soils aren't just for growing crops
• What does carbon have to do with global weather and climate?
• Balancing tradeoffs between the carbon cycle, econoic concerns, and the environment
• Making choices-- from household decisions to national policies

More than 20 percent of private, domestic wells contain at least one contaminant at levels of potential health concern. About 43 million people—or 15 percent of the Nation's population—use drinking water from private wells, which are not regulated by the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

• Tree death rates have more than doubled over the last few decades in old-growth forests of our western states, possibly reflecting increasing temperatures, with potentially serious consequences for wildlife, fire risks, and the global carbon cycle

A new method to assess the Nation's potential for storing carbon dioxide in rocks below the earth's surface could help lessen climate change impacts. The injection and storage of liquid carbon dioxide into subsurface rocks is known as geologic carbon sequestration.

A roundup of the February 2009 hazard-related events around the world, with some newsworthy tidbits.

This is the third and final installment of a three-part series on climate change. Slight changes in climate may cause abrupt changes in ecosystems that are not easily reversible. Some of these responses, including insect outbreaks, wildfire, and forest dieback, may adversely affect people as well as ecosystems and their plants and animals.

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Audio interview with USGS scientists regarding the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano in Tanzania.

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Attention citizen scientists: We need your help watching the way the world changes!

For nature, timing is everything. So how does climate change affect the timing of things like flowers blooming and animals migrating, and why is this so important?

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The United States faces the potential for abrupt climate change in the 21st century that could pose clear risks to society in terms of our ability to adapt.

USGS Associate Program Coordinator for the Office of Global Change John McGeehin discusses a new report on the potential for abrupt climate changes from global warming during this century.

A roundup of the December 2008 and January 2009 hazard-related events around the world, with some newsworthy tidbits.

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Temperature change in the Arctic is happening at a greater rate than other places in the Northern Hemisphere, and this is expected to continue in the future. As a result, glacier and ice-sheet melting, sea-ice retreat, coastal erosion and sea level rise can be expected to continue.

Steve Peterson talks about the ELM ground-water model.

Mount Redoubt in Alaska is likely to erupt within days or weeks. We talk with USGS Volcano Hazards Program Coordinator John Eichelberger to find out more details.

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