Earth Science

Ecological Economics is a multidisciplinary field which combines the study of the environment with the study of economic endeavors and human social systems. It answers the questions that are never answered with a pure economics approach: but what happens to people?…
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Everyone remembers in vivid detail the horrific events of a tsunami that devastated parts of Indonesia and Sri Lanka in December, 2004. Ever since that date, the word “tsunami” strikes fear in the hearts of those living in the area…
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According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, an alarming 70% of the entire world’s fish stock has either been “fully exploited or depleted.” Overfishing is one of the most common environmental problems of the twenty-first century. Overfishing poses…
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The presence of ice on both land and sea can be observed to form in colder climates with many similarities between the two. While one forms on the land and the other on the sea, both carry many common properties…
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Coral reef disease has increased significantly over the past fifteen years resulting in extensive damage to coral reef colonies. Approximately thirty percent of the world’s coral reef population has been degraded as a result of both human action and natural…
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Wildfires are very detrimental to the environment and often destroy anything in their way.  They burn down property and ravage wildlife areas, taking lives in the process.  Sadly, wildfires are deadly and account for the deaths of many people and animals.  These fires often start from grass or…
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Biogenic sediments are the skeletal remains of either plant or animal marine species. The hard skeletal structures of marine organisms are important constituents of the deep ocean sediment and many layers of the deep ocean floor are almost entirely composed…
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Salmon farming is a profitable business because of consumer demand for salmon and the decline of commercially viable wild salmon fisheries.  Unfortunately there are many problems associated with salmon aquaculture. The most commonly farmed species of salmon is Atlantic salmon…
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Lightning is the primary cause of wildfires in California, with man made causes in second place. In 2007, lightning storms erupted that included hundreds of strikes per hour. In June of 2008, over 8,000 lightning strikes caused over 800 fires…
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Pelagic sediment comprises fine-grained material composed of lithogenous, biogenous, and cosmogenous particles that have been deposited in the ocean floor away from the neritic zone. Pelagic sediment is composed of calcareous and siliceous shells from marine organisms, fine-grained clay material,…
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