New Long-Range Planning Documents

Two new documents lay out long-range plans for large parts of the geoscience community. The EarthScope Science Plan and Seismological Grand Challenges in Understanding Earth's Dynamic Systems have been released and provide a framework for important new areas of research and education.

Unlocking the Secrets of the North American Continent (PDF on EarthScope Website - 17.6 Mb)

An EarthScope Science Plan for 2010-2020

EarthScope is a community of geoscientists engaged in multidisciplinary research about the structure, dynamics, and history of the North American continent. As stated in their newly released Science Plan, "EarthScope's vision is to use North America as a natural laboratory to gain fundamental insight into how Earth operates." The continent-spanning science will also provide many opportunities to engage students and the general public and raise the scientific literacy of all Americans. Find out more about the next decade of work at EarthScope by reading the Science Plan.

Seismological Grand Challenges in Understanding Earth's Dynamic Systems

This report is drawn from the many presentations and discussions at the September 18-19, 2008 Workshop on a Long Range Science Plan for Seismology, held in Denver and attended by ~120 members of the seismological and geophysical research community. The report outlines the state of the seismological discipline and then goes on to identify 10 Grand Challenge research Questions. From the report:

"Further seismological research on these questions will address both fundamental problems in understanding how Earth systems work and augment applications to societal concerns about natural hazards, energy resources, environmental change, and national security."