NEWS NOTES

January 2000

News and trends in the geosciences for January 2000:

•  Finding a landing site on Mars (1) The search for a biomarker continues as NASA scientists look for signs of water to decide where the next Surveyor landing will be.
•  Living fossils for their time (2) Researchers from the University of Chicago discovered two new species of sauropod that change the way we see dinosaur evolution.
•  Life and death of the one hit wonders (3) A look at the environmental consequences of impact events from the Chixulub Crater impact to smaller and more frequent events.
• When good compounds go bad  (4) Compounds designed to clean up the air are contaminating groundwater.  Scientists will test their affects on volunteers who will drink and shower in the "bad" water.
•  New Madrid slips up (5) Can we expect a Northridge-sized quake in New Madrid?  Researchers consider the risk for the next 50 years.
•  Prometheus' fire (6) Galileo flyby of Io returns high-resolution images that reveal new information about volcanic activity on the most firey body in our solar system.
•  A seismic map for the world (7) USGS map identifies hot seismic hazard areas for the world.
•  Energy in brief (8) Catch up on recent consumption, production and import data for U.S. energy resources.
•  Field Notes (9) Brief notes about ongoing research in the geosciences.