A new report from the National Research Council identifies 10 challenges facing the earth and planetary sciences. I served on the NRC Board on Earth Sciences and Resources (BESR) when this proposal was first brought forward and the discussions leading up to the study were incredibly exciting. [right: NASA] The ten challenges are:
- How did earth and other planets form?
- What happened during earth's "dark age" (the first 500 million years)?
- How did life begin?
- How does earth's interior work, and how does it affect the surface?
- Why does earth have plate tectonics and continents?
- How are earth processes controlled by material properties?
- How has life shaped earth -- and how has earth shaped life?
- Can earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and their consequences be predicted?
- How do fluid flow and transport affect the human environment?