Alexandria, VA – Technology is creating a new breed of scientist. I’m talking about citizen scientists – ordinary people and volunteers from all walks of life coming together to help monitor, and possibly mitigate, the next big earthquake through an innovative program called NetQuakes.

A play off the popular company Netflix – a movie company that allows users to rent movies through the mail – NetQuakes allows ordinary people to volunteer as a kind of host “family” for one of the program’s many blue seismometers. This grassroots movement, an innovative effort between the USGS, the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) and regular people, is forming an intricately advanced network of data that could help scientists, emergency experts and the general public become more aware of the dangers involved with earthquakes. Find out more and read the story online at http://www.earthmagazine.org/Seismic-citizens.

Make sure to check out the other exciting stories in this month’s issue of EARTH Magazine. Create your own lava flows; bring dinosaur biology into the 21st century; and discover how America’s commercial spaceflight industry is evolving all in this month’s issue of EARTH.

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Keep up to date with the latest happenings in Earth, energy and environment news with EARTH magazine online at http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Published by the American Geosciences Institute, EARTH is your source for the science behind the headlines.

The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society’s use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.

Contact: Megan Sever
msever@earthmagazine.org
American Geological Institute