On March 17, 2002, NASA launched the GRACE twins, two Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites. They flew about 220 km ( 137 mi ) apart in a polar orbit at 485 km (300 mi) above Earth, measuring regional areas of its gravity field,…
On February 23, 1879, British botanist Agnes Arber was born. From her mid-teens through early career, she was able to spend time assisting plant morphologist Ethel Sargant from whom she acquired her research interest and style of investigation. Arber taught at University College, London,…
On December 6, 1901, American landscape photographer Eliot Furness Porter was born. A chemical engineering graduate from Harvard and a medical graduate from its School of Medicine, he taught biochemistry at the university. As a boy on family camping trips, Porter had been attracted…
On December 1, 2005, Torngat Mountains National Park of Canada was officially established along the northeast coast of Labrador after decades of study and land claim settlements. Labrador’s spectacular first national park includes Arctic Cordillera and Tundra ecozones and a rugged coastline of mountains,…
On November 10, 2003, Congaree was designated a National Park, a South Carolina wilderness area, that was formerly the Congaree Swamp National Monument. It is an alluvial or flood plain, part of a river system where sediment deposits build up on one side and…
On November 2, 1885, the Banff Hot Springs Preserve was established. Two years later and enlarged, it was renamed Rocky Mountains Park – Canada’s first national park – then renamed Banff National Park in 1930. The preserve’s original 26 km2 (10 mi2 ) expanded…
On October 31, 1994, Death Valley became a National Park. Located in eastern California’s Mojave Desert, Death Valley is in the lowest, driest place in North America, and the hottest in the world. Its valley floor is 86 m (282 ft) below sea level…
On December 18, 1971, Capitol Reef National Park in the south-central Utah desert was signed into law. It is the home of several unusual geologic formations such as the Waterpocket Fold. In the Late Cretaceous approximately 70 to 50 million years ago, a monocline…
On November 14, 1792, geologist Charles Lyell was born. Although he trained as a lawyer, he had always been more interested in geology. Extensively travelled and a keen observer, he came to realize the marks of great prehistoric time were all around him. He…
On October 21, 1999, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison was designated a National Park in western Colorado. The long narrow canyon is a carving of about two million years of relentless river erosion through the soft as well as granite bedrock created by…