Question One: In your opinion, what is the most important contribution made by GPS?

Meghan Miller

GPS has revealed processes of ice and Earth surface deformation that were invisible to seismology or other geophysical tools - along faults, accompanying volcanic eruptions or magma intrusions, above aquifers, and in the shrinking continental ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. These discoveries are changing our understanding of natural hazards and the risks they present to humankind.

Roger Bilham

The ability for people to find where they are and where they are going - on the roads and in the mountains, deserts and seas of the earth, in the rain, or at night, in a car, on foot or in the air.

Question Two: What part of the world is the most vulnerable to earthquakes?

Meghan Miller

While earthquakes can occur within every plate, along every plate boundary, and at great depths below the rigid plates, subduction zones are the great earthquake factories of the planet. These are the places where the oceanic floor plunges beneath an adjacent plate and creates volcano and earthquake hazards. For very large magnitude events, watch the "Ring of Fire" that rims the Pacific Ocean, southeast Asia, the South Sandwich Islands, and the Antilles While earthquakes larger than magnitude 9 typically recur about 3 times a century, planet-wide, they sometimes appear to cluster in time within a decade.

Roger Bilham

The question is not well posed - it can be answered a dozen ways - small earthquakes, big earthquakes, costly earthquakes, fatal earthquakes. The simplest possible answer may seem rather odd- the place most vulnerable to earthquakes is the Earth's surface. There are no earthquakes throughout most of the bulk of the earth, they all occur where we live - near the surface. However, what you mean is probably "what part of the world is vulnerable to damaging earthquakes" So here are two answers: Japan and California have experienced the most expensive earthquakes in the world. Iran China
Turkey and Italy have hosted the most fatal earthquakes and the greatest number of them. I have written a lengthy article on this (with lots of pictures)--- http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/MalletMilneXIIBilham.pdf

Question Three: Should Earth Science be mandatory in high school? If so, why?

Meghan Miller

Yes! Earth Science presents some of the most exciting and relevant learning moments of any of the natural sciences. No matter what your path, it is a great field for folks who live on this planet and who will vote in this country to be aware of and educated about. If your life, town, or loved ones are affected by energy, climate, weather, natural resources, landslides, earthquakes, groundwater extraction, surface water availability, outdoor recreation, air quality, avalanche hazards, floods, or any other natural processes - Earth Science touches your life.

Roger Bilham

There is only one Earth in the nearby Universe and we live on it. We all need a users guide to the planet. Geology is an essential how-to- do-it manual.

Question Four: What is the one place in the world you would like to travel and why?

Meghan Miller

Antarctica. The ice sheets are changing so fast in our lifetimes, I want to bear witness - both as a scientist and as a member of the human race. And, of course, the polar landscapes are both extraordinary and epic in scale.

Roger Bilham

I have traveled to lots of places - always to answer scientific questions. But I have yet to find somewhere in the world where education and the search for knowledge is valued as the most important thing in the community. In too many societies, religious ideas, and
the quest for profits and power, are used as an excuse for behavior that damages ourselves and the planet we live on.