Excavating History in our Hoods
Stereotyping often allows us to confirm our preconceived, superficial notions about people and places. It requires little work or investigation and is even encouraged within our misinformed social media...
Reopening California: Lessons from our Historic Coronavirus War
End of Summer, 2021 UpdateIn late July, 2021, just more than a month after we posted this “last” COVID-19 story, we were required to add an unfortunate update: California...
Natural History of a Grain of Sand
While strolling along a California beach, stream, or riverbed, or plodding over a sand dune, you may not realize that there is a captivating world of natural history at...
Badlands In a New York Minute?
When it comes to erosional landforms, badlands are the speed demons of geomorphology.
Connecting Yesterday’s Redlining to Today’s Gentrification and Displacement
Connections between redlining, segregation, gentrification, displacement, migration, and affordable housing continue to dominate our research about how old boundaries may still separate our neighborhoods and how our urban areas...
Adventures of a Water Drop, California Style
Forward: An Autobiographical Synopsis Let me introduce myself. I am a California water drop. I condensed from billions of water vapor molecules in the air above the North Pacific...
Evolving Diversity Redraws our Political Maps
California has a long-established political geography history that has surprised and puzzled pundits and alternately frustrated and delighted liberals and conservatives on all sides of the spectrum. More recently,...
Mapping L.A.’s Melting Pot Restaurants
Our continued celebration of California’s unequaled cultural diversity directs us back to the ethnic restaurants of Los Angeles. Here, we are proud to share the extraordinary work of one...
All The Hills Are Brown and The Sky Is Blue …
While it is nice having warm, clear weather in January, the California sunshine that fuels this weather is a doubled-edged sword for the Golden State. As they say, all sunshine makes a desert.
Desert Quakes and Ancient Lakes: Geopostcards from Searles Valley
In early July 2019, a series of powerful earthquakes fractured the desert, generating violent seismic waves that eventually rippled across the state and dissipated into California’s distant cities. A...
