Author: averslui

On the northeast coast of South America, the countries of Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana are often forgotten or confused with each other or other countries (like Guinea, in West Africa). Here’s an interesting article on “The Loneliness of the Guyanas.”

Check out this beautiful cartoon Haiti: Tents Beyond Tents by Haitian comic artists Chevelin Pierre and Pares Jerome. It describes the situation in Haiti two years after the earthquake.  

“It was far and away the warmest first 10 days of January ever measured in Minnesota history, averaging over 20 degrees F above normal statewide (27.2 F versus a normal of 7.1 F)” writes Mark Seeley of the University of Minnesota Extension. On January 10, temperatures above 60 F were reported in Saint Peter! High…

Today is the second-year anniversary of the earthquake that killed thousands in Haiti. Following the earthquake, massive sums of money were promised for reconstruction. Where has that money gone and how has it been used? Here is one examination of the data by the Guardian. Only about half of the promised aid has been delivered…

January 12, 2012, marks the two-year anniversary of the deadly earthquake near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Yesterday’s Mankato Free Press (January 10, 2012) features Geography Prof. Anna Versluis in an article on the two-year anniversary of the Haiti quake. The article is not available online, but see this Gustavus blog for more information.

For stadium guidance, Minneapolis should look to Vancouver, writes Prof. Bjelland. Read Dr. Mark Bjelland’s letter to the editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune on the Vikings stadium. It was selected as January 9’s Letter of the Day!

China now has an operational satellite-based navigation system called Beidou (translation: Big Dipper) to rival the US government’s GPS (Global Positioning System). See http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/beidou-chinas-gps-equivalent-is-operational-20111230/ for more!

Just like water cycles from the atmosphere to soil to groundwater, living creatures, streams, and the ocean, we can follow the cycles of other nutrients like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Carbon, for instance, is found in all living things (carbohydrates, for example) as well as in methane and carbon dioxide gases in the atmosphere, in…

Have you moved recently? Check out this map showing net migration between all U.S. counties for recent years. According to the map, in 2009 Nicollet County gained more people than they lost via migration. Nicollet County gained 77 from Hennepin County in 2009, but lost 127 people to Hennepin County in the same year.

It’s Geography Awareness Week, so let me present the current faculty teaching in the Geography department at Gustavus. Below I give a brief description of our research specialties–a sampling of the types of questions that interest geographers. Prof. Ruth Baker studies snow: What are the historical patterns of snowfall in the Upper Midwest?  How is…