2016 Contest Winners

Photography Contest

Kauai, Hawaii with surrounding ocean life.
ESW 2016 Contest Photography Winner (Lily Wolfe)

Lily Wolfe of San Carlos, California, won first place in the photo contest. Her photo, which contrasts the volcanic island of Kauai, Hawaii with surrounding ocean life, was taken while she was on a snorkeling trip with her family.

Submissions illustrated the theme “Our Heritage in Earth Systems.” The following finalists captured evidence of ways Earth systems have interacted over time to form the geoheritage around their communities.

Finalists

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ESW 2016 Contest Photography Finalist (Calder Laidlaw)

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ESW 2016 Contest Photography Finalist (Charles Carrigan)

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ESW 2016 Contest Photography Finalist (Katy Sprinkle)

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ESW 2016 Contest Photography Finalist (Vineela Vandanapu)

Visual Art Contest

Diamond Head Volcano on the island of Oahu.
ESW 2016 Contest Visual Art Winner (Sophia Findley)

Sophia Findley of Kapolei, Hawaii, won first place in the visual arts contest. Her drawing depicts Diamond Head Volcano on the island of Oahu.

Submissions illustrated the theme “Our Heritage in Earth Systems.” Our finalists created pictures that show how Earth systems have shaped their worlds.

Finalists

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ESW 2016 Contest Visual Art Finalist (David De Costa)

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ESW 2016 Contest Visual Art Finalist (Jenna Eutsey)

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ESW 2016 Contest Visual Art Finalist (Shrish Karthikeyan)

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ESW 2016 Contest Visual Art Finalist (Taylor Redmond)

Essay Contest

An Untouched World

Imagine walking into a whole other world underneath the world you know. A world with unknown limits, life, and processes. This is what cave explorers experienced in 2009, when they …

Logan Flanagan

Logan Flanagan of Virginia Beach, Virginia, won first place in the essay contest with his paper, “An Untouched World”, which describes Hang Son Doong, a cave in Vietnam.

Students in grades 6-9 wrote essays of up to 300 words addressing this year’s theme, “Sharing and Caring for Our Geoheritage.” Finalists described one geoheritage site and explained why that site should be maintained.

The views and assertions presented in essays are neither endorsed by nor reflect the positions the American Geosciences Institute.

Finalists

Yellowstone National Park

A twenty mile long canyon, seventeen rivers, extensive grasslands with thousands of animals, and over ten thousand geysers, all sitting on top of one of the largest volcanoes …

Protected Forever

St. Kilda Geosite is home to animals that range from endangered puffins to the island’s own species of field mice. A geopark or site is a designated area of international …

Cenote Calavera’s Geohistory

Cenotes are arguably the most popular natural wonders of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and understandably so. Cenotes are sinkholes that result from collapsed …

Our Shared Geoheritage: Antarctica

Antarctica is an extreme continent. It has an extremely low permanent population, is the site of the lowest recorded temperature, and is invaluable to scientists …

Video Contest

Congratulations to our winners of the 2016 ESW Video Contest. The contest, which promoted understanding of the important role of the geosciences in everyone’s life, selected winning entries that celebrated “Our Shared Geoheritage,” the theme of Earth Science Week 2016.