Earth: Finding new oil and gas frontiers

Where to next in the search for oil and gas? EARTH examines several possible new frontiers - including the Arctic, the Falkland Islands, the Levant, Trinidad and Tobago and Sudan - where oil and gas exploration are starting to take hold. One of those places, Sudan, is in the news for other reasons: South Sudan voted yesterday on whether to secede from North Sudan.

But given that South Sudan holds more than 70 percent of Sudan's 5 billion to 6 billion barrels of proven reserves, a lot in this election hinges on oil. If South Sudan does secede, how will both sides agree to a new oil profit-sharing agreement? What will it mean for both sides' economies? EARTH examines what role oil will play in this international affair, as well as looking at how development in other new frontiers will affect the oil and gas marketplace.

Learn more about this eye-opening subject in February's articles "Finding New Oil and Gas Frontiers," and read other analytical stories on topics such as determining dinosaur origins, tracing nuclear weapons using bomb debris, and reconsidering the economic implications of climate change also in the February issue.

These stories and many more can be found in the February issue of EARTH, now available digitally (http://www.earthmagazine.org/digital/) or in print on your local newsstands.

Provided by American Geological Institute