A voluntary evacuation is in effect for the Kyle and Lee Canyon areas of Mt. Charleston due to the risk of avalanches from recent snowfall.

Bernard Means is, technically speaking, a scientist. But he’s also an artist of sorts who works in the media of digital imagery and, sometimes, bones.

Roughly 290 million years before rancher Cliven Bundy brought international attention to the Gold Butte area, an early reptile the size of a baby crocodile left its own lasting impressions there. A team of researchers from UNLV recently announced the discovery of fossilized footprints 60 million years older than the earliest dinosaurs on a slab of sandstone about 115 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Tourists come to Las Vegas to get married, party, gamble — and sometimes all of the above. So how can a bunch of bones that are millions of years old compete? One Las Vegas museum hopes to bring the thrill factors to natural history with a new, hands-on laboratory. Guests who witness Dr. Josh Bonde at work may not feel like they’ve arrived in Jurassic Park, but the paleontologist hopes they’ll be awed by a visit to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.

Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, the book “Conserving America’s National Parks” by local author Scott R. Abella tells the story of challenges and successes in conservation efforts in the United States’ more than 400 national parks. Illustrated with 247 photos, maps and sketches, the book explores topics such as the return of wolves and panthers to parks, the removal of dams to restore salmon runs, efforts to save trees infected by pests and adaptation to changes brought on by drought, contamination and climate change. Of local interest are sections on Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument and the drought’s impact on Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Visit sites.google.com/site/conservingnationalparks.

On a trip to Great Basin National Park, UNLV geoscience professor Matt Lachniet says that rainfall many millennia ago formed lakes in the desolate basins lining this strip of rural highway. Between the towns of Pioche and Panaca, we stop at Cathedral Gorge, where a multimillion-year dance of erosion and tectonics forged a slender canyon fringed with clay-colored spires.

Half a dozen seismic faults along the Nevada-California border — including two within 60 miles of Reno and one about 100 miles from Las Vegas — appear primed to unleash a moderate to major earthquake, according to a new study.

Where are you from?
I am from Boise, Idaho, where I was lucky to be able to spend a lot of time outdoors hiking and backpacking, and learning to appreciate geology.

Conservationists and other campaigners are urging President Obama to designate 1.7 million acres of the Canyon watershed a national monument before he leaves office

Which public agencies are keeping an eye on asbestos fibers generated by a massive highway project? The I-11 Bypass is being built right through the heart of natural asbestos fields in southern Nevada, but it's not always clear which government entities should be monitoring potential health risks.

Nevada has recently experienced something called an earthquake swarm. An expert says the phenomenon may signal there's something much bigger on the horizon.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District temporarily fixed the residential roadway that left one woman and her children stuck after driving into a sinkhole on Monday.