Stanford Earth Matters covers insights, discoveries, and solutions from the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
The art of geology: Stanford maps spur international recognition of Northern Snake Range in Nevada
Hundreds of students participated in the Stanford Geological Survey, a century-long program that brought undergraduates to the field for extended periods to survey and map the geology of parts of California, Nevada, and Utah. (Source: Stanford News)
Arctic river channels changing due to climate change, scientists discover
Researchers have tracked the migration pace of large meandering rivers in permafrost regions – a natural process that impacts the amount of organic carbon released into the ocean.
Climate patterns shape sand deposits in the deep sea
New findings about how sand deposits form in the deep sea during different climate eras reveal mysterious processes miles beneath the ocean’s surface, and could help future-proof offshore operations like wind farms as the Earth warms and water rises.
What’s Earth cooking? Stanford’s Ayla Pamukçu wants to know
As a young adult, Ayla Pamukçu found herself at a crossroads between college and culinary school. Thanks in part to an influential box of rocks, she chose a research path that eventually led to a career studying the inner workings of the Earth. (Source: Stanford News)
Capturing high pressures in diamond capsules
Scientists have created diamond capsules that can entrap other phases and preserve high pressure conditions even after returning the capsules to low pressure. The technique mimics the process in nature where diamonds can have inclusions that are only stable at high pressure.
Four questions for Paul Segall on the Iceland volcano
Stanford geophysicist Paul Segall discusses the Fagradalsfjall volcano currently erupting 20 miles southwest of Reykjavík, Iceland. (Source: Stanford News)
An AI solution to climate models’ gravity wave problem
Stanford scientists are among a growing number of researchers harnessing artificial intelligence techniques to bring more realistic representations of ubiquitous atmospheric ripples into global climate models
Data is transforming our understanding of natural disasters
In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything, geophysicist Eric Dunham details how new types of data collection and faster computers are helping our knowledge of earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes – and how to prepare for them. (Source: Stanford Engineering)
Earthquakes from oil field wastewater
Underground disposal of wastewater from fossil fuel production in the nation’s largest oil field is causing long-dormant faults to slip in a way that could damage wells, according to new analyses of satellite and seismicity data.
Snowpack changes how a California volcano 'breathes'
A Stanford University study suggests the weight of snow and ice atop the Sierra Nevada affects a California volcano’s carbon dioxide emissions, one of the main signs of volcanic unrest.
Hot springs reveal where continental plates collide beneath Tibet
By analyzing the chemistry of over 200 geothermal springs, researchers have identified where the Indian Plate ends beneath Tibet, debunking some long-debated theories about the process of continental collision.
New model may improve Bay Area seismic hazard maps
Using the Santa Cruz Mountains as a natural laboratory, researchers have built a 3D tectonic model that clarifies the link between earthquakes and mountain building along the San Andreas fault for the first time. The findings may be used to improve seismic hazard maps of the Bay Area.
‘Fingerprinting’ minerals to better understand how they are affected by meteorite collisions
Researchers mimicked these extreme impacts in the lab and discovered new details about how they transform minerals in Earth’s crust. (Source: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
A story written in mud
Geologists have long assumed that the evolution of land plants enabled rivers to form snakelike meanders, but a review of recent research overturns that classic theory – and it calls for a reinterpretation of the rock record.
Sierra Nevada range should celebrate two birthdays
New research reveals that after its initial formation 100 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada “died” during volcanic eruptions that blasted lava across much of the American West 40 million to 20 million years ago. Then, tens of millions of years later, the Sierra Nevada mountain range as we know it today was “reborn.”
Researchers recreate deep-Earth conditions to see how iron copes with extreme stress
New observations of the atomic structure of iron reveal it undergoes "twinning" under extreme stress and pressure. (Source: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
How to measure an earthquake through the internet
New technologies that detect motion in the Earth’s crust are emerging in surprising places and reshaping our understanding of earthquakes.
Scientists test friction laws in the collapsing crater of an erupting volcano
A new analysis of the 2018 collapse of Kīlauea volcano’s caldera helps to confirm the reigning scientific paradigm for how friction works on earthquake faults. The model quantifies the conditions necessary to initiate the kind of caldera collapse that sustains big, damaging eruptions of basaltic volcanoes like Kīlauea and could help to inform forecasting and mitigation.
Longest known continuous record of the Paleozoic discovered in Yukon wilderness
Stanford-led expeditions to a remote area of Yukon, Canada, have uncovered a 120-million-year-long geological record of a time when land plants and complex animals first evolved and ocean oxygen levels began to approach those in the modern world.