News and Events

“Rebuilding a domestic supply chain for critical minerals and materials here at home will both safeguard our national security and support the continued development of a clean energy and industrial economy,” says Brad Crabtree, Department of Energy (DOE).

As the atmosphere continues to fill with greenhouse gases from human activities, many proposals have surfaced to “geoengineer” climate-saving solutions, that is, alter the atmosphere at a global scale to either reduce the concentrations of carbon or mute its warming effect.

Sometimes geologic inquiry presents itself so forcefully and on its own timetable that researchers have little choice but to "go with the flow," as it were. That has certainly been the case of late in the American Southwest as mega-drought conditions have plunged the nation's largest reservoirs to new lows and terrain, underwater for decades, is quickly being daylighted.

It is my pleasure to report that the Department of Geology & Geophysics is thriving. As the interim chair I am proud of our collective accomplishment, and I'm thrilled to share some highlights with you in this edition of Down to Earth.

Snowflakes are like letters from the sky, each crystal a note describing the atmosphere as it falls to the ground. They float effortlessly, but their creation is one of nature’s most complicated physics feats.