Tooth enamel helps reconstruct wildlife migrations

tooth enamel helps reconstruct wildlife migrations


March 13, 2025
Above: The late Misha at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. Photo courtesy of Hogle Zoo.

Utah geologists show how strontium isotopes found in teeth or tusks reveal where large plant-eating animals have roamed.

Teeth recovered from a beloved zoo elephant that died in 2008 are helping University of Utah geologists develop a method for tracking the movements of large herbivores across landscapes, even for animals now extinct, such as mastodons and mammoths.

Outlined in recently published findings, the technique analyzes isotope ratios of the element strontium (Sr), which accumulates in tooth enamel. For large plant-eating land mammals, the relative abundance of two strontium isotopes in teeth and tusks reflects where the creature may have roamed during its lifetime.

“Our study not only adds to our understanding of how tooth enamel records an animal’s Sr isotope exposure, but also helps to reconstruct animal migrations from Sr isotope analysis,” lead author Deming Yang said in a posting about the research. “It can be applied to studies of paleobiology, to answer how megaherbivores migrated in the past. It can also be applied to studies of modern conservation and forensics, to trace the origins of illegal ivory trade and other forms of wildlife trafficking.”

The star of the study is Misha, a female elephant acquired by Salt Lake City’s Hogle Zoo in 2005.

Chemically similar to calcium, strontium from the environment accumulates in highly mineralized tissues, such as animals’ bones and teeth.

“As animals eat and drink, they pick up this environmental signature and store it in their teeth, preserving a series of environmental exposures like historic archives,” Yang wrote. This is because the geology of different places presents different isotope signatures for 87-strontium/86-strontium [87Sr/86Sr] and those isotope ratios are reflected in plants and water.

“We use other elements, but in this case, we’re focusing on strontium, which has proven to be really useful because of its strong link to geology,” coauthor Gabe Bowen said. “Ultimately it comes down to where that element comes from, how the animal gets it into their body and from what sources.”

The isotope 87Sr is radiogenic, meaning it is produced from the decay of another element, in this case rubidium, found next door to strontium on the Periodic Table, whose half-life exceeds 49 billion years, about 10 times the age of Earth. While 87Sr increases over time, the abundance of other strontium isotopes remains fixed. Accordingly, isotope ratios are a proxy for the age of rocks and typically differ from place to place.

Coauthor Thure Cerling, a highly decorated distinguished U professor of both geology and biology, is a pioneer in the use of isotope analysis to shed light on ecological questions such as soil formation, animal physiology, wildlife ecology and climate change.

Read the entire story by Brian Maffly in @TheU

New state-of-the-art mass spectrometer

 New state-of-the-art mass spectrometer


March 10, 2025
Above: University of Utah members of the Department of Geology & Geophysics, Left to right: Issaku Kohl, Chris Anderson, Chad Ostrander, Juan Carlos de Obeso, Sarah Lambart and Diego Fernandez. Photo by Todd Anderson..

Instrument will help scientists unravel Earth's ancient geological mysteries, past climates and humans' ongoing interactions with the environment.

The University of Utah’s Department of Geology & Geophysics has been awarded a million-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to acquire state-of-the-art mass spectrometry instrumentation for measuring isotope ratios of heavier elements at the precision needed to perform cutting-edge research into Earth’s deep past.

Mass spectrometers have been making accurate and precise isotope ratio measurements of elements such as hydrogen (H), carbon (C) and oxygen (O) for many decades. Isotope ratio differences generally scale with mass, with isotope ratios of these lighter-mass elements exhibiting much larger differences than ratios for the heavier-mass elements. Large differences are easier to measure than small differences.

The instrument acquired through the NSF Major Research Instrumentation program is capable of determining very, very small isotope ratio differences. The instrument’s technical name is the Thermo Neoma “multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer,” or MC-ICP-MS for short. The instrument routinely makes accurate and precise isotope ratio measurements for magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), strontium (Sr), molybdenum (Mo), mercury (Hg), thallium (Tl), lead (Pb), uranium (U), calcium (Ca), potassium (K) and many other heavy elements.

“There’s so many things you can do with it. We have a long list of scientists in our department and beyond who rely on isotope ratio data for their projects,” said Chad Ostrander, assistant professor of geology and principal investigator of the grant.

Joining Ostrander in applying for the grant are Diego FernandezJuan Carlos de Obeso and Sarah Lambart. Chris Anderson and Issaku Kohl also play instrumental roles in the project. The team’s interests cover many fields of research, tracking the selective movement of isotopes today and in the past from Earth’s interior to its surface, between seawater and the seafloor, from ocean to land and between land and life.

Read the entire story by Ethan Hood in @TheU

A Climate Moon Shot Beneath Our Feet

a Climate Moon Shot Beneath Our Feet


March 3, 2025
Above: The Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy, or FORGE, is an underground field laboratory specifically focused on an emerging field of research and development of geothermal energy.

North Milford Valley, in western Utah, is home to dormant volcanoes, subterranean lava deposits, and smatterings of obsidian—black volcanic glass—that Paiute peoples once collected for arrowheads and jewelry. Scalding groundwater still bubbles to the surface in places.

Joseph Moore

In such a landscape, you remember that the planet’s hard exterior, where we spend our entire lives, is so thin that we call it a crust. Its superheated interior, meanwhile, burns with an estimated forty-four trillion watts of power. Milford was once a lead-, silver-, and gold-mining town, but when I visited the area on a sunny spring morning a scientist named Joseph Moore [research professor in civil and environmental engineering and adjunct professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah] was prospecting for something else: heat.

Heat mined from underground is called geothermal — “earth heat,” in ancient Greek — and can be used to produce steam, spin a turbine, and generate electricity. Until recently, humans have tended to harvest small quantities in the rare places where it surfaces, such as hot springs. Moore’s mission, as a geologist at the University of Utah and the project leader of the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE), is to “develop the roadmap that is needed to build geothermal reservoirs anywhere in the world.” This road is long, and much of the map remains blank. The biggest problem is drilling miles through hot rock, safely. If scientists can do that, however, next-generation geothermal power could supply clean energy for eons.

During my trip, Moore’s corps of consultants and roughnecks were drilling the fifth borehole of their experimental project. Their rig, armed with a diamond drill bit, towered like a rocket over the rural landscape; miles of solar panels and wind turbines receded into the distance. The hole, which would eventually be L-shaped, was five thousand feet deep, and the team had another five thousand to go, horizontally. But, before they could drill any farther, they needed to install a hundred-and-fifty-ton steel tube in the hole, using special heat-resistant cement to glue it into place. The tube was like a massive straw that was meant to transport hot water and steam from an artificial underground reservoir—without contaminating local groundwater or triggering earthquakes.

At 6:15P.M.on May 3rd, cement had started flowing into the hole. Four hours later, part of the cement folded in on itself. The next morning, the cement supply ran out; the men had miscalculated how much they needed. This brought the three-hundred-million-dollar operation to a maddening halt. Moore, in bluejeans and a FORGE-branded hard hat, called his supplier. The nearest batch of suitable cement was five hundred miles away, in Bakersfield, California. The truck would not arrive until after dark.

Right now, geothermal energy meets less than one per cent of humanity’s electricity and heating needs—a puny, almost irrelevant portion. Fossil fuels power about eighty per cent of human activity, pumping out carbon dioxide and short-circuiting our climate to catastrophic effect. Converts argue that geothermal checks three key boxes: it is carbon-free, available everywhere, and effectively unlimited. Crucially, it is also baseload, which means that, unlike solar panels or wind, it provides a constant flow of energy. Companies and governments have taken notice. “Over the last two years, I have watched this exponential spin-up of activity in geothermal,” Tony Pink, a drilling expert in Houston, told me, in 2023.

But there is a glaring risk of moon shots: often, they miss. “There’s basically zero chance that you’re going to develop a moon-shot technology and have it be commercial in five years, on a large-scale, worldwide,” Mark Jacobson, a Stanford engineering professor and the author of “No Miracles Needed: How Today’s Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air,” told me. That’s how long humanity has to lower emissions before climatic devastation, according to his calculations. “There’s a very decent chance you can do that with wind and solar,” he said. Perhaps, when resources and time are finite, trying and failing — or simply taking too long — could be worse than not trying at all.

Read the rest of the story by Brent Crane published in The New Yorkerhere. (Requires setting up an account for limited, trial access.)

Joseph Moore, featured in the story above, was recently honored by the Utah State Legislature for his lifetime of service and dedication to advancing geothermal energy. Read more here.

25th Research on Capitol Hill

College of Science Student Research on Capitol Hill

 

Last week, a select group of students from the University of Utah and Utah State University showcased their research to Utah state legislators and community members at the 25th annual Research on Capitol Hill (ROCH). This event offers a glimpse into the groundbreaking work happening in labs across the state and on the University of Utah campus.

By translating classroom knowledge into experimental design and data analysis, these students gain invaluable experience that can inspire future careers in research, medicine, and policy — equipping them to collaborate with policymakers and use science to address complex challenges. 

This year, College of Science student research was represented in 12 of the 25 projects from the University of Utah. Their diverse research covered topics on synthesis of organic molecules, monitoring groundwater storage in the Salt Lake Valley, fungi, breast cancer, spider venom, birds, cardiac imaging, bacteria, and more. While the event provides a tremendous learning opportunity for undergraduates, the relationship between students and researchers is equally impactful—undergraduates make meaningful contributions to ongoing academic research, advancing scientific discovery.

 

Below are College of Science majors who presented at this year’s Research on Capitol Hill

 

Parker Guzman, graduating spring 2025, majoring in biology, with an emphasis in ecology and evolution and a minor in integrative human biology

Poster: Birds Groom More During Molt

Mentor: Sara Bush, Professor, School of Biological Sciences

 

In the Clayton/Bush lab Guzman is focused on studying the relationship between molt and preening/grooming behavior in captive pigeons. “Molt is a huge but necessary energy investment for pigeons,” explains Parker. Research has played a central role in Parker’s undergraduate experience and future plans.  “After I leave the U,” Parker says, “I want to work in the field and then apply for a PhD program in ecology and evolution. I could see myself staying in academia, I enjoy teaching or doing research.”

You can read more about Parker Guzman’s research journey in SRI Stories: Of Bees & Pigeons

 

 

 


 

Marlon Lopez, graduating spring 2025 majoring in biology and a minor in chemistry

Poster: Exploring Short-form RON as a Therapeutic Target for Breast Cancer

Mentor: Alana Welm, Professor of Oncological Sciences and Senior Director of Basic Science at the Huntsman Comprehensive Cancer Center

 

“My curiosity started when I was in elementary school. There was a lesson about the cell that really caught my interest. The complexity and all of its functions and capabilities fascinated me. Coming to college I knew I wanted to study biology and learn about the intricacies of the cell and its components,” Marlon says, but “as a first-generation college student, my college experience has had its challenges.

"Initially, I didn't know how to get involved in research, but by looking for programs I stumbled upon a summer research program named SPUR. I applied and got accepted to do research at the Huntsman. "Working in a lab that studies breast cancer and knowing I have contributed to novel and impactful research has been exciting."

 


Kisha Thambu, graduating spring 2025 with a double major in computer science (honors) and biology with a minor in chemistry

Poster: Enhancing Myocardial T1 Mapping with a Deep Learning Framework for Deformable Motion Compensation using Utah Patient Data

Mentor: Ganesh Adluru, Associate Professor, Radiology & Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine

 

Kishan’s research leveraged artificial intelligence to improve MRI imaging for cardiac mapping. Figuring out ways to clean up the images in a patient that is actively breathing, offers the promise to improve diagnosis and treatment outcomes for patients with heart disease. 

More about Kishan Thambu 

 

 

 

 


 

Isaac Graham, graduating spring 2026, double majoring in biology and chemistry

Poster: Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles on Mesoporous Silica Supports

Mentor: Ilya Zharov, Professor, Chemistry Department

 

“Research at the University of Utah has helped show me that I want to continue onto graduate school in organic chemistry and eventually work in industry on drug synthesis.

"I found my lab by surveying the chemistry department website and then cold emailing Professor Zharov to see if I could get involved in research in the lab.” 

 

 

 

 


 

Alisson Nopper, graduating spring 2025, with a double major in biology and chemistry

PosterDeaminative contraction chemistry for the synthesis of [2.2]paracyclophane and asymmetric derivatives 

Mentor: Andrew Roberts, Professor, Chemistry Department

 

“My undergraduate research experiences started with the SRI program doing cancer biology research. After I took organic chemistry 1 and 2 — the synthesis courses — I decided to apply to work in a chemistry lab. I’ve been working on organic synthesis for two years now, in the Roberts lab, and will be pursuing a PhD in organic chemistry beginning this fall.” 

 

 

 

 


 

Colton Williamson, graduating summer 2025, majoring in geoscience with an emphasis in geology

Poster: Quantifying Submarine Discharge in Farmington Bay and the Great Salt Lake using Radon-222

Mentor: Douglas Kip Solomon, Professor, Geology & Geophysics, Mines and Earth Sciences

 

After graduating, Colton will be continuing his education and research in groundwater and hydrology as a master’s student in geoscience, mentored by Kip Solomon.

“Undergraduate research has been crucial to my development at the U," sys Colton. "I was able to see science in real time, which helped me better understand concepts related to geology and groundwater. After my master’s degree, I want to work in industry, specifically in hydrology and groundwater management, so that I can help people make informed decisions on water budgets.”

 

 


 

Kyle Pope, graduating fall 2025, majoring in geology with an emphasis in geophysics

Poster: Monitoring Groundwater Storage Change in the Salt Lake Valley Using Repeat Microgravity and GPS

Mentor:  Tonie van Dam, Professor, Geology and Geophysics

 

Kyle is from California and has a bachelor’s in history, which he completed in 2013. His pivot to science was inspired by the outdoors.

“After spending a decade as a Grand Canyon river guide I got a lot of perspective on the time and scale of things and the sure mass of this place," he says. "I fell in love with rocks and that’s when I decided I wanted to go back to school and learn more about them. When I started at the U, I found out I loved processes that explain how this place came together."

"I quickly realized that [this area of science] involves a lot of math, something I did not have a lot of confidence in. I met Professor Tonie Van Dam who gave me the confidence to pursue the things I’m interested in. After graduating I want to get into geothermal exploration and anything involving natural sources of power.”

 

 

 


 

Ella Bleak, graduating 2026, double majoring in Chemistry (honors) and Mathematics

Poster: Understanding Weapons of Bacterial Warfare

Mentor: Talia Karasov, Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences

 

“My research is focused on finding a solution to the antibiotic crisis that healthcare is facing. It is a massive problem because we are finding that there are more and more bacteria resistant to antibiotic medicines so we are no longer able to fight bacterial infections the way we once did. Our proposed solution is to actually use tailocins, which are proteins produced by bacteria. The proteins show promise as an alternative to current antibiotic types. We have been able to successfully extract and use tailocins to kill bacteria [in lab experiments]. Research has been integral in helping me decide I want to pursue a PhD.” Learn more about Ella bleak here article

 

 


 

America Cox, graduating 2026, double majoring in biology (honors, with an emphasis in ecology, evolution, and environment) and philosophy of science, with minors in chemistry, media studies and honors integrated ecology on the East Africa track.

Poster: Cryptic Coevolution of Ant-Farmed Fungi: Linking Genomic and Metabolic Profiles

Mentor: Bryn Dentinger, Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences 

 

“Mycology is such an emerging field because about 70 years ago, people still thought fungi were plants,” she explains. “So when I went to Mexico, we were out there just seeing what there is. Being able to see that at the ground level and seeing the field [of mycology] start to move in new ways is really cool.”

Learn more about America Cox 

 

 


 

Allie Perkins, graduating spring 2026, majoring in biology and Spanish

PosterQuaking Aspen Pathogen Defenses Change in Response to Drought Events

MentorTalia Karasov, Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences

 

“My freshman year, I participated in the Science Research Initiative, SRI. Being part of that program gave me a supportive environment where I gained foundational research skills and learned more about the research process. I am looking forward to this event [Research on the Capitol] and the opportunity to share my research with lawmakers who can impact the issues I am studying."

"Right now feels like a scary time for research because of the executive orders from the new presidential administration, and I feel like my whole undergraduate research experience has prepared me to talk about science with people from a variety of backgrounds. I feel ready to meet people where they are and able to help build their foundation of scientific knowledge.” 

Learn more about Allie Perkins: Humans of the U, February 19, 2025 and on Wilkes Center: Research Minutes (video) 

 


 

Logan Reeves, graduating spring 2026, majoring in biology (honors), minoring in chemistry, pediatric clinical research, and ecology and legacy

Poster
: Testing of an Indoor Climbing Program to Promote Physical, Mental, and Social Well-Being for College Students

MentorAkiko Kamimura, Associate Professor, Sociology, Social and Behavioral Science

 

Logan took a different approach to getting involved in research, by merging his passion for climbing with a desire to address mental health challenges in college students that followed COVID.

“My project involved working with three other students [all non-STEM majors] and was hosted by the department of sociology. Honestly, as a biology major, this research was very, very fun. Most biological research has a lot of pipetting. I am so grateful to have been able to do this, to do the sport that I love and be able to interact and get to know the participants.” 

 

 

 


 

Alexander Rich, graduating spring 2026, majoring in biology with a chemistry minor

Poster: Decoding Species Identities: A Spider Venom RNA Analysis

Mentor: Rodolfo Probst, SRI Fellow and PhD alum of the School of Biological Sciences

 

“I study spider venoms. Spiders are very diverse and most produce venoms, Alexander says. "Venoms have very specific cellular and molecular targets that have the potential to be developed into pharmaceuticals. We are using a very old collection of spider venoms and then working backward to identify the species source."

"This research has been really impactful, both for teaching me about the biological processes that venom has and how they might apply to my future in medicine. It has also been a great avenue for me to connect to different people in science and get their perspectives on my research. It’s been a great opportunity for me to grow in science, research, and as a future medical professional.” 

Assembled by Tanya Vickers, School of Biological Sciences

Read more about Research Day on the Hill in @theU.

Maybe Earth’s inner core is not so solid after all

Maybe Earth’s inner core is not so solid after all


February 20, 2024
Above: Image by USC graphic designer Edward Sotelo

 

New research suggests the surface of the inner core is deformed from contact with turbulent liquid outer core.

Keith Koper, University of Utah

The surface of Earth’s inner core may be changing, as shown by a new study led by University of Southern California and University of Utah scientists that detected structural changes near the planet’s center, published Monday in Nature Geoscience.

The changes of the inner core have long been a topic of debate for scientists. However, most research has been focused on assessing rotation. John Vidale, Dean’s Professor of Earth Sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and principal investigator of the study, said the researchers “didn’t set out to define the physical nature of the inner core.”

“What we ended up discovering is evidence that the near surface of Earth’s inner core undergoes structural change,” Vidale said. The finding sheds light on the role topographical activity plays in rotational changes in the inner core that have minutely altered the length of a day and may relate to the ongoing slowing of the inner core.

Redefining the inner core

Located 3,000 miles below the Earth’s surface, the inner core is anchored by gravity within the molten liquid outer core. Until now the inner core was widely thought of as a solid sphere.

The original aim of the research team, which included U seismologist Keith Koper, was to further chart the slowing of the inner core. Their previous findings used seismic data to document how the solid core’s rotation has sped up and slowed in relation to Earth’s rotation, which may be slightly altering the length of a day.

“We found that there were some very subtle differences in these seismic waves interacting with the boundary of the inner core that are pretty shallow, that sample just the top of the inner core,” said Koper, a professor in Utah’s Department of Geology & Geophysics. “Because we had established already that the inner core is librating and then we found it back in the same spot, then these differences couldn’t be due to just the change in rotation. It must be a new thing.”

That new thing appears to be alterations in the core’s shape, according to the new study.

Read the full story by University of Southern California's Will Kwong in @ The U

Sediment Stories

Sediment Stories


January 14, 2025
Above: Researchers with Returning Rapids observe the changing landscape where Lake Powell floods the San Juan River. Credit: Elliot Ross

Unraveling the Changing Landscape of the Colorado and San Juan Rivers

 

 

 

Sometimes  . . .

Returning Rapids researchers relax while traveling across the Lake Powell reservoir. Photo credit: Cari Johnson

                                                            

. . . 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.

 University of Utah geologists Cari Johnson and Brenda Bowen are at the forefront of a remarkable collaborative effort to understand the dynamic transformation of the river corridors entering the Lake Powell Reservoir, in particular the Colorado and San Juan Rivers. Just capturing a moment of unprecedented geological change in real time has proven challenging.   

Deep Time, Modern Moment

Brenda Bowen studies geologic features. Credit: Elliot Ross


Johnson, a deep time stratigrapher, brings a unique perspective to this contemporary geological puzzle. Traditionally, her work has involved studying sedimentary layers millions to billions of years old, deciphering ancient landscapes from rock formations.  But now she finds herself in an extraordinary "time machine"  — the Colorado River, its tributaries and their surrounding landscapes — where she can observe sedimentation processes in near real-time.

 "The Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1966, created a closed lake basin that's essentially a living laboratory," Johnson explains. "We have an incredibly detailed instrumented record of lake-level history, river discharge, and sediment load. These records establish the known boundary conditions that acted to form the textures, and features we see in decades-old reservoir sediment along the Colorado and San Juan River corridors.” It's like a long term, regional-scale experiment that began with construction of the Dam, the results of which are exposed for us to study now, due to falling reservoir levels. Bowen complements Johnson's approach by focusing on geomorphic evolution in response to human infrastructure. Together, they're documenting how sediment moves, changes, and impacts the landscape.

 "We're not just collecting data," Bowen emphasizes. "We're contributing to an interdisciplinary community trying to understand active landscape changes and potentially inform management decisions."

 

Motoring around a bend. Credit: Elliot Ross

Returning Rapids

Central to their work is the Returning Rapids project, a collaborative effort that brings together researchers, government agencies, nonprofit organizations and tribal representatives. This initiative has been crucial in providing access to remote and challenging terrains, facilitating unprecedented interdisciplinary research. In a recent Rolling Stone article the breathless pace and dynamism of the rapidly changing Cataract Canyon features Returning Rapids, river-rafting enthusiasts who consider Cataract Canyon a second home and whose name counters the conventional view of many that “the emerging landscape as an area that will one day be under water again, even though the data suggests the opposite.”

 "Returning Rapids doesn't just give us physical access," Johnson notes. "They bring together fish biologists, riparian ecologists, geologists, policymakers, land management agencies and others to create a comprehensive understanding of the landscape."

 

 

Mud Volcanoes

Credit: Elliot Ross


J
ohnson and Bowen’s research has yielded fascinating discoveries. One particularly intriguing finding is the presence of "sediment volcanoes" — small mud formations that emerge as reservoir levels drop, releasing gasses (likely methane) from decomposed organic material. These ephemeral geological features not only provide insights into sediment dynamics but also highlight the complex interactions between geological processes, organic matter and carbon release.

Equally compelling is the rapid ecosystem recovery in areas previously submerged. "When these areas are exposed," Bowen explains, "we see native species returning surprisingly quickly. It challenges our assumptions about landscape resilience."

Assembling and working with instrumentation the group personified as "Esther" Credit: Elliot Ross

The Sediment Challenge


The researchers are keenly aware of the broader implications of their work. With an estimated eight percent of Lake Powell already filled with sediment, the reservoir's utility is finite. Current projections suggest the reservoir could be completely filled with sediment in 70-250 years, a nanosecond in geologic time. "Our primary message is simple," Johnson states. "Sediment is an integral part of water systems. You can't separate water management from sediment dynamics."

The research extends beyond local concerns. Bowen points out the global significance of their work: "Worldwide, reservoirs are disrupting sedimentary processes. We're both trapping sediment and increasing sedimentation rates through land development. This is a quintessential Anthropocene challenge."

 Looking forward, the researchers envision innovative approaches to data collection. Johnson dreams of a community science project where pilots, tourists and local flyers can contribute aerial photographs, providing additional perspectives on the rapidly changing landscape.

 

Capturing Change in Real-Time

 

Publications are typically the final resting place for research, but Johnson and Bowen’s priority is first capturing a moment of extraordinary geological transformation. "We're witnessing amazing landscape changes over short time scales," Bowen reflects. "Our role is to document, understand and help inform future management. It is both daunting and exciting to be collecting sedimentologic data with direct implications for important and pressing water management decisions." 

In the dynamic terrain of the American Southwest, these geologists are not just observing change — they're helping humanity understand its own impact on the natural world. And sedimentation is telling that story.

Researchers dwarfed by the massive escarpments of the canyon. Credit: Elliot Ross

by David Pace

Professor Bowen, featured above, is the co-PI on the Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine.

This story originally appeared in Down to Earth, the official publication of the Department of Geology & Geophysics at the U. Other articles from the commercial press about this story can be found in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Smithsonian and photo journalism in the Salt Lake Tribune.

FORGE Workshop with Alumna Anke Friedrich

FORGE Workshop with Alumna Anke Friedrich


December 23, 2024
Above: Members of the Utah FORGE workshop fronted by drone.

The good news for the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) managed by the U is that with an additional $80 million in funding from the Department of Energy, the project is fully funded through 2028.

Anke Friedrich

Managing Principal Investigator Joseph Moore in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, says that “this next phase allows us to build on our important achievements and to further develop and de-risk the tools and technologies necessary to unlock the potential of next-generation geothermal power.”

That’s one hefty piece of good news. But there’s more, and it’s rooted largely in the form of one woman: G&G alumna Anke Friedrich. This past September Friedrich convened a 10-day workshop at Utah FORGE for students from the U and from her home base of Germany where she has an appointment as endowed professor of geology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. (She is also an adjunct in Geology & Geophysics at the U.) “It was extremely important to me to have this workshop authentically at the site where things are happening,” she says, “because it has this sense of urgency that really makes it special and different.”

A recent recipient of the U’s Founder’s Day Alumni Award, Friedrich says it was “priceless” to have the project’s two principal investigators on site—along with Moore, John McLennan, U professors with appointments at the Energy & Geoscience Institute. The setting too, is priceless: Milford Valley in Beaver County, Utah, a place of burgeoning alternative energy operations, including the two geo-thermal plants in operation along with windmill and solar farms running like giant stitches in the dry steppe at the foot of the Mineral Mountains. In the middle of it, to the west, is the FORGE site which includes the double-wide “container” classroom with internet, screens, a kitchen and—very important—air conditioning. 

 

'Liquid gold'

Ten students were the focus of the unique place-based workshop, but a total of twenty-seven participants threaded through the 10-day event, including imported faculty and experts for half-day visits. Additionally, there was a visit from a YellowScan drone and an opportunity to learn how to fly these devices and operate LIDAR to get high surface resolution for fractures wherein is found “liquid gold”—water at a piping hot temperature of at least 275 °C. 

Workshop cohort with Anke Friedrich, far right. The site for Utah FORGE is at the foot of the Mineral Mountains with most of the exploration going on, naturally, underground.

Some of that water is naturally circulating, a classic convection system in the earth. Other hot water used for generating turbines for electricity has to be recruited through fracking and inserting surface water underground where it is heated by natural forces, then re-surfaced. All of this has to be done using seismic monitoring via the U’s Seismograph Station where professor Kris Pankow, who helped organize the workshop, is associate director. The monitoring is in concert with geological data collected from drill cores at the geothermal site  as well as 3D models of fractures on the surface of  nearby mountains using the YellowScan drone. 

Giving back

Though a daunting task, it is a deeply calculated and calibrated one, and, happily, a recent benchmark test at Utah FORGE has proven successful. Students from both sides of the Atlantic are there, feeling the heat and doing hands-on research to better experience the process of hydro-fracking in the geothermal industry. For Friedrich this unique experience, which will be repeated, is also a way to give back to the community she encountered as an undergraduate when she came to the U in 1989 as a competitive skier. (Last year she was inducted into the Crimson Hall of Fame for winning three of the four NCAA Championship races she entered.) 

But this time she’s in the Beehive State to indelibly “give back” in a way that “is really worth sharing with students, young scientists, and even colleagues.”

by David Pace

 

 

 

The Universal Connection

The Universal Connection


October 10, 2024
Above: Sara Warix

“One of the things I love about hydrology is that it’s something that everybody has a connection to,” says Sara Warix. “We all consume it every day, we’re all impacted by the weather, many of us use it for work or play. However far you get into the weeds of geochemistry or physics, you can always connect water back to people.”

#8 Warix (with ball) about to make a goal.

Warix has been fascinated by our dependence on water from an early age. An avid swimmer born and raised in Sacramento, it was commonplace for wildfire smoke to cancel her practices. This irony fascinated her: to jump into a large pool of water and be forced to get out due to a lack of water to fight those fires. This dynamic captured her curiosity and established the watery track of her education moving forward. She did her undergrad at the University of Pacific, continued her education at Idaho State, and culminated in a PhD in Hydrologic Science and Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. The flow of this journey has now led to a Department of Geology & Geophysics faculty position here at the University of Utah.

Drawn to the dynamic relationship our region has with water dependency (as well as the bike trails and ski slopes!), Warix's field of research focuses on understanding headwater streams. Headwater streams are supported by upwelling groundwater before they flow into larger rivers that source downstream water supply. When asked as to their importance, Warix explains, “As the quantity and quality of water in headwater streams change, they carry those effects into the downgradient streams. Upstream changes in water quality are going to be mirrored in the downstream water quality.” An example given is that headwater stream drying frequency is expected to increase as climate alters precipitation patterns and increases temperature warming. As more headwater streams dry, there are going to be impacts on the downstream water resources that they feed into, but the severity of drying on downstream water resources is unknown.

Warix, right, collecting water samples from a tributary to the Upper Snake River, June 2024. Credit: Wyoming Public Radio

Such studies are critical, as the impacts of climate change on stream chemistry are difficult to capture in climate change models. Climate change impacts on stream and groundwater chemistry are convoluted, hidden in the subsurface and vary regionally. More pressingly, the lack of understanding of these impacts has led to a dearth of policy protections regarding drying streams. As such there is a ticking timer to deepen this understanding and to motivate a better protection of these systems. Many faculty at the U are currently working on this topic and Warix, as assistant professor, now joins them in their pursuits.

In addition to research, Warix will also begin teaching next semester, and in both roles she brings a uniquely valuable perspective. Co-mentored by Alexis Navarre-Sitchler and Kamini Singha, a geochemist and geophysicist respectively, Warix had to learn how to view and explain her research through multiple scientific lenses and to meet one mentor on their level while also learning how to “translate” their expertise to the other. Such experience with scientific communication is vital and will surely assist in explaining these concepts to students in kind.

Whether teaching, playing, or dominating the U’s water polo team in 2022, Warix’s life has always been connected to water. In a way, this is the headwater stream of her teaching career. With the skills she’s brought to the surface, she’ll surely carry those skills downstream to the students that need them. 

by Michael Jacobsen

 

 

 

Kip Solomon’s covenant with water

Kip Solomon's covenant with Water


October 7, 2024
Above: Kip Solomon, 2016, conducting measurements in southeast Greenland. The team found direct evidence of meltwater flow within a “firn” (subsurface reservoir) that forms in glaciated regions with high snowfall and intense summer surface melting.

As a ten-year-old growing up in arid Granger, Utah (now West Valley City), D. Kip Solomon spied a pipe stuck in the ground of his family’s backyard.

When he asked his father what it was, he was told it was a direct line to a vast underwater lake with an unlimited volume of water. Solomon was fascinated by the idea which raised many questions for him: Where did it come from? How long has it been there? And how did his father, who admittedly had “immense practical knowledge,” according to Solomon, know that?

“Well, he was wrong. Sort of,” says Solomon who as a child may have been imagining an underwater lake that you could waterski on. “If you dug a hole, it's not like an underground cavern or something. It was in a different context,” he concedes. But the groundwater is there, and it’s massive: ten Lake Powells’ worth below just the Salt Lake Valley.

But that “different context” of his father’s claim of an underground lake, was something Solomon, recently recognized with the Hydrogeology Division of the Geological Society of America’s prestigious O. E. Meinzer Award, would learn about during the next three decades. Most recently, Solomon, who in September was also elected Fellow by the American Geophysical Union, has been using environmental tracers to evaluate groundwater flow and solute transport processes in local- to regional-scale aquifers.

In particular, the esteemed hydrogeologist has developed the use of dissolved gases including Helium-3 (3He), Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) to evaluate groundwater travel times, location and rates of recharge and the sustainability of groundwater resources.  In fact, at the U, the former department chair who was recently announced as interim chair of the Department of Geology & Geophysics, constructed and operates one of only a few labs in the world that measures noble gases in groundwater. His research results have been documented in more than 125 journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports.

Recharge rates and residence times

So, why not just start pumping out those ten Lake Powells of freshwater standing below the Salt Lake Valley and other regions where sub-surface aquifers are brimming with the stuff?

The short answer to that is, well . . . we’ve already tried doing that and ill-advisedly, we’re still doing that. This is true not just in the American West, but across the globe from Africa to the Negev desert in Israel and from South America to the great Ogallala aquifer which underlies America’s famed breadbasket, an area of approximately 174,000 square miles in portions of eight states.

The second short answer is that we are courting ecological and human disaster if we don’t look closely at recharge rates and residence times — the time it takes for those aquifers to fill up as they have over hundreds, thousands even millions of years — of depleted volumes. What Solomon and his colleagues are bringing to the table — the water table, as it were — is more and more sensitive and complicated measurements of a startlingly complex system.

The third short answer, related back to Utah and the depleted Great Salt Lake now in a state of crisis, is that the good snow years we had in 2023 and 2024 did not refill the sub-surface bathtub of the Great Basin and certainly will not “fix” the problem of water scarcity. “We could pump this system,” Solomon says in a guarded tone, “we could fill the Great Salt Lake up easily … Okay? But only once. And then we might have to wait a few hundred years or a few thousand years to fill that system back up. That's the caveat.”

The Sandbox

Solomon’s lab in the Sutton Building looks like the sandbox of a dimly lighted playground straight out of a B-movie:  an impressive array of copper tubes and steam punk-styled oxidized baubles, huge humming spectrometers, beakers and refrigerators, plunging samples to 10 degrees Kelvin.

Copper tubes that suck out the gases that are dissolved in the water specimen from which measurements of 3He are secured. Credit: Todd Anderson

“Minus 263 degrees,” exclaims Solomon over the humming of equipment. “That's very cold, you know. And we have to do that to separate the noble gases, one from another.” Cryogenically separating these gasses is required to measure one thing at a time, and it is technology and equipment that also can break, frequently.

“Imagine that you are cooling to minus 260 degrees and then warming to plus 30 or 40 degrees and you were doing that hundreds of times a day,” he says, two of his lab group Emily Larsen and Will Mace looking on. (“Will’s over there nervous that I'm gonna break something,” quips Solomon as he continues the tour.) “It's always temperature swings and so forth. And then just, you know, just cooling to the insulation that's required to be able to cool to that temperature.”

It’s all part of the process of dating groundwater by measuring tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that decays in a half-life of 12 years or so, to 3He, a rare, stable and non-radioactive isotope of helium. In the soup of it all is Larsen, preparing specimens by eliminating extraneous gases and sealing them up, placing them on a shelf for six weeks and letting tritium decay to the stable noble gas of 3He which is then measured.

In addition to measuring tritium, the team deploys a procedure in nearby copper tubes that sucks out the gases that are dissolved in the water specimen from which measurements of 3He are taken. It is the ratio of tritium to 3He3 that measures how long the water has been in the ground (its age).

The Solomon lab’s findings paint a much more complex … and sobering picture of how depleted groundwater, overwhelmingly the largest volume of fresh water that's available on Earth, gets re-charged and how long it can take. “I'm an engineer,” says Solomon, “so I'm always looking for solutions, but you can't look for a decent solution until you really understand the problem.”

So, while that massive volume of water under the Salt Lake Valley does in fact exist, the rates of which water is recharged to the subsurface and moves through the subsurface of that reservoir is small and exceedingly difficult to measure due to variability that is “mind boggling.”

That limited transfer is largely related both to climate and the amount of precipitation. But it’s also related to geology, “how well rocks and sediments are able to transmit water,” says Solomon referring to permeability, a property of the Earth’s soil that first motivated his work. Of late, there is an accumulating literature about the age of water, another metric that impacts our understanding of transfer rates and might lead to new water management policies and the “solutions” that the engineer in Solomon is constantly scanning the substrate for.

Why study the age of water? “If you can measure how long it took for that water to go from where it got recharged, to where you're collecting it, or to where it's discharging, now you have a means, a different sort of method to evaluate groundwater flow systems.”

One thing is for certain in the world of hydrogeology: without even knowing it, you can easily use more groundwater than is being sustainably recharged. And it’s happening right now across the globe.

A covenant with water

Talk at any length with Solomon about one of the defining issues of our day — water depletion on a warming globe — and you learn that there is no quick fix. To put a finer point on it, maybe “fixing” a system, as if taking some kind of plumber’s wrench to it, is decidedly not the way forward, the wrong word altogether. Perhaps instead we as a society should be looking at making a covenant or promise with water — a play on the book title by  medical doctor-turned-novelist Abraham Verghese — and then honoring it.

Solomon recounts recent work he has been doing in Nebraska that is one of eight states reliant on the now shrinking Ogallala aquifer. “They do something called ‘tanking.’ They go get a big farmer's watering tank that they use for their livestock. They throw it in the creek and get some paddles and probably a case of beer and they float down the Middle Loop River. And it's great fun.”  Some of that river water, he explains, is a few hundred years to 8,000 years old. “On average,” he says, “they're floating on water that first fell from the sky 3,000 years ago,” the opening salvo of the Bronze Age.

The misperception of water and its ways isn’t just rampant in Nebraska, or Utah . . . it’s global. We more commonly think of lakes and rivers as our primary water source when they are fractional compared to groundwater. And yet we behave as if that groundwater is static, infinitely replaceable in a span of time to our liking, and easily measurable. Solomon and his colleagues are doing no less than shifting the paradigm on that and in a sense almost personifying groundwater as complex, dynamic and as elusive as your grandchild. (And equally nigh unto impossible to quantify and “successfully” navigate.)

Kip Solomon explaining how noble gases are measured. Credit: Todd Anderson

In hydrology, water management lags theory by at least 30 years, says Solomon. “It takes a long time when new concepts emerge. It takes a long time to finally get that trickled [down] into practice.” That the whole hydrologic system has memory is the shift in thinking. “We are, especially practitioners, just starting to come to grips with the fact that, that we can't just look at one year of snow and precipitation and so forth.” For example, colleague Paul Brooks and Solomon have been doing some work looking at streams coming out of Red Butte Canyon in the foothills just south of the University of Utah campus. “That water recharged fifty years ago — recharge meaning [that’s when] it got into the ground. When it fell as precipitation.” The takeaway here in a community that prides itself on being hyper-aware of snowfall, snowmelt and precipitation is that it isn't enough to look at the annual amount of precipitation.

“There's memory in the system because the subsurface can store lots of water but releases it slowly."

In his work Solomon, who holds the Frank Brown Presidential Chair, travels a lot, having been on virtually every continent and advises other countries through the United Nations about out to understand groundwater systems. Recently, in the desert country of Morocco, he says, “they know that they're over-pumping their groundwater by a billion cubic meters a year. And, you know, they're trying to figure out what to do about it. But among other things, I advise them to look at the age of the water and use that to help refine their models of groundwater flow. My worry is that what they think is a billion might be 10 billion, because right now, their models do not benefit from having kind of age-data.”

The Meinzer Award

If water, groundwater in particular, is such that we should make a covenant with it to understand, respect it—including its age—and manage it as if it’s a sacred, intimate partner, then research in the vein of Solomon’s is key to that. He and other of his ilk are attempting to understand rates of recharge not just by making physical measurements, but by looking at permeability, age of water and movement of it along a flow path. It’s an infinitely more robust approach worthy of the complex subject of water.

“I think that's why I'm probably getting the Meinzer Award,” Solomon says without a milliliter of hubris.

A first-generation college student, Solomon epitomizes the best that science and engineering has to offer the curious and the adventurous. Though always interested in geology and that mysterious pipe disappearing into the ground on his father’s lot, he knew he would have to “make a living” and became an engineer in the College of Mines and Earth Sciences. But like the subject that has been his life’s work his career has wended its way—from its descent as precipitation, it’s absorption into the substrate as groundwater, it’s recharge and discharge. Now “recharged” in the College of Science as a professor of geology and geophysics (as well as a second round as department chair) he has embraced all of it: geology, geophysics and inorganic chemistry right into the cutting-edge science of isotopes.

But he has never strayed far from his engineering roots and the practical applications of knowledge. If anyone has the authority to make policy and practical management suggestions related to groundwater, it is Kip Solomon.

by David Pace

 

 

 

Utah FORGE Receives $80 million from DOE

Utah FORGE ReceIves $80 million from DOE


October 3, 2024
Above: Milford, UT. Through new drilling techniques, FORGE aims to make geothermal power accessible in a wider range of terrains.

 

An agreement has been signed between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (informally known as Utah FORGE) to continue the project through 2028. The agreement includes an additional $80 million in funding over the next four years.

Managing Principal Investigator Joseph Moore, professor in the U’s department of Geology and Geophysics, says that “this next phase allows us to build on our important achievements and to further develop and de-risk the tools and technologies necessary to unlock the potential of next-generation geothermal power.”

Utah FORGE is managed by a team at the Energy & Geoscience Institute, part of the University of Utah’s John and Marcia Price College of Engineering.

Kris Pankow

Earlier this year, in April, Utah FORGE achieved a critical breakthrough after hydraulically stimulating and circulating water through heated rock formations a mile and a half beneath its drill site in the Utah desert and bringing hot water to the surface. The test results are seen as an important step forward in the search for new ways to use Earth’s subsurface heat to produce hot water for generating emissions-free electricity. The successful well stimulations and a nine-hour circulation test were the fruits of years of planning and data analysis at the Utah FORGE facility near Milford, 175 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

More than two-thirds of the water that was injected underground and pushed through the fractured formation — acquiring heat on the way — was extracted from a second well, offering proof that enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) technology could be viable, according to John McLennan, a co-principal investigator on the project formally at Utah FORGE.

“Nine hours is enough to prove that you have a connection and that you’re producing heat,” said McLennan, a U professor of chemical engineering. “It really is a Eureka moment. It’s been 60 years coming, and so this actually is significant.”

Equally promising was the absence of any noticeable ground shaking associated with the stimulations and circulation test. U seismologists led by geology professor Kris Pankow, associate director of the U of U Seismograph Stations, are overseeing an extensive network of seismometers to document ground movement associated with the project.

 

Learn more about the critical breakthrough earlier this year when FORGE team members hydraulically stimulated and circulated water through heated rock formations a mile and a half beneath its drill site and bringing hot water to the surface. Read the story by Brian Maffly in @TheU.