UteQuake

September 22, 2023

This is how the new webpage of UteQuake introduces itsself as it returns to Rice-Eccles Stadium Saturday when the University of Utah faces No. 22-ranked UCLA for the football teams’ Pac 12 conference opener Saturday, Sept. 22.

During the game, which kicks off at 1:30 p.m., the University of Utah Seismograph Stations’ (UUSS) geoscientists from the Department of Geology & Geophysics will monitor amplitude signals recorded by a seismometer they installed Aug. 30 on the west side of the stadium, then tweet interesting observations during the game.

The idea is to help pump up No. 11-ranked Utes’ game-day excitement, while also promoting the Seismograph Stations’ vital public safety mission to “reduce the risk from earthquakes in Utah through research, education, and public service.” The UUSS operates a regional network of 200 seismographs stretching from the Grand Canyon in Arizona to Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

Tested during the Utes’ season opener against the Florida Gators when record attendance exceeded 53,000, the experiment proved a roaring success. So UteQuake will run for the remainder of the season, according to Jamie Farrell, a research associate professor of geology and geophysics.

During Saturday’s game, Mark Hale, one of the seismic analysts at the UUSS, will be tracking the seismic waveforms in real time, then tweeting analysis of readings at key moments, starting with the Ute players emerging onto the field.

Read the full article by Brian Maffly in @TheU.
Go Utes!

Photo credit: Utah Athletics

Volcanism That Drove Ancient Global Warming

September 1, 2023

A new study by an international team of scientists—including University of Utah geologists—examined hundreds of core samples in search of clues to what drove rapid warming that triggered the deep sea die-off marking the transition from the Paleocene to the Eocene epoch. A paper published this month concludes that large volumes of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—escaped from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor during a period of intense volcanic activity.

Around the time the Americas and Europe started spreading apart to form the North Atlantic, Earth’s temperatures spiked by 5 degree Celsius and ocean chemistry changed during a 200,000-year period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. This resulted in a major extinction event that wiped out a lot of deep marine life and accelerated evolution among terrestrial creatures, with mammal species becoming more diverse.

Ancient analogue for today’s climate change

“This article provides evidence for hydrothermal venting playing a major role in the global warming event that happened during the PETM by showing vents in the North Atlantic erupted in very shallow water and coincided with the onset of the PETM,” said Sarah Lambart, a U professor of geology and geophysics. “While their origins are different, the PETM presents similarities with global warming today in that the sediments that were heated were very rich in hydrocarbons. So this event can be used as a natural analogue for how the Earth system responds to the rapid burning of fossil fuels.”

She noted that today’s anthropogenic climate change is 100 times faster than what transpired at the end of the Paleocene.

Scientists have long believed the PETM was triggered by rapid and massive releases of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) into the atmosphere from geological sources.

Methane is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, although it eventually breaks down in the atmosphere. Over short time frames, methane could have a major impact on the climate, and the scientific team thinks that might be the case with the PETM, which coincided with the volcanic-driven continental breakup that created the Atlantic.

Loudest Stadium … according to science

September 1, 2023

U geoscientists are now measuring the actual seismic impact of Big Time college football on the Salt Lake City campus and live tweeting the measurements during games, starting with Thursday’s Florida-Utah matchup.

Ahead of the Utes’ season opener, seismologist and Utah season ticket holder Jamie Farrell installed the seismometer in the Rice-Eccles Stadium to measure and record Earth shaking associated with fans’ response to on-field action during the Utes’ home games.

“We’re going to try to convert the amount of energy that gets released either over an entire game or if there’s a big event, where it shakes a lot, and try to convert that into equivalent magnitude, how much energy is put into the ground,” Farrell said. “But if not, we can compare different things, like when the team ran into the stadium, when we scored our first touchdown or this was a third-down stomp.”

Farrell is an associate research professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, where he helps oversee the U of U Seismograph Stations, or UUSS. He is an expert in the use of seismic waves to characterize the Earth’s crust, with a particular focus on the volcanism under Yellostone Park.

Clean Energy Beneath our Feet

August 29, 2023

In a sagebrush valley full of wind turbines and solar panels in western Utah, Tim Latimer gazed up at a very different device he believes could be just as powerful for fighting climate change — maybe even more.

It was a drilling rig, of all things, transplanted from the oil fields of North Dakota. But the softly whirring rig wasn’t searching for fossil fuels. It was drilling for heat.

Mr. Latimer’s company, Fervo Energy, is part of an ambitious effort to unlock vast amounts of geothermal energy from Earth’s hot interior, a source of renewable power that could help displace fossil fuels that are dangerously warming the planet.

“There’s a virtually unlimited resource down there if we can get at it,” said Mr. Latimer. “Geothermal doesn’t use much land, it doesn’t produce emissions, it can complement wind and solar power. Everyone who looks into it gets obsessed with it.”

Traditional geothermal plants, which have existed for decades, work by tapping natural hot water reservoirs underground to power turbines that can generate electricity 24 hours a day. Few sites have the right conditions for this, however, so geothermal only produces 0.4 percent of America’s electricity currently.

But hot, dry rocks lie below the surface everywhere on the planet. And by using advanced drilling techniques developed by the oil and gas industry, some experts think it’s possible to tap that larger store of heat and create geothermal energy almost anywhere. The potential is enormous: The Energy Department estimates there’s enough energy in those rocks to power the entire country five times over and has launched a major push to develop technologies to harvest that heat.

Dozens of geothermal companies have emerged with ideas.

A widely used instrument for monitoring black carbon in real time.

August 22, 2023

Despite its danger, black carbon is understudied due to a lack of monitoring equipment. Regulatory-standard sensors are wildly expensive to deploy and maintain, resulting in sparse coverage in regions infamous for poor air quality, such as the greater Salt Lake City metropolitan area in Utah.

A University of Utah-led study found that the AethLabs microAeth MA350, a portable, more affordable sensor, recorded black carbon concentrations as accurately as the Aerosol Magee Scientific AE33, the most widely used instrument for monitoring black carbon in real time. Researchers placed the portable technology next to an existing regulatory sensor at the Bountiful Utah Division of Air Quality site from Aug. 30, 2021-Aug. 8, 2022. The AethLabs technology recorded nearly identical quantities of black carbon at the daily, monthly and seasonal timescales. The authors also showed that the microAeth could distinguish between wildfire and traffic sources as well as the AE33 at longer timescales.

Because black carbon stays close to the source, equipment must be localized to yield accurate readings. The microAethsensor’s portability would allow monitoring at remote or inaccessible stationary sites, as well as for mobile use.

“Having a better idea of black carbon exposure across different areas is an environmental justice issue,” said Daniel Mendoza, research assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. “The Salt Lake Valley’s westside has some of the region’s worst air quality partly because it’s closest to pollution sources, but we lack the ability to measure black carbon concentrations accurately. Democratizing data with reliable and robust sensors is an important first step to safeguarding all communities from hazardous air pollution.”

The study was published on Feb. 1, 2024, in the journal Sensors.

In the dark

Black carbon pollutants are a type of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), a class of air particles small enough to be inhaled into the lungs and absorbed into the bloodstream. Black carbon is true soot, produced when hydrocarbons do not fully burn, and has been shown to migrate into the heart, brain, fetal tissue, and other biological systems.

“The combination of increasing wildfires driven by anthropogenic climate change and steady population growth along the Wasatch Front in coming decades will result in new pollution challenges that Utah will have to face,” said Erik Crosman, assistant professor of environmental sciences at West Texas A&M University and a co-author of the study.“The portable MA350 ‘micro’ aethalometer could be utilized in building a better spatial observational network of accurate but lower cost black carbon sensors across the region.”

Though research suggests exposure to black carbon is 10 to 25 times more hazardous to respiratory and cardiovascular health than other PM_2.5, long-term health outcomes are largely unknown. An accurate observation network is the first step to establishing disease risk and creating effective public health policies. This study, funded by the Salt Lake City Corporation, aims to help regions with poor air quality establish a baseline of black carbon distribution.

“It’s crucial that we target our measurements to identify the largest and most relevant black carbon sources,” said Drew Hill, a study coauthor who leads data science and applied research work at AethLabs. “We’ve added a feature rooted in physical principles to provide real-time estimates of the amount of measured black carbon produced by fossil fuel burning versus wood burning to allow researchers and policy makers to triangulate such sources.”

Having established the portable sensor’s accuracy and regional relevance, the researchers are measuring black carbon levels around the Salt Lake Valley, including testing concentrations present inside school buildings.

“First, you need to get readings. In some neighborhoods you could look at air quality concentrations, then look at the cancer or other disease rate in that neighborhood,” said Mendoza, who is also an adjunct assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at University of Utah Health. “Getting measurements with a high degree of accuracy, now we can really think about health and policy avenues to really protect everyone’s lung health.”

Jeffrey Blair of AethLabs also contributed to the study, titled, “A long-term comparison between the AethLabs MA350 and Aerosol Magee Scientific AE22 Black Carbon Monitors in the Greater Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area.” Sensors 2024, 24 (3), 965; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24030965.

The ‘Rite Stuff

June 20, 2023

THE ‘Rite Stuff

A U planetary scientist helped analyze and name the heavenly culprit behind a raucous boom heard by thousands

Jim Karner has trekked almost annually to Antartica on expeditions looking for meteorites. The research associate professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics has probably seen and handled more cosmic debris than most will see in a lifetime. But on the morning of August 13, 2022, he—along with the rest of the northern Wasatch Front—heard one explode, for the first time.“That was really loud,” he remembers thinking as he stood in his driveway. “My immediate thought was, ‘Wow, that sounds like what people have described as meteorites exploding and breaking the sound barrier.’ ”

Within days, a piece of what would eventually be named the Great Salt Lake meteorite made its way into Karner’s hands, giving him and the U an opportunity to learn what secrets of space this chunk of rock brought with it to the Salt Lake Valley.

Read the full story by Paul Gabrielsen in U Magazine.

Bones of the Earth

June 16, 2023

“There’s always been this idea that my family has a relationship with the bones of the Earth,” says Kevin Mendoza.

The graduate student in the Department of Geology & Geophysics descended from the developers of the Nacia mine in Chihuahua Province. He recalls as a child his grandmother showing him jars of rocks from the mine given to her by her father, one of the only possessions she took with her when she immigrated to the states. A Ph.D. candidate in geophysics, Mendoza is the recipient of the 2023 University of Utah Teaching Assistantship Award: Pythonizing Geoscience Instruction. Mendoza received the award for his contributions to geoscience undergraduates. He used the assistantship to develop python programming-based core curriculum.

Mendoza joined the U after attending the University of California, Merced for his undergraduate degree where he double-majored in physics and Earth systems science. His passion for studying the deep Earth came both from his early geology lessons with his grandmother, as well as the active outdoor lifestyle his dad cultivated in him from an early age. “It was rare for any of my classmates to like even the more accessible activities like hiking, and for the Latinx students such as myself, [it was] completely unheard of at that time. I’m grateful both my parents encouraged exploration of what was then an unconventional hobby.” In high school, Mendoza was particularly passionate about gold prospecting, which he did almost every weekend in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. He continued his wilderness ramblings in the Sierra as a park ranger in Yosemite National Park during college.

Magnetotellurics

Although his ancestors have been students of the Earth for generations, Mendoza is the first in his family to study it academically. His background prepared him to do a different type of prospecting: for electrical fields within the Earth. His research under the late Philip Wanamaker operates in the niche field of magnetotellurics (MT), which uses natural underground electrical currents to study the structure of the Earth. MT is such a specific subfield of geophysics that there are only a handful of programs across the country, including at the U. “What I do is use solar wind and lightning to basically CT scan the deep Earth,” summarizes Mendoza. From the results of this “CT scan” he can measure the water contained in the geologic water cycle, which has important consequences for plate tectonics. One of the advantages of MT is that it is more sensitive than other techniques such as seismology. “In some situations, like looking for critical battery metals and hidden geothermal resources, MT is one of the best methods for exploring mineral structures.”

Mendoza’s data comes from monitoring the voltage and magnetic field in the deep Earth with sensors deployed on the surface. In the field, these sensors are set up by placing magnetic coils and wires stretching along cardinal directions, and occasionally a coil pointing upwards. These sites are left to collect data for a few months at a time before they are relocated. Since the equipment is portable and non-invasive, MT sites are placed virtually anywhere that’s interesting geologically.

One of the main challenges with MT is visualizing the high dimensionality of the data. While common to other fields, like data science and machine learning, it takes on a unique flavor within MT. Each MT station produces nearly four times more data dimensions than seismic stations do. Complex mathematics are needed to transform this data to usable geologic models. One of the models that Mendoza works with uses over 2.5 million parameters. Analyzing the data and models is only possible using cutting-edge supercomputing tools. As part of his dissertation, Mendoza plans to provide a massive Python codebase that will help other researchers explore similar datasets.

Putting carbon back underground

While his dissertation is focused on more fundamental aspects of plate tectonics across the western U.S., Mendoza believes these findings can have application elsewhere. “Two of the biggest challenges we face with climate change are how to transition to a carbon-free economy and how to put carbon back underground. The tools I’ve developed and am developing can directly help these efforts by monitoring how stable our sequestered carbon is, or assessing the likelihood that critical metals like copper, cobalt, and lithium are in rocks hidden by deep sediment cover. These efforts require the same 2D, 3D, and 4D geophysical modeling, visualization, and evaluation techniques I’m currently using in my own research.”

That codebase will also be helpful for industry, which is possibly the endgame for Mendoza. Having briefly worked as a geotechnician after graduating with his bachelor’s, he understands that a career in academia is not a realistic or desirable path for every student. “My personal philosophy is that universities are hybrids between a job training program and a liberal education. So, we can’t just teach students general critical thinking; we also have a moral obligation to give them some tools so that they can come into the workforce ready.”

Mendoza knows from firsthand experience that mastering the science is only half the battle for many students from underrepresented backgrounds. He grew up in East LA where he learned how to reach across cultural divides from his Hispanic background to connect with others. “Learning to ‘go-between’ is a skill that’s essential for just having a community, and I think bringing that here made it really easy for me to understand when students are struggling,” Mendoza says. He asks himself questions like, How do you reach out to a student who’s not responding in a normal way? How do you make geology instruction more accessible? How do you engage students in the coursework? With this approach to teaching, Mendoza is able to connect with his students to enhance their experience and has earned multiple prior teaching awards in the process, including the National Association of Geoscience Teachers Outstanding TA Award, 2022.

Hidden curriculum

The obstacles for underrepresented students in academia don’t end after earning a bachelor’s; they just aren’t widely discussed. On top of regular classwork, first generation graduate students have to tackle the “hidden curriculum” within academia. This includes issues such as figuring out how to write a dissertation, what the college’s practices are, how to handle advisor conflict and other difficult-to-ask (and -answer) questions.

The overarching difficulty is determining what graduate school is supposed to look like in the first place, which Mendoza says is almost by design. “Grad school is very heterogeneous. Part of that is good because science looks different across disciplines, but that is [also] confusing for first gen grad students who don’t know how to navigate this unknown academic culture.” It’s a problem that is systemic, and not unique to the U.

To succeed in grad school, he says, “you can’t use the old paradigm, pushing boundaries like you did in undergrad and high school won’t necessarily result in the same success as a grad student. The cultural setting is different.” Even outside of academia, underrepresented scientists face many of these challenges. According to Mendoza, geoscience is the least diverse subfield of STEM. Nature Geoscience reported that the last 40 years has seen zero progress with respect to minority representation within geoscience. The United States Geological Survey has the poorest track record of minority employees of all the federal government agencies and is nearly half as diverse as the next ranked federal agency. The lack of diversity is mostly due to the niche nature of the discipline. Unlike, for example, computer science, there is a relatively finite employment pool.

Kevin Mendoza has come a long way since his geology lessons with his grandmother’s Chihuahuan rocks, and it has informed the legacy he is now leaving with students familiar with the challenges he has faced. The teaching award is an acknowledgement that the paradigm can shift, that the Earth can move.

By Lauren Wigod
Science Writer Intern

U.S. Assistant Secretary visits U and Utah FORGE site

June 6, 2023

PHOTO CREDIT: ERIC LARSON, FLASH POINT SLC Alejandro Moreno and DOE officials in front of the drill rig at the Utah FORGE site.

Managed by the University of Utah, the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) hosted Alejandro Moreno, acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, for a two-day visit to the University of Utah and the Utah FORGE site, during which he learned about geothermal energy and the ongoing research in Beaver County.

Utah FORGE is a geothermal laboratory located northeast of Milford. The $218M project was awarded to the U’s Energy & Geosciences Institute after a three-year, five-way competition, and is the university’s largest-ever research grant. Along with the FORGE team, Assistant Secretary Moreno was joined by Lauren Boyd, acting director of the DOE’s Geothermal Technology Office, and several other officials from the department.

The visit comes about a month after FORGE announced that the drilling of its second highly deviated deep well has commenced. This second well will serve as the production well of a two well doublet, and will mirror the existing injection well, which was drilled between October 2020 and February 2021. The new well will be located approximately 300 feet from the injection well.

Like the injection well, the upper part of the well will be drilled vertically through approximately 4,550 feet of sediments at which point it will penetrate into hard crystalline granite. At about 5,600 feet, the well will be gradually steered at a 5-degree angle for each 100 feet until it reaches an inclination of 65 degrees from its vertical point. The total length of the well will be approximately 10,700 feet with the “toe” – or the end of the well – reaching a vertical depth of 8,265 feet. The temperature at this depth will be 440 degrees F.

Dr. Joseph Moore, the principal investigator of Utah FORGE, Research Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and adjunct faculty member in the U’s Department of Geology & Geophysics in , presented an overview of the project and answered questions from the Assistant secretary and others in attendance. Assistant Secretary Moreno was eager to learn more about the potential offered by the research in Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), the progress achieved thus far, and its role in advancing the nation’s renewable energy goals.

Read further about Assistant Secretary Moreno’s visit to the U and the lab site in @TheU.

Thure Cerling Awarded the Rosenblatt

May 20, 2022

Thure E. Cerling, Distinguished Professor of Biology, is the 2022 recipient of the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence.

Cerling is also department chair of the Department of Geology & Geophysics, Francis H. Brown Presidential Chair, and Distinguished Professor of Geology and Geophysics.

The Rosenblatt Prize is the University of Utah’s highest faculty accolade and is presented annually to a faculty member who transcends ordinary teaching, research and administrative efforts. A group of distinguished faculty members on the Rosenblatt Prize Committee recommends esteemed colleagues for consideration and the university’s president makes the final selection.

“Dr. Cerling has made important and impactful contributions to science using isotope geochemistry to learn about natural processes,” said Taylor Randall, president of the University of Utah. “He’s multiplied that impact many times over by sharing his knowledge with graduate students and countless colleagues around the world. With demonstrated excellence in research, teaching and leadership as chair of the Department of Geology & Geophysics, Dr. Cerling epitomizes the ideals of the prestigious Rosenblatt Prize.”

About Thure Cerling

Through his pioneering scientific career and his decades of dedication to sharing his knowledge with colleagues around the world, Cerling, who began teaching at the U in 1979, has been instrumental in expanding the use of isotopes (What’s an isotope? Learn more here) as a tool in geoscience and biology.

“Thure Cerling never met an isotope he didn’t like!” one nominator wrote.

Using isotopes, he has devised innovative methods to understand the paleoecology of early human sites in East Africa, determined the timing of floods in the Grand Canyon, discovered a major global transition in vegetation types 7 million years ago, and has even analyzed his own beard hair to show how his diet changed over the course of a few days during a trip to Mongolia. By one metric of research publication impact, Cerling’s more than 300 scientific papers represent an exceptionally productive and remarkably influential career. His legacy includes graduate students who now are faculty at a number of leading research universities.

The impacts of isotope analysis go far beyond academic research, however. Cerling’s methods and expertise have also been used to identify ivory taken by poachers, determine if medicines are counterfeit, and help identify human remains. Cerling and distinguished professor of biology Jim Ehleringer co-founded a spinoff company, IsoForensics, in 2001 to bring the power of isotope science to criminal cases.

Cerling and Ehleringer also founded IsoCamp, an annual two-week short course that they started in 1996 to teach colleagues the theory and methods of stable isotope analysis. The course, which is now held at the University of New Mexico, has trained nearly 1,000 scientists from around the world in the use of stable isotopes for widespread applications in physical and life sciences; the cumulative impact on the scientific enterprise is incalculable. The American Geophysical Union recognized the unique contributions of IsoCamp with the 2017 Excellence in Earth and Space Science Education Award.

Cerling’s notable list of awards includes the 2020 Emile Argand Award from the International Union of Geological Sciences, awarded only every four years, the 2017 President’s Medal from the Geological Society of America, and the 2012 Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology. He also shared in the 2017 Mineral of the Year award from the International Mineral Association with eight other coauthors for the discovery of the mineral Rowleyite and holds one patent for a “Device and system to reconstruct travel history of an individual.”

He’s also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geochemical Society and the International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry. He served by presidential appointment on the United States Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board from 2002-2011.

When the U’s Department of Geology & Geophysics needed a new chair in 2016, Cerling placed his name in consideration. When a College of Mines and Earth Sciences administrator asked Cerling why he wanted to be considered for chair, Cerling replied “because it’s my duty, and my turn.” Having benefited from others’ leadership for many years, he felt that he could provide a platform for younger faculty to develop their own successful careers at the U.

He is nearing completion of his second term as chair, having instituted faculty mentorship initiatives, improved faculty hiring and department internal communication, and extended a hand of outreach to the community with a department Open House Night intended for K-12 students and their families, as well as a fellowship that sends Geology and Geosciences grad students into Salt Lake City schools.

Thure Cerling, featured speaker at the Frontiers of Science Lecture Series, College of Science, 2014
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Cerling “encouraged patience and creativity,” a nominator wrote, facilitating the development of digital resources like 3-D models of rocks and minerals and high-resolution photos of field sites that will continue to improve online teaching and accessibility of geological education into the future.

Cerling’s lifelong dedication to advancing scientific understanding and sharing that understanding with students and colleagues is encapsulated in the words of two nominators, who both described Cerling as “widely knowledgeable and endlessly curious.”

About the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence

The Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence is an endowed award, given annually to a member of the faculty at the University of Utah “to honor excellence in teaching, research and administrative efforts, collectively or individually, on behalf of the university.”

The endowment was created to honor Nathan and Tillie Rosenblatt on the centenary of their immigration to Utah and in recognition of their legacy of civic leadership and generosity. Originally established in 1983, the award was later increased by Joseph and Evelyn Rosenblatt and their family. The endowment and its gifts ensure the annual award of $50,000.

Click here to learn more about the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence. Click here to watch Dr. Cerling giving the 2014 Frontiers of Science lecture.

This story by Paul Gabrielsen originally appeared May 9, 2022 on @TheU.

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UteQuake

‘UteQuake’ seismic exhibit goes live

“Although a seismometer’s primary role is to record earthquakes, these very sensitive instruments will detect any ground shaking, regardless of the source, including from rowdy Utes fans in Rice-Eccles Stadium.”