Earth Exploration

“As scientists, we need to lead the way for society to have a better understanding of how climate change is affecting our water resources," said Adrienne Marshall, assistant professor of geology and geological engineering at Mines.

"There are places on Earth that we still haven’t explored,” said Matthew Siegfried, assistant professor of geophysics at Colorado School of Mines and a lead author of the paper, published March 9 in Geology. “We have now one sample trying to understand an environment that is one and a half times the size of the continental United States."

Low-sulfidation epithermal deposits are one of the most important sources of gold in the United States.

Siegfried's focus is Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica, whose flow has been slowing over the course of several decades.

Led by Mines' Nicole Smith, the goal of the partnership is to identify best practices specific to the colored stone industry and improve transparency and traceability, ethics, environmental sustainability, and human rights.

Mines researchers and alumni are at the forefront of U.S. water management challenges, working on mitigation, water reuse, new water systems, alternative renewable energy and more.

Improving durability and developing alternative materials, with biochar, mine tailings and more, are among the research ideas being pursued by Civil & Environmental Engineering faculty.

Through the SIF, academic and industry partners, along with current faculty, students and alumni, can more easily access the university's world-class research equipment and instrumentation, as well as the technical expertise to use them.