Highlights

USU's Department of Geosciences hosts the annual, free, family-friendly event on Saturday with demonstrations and hands-on learning for all ages.

Beneath four miles of ocean and a mile of rock and sediment, an international team, including USU’s Srisharan Shreedharan, recently uncovered new information — a hidden reason for the devastation of the 2011 magnitude 9.1 Tohoku earthquake, the most power...

The inaugural lecture series honors USU faculty who have completed the promotion and tenure process and advanced to the rank of professor within the past year. Earning the title of full professor is one of the highest distinctions a faculty member can ach...

Study investigates why older glacial advances in New Zealand were more extensive - due to climate or tectonics?

In the July 23rd issue of Science Advances, lead author Dr. Giovanni Mussini from Cambridge University, along with USU Geoscientist Dr. Carol Dehler and collaborators from University of New Mexico, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Grand Canyon Nationa...

Doctoral scholar Alex DiMonte, with faculty mentors Alexis Ault and Srisharan Shreedharan, and Brown University colleague Greg Hirth, publishes new findings about California's iconic Earth crust fracture in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

In the GSA journal Geology, Srisharan Shreedharan, Alexis Ault and Jordan Jensen combine varied disciplinary perspectives to explain why properties of fault rocks and geologic events that occurred more than a billion years ago portend worrisome seismic ac...

Mechanical engineering student Ryan Lewis and geosciences student Michelle Norman were both selected for the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program, one of the nation’s most distinguished research fellowships.

In the journal Geology, Presidential Doctoral Research Fellow Jordan Jensen and Department of Geosciences faculty mentor Alexis Ault describe a new forensic tool to help geoscientists understand the creation of unconformities by tracking natural "rusting"...

“Dr. Gannaway Dalton is an absolute rock star,” said Doug Miller, chief campus administrator at USU Eastern. “While this recognition is specific to her skill as an educator, her expertise in our region is valued beyond the classroom. We are incredibly for...

USU graduate Natalie Tanski & others looked at two reaches of the Colorado River to determine how and why incision varied during the Pleistocene

Utah State University geochemist Dennis Newell’s academic and professional path has never followed a straight line. But it’s a path that’s taken him across continents and into the world’s great mountain ranges: The Himalayas, the Andes and the Alaska Rang...

Geological Society of America Fellow Carol Dehler is part of an NSF-funded, multi-institution team using advanced technology and time-tested knowledge to offer innovative, updated perspectives of an iconic sedimentary record.

In a new article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USU Geoscience’s Dr. Don Penman and colleague Dr. Emily Stewart from Florida State University propose that carbon dioxide degassing during rock metamorphism may have been signi...

Assistant Professor Srisharan Shreedharan leads collaborative effort to gain knowledge of processes that could improve seismic hazard forecasting.

In an effort to provide greater accessibility, the Department of Geosciences will open its Logan campus facility, featuring local rocks and fossils, to the public the first weekend each month, in addition to weekday hours.

USU Dr. Don Penman and U of U geologists link rapid climate change 50 million years ago to rising CO2 levels.

Geochemistry professor aims to continue building a welcoming and supportive academic environment with robust research opportunities.

Geoscientists Alexis Ault, Dennis Newell and Srisharan Shreedharan, along with engineer Brady Cox, are among an interdisciplinary, multi-institution team set to probe seismic cycle processes, examine associated human impacts of earthquakes and mentor the ...

A hydrothermal explosion July 23 at Yellowstone National Park sent visitors running for cover, as steam shot into the air and rocks rained down on a popular viewing area.

Alexis Ault, associate professor in USU’s Department of Geosciences, will discuss the energy transformation phenomenon at USU’s Science Unwrapped public outreach program. She will present at 7 p.m. Friday, April 12.

Dr. Dehler and grad student Hannah Cothren use trilobite fossils and C-isotopes to confirm the Cambrian SPICE climate event

Study of stratigraphy and geochronology led by Emeritus professors reveals the deeper Pleistocene history of Cache Valley.

MS Student April Phinney researches if tiny bits of quartz record the intensity of fires from hundreds or even thousands of years ago, potentially offering new ways to study historic fires and how heat affects soil.

Ph.D. candidate Natalie Tanski has a new paper in Geology deciphering and luminescence-dating the complex record of Colorado River terraces in Canyonlands

USU graduate student Jordan Jensen explores whether hematite thermochronology can help date the secondary magnetism of rocks along Colorado fault.

Tony Lowry and students highlight the correspondence of cool lower crust with high elevation in the West -- describing upper mantle hydration as the cause, as it drives alteration up through the lithosphere.

Grad student Hannah Cothren and Dr. Carol Dehler provide the first numerical age constraint for the global SPICE isotopic event through study of the fabulous Cambrian section preserved in the Bear River Range.

Gas-rich hot springs throughout the Peruvian Andes contain a surprising contribution of mantle and crustal volatiles (CO2 and N2) despite being located along a volcanic gap associated with modern flat-slab subduction.

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is recognized by a major negative carbon isotope (δ13C) excursion (CIE) signifying an injection of isotopically light carbon into exogenic reservoirs, the mass, source, and tempo of which continue to be debated....

Understanding the dynamics of the greater Yellowstone region requires constraints on deformation spanning million year to decadal timescales, but intermediate-scale (Quaternary) records of erosion and deformation are lacking.

The material properties and distribution of faults above the seismogenic zone promote or inhibit earthquake rupture propagation.

Unraveling complex slip histories in fault damage zones to understand relations among deformation, hydrothermal alteration, and surface uplift remains a challenge....

The transfer of large volumes of fluid to the overriding lithosphere during flat-slab subduction should drastically alter the physical and chemical properties of continental margins. However, this process is poorly understood and without active...

Eight Utah State University scholars are honorees of the prestigious 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship search. The Aggies, whose awards are collectively valued at about $828,000, are among nearly...

Learn about USU Geosciences and Cache Valley with the new USU Department of Geosciences YouTube Channel.