Water, Earth, and Environmental Sciences Highlights
Keeping Current: USU Experts Track Colorado River as Regional Water Crisis Deepens
Water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead fell to historic lows this summer, with managers across seven Western states and Mexico anxiously watching winter forecasts for a chance to reverse a looming water-supply crisis.
Up in Smoke: New Research Document Widespread Implications of Smoke After Wildfire
Guttering flames and smoldering trees leave behind obvious marks, but new research shows that the wildfire smoke itself can have far-reaching and long-lasting impacts on natural systems, according to two new studies from Janice Brahney, a biogeochemist fr...
Lake Powell reaching critically low elevation levels, nearing 'dead power pool,' experts say
Minimum, or "dead," power pool -- in which the water is too low to spin the hydroelectric turbines and can no longer produce hydropower -- starts at 3,490 feet of elevation, Peter Soeth, public affairs lead at the Bureau of Reclamation, told ABC News. Ele...
Lake Powell, a vital reservoir, plunges toward unprecedented low levels as water crisis deepens in US west
Experts say the critical reservoir system is careening toward a breaking point as the US west’s climate warms and dries
Fulbright Award Takes USU Alumnus to Italy to Study Wildfire Recovery
Utah State University alumnus Alec Arditti, who earned a master of science in watershed sciences in 2023, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to study wildfire recovery in Sardinia, Italy.
Utah moved in beavers to rescue a dying river, and locals say it 'helped save' their town
A 2019 project led by Utah State University master's student Emma Doden began relocating beavers into parts of Utah's Price River to help the drought-stressed waterway recover. The river is part of the Colorado River Basin, where climate pressures, overus...
Finding Faults: USU's Annual Rock-n-Fossil Day Set for Feb. 28
USU's Department of Geosciences hosts the annual, free, family-friendly event on Saturday with demonstrations and hands-on learning for all ages.
Breakthrough Expedition: Hidden Clay Intensified Japan Megaquake, Tsunami
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...
USU Uintah Basin Professor Ben Burger Digs into own Past in Inaugural Lecture
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...
Fossil discovery: Hundreds of “worm teeth” and other soft-bodied fossils in Grand Canyon provide insight into the explosion of animal life
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...
Waiting for the Big One: USU Geologist Studies Frictional Behavior of the Southern San Andreas Fault
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.