In the debate over alternative energy resources, geothermal technology has received scant media attention. Advocates call it one of the cleanest, sustainable energy resources available. However, steep construction, equipment and drilling costs have prevented more widespread development of geothermal technology. An Ohio University hydrothermal systems expert is working to change that.

Assigning dates to the events in the life of a rock-for example, a collision with a piece of continent, or a journey through the Earth's crust-has long challenged geologists, as the events themselves can confound evidence of the past.

A test recently used by the UK government's Independent Depleted Uranium Oversight Board to detect exposure to UK troops by depleted uranium (DU) during the 1991 Gulf Conflict was developed by a team led by a University of Leicester geologist.

When the next big earthquake hits a region like San Francisco, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) grantee Kristy Tiampo wants to ensure that communities will not only be able to evacuate, but also rebuild.

Sediment folding may have added to the exceptionally large tsunami that struck Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004, according to an international team of geologists. "Tsunami models consider the rebound of the plate during the earthquake, but do not include permanent deformation, like folding, of the upper plate." says Dr. Donald M. Fisher, professor of geosciences at Penn State.

Mud Volcanoes under Scrutiny: Mud volcanoes form from the eruption of a fluid-mud mix and represent a major way by which fluids are buried to depth and returned to Earth's surface (recycled).

Dartmouth researchers have learned that the prevailing winds in the mid latitudes of North America, which now blow from the west, once blew from the east. They reached this conclusion by analyzing 14,000- to 30,000-year-old wood samples from areas in the mid-latitudes of North America (40-50°N), which represents the region north of Denver and Philadelphia and south of Winnipeg and Vancouver.

About 65 million years ago, a massive disruption led to worldwide extinction of dinosaurs. The impact of a giant asteroid created massive tsunamis and spewed forth a global cloud of carbon gases that altered Earth's atmosphere and blocked the light for weeks, possibly years. In recent years, that impact event has been linked to a 112-mile-wide crater, dubbed Chicxulub, on the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

If indeed "a diamond is forever," the most primitive origins of Earth's so-called black diamonds were in deep, universal time, geologists have discovered. Black diamonds came from none other than interstellar space.

The great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 2004 is the best recorded large earthquake in history and has revealed the extent of study still necessary to understand such devastating events. New data overturn the commonly held view that great earthquakes only occur in fast, young subduction zones.

Coral reefs around the world are sustaining massive damage at an alarming rate. Geological Approaches to Coral Reef Ecology provides a uniquely historical perspective on the destruction--through both natural and human processes--of coral reef ecosystems.