Within the Department of Energy complex of national laboratories, the Geosciences Measurement Facility (GMF) at Berkeley Lab is distinguished by its ability to build, test, and deploy customized instrumentation and innovative data acquisition and telemetry solutions, which are enabling scientists to address some of the most critical Earth, energy and environmental challenges that we face.…
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EESA Scientists were able to use the new synchrotron Infrared Nano Spectroscopy (SINS) capability at Advanced Light Source. Above: Diagrams of the setup of (a) the Germanium-hemisphere enhanced attenuated total reflection (Ge micro-ATR) and (b) the resonance enhanced SINS. Berkeley Lab scientists have identified a way to use machine learning to connect fine- and large-scale…
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Two papers published in 2017 by geophysics researchers within the Energy Geosciences Division have been honored by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Geophysics Department Head Jonathan Ajo-Franklin was notified that the studies received Honorable Mention in the category of Best Paper in Geophysics in April. The papers published by the society are: An effective-medium model for P-wave…
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The EESA Mentoring Pilot Program for FY2018 kicked off with two training sessions on January 11 for individuals grouped in pairs of 43 mentors and mentees from our Area who will meet over the next nine months. Mentors learned effective mentoring skills in a morning training with breakout sessions. Mentees gathered in an afternoon training…
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About 80 EESA scientists are representing Berkeley Lab at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union this week in New Orleans. AGU’s annual fall meeting is the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world, with more than 24,000 attendees. For the first time in several years, the meeting is being held away…
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Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown for the first time that dark fiber – the vast network of unused fiber-optic cables installed throughout the country and the world – can be used as sensors for detecting earthquakes, the presence of groundwater, changes in permafrost conditions, and a…
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Two EESA staff are set to receive a prestigious Director’s Award from Berkeley Lab’s Directorate at a ceremony on November 30. Robin Lopez is a research associate in the Geophysics Department of the Energy Geosciences Division who began working at the Lab as an intern. He is being honored for his commitment to scientific outreach within…
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Frank Morrison, a senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Area and professor at UC Berkeley, has been recognized for his lifetime contributions to the field of electrical and electromagnetic geophysics with a 2017 Gerald W. Hohmann Lifetime Achievement Award. Morrison is widely known for his contributions across the entire spectrum of…
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Michael Commer, a geological research scientist in the Energy Geosciences Division will make his way to the 2017 Toastmasters International Speech Contest Semifinals this week with hopes to advance to the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking ®. Michael discovered the Toast-on-the-Hill Toastmasters Club (a Berkeley Lab Employee Association) two years ago and he was…
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Groundwater—the water stored underneath the Earth’s surface between the cracks and spaces in soil, sand, and bedrock—is essential for the California residents and farmers who rely on it for up to 46 percent of their annual water use. Yet during the 2012-2017 drought, the state’s surface water supply was not sufficient to meet demand, resulting in excess groundwater pumping that caused land subsidence of up to 13 inches in some parts of the San Joaquin Valley. Now a team of scientists at Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area are working with farmers and partners like the Almond Board of California and UC Davis to test on-farm banking, a new approach that has the potential to manage groundwater more sustainably. It’s an improvement on the age-old method of groundwater recharge, the process of replenishing aquifers by infiltrating water from the surface into shallow aquifers. “On-farm banking has the promise of making the most productive use of the greatest amount of land possible while increasing the reliability and resiliency of California’s groundwater supply,” says EESA scientist Peter Nico, a soil and environmental biogeochemist.
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