Fundamental Geosciences Program

New EESA Study Indicates Greater Capacity for Carbon Storage in the Subsurface

February 6, 2018

New research from the Energy Geosciences Division at Berkeley Lab shows that carbon dioxide can penetrate the inner layers of some non-swelling clay minerals which make up the dominant clays in the Earth's deep subsurface. Results of the work performed at the Center for Nanoscale Controls on Geologic CO2 (NCGC) and the national lab’s Molecular Foundry could help inform practices intended to help limit carbon dioxide emissions, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

Post Awards Fundamental Geosciences Program Hydrogeology Department Research Highlight

Wang, Tokunaga Win ACS Editors’ Choice Award

June 11, 2015

ESD scientists Shibo Wang and Tetsu Tokunaga recently won an American Chemical Society (ACS) Editors' Choice Award for their paper on supercritical CO2-brine capillary pressure-saturation relations in limestone sands.

Post Announcements Fundamental Earth Sciences Fundamental Geosciences Program Geophysics Department Hydrogeology Department Nuclear Energy & Waste Program

Enhancing Seismic Safety of Nuclear Facilities

June 9, 2015

Berkeley Lab, U.C. Davis, and the U.N. Reno will collaborate to develop advanced computational tools for modeling and simulating the earthquake response of nuclear facilities, including the effects of soil-structure-interaction.

Post Fundamental Geosciences Program Geochemistry Department Research Highlight

Clay Barriers Restrict Ionic Transport

May 21, 2015

Carl Steefel and Ian Bourg (and others) proved, for the first time, that anions can be completely excluded from the smallest pores within a compacted illitic clay material, indicating the effectiveness of clay-based barriers for waste containment.

Post Fundamental Geosciences Program Geochemistry Department Geophysics Department

High Performance Computing Meets Mesoscale Science

May 15, 2015

The convergence of world-class microscopic characterization and computational resources has made it possible to address subsurface geological carbon sequestration using a new generation of pore-scale flow and reactive transport models.

Post Fundamental Geosciences Program Geochemistry Department Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program In The Press

Steefel a Key Developer of Complex Flow Code

May 12, 2015

ESD’s Carl Steefel was one of the key developers of Chombo-Crunch, a reactive flow code that could enhance efforts toward carbon sequestration and greater safety in the oil and gas industry.

Post Fundamental Geosciences Program Geochemistry Department Research Highlight

MnO2 Nanosheets Need Only Water, Sunlight To React

April 24, 2015

A team of scientists (including ESD Geochemistry Department Head Ben Gilbert) recently investigated the photoreduction of manganese (a key element in environmental processes) and quantified the yield and timescales of Mn(III) production.

Post Announcements Events Fundamental Geosciences Program Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program Geophysics Department Geothermal Systems Hydrogeology Department

TOUGH Symposium 2015—9/28-9/30

March 18, 2015

ESD is once again pleased to host the TOUGH Symposium—this year specifically “TOUGH Symposium 2015”—taking place this fall, September 28-30, at Berkeley Lab

Post Fundamental Geosciences Program Geophysics Department Hydrogeology Department

New Level of Earthquake Understanding

March 6, 2015

Berkeley Lab is reporting the successful study of stress fields along the San Andreas fault at the microscopic scale, the scale at which earthquake-triggering stresses originate.

Post Fundamental Geosciences Program Hydrogeology Department Research Highlight

Why Do Geysers Erupt? Plumbing!

March 6, 2015

A scientific team led by ESD’s Michael Manga has gained striking new insights into the basic mechanics of geysers by placing surveillance cameras inside them and building a model of their plumbing.