Underground Science with kISMET - Earth and Environmental Sciences Area

Berkeley Lab geologists Patrick Dobson (left) and Curt Oldenburg (right) along with Bill Roggenthen (center) of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology at the kISMET site in the Sanford Underground Research Facility prior to drilling. (Photo courtesy Curt Oldenburg)

Our EESA researchers, with participation by multiple national labs, universities and industry partners throughout the U.S., are studying rock fracturing to accelerate advances in energy production and waste storage technologies about a mile beneath the Earth’s surface at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota. The Permeability (k) and Induced Seismicity Management for Energy Technologies (kISMET) project is led by Berkeley Lab’s EESA team. kISMET, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Subsurface Technology and Engineering Research, Development and Demonstration (SubTER Crosscut) focuses on investigating stress measurement and fracture stimulation with borehole monitoring to characterize relations between stress, induced fractures, and rock fabric.

Read more about their work recently featured in, “Underground Science: Berkeley Lab Digs Deep For Clean Energy Solutions” from the Berkeley Lab News Center (October 19, 2016).

News & Events

EESA Researchers Solve Deepwater Horizon Mystery

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The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is one of the most studied spills in history, yet scientists haven’t agreed on the role of microbes in eating up the oil. Now EESA researchers have identified all of the principal oil-degrading bacteria as well as their mechanisms for chewing up the many different components that make up the released crude oil.

California Energy Commission Awards EESA Researchers $4.6 Million

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Environmental & Earth Sciences Area researchers have been awarded $4.6 million by the California Energy Commission for two projects aimed at improving the safety and reliability of the state’s natural gas system.

Novel Monitoring Strategy Uncovers New Insights to Arctic Ecosystems

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Researchers in Berkeley Lab’s Environmental & Earth Sciences Area (EESA) have led the development of a new approach for monitoring terrestrial ecosystems, and have used the system to discover new insights about how processes in different compartments of an Arctic Tundra ecosystem interact over space and time.

The Art of Studying—and Sharing—Snowmelt Science in a Mountain Watershed

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As an ecologist working with the Environmental & Earth Science Area’s Watershed Scientific Focus Area (SFA), Heidi Steltzer and her research assistant, Chelsea Wilmer, spend a lot of time conducting fieldwork in the picturesque Colorado mountains. Now, as she’s studying snowmelt and its effects on plant growth in Crested Butte, Colorado, Steltzer is bringing the SFA’s science to a much wider audience.