Read the latest news about research conducted by investigators in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Our faculty and students are continually advancing technology, creating solutions and expanding knowledge with new and innovative research.
02/08/2022
Ancient rocks on the coast of Oman that were once driven deep down toward Earth's mantle may reveal new insights into subduction, an important tectonic process that fuels volcanoes and creates continents, according to an international team of scientists.
02/01/2022
A new technique using readily available data reduces forecast errors and could improve track, intensity and rainfall forecasts for future storms like Hurricane Harvey, according to Penn State scientists.
01/31/2022
While climate change is making much of the world warmer, temperatures in a subpolar region of the North Atlantic are getting cooler. A team of researchers report that changes in the wind pattern, among other factors, may be contributing to this "cold blob."
01/21/2022
A new flexible thermoelectric generator can wrap around pipes and other hot surfaces and convert wasted heat into electricity more efficiently than previously possible, according to scientists at Penn State and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
01/21/2022
Penn State researchers have proposed an improved method of solid-state battery production that enables multi-material integration for better batteries -- cold sintering.
01/18/2022
Restocking forest patches after fires is important but relies on landscape and local factors, making successful tree replacement and forest recovery difficult. Now, a team of geographers analyzed forest recovery to develop aids for managers in maintaining forests.
01/17/2022
Penn State has been awarded a $3.4 million contract from the REMADE Institute, a public-private partnership established by the United States Department of Energy, to fund research targeting the inefficient methods currently used to process and upcycle mixed plastic waste.
01/17/2022
NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012, and since then has roamed Gale Crater taking samples and sending the results back home for researchers to interpret.
01/17/2022
Around the world, energy systems are increasingly impacted by the effects of a changing climate.
01/10/2022
A 2011 paper authored by Penn State researchers outlining a geovisual analytics approach to support geographically grounded situational awareness of crisis events using social media was selected to receive the 2021 IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics Science and Technology Test of Time award.