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.
Mineral dating reveals new clues about important tectonic process
02/08/2022
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.
Microwave data assimilation improves forecasts of hurricane intensity, rainfall
02/01/2022
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.
Increased storminess may give rise to North Atlantic’s ‘cold blob’
01/31/2022
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."
Form fit: Device wraps around hot surfaces, turns wasted heat to electricity
01/21/2022
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.
Cold-sintering may open door to improved solid-state battery production
01/21/2022
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.
Post-fire forest recovery tools developed
01/18/2022
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.
Penn State awarded $3.4 million contract to target plastic waste
01/17/2022
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.
Newly discovered carbon may yield clues to ancient Mars
01/17/2022
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.
Integrated modeling of climate impacts on electricity demand and cost
01/17/2022
01/17/2022
Around the world, energy systems are increasingly impacted by the effects of a changing climate.
Paper on geovisual analytics wins 'Test of Time' award
01/10/2022
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.