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earth matters
science and insights for people who care about Earth, its resources and its environment

Fresh Water Resources

December 4, 2015

Bacteria living in shallow sediment layers of permanently flooded wetlands in Asia drive arsenic release into water by feeding on freshly deposited plant material, a new study finds.

Friday, November 13, 2015

A new study coauthored by Prof. Noah Diffenbaugh and graduate students Justin Mankin and Deepti Singh finds that as greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures continue to rise, mountain snowmelt will decrease.

Rosemary Knight, in collaboration with Aqua Geo Frameworks and the Tulare Irrigation District, recently used a new imaging technology to find water hidden hundreds of feet underground in California's drought-ravaged Central Valley.

October 30, 2015

Arsenic attaches to water that's 'too pure'

Stanford Earth scientist Scott Fendorf helped discover how trace amounts of arsenic were moving from sediments into groundwater aquifers in Southern California.

September 2, 2015
InSAR image seen through a water drop

"Seeing" Water Underground

New imaging tools developed by Stanford Earth scientists could soon inform more proactive strategies for groundwater management.

June 9, 2015

The future of Searsville Dam

A Stanford committee that included Chris Field and Pam Matson recommends that the university develop and evaluate two alternative ways to achieve fish passage at Searsville Dam.

May 6, 2015
shasta lake

Warming temperatures implicated in recent California droughts

In California, dry years coupled with warm conditions are more likely to lead to severe drought than dry, cool years, and the probability of warm and dry conditions coinciding is likely to increase under anthropogenic climate change. 

March 2, 2015

Freshwater challenge

Earlier this fall, a team led by Rosemary Knight performed an ambitious experiment to determine the extent of ocean saltwater intrusion into freshwater aquifers in the Monterey Bay region.

December 6, 2014

Sensory Earth - Seeing Groundwater From Space

Geophysicists Jessica Reeves, Rosemary Knight, and Howard Zebker use satellite radar technology to view water buried hundreds of feet underground from hundreds of miles above, with guest appearences by Arthur C. Clarke and Cruella de Vil.

November 10, 2014

Mapping saltwater intrusion along the Monterey Coast

This past Wednesday was a busy day for Rosemary Knight, whose team is wrapping up a two-week long project to use geophysical tools to map saltwater intrusion into aquifers along the Monterey Coast.

October 13, 2014

Breakthrough provides picture of underground water

Stanford Earth scientists prove that satellite-collected data can accurately measure aquifer levels, a finding with potentially huge implications for management of precious global water sources.

June 18, 2014