The renewable energy sector is booming, and as demand for clean energy rises, so too does demand for the metals it relies on—copper and nickel chief among them. As the world continues scaling up renewables to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, demand will almost certainly top supply in the coming decades. To address this future gap, an international group of researchers and the mining giant BHP teamed up to identify the processes that determine whether or not these metals make it into accessible deposits in the crust.
Earth’s crust
Posted inNews
A Giant Impact Triggered Earthquakes for Thousands of Years
When an asteroid struck South Africa during the Precambrian, earthquakes rocked the region for millennia as Earth’s crust reequilibrated, new research reveals.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Faults in Oceanic Crust Contribute to Slow Seismic Waves
New high-sampling rate measurements of fluid pressures in oceanic crust reveal unresolved fractures and pathways for fluid flow.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Faulting and Folding Signals in Seismic Data
A novel numerical model simulates folding in Earth’s crust throughout the earthquake cycle.
Posted inScience Updates
A Simple Recipe for Making the First Continental Crust
Laboratory experiments serendipitously revealed a rock-forming process that might explain how the first continental crust formed on Earth—and possibly on Mars.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Support for a “Jelly Sandwich” Model of the Tibetan Plateau
Computer modeling constrained by positional data collected in the aftermath of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake indicates the lower crust is less viscous than the upper mantle below it.