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Lithium in Arkansas

November 28, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Lithium is the critical raw material in the batteries that power electric cars as well as cell phones, computers, and other gadgets. The stuff has been nicknamed “white gold” for good reason. Chile and Australia are the world’s largest producers of the metal, which is mostly extracted from brine in evaporation ponds. The majority of it is then processed in China. The energy industry has been increasingly working to produce the raw materials needed to produce lithium-ion batteries in the United States and process those materials domestically. There are multiple projects at various stages across the country.

Researchers at the US Geological Survey and the Arkansas state government recently announced that they have discovered a vast trove of lithium in an underground brine reservoir in Arkansas.

With a combination of water testing and machine learning, the researchers determined that there could be 5 to as much as 19 million tons of lithium in the geological area called the Smackover Formation. This is more than enough to meet all the world’s demand for it.

Several companies – including Exxon Mobil, which is covering its bets on the future of oil as an energy source – are developing projects in Arkansas to produce lithium. If these companies can develop and scale up economical new ways to extract lithium from salty water, the region in Arkansas could become the lithium capital of the world.

Energy and mining companies have produced oil, gas, and other natural resources in the Smackover Formation, which extends from Texas to Florida. The same brines have long been the source of other valuable substances.

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Arkansas May Have Vast Lithium Reserves, Researchers Say

Photo, posted May 22, 2020, courtesy of the European Space Agency via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Groundwater and climate change

February 22, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Groundwater is the vast reserve of water beneath Earth’s surface. It’s an essential resource for humans, plants, animals, and other living organisms. According to the United States Geological Survey, about 30% of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. In areas lacking sufficient surface water supply from rivers and reservoirs, groundwater is critical for meeting the region’s drinking water and food production needs.

But climate change, as well as global population growth, is stressing groundwater resources. As precipitation becomes less reliable due to climate change, surface water bodies can drop too low to provide the needed water. As a result, people turn to groundwater. Depletion of groundwater is already a significant problem, and over-pumping will only increase further as climate change makes traditional sources of water less reliable.

According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Michigan, farmers in India have adapted to warming temperatures by intensifying the withdrawal of groundwater used for irrigation. The study, which was published in the journal Science Advances, found that the rate of groundwater loss could triple by 2080 if this trend continues, further threatening India’s food and water security.

India is the second-largest global producer of common cereal grains such as rice and wheat, and recently passed China as the world’s most populous nation. Without interventions to conserve groundwater, the research team finds that warming temperatures will likely amplify India’s groundwater depletion problem, further threatening the country’s food and water security.

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Groundwater depletion rates in India could triple in coming decades as climate warms, study shows

Where is Earth’s Water?

Photo, posted August 2, 2013, courtesy of Rajarshi MITRA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Bengal Water Machine | Earth Wise

October 31, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Over the past three decades, the owners of 16 million small farms in the Bengal Basin of Bangladesh have been pumping shallow groundwater during dry seasons to irrigate rice paddies. By lowering groundwater levels in this way during the dry season, the ability of leakage from rivers, lakes, and ponds to replenish the groundwater was greatly enhanced. Capturing surface water not only improved the recovery of groundwater levels but only helped to reduce flooding during monsoons.

The net result of this enormous collective groundwater pumping by millions of farmers has been the creation of vast natural reservoirs underground that are comparable to what is contained by many of the world’s largest dams. This system of sustaining irrigation has transformed what was previously a famine-prone country into a food-secure nation.

The details of this remarkable transformation have been laid out in a study by University College London recently published in the journal Science. According to the study, over the course of 30 years, more than 75 cubic kilometers of fresh water was captured by this process, which is equivalent to the combined reservoirs of China’s Three Gorges Dam and the Hoover Dam in the U.S.

The authors of the study described the water cycling process as “The Bengal Water Machine” and argue that it can be a sustainable alternative to conventional approaches to seasonal river flow storage for irrigation, which typically involve dams and reservoirs. Such approaches are difficult to implement in densely populated alluvial plains where sand, silt, and clay are laid down by annual floodwaters.

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Millions of farmers “replumb” world’s largest delta

Photo, posted February 2, 2010, courtesy of Melanie Ko via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Marine Predation And Climate Change | Earth Wise

July 11, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Climate change is taking a toll on forests, farms, freshwater resources, and economies all around the world. But ocean ecosystems remain the center of global warming.

Despite their vast ability to absorb heat and carbon dioxide, oceans are warming. In fact, according to scientists, the oceans have absorbed 90% of all the warming that has occurred during the past 50 years.

The ocean’s surface layer, which is home to most marine life, takes most of this heat. As a result, the top 2,300 feet of global ocean water has warmed approximately 1.5°F since 1901.

Well it turns out that a hotter ocean is also a hungrier ocean. According to a new study recently published in the journal Science, researchers discovered that predator impacts in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans peak at higher temperatures. The effects of more intense marine predation could disrupt ecosystem balances that have existed for millennia.

An international research team led by the Smithsonian Institution and Temple University analyzed predator and prey data collected from 36 sites, running along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts from Alaska in the north to Tierra de Fuego at the tip of South America. The research team found that, in warmer waters, predators’ more voracious appetites left outsized marks on the prey community. Total prey biomass plunged in warmer waters when prey were left unprotected. However, in the coldest zones, leaving prey exposed or protected made nearly no difference at all.

As the oceans continue to warm, more intense predation will create winners and losers and could jeopardize the overall health of marine ecosystems.

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As the ocean heats up hungrier predators take control

Photo, posted July 14, 2017, courtesy of Jonathan Chen via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.