Rocks and Sustainable Energy

When you think about rocks, you might not think about energy, but Christopher Zahasky does. Chris has been looking at vesicular basaltic volcanic rocks, like the one shown below, and the way fluid flows through them (see the graphical abstract for his recent article above). "These volcanic rocks are an important source of geothermal energy and provide a potential location for large-scale subsurface carbon dioxide storage for greenhouse gas emissions mitigation," Chris told us. "Understanding fluid flow is important for more effectively using these types of geologic systems for sustainable energy resource development."

As with all fields of science, data analysis and management challenges still exist. For Chris's field, these include the transparency of methods included in the published literature and robust quantification of data uncertainties. We hope the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR), where Chris and his co-authors have deposited code and data generated as part of this research, can help. Chris chose to share these additional data in the SDR because "accessible, permanent, discoverable data and methods provide a foundation for future scientific inquiry and provide scientific accountability of published research." We couldn't agree with you more, Chris.
Chris also indicated that "by sharing this content we hope other people may use these models to better couple fluid flow and geochemical reactions in these types of rocks." The article describing this particular research project can be found in Advances in Water Resources.
This data story was written by Amy Hodge.
Find out more about the data featured in this story.