May 14, 2026: Seminar
Quaise Energy Seminar Showcases Obsidian project in Oregon
Trenton Cladouhous, vice president of Quaise Energy, presented "Project Obsidian: Superhot Rock EGS" on May 14, 2026, as part of the CUSSP all-hands meeting. The PDF of the presentation slides is available here:
May 13-14, 2026: Event
CUSSP All-Hands Meeting
Researchers from the CUSSP institutional partners gathered at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in May 2026 to discuss recent research results, emerging publications, and ideas for future collaborative research.
May 12, 2026: Workshop
CUSSP Damage Challenge Workshop Prepares for Open Call
CUSSP convened computational scientists and experimentalists for a special Damage Challenge Workshop to plan for a Damage Mechanics Challenge open call competition, which will be based in part on CUSSP research on the Yates amphibolite from the 4100' level testbed at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. The workshop was led by Laura Pyrak-Nolte with Purdue University, MJ Abdolhosseini Qomi with the University of California Irvine, and Director Kevin Rosso. During the workshop, the by-invitation team of geothermal experts defined and launched this numerical challenge to predict damage evolution in this mineralogically complicated rock. Topics included:
- “The Lattice Discrete Particle Model (LDPM) for Quasi-Brittle Fracture and Damage” by Gianluca Cusatis, Northwestern University
- “Discretization Strategies for Discrete Analyses of Geomaterials and Structures” by John Bolander, University of California, Davis
- “Peridynamic Models for Damage in Heterogeneous Materials” by Florin Bobaru, University of Nebrask-Lincoln
- “On the Mediation Between Strength and Energetics in the Fracture of Elastic Brittle Materials” by John Dolbow, Duke University
- “Micro-Macro Rock Damage Mechanics” by Chloe Arson, Cornell University
- “Fluctuation-Based Damage Mechanics in the Semi-Grand Ensemble: Theory, Size-effect and Experimental Insights” by Ariel Attias, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
March 31, 2026: In the News
From Technology Void to Next-Gen Solution: PNNL Reinvents ERT Monitoring
CUSSP is leveraging a next-generation electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) system developed by PNNL for DOE that uses E4D software and AI-enhanced modeling to produce real-time subsurface images.
March 30, 2026: Seminar
Flow Control Seminar Presented by the CUSSP Early Career Network
"Reactive Flow and Permeability Evolution in Shear Fractures & Electrokinetic Phenomena in Nanochannels: The Role of Surface Charge and Surface Texture on Flow Control" featured Professor Anne Menefee with Penn State and Professor Thomas Petersen with the University of Southern California.
August 4, 2025: Staff Accomplishment
Hyman named Guest Editor for Special Issue on Subsurface Geotechnology
CUSSP key collaborator Jeffrey Hyman is a guest editor for a special issue of Géotechnique Letters on Advances in Subsurface Geotechnology for Decarbonization. Hyman is a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory and holds a joint appointment with the Colorado School of Mines. Manuscripts are accepted through August 31, 2025.
July 16, 2025: Staff Accomplishment
Purdue's Pyrak-Nolte Elected ISRM Fellow
CUSSP Deputy Director Laura J. Pyrak-Nolte has been elected a Fellow of the International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering. She is the Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the Rock Physics Research Group at Purdue University.
June 2, 2025: Staff Accomplishment
UC Irvine's Abdolhosseini Co-chairs Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference
Mohammad Javad "MJ" Abdolhosseini Qomi, CUSSP’s Early Career Network Director, co-chaired the Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) Conference in Anaheim, CA, May 27-30, 2025. CUSSP Director Kevin Rosso presented a plenary on “Mastering Reactive Flow through Fracture Networks in the Deep Subsurface: A Multiscale Grand Challenge for Clean Energy” to about 800 attendees. Abdolhosseini is an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine.
May 22, 2025: Staff Accomplishment
Burghardt Chairs American Rock Mechanics Association Technical Program
The annual American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA) symposium is the premier technical event for the international rock mechanics and geomechanics community. Jeff Burghardt, an Earth scientist at PNNL, is the CUSSP field site leader.
May 8, 2025: In the News
Geothermal research at America’s Underground Lab can bolster U.S. energy independence in the digital age
The deepest laboratory in the United States—the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota—provides a unique test bed for the study of enhanced geothermal systems.
April 9, 2025: Seminar
Building Reactive Transport Models in PFLOTRAN
CUSSP Cross-Cut Lead Glenn Hammond and PNNL researcher Katherine Muller presented a webinar to the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science user facility, on PFLOTRAN.
February 25, 2025: Seminar
Reacting Interfaces Seminar presented by the CUSSP Early Career Network
"Classical and Non-Classical Views of Reacting Interfaces" featured Dr. Carl Steefel with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Dr. Jim De Yoreo with the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
October 29-30, 2024: All-Hands Meeting
CUSSP Convenes Team at SURF to Discuss Collaborative Research
CUSSP researchers gathered for its inaugural all-hands meeting at the Sanford Underground Research Laboratory (SURF) in South Dakota. The agenda included visiting the subsurface testbed and taking a group photo in a snowstorm.
October 16, 2024: Seminar
Breaking Rocks with Chemistry Seminar presented by the CUSSP Early Career Network
"Can We Leverage Chemistry to Break Rocks" featured Professor Peter Kelemen with Columbia University and Professor Francois Renard with the Univesity of Oslo.
September 18, 2024: Staff Accomplishment
CUSSP Director Named American Geophysical Union Fellow
Chemist Kevin Rosso was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union for “novel advancements in understanding and predicting the kinetics of critical environmental redox reactions in complex (bio)geochemical systems.” Rosso is director of the Center for Understanding Subsurface Signals and Permeability (CUSSP) Energy Earthshot Research Center. He will be honored in December at AGU24.
July 19, 2024: Article
Gaining Insights into How Mineral Surfaces Respond to Electric Fields
To improve our ability to “see” into the subsurface, scientists need to understand how different mineral surfaces respond to electrical signals at the molecular scale in research supported by CUSSP.
March 27, 2024: Staff Accomplishment
Burghardt Joins Sanford Underground Research Facility Executive Committee
Jeff Burghardt, CUSSP field site leader, was elected to serve a 2-year term on the Sanford Underground Research Facility’s (SURF’s) User Association Executive Committee. Research for CUSSP takes place at SURF in South Dakota, where laboratory spaces are uniquely located thousands of feet underground.
November 29, 2023: News Coverage
Lab receives DOE grant to study geothermal power in SURF
South Dakota Public Radio interviews CUSSP Director Kevin Rosso about the new DOE Energy Earthshot Research Center and its mission.
October 26, 2023: SURF News Feature
Geothermal research at SURF takes leap forward with DOE Energy Earthshots initiative
SURF is home to the next generation of geothermal energy research through the DOE Energy Earthshots initative. Additional media coverage: The Rapid City Journal and The Black Hills Pioneer
September 29, 2023: Feature
Enhanced Geothermal, Offshore Wind Energy Gain Earthshot™ Support at PNNL
Two renewable energy approaches—enhanced geothermal systems and floating offshore wind energy—get new focus as Energy Earthshot™ Research Centers at PNNL.
September 29, 2023: News Release
DOE Announces $264 Million for Basic Research in Support of Energy Earthshots™
11 new national lab-led Energy Earthshot Research Centers and 18 university projects will address tough scientific challenges to help achieve net-zero carbon by 2050, solve climate crisis.