Abandoned mines and quarries are anthropogenically created subsurface and surface excavations that have ceased economic operation, forming a distinct focus of research in environmental geoscience, engineering geology, and restoration ecology. Scientific study addresses physical integrity (e.g., slope stability, subsidence, and collapse), hydrogeological alterations such as modified groundwater flow paths and mine drainage, and geochemical processes including metal mobilization and acid generation in sulfide-bearing systems. They are also investigated as sites for habitat development, tailings and waste-rock management, contaminant fate and transport, and potential reuse, for example in geothermal energy, underground storage, or controlled waste disposal, underpinned by quantitative risk assessment and long-term monitoring frameworks.
Starting just outside Charlotte, North Carolina, a vast underground deposit of lithium stretches south for 25 miles. A key component of rechargeable batteries and energy grid storage systems, the soft, silvery metal is a ...
Environment
Feb 9, 2026
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California marked a milestone this month with the return of an uninterrupted Highway 1 through the perilous yet spectacular cliffs of Big Sur. The famed coastal road had been closed for more than three years after two major ...
Environment
Jan 28, 2026
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14
A new University of Virginia study led by environmental scientist Justin Richardson shows that phosphorus pollution driving algae blooms in Virginia's Lake Anna may come from residential areas as well as farms, but a more ...
Environment
Jan 28, 2026
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Thousands of open cut mines lie abandoned worldwide, while more stringent mine site rehabilitation laws in Australia are paving the way for improved long-term restoration efforts.
Environment
Dec 9, 2025
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Today's high-tech electronics and green energy technologies would not function without rare earth elements (REEs). These 17 metals possess unique properties essential to creating items like the phosphors that illuminate our ...
Bio & Medicine
Nov 13, 2025
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For the past 250 years, people have mined coal industrially in Pennsylvania, U.S.. By 1830, the city of Pittsburgh was using more than 400 tons of the fossil fuel every day. Burning all that coal has contributed to climate ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 1, 2025
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322
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. It is released from natural sources (like wetlands) and human activities (coal mining, and oil and gas production). It is also emitted by agriculture (especially livestock and rice paddies), ...
Environment
Oct 28, 2025
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0
A small Canadian mining company, Canagold, is seeking permits and approvals to renew gold mining operations at a remote site in northwestern British Columbia (B.C.). Called the New Polaris Mine, it faces opposition from First ...
Environment
Oct 19, 2025
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As a student at the Colorado School of Mines, Sam Seeton juggled his role as running back for the school's football team with his pursuit of a petroleum engineering degree, all while managing hunting and fishing access to ...
Ecology
Oct 15, 2025
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0
According to a study by the Department of Physics and the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the Mar Menor saltwater lagoon in Murcia, Spain, the largest ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 13, 2025
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