Workshop on Grand Challenges in Earth Resource Engineering; Minneapolis, Minnesota; August 2010

This award supports a three day workshop on Grand Challenges in Earth Resource Engineering in Minneapolis, MN, during the second half of August 2010. The Workshop is intended to lead to a published report from the Earth Resources Engineering section of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. The subsurface is used for an increasingly diverse variety of applications: supply of drinking water, isolation of nuclear and hazardous wastes, underground storage of petroleum and natural gas, CO2 sequestration, urban transportation, homeland security issues, etc., and these various uses demand a better understanding of how rock in situ responds to man-made perturbations. Furthermore, prediction and control of unstable dynamic releases of energy as in damaging rock bursts in mines (and their large-scale counterpart, earthquakes), improved recovery of petroleum resources, the consequences of disposal of unwanted fluids by injecting them into rock formations at depth, and other industrial activities, depend on an improved understanding of the mechanics of rock and rock masses.

There are many challenging engineering problems that involve earth resources engineering, especially in the area of extraction and storage. For instance, directional drilling and borehole techniques for identifying characteristics of the rock formations are well advanced, and autonomous mining systems are taking place. Moreover, subsurface energy supplies are inextricably linked to national security and economic stability for the foreseeable future. However, the recent tragic accidents in the Gulf of Mexico and in West Virginia underscore the critical need for improved technologies to increase safety. To help promote the profession, a brochure will be developed and placed on the web to attract outstanding science and engineering students to earth resources engineering.