Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology

06/02/2026

Check out this free virtual program tonight at 6pm! The GBNP Foundation sponsors monthly meetings through 2026.

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Dive underground with the GBNP Foundation during National Cave and Karst Week to explore how Great Basin National Park's subterranean wonders have shaped—and been shaped by—science, stewardship, and community engagement.

Gretchen Baker, Great Basin National Park’s ecologist and cave specialist, will be joined by Louise Hose—the leading scholar on Lehman Caves geologic research—and Jeanne Howerton—Lehman Caves’ first girl guide—to explore the geology, biology, research, and history unique to Great Basin National Park's cave systems.

05/01/2026

Two (magnitudes 4.3 and 5.2) occurred near Silver Springs today at 1:15am and 1:18am! You can see the aftershock rate pick up after those events on this from station PWRL. PWRL was installed April 15th, the day after the 5.7, to monitor aftershocks.

05/01/2026

A beautiful, detailed atlas of the Sierra Nevada was released by our colleagues at the California Geological Survey. This publication does an excellent job of bringing the geologic story of the Sierra Nevada to life and highlighting the value of high-quality geologic mapping.

Visit their web page that hosts the numerous maps, data layers, and an associated report that make up the Atlas.: https://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/sierra-nevada-atlas

04/20/2026

With more than 300 distinct mountain ranges, the most of any state, Nevada’s landscape is a stunning result of millions of years of geologic stretching and change. In the KRNV News 4 feature below, NBMG’s Jim Faulds shares how the Basin and Range landscape creates the “up-and-down” terrain that makes Nevada truly one of a kind.

If you tell someone from out of state you're from Nevada, they probably picture vast expanses of wide-open, flat desert.But that picture in the out-of-towner's

04/13/2026

The second annual Nevada Geosciences Research Symposium held April 10, 2026 at the University of Nevada, Reno was a success! The symposium brought together geoscience students, faculty, and researchers for a day of collaboration and discovery.

With 25 presentations covering topics from Mars' northern ice cap to blind geothermal exploration in Nevada, the event showcased the depth of geoscience research across the integrated Nevada Geosciences group, which includes members of the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology and the Nevada Seismological Laboratory.

Thank you to the sponsors GSN, AEG, Terēan, and CREG for their support, and to everyone who presented and attended. We look forward to next year!

03/30/2026

We’re proud to share that our Director and Nevada State Geologist, Simon Jowitt, was invited to testify before the House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee meeting "Unleashing America's Mineral Potential: The Critical Mineral Commodity Supply Chain".

You can watch the hearing below, and transcripts and written testimony should be available in the near future: https://www.youtube.com/live/yNsRYpgonW4?si=yUTYSE8k9nSp5-15&t=1990

03/18/2026

As we welcome spring and the warmer weather, it's the perfect time to get out and capture Nevada’s unique geologic landscapes. Don’t forget to snap photos of the beautiful scenery around you and submit them to the 2026 Nevada Geology Calendar Contest!
The deadline for entries is May 31, 2026.

For more information, visit: https://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/Nevada-Geology-Calendar-2026-p/cal2026.htm

03/16/2026

Exciting things happening at the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy (GBCGE)!

The National Geothermal Academy is back at the University of Nevada, Reno, and registration for our Geothermal Drilling Course (July 20–24) will be opening soon. The GBCGE will help train the next generation of geothermal professionals.

Read more about it in the Nevada Today article below.

The Academy is offering a geothermal drilling course in July, helping address skills gaps for oil and gas drilling experts shifting to the geothermal industry

03/16/2026

We are excited to announce the second annual Nevada Geosciences Research Symposium (NGRS), which will take place April 10, 2026. The research symposium provides an opportunity for undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers, and post docs to present their research to our broader Nevada Geosciences community, as well as members of other University departments, industry, the public and other government agencies.

Faculty, please encourage your students or postdocs to apply! There will be prizes for the presenters!

For more information and to submit a presentation, visit: https://events.unr.edu/event/nevada-geosciences-symposium-2026

03/13/2026

The new NBMG publication "Quaternary Volcanoes in Nevada" highlights the Silver State's dynamic volcanic past. Nevada is a tectonically active state, experiencing hundreds of thousands of historical earthquakes, hundreds of late Quaternary (the current and most recent geological period in the Cenozoic Era) faults, and containing over 165 Quaternary volcanoes.

This map indicates the location of Quaternary volcanic vents or other associated features indicative of Quaternary volcanism that have been identified across Nevada. These eruptions range in age from the 2.6-million-year-old (Ma) trachybasalt of Cedar Hill in the Aurora volcanic field (John et al., 2015) to the most recent eruption in the state—which occurred at Soda Lake near Fallon—approximately 5,500 years ago (Rodrigues and Ruprecht, 2023). In some cases, a volcanic vent is related to a single eruptive episode, while in other areas, multiple vents were involved.

Download your free copy here: https://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/Quaternary-volcanoes-in-Nevada-p/of2026-01.htm