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Iowa Geological Survey rock and sediment ‘library’ used to look for rare minerals
10 million feet of drilling samples from across the state
CORALVILLE — With lithium in demand to make electric vehicle batteries, researchers and corporations are looking for the valuable mineral everywhere — including in Iowa’s underground rock formations.
Often where they start is the Iowa Geologic Site and Sample Tracking Program, a University of Iowa repository of 10 million feet of drilling samples, rock chips from more than 40,000 wells and nearly 60,000 driller’s logs from across the state.
“This is like a library,” State Geologist Keith Schilling said about the warehouse on the UI’s Oakdale campus in Coralville. “If you want to check out a ‘book’ about any location and depth in Iowa, we can help you find it.”
The Iowa Geological Survey, started in 1855 by Gov. James W. Grimes, examines Iowa’s geology and provides information to direct the state’s use of resources, economic development and environmental protection.
The unit is part of IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, which offered tours of its facilities earlier this month as part of IIHR’s 100th anniversary.
A two-story warehouse on the UI’s Oakdale campus in Coralville houses the Geologic Site and Sample Tracking Program, or GEOSAM. Labeled flat boxes hold core samples and larger boxes hold envelopes of rock chips.
“Everything in this building is computerized,” said Geologist Rick Langel. “It tells me exactly where the samples are.”
Core samples are cylinders of sediment or rock collected with a hollow steel tube drilled down, sometimes thousands of feet, below the surface. Geologists can study the samples to determine the composition and the strength of the materials found underground.
The UI used to have its own drill, but now gets cores from construction projects, such as when the Iowa Department of Transportation replaced the bridge on Highway 151 between Fairfax and Walford in 2020.
Some cores are rarer than others. The UI has core samples taken from the site near Manson, in northwest Iowa, where an asteroid struck Earth in the Cretaceous Period. That asteroid, at one point, was thought to be what led to the extinction of dinosaurs until scientists learned it was too old.
Lately, researchers and companies have been coming to the UI to examine samples with Portable X-ray Fluorescence. They hold a tool about the size of a hair dryer to the core samples and can determine if they have critical minerals, including lithium, silica or uranium.
“Some of our shales have them in small amounts,” Schilling said.
U.S. companies are looking for new ways to mine lithium domestically to reduce reliance on foreign countries as car companies increase electric vehicle production. Lithium Americas, a Nevada mine under development, has caused concern with Indigenous tribes and environmental groups, the Nevada Current reported.
Researchers with the Iowa Geological Survey also study soil health, erosion and nutrient processing in different soils across the state. Matthew Streeter, a soil scientist, showed a soil core that he had marked with golf tees to indicate different layers. Reddish soil on the upper layer indicates the presence of iron.
“I can tell where the water table is at based on where I see that oxidation,” he said.
Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com
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