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While the world is marveling over the first images and data now coming from NASA’s Perseverance rover mission seeking signs of ancient microscopic life on Mars, a team of UNLV scientists is already hard at work on the next step: What if we could one day send humans to the Red Planet?

By studying meteorites believed to be remnants of the catastrophic breakup of a dwarf planet, researchers are learning how lonsdaleite, a particularly hard type of diamond, forms in nature.

Coming up with the minerals for producing and using energy and fuels will require a wide range of critical metals. One of these rare earth elements, tellurium for example, is gaining in popularity for use in photovoltaics, or solar panels. As global demand for solar panels continues to increase, so is the need for critical metals like tellurium.

One study conducted at the Ê×Ò³| Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ found that solar farms provide better habitat than the wide-open desert.

Low water levels in Lake Mead caused by the decades-long, climate change-fueled drought in the West, have revealed a number of secrets: dead bodies, shipwrecks and now ash from past volcano eruptions.

The Colorado River is being used more and more due to the worsening drought in the west. As the water levels plummeted, several shocking discoveries, such as human remains and sunken ships, have been uncovered. Scientists discovered that events that took place millions of years ago.

In Lake Mead, on the border between the US states of Nevada and Arizona, scientists observed whitish rocks of volcanic origin. They come from various periods of volcanic activity, and the oldest are many millions of years old.

Visitors to the Las Vegas Valley know that the only nearby volcano is at The Mirage hotel, so why did University of Nevada researchers find volcanic ash recently in Lake Mead? The ongoing-drought caused record-low water levels in the country's largest reservoir, which uncovered rock embedded with volcanic ash from distant volcanoes.

A team of researchers recently discovered rocks that hadn’t been seen in nearly a century along the Lake Mead shoreline. What the rocks contained provided pivotal clues about dangers that lurked millions of years ago.

Lake Mead's water levels are low, researchers were able to locate volcanic ash that occurred 12 million years ago.

Water levels in Lake Mead hit record lows this year as the crushing drought in the western US continues, revealing relics like a World War II-era boat and multiple sets of human remains from decades ago.

Record-low water levels in Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona have exposed volcanic ash from eruptions 12 million years ago as far away as Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado.