Tibet forms the largest and highest plateau on Earth today. The pattern of horizontal strain is increasingly well-known, and suggests that deformation is essentially continuous, with diffuse deformation of the crust and upper mantle over broad areas. The opposed view that discrete tectonic blocks, internally undeformed, are being expelled eastward between lithospheric strike-slip faults, is now largely discredited.

Geologic CO₂ sequestration is a process of capturing and storing CO₂ in appropriate geological settings. By keeping the waste gas from escaping to the atmosphere, we hope to reduce the greenhouse effect and to assist in the mitigation of global warming. Depleted oil or gas reservoirs, deep saline aquifers and deep unminable coalbeds are believed to be good geological settings for CO₂ storage. For safety and operational reasons, we must perform subsurface as well as surface monitoring.

What is causing the dramatic observed decrease in the infiltration rate over time? Why is not all of the stored water recovered? Where does the "lost" water go?