Associate Professor Victor Tsai has published a new article in GeoScienceWorld's Seismological Research Letters about the challenges with available Earth imaging techniques, and explores opportunities for improvement.

A new technique for measuring past topography shows the Himalayas were more than halfway to their summit before a continental collision made them the highest range in the world. “Experts have long thought that it takes a massive tectonic collision, on the order of continent-to-continent scale, to produce the sort of uplift required to produce Himalaya-scale elevations,” said DEEPS Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra. “This study disproves that and sends the field in some interesting new directions.”

DEEPS PhD student Peter Van Katwyk and Assistant Professor Karianne Bergen are coauthors on a new Nature Review article exploring the ways AI can contribute to scientific discovery.

From lake sediments to post-fire landscapes, many DEEPS undergraduate students are engaged in groundbreaking research throughout the summer break. We are proud to showcase some of these research projects with this photo series.

This summer, an article was published in AGU's Geophysical Research Letters representing work from former Ph.D. graduate Aron Buffen, Professor Meredith Hastings, and other colleagues using a model to better understand how sunlight changes snow nitrate. The work was featured as the cover art for the June issue of AGU's Geophysical Research Letters.

Assistant Professor Mara Freilich and graduate student Élise Beaudin embarked on the Submesoscale-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) mission this past April to study the role of surface layer submesoscale eddies on climate and biological elements in the upper ocean.

This past spring, Voss Postdocs Jayson Maurice Porter and Lina C. Pérez-Angel worked together to develop a four-class learning module for the fifth graders of SouthSide Elementary Charter School.

Non-native English speakers reported having their papers rejected specifically because of writing issues 2.5 times as often as native speakers. Lina Pérez-Angel, a Colombian palaeoclimatologist and DEEPS Voss Postdoctoral Research Associate, says “I have had reviewers that explicitly said that my English puts in doubt the quality of the research, or mostly gave me feedback on my English in a harsh way that made me think it was based on my Latinx/Hispanic-sounding last name.”

F. Scott Anderson ‘90 of the Southwest Research Institute is the Principle Investigator on the mission Dating an Irregular Mare Patch with a Lunar Explorer (DIMPLE), which will investigate the Ina Irregular Mare Patch, discovered in 1971 by Apollo 15 orbital images. "Our mission," said Professor Jim Head, "is designed to land, explore, and date in situ, the enigmatic Ina D-shaped pit crater, a volcanic features whose impact crater-count age is interpreted to be an astoundingly young ~33 million years, but whose geological context suggests could be over 3 billion years."

Get ready for a journey across the rivers of our Solar System in this week's Planetary Radio. Sam Birch, an assistant professor at Brown University, explores what we know about the alluvial rivers of Earth, Mars, and Saturn’s moon Titan.

In late June, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson traveled to the Ocean State for a firsthand look at the research and technology that Rhode Island colleges, universities and businesses are producing to support the space agency’s mission.

$1.5 million worth of repairs for hurricane barriers in Fox Point will start in July, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley announced on the wettest July 10 on record in the last century. Rain, and with it flooding, are only expected to increase in Providence in the future, according to Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper.

Steven Clemens speaks with Srijana Mitra Das at Times of India about the factors that make the Indian monsoon.

In addition to the grueling heat of the past few weeks, wildfire smoke, the early arrival of El Niño, and shrinking Antarctic sea ice are also indicators of a global environmental crisis. "Heat sets the pace of our climate in so many ways," IBES Director and DEEPS Professor Kim Cobb commented for the Associated Press. "It’s never just the heat."

Over the 14 years since its launch, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has produced images and data proven that have transformed our understanding of Earth's celestial neighbor. Professor and noted lunar researcher Carle Pieters spoke with Space.com about the importance of future orbital observations of the moon.

Jim Russell, Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, has been elected as a Geological Society of America Fellow. Society Fellowship is an honor in recognition of a sustained record of distinguished contributions to the geosciences.

Kim Cobb, DEEPS Professor and Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, said the week’s events embodied the “multiple stressors linked to man-made climate change” that the United Nations has warned about through its scientific panel on global warming.

Laura Lark and her team discover potential carbon enrichment in impact basins on Mercury's surface, shedding light on volatile-driven processes and the formation of dark low-reflectance material.

For the past two years, paleoclimatologist Natasha Sekhon has enriched IBES & DEEPS with her collaborative work. In a recent IBES article, Natasha discussed the connections she's made by teaching at Brown & conducting cave research in the Philippines.

On 31st May, DEEPS Professor and Chair of the WMO Research Board Amanda Lynch invited the Nineteenth World Meteorological Congress to adopt eight recommendations developed by her Board to advance key elements of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) mission.

Anant Hariharan was selected for his impacts to the fields of seismology, tectonics, and geodynamics through his dissertation, Understanding Overtone Interference in Surface Wave Measurements: Application to Anisotropic Imaging of the Uppermost Mantle Beneath North America.

The Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences joins Brown University in celebrating the achievements of the graduating class of 2023. Here we will be sharing an expanded version of our Commencement Program, listing the many accomplishments of our new graduates.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently released its latest findings on the human and economic impact of weather-related disasters during the quadrennial World Meteorological Congress in Geneva. The congress is centered around the implementation of the UN's Early Warnings for All initiative. Professor Amanda Lynch, as the Chair of the WMO Research Board, plays a vital role in guiding the objectives and execution of this significant initiative.

Kristin Kimble is honored with an Excellence in Teaching Award for her outstanding dedication, enthusiasm, and reliability in her work with curriculum design and teaching.

Meteoroid impacts on Mars' surface reveal intriguing connections between atmospheric density, elevation, and the formation of crater clusters, as hypothesized by Assistant Professor Ingrid Daubar

Assistant Professor Gerrit Budde received a Salomon award for his work establishing new procedures for complete sample digestion of meteorite samples utilizing laser-assisted melting and for combined isotope analyses of oxygen and ‘heavy’ elements. Professor Timothy Herbert received a Salomon award for his project developing proof of concept data directly relevant to the long-term stability of the Antarctic ice cap to be submitted to the NSF Marine Geology and Geophysics program.

The Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences is proud to announce the graduation of four outstanding PhD candidates.

DEEPS is proud to announce that Professor Karen Fischer is this year's recipient of the Meenakshi Narain Excellence in Research Mentoring (ERM) Award.

Shaw Miller '24 has been selected for this year's Sarah LaMendola Undergraduate Research Award.

Baylor Fox-Kemper, alongside Katelyn Moretti, Charles Lawrence, and John Nicklas, has received a 2023 Seed Award for his project, "Bayesian Modeling of Climate-Dependent Mortality Risk among US Residents from 1989 to 2020." This project builds toward a complete, transparent estimation of mortality from the latest generation of climate model projections to 2100.

Earth Day is next Saturday, April 22nd, so DEEPS is highlighting opportunities for you to celebrate all week!

On March 29th, DEEPS hosted a thrilling volcano demonstration for fourth and fifth graders from the Vartan Gregorian School.

DEEPS is inviting artists to submit artwork for a small juried exhibition in the department’s newly-renovated Lincoln Field Building.

A trek through tropical forest, mud fields, and scree reveals the last remnants of the once-sprawling ice fields in Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains. “The loss of these glaciers is the loss of a critical component of a system, and it isn’t going to come back any time in the foreseeable future,” said James Russell, who has led expeditions to the Rwenzoris almost every year since 2006.

12 News Meteorologist Steven Matregrano speaks with Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper about what weather could be in store for Rhode Island.

Women have always played an essential role in the advancement of earth, environmental, and planetary sciences.

A new study shows evidence that, as recently as 1991, a volcano erupted on Venus. “This study is really important,” said DEEPS Professor Emeritus James W. Head, who was not involved in the research. “Could this be the way Earth was in its earliest history? Or the way Earth is headed in its future?”