Increasingly severe rain storms are straining an aging city and campus infrastructure. Beneath the recently renovated Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle, Brown installed water storage tanks “that will accept the high volume” of rainwater produced during high-intensity storms. “There’s not a single campus across the country that is immune to climate-related impacts and threats to its infrastructure,” commented DEEPS Professor and IBES Director Kim Cobb. “You often do need to wait to see those impacts on the ground before you make the deep investments.”

Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper is leading Brown’s team in the SIMCoast initiative modeling microplastics in the Narragansett Bay.

As Project Scientist for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, Associate Professor Ingrid Daubar is at the forefront of efforts to explore Jupiter's icy and intriguing moon Europa. In this article, she shares insights into the mission’s objectives, the challenges of deep space exploration, and the quest to determine whether Europa could support life.

This new policy brief, co-authored by Professor Amanda Lynch, situates the algorithmic transformation of Arctic WWC services within its broader legal and security context. It concludes by outlining three domains for policy intervention: international organisations, international law and international security.

As we prepare for the Spring 2026 semester, DEEPS is proud to announce our upcoming course options.

A recent paper co-authored by Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra supports the hypothesis of a negative feedback that limits atmospheric carbon dioxide decline during glacial periods.

DEEPS PhD student Alejandra Lopez describes her research on the Salton Sea alongside community volunteers. Through rigorous science and community engagement, Alejandra's work on the Salton Sea Project is demonstrating what environmental research can accomplish when it centers the needs and knowledge of those most impacted.

The Brown Daily Herald highlighted this semester's Thomas A. Mutch Lecture, featuring Benjamin Weiss, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who spoke about his recent research on the lunar dynamo. Weiss argued the magnetic field dissipated as recently as 800 million years ago, which is over one billion years later than previous hypotheses. Attendee Nandita Kumari, a postdoctoral research associate conducting planetary and lunar research at Brown, said these findings can improve the understanding of lunar properties.

This new work combines experimental petrology and modeling to understand the conditions of sedimentary diapir formation occurring in subduction zones. Led by collaborators at University of Arizona along with DEEPS Assistant Professor Emily Cooperdock, the authors find that subducted sediments are unlikely to form diapirs except in warm, slow subducting systems. Sedimentary diapirs may contribute to arc magmatic geochemical signatures under these specific conditions.

DEEPS PhD candidate Hannah Shabtian and Professor Greg Hirth have published a new paper in Geophysics Research Letters. "The paper describes novel characterization of talc rheology and some cool applications of our flow law for understanding strength of earth's crust in subduction zones," Shabtian shared.

Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra, undergraduate alumnus Jonah Bernstein-Schalet, former Postdoctoral Researcher Evan Ramos, and graduate student Sebastian Munoz are coauthors on a recent publication in JGR Biogeosciences. Their research looks into CO2 emissions from headwater streams, comparing chemical signatures of river water samples taken from an Oregon watershed with both very steep and very shallow-sloping rivers. "Results from this study may impact our estimates of how rivers move carbon across the earth's surface and exchange carbon dioxide with the atmosphere."

DEEPS Chair, Professor Meredith Hastings discussed the air quality in Providence, as monitored through her Breathe Providence project.

Last week, DEEPS scientists came together for the Department Poster Session! This annual event allows students, postdocs, faculty, and research groups to introduce their recent work, explore the wide variety of research happening in the department, and meet new additions to the the DEEPS community.

Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra is co-author of this study, which provides a new framework for examining how organisms have fundamentally altered ecosystems on a global scale across hundreds, thousands, or millions of years.

Assistant Professor Mara Freilich is co-editor on a new book, "Climate Changed: Models and the Built World," available now through Colombia University Press. The book examines models and their imperfect yet central role in understanding the relationship between global climate dynamics and the human-built environment. It compares and synthesizes the methods and function of models in disciplines ranging from architecture and planning to climate science and natural hazards research.

DEEPS PhD student Alejandra López contributes to two new briefs revealing widespread nutrient pollution, dangerously low oxygen levels in the lake, and frequent episodes of hydrogen sulfide emissions that exceed California’s health standards—conditions occurring among residents in areas that rank among the most burdened by pollution in the state. López noted, “Families live with chronic exposure to pollutants that would never be tolerated elsewhere. We call for enforceable standards and local-focused solutions that put residents at the center of restoration.”

New research offer clues to Mars’s history, including what violent collisions it experienced in the past and how it lost its magnetic field. Professor Ingrid Daubar, former member of the InSight science team, commented on these recent studies, saying, “There are connections to our own planet, to how planets form in general and to how we understand different planets outside our solar system.”

A new publication in G3 led by Assistant Professor Emily H. G. Cooperdock untangles the systematics of uranium enrichment for serpentinites from different tectonic settings and explores potential mineral hosts. The researchers found that "uranium enrichment is most common in the upper 100m of the seafloor and is not correlated with degree of serpentinization. We also find a correlation between U concentration and iron-oxidation, which we use to suggest that U is hosted in ferric iron minerals, possibly iron-oxides." The paper also provides insights on using uranium as a tracer for tectonic setting, fluid rock interactions, and redox records in the solid Earth system.

More than 85 climate scientists declared the Department of Energy’s new climate report unfit for policymaking in a comprehensive review. DEEPS Professor and IBES Director Kim Cobb, who co-authored two sections of the review, said, “It’s really important that we stand up for the integrity of [climate science] when it matters the most. And this may very well be when it mattered the most.”

DEEPS Postdoctoral Research Associate Nick Wagner recently published a new paper in JGR: Planets. "In this study, we update our understanding of how magma trapped inside a planet influences gravity and the shape of the surface by considering their volumetric effects, and we revise the estimates of the proportion of volcanic material that erupted versus material that did not. Our results, which use geophysical data and methods, align closer with findings from other lines of evidence. This suggests that the ability of magma to erupt in the Tharsis region has increased over time, pointing to a longer period of volcanic activity than previously believed."

From freshly formed simple craters on the Moon to hydrogen sulfide production in the Salton Sea, DEEPS undergraduate students participated in cutting edge research throughout the 2025 summer break. We are proud to showcase some of these research projects with this photo series.

DEEPS Assistant Professor Harriet Lau recently presented at TEDx New England on the our planet's natural cycles and rhythms – from micrometers to thousands of miles, and from milliseconds to millions of years. Throughout Earth's multi-billion-year history, these rhythms collide, interact, and unfold, influencing humanity and shaping our experience of time.

ecoRI News spoke with experts about the risks that Rhode Island will face going forward as heat waves hit more frequently and for longer periods. DEEPS Chair Meredith Hastings commented, noting that when it’s hot outside, air quality tends to get worse. “Under hotter conditions we speed up reactions,” she said. “That can lead to the faster production of secondary pollution.”

Dozens of veteran climate scientists have launched a coordinated response to a Trump administration report that casts doubt on the severity of climate change. Kim Cobb, DEEPS Professor and Director of IBES, told CNN it’s significant that the Trump administration is deep-sixing the climate assessments at the same time it’s releasing a misleading new report. She also said she hopes to help “set the record straight” on climate science in their response to the DOE report.

Strong new evidence suggests that primordial material from the planet’s center is somehow making its way out. Continent-size entities anchored to the core-mantle boundary might be involved. Assistant Professor Harriet Lau commented on this exciting research, noting: if material is effusing from the core into the mantle, is the boundary between them “as distinct as we think?”

A new art installation on Public Street by artist Eli Nixon features colorful windsocks that are raised as local air quality fluctuates. DEEPS Chair Meredith Hastings attended the windsock event and spoke about air quality issues, which she has studied as a part of her project Breathe Providence.

Turn To 10's Mario Hilario speaks with Logan Tullai, Artist-in-Residence at the Knight Memorial Library in partnership with LunaSCOPE and the NASA Rhode Island Space Grant, about the art project he's spearheading that gets the community involved by using the sun to print pictures of the moon.

This article in Nature investigates how researchers are filing appeals, seeking court remedies, turning to philanthropy and starting GoFundMe campaigns to support their research. The article includes the cancellation of Assistant Professor Mara Freilich's NASA grant, which engaged citizens in studying the air quality around California's Salton Sea.

New research is using tracks from dust devils to learn about the whirlwinds and potentially guide future mission planning. "Dust devils themselves are difficult to capture in images because they are so short-lived," said Associate Professor Ingrid Daubar, lead author of the study. "The tracks they leave behind last longer, so we are able to observe them more thoroughly."

During the European Astrobiology Institute’s BEACON 25 conference in Reykjavik, Postdoctoral Fellow Adam Valantinas spoke with Forbes about NASA’s Perseverance rover and its ongoing exploration beyond Jezero Crater’s rim.

DEEPS Shorts is a video series highlighting the diverse research within Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. This week, we hear from Justin Custado, a Geochemist studying weathering and climate history in the Philippines. Created by PhD Candidate Élise Beaudin, with support from Communications Specialist Mae Jackson.

DEEPS Shorts is a video series highlighting the diverse research within Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. This week, we hear from Matt Jones, Planetary Research Scientist exploring Moon asymmetries. Created by PhD Candidate Élise Beaudin, with support from Communications Specialist Mae Jackson.

In a new study published in Icarus, a team of researchers led by DEEPS graduate student Thomas Williams and Professors Stephen Parman and Alberto Saal have used modern analysis techniques to closely examine the microscopic mineral deposits on the outside of lunar beads from the Apollo mission. The team's findings suggest a change in eruption style over the course of a pyroclastic volcanic eruption in the Taurus-Littrow Valley.

DEEPS Shorts is a video series highlighting the diverse research within Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. This week we hear from John Nicklas, PhD Candidate and Climate and Health Scientist. Created by PhD Candidate Élise Beaudin, with support from Communications Specialist Mae Jackson.

The National Center for Science Education has announced the winners of the 2025 Friend of the Planet award, including IBES Director and DEEPS Professor Kim Cobb. This award recognizes Cobb's tireless efforts to support climate change education through her research, engagement, and outreach.

DEEPS Shorts is a video series highlighting the diverse research within Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. This week's scientist is Jaesoek Lee, PhD student studying seismology, earthquakes, and fault geometries. Created by PhD Candidate Élise Beaudin, with support from Communications Specialist Mae Jackson.

This year, DEEPS undergraduates traveled to Utah for the annual Spring Break Field Trip. Their geologic journey included the grandeur of Zion National Park, the unique hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park, the enigmatic splendor of Escalante Petrified Forest, and much more. Enjoy these photos from their exciting and educational adventure!