The University recently hosted three Climate@Brown faculty town halls focused on getting faculty feedback on the future of Brown’s climate scholarship and action. Kim Cobb, DEEPS Professor and Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, explained that the Climate@Brown initiative hopes to focus on the “long-term opportunity” for climate research, while remembering the “full scope of the damages that come from turning away from this work.”

Guided by Assistant Professor Blake Hodgin, a group of undergraduates recently ventured to upstate New York for the annual DEEPS Fall Field Trip. The students learned about the unique geologic history of the region, examined dinosaur footprints, and explored Kaaterskill Falls in the Catskill Mountains.

In EEPS 0080: “Art in Flight: The Creative Exploration of Titan,” DEEPS Assistant Professor Sam Birch and BAI senior technical supervisor DJ Potter bring together art and science to encourage students to explore the universe and communicate scientific ideas in creative ways. Birch shared that he hopes the class will emphasize the importance of space exploration and the “hope” it brings. “I think it’s really, really important that we show that you can explore,” he added. “It’s just something we’re missing now.”

This September, the students of EEPS 1370 Environmental Geochemistry went on their annual water and sediment sampling trip around Rhode Island. The group visited the Scituate Reservoir, the Pawtuxet River, Pawtuxet Cove, Brickyard Pond, and Walker's Farm to take water samples that they will use in their coursework throughout the Fall semester.

The 2026 El Niño is predicted to be the strongest on record. Professor Emanuele Di Lorenzo commented on this update, comparing how different environmental factors influence a more extreme El Niño. “Deep convection switches on above a threshold sea surface temperature,” Di Lorenzo said. “The same anomaly added to a warmer mean state pushes a much larger area past that threshold and drives a stronger atmospheric response.”

A recent study estimate that Mercury is shrinking 30 percent faster than expected. “Every planet is an odd little duck that has a story to tell,” commented Assistant Professor Sam Birch, who was not involved in the study. “If you can understand how fast Mercury is shrinking, you can understand how fast it’s cooling, what size it started at and what it’s made out of.”

A 1000-year archive preserved in fossil corals from the Galápagos offers some of the strongest evidence yet that global warming is already making El Niño stronger. DEEPS Professor and IBES Director Kim Cobb commented on this new research, saying “This system is the largest source of climate extremes on our planet,” Cobb says. “And if it is in itself becoming more extreme, that has some very serious implications for society, and it’s information that we should be acting on.”

Using tracking data from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), Mars Odyssey (ODY) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft, a team of researchers including Postdoctoral Research Associate Nick Wagner have found that the interior of Mars’ southern hemisphere is significantly hotter than the northern half. "This temperature variation could reflect regional mantle convection or insulation by the thick southern highlands crust of Mars that has persisted over several billion years."

A new peer-reviewed study published earlier this month in Earth’s Future suggests that it is possible to demonstrate that “emissions from company X cause injury Y.” IBES Director and DEEPS Professor Kim Cobb, an expert in observational climate studies, commented on this new study, saying we’re gaining something “extremely valuable” in Callahan’s study.

Researchers at Brown have confirmed that tiny green and orange volcanic glass beads collected during the Apollo 15 and 17 Moon missions contain trapped water, overturning the long-held belief that the lunar interior was completely dry. Professor Jim Head, who helped select the Apollo 15 landing site, commented that the water findings “absolutely revolutionized our thinking about how the Moon formed.”

From the local water quality of Narragansett Bay to river-dune interactions on Titan, DEEPS undergraduate students participated in a variety of cutting edge research projects during their 2026 summer break. We're proud to showcase their research and experiences.

The story of changing oceans is usually told through temperature shifts and melting ice, but a new study published in "Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems" points to tectonic movement along the ocean floor. Professor Colleen Dalton and her team built on an earlier 2022 study that established a clear pattern of slowing global plate growth starting around 15 million years ago, which continued until about 6 million years ago. This resulted in deeper seas, and Dalton's team found that the basin deepening alone dropped sea level by 26 to 32 meters (roughly 85 to 105 feet).

In a 2025 paper in the "Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets", Assistant Professor Sam Birch and his team identified just two probable deltas among the large mapped rivers that terminate at Titan’s coastlines. That works out to roughly 1.3 per cent. Rivers of comparable size on Earth nearly always form one. The team built a numerical model to test the radar behavior of terrestrial water with the properties expected for Titan’s methane-rich liquids.

UCF's Florida Space Institute manages the Exolith Lab, which replicates a moon-base site using simulated lunar soil to allow researchers to design and test lunar spacesuits, rovers, and exploration hardware in realistic conditions. Cecilia D’Hondt-Gorbea, a Brown University rising junior studying in DEEPS, commented on the unique experience of participating in the moon-base infrastructure practice. "...it can get warm in there quickly, which is why we take so many breaks and make sure that we're all hydrating well," D’Hondt-Gorbea said, "But it is fun."

Following the Artemis II mission, Hania Khan, a Brown Mechanical Engineering student and DEEPS Communications Assistant, sat down with Professor Jim Head to discuss the past, present, and future of the NASA lunar exploration programs, from Apollo to Artemis and beyond.

Warm water in the Pacific Ocean is getting even warmer, likely to peak this winter as one of the strongest El Niño events in recorded history. Kim Cobb, Director of IBES and DEEPS Professor, spoke with NBC Connecticut about the El Niño's historical trends and recent local impact.

Soaring temperatures put intense pressure on the energy grid, further strained as data centers are increasing energy demand. Many data centers rely on backup diesel generators, which release planet-warming emissions and lack air pollution controls designed to safeguard public health. Kim Cobb, DEEPS Professor and Director of IBES, commented on the relationship between higher temperatures and higher electricity demands, saying, “Even a modest increase in baseline temperature causes an exponential increase in heat extremes. You find yourself crossing these heat extremes much more frequently.”