Rhode Island was among several East Coast states that felt a small earthquake on Friday morning, April 5th. Brown University Professor of Geological Sciences Karen Fischer says even though the quake was small, it was felt in multiple states because of the geologic makeup of the East Coast.
Recent Postdoctoral Research Fellow Kai-Xun Chen has published a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters, titled “Seismic evidence for a mid-lithospheric discontinuity in 155 million-year-old Pacific lithosphere. Consistent with now-frozen melt that was trapped in the young lithosphere close to the ridge.” The publication lays out evidence for a low velocity layer inside old oceanic lithosphere. Dr. Chen completed this research while he was a postdoctoral researcher in DEEPS, working with Prof. Don Forsyth and Prof. Karen Fischer.
In a new paper published in Science Advances, Professor Donald Fisher, a Geosciences faculty member at Penn State and Brown alumnus, and DEEPS Chair Greg Hirth propose that rocks buried deep in ancient subduction zones could help scientists make better predictions of how these zones behave during the years between major earthquakes.
Brown research team finds small unmapped lakes in the Arctic are far less abundant than previously thought, greatly reducing the cumulative methane emissions they were thought to contribute to Earth’s atmosphere.
Sonam Sherpa, one of IBES & DEEPS's newest postdoctoral researchers, recently offered insights in a Brown Daily Herald interview on an earthquake that shook her native Nepal earlier this month.
The “Solid Earth Geophysics” class joined the North Burial Ground for a groundbreaking project this Halloween season, using ground penetrating radar (GPR) to help investigate the mysteries buried within the historic cemetery.
Professors Kim Cobb and Alberto Saal have been elected as American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Fellows. They join 53 other individuals in the 2023 Class of Fellows. AGU, the world's largest Earth and space sciences association, annually recognizes a select number of individuals for its highest honors. Since 1962, the AGU Union Fellows Committee has selected less than 0.1% of members as new Fellows.
Professor Karen Fischer was selected to receive the AGU Inge Lehmann Medal, which is given annually to a senior scientist in recognition of outstanding contributions to the understanding of the structure, composition, and dynamics of the Earth’s mantle and core. AGU, the world's largest Earth and space science association, annually recognizes a select number of individuals for its highest honors.
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.
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.
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.
Using seismic waves, scientists detect widespread partially molten rock hidden under the Earth’s tectonic plates in a new way, a step in settling a long-held geological debate that has big implications in understanding plate motion.
A study by Brown researchers finds that changes in tectonic plate thickness across the Denali Fault in Alaska impacts where it is located, shedding light on how major faults and earthquakes occur.
A recent Eos Editors Highlight, titled "Can Anelastic Attenuation of Oceanic Mantle be Reliably Measured?" features research by Postdoc Joshua Russell and Associate Professor Colleen Dalton.
One of the newest DEEPS faculty members, Assistant Professor Harriet Lau, has received the prestigious Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. This is in recognition of Harriet's outstanding work to understand the relationships between Earth's deformation and climate.
The field of seismology is entering a new era where our understanding of earthquakes and the solid earth is increasingly driven by new Big Data experiments and algorithms.
A new global analysis of the last 19 million years of seafloor spreading rates found they have been slowing down. Geologists want to know why the seafloor is getting sluggish.
Heat from a comet exploding just above the ground fused the sandy soil into patches of glass stretching 75 kilometers, a study led by Brown University researchers found.