Using a technique developed by researchers at Brown, scientists have discovered a strange warm spot deep in the interior of the Red Planet.
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Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences
Harriet Lau
Associate Professor
Research Interests
Earth History, Geophysics, Oceans Ice and Atmospheres, Environmental Science
Pronouns
she/her
Biography
My research group explores global-scale geodynamical problems across many time scales. This includes solid Earth and ocean tides (acting on hours to years), the deformation of the Earth due to the melting of large Pleistocene ice sheets (years to tens of thousands of years), and mantle convection, the process that drives plate tectonics (millions to billions of years). The theme of all of this work is to understand how we can coherently characterize the Earth's behavior across these vastly different time scales and learn fundamental things about our planet.
Recent News
TEDx New England
How the Earth's Rhythms Keep Time
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.
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Quanta Magazine
Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface
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?”
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By determining which ice sheets melted to create a colossal increase in sea levels 14,500 years ago, scientists hope to enable better predictions of how current ice melting will affect levels around the world.
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In a recent study published in Science Advances, DEEPS PhD candidate Manar Al Asad and Assistant Professor Harriet Lau demonstrate that Earth's early tectonic activity was likely very different from what we see today. They propose a 'sluggish-lid' mode, where the Earth's outer layer moved slowly and was partially disconnected from the mantle. The new model addresses previous challenges in understanding Earth's thermal history and tectonic evolution, offering new insights into how Earth's magnetic field is maintained throughout most of Earth's history.
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The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Assistant Professor Harriet Lau Receives Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering
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.
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