We use field and geophysical observations, elemental and isotopic analyses, high-pressure experiments, and numerical models to investigate the evolution of the Earth. Research topics include: recent climate reconstruction, glacial-interglacial cycling, the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere, growth of the continents, and cooling of the Earth’s interior. Our community seeks to integrate observations and models of diverse phenomena across different timescales to understand how and why the Earth’s climate, life, and interior have interacted and varied over our planet’s history.
Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences
Earth History
Investigating how the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, surface, and interior have changed through time to understand fundamentally important climatic, tectonic, and biogeochemical changes.
Earth History
Investigating how the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, surface, and interior have changed through time to understand fundamentally important climatic, tectonic, and biogeochemical changes.
Faculty
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Steven Clemens
Professor (Research) -
Kim Cobb
Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Professor -
Meredith Hastings
Professor -
Tim Herbert
Professor -
Blake Hodgin
Assistant Professor (Research) -
Yongsong Huang
Professor -
Daniel Ibarra
Manning Assistant Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences and Environment and Society -
Harriet Lau
Assistant Professor -
Jung-Eun Lee
Associate Professor -
Ralph Milliken
Associate Professor -
Stephen Parman
Associate Professor -
James Russell
Senior Associate Dean of Dean of the Faculty, Professor -
Alberto Saal
Professor
Facilities and Resources
DEEPS is equipped with cutting-edge instrumentation to support and advance ongoing research into the Earth's evolution.
Earth History News
Geophysical Research Letters
A Mid-Lithospheric Discontinuity Detected Beneath 155 Ma Western Pacific Seafloor Using Sp Receiver Functions
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.
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Professor Tim Herbert commented on new research in Science, saying “The dance of global temperature is primarily not called by ice, but more likely by [carbon dioxide]."
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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.
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