DEEPS Shorts is a video series highlighting the diverse research within Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. Our first scientist is Lily Dove, Postdoctoral Fellow and Physical Oceanographer exploring the Southern Ocean: The Lung of the Ocean. Created by PhD Candidate Élise Beaudin, with support from Communications Specialist Mae Jackson.

Improving water systems is a key way we can better adapt to climate change, according to Brown oceanographer Baylor Fox-Kemper.

Conversations about sea-level rise often spotlight warming temperatures. But Earth’s geological engine quietly plays its own role. Professor Colleen Dalton, together with colleagues, connects the dramatic change in sea levels to a slowdown in seafloor spreading that reshaped the depth of the ocean basins.

Every year, distinguished Brown scholars are nominated for Research Achievement Awards by their colleagues for conducting exceptional and transformative research. Assistant Professor Daniel E. Ibarra was named one of the The 2025 Early Career Research Achievement Award winners for his significant contributions to geochemistry, paleoclimate studies, natural resources, and the training of aspiring scientists.

Dr. Bethany Ehlmann, a 2010 graduate of Brown with with a PhD and MS in geology, has been named director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder. LASP’s mission is to advance scientific discovery and inspire the next generation through forefront research, innovation and education.

In a new Science Advances publication, Assistant Professor James Dottin III demonstrates how Hydrogen may leak from the core into the lowermost mantle, become entrained in mantle plumes, and mix into the upper mantle. "We typically think about the water cycle on the surface," explained Dottin, "but we often don't consider what happens to water beneath our feet through deep Earth processes." By measuring 2H/1H ratios in olivine-hosted basaltic melt inclusions from a Baffin Island lava, Dottin and his team investigated whether mantle plumes contain Hydrogen from the core. "This means that some the the water you're drinking today might be seeing the surface for the first time since the Earth was formed."

Swathes of scientific data deletions are sweeping across US government websites, and scientists are racing to save their work before it's lost. "Climate science is only possible because of long-term datasets," says DEEPS Postdoc Lilian Dove, a US Noaa climate and global change research fellow. "Without continuing to collect that data, preserve that data, our field is in really big trouble."

Maggie Gonzalez, a 2025 Leadership Alliance REU student, has published a paper in Geophysical Research Letters with DEEPS Postdoc Lily Dove and Assistant Professor Mara Freilich. The publication explores the biogeochemical and seasonal properties of Antarctic Winter Water using data collected by profiling floats. Gonzalez developed an algorithm to detect a layer of water in the Southern Ocean from observations, as well as the first description of the seasonal and geographical patterns of the biogeochemistry of this water.

Solar sails aren't only good for getting to Mars and beyond. In fact, they can be more efficient when going towards the Sun. Professor Steve Parman joins Youtuber Fraser Cain to discuss his proposed Mercury Scout mission.

In a recent episode on Planetary Radio, Postdoc Adomas (Adam) Valantinas joins host Sarah Al-Ahmed to discuss his team’s discovery that Mars’ iconic red dust is likely dominated not by hematite but by a hydrated mineral called ferrihydrite.

As we prepare for the Fall 2025 semester, DEEPS is proud to announce our upcoming course options.

Experts react to the US Environmental Protection Agency's announcement that it would undertake massive deregulatory actions, including DEEPS Chair Meredith Hastings and IBES Director Kim Cobb. In an interview with The Herald, Professor Meredith Hastings explained that the EPA’s regulatory system may not be perfect, but federal oversight has been historically crucial in improving air and water quality at state and local levels.

During the 2025 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, researchers, including DEEPS Professor Jim Head, shared how NASA NIAC-funded technologies could enable building and maintaining surface habitats in lunar lava tubes and dike tip voids for long-term human space exploration.

Rescue teams in Myanmar and Thailand are searching for survivors after Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake that toppled buildings and damaged roads on Sunday, March 30th. As rescue teams continue to search, experts share the factors that impact their chances for survival. Trapped victims are more likely to survive if they are in a debris-free pocket that prevents major injury while they await rescue, like under a sturdy desk, said Professor Victor Tsai in an email.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected what could be a chemical relic of long-ago life on Mars: long-chain organic molecules likely derived from fatty acids, a common building block of cell membranes on Earth. DEEPS Professor Jack Mustard commented on these exciting findings, suggesting that Curiosity’s successor, Perseverance, will likely find similar molecules.

In a new article in Nature Review Earth & Environment, Postdoctoral Fellow Lily Dove explores how, with Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite data, oceanographers are beginning to understand the global distribution of submesoscale currents and their associated vertical motions. This information will inform global and regional-scale climate models, improving predictions of heat and carbon storage in a changing climate.

Professor Amanda Lynch was recently named to the Advisory Council of the The Hague Institute for Global Justice: North World Approach. Building upon the success of The Washington Compact for Off World Governance, The Hague Institute for Global Justice is pioneering a new frontier in global governance with The North World Approach. This initiative is a necessary step towards ensuring sustainable, cooperative, and just governance in one of the world’s most strategically significant and rapidly changing regions—the Arctic.

A team of six DEEPS researchers (including Ewerton Santos, Bumsoo Kim, Rafael Tarozo, Sarah McGrath, Marcelo Alexandre, and Professor Yongsong Huang) recently published an article in "Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry" presenting a new reactor system that greatly outperforms the conventional reactor system in efficiency, precision, and accuracy.