Research

We explore, reconstruct, and forecast climate change over timescales of decades to millennia, including both natural and human factors; ice sheet dynamics, deep groundwater systems, and sea level rise are central to this endeavor.

We explore how, where, and why earthquakes occur from the most active plate margins, to seemingly quiet continental interiors, and to human-induced seismicity.

We use the geochemical record of earth materials – rocks, minerals, sediments, ice, water – to reconstruct and trace earth processes on timescales of decades to billions of years.

We explore how the landsurface is shaped where sediments are created, transported, and deposited by natural and anthropogenic processes, including the use of the sedimentary record to reconstruct past conditions and processes.

We use the tools of physics and computational modeling to understand how the earth works in the present and in the past, and how physical earth processes effect chemical, biological, and societal systems.

We explore how rocks form from volcanoes, magma chambers, mountain building, subduction, and ore-forming systems, and how those rocks record the chemical and physical processes and conditions of Earth’s interior.

We explore the physical, chemical, and biological processes that effect the oceans, including the evolution of oceanic lithosphere, coastlines, and the role of climate change in marine chemistry and ecosystems.

We explore how the solid earth deforms, both brittle and ductile, at lengthscales of nanometers to kilometers, and how the rock record can be used to reconstruct past Earth deformation.

We explore the physical and chemical processes in the crust and mantle involved in the motion of Earth’s plates, and surface manifestations thereof; dynamic topography, earthquakes, and whole Earth chemical cycles are part of this endeavor.