Geology and Geophysics
Tectonics
EAPS faculty and students in tectonics study how the Earth has evolved over billions of years, integrating observations from the building and breaking of mountain ranges to the rise and filling of ocean basins, with an eye to their impact on the evolution of life.
Geophysics
Our geophysics faculty and students quantify the forces that currently shape the surface of our planet, from plate tectonics to mountain building, and the strength of the crust and mantle, from cold rocks that break as earthquakes to warm rocks that flow.
Geomorphology
Select EAPS faculty and students focus their research on the study of the origin and evolution of landscapes created by physical and chemical processes including tectonics, the flow of water and ice, and climate change.
Energy
Research in the traditional and unconventional energy thematic areas are conducted by our faculty and students, including the study of the exploration of reservoirs, the sedimentological and structural characterization of wells, and fluid/rock interactions.
Geology and Geophysics News
Purdue seismologists use new technique to determine activity below the surface of an Alaskan volcano
09-20-2024
WEST LAFAYETTE — Great Sitkin, a volcano located in Alaska, is helping researchers better understand the property changes beneath the surface during the eruption. Xiaotao Yang, assistant professor with Purdue EAPS, and recent MS graduate Cody Kupres used an emerging new technique using the seismic energy produced by ocean waves to measure subtle changes in the velocity of seismic waves propagating across the volcano below each seismic station on the island. They published their findings in The American Geophysical Union’s Geophysical Research Letters.
Unrelaxed craters muddy the waters of the dwarf planet Ceres
09-19-2024
NATURE — Ceres’s surface is ice-rich and warm, so we expect craters to viscously flow. Yet most of Ceres’s craters are not shallow. A new model, created by Ian Pamerleau and Prof. Mike Sori of Purdue EAPS, that includes a stronger, progressively dirtier icy crust, frozen from an ancient ocean, may reconcile this discrepancy.
1 million shots for ChemCam on Mars
09-10-2024
CNES — On Wednesday August 21, the millionth ChemCam shot was fired at Mars. This was Sol 4281, the 4281st Martian day of the mission. The data were received on Thursday August 22nd for analysis by the American team. ChemCam was developed at Los Alamos and in France with Prof. Roger Wiens of Purdue EAPS as its leader 2004-2021. He and student Mia Rudin are still using it to study Mars.
ChemCam fires its laser for the millionth time on Mars
09-10-2024
LOS ALAMOS — The Curiosity rover has been roaming the red planet for 12 years and has fired its one millionth laser shot on Mars. It began zapping away over 12 years ago and is still going strong. ChemCam was developed at Los Alamos and in France with Prof. Roger Wiens of Purdue EAPS as its leader 2004-2021. He and student Mia Rudin are still using it to study Mars.
Investigating Origins of CO2 Ice on Uranian Moons
09-03-2024
EOS EDITOR'S HIGHLIGHT — A new study investigates the role of volatile migration in the unique Uranian thermal environment. The study's lead author is Stephanie Menten, PhD candidate with Purdue EAPS, et al. test theories of CO2 origin on Ariel by modeling the transport and sublimation of CO2 across the surface. The high obliquity of the Uranus system means that the subsolar point on these moons varies between near the south pole and near the north pole on seasonal timescales (one Uranus year is about 84 Earth years). The authors find that CO2 ice can migrate on timescales of just a few Uranian years, and that it will tend to migrate towards Ariel’s equator and away from the poles, uniformly in longitude.