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.
Geology and Geophysics
Tectonics
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
Travel through Vietnam's Son Doong, the surreal cave so large a 747 plane could fly through it
03-31-2026
CBS 60 Minutes — Imagine discovering a marvel on par with Mount Everest or the Grand Canyon. It happened in 2009, with the revelation of the largest cave passage in the world. It's in Vietnam and they call it Hang Son Doong, "Mountain River Cave." 60 Minute's Scott Pelley toured the cave in an episode that features Darryl Granger, Purdue Science's Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Purdue Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences professor.
Purdue geologist Michael Eddy receives national early career award for Earth history research
03-30-2026
Michael P. Eddy, an associate professor in Purdue University's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, has received the 2026 Early Geological Career Award from the Geological Society of America's Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Petrology and Volcanology Division. The award recognizes scientists near the beginning of their careers who have made distinguished, multidisciplinary and field-based contributions to geology.
As Earth slowed its spin, oceans may have tipped the balance for life
02-16-2026
Earth has not always rotated at the same speed it does today. Over the roughly 4 billion years that life has existed on the planet, Earth's rotation has gradually slowed, lengthening days and quietly reshaping the oceans. New research from Purdue University suggests that this planetary slowdown may have played an important role in making Earth's oceans more hospitable for life
Rocks and rolls: The computational infrastructure of earthquakes and physics of planetary science
01-14-2026
An expert in earth sciences and seismology, Andrea Donnellan, professor and head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, gets much of her data from a bird’s-eye view, studying the planet’s surface from the air and space, using the data to make discoveries and deepen understanding about earthquakes and other geological processes.
Ancient Desert Clues Reveal Rhythmic Climate Shifts in Early Pleistocene Death Valley
12-16-2025
A new paleoclimate study from Purdue University has uncovered evidence that yearly precipitation in southern Death Valley once swung between extreme drought and significantly wetter than modern conditions over cycles lasting tens of thousands of years.