Earth Environmental and Planetary Sciences

Blocks of dense, blue ice the size of convenience stores can be seen breaking away from Thwaites Glacier in a February 2019 photograph taken from the deck of the research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer. (Photo by Linda Welzenbach)

Ocean water could melt precarious Antarctic glacier

Rice University researchers, alumni and staff are part of an international effort that has discovered a pathway for warm ocean water to melt the underside of Thwaites Glacier, a precarious body of west Antarctic ice that could add as much as 25 inches to global sea level if it were to suffer a runaway collapse.

Dale Sawyer

Rice mourns geophysicist, former college magister Dale Sawyer

The professor emeritus was esteemed around the world for his scientific leadership in marine geophysics.

Kirsten Siebach and Scott Solomon in the debut episode of "Life 2.0"

Solomon, Siebach appear in science TV series 'Life 2.0'

Rice faculty members Scott Solomon and Kirsten Sieback appear in the first episode of "Life 2.0," a new television series that's available for streaming and slated to debut on the air this weekend.

An overview by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the location of the Nuugaatsiaq landslide (yellow star) relative to five broadband seismic stations (pink triangles) within 500 km of the landslide. Nuugaatsiaq (NUUG) was impacted by the resulting tsunami the reached a height of 300 feet at sea, though it was much lower before it reached the village. The inset shows the geometry of the fjords relative to the landslide and Nuugaatsiaq. (Source: USGS)

Small quake clusters can’t hide from AI

A deep learning algorithm developed at Rice University analyzes data from a deadly landslide in Greenland to show how it may someday predict seismic events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Rice researchers use InSight for deep Mars measurements

Hurricane Harvey as seen from the International Space Station on Aug. 28, 2017. (Photo courtesy of Randy Bresnik/NASA)

Future Texas hurricanes: Fast like Ike or slow like Harvey?

Climate change will make fast-moving storms more likely in late 21st-century Texas.

Laurence Yeung

Rice scientist goes deep to improve environmental tracers

Rice Earth scientist Laurence Yeung earns a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award to improve our understanding of the biosphere’s productivity.

Mask transposed over a model fo the corona virus

COVID-19 research funds back six new initiatives

Grants to Rice faculty will support diagnostic, environmental and social projects.

Graduating Ph.D. students Tian Dong, Brandee Carlson and Andrew Moodie

Three Ph.D. grads win NSF postdoctoral fellowships

Three Ph.D. graduates from the same Rice University research group have won prestigious postdoctoral fellowships from the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences.

Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb samples an ancient coral for radiometric dating. She is part of a team of Rice University and Georgia Tech scientists using data from coral fossils to build a record of temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean over the last millennium. (Credit: Cobb Lab)

Coral tells own tale about El Niño’s past

Researchers from Rice and Georgia Tech studied ancient Pacific corals to improve computer model predictions of El Niño events.

Rice University geologist Melodie French has earned a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to support her investigation of the tectonic roots of earthquakes and tsunamis. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Fed grant backs Rice earthquake research

Rice University Earth scientist Melodie French earns a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award to support her investigation of the tectonic roots of earthquakes and tsunamis.

Illustration by Ilenne Del Valle/Rice University

Ordering in? Plants are way ahead of you

Dissolved carbon in soil can quench plants' ability to communicate with soil microbes, allowing plants to fine-tune their relationships with symbionts. Experiments show how synthetic biology tools developed at Rice University can help understand environmental controls on agricultural productivity.