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Rice team forges path toward geothermal future

March 2, 2021 /0 Comments/in /by

MIKE WILLIAMS – FEBRUARY 26, 2021 Jonathan Ajo-Franklin leads development of monitoring system for DOE’s Utah project HOUSTON – (Feb. 26, 2021) – Rice University scientists have been tapped to join a Department of Energy project to accelerate breakthroughs in geothermal systems that could someday provide unlimited, inexpensive energy. Rice geophysicist Jonathan Ajo-Franklin will now […]

Mars, happy to see you again

February 22, 2021 /0 Comments/in /by

MIKE WILLIAMS – FEBRUARY 19, 2021 Terror, be gone! This happy landing was pure delight. It remains to be seen how well the Perseverance rover and its helicopter, Ingenuity, perform as they traverse the surface of Mars, but for the moment NASA and Rice geologist Kirsten Siebach are getting a moment to celebrate with the spacecraft’s long-awaited successful landing on Feb. […]

Perserverance has Landed! Mars 2020 scientist Kirsten Siebach led EEPS landing party

February 22, 2021 /0 Comments/in , /by

  Thursday February thee 18th was a big day.  From her office in the Keith Wiess Geological Laboratories, EEPS planetary scientist Kirsten Siebach led a Mars 2020 mission virtual landing party. More than 120 participants were treated to a first-hand account of the upcoming landing from one of only 13 scientists chosen to operate the […]

Mark Torres wins Geochemical Society’s Clarke Award

February 15, 2021 /0 Comments/in /by

JADE BOYD – FEBRUARY 12, 2021 Early-career honor goes to fourth Rice U. geochemist in 12 years Rice University’s Mark Torres has won the Geochemical Society’s top honor for early-career scientists, the F.W. Clarke Award, becoming the fourth Rice faculty member to win the award since 2009. Mark Torres with water samples collected from Iceland’s Efri […]

Much of Earth’s nitrogen was locally sourced

January 21, 2021 /0 Comments/in /by

MIKE WILLIAMS, Rice News  – JANUARY 21, 2021 Rice-led study shows two distinct origins of life-essential element in present-day planet HOUSTON – (Jan. 21, 2021) – Where did Earth’s nitrogen come from? Rice University scientists show one primordial source of the indispensable building block for life was close to home. The solar protoplanetary disk was separated […]

Rocks show Mars once felt like Iceland

January 20, 2021 /0 Comments/in /by

MIKE WILLIAMS – JANUARY 20, 2021 Crater study offers window on temperatures 3.5 billion years ago HOUSTON – (Jan. 20, 2021) – Once upon a time, seasons in Gale Crater probably felt something like those in Iceland. But nobody was there to bundle up more than 3 billion years ago. The ancient Martian crater is the focus of […]

Research finds tiny bubbles tell tales of big volcanic eruptions

January 20, 2021 /0 Comments/in /by

JADE BOYD, Rice News   Study: Nanocrystals may explain staggering number of bubbles in erupted lava HOUSTON – (Jan. 19, 2021) – Microscopic bubbles can tell stories about Earth’s biggest volcanic eruptions and geoscientists from Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin have discovered some of those stories are written in nanoparticles. In […]

Postdoc Sahand Hajimirza’s collaborative research on Yellowstone’s Steamboat Geyser highlighted

January 15, 2021 /0 Comments/in , /by

Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone National Park is active again! Considered the worlds tallest active geyser, the 400 foot jet of water can be tough for the average tourist to witness, with quiescent periods lasting as long as 50 years.  Yet since 2018, Steamboat has erupted more times than it has in the last half century. […]

Chenguang Sun wins prestigious award from the Mineralogical Society of America

January 5, 2021 /0 Comments/in /by

Mineralogical Society of America has selected EEPS postdoctoral researcher Dr. Chenguang Sun for the society’s 2021 MSA Award. The Mineralogical Society of America Award is intended to recognize outstanding published contributions to the science of mineralogy by relatively young individuals or individuals near the beginning of their professional careers. The work must have been accomplished […]