EEPS seminar poster with Join Dr. Andrea Guiliani, Staff Scientist at Carnegie Science, TOMORROW, for a talk titled "Origin of Rare Earth Element deposits in carbonatites - Knowns and unknowns" 🗓️ April 23rd @ 1 pm 📍Keith-Wiess Geological Laboratories, Room 100

Join Dr. Andrea Guiliani, Staff Scientist at Carnegie Science, TOMORROW, for a talk titled "Origin of Rare Earth Element deposits in carbonatites - Knowns and unknowns"

🗓️ April 23rd @ 1 pm
📍Keith-Wiess Geological Laboratories, Room 100

#RiceEEPS #Carbonatites #RareEarthElements #CarnegieScience

picture of two eeps graduate students posing in front of two tents at beer bike 2026

BEEEEEEEER BIKEEEEE 🚴‍♂️

Better late than never: Congratulations to Anindita Dash and Kelsey Murphy for representing EEPS at Beer Bike 2026!

#RiceUniversity #BeerBike

Dr. Mike Johnson ’75 returned to campus to visit the #JohnsonOwlDeck and connect with students in Dr. Juli Morgan’s RUGS class (EEPS 203), reinforcing his ongoing commitment to hands on learning and field based experiences in geology!

#RiceEEPS #JohnsonFieldTrip

Seminar flyer with title " Archean Transitions: Geochemical Snapshots from Singhbhum Craton Zircon" picture of Dr. Heather Kirkpatrick with text "School of Geosciences, University of Louisiana at Lafayette". Text: April 16th, 2026, 1 pm, KWGL room 100.

Join Dr. Heather Kirkpatrick, Assistant Professor for the School of Geosciences at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, TOMORROW, for a talk titled "Archean Transitions: Geochemical Snapshots from Singhbhum Craton Zircon."

🗓️April 16th @ 1 pm
📍KWGL, Room 100

#RiceEEPS #Geochemistry

Picture of a man lecturing in front of a room full of people in an auditorium

Picture of someone presenting with a powerpoint slide with a "Baker Hughes" logo and an auditorium full of people.

The 2026 Industry-Rice Earth Science Symposium (IRESS) is off to a great start!

#IRESS #BakerInstitute #EarthScience

New work challenges the idea of a “wet” Moon🌙💧
Our GCA study, with Raj and @cintylee.bsky.social, shows water-rich lunar melt inclusions form via magmatic recharge, instead of requiring a wet mantle! The Moon may still be strongly volatile-depleted. @riceeeps.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1016/j.gc...

Curiosity rover with eeps student and staff and text "Coming Fall 2026: EEPS Field Trip to Mars. Meet the Curiosity rover in person"

Eeps building with text "EEPS Construction to extend until fall 2036 to accomodate a rooftop rock garden"

Picture of eeps staff and child with rice backdrop and text "Happy April Fools <3 Rice EEPS"

🫣 April Fools!

New Frontiers for IRESS2026 Industry-Rice Earth Science Symposium April 9-10 James A. Baker Hall Geothermal Energy: From Hot Rocks to a Future Low-Carbon Grid Join us at Rice University for IRESS 2026, in Houston, TX for a 1.5 day symposium designed to bring together Full program and conference details: https://eeps.rice.edu/iress-2026 Co-sponsored by: Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Science (EEPS), Rice Sustainability Insti tute (Geothermal Working Group), and the Baker Institute (Center for Energy Studies).

Join experts IN ONE WEEK for the 2026 Industry-Rice Earth Science Symposium (IRESS): "New Frontiers for Geothermal Energy"

📅 April 9th & 10th
📍James A. Baker Hall

Register here: riceconnect.rice.edu/events/2026/...
To learn more: eeps.rice.edu/iress-2026

#BakerInstitute #RiceEEPS

Picture of Bidong Zhang with text "Bidong Zhang, EEPS Assistant Professor, awarded $2.54 Million NASA grant for Lunar Research"

A $2.54M grant from NASA is supporting new lunar research at Rice University.

Professor Bidong Zhang is developing more precise ways to date Moon rocks, advancing goals tied to NASA’s Artemis Program.

Read More: news.rice.edu/news/2026/na...

#RiceEEPS #NASA #Lunar #ArtemisProgram

#BakerInstitute #EEPS #EnergyStudies #EarthScience #RiceU, #RiceNatSci #IRESS2026

New Frontiers for IRESS2026 Industry-Rice Earth Science Symposium April 9-10 James A. Baker Hall Geothermal Energy: From Hot Rocks to a Future Low-Carbon Grid Join us at Rice University for IRESS 2026, in Houston, TX for a 1.5 day symposium designed to bring together Full program and conference details: https://eeps.rice.edu/iress-2026 Co-sponsored by: Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Science (EEPS), Rice Sustainability Insti tute (Geothermal Working Group), and the Baker Institute (Center for Energy Studies).

Join experts for the 2026 Industry-Rice Earth Science Symposium (IRESS): "New Frontiers for Geothermal Energy: From Hot Rocks to a Future Low-Carbon Grid"

📅 April 9th & 10th
📍James A. Baker Hall

Register here: riceconnect.rice.edu/events/2026/...
To learn more: eeps.rice.edu/iress-2026

EEPS Seminar poster Title: Recent advances in understanding the rheology of geological melts from lab and field measurements. "Special Guest: Dr. Stephan Kolzenburg, March 26th, 2026, 1 pm KWGL room 100". Picture of Dr. Kolzenburg with text "Department of Earth Sciences University at Buffalo"

Join Dr. Stephan Kolzenburg, Assistant Professor for the Department of Earth Sciences at University at Buffalo, TODAY, for a talk titled "Recent advances in understanding the rheology of geological melts from lab and field measurements".

🗓️ March 26th @ 1 pm
📍KWGL, Room 100

#RiceEEPS #Seminar

Alt Text: Three frames on top of each other. Top frame: Video of staff taking arrows out of archery targets. Middle frame: Still picture of 9 staff against archery range backdrop. Bottom frame: Video of staff shooting arrows at targets.

Every once in a while EEPS staff step out of the office for teambuilding. This time, they stepped into the archery range at @x10Archery 🏹

Special thanks to archery teacher, Lynda, for making our staff feel confident at hitting their marks.

#RiceEEPS #TeamBuilding #X10Archery

Picture of EEPS postdoc pointing at her poster presentation with text "EEPS students and faculty present at the 2026 lunar & planetary science conference - swipe for more"

3 polaroid style pictures with the top one having 8 people at a tabling smiling at the camera with text "2026 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference", bottom left with picture of Dr. Kirsten siebach pointing at her powerpoint with text "Dr. Kirsten Siebach, Assistant Professor, Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences" and the bottom right has a picture of Baibhav with text "Baibhav 'Bruu Srivastava, EEPS Graduate student"

List of all Rice EEPS presentations at LPSC 2026 by day. PDF of this document is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LdHmVjnjYuFghgME0gRzYXyOY_51Ga7S/view?usp=drive_link

Happy Spring Break!

EEPS students, faculty, and staff are celebrating the break by presenting at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Swipe to the end to see the full schedule of #RiceEEPS presenters.

#LPSC2026 #Planetary Science #RiceU

📷️ Ellie Moreland & Kirsten Siebach

Alt Text: Video of faculty Dr. Mark Torres, Dr. Brandon Schmandt, and Dr. Juli Morgan sharing EEPS fun facts.

From trona frogs to the dome rocks of Mt. St. Helens, EEPS faculty brought fun facts and samples from their research area to the first #RiceEEPS Rock Tales and Mocktails social.

Add your fun facts in the comments 👇️

#Rocks #StudentLife #RiceUniversity #Geoscience

Alt Text: Title: "2026 Rice University Earth & Planetary Open House" 6 videos playing simultaneously of various science experiments including a sandbox earthquake, rovers on a mars map, sandbox, various planet globes, and someone hammering a table with a seismograph in background.

More than 500 Houston-area kids came to explore activities galore, from the Earth's Core to the outer limits of our Solar System.

Read more: news.rice.edu/news/2026/mo...

#Outreach #RiceUniversity #RSTEM #Ricespaceinstitute #Astronomy #EarthScience #MarsExporation #Climate #K-12 #Earthquakes

EEPS Seminar flyer with title "Planetary impact and hydrothermal events revealed by nano-mineralogy" with special guest "Dr. Jinping Hu" March 12th, 2026, 1 pm KWGL Room 100. Picture of Dr. Jinping Hu with text "Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences University of Houston"

Join Dr. Jinping Hu, Assistant Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Houston, TOMORROW, for a talk titled "Planetary Impact and Hydrothermal Events Revealed by Nano-mineralogy"

🗓️ Date March 12th @ 1 pm
📍Keith-Wiess Geological Laboratories, Room 100

#RiceEEPS #GeoscienceSeminar

12 students stand on a mountain with owl hands in the air

I’ll end off with Zabriskie Point, a vista that gave us an amazing view of colorful lake beds and ashflows.

With that, I’d love to thank you for following along this week during my takeover! We’ll see you on the next #JohnsonFieldTrip :) -Andy

Hearing that Death Valley was experiencing its first wildflower superbloom in 10 years, we simply had to stop along the side of the road and frolic! EEPS field trips are always full of hiking and rigorous geology with lots of laughs and even singing.

A student and faculty stand with a mountain in the background, hair flying back from the wind.

Ubehebe Crater

student stands looking through binoculars

Everyone was super excited to visit Ubehebe Crater. This crater formed by an explosive eruption when magma encountered groundwater and the subsurface. We even said hello to a prairie hawk (thanks @CintyLee for always IDing geologic formations and birds).

#UbehebeCrater

student and faculty stand with a sign that reads "Badwater Basin 282 feet/855 meters below sea level"

students walk out on the salt bed at Badwater basin. Mountain is in background

students and other people walk through salty water with mountain in background

Welcome to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America! We chose just the right time to visit to walk through salty water after a rainstorm. The salty crust at Badwater Basin forms as a precipitate when water drains to the basin and evaporates. I even got to taste the salt!

Photo of happy students yelling with text "Today is the day! 24 hour challenge march 4th"

Rice’s 24-Hour Challenge is LIVE!

Make your gift now at:
🪨 EEPS Human Impacts on the Earth Fund: www.givecampus.com/s/imqfsm
🌎️ Rice Environmental Science Fund: www.givecampus.com/s/pcrx4n

#1Day1Rice #RiceENVS #AnnualGiving

8 students pretende to be terrified in pothole they climbed into.

four people stand at variosu locations on a volcanic rock bed filled with giant vertical holes.

7 students fit into a pothole in the volcanic rock, one more tries to join.

How many EEPle can fit into one pothole? That’s what we tried to find out at Fossil Falls! After accidentally going off trail, we found the site of a gorge carved through volcanic rocks by the Owens River, all with a grand backdrop of the Sierra Nevada behind us.

#FossilFalls #JohnsonFieldTrip

Thanks to Rice alumnus, Mike Johnson, MA '75, EEPS undergraduates travel on an annual field trip to a location they select.

Hi, I'm Andy, a junior from Brown. Join me this week as I take over #RiceEEPS social media on the 2026 Undergraduate Johnson field trip.

Can you guess where we chose this year?

#JohnsonFieldTrip #FieldWork #FieldTrip #Geoscience #SocialMediaTakeover @RiceNatSci

Flyer with earth in the center with text "Rice Earth, Planetary & Space Open House, Discover the mysteries of our planet and our place in the universe. -Bring your rock and we will help you identify it! -Fossil Dig - Discovery Dome - Hands-on demonstrations -free educational materials - food trucks. Saturday, February 28, Rice stadium practie bubble 10am-2pm (plan for one hour at the event) free parking. (on bottom left there is a qr code that says scan for more info: https://eeps.rice.edu/rice-k-12-earth-and-planetary-open-house)

🌍✨ Ready to explore Earth, space, and everything in between? Join us at @RiceUniversity for the Rice Earth & Planetary Open House! Free event — families welcome!

📅 Feb 28 | RSVP now: bit.ly/EEPSxOPENHouse

#RiceEEPS #RiceU #OpenHouse #Space #Houston #FreeEventHTX #HTXFreeEvents #Science #STEM #HISD

Photo of to smiling people with rice logo and text 24 hour challenge March 4th, Early giving is open.

Early giving is now open for this year’s 24-Hour Challenge.

Help us get a strong start by making your gift now:
🪨 EEPS Human Impacts on the Earth Fund: www.givecampus.com/s/imqfsm
🌎️ Rice Environmental Science Fund: www.givecampus.com/s/pcrx4n

#1Day1Rice #RiceENVS #AnnualGiving