Environmental Geoscience
Hydrology and Ecohydrology
Studying how groundwater responds to the effects of climate and landscape change and how these perturbations propagate through aquifers impacting surface water ecosystems is an important focus of our faculty.
Environmental Chemistry
Studying the chemical processes that couple the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere, and their impacts on human activities and the environment, is the focus of select EAPS faculty and students.
Soils and Sediments
The weathering and erosion of soils, and how these processes support and change life on Earth, is a key research theme for our environmental geoscience faculty.
Environmental Biogeochemistry
Environmental geoscience faculty and students conduct various experiments that help further the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment.
Environmental Geoscience News
The Great Salt Lake Is Still Drying Up. Will It Affect Your Health? Yes.
08-30-2024
OUTSIDE — New research found that the Great Salt Lake’s drying lakebed emits tons of greenhouse gasses, threatening the health of those in Utah and beyond. Greenhouse gas emissions are “not directly harmful to health,” says Lisa Welp, associate professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, "but they contribute to climate change, which indirectly affects people worldwide."
From lab to lunar and beyond: Check out some of the innovative space research from Purdue University
08-26-2024
PURDUE NEWS — Space scientists are the boots on the ground of extraterrestrial exploration, and Purdue’s researchers rank among the most elite. This collection of impactful news from Purdue University’s space research labs represents the wonder of outer space’s limitless potential. Included in this roundup is research by EAPS faculty Ali Bramson, Alexandria Johnson, Brandon Johnson and Briony Horgan.
The Surprising Factor Making the United States a Tornado Hot Spot
08-23-2024
AGU EOS — The roughness of terrain far upstream of where tornadoes occur can affect their formation. It could be what drives the contrast in tornado activity between North and South America. A new study reveals another key geographic factor: the terrain hundreds of kilometers upwind from where a tornado forms. The authors of the study (from Purdue EAPS), published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, found that central North America’s high tornado potential is partly due to the smooth, flat expanse of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea from where easterly winds flow toward the Great Plains.
Will tornadoes and waterspouts thrive as Earth heats up?
08-22-2024
THE CONVERSATION — Tornadoes are among nature’s most terrifying spectacles. These rotating columns of air are called tornadoes when they form over land and waterspouts when they form over water, though there are subtle differences which we’ll get into. Thankfully, people seem to be getting better at preparing for them says Ernest Agee, a professor emeritus of atmospheric science at Purdue University. “The per capita death toll from tornadoes has actually gone down in the latter half of the past 100 years,” he says.
R&D 100 Winners for 2024 are announced
08-15-2024
R&D WORLD — Prof. Cliff Johnston, of Purdue EAPS and Agronomy, has earned an R&D - Research & Development World 2024 R&D 100 Award. This is a joint award with Sandia National Labs to look at how clay minerals can be used for direct air capture of CO2. The project is titled: "Low-cost Direct Air Capture of CO2 with Clay Nanointerlayers (LDAC3)."