
Research Areas
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About DEEPS research
Externally funded projects within the department span a wide range of research areas. These projects include substantial amounts of field, lab, and computational work. Many of the research projects are collaborative both within and outside the department, with notable ties to EarthScope, the Field Museum, and the Chicago Botanic Garden, to name just a few.
From a geographic standpoint, we currently have active projects in Namibia, Greenland, China, Iceland, Australia, the large icebergs of the Ross Sea off the coast of Antarctica, the New Zealand Southern Alps, the Yucatan Peninsula, the Amazon Delta, the Pacific Rim, various Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) sites, northern Italy, southern France, Arctic Canada, and sites throughout the United States.
Graduate students carry out a significant portion of the Department's research under the guidance of experienced faculty and staff. Undergraduate students also participate in ongoing research.
Earth and Planetary Science research at Northwestern is supported by our state-of-the-art analytic lab facility called the Integrated Labs for Earth and Planetary Sciences (ILEPS).
Explore our research areas
Learn more about the various subfields of DEEPS


Climate Change

Decarbonization

Geohazards

Geobiology

Isotope Geochemistry

Paleoclimatology & Paleoceanography

Paleoecology

Planetary Science

Sedimentology & Stratigraphy

Seismology

Sustainability
