Climate Science

"Sustainable human existence is inextricably linked to global interactions between the solid Earth, its hydrosphere, its atmosphere, and its biota. The Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences integrates broadly among all of these. We address climate sciences with a focus on anthropogenic climate change, weather and climate extremes, ocean and atmosphere circulation, the Earth’s cryosphere, paleoclimates of the past, the geologic carbon cycle including weathering, mountain building, and volcanism, and the dynamics of planetary oceans and atmospheres. This leads naturally to overarching questions about what factors facilitate the evolution of life and make a planet habitable in the first place, questions that require interrogation of everything from the deep interiors of planets to their outermost fluid or gaseous envelopes. Ultimately, our knowledge of Earth’s own past will inform our understanding of its future" (Yale University, n.d.).