Seminars, News, and Events

Stay current with the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences — from our weekly seminar series featuring visiting scientists and departmental researchers to student awards, fieldwork, and recent discoveries. Check back for upcoming talks and the latest news from our labs and field sites.

Department Newsletter

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McWilliams Seminar Series

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The "W. Kent McWilliams Geological Research Fund" was formally established in 1980 by Kent McWilliams, an alumnus of Tulane University and co-founder of the McMoRan Exploration Company, to provide essential support for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EENS), which was then known as the Department of Geology. A key provision of this endowment was the establishment of the weekly McWilliams Seminar Series.

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EENS News

March 8th, 2021

Tulane researchers part of team studying volcanic eruption in the Galápagos Islands

Scientists from Tulane University are part of an international team of researchers whose study of the 2018 eruption of the Sierra Negra volcano in the Galápagos Islands provides vital information about future volcanic activity on the islands.

Their most recent research was published this month in the scientific journal Nature Communications, revealing the first detailed description of the 2018 eruption of the Sierra Negra volcano, one of the world’s most active volcanoes.

December 10th, 2020

Tulane joins national program to improve graduate student diversity in earth sciences

The Tulane University Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences has been accepted into the AGU Bridge Program, an initiative designed to recruit and retain underrepresented students who are applying to geoscience graduate schools. AGU (American Geophysical Union) is the nation’s largest scientific society in earth sciences.

July 29th, 2020

Tulane part of study that discovers massive submarine landslide offshore Tanzania

A Tulane University researcher is part of team of scientists evaluating the hazards associated with submarine landslides beneath the Indian Ocean that are associated with the East African Rift System, a seismically and volcanically active series of continental fractures.

Geophysicist Cynthia Ebinger, the Marshall-Heape Chair Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said the study demonstrates the massive scale of submarine landslides and the potential link to such landslides in the Gulf of Mexico.

June 4th, 2020

Diamonds aren’t forever

Diamonds, those precious, sparkling jewels, are known as the hardest materials on Earth. They are a high-pressure form of carbon and found deep in the ground.

While diamonds are commonly thought of as hard and stable, carbon from about 100 miles beneath the African plate is being brought to shallower levels where diamond will become unstable. Molten rock (magma) brings the excess carbon towards the surface, and earthquakes open cracks that allow the carbon to be released into the air as carbon dioxide.

May 22nd, 2020

Mississippi Delta marshes in a state of irreversible collapse, Tulane study shows

Given the present-day rate of global sea-level rise, remaining marshes in the Mississippi Delta are likely to drown, according to a new Tulane University study.

A key finding of the study, published in Science Advances is that coastal marshes experience tipping points, where a small increase in the rate of sea-level rise leads to widespread submergence.