赖斯的地球系统科学涉及大气，海洋，生物圈，地球表面及其深层内部之间的地球化学，生物地球化学和物理相互作用。我们的研究重点是在不同的储层之间随时间尺度（从季节到千禧年到十亿年）之间进行质量交换。我们使用各种工具，包括沉积学，地球化学和生物地球化学，以更好地了解这些相互作用对气候变化，生物演化，环境变化以及大气，海洋和地壳的成分演化的作用。地球科学是能源行业不可或缺的一部分。我们的部门训练了许多学生，使其从事勘探地质和地球物理学方面的工作，尤其是石油勘探和开采方面的工作。我们在勘探地震学方面拥有强大的计划，在
The availability and quality of water resources, both on the surface and in aquifers, constrains habitability across the earth. Current climate models suggest that zones of water scarcity may increase in the coming century in tandem with a higher frequency and severity of droughts. These changes will put an increasing stress on groundwater reserves and motivates our interests in approaches for understanding, managing, and monitoring aquifers at both the local and regional scale. At Rice, we study the utilization of geophysics and remote sensing to track aquifer state and response to production and natural recharge. We have a particular interest in understanding aquifer storage and recovery processes and ways to optimize these approaches at scale using new sensing and modeling techniques.<br><br>Furthermore, we study water quality by combining mathematical modeling with direct measurements of major and trace element concentrations and isotopic ratios. Primarily, our work is focused on understanding the natural factors that govern water quality as these must be known in order to correctly diagnose any human impacts. Our techniques also help us to constrain hydrologic processes as different flow paths and flow rates of water can be inferred using geochemical tracers.