The ExPeRT Lab

ExPeRT’s high-pressure, high-temperature lab enables exploration of chemical rock reactions, mineral stability, melt generation up to ~400 km deep and over 2000 degrees C.

Planetary Science

ExPeRT members recreate conditions of the birth of the solar system explore rocky planetary body formation, impacts, and evolution to modern processes.

Volcanism

ExPeRT explores modern processes, like carbon and sulfur cycles and melt generation that produce crust and gases entering the atmosphere via volcanoes, like Sakurajima.

Early Earth and Deep Time

ExPeRT members explore the chemical processes in early Earth that form interior layers and their interactions throughout geologic time.

Experiments

ExPeRT members use microscopic analytical tools to observe the geochemistry of melts and minerals after experimentation which can be extrapolated to natural processes.

ExPeRT: Experimental Petrology Rice Team

Under the direction of principal investigator Rajdeep Dasgupta at Rice University's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, we investigate the formation and evolution of Earth and other rocky planetary bodies and how the interior processes influence the surface chemistry and habitability. The primary approach of our research is laboratory experiments and geochemical analyses but we also use thermodynamic and other modeling approach.

Recent Publications

Featured

Johnson, A.*, Dasgupta, R., Costin, G. & Tsuno, K.^ (2024). Electron Probe Microanalysis of Trace Sulfur in Basaltic Glasses and Silicate Minerals. American Mineralogist 109: 2162–2172. doi:10.2138/am-2023-9157

Pal, A.* & Dasgupta, R. (2024). The fate of nitrogen during early silicate differentiation of rocky bodies constrained by experimental mineral-melt partitioning. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 385: 45-60. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2024.08.026

Dasgupta, R. & Aubaud, C. (In Press). Major volatiles in the Earth's mantle beneath mid-ocean ridges and intraplate ocean islands. Treatise on Geochemistry. doi:10.1016/B978-0-323-99762-1.00090-5

Xue, S.', Dasgupta, R., Ling, M.X., Sun, W. & Lee, C-T.A. (2024). The effect of fluorine on mineral-carbonatitic melt partitioning of trace elements–Implications for critical mineral deposits. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 379: 53-75. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2024.06.028

Maurice, M.^, Dasgupta, R. & Hassanzadeh, P. (2024). Volatile atmospheres of lava worlds. Astronomy and Astrophysics 688: A47. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202347749

Dasgupta, R., Pathak, D.* & Maurice, M.^ (2024). A framework for the origin and deep cycles of volatiles in rocky exoplanets. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 90: 323-373. doi:10.2138/rmg.2024.90.10

Pathak, D.* & Dasgupta, R. (2024). Nitrogen inventory of iron meteorite parent bodies constrained by nitrogen partitioning between Fe-rich solid and liquid alloys. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 371: 199-213. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2024.02.012

Latest News

Rice-HISD Middle School Planetary Exploration Day. Photo by Rajdeep Dasgupta.

May 1, 2024

Rajdeep Dasgupta, as the principal investigator, is leading Rice and Houston Independent School District (HISD) Planetary and Space Exploration Education Project, a pilot program aimed at inspiring the next generation of space and planetary science enthusiasts. Read the Rice University press release here.

Awardee Aindrila Pal. Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University.

September 24, 2023

Aindrila Pal has been awarded the prestigious NASA Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) grant. Her research will explore the origin and evolution of nitrogen in rocky planetary bodies using high-pressure, high-temperature experimental simulations. Read the Rice University press release here.