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Arthur Montana, professor emeritus of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences at UCLA, passed away on August 8, 2025, at the age of 90. Born in Montana, Montana earned his Ph.D. in geology from Penn State University, where he later served as a junior faculty member before joining UCLA in 1976. His early postdoctoral work with…

EPSS sponsored a spirited reception during the Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in San Antonio, the first UCLA reception at GSA in decades, showcasing the strength and resilience of the department. Hosted by Assistant Professor John He, who recently joined UCLA in 2024, the event brought together generations of Bruins to celebrate their shared…

UCLA EPSS Professor Vassilis Angelopoulos has been selected by the American Geophysical Union to give this year’s Space Physics and Aeronomy Section Van Allen Lecture at the AGU Meeting in December 2025. The James Van Allen Lecture is presented biennially to a space scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of magnetospheric science.…

Professor Amy Mainzer speaks about preventing a catastrophic asteroid impact on Earth Click Here to Learn More.

Click Here to Watch This video captures moments from our Spring 2025 Igneous Petrology field trip to Owens Valley, California. We explored volcanic features, hiked through the Sierra, and spent evenings at the White Mountain Research Station under brilliant sunsets and starry skies. Beyond studying rocks, students reconnected with nature — wading in Lake Crowley,…

A new study led by Professor Lingsen Meng and Dr. Liuwei Xu (UCLA Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences) reveals that the devastating 2025 Mandalay, Myanmar earthquake (Mw 7.7) produced one of the fastest and longest earthquake ruptures ever recorded on land. The research, published in Science on October 29, 2025, shows that the earthquake ruptured more than 530 kilometers along the Sagaing Fault, with…

My name is Xiaofei Shi and I was recently honored with the Fred Scarf Award from the American Geophysical Union for best thesis in Space Physics and Aeronomy. During my PhD, I studied how charged particles in space, such as electrons, gain and lose energy as they move around near Earth. These processes, though invisible,…

This new SpinLab video shows the Newton’s Bucket experiment in which the free surface of water in a rotating tank takes on a paraboloidal shape.  Made by UCLA undergraduate Ryan Landayan, it is a beautiful realization of a classic experiment that was discussed in great detail by Isaac Newton and his colleagues, and is still…

On July 29, 2025, a massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck just offshore of the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia. The earthquake, which occurred at 7:24 a.m. local time, was one of the most powerful earthquakes worldwide in recent decades—comparable in scale to the 2011 Mw 9.1 Tohoku earthquake in Japan. This extraordinary event serves as…

The Heising-Simons Foundation is accepting applications for their 51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellowship program in Planetary Astronomy.  UCLA is one of the host institutions.  Applicants should apply directly to the Heising-Simons Foundation (www.51pegasib.org) in order to work with UCLA faculty in one or both of UCLA’s Departments of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences (epss.ucla.edu) and/or…

Researchers Hanying, Chris, and Yingdong recently had a paper published on magnetic fields, titled “Detailed Processes of Colliding Helical Magnetic Structures Explored Through Simulations.” Along with this, they are being promoted by the AIP Showcase on Kudos, which you can read here.

Professor Peng Ni’s hands-on class provides students with valuable experience This spring, students in the Igneous Petrology class participated in a four-day field excursion near Bishop, California, from May 22nd to May 25th, to develop practical skills in geological identification and process interpretation Led by Professor Peng Ni, the group was based at UCLA’s White…

EPSS research done by Vassilis Angelopoulos and colleagues has solved a decades-old mystery on how electrons are accelerated to relativistic energies at plasma shock waves, in front of Earth’s bow shock, and by inference at other astrophysical settings. Click here to read the paper published in Nature Communications. Click here and scroll down to read…

We are pleased to announce that Professor Jon Aurnou has been appointed the next Chair of the UCLA Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences (EPSS), effective July 1, 2025. Professor Aurnou joined the EPSS faculty in 2002 as an assistant professor and was promoted to full professor in 2014. A geophysicist whose work focuses…

Most known comets come from either the Kuiper belt (beyond Neptune) or the Oort cloud (out towards the stars).  So-called Halley type comets (HTCs) are a very under-studied group intermediate between these populations. It is not clear if they are more similar to the Kuiper belt or the Oort cloud comets, and their origins remain…

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To our 2025 Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences Scholars! To those who spent countless hours bent over microscopes, or hunched over map boards under the blazing sun.To those who decoded the secrets of chemistry, physics, geology, and engineering.To those who dared to look up— past the clouds, past the stratosphere— toward distant planets and the…

Please continue to check this website for updates as we may have to make modifications. Join the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences (EPSS) for our annual Commencement Ceremony honoring the accomplishments of graduating departmental students as they conclude this chapter of their academic journey. Tickets are required for those attending in person. Event…