Welcome! The Earth Resources Laboratory (ERL) is MIT’s home for geophysical research driven by the sustainable use of the Earth for the energy demands of tomorrow. This includes modeling and monitoring for geological carbon sequestration, geothermal energy, the geological storage of hydrogen, and any hazard resulting from these activities such as induced seismicity.
- how to design new ways of mapping the subsurface;
- how to extract information from indirect, incomplete and/or corrupted data;
- how to leverage relevant but insufficient geophysical models; and
- how to quantify the uncertainty of our predictions.
- how to decarbonize the existing carbon-intensive chemical processes of steel and cement industries without disrupting supply;
- how to quickly transition to a clean hydrogen economy without discarding the existing infrastructure for natural gas;
- how to store energy on a massive scale and for long durations to cope with the intermittency of renewables;
- how to harness the heat of the Earth in the form of geothermal energy.
ERL’s sponsored projects are often interdisciplinary, and bring together complementary expertise from all over MIT. While ERL is primarily associated with the department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), some of its faculty members are afiilated with Civil and Environmental Engineering; Mathematics; and Aero-Astro.
Companies can join ERL as founding members to meet our students/postdocs, and get to know their research (see benefits of membership). We are continuously looking for talented people to join the lab (see our openings page). Stay in touch to learn about ERL's livestreams and other announcements:
We welcome your feedback, and hope to see you soon at one of our events!
Laurent Demanet
Director, Earth Resources Laboratory
MIT