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GEO604

GEO604: Water & Planetary Habitability

Semester: Fall 2026 · Credits: 3 · Location & Time: TBD (once a week)
Instructor: Junjie Dong · Email: junjie.dong@stonybrook.edu · Office Hours: By appointment

Description

Water is inseparable from life as we know it and from the physical, chemical, and dynamical processes that link planetary interiors, surfaces, atmospheres, and orbits. This seminar surveys the role of water in planetary habitability, drawing on geophysical, geochemical, atmospheric, and planetary science literature. Topics include the origin and evolution of water on Earth; its coupling to climate, tides, and interior convection; divergent outcomes on Venus and Mars; and subsurface oceans on icy moons and water-covered exoplanets. The aim is to understand, and perhaps to provoke new ways of thinking about, how water enables, mediates, and sometimes limits planetary habitability.

Assessment

Paper Discussion (formative, 100%): One student leads each week: chooses 2–3 papers, writes 4 prompts or questions per paper, and posts them to the course site by Friday. Everyone comes having responded in writing to at least 2 prompts per paper. In class: share responses, discuss, push back, and build on each other's ideas. By end of day on the day of class: submit final written responses to all prompts or questions (2–3 sentences each), plus any questions the reading or discussion left open. Discussion leaders meet briefly with the instructor beforehand to select papers.

Schedule

Week Topic Suggested Papers
1 Orientation  — 
2 What Is Habitability, and Why Water? Dole and Asimov (1964), Ch. 1–2 from Planets for Man
Cockell et al (2016)
Apai et al (2025)
3 The Origin of Water on Earth Morbidelli et al. (2012)
Breuer (2018)
Vulpius et al. (2026)
4 Water and the Deep Interior van Thienen et al. (2007)
Korenaga et al. (2017)
Dong et al (2021)
5 Water and Plate Tectonics Foley (2015)
Lenardic et al. (2016)
Guimond et al. (2026)
6 Snowball Earth and Climate Extremes Budyko (1969)
Pierrehumbert et al. (2011)
Hoffman (2019)
7 Mars: A Wet Past? Vertesi (2015), Intro. from See Like A Rover
McMahon et al. (2018)
Citron et al. (2018)
Wang and Huang (2024)
8 Venus: A Failed Earth? Way and Del Genio (2020)
Krissansen-Totton et al. (2021)
Salvador et al. (2023)
9 Icy Moons and Hidden Oceans Horneck et al. (2016)
Pappalardo et al. (2024)
Nimmo (2025)
10 Exoplanets and the Limits of Habitability Schneider et al. (2015)
Madhusudhan et al. (2016)
Catling et al. (2018)
11 The Physics and Chemistry of Water TBD
12 Water and the Emergence of Life Darwin (1871)
Bada and Korenaga (2018)
Omran and Pasek (2020)
Korenaga (2021)
Georgieva et al. (2021)
13 Negative Spaces: Life Without/Beyond Water TBD

Policies

  1. Attendance and completion of readings before each class are expected.

  2. Late work is handled individually; please reach out before the deadline.

  3. We follow the Code of Student Responsibility; additional expectations will be discussed and established together in the first class.

  4. We follow the University's Academic Integrity Policy, (including on Generative AI and LLMs); any use must be disclosed.

References

  1. Zaki, A.S., Lamb, M.P. (2026). Identifying the topographic signature of early Martian oceans. Nature, 652, 878–885. [DOI]

  2. Vulpius, S., Runge, E., Herwartz, D., Pack, A., Brachmann, C., Noack, L. (2026). Formation and redox evolution of Earth’s early atmosphere and hydrosphere. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment [DOI]

  3. Guimond, C.M., Spohn, T., Berdyugina, S., Byrne, P.K., Coltice, N., Glaser, D.M., Lingam, M., Lineweaver, C.H., Cawood, P.A. (2026). Water Versus Land on Temperate Rocky Planets. Space Science Reviews, 222, 8. [DOI]

  4. Li, J., Liu, H., Meng, X., Duan, D., Lu, H., Zhang, J., Zhang, F., Elsworth, D., Cardenas, B.T., Manga, M., Zhou, B., Fang, G. (2025). Ancient ocean coastal deposits imaged on Mars. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122, e2422213122. [DOI]

  5. Nimmo, F. (2025). Surfaces, interiors and evolution of solar system moons. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 481, 20240806. [DOI]

  6. Apai, D., Barnes, R., Murphy, M.M., Lichtenberg, T., Tuchow, N., Ferrière, R., Wagner, K., Affholder, A., Malhotra, R., Journaux, B., Vazan, A., Ramirez, R., Méndez, A., Kane, S.R., Klawender, V.H., {NExSS Quantitative Habitability Science Working Group (2025). A Terminology and Quantitative Framework for Assessing the Habitability of Solar System and Extraterrestrial Worlds. The Planetary Science Journal, 6, 165. [DOI]

  7. Wang, L., Huang, J. (2024). Hypothesis of an ancient northern ocean on Mars and insights from the Zhurong rover. Nature Astronomy, 8, 1220–1229. [DOI]

  8. Pappalardo, R.T., Buratti, B.J., Korth, H., Senske, D.A., Blaney, D.L., Blankenship, D.D., Burch, J.L., Christensen, P.R., Kempf, S., Kivelson, M.G., Mazarico, E., Retherford, K.D., Turtle, E.P., Westlake, J.H., Paczkowski, B.G., Ray, T.L., Kampmeier, J., Craft, K.L., Howell, S.M., Klima, R.L., Leonard, E.J., Matiella Novak, A., Phillips, C.B., Daubar, I.J., Blacksberg, J., Brooks, S.M., Choukroun, M.N., Cochrane, C.J., Diniega, S., Elder, C.M., Ernst, C.M., Gudipati, M.S., Luspay-Kuti, A., Piqueux, S., Rymer, A.M., Roberts, J.H., Steinbrügge, G., Cable, M.L., Scully, J.E.C., Castillo-Rogez, J.C., Hay, H.C.F.C., Persaud, D.M., Glein, C.R., McKinnon, W.B., Moore, J.M., Raymond, C.A., Schroeder, D.M., Vance, S.D., Wyrick, D.Y., Zolotov, M.Y., Hand, K.P., Nimmo, F., McGrath, M.A., Spencer, J.R., Lunine, J.I., Paty, C.S., Soderblom, J.M., Collins, G.C., Schmidt, B.E., Rathbun, J.A., Shock, E.L., Becker, T.C., Hayes, A.G., Prockter, L.M., Weiss, B.P., Hibbitts, C.A., Moussessian, A., Brockwell, T.G., Hsu, H., Jia, X., Gladstone, G.R., McEwen, A.S., Patterson, G.W., McNutt, R.L., Evans, J.P., Larson, T.W., Cangahuala, L.A., Havens, G.G., Buffington, B.B., Bradley, B., Campagnola, S., Hardman, S.H., Srinivasan, J.M., Short, K.L., Jedrey, T.C., St. Vaughn, J.A., Clark, K.P., Vertesi, J., Niebur, C. (2024). Science Overview of the Europa Clipper Mission. Space Science Reviews, 220, 40. [DOI]

  9. Salvador, A., Avice, G., Breuer, D., Gillmann, C., Lammer, H., Marcq, E., Raymond, S.N., Sakuraba, H., Scherf, M., Way, M.J. (2023). Magma Ocean. Space Science Reviews, 219, 51. [DOI]

  10. Sholes, S.F., Rivera-Hernández, F. (2022). Constraints on the uncertainty, timing, and magnitude of potential Mars oceans from topographic deformation models. Icarus, 378, 114934. [DOI]

  11. Sholes, S.F., Dickeson, Z.I., Montgomery, D.R., Catling, D.C. (2021). Where are Mars’ Hypothesized Ocean Shorelines? Large Lateral and Topographic Offsets Between Different Versions of Paleoshoreline Maps. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 126, e2020JE006486. [DOI]

  12. Turbet, M., Bolmont, E., Chaverot, G., Ehrenreich, D., Leconte, J., Marcq, E. (2021). Day–night cloud asymmetry prevents early oceans on Venus but not on Earth. Nature, 598, 276–280. [DOI]

  13. Krissansen-Totton, J., Fortney, J.J., Nimmo, F. (2021). Was Venus Ever Habitable? Constraints from a Coupled Interior–Atmosphere–Redox Evolution Model. The Planetary Science Journal, 2, 216. [DOI]

  14. Korenaga, J. (2021). Was There Land on the Early Earth?. Life, 11, 1142. [DOI]

  15. Georgieva, M.N., Little, C.T., Maslennikov, V.V., Glover, A.G., Ayupova, N.R., Herrington, R.J. (2021). The history of life at hydrothermal vents. Earth-Science Reviews, 217, 103602. [DOI]

  16. Way, M.J., Del Genio, A.D. (2020). Venusian Habitable Climate Scenarios: Modeling Venus Through Time and Applications to Slowly Rotating Venus‐Like Exoplanets. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 125, e2019JE006276. [DOI]

  17. Omran, A., Pasek, M. (2020). A Constructive Way to Think about Different Hydrothermal Environments for the Origins of Life. Life, 10, 36. [DOI]

  18. Hoffman, P.F. (2019). Big Time. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 47, 1–17. [DOI]

  19. Citron, R.I., Manga, M., Hemingway, D.J. (2018). Timing of oceans on Mars from shoreline deformation. Nature, 555, 643–646. [DOI]

  20. Kite, E.S., Ford, E.B. (2018). Habitability of Exoplanet Waterworlds. The Astrophysical Journal, 864, 75. [DOI]

  21. Catling, D.C., Krissansen-Totton, J., Kiang, N.Y., Crisp, D., Robinson, T.D., DasSarma, S., Rushby, A.J., Del Genio, A., Bains, W., Domagal-Goldman, S. (2018). Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Framework for Their Assessment. Astrobiology, 18, 709–738. [DOI]

  22. McMahon, S., Bosak, T., Grotzinger, J.P., Milliken, R.E., Summons, R.E., Daye, M., Newman, S.A., Fraeman, A., Williford, K.H., Briggs, D.E.G. (2018). A Field Guide to Finding Fossils on Mars. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 123, 1012–1040. [DOI]

  23. Breuer, D. (2018). Early planetary atmospheres and surfaces: Origin of the Earth’s water, crust and atmosphere. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 14, 156–163. [DOI]

  24. Bada, J.L., Korenaga, J. (2018). Exposed Areas Above Sea Level on Earth >3.5 Gyr Ago: Implications for Prebiotic and Primitive Biotic Chemistry. Life, 8, 55. [DOI]

  25. Cockell, C., Bush, T., Bryce, C., Direito, S., Fox-Powell, M., Harrison, J., Lammer, H., Landenmark, H., Martin-Torres, J., Nicholson, N., Noack, L., O'Malley-James, J., Payler, S., Rushby, A., Samuels, T., Schwendner, P., Wadsworth, J., Zorzano, M. (2016). Habitability: A Review. Astrobiology, 16, 89–117. [DOI]

  26. Madhusudhan, N., Agúndez, M., Moses, J.I., Hu, Y. (2016). Exoplanetary Atmospheres—Chemistry. Space Science Reviews, 205, 285–348. [DOI]

  27. Lenardic, A., Jellinek, A.M., Foley, B., O'Neill, C., Moore, W.B. (2016). Climate‐tectonic coupling: Variations in the mean, variations about the mean, and variations in mode. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 121, 1831–1864. [DOI]

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  33. Pierrehumbert, R., Abbot, D., Voigt, A., Koll, D. (2011). Climate of the Neoproterozoic. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 39, 417–460. [DOI]

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