Recent news and blogs

Once a year, a peculiar, polished slab of rock is hauled down from its home on a windowsill near the 1A lab and propped up on the lawn against a row of knees for the annual Sedgwick Club photo. The slab, with its striking black and white circular patterns, has featured in most annual photos …

Continue reading "The origins of our orbicular granite"

Once a year, a peculiar, polished slab of rock is hauled down from its home on a windowsill near the 1A lab and propped up on the lawn against a row of knees for the annual Sedgwick Club photo. The slab, with its striking black and white circular patterns, has featured in most annual photos …

Continue reading "The origins of our orbicular granite"

A new study involving scientists from the University of Cambridge has developed innovative methods to build a better picture of how ice sheets and glaciers move. Published in the journal Nature Geoscience , the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka-led study used previously collected lab data to refine knowledge of...

The time sequence of building stone use in Cambridge shows the competing influences of function, fashion and finance in the city’s historic fabric. Now natural stone is poised for a resurgence because of its strength, durability and low embodied carbon. Cambridge buildings display one of the UK’s best records of historic stone use. Never systematically …

Continue reading "History and future of stone use in Cambridge"

The time sequence of building stone use in Cambridge shows the competing influences of function, fashion and finance in the city’s historic fabric. Now natural stone is poised for a resurgence because of its strength, durability and low embodied carbon. Cambridge buildings display one of the UK’s best records of historic stone use. Never systematically …

Continue reading "History and future of stone use in Cambridge"

The Sedgwick Museum and the Department of Earth Sciences are hosting an Earth Sciences Fair this Saturday, 29th March, as part of the Cambridge Festival Family Weekend . Visitors will meet earth scientists and explore the world of research through fun, hands-on activities. Highlights include an opportunity to hold...

The latest issue of GeoCam is here—and it's packed with exciting updates! Dive into our alumni magazine and meet our new Head of Department, explore fascinating insights from current and former students, and uncover groundbreaking research alongside the latest happenings at the Sedgwick Museum. Latest GeoCam issue, click...

A Cambridge earth scientist and a data sonification expert from Anglia Ruskin University are transforming mineral data into music for the public to enjoy at the Cambridge Festival. By converting microscope images of minerals into musical compositions, Dr Carrie Soderman from Cambridge and Dr Domenico Vincinanza from Anglia...

Marie Edmonds, Professor of Volcanology and Petrology, was both an undergraduate and postgraduate in Cambridge from 1994-2001 and has been a lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences since 2006. Marie reflects on her career and new role as Head of Department with Erin Martin-Jones. One volcanic eruption kick-started your career as a volcanologist? Volcanoes …

Continue reading "In Conversation with Marie Edmonds"

Marie Edmonds, Professor of Volcanology and Petrology, was both an undergraduate and postgraduate in Cambridge from 1994-2001 and has been a lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences since 2006. Marie reflects on her career and new role as Head of Department with Erin Martin-Jones. One volcanic eruption kick-started your career as a volcanologist? Volcanoes …

Continue reading "In Conversation with Marie Edmonds"

Scientists have pinpointed the key factors that allow pockets of warm seawater to flow beneath the Antarctic ice shelves, melting the ice from below and destabilizing glaciers inland. The research, led by the University of Cambridge, used a remarkably detailed model simulation to show how seasonal changes in wind strength...

Cambridge geoscientists are developing an atlas that could lead to a more complete understanding of how viable rare earth element deposits form and help locate more secure sources, by mapping the global distribution of critical metals deposits within unusual igneous rocks. Rare earth elements are vital components in many...

Researchers from the University of Cambridge were involved in a global study that pieced together events leading up to the devastating Sikkim Flood in India. The results show that human activity played a key role in the multihazard sequence. On October 3 rd , 2023, a large glacial lake in Sikkim, northeastern India, broke...

A new art-science exhibition at Downing College’s Heong Gallery brings Iceland’s incandescent volcanic eruptions and earth-shattering seismic tremors to Cambridge. Visitors will get a chance to get up close, and even embark on a journey inside, an Icelandic volcano—inspired by Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the...

Last summer, Cambridge PhD students Callum Pearman, Aisling Dunn and Philippa Slay joined an international scientific cruise to take the pulse of the Iceland mantle plume. Callum describes the science behind the expedition in the blog post below. What Did We Set Out To Find Out? The Iceland plume is a large column of especially …

Continue reading "Listening in on the pulse of a mantle plume: IMPULSE Expedition 2024  "

Last summer, Cambridge PhD students Callum Pearman, Aisling Dunn and Philippa Slay joined an international scientific cruise to take the pulse of the Iceland mantle plume. Callum describes the science behind the expedition in the blog post below. What Did We Set Out To Find Out? The Iceland plume is a large column of especially …

Continue reading "Listening in on the pulse of a mantle plume: IMPULSE Expedition 2024  "

Increasing greenhouse gas emissions are warming our planet at an unprecedented rate and scale. While anthropogenic warming has no direct historical parallel, warm episodes in Earth’s history can offer clues as to the future. A team of ice core scientists led by Cambridge University wanted to find out what happened to the...

On September 19, 2021, the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma, in Spain's Canary Islands, erupted after more than half a century of quiescence. Lasting 85 days, the Tajogaite eruption was the longest recorded in the island’s history. Around 12 square kilometres of populated land was inundated with lava, nearly 3,000...

The Fenlands of eastern England are known as the breadbasket of Britain, producing around a third of the nations’ vegetables and employing roughly 80,000 people in the agricultural food chain. Historically, the Fens were an extensive maze of wetlands and snaking rivers. Today, this landscape is maintained as productive and...

A team of astronomers and earth scientists from Cambridge have found that Venus has never been habitable, despite decades of speculation that our closest planetary neighbour was once much more like Earth than it is today. The researchers studied the chemical composition of the Venusian atmosphere and inferred that its...