Ancient flight may explain dispersal of giant flightless birds
Flightless birds such as ostriches, emus, rheas, and kiwis inhabit far-flung corners of the Southern Hemisphere, but how did these grounded birds spread so far and wide? New research sheds light on the mystery, showing they had ancestors that could likely fly across oceans. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and...
Diamond-studded mantle rock tells new tales about ancient Earth
Back in the 1970s, renowned igneous petrologist Barry Dawson was sectioning a mantle rock from southern Africa when the cutting saw jammed on something extremely hard: a diamond. It was the first time a diamond had been found in situ, locked inside a chunk of mantle rock carried up from hundreds of kilometres deep. Dawson...
Our blog has a new home!
Our blog has a new home!
Cambridge at the Goldschmidt 2025 conference
Sara Crozier, second year PhD student and isotope geochemist reports on the 2025 Goldschmidt in Prague in this blog post. The journey from Cambridge to Prague was short and relatively painless — a smooth hop across Europe, and before we knew it, we were off and running. The conference centre itself was easy to find, just...
How Iceland’s fiery mantle plume scattered ancient volcanoes across the North Atlantic
What do the rumblings of Iceland’s volcanoes have in common with the now peaceful volcanic islands off Scotland’s western coast and the spectacular basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland? About sixty million years ago, the Icelandic mantle plume—a fountain of hot rock that rises from Earth’s core-mantle...
Earth Sciences summer school welcomes aspiring students
On 11–15 August, the Department welcomed Year 12 students from across the country for a week-long summer school. The scheme is spearheaded by The Sutton Trust , an educational charity which aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage. Students experienced studying Earth Sciences at university...
Stalagmites in Mexican caves reveal duration and severity of drought during the Maya collapse
A drought lasting 13 years and several others that each lasted over three years may have contributed to the collapse of the Classic Maya civilisation, chemical fingerprints from a stalagmite in a Mexican cave have revealed. A detailed analysis of oxygen isotopes in the stalagmite allowed a team of researchers, led by the...
Near real-time map of Cascadia’s slow earthquakes paves way for forecast testing
After decades of research, seismologists understand why earthquakes occur, but they still can't predict when they will happen. Rather than pinpointing their exact timing, scientists can only estimate the likelihood of future quakes within broad time windows. Earthquakes happen when pent-up stress on a fault is released...
Grand Canyon was a ‘Goldilocks zone’ for the evolution of early animals
A treasure trove of exceptionally preserved early animals from more than half a billion years ago has been discovered in the Grand Canyon, one of the natural world’s most iconic sites. The rich fossil discovery – the first such find in the Grand Canyon – includes tiny rock-scraping molluscs, filter-feeding crustaceans...
My Internship Journey: researching the Arctic Ocean at Cambridge
Continue reading "My Internship Journey: researching the Arctic Ocean at Cambridge"
My Internship Journey: researching the Arctic Ocean at Cambridge
Continue reading "My Internship Journey: researching the Arctic Ocean at Cambridge"
My Internship Journey: researching the Arctic Ocean at Cambridge
In this blog post, Agathe Foulon describes her research internship in the Department of Earth Sciences. In April, I joined the Department of Earth Sciences for a six-month internship on polar oceanography, focussing on nutrient transport in the Arctic Ocean. As a Master’s student in Oceanography and Applications based...
Professor Nick Tosca to serve as MSA Distinguished Lecturer
We’re delighted to announce that Professor Nick Tosca has been selected as a Mineralogical Society of America Distinguished Lecturer for the 2025–2026 academic year. The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) offers universities that normally do not have the opportunity to hear talks about recent advances in mineralogy to...
Professor Helen Williams to deliver medal lecture at Goldschmidt 2025
On 10th July at 11:45, Professor Helen Williams will present the prestigious Paul Gast Medal Lecture at this year’s Goldschmidt Conference in Prague. The lectureship is awarded to a mid-career scientist for outstanding contributions to geochemistry. Titled “From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: High-Mass Stable Isotope Adventures...
Martian rocks may have provided hydrogen to warm young Mars
Newly identified Martian rocks are a missing link in understanding how the red planet may once have been warm enough to host liquid water, enhancing its potential habitability. An international team, led by Cambridge researchers, have found the first direct evidence for serpentinization on Mars, a process whereby iron-rich...
Using AI to ‘see’ landslides and target disaster response
Researchers from the University of Cambridge are using AI to speed up landslide detection following major earthquakes and extreme rainfall events—buying valuable time to coordinate relief efforts and reduce humanitarian impacts. On April 3, 2024, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake hit Taiwan’s eastern coast— the country’s...
Rocking Around Arran: Cambridge First-Year Earth Sciences Field Trip 2025
Continue reading "Rocking Around Arran: Cambridge First-Year Earth Sciences Field Trip 2025"
Rocking Around Arran: Cambridge First-Year Earth Sciences Field Trip 2025
Continue reading "Rocking Around Arran: Cambridge First-Year Earth Sciences Field Trip 2025"