Thu 09 Oct 11:30: The signature hidden in the deformation of a free surface
The accurate modelling of geophysical flows often requires information which is difficult to measure and therefore poorly quantified. Such information may relate to the fluid properties or an unknown boundary condition, for example. The premise of this talk is that when the flow is bounded by a free surface, the deformation of this free surface contains useful information which can be used to infer such unknown quantities. The increasing availability of free surface data through remote sensing using drones and satellites provides the impetus to develop new mathematical methods and numerical tools to interpret the signature embedded in the free surface deformation. This talk will explore recent examples drawn from glaciology and volcanology for which free surface data can successfully be used to recover unknown parameters or reconstruct an unknown field.
- Speaker: Mathieu Sellier (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
- Thursday 09 October 2025, 11:30-12:30
- Venue: Open Plan Area, Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, Madingley Rise CB3 0EZ.
- Series: Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF); organiser: Catherine Pearson.
Wed 03 Dec 17:30: TBC
tbc
- Speaker: Simone Moretti, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
- Wednesday 03 December 2025, 17:30-19:00
- Venue: Latimer Room, Clare College.
- Series: Quaternary Discussion Group (QDG); organiser: sr632.
Wed 19 Nov 17:30: Marine carbon cycle dynamics in the southern high latitudes during the Mid-Pleistocene transition: new insights from the central South Pacific Ocean
The mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) is arguably the most enigmatic long-term climate shift of the Quaternary and is characterized by increasingly severe glacial conditions about 1.2 to 0.6 million years ago. Although the MPT was suggested to be linked with a continuous lowering of glacial atmospheric CO2 (CO2,atm) levels, the processes underlying this CO2 ,atm decline are incompletely understood. Here we compare two new benthic foraminiferal (Cibicidoides/Cibicides sp.) d13C records reflecting Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), from central South Pacific International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1541 (54.2°S, 125.4°W, 3606 m water depth) and Southeast Atlantic Ocean Drilling Program Site 1094 (53.2°S, 05.1°E, 2807 m water depth), with similar records from the global ocean to identify possible reorganizations in the oceanic respired carbon pool over the past 2 million years that may explain CO2 ,atm changes across the MPT . We show a good agreement between lower CDW d13C signatures in the central South Pacific and in the Southeast Atlantic, and a wide-spread glacial decline in CDW d13C signatures across five Southern Ocean sites during the MPT . This points at a contribution from reduced glacial CDW ventilation and increased glacial respired carbon storage in the Southern Ocean to the glacial CO2 ,atm decline across the MPT . We also highlight an Atlantic-Pacific Southern Ocean-wide increase in the magnitude of deglacial CDW δ13C shifts during the MPT , which coincides with an amplitude increase in glacial-interglacial Antarctic Circumpolar Current flow strength variations (Lamy et al., 2024). This highlights that not only an increased Southern Ocean respired carbon storage might have driven CO2 ,atm variations across the MPT but also more efficient outgassing of that carbon during deglacial phases post-MPT. We will address potential linkages of glacial respired carbon storage and deglacial outgassing to changes in Antarctic ice sheet dynamics and southern hemisphere westerlies across the MPT .
References:
Lamy, F., Winckler, G., Arz, H., Farmer, J., Gottschalk, J., Lembke-Jene, L., Middleton, J.L., et al., 2024. Five million years of Antarctic Circumpolar Current strength variability. Nature 627, 789–796. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07143-3
- Speaker: Julia Gottschalk, Kiel University
- Wednesday 19 November 2025, 17:30-19:00
- Venue: Latimer Room, Clare College.
- Series: Quaternary Discussion Group (QDG); organiser: sr632.
Wed 22 Oct 17:30: Volcanic forcing of climate: Insights from sulfur isotopes and tephra in ice cores
Volcanic eruptions can be viewed as experiments with our climate system, where the radiative balance of the planet is perturbed on the timescale of years. Investigating the wide-ranging responses to these individual events can improve understanding of the feedbacks, processes, and sensitivities of the climate system to sulfuric acid aerosols. Our best records of past volcanic eruptions come from polar ice cores: records of sulfate concentrations and isotopes inform sulfur aerosol loads and the geochemistry of small volcanic ash particles, or ‘cryptotephra’, enable identification of volcanic source. Here I will reconstruct the forcing from some of the major volcanic eruptions over the last 2,500 years, highlighting the strong sensitivity of Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures to Northern Hemisphere extratropical eruptions. Looking further back in time, I will investigate the climate response to some of the largest super eruptions in the past 100,000 years.
- Speaker: Andrea Burke, University of St. Andrews
- Wednesday 22 October 2025, 17:30-19:00
- Venue: Latimer Room, Clare College.
- Series: Quaternary Discussion Group (QDG); organiser: Emily Kraus.
Low carbon retrofits: Reducing emissions across our estate
As part of the University’s commitments to reduce our overall carbon emissions , specifically our commitment to reducing energy-related emissions from our operational estate to absolute zero carbon by no later than 2048, we are transforming how our buildings use energy. Over the last few years, we have been investing in...
Tue 25 Nov 12:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Eliel Antilla, ETH Zurich
- Tuesday 25 November 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown); organiser: Alexandra Turchyn.
Tue 18 Nov 12:00: Decoding carbonate (bio)mineralisation using high-throughput mineralogy
Carbonates are a major biomineral type for both Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes, an important sink in the biogeochemical carbon cycle, and the basis for many paleoenvironmental proxies. They are also increasingly used for long-term carbon removal, and as promising materials to replace carbon-intensive products (e.g., biocements for construction). Carbonate crystallisation is influenced by many physicochemical variables (temperature, pH, saturation, etc.) and by inorganic and organic species that can inhibit or promote mineral nucleation and growth, controlling particle abundance as well as mineralogical properties such as morphology, composition, and crystal structure. Microbial cells can also mediate or influence carbonate formation through metabolic activity or the production of organic molecules. While the effects of these factors on carbonate mineralisation have been studied individually, their complex interactions have not been systematically explored. Indeed, our current understanding is mainly based on empirical studies that investigate the effects of these factors in isolation, and whose findings cannot be easily extrapolated to complex natural and engineered systems. To move beyond the state-of-the-art, we have developed a new high-throughput methodology combining in-situ imaging, automated Raman analyses, and Machine Learning. This approach allows us to rapidly perform and characterise hundreds to thousands of miniaturised mineralisation experiments, covering a wide multi-dimensional space of chemical variables and testing the effects of different organic molecules or bacterial strains on carbonate precipitation rates and mineralogical properties. I will present early results from this methodology and explain how it can be used to decode the environmental and genetic controls of microbial biomineralisation.
- Speaker: Professor Julie Cosmidis, University of Oxford
- Tuesday 18 November 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown); organiser: Alexandra Turchyn.
Tue 02 Dec 12:00: Core–mantle isotopic fractionation in large terrestrial planets
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Edith Kubik, University College Dublin
- Tuesday 02 December 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown); organiser: University of Cambridge.
Tue 14 Oct 12:00: Late Miocene Uplift of the Lesser Himalaya Recorded by Clumped Isotope Compositions of Detrital Carbonate
Variations in the composition and texture of detrital records preserved in the Himalayan foreland basin and the Indus and Bengal fans likely track stages in the evolution of the orogen, the Indian Summer Monsoon, and regional ecology. Yet, interpreting these records remains challenging, as sediment characteristics are shaped by shifting provenance, hydrological sorting, weathering intensity, incorporation of mineral and organic matter, and post-depositional alteration. To address some of these complexities, we examined the mineralogy and clumped isotope compositions of detrital carbonates from modern Ganga River sediments and from early Miocene to Holocene Bengal Fan turbidites. Our results show that variations in clumped and oxygen isotope values of detrital calcite in Himalayan rivers reflect mixing between lithic carbonates and authigenic calcite precipitated within the river system. In Bengal Fan turbidites, clumped isotope temperatures and calcite-to-dolomite ratios decline during the Late Miocene, marking an increase in the relative contribution of authigenic calcite. This trend cannot be explained by decreasing source temperatures, which would imply unrealistically high-temperature calcite formation, nor by intensified weathering, as K/Si* values (a weathering proxy) remain stable since the mid-Miocene. Instead, we argue that the shift primarily reflects a change in the relative abundances of calcite and dolomite in Himalayan-derived sediments, specifically a Late Miocene, Himalaya-wide provenance shift from calcite-rich (dolomite-poor) Tethyan and Greater Himalaya terrains to calcite-poor (dolomite-rich) Lesser Himalaya sources.
- Speaker: Dr Uri Ryb, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Tuesday 14 October 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown); organiser: David Hodell.
Wed 08 Oct 14:00: Steps Towards Forecasting Cascading Mountain Hazards
Landslides, debris flows, and avalanches, are fast-moving, high-impact phenomena that threaten nearly 8% of the global population. Forecasting them is essential to reducing human and economic losses, but two major challenges still remain: identifying where initial slope failure will occur and predicting their runout once triggered. In this talk, I will present work on spaceborne offset tracking to detect precursory motion before failure and neural network emulators for fast, single-phase geophysical flow modeling to efficiently propagate uncertainty into flow predictions. Together, these approaches are key steps towards forecasting cascading mountain hazards.
- Speaker: Lorenzo Nava (University of Cambridge)
- Wednesday 08 October 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Wolfson Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Bullard Laboratories Wednesday Seminars; organiser: Adriano Gualandi.
Tue 11 Nov 12:00: Bridging the gap between isotope geochemistry and plant sciences
In this talk, I will describe the principles behind and methodologies necessary for investigation of metal uptake, sequestration and transport by terrestrial plants using non-traditional stable isotope analyses. Designed to be informative and useful to both geochemists and plant scientists, the presentation will cover what natural stable isotope analyses of different metals have already taught us about biological and physicochemical processes in plant-soil/solution systems. After highlighting best practices for data acquisition and interpretation, the talk will conclude with an overview of my current research, which investigates a biological process not yet considered in natural stable isotope experiments: symbiotic plant-fungi associations. The results of my pilot experiment on arbuscular mycorrhizal rice, conducted in collaboration with plant scientists at Cambridge, set the foundation for a new area of multidisciplinary research with enormous potential to inform and influence environmental and agricultural strategies and policies, e.g. related to depleted or contaminated land, plant and human nutrition, and food security.
- Speaker: Dr Rebekah Moore, Imperial College London
- Tuesday 11 November 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown); organiser: hmw20.
Tue 04 Nov 12:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Professor John Taylor, University of Cambridge
- Tuesday 04 November 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown); organiser: Ali Mashayek.
Tue 21 Oct 12:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Eric Mackie, Cambridge Zero
- Tuesday 21 October 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown); organiser: .
Tue 28 Oct 12:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Professor Martin Siegert, University of Exeter
- Tuesday 28 October 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown); organiser: Ali Mashayek.
Tue 14 Oct 12:00: Late Miocene Uplift of the Lesser Himalaya Recorded by Clumped Isotope Compositions of Detrital Carbonate
Variations in the composition and texture of detrital records preserved in the Himalayan foreland basin and the Indus and Bengal fans likely track stages in the evolution of the orogen, the Indian Summer Monsoon, and regional ecology. Yet, interpreting these records remains challenging, as sediment characteristics are shaped by shifting provenance, hydrological sorting, weathering intensity, incorporation of mineral and organic matter, and post-depositional alteration. To address some of these complexities, we examined the mineralogy and clumped isotope compositions of detrital carbonates from modern Ganga River sediments and from early Miocene to Holocene Bengal Fan turbidites. Our results show that variations in clumped and oxygen isotope values of detrital calcite in Himalayan rivers reflect mixing between lithic carbonates and authigenic calcite precipitated within the river system. In Bengal Fan turbidites, clumped isotope temperatures and calcite-to-dolomite ratios decline during the Late Miocene, marking an increase in the relative contribution of authigenic calcite. This trend cannot be explained by decreasing source temperatures, which would imply unrealistically high-temperature calcite formation, nor by intensified weathering, as K/Si* values (a weathering proxy) remain stable since the mid-Miocene. Instead, we argue that the shift primarily reflects a change in the relative abundances of calcite and dolomite in Himalayan-derived sediments, specifically a Late Miocene, Himalaya-wide provenance shift from calcite-rich (dolomite-poor) Tethyan and Greater Himalaya terrains to calcite-poor (dolomite-rich) Lesser Himalaya sources.
- Speaker: Dr Uri Ryb
- Tuesday 14 October 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown); organiser: David Hodell.
Fri 21 Nov 16:00: Detailed analysis of Seismicity and Seismic structure beneath Northern Borneo
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Wuttinan Tonprasert
- Friday 21 November 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Tea Room, Old House.
- Series: Bullard Laboratories Tea Time Talks; organiser: David Al-Attar.
Fri 14 Nov 16:00: Passive Seismic Imaging of Plate Margins
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Yingbo Li
- Friday 14 November 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Tea Room, Old House.
- Series: Bullard Laboratories Tea Time Talks; organiser: David Al-Attar.
Fri 24 Oct 16:00: Searching for Expressions of Mantle Plume Behaviour in North Atlantic Contourites
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dylan Palmer
- Friday 24 October 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Tea Room, Old House.
- Series: Bullard Laboratories Tea Time Talks; organiser: David Al-Attar.
Thu 27 Nov 11:30: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Professor Stephen Skinner, Imperial College London
- Thursday 27 November 2025, 11:30-12:30
- Venue: Open Plan Area, Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, Madingley Rise CB3 0EZ.
- Series: Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF); organiser: Catherine Pearson.
Thu 13 Nov 11:30: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Nico Gray, University of Manchester
- Thursday 13 November 2025, 11:30-12:30
- Venue: Open Plan Area, Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, Madingley Rise CB3 0EZ.
- Series: Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF); organiser: Catherine Pearson.