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Department of Earth Sciences

 
Read more at: Research pinpoints triggers and impacts of catastrophic lake outburst flood

Research pinpoints triggers and impacts of catastrophic lake outburst flood

13 February 2025

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...


Read more at: New exhibition takes visitors on a journey to the centre of Iceland’s volcanoes

New exhibition takes visitors on a journey to the centre of Iceland’s volcanoes

4 February 2025

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...


Read more at: Ancient Antarctic ice offers insights into future climate scenarios

Ancient Antarctic ice offers insights into future climate scenarios

29 January 2025

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...


Read more at: Scientists investigate volcanic pollution during the 2021 Tajogaite eruption, La Palma

Scientists investigate volcanic pollution during the 2021 Tajogaite eruption, La Palma

27 January 2025

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...


Read more at: Turning source to sink: can the Fens help combat climate change?

Turning source to sink: can the Fens help combat climate change?

22 January 2025

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...


Read more at: Researchers deal a blow to theory that Venus once had liquid water on its surface
Synthesized false colour image of Venus, Credit: JAXA / ISAS / Akatsuki Project Team

Researchers deal a blow to theory that Venus once had liquid water on its surface

21 January 2025

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...


Read more at: Momentous ice core drilling campaign retrieves 1.2 million-year-old ice

Momentous ice core drilling campaign retrieves 1.2 million-year-old ice

9 January 2025

The fourth Antarctic campaign of the Beyond EPICA-Oldest Ice programme has achieved a historic milestone for climate science, by drilling a 2,800-meter-long ice core to the bedrock beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. The ice core is expected to extend back beyond 1.2 million years. An international team of researchers...


Read more at: Unlocking the carbon-capture potential of kelp forests

Unlocking the carbon-capture potential of kelp forests

6 January 2025

Kelp, a type of large brown seaweed that grows in underwater forests, plays an important role in marine ecosystems, providing habitat and food for various marine life. The seaweed grows rapidly, drawing carbon dioxide into its tissues through photosynthesis to be later buried on the seafloor. Because kelp grows much faster...


Read more at: Nicola Skipper shortlisted for professional services award

Nicola Skipper shortlisted for professional services award

4 December 2024

Many congratulations to Nicola Skipper, Education Co-ordinator at the Sedgwick Museum, who has been shortlisted for the 2024 Professional Services Recognition Scheme, in the category, ‘Improving our Environmental Performance’. This year, Nicola has initiated and led a major new project ‘Climate Pasts, Climate Futures’, at...


Read more at: Scientists warn of ‘invisible threat’ of microplastics as global treaty nears completion

Scientists warn of ‘invisible threat’ of microplastics as global treaty nears completion

27 November 2024

As the UN meets this week to finalise the Global Plastics Treaty, researchers warn that the agreement could fail to address one of the biggest threats to marine environments—microplastics. Even if global production and pollution of new plastic is drastically reduced, scientists, writing in the journal Nature Communications...