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Cambridge researchers join expedition to take pulse of the Icelandic Mantle Plume

28 August 2024

The IMPULSE research expedition sailed from Hafnarfjörður, Iceland on Sunday 4 August. The international team are collecting detailed measurements of the seafloor near Iceland to better understand processes operating deep within the ‘Icelandic Mantle Plume’ — a giant fountain of slowly-creeping hot rock that rises from...

Historic fires trapped in Antarctic ice yield key information for climate models

7 August 2024

Pollutants preserved in Antarctic ice document historic fires in the Southern Hemisphere, offering a glimpse at how humans have impacted the landscape and providing data that could help scientists understand future climate change. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and British Antarctic Survey tracked fire...

Listen to ancient air escaping from polar ice cores at Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

27 June 2024

Climate scientists from University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey will be at the 2024 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition , showcasing how they are using Antarctic ice cores to unlock the past and uncover clues to our planet’s future. The exhibit is one of 14 flagship exhibits at this year’s Summer...

Underwater mountains have a big impact on ocean circulation

26 June 2024

Colossal undersea mountains, towering up to thousands of metres high, stir up deep sea currents: impacting how our ocean stores heat and carbon. An international team, led by the University of Cambridge, used numerical modelling to quantify how underwater turbulence around these mountains, called seamounts, influences...

Marine CO₂ removal technologies could depend on the appetite of the ocean’s tiniest animals

17 June 2024

Writing in The Conversation, Cambridge Earth Sciences' Professor Ali Mashayek, PhD candidate Sophie Meyjes and Tyler Rohr from the University of Tasmania discuss how tiny marine animals might decide the fate of attempts to capture and store CO2 in the oceans. As the world struggles to decarbonise, it’s becoming...

‘Missing’ sea sponge fossils discovered

5 June 2024

The discovery, published in Nature, opens a new window on early animal evolution At first glance, the simple, spikey sea sponge is no creature of mystery. No brain. No gut. No problem dating them back 700 million years. Yet convincing sponge fossils only go back about 540 million years, leaving a 160-million-year gap in...

Video analysis of Iceland 2010 eruption could improve volcanic ash forecasts for aviation safety

3 June 2024

Video footage of Iceland’s 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption is providing researchers from the University of Cambridge with rare, up-close observations of volcanic ash clouds — information that could help better forecast how far explosive eruptions disperse their hazardous ash particles. When Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010...

Professor David Hodell elected Fellow of the Royal Society

28 May 2024

Congratulations to David Hodell, Woodwardian Professor of Geology at the Department of Earth Sciences, on being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. This year, over 90 exceptional researchers from across the world have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences. David...

The 'Butterfly Effect' climate change exhibition opens at the Sedgwick Museum

22 May 2024

A new climate-themed art exhibition by local school children opens its wings at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences A new art installation intended to spark conversation and action about climate change has opened at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences , created and curated by local school children, ages 11 to 16, from...

Cambridge researchers take a deep dive into Iceland plume’s enigmatic workings

14 May 2024

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? Iceland sits over a mantle plume — a fountain of hot rock that rises from Earth’s core-mantle boundary — explaining...

Cambridge researchers join expedition to take pulse of the Icelandic Mantle Plume

Historic fires trapped in Antarctic ice yield key information for climate models

Listen to ancient air escaping from polar ice cores at Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

Underwater mountains have a big impact on ocean circulation

Marine CO₂ removal technologies could depend on the appetite of the ocean’s tiniest animals

‘Missing’ sea sponge fossils discovered

Video analysis of Iceland 2010 eruption could improve volcanic ash forecasts for aviation safety

Professor David Hodell elected Fellow of the Royal Society

The 'Butterfly Effect' climate change exhibition opens at the Sedgwick Museum

Cambridge researchers take a deep dive into Iceland plume’s enigmatic workings

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