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Department of Earth Sciences

 
Read more at: Cambridge Geoscientist to speak during COP26 panel discussion
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Cambridge Geoscientist to speak during COP26 panel discussion

4 November 2021

A climate scientist from Cambridge Earth Sciences will feature in a panel discussion at the Arctic Basecamp — an organization committed to bringing the message of Arctic risk to global leaders —during the COP26 summit in Glasgow. The panel discussion, on ‘Climate Risk and Tipping Points in the Polar Regions’, will take...


Read more at: A new model could help stall shifting sand dunes, protecting infrastructure and ecosystems
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A new model could help stall shifting sand dunes, protecting infrastructure and ecosystems

27 October 2021

Cambridge scientists have used downscaled laboratory models to show how sand dunes move through an idealized landscape, revealing the conditions that decide whether they will pass through hurdles in their path – like pipelines or walls – or get stopped in their tracks. The team’s experiment – which featured mock-up...


Read more at: Tackling the challenge of melt-affected ice cores
Image of Dorethea in the lab with two other scientists, they are wearing orange polar gear and sorting through ice cores

Tackling the challenge of melt-affected ice cores

25 October 2021

Dorothea Moser, PhD student at the Department of Earth Sciences and British Antarctic Survey, has led an international team of scientists in new research that addresses the impact of melting on ice cores from Antarctica. Ice cores carry valuable information about how our climate has changed in the past; their annual layers...


Read more at: New study sheds light on ancient and modern mountain building processes
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New study sheds light on ancient and modern mountain building processes

19 October 2021

Mountain belts on Earth are some of the most striking manifestations of plate tectonics. The lifecycle of mountain building—where plates collide and are later uplifted and eroded—can also profoundly impact our climate and global carbon cycle over millions of years, as well as fuelling earthquake hazards. Understanding...


Read more at: Cambridge Earth Scientist highlights opportunity to take our discipline beyond the solar system
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Cambridge Earth Scientist highlights opportunity to take our discipline beyond the solar system

18 October 2021

How can thinking and expertise from a discipline forged in Earth’s 4.6 billion-year-old history inform the search for life beyond our solar system? This month’s edition of Elements Magazine International, titled ‘ Geoscience Beyond the Solar System’ , and co-edited by Cambridge University’s Dr Oliver Shorttle , explores...


Read more at: Tree-dwelling mammals endured asteroid-strike destroyed forests
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Tree-dwelling mammals endured asteroid-strike destroyed forests

11 October 2021

An asteroid strike 66 million years ago wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and devastated the Earth’s forests, but tree-dwelling ancestors of primates may have survived it, according to a new study published today in the journal Ecology and Evolution. Overall, the study supports the hypothesis that the widespread...


Read more at: Impact & Engagement Awards 2021: nominations for Department and Sedgwick Museum
Artist's impression of the Wonderchicken

Impact & Engagement Awards 2021: nominations for Department and Sedgwick Museum

7 October 2021

Members of the Field Palaeobiology Research Group at the Department of Earth Sciences, together with staff at the Sedgwick Museum , were nominated for the Vice Chancellor's Collaboration Award for their exhibit, ‘ Dawn of the Wonderchicken: the Oldest Modern Bird ’. The Vice Chancellor’s Awards scheme was established in...


Read more at: Ocean discovery project to reconstruct 5 million years of Earth’s changing climate
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Ocean discovery project to reconstruct 5 million years of Earth’s changing climate

1 October 2021

The Integrated Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) has scheduled a new project – Expedition 397 – that will build a detailed history of Earth’s climate extending back over the last 5 million years. The mission will collect marine sediments from off Portugal’s coast that preserve a detailed history of rapid climate and ocean...


Read more at: Panel discussion brings together IPCC authors and reviewer
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Panel discussion brings together IPCC authors and reviewer

28 September 2021

CAMBRIDGE -- the Cambridge Centre for Climate Science and Cambridge Zero today held a panel discussion on the recently published IPCC Working Group I report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis. The panel was chaired by Eric Wolff , Professor and ice core scientist at the Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge...


Read more at: Cambridge paleontologist to run back-to-back races in T-rex costume
Image of a man smiling, wearing an inflatable dinosaur costume and stood inside the Sedgwick Museum

Cambridge paleontologist to run back-to-back races in T-rex costume

21 September 2021

Dr Alex Liu , Lecturer at Cambridge University’s Department of Earth Sciences, will be running in the Cambridge Half Marathon and Town and Gown 10km next month, raising funds for family resources at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. Normally looking for fossils of the earliest known animals – bizarre anemone and worm-...