News

The WArm Climate Stability of West Antarctic ice sheet in the last INterglacial (WACSWAIN) project, led by Cambridge Earth Sciences' Professor Eric Wolff, aims to understand the possible collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Last Interglacial (roughly 120,000 years ago). This time period is when scientists think it was last as warm as…

International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on achievements and progress made, recognize challenges and focus greater attention on women’s rights and achieving equal opportunity status in all walks of life. We look back over a year of research news and blog posts from women in our Department; from graduate students to lecturers and staff at the …

A new way of dating collisions between asteroids and planetary bodies throughout our Solar System’s history could help scientists reconstruct how and when planets were born. The research, which was led by the University of Cambridge, combined dating and microscopic analysis of the Chelyabinsk meteorite — which fell to Earth and hit headlines in 201…

The Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry have awarded Professor Marie Edmonds with the title of Geochemistry Fellow.In total sixteen geochemists were recognised this year. The award was established in 1996 to honour outstanding scientists who have, over the years, made a major contribution to the field. The awards will b…

Cambridge’s Geology for Global Development network met on Friday 11 February for their inaugural mini-conference, highlighting how research in the Department is helping realize the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Geology for Global Development is a charity set up to champion the role of geology in sustainable development. Cambridge was one…

Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February), a celebration of women and girls in science led by UNESCO and UN-Women.We celebrate by bringing together stories from women researchers across our Department, highlighting the variety of roles within Earth Sciences. We asked our researchers what pieces of equipment or items the…

A new study has uncovered the mechanisms that help Arctic mussels cope with environmental stress caused by climate change. The research, published in the journal Genes, observed how the blue mussel Mytilus edulis turns on and off genetic switches in response to human-induced impacts like rising air temperature and changing seawater salinity. By reg…

Today, in the middle of the North African desert, hundreds of metres or more above sea level, lie fossilized fish and sea snake remains – a memory of when this area of land was once submerged underwater. Geological evidence like this tells us that the landscape of the African continent has been uplifted significantly over the last 30 million years.…

Scientists have shown how the freezing of a ‘slushy’ ocean of magma may be responsible for the composition of the Moon’s crust. The scientists, from the University of Cambridge and the Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon, have proposed a new model of crystallisation, where crystals remained suspended in liquid magma over hundreds of millions of years …

For the first time, addressing some of humanity's most fundamental questions on the origin and nature of life in the Universe is within the grasp of modern science. With a £10 million grant awarded by the Leverhulme Trust, the University of Cambridge is to establish a new interdisciplinary research centre dedicated to life in the Universe and led b…

A new study shows it’s theoretically possible. The hypothesis could be tested soon with proposed Venus-bound missions.It’s hard to imagine a more inhospitable world than our closest planetary neighbour. With an atmosphere thick with carbon dioxide, and a surface hot enough to melt lead, Venus is a scorched and suffocating wasteland where life as we…

The largest-ever fossil of a giant millipede – as big as a car – has been found on a beach in the north of England.The fossil – the remains of a creature called Arthropleura – dates from the Carboniferous Period, about 326 million years ago, over 100 million years before the Age of Dinosaurs. The fossil reveals that Arthropleura was the largest-kno…

Cambridge University astrochemist and experimental physicist Dr Paul Rimmer of the Department of Earth Sciences has been selected to receive the Stanley L. Miller Early Career Award from the International Society of the Study of the Origin of Life. The award is provided in recognition of his outstanding contributions to origins of life research.“Th…

New Guinea rests on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is therefore highly vulnerable to natural hazards, including earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. One of the most seismically complex areas on Earth, the Island experiences over a hundred earthquakes each year of magnitude five or greater.Although the onset of these hazards is often sudden, …

Earth’s magnetic field — the invisible shield created by dense liquids churning in Earth’s core — plays a key role in making our planet habitable. Without it, we would be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and our atmosphere would, quite simply, float away into space. But how did Earth get its magnetic field, whilst other planets like Venus a…