3 Apr 2025
Study of ice-flow physics will improve predictions of ice sheet movement
A new study involving scientists from the University of Cambridge has developed innovative methods to build a better picture of how ice sheets and glaciers move. Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka-led study used previously collected lab data to refine knowledge of how ice sheets deform as they…
1 Apr 2025
Department and Museum hold Earth Sciences Fair
The Sedgwick Museum and the Department of Earth Sciences hosted an Earth Sciences Fair on Saturday, 29th March, as part of the Cambridge Festival Family Weekend.Visitors had the chance to meet Earth scientists and explore their research through fun, hands-on activities.Highlights included an opportunity to hold Antarctic ice and hear its ancient ai…
26 Mar 2025
Read our latest issue of GeoCam magazine
The latest issue of GeoCam is here—and it's packed with exciting updates! Dive into our alumni magazine and meet our new Head of Department, explore fascinating insights from current and former students, and uncover groundbreaking research alongside the latest happenings at the Sedgwick Museum.Latest GeoCam issue, click on image to view:Inside this…
25 Mar 2025
Listen to the hidden music of minerals and crystals
A Cambridge earth scientist and a data sonification expert from Anglia Ruskin University are transforming mineral data into music for the public to enjoy at the Cambridge Festival.By converting microscope images of minerals into musical compositions, Dr Carrie Soderman from Cambridge and Dr Domenico Vincinanza from Anglia Ruskin aim to inspire a de…
5 Mar 2025
New research reveals how deep ocean water delivers heat to Antarctic ice shelves
Scientists have pinpointed the key factors that allow pockets of warm seawater to flow beneath the Antarctic ice shelves, melting the ice from below and destabilizing glaciers inland.The research, led by the University of Cambridge, used a remarkably detailed model simulation to show how seasonal changes in wind strength and sea ice, together with …
27 Feb 2025
New global map promises to better pinpoint vital rare earth deposits
Cambridge geoscientists are developing an atlas that could lead to a more complete understanding of how viable rare earth element deposits form and help locate more secure sources, by mapping the global distribution of critical metals deposits within unusual igneous rocks.Rare earth elements are vital components in many everyday and high-tech devic…
13 Feb 2025
Research pinpoints triggers and impacts of catastrophic lake outburst flood
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 3rd, 2023, a large glacial lake in Sikkim, northeastern India, broke its banks and unleashed a cat…
4 Feb 2025
New exhibition takes visitors on a journey to the centre of Iceland’s volcanoes
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 Earth.The exhibit, ‘Magma Ris…
29 Jan 2025
Ancient Antarctic ice offers insights into future climate scenarios
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 West Antarctic Ice Sheet dur…
27 Jan 2025
Scientists investigate volcanic pollution during the 2021 Tajogaite eruption, La Palma
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 buildings were destroyed, 7,000 peo…
22 Jan 2025
Turning source to sink: can the Fens help combat climate change?
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 economically valuable farm…
21 Jan 2025
Researchers deal a blow to theory that Venus once had liquid water on its surface
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 interior is too dry today for t…
9 Jan 2025
Momentous ice core drilling campaign retrieves 1.2 million-year-old ice
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 undertook the drilling campaign at…
6 Jan 2025
Unlocking the carbon-capture potential of kelp forests
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 than on land plants, cult…
4 Dec 2024
Nicola Skipper shortlisted for professional services award
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 the Museum. The project bro…