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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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,writingin the journalNature Communications, say that legacy plastics, th…

In a recent study, scientists found evidence that long-term changes in tropical weather patterns are leading to more frequent weather extremes in the Indo-Pacific. This region is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, being home to over a billion people, as well as unique and vulnerable ecosystems.Cambridge geophysicist Adriano G…

The Department of Earth Sciences is pleased to announce that it will be hosting a series of new PhD studentships, starting from October 2025. The new Cambridge Research Experience and Advanced Training for Environmental Scientists (CREATES) Doctoral Landscape Award (DLA) unites the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey as hosts f…

A ‘one of a kind’ fossil discovery could transform our understanding of how the unique brains and intelligence of modern birds evolved, one of the most enduring mysteries of vertebrate evolution. Researchers have identified a remarkably well-preserved fossil bird, roughly the size of a starling, from the Mesozoic Era. The complete skull has been pr…

Researchers have used the chemical fingerprints of zinc contained in meteorites to determine the origin of volatile elements on Earth. The results suggest that without ‘unmelted’ asteroids, there may not have been enough of these compounds on Earth for life to emerge.Volatiles are elements or compounds that change into vapour at relatively low temp…

As the new academic year begins, we welcome Marie Edmonds in her new role as Head of Department. Marie is Professor of Volcanology and Petrology, and Ron Oxburgh Fellow in Earth Sciences at Queens’ College, Cambridge. She succeeds Professor Rich Harrison, who led our Department over the last five years; ensuring our teaching and research continued …

Researchers have discovered that seabirds, including penguins and albatrosses, have highly-sensitive regions in their beaks that could be used to help them find food. This is the first time this ability has been identified in seabirds. An international team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, studied over 350 species of modern birds…

Dive to the bottom of the icy ocean that envelops Antarctica and the critter you’re most likely to encounter are echinoderms: a family of marine animals that includes the star fish, sea urchin and the warty, vegetable-like sea cucumber. Many species of Antarctic echinoderm are unique to the region, having lived untouched for millions of years in th…