News

Congratulations to Professor Helen Williams on being elected a Geochemistry Fellow of the European Association of Geochemistry and The Geochemical Society.The Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry established the honorary title of Geochemistry Fellow to be bestowed upon outstanding scientists who have, over some years, ma…

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey have uncovered the first direct evidence that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrunk suddenly and dramatically at the end of the Last Ice Age, around eight thousand years ago.The evidence, contained within an ice core, shows that in one location the ice sheet thinned by 450 …

Researchers from the universities of Western Australia and Cambridge have uncovered the importance of hydrothermal vents, similar to modern day black smokers, in supplying minerals that may have been a key ingredient in the emergence of early life. The study, published in Science Advances, examined 3.5-billion-year-old rocks from western Australia …

As our climate warms Britain’s weather is becoming ever more extreme: with heatwaves and heavy rainfall events increasingly frequent and severe. In Scotland, winter precipitation has increased by 20% since the 1960s, and this upward trend looks set to intensify.A group of scientists from the University of Cambridge and British Antarctic Survey inve…

Some of the most dramatic landforms on Earth — from majestic fold mountains to deep ocean trenches — are created at plate boundaries. But sometimes topographic features cannot be explained by plate tectonics alone. Cambridge Earth Sciences’ Philippa Slay, PhD student with Nicky White, is investigating evidence for topographic anomalies — called ‘dy…

Minerals present in the Venusian atmosphere could explain the colour and splotchiness of the planet’s clouds in the UV range say Cambridge researchers, solving a long-standing mystery. Scientists know that Venus' clouds are mainly composed of sulfuric acid droplets with some water, chlorine, and iron — a mix that varies with height in the thick and…

You might think Earth’s deep and rocky interior is relatively featureless but, three thousand kilometres beneath our feet, enigmatic structures akin to colossal mountain ranges rise from the edge of the planet’s core.“It’s anything but boring down there,” said Carl Martin, who has just completed his PhD in the Department of Earth Sciences, “these f…

The Cambridge Volcano Seismology Group are livestreaming earthquake data from Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula for the public to watch online in real-time.Earlier in November, a vast sheet of magma pierced through rocks beneath the Peninsula — triggering seismic shaking and forcing evacuations from the coastal town of Grindavík. Scientists are now mon…

A new MPhil in Quantitative Climate and Environmental Science will equip scientists with skills to work with environmental data and address the myriad challenges associated with climate change. Applications are now open, with the first cohort starting in October 2024. The 10-month cross-departmental programme, hosted by the School of the Physical S…

Rob Theodore, Exhibitions and Displays Coordinator at the Sedgwick Museum, has been interested in the natural world since he moved from Greater London to the Cambridgeshire Fens when he was four. Rob puts his love of all things palaeontology down to a book, the ‘Sainsbury’s Book of Dinosaurs’, which his dad gave him soon after they moved.Now Rob ge…

Cambridge Earth Science’s Professors Sally Gibson and Sergei Lebedev have been awarded a £1 million NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant to explore the processes that create rare earth metals needed for modern technology. Rare earth elements are used in anything from smartphones and computers to products needed for green energy technologies — including…

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Institut of Teknologi Bundung, in Indonesia, are working together to understand earthquake risk at the site of Indonesia’s new capital city, which is being relocated from Jakarta to Nusantra, in Indonesian Borneo. Their work could help build the new city in a way that is protected from earthquake…

Following a swarm of earthquakes on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, the country is now on high alert over a possible eruption. There have been three eruptions in the Reykjanes area in the last three years: one in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Scientists are carefully watching the unfolding seismic activity and ground deformation, which is a symptom of magma …

For alumni especially, James Jackson is one of the best-known and most energetic members of the Earth Sciences department, and so it comes as a surprise to find that he has reached the official retirement age for academics. Here, the even older Nigel Woodcock looks back on James’s teaching, research and administrative career, and finds out what his…

This half term, visitors to Cambridge’s Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences will get a chance to listen in on the mesmerising and eerie sounds of our planet. The family-friendly installation and activities are free and will run from the 24th October to the 4th November. Conversations between whales in the oceans, the low throb of ships engines, burst…