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Could slag from steel production be used to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and fight global warming? Over the last decade, scientists have been exploring whether slag heaps can hoover up and lock away carbon dioxide through a process known as sequestration. Research presented at this year’s Goldschmidt conference explores the carbon cap…

An ancient patch of rock lying beneath the English Midlands and South Wales is giving scientists a window into the processes happening deep below mountain ranges like the Himalayas.  The analysis of rocks from the so-called Midlands Microcraton reveals how anomalous chunks of thick, strong rock in Earth’s outer layer can shape mountain chains. The …

A geophysicist from Cambridge Earth Sciences is part of an international expedition that will drill beneath the seabed near Iceland in order to investigate how the slow stirring of the Earth’s deep interior affects the surface we live on.The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) expedition will target the flanks of the Reykjanes Ridge, where…

Research led by PhD student Olivia Hogg explores how the water content of magma can impact the formation of ore deposits around volcanoes.The results, published last month in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, show that magma containing more water is most likely to produce the metal-rich fluids essential for ore formation.Most of the metals we us…

As the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, finds new research published today in Nature Geoscience.The study, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University Centre in Svalbard, Norway, identified large st…

We are thrilled to congratulate Helen Williams, Jerome Neufeld, Sanne Cottaar, Daniel Field and Oli Shorttle on their promotions to Professor. The promotion recognises their valuable contributions to research and teaching in the Department of Earth Sciences and across the wider University.Helen joined the Department in 2016. Her research explores h…

Trees were making a clear impact on the landscape as far back as the Late Devonian, around 360 million years ago, according to a new study from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences.The researchers studied fossil trees preserved at Ireland’s oldest fossil forest site, in County Wexford. The fossilized remains show that trees influenced rivers by…

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies have discovered that variations in the thickness of tectonic plates relate directly to the distribution of earthquakes in Britain, Ireland and around the world. The study also solves an enduring mystery as to why small earthquakes happen frequently in Britain…

Intricate whorls, pastel pigments and iridescent interiors. Seashells are one of the wonders of the ocean world. But, aside from a beachcomber’s souvenir and home for a living creature, shells are also a messenger of environmental change — foretelling the impacts of warming seas and ocean acidification. After decades of study, the exact process beh…

A special issue of ‘The Depositional Record’, a journal of the International Association of Sedimentologists, celebrates the work of Cambridge Earth Sciences’ Dr Tony Dickson.Tony Dickson, who joined the Department of Earth Sciences in 1981, is known not only for his legacy of innovative research on carbonate diagenesis, but also for his contributi…

Around 500 million years ago life in the oceans rapidly diversified. In the blink of an eye — at least in geological terms — life transformed from simple, soft-bodied creatures to complex multicellular organisms with shells and skeletons.Now, research led by the University of Cambridge has shown that the diversification of life at this time also le…

Plagioclase feldspars are one of the most common and abundant mineral groups in Earth's crust — and that means they are also one of the most frequently studied minerals. Clues locked away in these crystals can provide information on a range of broad geological questions from, for instance, the processes that triggered a volcanic eruption or the rou…

New research involving Cambridge University has found evidence — locked into an ancient stalagmite from a cave in the Himalayas — of a series of severe and lengthy droughts which may have upturned the Bronze Age Indus Civilization.The beginning of this arid period — starting at around 4,200 years ago and lasting for over two centuries — coincides w…

Scientists have known for centuries that birds have hollow bones, but the exact benefits of this trait — from making them lighter for flight to even helping them breathe more efficiently — have been relatively understudied.   Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge have used high-resolution CT scans to digitally dissect the bones of sixty…

Underwater waves deep below the ocean’s surface – some as tall as 500 metres – play an important role in how the ocean stores heat and carbon, according to new research. An international team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and the University of California San Diego, quantified the effect of these waves…