Department of Earth Sciences

About this community
Research across the whole spectrum of the Earth Sciences, including the areas of Geophysics, Geochemistry, Mineral Sciences, Petrology, Palaeontology, Vulcanism, Marine Sciences, and Palaeoceanography
Earth Sciences is the most multidisciplinary of the Natural Sciences. Our understanding of the Earth and other planets is based on research across the whole spectrum of the Earth Sciences and includes the areas of Geophysics, Geochemistry, Mineral Sciences, Petrology, Palaeontology, Vulcanism, Marine Sciences, Palaeoceanography. We focus on particular aspects of the earth; its internal structure and evolution, the behaviour and properties of minerals as natural materials, oil, gas and other natural resources, Earth history as recorded in rocks and fossils, the origin of life and global climate change. We draw on the expertise of the neighbouring sciences, mathematics, chemistry, physics, material sciences, geography and the biological sciences.
Sub-communities within this community
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Mineral Science
Research focusing on elucidating the properties and behaviour of minerals and fluids at a fundamental level
Collections in this community
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Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems
Using chemical, isotopic and sedimentary proxies of critical parameters to explore the causes and consequences of rapid climate changes in the last glacial cycle -
Geodynamics, Geophysics and Tectonics
Investigation of a very broad spectrum of structural, tectonic and geodynamical processes using quantitative physical models based on land-, marine- and space-based observations -
Palaeobiology
Straddles Earth Sciences and Biology; aims to investigate whether evolution is open-ended and indeterminate, or highly constrained by physico-chemical factors -
Petrology: Igneous, Metamorphic and Volcanic Studies
Research of igneous, metamorphic and volcanic processes to enhance understanding of global tectonics as well as their more immediate impacts on our surficial environment
Recent Submissions
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Geological constraints on Neoproterozoic glacial episodes
Neoproterozoic glacial episodes are amongst the most intense glaciations that the Earth has experienced, and are associated with major changes in the Earth System, such as the breakup of a supercontinent, the evolution of ... -
Sediment chemistry as an archive of provenance and weathering in the Mekong River Basin
The chemical weathering of rocks, in particular silicate weathering, has been proposed to be an important natural carbon-removal process that regulates the Earth’s climate over millions of years. Tectonically active regions, ... -
A heavy stable isotope approach to tracing mantle source and process
The geochemistry of global mantle melts suggests that both mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) and ocean island basalts (OIB) sample lithological heterogeneities originating in both the upper and lower mantle, with recycled ...