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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Mineralogy, Chemistry & Flux of Suspended Sediments in Himalayan Rivers
The flux and composition of river suspended sediments contain valuable information on processes including erosion rates, the composition of the eroded bed rocks, chemical weathering and sediment storage and sorting within ... -
Predicting radioactive waste glass properties with machine learning and modelling
Over several decades, numerous glass dissolution and characterisation experiments have been performed by the nuclear industry, which currently vitrifies its high-level radioactive waste (HLW), ultimately in preparation for ... -
Tectonic earthquake swarms in the Northern Volcanic Zone, Iceland
Microseismicity offers an opportunity to image subsurface deformation at exceptionally high spatial and temporal resolution. This may be related to a diverse range of processes, including fore- and aftershocks to destructive ... -
Marine cycling of neodymium in the South Atlantic and the Southern Oceans
Neodymium (Nd) isotopes have been used as a proxy to trace both modern and palaeo-ocean circulation of the deep ocean which is an important factor controlling the climate. Although there has been widespread utilisation of ...