Department Events

May 2013

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Fri 3rd May 2013
2pm - 3pm
Trinity Term, Wk 2

Granulites, underplating and growth of the continental crust: a paradigm shift in the era of ultrahigh pressure metamorphism
Prof Patrick O'Brien, University of Potsdam

Fri 10th May 2013
2pm - 3pm
Trinity Term, Wk 3

The Earth's redox history and Cyanobacteria evolution: a phylogenomic approach
Dr Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo, University of Bristol

Fri 17th May 2013
2pm - 3pm
Trinity Term, Wk 4

Magma ocean Influence on early atmosphere composition and mass
Prof Marc Hirschmann, University of Minnesota

Fri 24th May 2013
2pm - 3pm
Trinity Term, Wk 5

Bend-Faulting, Serpentinization, and Mantle Recarbonization at Oceanic Trenches
Prof Jason Morgan of Royal Holloway, University of London

Fri 31st May 2013
2pm - 3pm
Trinity Term, Wk 6

From caves to coccoliths: Developing better indicators for past climate change
Dr Heather Stoll, University of Oviedo

Michaelmas 2012
Hilary 2013
Trinity 2013

University of Oxford Events

Oxford University What's On

Department News

Studentship based at Plymouth Marine Laboratory available

Department announces launch of £5.9M research partnership with Shell International

Oxford University has announced that Shell International Exploration and Production B.V. (Shell) has contributed a £5.9m boost to research into natural energy resources at the University's Department of Earth Sciences through support for a new research collaboration and state-of-the-art laboratory.

Read the full press release

Congratulations to Prof Mike Searle on the publication of his latest book, 'Colliding Continents: A geological exploration of the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Tibet'

Congratulations to Professor Mike Searle on the publication of his latest book, 'Colliding Continents: A geological exploration of the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Tibet'

The collision of the Indian late with Asia, the greatest in the last 500 million years of Earth history resulted in the formation of the Himalaya, the Karakoram, Pamir mountain ranges and the uplift of the Tibetan plateau. The Karakoram has half of the world's highest mountains and a reputation as being one of the most remote and savage ranges of all. In this beautifully illustrated book, Mike Searle, a geologist at the University of Oxford and one of the most experienced field geologists of our time, presents a rich account of the geological forces that were involved in creating these mountain ranges. Using his personal accounts of extreme mountaineering and research in the region, he pieces together the geological processes that formed such impressive peaks.

ISBN-10: 0199653003

Congratulations to Prof Gideon Henderson on being elected FRS

Congratulations to Professor Gideon Henderson, Head of Department of earth Sciences, on his election as Fellow of the Royal Society.

Department research in Siberian caves indicates history and future risk of Siberian thawing

Caves point to thawing of Siberia

Evidence from Siberian caves suggests that a global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius could see permanently frozen ground thaw over a large area of Siberia, threatening release of carbon from soils, and damage to natural and human environments.

Read the full press release.

Climate Research in Oxford, 26 Feb 2.00-4.15pm, Sheldonian Theatre

Oceanic cadmium cycle driver found

We are sad to announce the death of former HOD and Professor Emeritus, E. A. David Vincent, aged 93

The Irish at Oxford

Hear our very own Conall Mac Niocaill talking on Irish TV about life at Oxford and his research here.

Comedian Ed Byrne has teamed up with Oxford University scientists, including our own Professor David Pyle, to help explain the science of volcanoes.

In a new animation the stand-up star is the voice of Hank, the computer controlling a mini-submarine that takes viewers deep beneath the ocean to find out how volcanoes are born. Hank is our guide on a fantastic voyage inside a volcano's plumbing system that explores tectonic plates, time travel, and explosions. You can see the video here.

Mighty stalagmite: a rock deep in an Oregon cave delivers record of 13,000 winters

Check out the Oxford Science blog about the paper by Dr Vasile Ersek and colleagues in Nature Communications on Holocene winter climate variability in mid-latitude western North America.

DPhil Open Day, 15 January 2013

Congratulations to Tony Watts for his election as President, Tectonophysics section of the AGU from January 2013.

An update on Santorini – Nature Geosciences paper

Check out the recent Nature Geosciences paper on the Santorini volcano, published by several members of our department and colleagues from elsewhere. Fieldwork was assisted by the 2011 Greek Field Class of the Department and they are cited in the paper for their assistance in the field.

Some nice background from David Pyle on the Santorini study (on which he was a co-author) can be read at: http://volcanicdegassing.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/santorini/

Congratulations to Matt Friedman and Rich Katz on both receiving Philip Leverhulme Prizes.

Congratulations to Helen Pillar and Sam Weatherley for receiving OSP Awards at the EGU annual meeting

Oxford Climate Research Network launched

Congratulations to Emma Nicholson on winning Best Environment & Earth Science Student award at the SET Awards

Emma Nicholson and Tom Harrison are on the shortlist for the Science and Technology student of the year awards

The shortlist has been announced for the 2012 SET Awards and Tom Harrison and Emma Nicholson are finalists for the Earth Science award

Professor Bernard Wood has been awarded the Abraham Gottlob Werner medal

Petermann Glacier Calving Event

An ice island the size of Jersey has broken away from the Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland

Prof. Don Fraser awarded new grant from Leverhulme Foundation to study the role of clay minerals in protein formation and the origins of life

The sequence of events whereby geochemistry became biology counts as the earliest and most enduring puzzle at the physical/life science interface. The challenge in origin of life studies is to discover how this transition occurred. Don Fraser has just been awarded £240,000 by the Leverhulme Trust, jointly with Chris Greenwell in Durham, to investigate the role of hydrous minerals in determining protein formation and biohomochirality – in particular why DNA-coded amino acids in proteins and enzymes are almost 100% L-handed.

Congratulations to William Hutchison and Martin Walter Airey on receiving student awards from GRSG

Oxfordshire's shining light

Best talk at Progressive Palaeontology Meeting for John Clarke

Rise and fall of an underwater volcano revealed - see paper in Nature Geoscience

Three Lectureships available. Deadline for applications: 18 May 2012

Climate Connections: Wolfson Lecture Series

Congratulations to William Hutchison on being awarded The Geologists' Association Curry Prize 2012.

Prof Philip England is the new Chairman for NERC's Science and Innovation Strategy Board

We have received the Athena Swan Silver Award

Nature paper published today

Ancient coral samples shed light on rising sea levels

Emma Nicholson is awarded the Geologist's Association Tupper Prize 2012

Follow us on Twitter

Earth Sciences at Oxfordshire Science Festival, 10 and 17 March

Rock rafts could be 'cradle of life'

Floating rafts of volcanic pumice could have played a significant role in the origins of life on Earth, scientists from Oxford University and the University of Western Australia have suggested.

Earth Science students fitted out for fieldwork thanks to £2500 gift

First-year Earth Science undergraduates got a rare deal this year - getting fully kitted out for field studies for just £5, thanks to a donation from an Earth Sciences alumna.

Volcanoes dragged into chasm in seabed by tectonic action

Professor AB Watts and Dr L Kalnins talk to BBC News about seabed mountain subduction

Discovered: the oldest fossils on Earth

The Earth's oldest fossils have been found in Australia by a team from the University of Western Australia and Oxford University. The microscopic fossils show convincing evidence for cells and bacteria living in an oxygen-free world over 3.4 billion years ago.

Coccolithophore Shells thin as CO2 Rises

A team including Ros Rickaby from Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences, has found strong evidence that as CO2 concentration in seawater increases so calcification decreases and coccolith mass declines.

The findings, reported in a recent Nature paper, suggest that entire communities of marine organisms, such as coral, are threatened by rising CO2 and ocean acidification.

Jaws vs Jawless: Battles for the seas

Research reported in this week's Nature, by a team including Oxford University scientists from the Department of Earth Sciences, investigates the rise of jawed fish and gives us an ideal jumping off point to imagine what a dive through the ancient oceans would be like.

Dr Tamsin Mather - an audio slideshow

Dr Tamsin Mather explains how to unlock the secrets of the world's volcanoes in this audio slideshow.

Loch fossils show life harnessed sun and sex early on

A team of scientists exploring rocks around Loch Torridon have discovered the remarkably preserved remains of organisms that once lived on the bottom of ancient lake beds as long as a billion (1000 million) years ago.

Did clay mould life's origins?

Professor Don Fraser from the Department of Earth Sciences has carried out neutron scattering experiments to try to find out more about the role of geochemistry in determining the origin of our amino acids � key building blocks of life on Earth � and specifically why the DNA-coded amino acids that make up our proteins are all left-handed.

Ancient El Nino clue to future flooding

Dramatic climate swings behind both last year�s Pakistan flooding and this year�s Queensland floods in Australia are likely to continue as the world gets warmer, Earth Scientists predict.

I'm a Scientist: 600 questions later

Professor David Pyle has been taking part in 'I'm a Scientist' - a science engagement activity organised by NERC.

For the full article, please visit the University's Science Blog.

Official Opening of the new building

The new Earth Sciences building was officially opened on Thursday 5th May 2011 by Lord Rees of Ludlow

Annual Alumni Dinner 2011

The 2011 Earth Sciences Alumni Dinner was held on Friday 13th May, at University College.

Attended by over 100 Alumni, the dinner included a 50th Anniversary reunion of the 1960 matriculation year. Dr Bryan Lovell (New College, 1960), the President of the Geological Society of London, provided our after dinner speech.

For more information about the Earth Sciences Alumni programme, please visit www.earth.ox.ac.uk/alumni or contact the Alumni Relations Officer, Hannah Jackson.

Next year's dinner will be held on Friday 4th May, at St Peter's College - more details will be announced in the coming months.

Preliminary InSAR Observations for Christchurch Earthquake

Following the recent earthquake to hit Christchurch, a satellite radar interferogram of the land deformation due to this large, shallow event has been produced.

New Head of Department for Earth Sciences

We are pleased to announce that Professor John Woodhouse will be succeeding Professor Philip England as Head of Department from January 2011

COMET releases initial satellite and field measurements of the Christchurch New Zealand Earthquake

On the 4th of September 2010, a large magnitude 7 earthquake struck the South Island of New Zealand, west of the largest city of the Island, Christchurch. COMET+ researchers, in collaboration with field geologists in New Zealand, are measuring the ground displacements due to this event in order to investigate the rupture on this previously unrecognised fault.

Earth Sciences moves to new home

On the 20th September 2010, the Department of Earth Sciences was handed the keys to the New Earth Sciences Building.

InSAR Image shows Volcanic uplift in the Great Rift Valley

Satellite measurements offer an opportunity to study magmatic activity beneath the East African Rift on the plate-boundary scale.

Oxford Earth Sciences at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition

A team from Earth Sciences are helping to put on an exhibit called 'Fast and Furious: Witnessing the Birth of Africa's New Ocean' up at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

Electrically charged ash found in Eyjafjallajkulls plume, say UK researchers

In the first peer-reviewed scientific paper to be published about the Icelandic volcano since its eruption in April 2010, UK researchers from the universities of Reading, Hertfordshire and Oxford, write that the ash plume which hovered over Scotland carried a significant and self-renewing electric charge.

Exhibition of Chengjiang fossils opens at University Museum of Natural History

the Chengjiang fossils from Yunnan, China, on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, in the first major exhibition of these fossils outside China.

The exhibition runs from 18th May to 14th November 2010

Two fully funded NERC tied studentships available

Two fully funded NERC Tied Studentships are still available. Closing date for these studentships is Friday 2nd July 2010.

Volcanic ash falls on Oxford

Oxfordshire residents may have noticed a thin film of grime that coated cars and windows overnight on Thursday April 15th, and the haziness of the skies over the weekend. Both effects are due to the volcanic ash being emitted from the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull.

Fossils net plankton-eating giant

Giant plankton-eating fishes roamed the prehistoric seas for over 100 million years before they were wiped out in the same event that killed off the dinosaurs, new fossil evidence has shown.

Fossils show earliest animal trails

Trails found in rocks dating back 565 million years are thought to be the earliest evidence of animal locomotion ever found.

Haiti Earthquake Preliminary Findings

COMET+ researchers are investigating the ground deformation associated with the devastating recent Haiti earthquake using satellite radar measurements. They hope to more accurately locate the fault that ruptured in this event in order to improve our understanding of faulting and seismic hazard.

Search for ice sheet 'tipping point'

A new study examines how ice sheets, such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, could become unstable as the world warms.

The team from Oxford University and Cambridge University developed a model to explore how changes in the �grounding line� � where an ice sheet floats free from its base of rock or sediment � could lead to the disintegration of ice sheets and result in a significant rise in global sea level.

Fossil webs snagged dinosaurs

Martin Brasier of Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences has shown that amber found by amateur dinosaur hunters contains threads of the world's oldest spider webs - webs that were spun 140 million years ago.

Flatfish: solving Darwin's puzzle

Research on the fossil record by vertebrate palaeontologist Matt Friedman shows how the strange bodyplan of modern flatfish evolved.

COMET+ researchers pinpoint fault responsible for the recent L'Aquila earthquake

COMET+ researchers have used satellite data to pinpoint the fault responsible for the recent L'Aquila earthquake, and have used their results to evaluate seismic hazard in the region.

L'Aquila Earthquake Preliminary Fault Model Released

Preliminary fault model for the L'Aquila Earthquake released by Department of Earth Sciences, National Centre for Earth Observation

Oxford University Top for Geology

Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences has been ranked in first place by the Good Universities Guide for 2009.

Recent Awards

John Elliott awarded Lloyd's Research Prize

Congratulations to Dr Hugh Jenkyns on receiving the Capellini Medal of the Italian Geological Society for 2012

Congratulations to Sam Weatherley, who has won an Outstanding Student Poster award from the European Geosciences Union

Congratulations to Prof Ros Rickaby who has been awarded the Gast Lectureship