By the mid-19th century Oxford's handful of scientists backed the opening of a new museum to accommodate its natural history collections and to provide facilities for teaching and research in the sciences. Geology and Mineralogy were given research and office space within museum and occupied them until 1949.
By the 1940s it was obvious that Geology and Mineralogy had outgrown their current rooms in the museum and in 1949 a new building was opened. Up until this time, Oxford's Geology had been mostly confined to the classic fields of historical geology and palaeontology; Mineralogy had been catered for separately. With the move to the new building, the two subjects were amalgamated to the Department of Geology and Mineralogy.
Over the next few decades the Department focused more on research with subjects that focused on petrology and the newly emerging field of geochemistry. Staff and student numbers grew steadily and the Department began to acquire a high reputation, nationally and internationally. This enhanced reputation was materially helped by the establishment in the Department of the first laboratory in Britain for geochronology and isotope geochemistry.
Through the 1960s to the 1980s the Department started to broaden the active research base by encouraging sedimentology, structural geology and, latterly, geophysics as part of the curriculum. New lectureships in applied geology and in geophysics were created, and the formerly independent study of geodesy was allocated to the Department.
In 2010 the Department moved to a new purpose-built building on South Parks Road. The Department’s airy and innovative new building was one of the priorities of Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford.
Architecturally striking, the atrium of the department features a ‘narrative wall’ of Clipsham stone. Beige and gold Jura limestone are laid in horizontal bands with ticks of Purbeck feather, designed to replicate the belted formation of rock strata. Labs occupy one wing, with offices for academics and research students in the other. Heating and ventilation is provided by a ground source energy system, saving 200 tonnes of CO2 per year. Rainwater from the roof, and waste water within the system, is channelled through the building to underground aquifers, which slowly release water at seepage rate to ensure zero run-off.
The new building was paid for in part by a generous gift from alumnus Gareth Roberts, who studied geology at St Edmund Hall in 1971. A donation from the Wolfson Foundation helped provide for a suite of geochemistry labs containing a range of mass spectrometers. As a flagship building for the University’s science area, the building helped us attract excellent students and staff, and ensures that the Department is now the largest, most vibrant we have ever been.
Faculty and researchers demonstrate expertise across many areas of the Earth Sciences. Our aim is to conceive and conduct world-leading research into the processes that shape the formation and history of the solid earth, its oceans and atmosphere, and examine their mutual interactions and effect on the earth’s environment and biosphere. Much of this work is interdisciplinary, and is driven by interaction with collaborators across the physical, and increasingly, the social sciences.
Earth Sciences is now an interdisciplinary applied science department housed in state of the art facilities. The department is home to around 145 undergraduate students, 80 graduate students, 30 lecturers, 50 researchers and 22 administrative and technical support staff. With 94% of its research activity classified as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, the Department is one of the leading centres of geological research in the UK.
