Acting globally, expanding locally

Discovering how volatile metals from volcanoes are found in polar ice cores, investigating evidence of the biggest meteorite ever to hit the British Isles and explaining what speleothems (stalagmites and stalactites in caves) can tell us about past climates: these are just three examples of research by members of the University’s Department of Earth Sciences to inspire international attention in the past year. But in June, it was a news announcement about a development much closer to home that highlighted the University’s commitment to the subject in the 21st century. 

Earth Sciences at Oxford is one of the world leaders in its field, with a research agenda spanning billions of years from the very beginnings of the Earth itself to present-day issues of past and future climate change. ‘Our subject has expanded enormously in the past few decades,’ explained Professor Philip England, Head of the Department, ‘allowing earth scientists to apply a wide range of scientific tools to topics as diverse as the origin and evolution of the solar system, the past and future of the climate system, the biology and chemistry of the oceans, natural hazards and environmental change.’

Currently, more than 120 people undertake teaching and research across a wide range of fields in geology, geophysics, geochemistry, climate and the environment, but the ever-increasing scope of the department has stretched the current building to its limit. This year, planning permission was granted for a new purpose-built centre on the site of the old central Chemistry block on South Parks Road. It will provide the department with state-of-the-art facilities, including laboratories, offices, teaching rooms and ‘interaction space’, which, says Professor England, ‘is very important for a multidisciplinary department like ours.’

Hailed as ‘the flagship for Oxford University’s redevelopment of its science area’, the new Earth Sciences Building project has received a significant donation from Gareth Roberts, the President and CEO of independent oil and gas company Denbury Resources Inc. A graduate of the department and honorary fellow of St Edmund Hall, Mr Roberts is a long-standing advocate of Earth Sciences at Oxford. ‘He has been a tremendous supporter, helping us in all sorts of ways’, says Professor England.

The new building will be home to the increasing number of academics working in Earth Sciences on subjects which, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr John Hood has said, ‘provide the foundations for society’s response to global change, to natural hazards and to pressure on natural resources’. This includes research on volcanic eruptions and earthquake hazards, and the work of Professor Stephen Hesselbo and colleagues using modern geochemical techniques in the study of past environments. The extra space in the new building will allow the Palaeobiology group to move back in with the rest of the department, a development that, according to Professor Martin Brasier, ‘means we can participate more fully in the multidisciplinary discussions which are the life-blood of Earth Sciences’. They will join the department’s geophysicists, including Professor Shamita Das, who uses the information stored in seismograms to investigate how earthquakes rupture huge areas of the Earth; Professor Barry Parsons, who leads the Dynamic Earth group of the National Centre for Earth Observation hosted at Oxford; and Professor Bernie Wood, a recent addition to the Earth Sciences team at Oxford, who explained: ‘The opportunity to work with world-class geophysical and geochemical scientists in a new purpose-built facility is a major attraction.’

The geochemists include Professor Alex Halliday, whose research investigates isotopic systems that became extinct during the violent early history of the solar system; Professor Gideon Henderson, who is developing new tools for the chemical detection of the signature of past climate changes (including the ground-breaking work on climate records in speleothems); and Dr Ros Rickaby, who has recently received a significant grant from the EU to investigate the coevolution of phytoplankton and the carbon cycle.

‘As the scope of the subject expands, so does the number of students and academics we attract,’ explained Professor England, whose own research has recently won a major grant as part of its work with the National Centre for Earth Observation. ‘Our 08/09 cohort of undergraduates is the largest we have ever had.’

Earth Sciences maintains a strong link between its research and teaching responsibilities. As recent international study noted, its research programme enriches its undergraduate teaching. Fieldwork (as postgraduate student Ed Nissen emphasises on these pages) is an essential component of studies here. The department is also committed to outreach activities. Dr Tamsin Mather, Research Councils UK Fellow in Physics and Chemistry of the Earth and Environment, whose research won her a L’Oréal UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science this year, commented: ‘We want to convey the excitement of the subject to school children, who often are unaware of the fascinating ways in which physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics illuminate our understanding of the Earth and our environment.’

Whether it’s studying stalagmites deep in China’s Heshang caves or sampling volcano fumes high up on Mount Etna in Sicily, investigating the impact of a meteorite that hit Scotland 1.2 billion years ago or mapping current earthquake ruptures in Mongolia to predict likely patterns of activity for the future, Oxford’s earth scientists are certainly doing their fair share of illuminating.