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24th June 2025

Rocking Around Arran: Cambridge First-Year Earth Sciences Field Trip 2025

“If I were to be trapped on a remote island by an all-powerful geologist for a week, Arran would be near the top of my list for the sheer range and beauty of its history. Trekking across the coast with hand-lens and friends close by was truly memorable and even more so when Ed Tipper used his extensive skillset to try convince us that crinoids grew to the size of a small town.” (Shifat, 1^st year Natural Sciences student)

After weeks of lectures, practicals, and plenty of prep back in Cambridge, the long-anticipated first-year undergraduate field trip to the Isle of Arran finally began! This week-long geological journey took us across 600 million years of Earth’s history—from the late Precambrian to the Palaeogene—packed into one spectacular island off the west coast of Scotland.

14th May 202514th May 2025

A Field Journey through the Messinian Salinity Crisis and Beyond

During the Easter holidays, 31 Part III Earth Science students and 8 demonstrators travelled to southeastern Spain (Almería) for the students’ final fieldtrip. The region’s complex geology offered something special for everyone. Over six days in the field, we moved through geological time and explored the diverse environments—from metamorphic basements and Miocene reef outcrops, to orbitally paced sedimentary cycles and gypsum beds, and on to turbidite deposits, volcanic centres, and strike-slip fault zones.

28th April 2025

The origins of our orbicular granite

Once a year, a peculiar, polished slab of rock is hauled down from its home on a windowsill near the 1A lab and propped up on the lawn against a row of knees for the annual Sedgwick Club photo. The slab, with its striking black and white circular patterns, has featured in most annual photos in the past 60 years.

2nd April 2025

History and future of stone use in Cambridge

The time sequence of building stone use in Cambridge shows the competing influences of function, fashion and finance in the city’s historic fabric. Now natural stone is poised for a resurgence because of its strength, durability and low embodied carbon.

11th March 2025

In Conversation with Marie Edmonds

Marie Edmonds, Professor of Volcanology and Petrology, was both an undergraduate and postgraduate in Cambridge from 1994-2001 and has been a lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences since 2006. Marie reflects on her career and new role as Head of Department with Erin Martin-Jones.

4th February 2025

Listening in on the pulse of a mantle plume: IMPULSE Expedition 2024

Last summer, Cambridge PhD students Callum Pearman, Aisling Dunn and Philippa Slay joined an international scientific cruise to take the pulse of the Iceland mantle plume. Callum describes the science behind the expedition in the blog post below.

6th January 2025

Unlocking the carbon-capture potential of kelp forests

Cambridge Earth Sciences PhD student Zhenna Azimrayat Andrews visited the Ocean Rainforest Inc.’s (ORI) pilot kelp farm, off the California coast, last summer. The results Zhenna gathered alongside an international team will help her construct model simulations of carbon capture using kelp farms. Zhenna reports on her fieldwork here.

9th December 2024

Exploring water flow paths in Nepal

Sitting on the ridge top, looking over the expanse of rice paddies dotted with villages, and views down the valley for miles, it’s easy to be captivated by the rural landscape of Nepal.

We’d come to the Melamchi Valley, a few hours outside Kathmandu, to continue fieldwork exploring spring flow paths and their implications for silicate weathering and carbon drawdown in the Himalayas. Our team included us (Zara and Gio, Part III students), trip leader Ed Tipper, PhD student (now successful Dr) Al Knight and two university students from Kathmandu.

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