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Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol

Earth Sciences is a truly interdisciplinary subject that seeks to understand the structure and history of our planet, and to predict the future of the Earth, atmosphere and oceans.

In both teaching and research, our focus is on the physical processes that formed and now influence the Earth, and on testing hypotheses by observation, experiment and modelling. The quality of our research is recognised internationally, as well as nationally (in 2008 we were ranked in the top 5 UK Earth and Environmental Sciences for research by the Higher Education Funding Council for England).

Earth Sciences is part of the University of Bristol's Faculty of Science, which has a long and distinguished history and whose current teaching and research places it amongst the best in the UK. We enjoy active collaboration with other departments of high repute at Bristol, including Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Geographical Sciences, and Archaeology and Anthropology.

Situated at the heart of a bustling and vibrant city, the School of Earth Sciences at Bristol is an exciting and attractive place to work or study. Its BSc, MSci and MSc graduates are sought after by key employers, but many go on to postgraduate study. Of those who take jobs, 95% are in graduate-level employment within 6 months (source: www.unistats.com).

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Royal Society January 2012 - €3.5m for research into volcanic unrest

A collaborative research project that could significantly improve our understanding of the processes behind volcanic unrest and our ability to forecast its outcomes has been awarded almost €3.5 million by the European Commission.
The project – 'Volcanic unrest in Europe and Latin America: Phenomenology, eruption precursors, hazard forecast, and risk mitigation (VUELCO)' – is coordinated by Dr Jo Gottsmann.

Royal Society December 2011 - Chinese fossils shed light on the evolutionary origin of animals from single-cell ancestors

Evidence of the single-celled ancestors of animals, dating from the interval in the Earth's history just before multicellular animals appeared, has been discovered in 570 million-year-old rocks from South China by researchers from the University of Bristol, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, the Paul Scherrer Institut and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.

Royal Society December 2011 - Global sea surface temperature dataset provides new measure of climate sensitivity.

Scientists at the Universities of Bristol and Southampton have developed important new insight into climate sensitivity – the sensitivity of global temperature to changes in the Earth's radiation balance – over the last half million years.
Climate sensitivity is a key parameter for understanding past natural climate changes as well as potential future climate change.

Royal Society September 2011 - CT scanning shows how ants build without an architect

Ant nests are some of the most remarkable structures in nature. Their relative size is rivalled only by our own skyscrapers but there is no architect or blueprint. Instead they are built collectively, through self-organization and the local interactions of ants with one another and their environment. So, how do ants decide what and where to build?
To answer these questions, geologist Dr Nicholas Minter, archaeologist Dr Kate Robson Brown, and biologist Professor Nigel Franks used high-resolution CT scanning to obtain repeated three-dimensional images of ant nests throughout their excavation.

Royal Society September 2011 - Minerals from ocean-floor rocks found in ultra-deep diamonds

Mineral inclusions discovered in diamonds prove that surface rocks can be subducted into the deep part of the Earth's mantle. The isotopic composition of the diamonds confirms that recycling of crustal materials, including carbon, extends into the lower mantle.

Royal Society September 2011 - Bristol academics win Wolfson Merit awards

Professor Jon Blundy is one of two Bristol academics to have won coveted Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Awards in the latest funding round.
Jon won the award for a project on 'Magmatic differentiation in the Earth's crust'. The project will use a combination of fieldwork, geochemistry, geophysics, petrology and numerical modelling to understand the processes and timescales over which Earth's continental crust has formed.

Last updated: 09/01/12