Geoscience Africa
We aim to understand the geology, georesources, climate, hydrology and landscapes of critical regions in Africa, and to analyse how natural resources can be best harnessed for sustainable development.
We bring together African geoscience expertise in the Earth and Environmental Sciences with local partners and collaborators to meet the geoscientific challenges of Africa.
Africa is a very special continent. It features some of Earth’s oldest rocks, largest mineral and hydrocarbon deposits, and most extreme climates and environments. It is the cradle of humankind but has been particularly severely ravaged by colonialism since the 17th century.
As a UK institution, we see it as a privilege, but also a particular responsibility, to contribute cross-disciplinary solutions to the continued development of the earth and environmental sciences in Africa. Particular areas of focus for us include mineral and hydrocarbon resources, hydrology, paleoclimates, natural hazards and geoscience education and training.
Aims
We aim to understand the geology, georesources, climate, hydrology and landscapes of critical regions in Africa, and to analyse how natural resources can be best harnessed for sustainable development.
Research
Economic geology
We use our state-of-the art analytical instruments to unravel the origin of some of the world’s largest deposits of minerals and hydrocarbons, and to develop improved methods for sustainable and non-invasive exploration. Deposit types of particular focus include magmatic Platinum-group element (PGE)-Ni-Cu and gold deposits, studied in more than a dozen countries within southern, central and west Africa.
Hydrology
We are working with partners across East Africa (including the Horn of Africa) and Central Africa to understand and predict water availability in dryland regions to support community-centred adaptation and resilience to climate change. Our work includes all aspects of the terrestrial water cycle and its interactions with society and ecology. Better understanding of present-day climate-hydrological interactions also enables us to explore how variable water availability influenced human evolution and dispersal in the region.
Paleoclimate
We apply a range of paleoclimate proxies, which tell us about past climatic and environmental variables such as terrestrial temperature, vegetation, precipitation and rainfall seasonality, sea surface temperature, wind patterns, river runoffs and the terrestrial and marine landscape. These coupled marine-terrestrial reconstructions are being used to understand the role climate had in shaping the evolution of new adaptations, the origin and extinction of early hominin species, and the emergence and livelihoods of our species, Homo sapiens.
Natural hazards
Together with partners in Malawi we study fault systems in the southern East African Rift. These faults have the potential for hosting large and damaging earthquakes, and we map the location, orientation, and extent of active faults to constrain seismic hazard.
Geoscience education
We are working with partners including United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the African Union, the World Bank and major mining companies to develop and deliver online courses in prospectivity and sustainability mapping, to prepare graduates for roles in the minerals sector, and the development of industrial minerals and gemstones, with a focus on Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Medical geology
Looking at the human health impacts of bioreactive clay minerals both as a health hazard when ingested or as a potential natural antibacterial agent when dermally applied to wounds.
Meet the team
Academic staff
Postgraduate students
Publications
- Smith, W. D. et al. 2021. Element mapping the Merensky Reef of the Bushveld Complex. Geoscience Frontiers 12 (3)(10.1016/j.gsf.2020.11.001)
- Incledion, A. et al. 2021. A new look at the purported health benefits of commercial and natural clays. Biomolecules 11 (1) 58. (10.3390/biom11010058)
- Williams, J. N. et al. 2021. A systems-based approach to parameterise seismic hazard in regions with little historical or instrumental seismicity: active fault and seismogenic source databases for southern Malawi. Solid Earth 12 (1), pp.187-217. (10.5194/se-12-187-2021)
- Fantong, W. Y. et al., 2020. Compositions and mobility of major, dD, d18O, trace, and REEs patterns in water sources at Benue River Basin-Cameroon: Implications for recharge mechanisms, geoenvironmental. Environmental Geochemistry and Health 42 , pp.2975-3013. (10.1007/s10653-020-00539-w)
- Lambert-Smith, J. S. et al. 2020. Stable C, O, and S isotope record of magmatic-hydrothermal interactions between the Falémé Fe Skarn and the Loulo Au systems in Western Mali. Economic Geology 115 (7)(10.5382/econgeo.4759)
- Aubineau, J. et al., 2020. Trace element perspective into the ca. 2.1-billion-year-old shallow-marine microbial mats from the Francevillian Group, Gabon. Chemical Geology 543 119620. (10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.119620)
- Diab, H. et al., 2020. Mechanism of formation, mineralogy and geochemistry of the ooidal ironstone of Djebel Had, northeast Algeria. Journal of African Earth Sciences 162 103736. (10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2019.103736)
- Cuthbert, M. O. et al. 2019. Observed controls on resilience of groundwater to climate variability in sub-Saharan Africa. Nature 572 , pp.230-234. (10.1038/s41586-019-1441-7)
- Li, W. et al., 2018. The Agadir Slide offshore NW Africa: Morphology, emplacement dynamics and its potential contribution to the Moroccan Turbidite System. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 498 , pp.436-449. (10.1016/j.epsl.2018.07.005)
- Sanislav, I. V. , Blenkinsop, T. G. and Dirks, P. H. G. M. 2018. Archaean crustal growth through successive partial melting events in an oceanic plateau-like setting in the Tanzania Craton. Terra Nova 30 (3), pp.169-178. (10.1111/ter.12323)
- Li, W. et al., 2017. Morphology, age and sediment dynamics of the upper headwall of the Sahara Slide Complex, Northwest Africa: evidence for a large Late Holocene failure. Marine Geology 393 , pp.109-123. (10.1016/j.margeo.2016.11.013)
- Cuthbert, M. O. et al. 2017. Modelling the role of groundwater hydro-refugia in East African hominin evolution and dispersal. Nature Communications 8 15696. (10.1038/ncomms15696)
- McDonald, I. et al. 2017. Cu-Ni-PGE mineralisation at the Aurora Project and potential for a new PGE province in the Northern Bushveld Main Zone. Ore Geology Reviews 80 , pp.1135-1159. (10.1016/j.oregeorev.2016.09.016)
- Hall, I. R. et al. 2016. South African climates (Agulhas LGM Density Profile). In: International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 361 Preliminary Report:. International Ocean Discovery Program. , pp.1-46.
- Simon, M. H. et al. 2015. Eastern South African hydroclimate over the past 270,000 years. Scientific Reports 5 , pp.18153. (10.1038/srep18153)
- Maier, W. D. et al. 2015. Petrogenesis of the ∼2·77 Ga Monts de Cristal Complex, Gabon: Evidence for Direct Precipitation of Pt-arsenides from Basaltic Magma. Journal of Petrology 56 (7), pp.1285-1308. (10.1093/petrology/egv035)
- Porta, G. D. , Webb, G. E. and McDonald, I. 2015. REE patterns of microbial carbonate and cements from Sinemurian (Lower Jurassic) siliceous sponge mounds (Djebel Bou Dahar, High Atlas, Morocco). Chemical Geology 400 , pp.65-86. (10.1016/j.chemgeo.2015.02.010)
- Meneghini, F. et al., 2014. Fingerprints of late Neoproterozoic ridge subduction in the Pan-African Damara belt, Namibia. Geology 42 (10), pp.903-906. (10.1130/G35932.1)
- Ziegler, M. et al. 2013. Development of Middle Stone Age innovation linked to rapid climate change. Nature Communications 4 1905. (10.1038/ncomms2897)
Schools
Next steps
Research that matters
Our research makes a difference to people’s lives as we work across disciplines to tackle major challenges facing society, the economy and our environment.
Postgraduate research
Our research degrees give the opportunity to investigate a specific topic in depth among field-leading researchers.
Our research impact
Our research case studies highlight some of the areas where we deliver positive research impact.