Research

The School of Earth and Ocean Sciences accommodates over 100 personnel, including 55 academics and two Fellows of the Royal Society as well as a postgraduate research school of some 35 students. These researchers are addressing some of the most significant research themes in the earth sciences, including global change, biosphere-hydrosphere-geosphere interactions, environmental science, natural resource exploration, and the evolution of the Earth and its biosphere. The School has maintained its reputation for excellence in research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, publishing some 800 papers in international journals and raising over £11M of research income over the period of the upcoming assessment.

Research in the School is now organised into three Research Themes that organise our research activities into distinct Research Groups: 

Recent expansion of the School in the geomicrobiological, geoenvironmental and climate change fields reflects a focus on areas of rapidly emerging science and societal relevance. This research is underpinned by state-of-the-art Research Facilities for trace element and stable isotope geochemistry, geomicrobiology, particulate analysis, electron microscopy, 3D seismic interpretation and visualization, and parallel computing.

In addition to its many on-land activities, the School has a long-standing international reputation in marine science which led to its twice running international offices of Ocean Drilling Programs: the JOIDES Office in the 1990s and the ESSAC Office in 2005-2007. The school plans a lead role in setting up a Cardiff University Climate Change Centre with a significant focus on the marine climate record. Members of the School regularly lead, and participate in, international research cruises and the School has its own coastal research vessel, the Guiding Light.