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.
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.
Selected 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)
Academic staff
Professor Thomas Blenkinsop
Professor in Earth Science
- blenkinsopt@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 0232
Professor Ian Hall
Head of School, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Research Professor
- hall@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5612 / +44 (0)29 2087 6689
Dr Mark Cuthbert
Principal Research Fellow and Lecturer
- cuthbertm2@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4051
Dr James Lambert-Smith
Lecturer in Exploration and Resource Geology
- lambert-smithj@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4323
Dr Michael Singer
Reader
Deputy Director of the Water Research Institute
- singerm2@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6257
Postgraduate students
Associated staff
Jack Williams
Research Associate in Structural Geology
- williamsj132@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4336
ELEMENT facility for geochemical fingerprinting of Earth materials
This facility comprises:
- two Thermo X Series 2 quadropole ICP-MS spectrometers
- JY Horiba Ultima-2 ICP-OES spectrometer
- 213nm laser ablation system
- micromill and microbalance
- Olympus Delta Pro portable XRF spectrometer.
Dedicated fire assay laboratory
For analysis of precious metals in rocks, ores and other environmental samples. We have a wet geochemistry laboratory for preparation of samples in liquid form for ICP analysis.
Zeiss Sigma HD field emission gun analytical SEM
For high-resolution imaging and X-ray element mapping as well as quantitative analysis of major, minor and trace elements.
- FEI XL30 Field Emission Gun Environmental SEM for high-resolution imaging and semi-quantitative X-ray element analysis of samples
- Philips PW1710 Automated Powder X-ray diffractometer.
3D Seismic Lab
The 3D Seismic Lab comprises a state-of-the-art seismic interpretation and visualisation facility that supports research into diverse aspects of sedimentary basins, with emphasis on continental margins.
The key emphasis of the 3D Seismic Lab is on the development of 3D seismic methods and technology to the analysis of depositional and deformational processes.
Research students base their research on the large archive of data in the 3D Seismic Lab donated through collaborations with the petroleum industry and governments. Recent developments in our lab include seismic analyses of diagenesis and fluid flow on a basin scale, studies on the distribution of gas hydrates on continental margins, fluid-flow modelling through faults and structures, and the investigation of main geological controls on submarine landslides and channels.
The development of new quantitative methods in seismic interpretation is a key research topic within the 3D Seismic Lab.
