Events such volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and earthquakes are driven by natural processes such as the faulting associated with the movement of Earth's tectonic plates, and the interaction between water and the Earth's surface. Understanding how these events occur, and predicting when and where they might recur, is the domain of the environmental earth scientists in the school.
Earth science research and teaching at UEA uses fundamental mathematical, physical and chemical principles to quantify processes. Much of our research is to understand modern processes, but we also use the geological record to understand how rates and scales of mechanisms change over time and to identify extremes not observed today. Quaternary Earth history (the last 2 million years) is a priority because events on centennial to millennial timescales inform us about possible future states of the world. Records in deep geological time inform us about scales of events not represented in more recent Earth history.
- Palaeoclimatologists examine marine microfossils and terrestrial carbonates as environmental proxies, using stable isotopes to identify past climatic and oceanographic events. Pioneering high-resolution stable isotope measurements in speleothem fluid inclusions has allowed the reconstruction of palaeo-rainfall composition.
- Our research in stable isotope geochemistry underpins hydrogeological studies in the School, for example we use a dual-isotope approach to identify both the source and fate of nitrogen contamination in groundwater.
- In studies of land-ocean interactions, U-series chronologies are used to measure spatial and temporal changes in crustal uplift rates. The group has been able to identify sea-level changes on orbital to centennial timescales, results that are valuable for constraining rates of future sea level change. Work on recent sea-level changes examines the relative importance of sediment dynamics and storage in estuaries and is being used to assist future coastal management strategies.
We teach and research in a wide arena of environmental earth science including geohazards, geophysics, sedimentology, land-ocean interaction, hydrogeology and hydrology, volcanology, geochemistry, palaeoclimatology and palaeoceanography. We have cutting-edge research laboratory and field equipment, including a world class stable isotope laboratory, a sedimentary fluid dynamics laboratory and experimental facilities for investigating magmatic conditions in volcanoes.
Much of our research is funded by NERC, the Leverhulme Trust, the European Commission and the UK Environment Agency. We collaborate with mathematicians, modellers, chemists and social scientists at UEA and in universities right across the world. Our bigger research programmes involve collaboration with the United States and British Geological Surveys.
Click here to go to the Environmental Earth Sciences website.
