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Research groups from A to Z

Fault in Sandstone, Hopeman, Scotland. Photo: Anita Torabi, UiO

Earth’s history, structure, and change is archived in our rocks. Through the lens of geophysics, structural geology, stratigraphy, palaeontology, and sedimentology we can reveal how our planet has changed in the past and is undergoing change today.

Smog over Beijing, China. Photo: Sælthun/UiO

Climate and the effects of climate change present one of the greatest challenges of our time. It is a very broad research field which ignores the traditional boundaries between geoscience disciplines.

NCCS fieldwork, Oman. Photo: Ivar Midtkandal

Storage of CO2 in safe geological formations in the subsurface can be an important strategy to reduce CO2 gasses in the atmosphere.

Blocks of ice on the flat landscape, Svalbard. Photo: Colourbox

The Cryosphere includes all frozen water on the Earth's surface, all areas where snow, ice and permafrost affect the landscape and processes occurring there. We find a big amount of water tied up in glaciers and icecaps in Arctic and Antarctic, but also in permafrost and smaller glaciers worldwide.

Inspection of a sediment core on the university's vessel F / F Trygve Braarud in the inner Oslofjord. Photo: Silvia Hess

Development of subsurface and surface natural resources, production and consummation of commodities, and human industrial activities may adversely impact Earth's environment. Environmental Geosciences is the study of the natural processes controlling our environment and the consequences of human activities.

Glacier ice speed

► Measuring a changing Earth

To better monitor and understand Earth system processes and their impacts on human and natural systems, remote sensing and the analysis of geographical information play an increasingly important role in today's world. Remote sensing and geoinformatics are influential and versatile technologies for many fields and applications in society. We develop methods and applications of remote sensing and geomatics at the interface between natural sciences, technology, informatics, and society-relevant applications.

Photo of a glacier river in Denali, Alaska. Photo: K. S. Lilleøren

Geomorphology is the study of landforms and the processes that form them. Geomorphologists investigate why landscapes look the way they do, both in terms of understanding the evolution of landforms in the past and present, and to predict future changes (including geohazards). This is accomplished by a combination of field observations, field experiments and numerical modeling.

Photo: A mountain lake receives water from melting snow in the summer. Landscape in the western part of Norway. Photo: G.K. Tjoflot

Hydrology is the study of the distribution and movement of water above, on and in the ground, including flow in streams and rivers. Knowledge in hydrology is of great importance for both the protection and exploitation of our freshwater resources.

EarthFlows - Interface Dynamics in Geophysical Flows, photo of a galcier.

The dynamics of interface processes during flows on Earth, including the geosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, and the atmosphere, including the behavior of the complex interfaces separating ‘Fluid Earth’ from ‘Solid Earth’.

The goal for the EarthFlows research group is to provide fundamentally new understanding of the dynamics of fluid-solid interfaces for a number of important geophysical systems.

Land-ATmosphere Interactions in Cold Environments - LATICE: Photo: nrs_faabergstolgrandane

The role of: Atmosphere - BiosphereCryosphereHydrosphere interactions in a changing climate.

The research group LATICE will bring a focus on cold-regions exchange processes within Earth System Sciences as an interdisciplinary initiative of collaborative research and education.

Lightning over the city of Oslo, Norway. Photo: NRS, UiO

A common denominator for many of the research activities is quantitative computations of atmospheric processes with the aid of theoretical and numerical models.

Poleward-drifter trajectories at the coast at North-Norway. Figure: Inga Koszalka, UiO

Physical oceanography encompasses observations and dynamics of the ocean. The research group focuses on the dynamics of large-scale flows like the Gulf Stream and the Meridional Overturning Circulation, and the circulation in high latitude regions. The group also studies turbulent dispersion, relevant for the spreading of pollution like plastics.

Folded sedimentary rocks from the Orkneys, Scotland. Photo: L. E. Augland

We study processes in the mantle and crust by fieldwork (structural geology), isotope-geochemical and geochronological methods. The aim is to contribute to the characterization of the Solid Earth, and how mantle and crustal processes shape our planet.