2017

Hawaii sits at the end of a chain of volcanoes running across the Pacific Ocean floor, but in the middle of this chain lies a bend of 60 degrees. For many decades geoscientists have struggled to explain exactly how and why this feature occurred around 50 Million years ago. A new study in Science Advances led by postdoctoral researcher Mathew Domeier along with colleagues from the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED), University of Oslo, sheds light on this long-standing geological controversy – A massive collision at the edge of the Pacific Ocean was the culprit.

This month members and international guests assembled in Tenerife for the conference "Conceiving Earth Evolution and Dynamics"

Deep beneath our feet lies a vast domain that is a record of hundreds of millions of years worth of geological history. A curious image of ancient rock graveyards plunging downwards and hot rising material pushing upwards is not far from the truth. A new study by Shephard et al. published today in Scientific Reports reveals an innovative technique of creating maps that image the interior of the Earth – a ‘colour-by-numbers’ guidebook to ancient oceans that once existed at the surface, if you will.

A new study of ash layers on Svalbard which provides valuable data about the formation of the North Atlantic Ocean has been recently published in the Nature Journal: Scientific Reports. Behind the new research are scientists from CEED in collaboration with colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology/MIT and Store Norske AS. 

The FORM conference in Corsica, and celebrating Professor Torgeir Andersen. Text by PhD student Hans Jørgen Kjøll.