News

Members of the MAGPIE (Magnetotelluric Analysis for Greenland and Postglacial Isostatic Evolution) project at Dept. of Geosciences & CEED have spent much of June on the ice sheet of Greenland. Now nearing its completion, the campaign was a great success and has been documented day-by-day on the MAGPIE blog. 

This past week, 14 international and interdisciplinary early career researchers from all over the world met in the fjord-side town of Drøbak, south of Oslo. The #YoungCEED18 workshop - the first of its kind under the “Young CEED” initiative - aimed for a fresh take on the enigmatic process of how new subduction zones form.

Volcanic activity primarily focuses at plate boundaries on Earth. But volcanoes can also form far away from plate boundaries due to plumes of hot material rising from the Earth’s deep interior. Eventually this material reaches the surface and breaks through the Earth’s crust to form a volcano – a so-called “hotspot”. Scientists now present a theory of how this type of hotspot activity can explain massive, past volcanic eruptions in Greenland and in the North Atlantic region.

European Geosciences Union: EGU recently announced who will receive awards and medals for 2019. Researcher Mathew Domeier at CEED and the Department of Geosciences will be honoured for his contributions. Domeier is awarded the Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists for 2019.

Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics/CEED will award the Else-Ragnhild Neumann Award for Women in Geosciences. The award goes to a woman who through PhD or postdoctoral work has made a significant contribution to research in Geosciences.

The Department of Geosciences has several externally financed projects, in 2017 external research support contributed 50% of the department's economy. On Monday the 27th of August there was a start-up meeting for one of the newest projects - Volcanic Eruptions and their Impacts on Climate, Environment, and Viking Society in 500-1250 CE (VIKINGS). The project is supported by FRIPRO/Toppforsk/FRINATEK.

The PhD course "Arctic tectonics, volcanism and climate" was held early August in the high north. The intensive week-long course held in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, brought together 15 students and 11 lecturers from 9 universities around the world. The course was funded through the DEEP Research School and the NOR-R-AM project, and UNIS.

Here are the three papers

2018 marks the tenth anniversary of the Kavli Prize, which recognizes scientists for major advances in three research areas: astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience—the big, the small, and the complex.

Stephanie Werner at CEED and Department of Geosciences is now employed in a permanent position as a Professor at the Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway.

The CEED grandfather Kevin Charles Anthony Burke passed away on March 21, 2018. Kevin was one of the giants in geology and tectonics and his original and thought-provoking contributions were published steadily for more than six decades. Kevin was recognized with many honors, including the 2007 Geological Society of America's Penrose Medal and the 2014 European Geosciences Union Arthur Holmes medal, the highest Awards from both Societies.

The Earth is cooling. It is losing heat that is/was formed by the radioactive decay of isotopes, as well as from the heat that was formed during planetary accretion. Heat flow thus underpins all aspects of Earth’s evolution and processes including mantle convection and plate tectonics. Heat flow measurements are useful in that they provide a snapshot into the thermal state at a given location. Steady state surface heat flow (whether that be from the seafloor or on land) varies around the world, and depends on a number of factors including the tectonic setting.

The End-Triassic extinction is one of the largest mass extinctions in the history of Earth. It has been hypothesized that greenhouse gases released from volcanic activity of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) triggered the extinction. New models in a recent study demonstrate that large-scale gas generation followed the sill emplacement of CAMP in sedimentary basins in northern Brazil.

Indonesia, May 2006 - Several mud eruptions started in the North East of Java Island. Villages were burried and people were forced to flee. The most active eruption called Lusi is still active and scientist now link this to a nearby volcanic system.

by Anne Hope Jahren

Stephanie Werner is a newly elected member of the ESAs Solar System and Exploration Working Group (SSEWG).

This week saw the conclusion the UiO International Summer School course "A Changing Arctic". The annual 6 week course is a blend of social science, law, and natural science lectures, and this year saw 13 students from a range of professional backgrounds and nationalities attend. As in previous years, CEED is heavily involved in the program; Carmen Gaina is course leader and a lecturer, course assistant is Grace Shephard, and this year's line-up included a lecture from Anne Hope Jahren. 

Sigurd Kjoberg and Syahreza Saidina Angkasa graduated from the master’s programme at Dept. of Geosciences in 2016. Both are affiliation to CEED. They are now first authors of articles in the scientific journal Interpretation, articles which are based on their master theses.

Across the globe, sea level has been rising for decades, but we don’t know how fast. Researchers have now analyzed tide gauge data and reconstructed global mean sea level since 1902. Their record yields a slower average rise before 1990 than previously thought, but similar high rates of about 3.1 mm/yr as observed from independent satellite observations from 1993-2012. This suggests that global mean sea level has been accelerating much faster than previously assumed in the past two decades.

The Hawaiian-Emperor volcanic island chain in the NW Pacific Ocean is well known for its peculiar 60° bend. This bend has been heavily debated for decades. Researchers from University of Oslo, GFZ Potsdam, and Utrecht University now definitely demonstrate that to form the observed bend requires an abrupt change in the motion of the Pacific tectonic plate, while southward drift of the mantle plume that has sourced the chain since ~80 Ma is required to explain its entire 2000 km length.

On 3 May, The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters helt its annual meeting. Several prizes were awarded, among them, Fridtjof Nansen Award of Excellence in Science and also new members of the Norwegian Academy were honored. Two distinctions went to CEED this day.