Research news and 'In media' articles where researchers from the Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo have contributed. The list is not exhaustive and postings are only for news and 'In media' articles in English.
There are large amounts of oil in the Persian Gulf, and it is the geology that is crucial for the enormous quantities of oil found in the area. Why is there so much oil in the region? Professor of geology Dag Arild Karlsen conducts research on petroleum geology and explains why in an article on sciencenorway.no.
The Arctic is warming far faster than the rest of the planet. A new study shows that gas hydrates are being exposed and releasing oil and methane from the seafloor off northeastern Greenland. Scientists, including Adriano Mazzini, Dept. of Geosciences, document hydrocarbon seepage that could impact marine ecosystems and the Arctic carbon cycle; the study has attracted media attention.
GoNorth has released a short film featuring interviews and insights from GoNorth’s research expedition in the Arctic Ocean (27 November–17 December 2025). Among those interviewed is Professor Carmen Gaina (University of Oslo, UiO/GEO/PHAB). The film was produced by NORCE and is available on Vimeo.
Norway sits on a very old part of the Earth's crust known as a craton. The cratons have survived geodynamic processes and plate tectonics, and have long been a mystery in geology. Interview with Trond H. Torsvik and Jyotirmoy Paul, Dept of Geosciences/PHAB in an article on sciencenorway.no.
The commercial lunar spacecraft Blue Ghost (on a mission from NASA) landed on the Moon early in March and has been working the lunar surface powered by solar panels. On March 16th, it lost power as the long lunar night began. It captured a final image of the sunset. Interview comment from Stephanie Werner in the Norwegian forskning.no.
New technology and drones from the DroneLab@UiO are used in a research project CircAgric-GHG for measurement of ruminant methane emissions at the ILRIs Kapiti farm in Kenya. Doctoral Research Fellow, Alouette van Hove was interviewed by ILRI in May.
On the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas in Siberia, scientists have long wondered about the mystery of 8 craters. The enormous craters have been seen in Siberia over the past 15 years. Scientists from University of Oslo: H. Hellevang, M. Ippach, S. Westermann and M. Nooraiepour may now have solved their origin. A new research study has got a lot of attention in media from around the world.
A new film and TED talk lesson entitled 'The continents are moving. When will they collide?' was launched in the TED-Ed teaching lessons at YouTube in the beginning of March 2023. The lesson is by Jean-Baptiste Philippe Koehl, Researcher at Dept of Geosciences and CEED and so far the lesson has been seen by over 360 000. See the lesson and two more here!
The research project VIKINGS is one of the highlighted projects using the Norwegian High-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure SIGMA2 in an annual report for the HPC services. Project leader, Prof Kirstin Krüger has been interviewed in an article about how they use the HPC infrastructure and the research findings so far in the project.
In the autumn of 2022, the first research cruise of the Norwegian GoNorth expedition was carried out. One goal of the expedition is, among other things, to explore the geological prehistory of the formation of the Polhavet/Arctic Ocean. Professor Jan Inge Faleide, University of Oslo is part of the management of GoNorth. Faleide was interviewed by Geoforskning.no, read the interviews here.
The French couple Krafft lived and died for a deeper understanding of the mysteries of volcanoes. The documentary Fire of Love describes their life and work. At the film display in Cinema Vega on 1 September at Oslo Pix, Olivier Galland, researcher at the Department of Geosciences, was invited to introduce the film to the audience.
Outreach article in Norwegian about a SNOWDEPTH drone fieldwork at the high mountain area in Western Norway published in the news portal at University of Oslo – titan.uio.no.
A collection of minerals and mineral descriptions – The Planetary Terrestrial Analogues Library (PTAL) will help scientists understand the surface of Mars. The resource is now ready for ESA's next Mars rover mission (probably postponed until 2028), and is physically located at UiO. The PTAL project is led by Professor Stephanie Werner, who was recently interviewed by sciencenorway.no.
Farming practices of the Vikings and their ancestors could provide inspiration for resilient food systems today. A new study from the VIKINGS project, GEO, UiO exploring how Scandinavian societies adapted their agricultural activities in a period of European history marked by stark climate fluctuations. Read about their study in 'News by AGU'.
Differences in heat loss on Earth may have an impact on how the tectonic plates are moving, according to a new study.
Several cone-shaped formations and lava-like flows on the surface of Mars have puzzled scientists over years. An European research team, suggests that the formations may be after mud volcanoes. Researcher Adriano Mazzini from CEED/GEO has participated in the study, which has got much attention in the international news after the study was published.
The covid-19 pandemic lockdown gives researchers a window to study how pollution affect the climate. One of the researchers is Trude Storelvmo, Professor of meteorology at Department of Geosciences. Storelvmo has over several years done research on how aerosols and skies affect the climate. Read interview in Scientific American.
In the news: In early November we could read an article about iceflow in the Artic published on the news section for the ESA webpages. It describes the research carried out in the ICEFLOW project with Bas Altena and Andreas Max Kääb, Dept. of Geosciences.
Doctoral Research Fellow Krister Karlsen at CEED and GEO has received attention for his research on water that is slowly drained into the Earth by subduction. There is more water entering the interior of the Earth than what comes out, but the time horizon is very long. Read interview in the New Scientist.
The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 had a significant impact on climate, decreasing global mean temperature by about 0.5°C. Like the famous eruptions of Krakatau (1883) and Tambora (1815), Pinatubo is located in the tropics, which has been considered an important factor underlying its strong climate forcing. Now researchers find that explosive extratropical eruptions can have a strong impact on the climate as well.
Glaciers are in constant motion forward, but now and then some of them have very fast movements forward - a surge - and loose much of its ice mass in the front. Scientists try to understand the physics and the icemass loss in these movements. Four of University of Oslo's experts in glaciology and remote sensing at Department of Geosciences are now interviewed in an article in the scientific journal Science about claciers and surging events.
There are many glaciers in the Norwegian landscape. They are at risk of decline drastically and perhaps disappearing due to a warmer climate. Especially exposed are the glaciers in Northern Norway and the smallest glaciers. Interview with Solveig Havstad Winsvold in the newspaper Morgenbladet in the column 'The doctor answers' in June.
“Scream”, Edvard Munch’s painting, shows a blood-red sky over the Oslo fjord. “Suddenly the sky became red as blood” - Munch describes this event as scaring. Was it pollution particles from a volcano eruption which caused this red sky? Three Norwegian meteorologists offer an new hypothesis: was it mother-of-pearl clouds Munch saw and painted in 1892.? The article in the journal Weather has got huge media attention.
The new article from Trond H. Torsvik et al about Mauritia - the lost continent in the Indean Ocean gets a lot of attention from the press worldwide. Latest is an article in the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, one of Europe's largest publications of its kind.
CEEDs Researcher and geologist Grace Shephard has been in duty on board on the Swedish icebreaker Oden, and explains how they collect core samples from the sea floor.
