Earth Sciences in Bristol is flourishing in a dynamic and vibrant research-intensive environment. The School is internationally recognised for leadership in volcanology, isotope geochemistry, palaeobiology, experimental petrology and seismology. The School’s research is underpinned by state-of-the-art facilities including laboratories equipped to simulate the temperature and pressure conditions at hundreds of kilometres depth within our planet, to reconstruct conditions in ancient oceans and atmospheres, to understand the cycling of carbon in the environment, and to investigate the evolution of life on Earth. RAE2008, the UK Government’s audit of research quality, has confirmed that the School remains one of the most prominent centres of international research excellence within its discipline, with 75% of its research activity considered to be in the top two categories.
All life is descended from a common ancestor and is related in one universal family tree. The Palaeontology and Biodiversity Research Group is focused on uncovering that “Tree of Life”, restoring its extinct branches, and determining the time-frames using geological and genetic evidence. They work at all scales, from evolution within species of single-celled algae to families of dinosaurs, and grandiose studies of protein evolution that encompass all life. Using the Tree of Life as the guide, researchers explore how life’s diversity and ecosystems have responded to environmental disasters, from meteorite impacts and global ice ages to global warming, in the near and ancient past. They also explore life’s extremes, using engineering-based computational techniques to understand how gigantic sauropod dinosaurs were able to grow so big, what tyrannosaurs really ate, and how a pterosaur the size of a Lear jet was able to fly – without jet engines!
Before the establishment of the Bristol Isotope Group in 1999, the School had two “economy” thermal mass-spectrometers dedicated to boron and lithium isotope measurements but no clean laboratory facilities. The arrival of Tim Elliott in 1999, Chris Hawkesworth a year later, and the appointment of Derek Vance in 2003 transformed what had essentially been a cottage industry into what is now arguably the best isotope lab in the world for the measurement of non-volatile elements (i.e. the whole periodic table aside from the oxygen, carbon and the noble gases).
Bristol bought the first of a “new” wave of multi-collector plasma ionisation mass-spectrometers (MC-ICPMS), which have revolutionised inorganic mass-spectrometry, permitting the analysis of isotope ratios of almost any element. This combination of state-of-the-art equipment and sharp research acumen attracts young scientists from all over the world and has literally lit up the periodic table. The range of elements analysed include Li, B, Mg, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni, Mo, Hf, W, U, Se, Sr, Nd, Pb, U, Th, Ra, Pa, leading to scientific breakthroughs including how continental weathering responds to pulses in glaciation and how this impacts on our understanding changes in ocean chemistry. Research has also led to the use of Boron as a robust as a paleo-proxy for oceanic pH and past CO2 levels to reconstruct critical environmental changes, and the discovery that planetesimal differentiation (melting) occurred within the first 1Ma of solar system history, much earlier than previously thought. The Group's research also resolved long-standing issues on the early history of the formation of continents.
The boundary between the Earth’s rocky mantle and its liquid iron core is even more abrupt than the Earth’s surface we stand on. It holds insights into the early origin of the planet, plays a central role in controlling the movement of tectonic plates, and moderates the convective flow in the outer core that sustains the Earth’s magnetic field. Bristol plays a leading role in the study of both sides of this boundary using seismology, mineral physics, petrology and geochemistry. Seismologists Professors Michael Kendall, George Helffrich and Dr James Wookey have discovered the telltale signature of mantle flow in this region and shown how a recently discovered mineral phase, called post-perovskite, can explain many of the hitherto enigmatic characteristics of this region.
The arrival of Mike Walter in 2004 and the acquisition of the laser-heated diamond anvil cell - capable of reaching the pressures and temperatures of the core in samples just a few human hairs' breadths across, squeezed between the tips of two faceted diamonds - greatly expanded the accessible pressure range in Bristol laboratories. In many ways, the core is widely held as the final frontier in Earth Sciences. Bristol seismologists and mineral physicists are unravelling the fine-scale structure of outer core, providing crucial information for understanding the Earth’s heat budget and the mechanisms for generating the Earth’s magnetic field. Most recently, Helffrich and Wookey have used dense arrays of seismometers to study the shear modulus of the solid inner core using a seismic phase that is widely held as the “Holy Grail” of seismic observations.
Earth scientists are comfortable with risk and uncertainty in their science, often operating in a somewhat forensic manner. However, defining, evaluating and communicating risk, especially across disciplines or to the public or policy makers, is a key challenge. The Bristol Environmental Risk Research Centre (BRISK) was established in 2009, with University funding and a European Research Chair for Professor Steve Sparks, to provide quantitative risk assessment for environmental hazards. BRISK's research focusing on the needs of decision-makers, informed by the underlying science and formal methods for uncertainty assessment.
Losses associated with earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, floods, landslides, wildfires and droughts are increasingly crucial issues as the world’s population explodes, resources dwindle and our climate changes. The pioneering work of Sparks and Willy Aspinall, for example, has established methods of quantitative risk assessment and emergency management, developed during the volcanic crisis at Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat. Bristol's earth scientists - whose expertise is not only in volcanic studies, but also the geological storage of waste, climate change (both recent and past), the interaction between the biosphere and the environment, and ground water studies - lead the way in risk theory, the analysis of uncertainty, global environmental change research, and technological approaches the risk reduction.
Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat. Bristol's earth scientists - whose expertise is not only in volcanic studies, but also the geological storage of waste, climate change (both recent and past), the interaction between the biosphere and the environment, and ground water studies - lead the way in risk theory, the analysis of uncertainty, global environmental change research, and technological approaches the risk reduction.