News archive 2015

Ett tidigare okänt mineral, som ursprungligen kommer från Kombatgruvan i Nambia har undersökts, karakteriserats och fått namnet grootfonteinit av Uppsalageologen Erik Jonsson i samarbete med ryska kollegor.

The TREASURE project, a big transdisciplinary project coordinated from the program Natural resources and sustainable development at the department of Earth sciences, Uppsala university, is highlighted in the latest issue of the magazine Havsutsikt. 

TREASURE work with developing new methods to assess the risk of dispersal of contaminant laden, cellulose rich fibre banks that exist in shallow waters along the Swedish coast, and identify the areas in most urgent need of remediation. Extremely high concentrations of organic pollutants and heavy metals exist in these industrially formed banks, and may be the source of pollutants in both fish and eagle eggs. 

Katrin Lindbäck, a researcher in glaciology and former graduate student at the Department of Earth Sciences, is currently in Antarctica. From mid-November and three months ahead, she will spend her days in the Mount Achernar moraine area in eastern Antarctica mapping the thickness of the moraine ridges and the underlying ice, to better understand how vulnerable the Antarctic may be for future global warming.

By extracting organically preserved microfossils out of rocks, and using advanced microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, Heda Agić has investigated the affinity and timing of divergences between different lineages of photosynthetic microbiota.

The fossil group called the Ediacaran biota have been troubling researchers for a long time. How do these peculiar organisms relate to modern organisms? In a new study, published in Biological Reviews, researchers from Sweden and Spain suggest the Ediacarans reveal previously unexplored pathways taken by animal evolution. They also propose a new way of looking at the effect the Ediacarans might have had on the evolution of other animals.

Steffi Buchardt is a structural geologist and used to study volcanoes. On her excursios around the world she has experienced a few exciting things. But nothing has been like her latest trip to Neuquén. This is a place with lots of volcanoes, but also one of Argentina's most important oil fields, and one of the world 's best locations for finding dinosaur bones. Here, Steffi learned how to best kill a cougar. And how the volcanoes managed to create oil from the dinosaur bones.

Nu tar de europeiska länderna ett samlat grepp om växthusgaserna. Den 25 november invigdes ett stort samarbetsprojekt mellan nio europeiska länder, där Uppsala universitet är ett av fem svenska universitet som ingår. 

Beginning in January 2016, the library at SGU will be transferred to the earth sciences library. 

From space, the Earth is blue. More than 70 percent of the planet's surface is covered by oceans. Besides the great oceans, planet earth also have more than 300 million lakes and ponds. But many lakes are in trouble. Peter Dimberg has developed new statistical methods to better investigate and predict the ecological state of lakes.

Giuliano Di Baldassarre is a Professor in Hydrology at the Research Programme Air, Water and Landscape Sciences. Photographer: Mikael Axelsson

By meticulously examining sediments in China’s Yellow River, a Swedish–Chinese research group are showing that the history of tectonic and climate evolution on Earth may need to be rewritten. Their findings have been published in the highly reputed journal Nature Communications. 

For the first time a high-resolution map over the ground below the Greenland ice sheet is available. Researchers at Uppsala University have developed the map that will be of great importance for future possibilities to predict how the Greenland ice sheet melts and moves and that in turn has an impact on rising sea levels as a result of climate change.

Intresset för vindkraft ökar. I Sverige är det den tredje största elproduktionsformen. Men det finns några utmaningar för forskningen: Hur interagerar turbiner med varandra och hur undviker man att näraliggande vindkraftparker ”stjäl” energi från varandra?

The process of appointing the University’s next holder of the Zennström Visiting Professorship in Climate Change Leadership is set to begin soon. The professorship is placed at the Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD), and receives funding from a donation by entrepreneur Niklas Zennström. Now, the Centre has announced an open international call for nominations and expressions of interest. 

It is my pleasure to announce that the Award of Excellence for the spring 2015 promotion of the M.Sc. Earth Science Programme students was awarded to Niclas Borinder for his thesis entitled ''Postcranial anatomy of Tanius sinensis Wiman, 1929 (Dinosauria; Hadrosauroidea)''. Niclas received his Award last night during a celebration dinner for the promotion, and the accompanying prize will soon follow.

A new survey concludes that scales were the norm and that dinosaurs did probably not have a common feathered ancestor.

The Department of Earth Sciences has for a long time had the ambition to install solar panels and produce their own renewable electricity. Today there are 158 high performing solar panels placed upon the roof of Geocentrum, with the purpose of producing green electricity for years to come.