School of Earth Sciences

New dating techniques reveal Australia’s oldest known, intact, Aboriginal rock paintings - dating back 600 generations

Research finds the first Australian-based record of a major global event where the Earth’s magnetic field ‘switched’ – and north became south.

The 2020 AMOS Science Outreach Award has been awarded to Dr Linden Ashcroft of Melbourne University. She has used her expertise in historical and future climate change to educate the broader public, through dozens of TV, radio and newspaper interviews. This includes her extensive radio work with the Einstein A-go-go program on 3RRR where she has a semi-regular slot explaining and discussing recent STEM stories to the broader public.

Amid the gloom, the COVID-19 crisis has created opportunities to accelerate existing and emerging technologies to make Australia a renewable energy superpower

The 2016 magnitude 6.0 earthquake in the Petermann Ranges gives researchers key insights into how some faults may break in Australia to produce larger earthquakes

Mark Quigley, Associate Professor in Earth Sciences discusses how the impacts of the 2010-2012 Canterbury earthquakes have many parallels to the current COVID-19 crisis – both inspired innovative responses

Research using the age of caves shows the Eastern Highlands of Victoria have been steadily growing at a rate of 76 metres every million years, and are still going

New research near Uluru in Australia’s arid centre shows that rock structures formed deep within the ancient Gondwana supercontinent controlled the rupture pathways of one of Australia’s largest modern earthquakes.

How would people and systems cope if a major earthquake or cyclone occurs while the COVID-19 pandemic continues? The answer is – preparation is key

Dr David Wark, a former research assistant and PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences, has had a newly discovered meteoritic mineral named after him.

Dr Rachel Popelka-Filcoff will lead the University of Melbourne’s Archaeological Science Group as the Kimberley Foundation Minderoo Chair in Archaeological Science.

Software with a commercial value of more than £1.525m (AUD$3.1m) has been given to the University of Melbourne, School of Earth Sciences, by engineering firm Petroleum Experts.

New techniques for dating volcanic eruptions, a lone axe and Indigenous oral traditions give us a new minimum age for human occupation in Victoria

For drought-busting rains, Australia might just have to wait for the tropical oceans to serve up some moisture, finds new research

An analysis of the words and actions of past and present US Presidents confirms Donald Trump’s hostility to science, and suggests it may hurt him politically

A rapid rise in global temperatures would lead to more extremes, whereas a more gradual and stabilised rate of climate change would decrease the temperatures we would experience.

Iron-rich rocks deposited by ancient glaciers tell a tale of evolving complex life forms, taking refuge in an oasis of oxygenated seawater

Melbourne’s weather is renowned for its variability, but it is still predictable, explained partly by its position on a large hot continent close to the cold Southern Ocean

A giant, continent-sized cloud that dumps rain from Broome to Hobart has increased in frequency over the past 33 years, but its impact may not be what you expect.

A rock that is the source of most of the world’s diamond deposits is giving us insights into the Earth’s formation

Allowing degraded natural forests to re-grow is a more effective, immediate and low-cost method for removing and storing atmospheric carbon than planting new trees

The speed of global warming has never been as fast as it is today, and is affecting the whole planet at the same time, for the first time in at least two millennia

The mysterious Plain of Jars in Laos, which is giving archaeologists clues to an ancient civilisation, has just joined the list of UNESCO World Heritage protected sites

The results of an international research project including researchers from the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and ANSTO in Australia, and international collaborators in Canada and France, is published this month in Quaternary International. The team innovated by applying marine geology methods for the first time at a port archaeological site in Italy. McKenzie Fellow Agathe Lisé-Pronovost from the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne led this project with geoarchaeologist Jean-Philippe Goiran from CNRS (France).

For several millennia during the Last Interglacial period, temperatures were higher than pre-industrial levels and that had an impact on our climate system. But with recent dire forecasts of global warming, what can the past tell us about the future of our climate?

Professors Kerry Landman, David Balding and David Karoly are among six new fellows elected from the University of Melbourne

Jin-Sol Lee is a University of Melbourne student who ventured on the CAPSTAN Voyage. Read his blog about conducting soil samples and the daily life of a sedimentologist.

Kimberley is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences. Read about her research in atmospheric rivers and her goals for future study.

After studying the physics of fluid flow in his honours year, Ewan resolved to study atmospheric science at a graduate level. Read about his research and experiences as a graduate student.

Maddie Brown in a University of Melbourne student currently on the RV Investigator for the CAPSTAN Voyage 2. Read her blog about the experience.

Software with a commercial value of more than £1.308m (AUD$2.4m) has been given to the University of Melbourne, School of Earth Sciences, by engineering firm Petroleum Experts.

Fieldwork was completed on April 16-25 th 2018 at Darwin Crater, a 1.2 km diameter and 800,000-year-old meteorite impact crater in western Tasmania. The drilling team included two drillers, two PhD students, and two scientists from the University of Melbourne (Dr Michael Fletcher and Dr Agathe Lisé-Pronovost).

On 14 February 2018 Professor David Karoly gave a talk to friends and colleagues about his ten year tenure as Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne.