Nicola Mingotti 
Buildings require ventilation to supply fresh, clean air and so ensure that contaminants and heat do not accumulate. Ventilation strategies such as displacement ventilation may be used in different seasons or climates to minimise the building’s energy requirement. A new paper by Dan Toy and professor Andy Woods explores the effect of a rapid change
The accurate modelling of geophysical flows often requires information which is difficult to measure and therefore poorly quantified. For example, it is difficult to estimate the viscosity of lava during a volcanic eruption, or some of the properties of the ice flowing within a glacier. However, when the flow is bounded by a free surface,
Just before the beginning of term, professor Weiwei Zhu from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences visited us and presented his recent work on Fracture Network connectivity in geological formations. Fractures are ubiquitous in crustal rocks due to the harsh environment of the deep subsurface and the inherent brittleness
Carbon dioxide-induced corrosion of industrial equipment is very common, costly and particularly poses new challenges for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) systems. The role of impurities, such as SOx and NOx, which are also present in the stream, can also be important and has been discussed recently (cf. Corrosion Science, vol. 236, August 2024). A
Carbon storage in deep saline aquifers has become an important part of plans to decarbonise the energy system. Typically, aquifers are composed of a porous, permeable rock containing formation water. As CO2 is injected into an aquifer, some of it migrates towards topographic highs within the aquifer, while some is retained in the pore spaces
Jason Furtney was a student at the Institute in the early 2000s, after studying geology at Edinburgh University. Since then, he has been working as a consulting engineer for Itasca International, a geomechanics consulting and software company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today, Jason was back in Cambridge and gave a special seminar at the Institute. He
A Summer Garden Party & Hog Roast was held at the Bullard Labs on Thursday 19 June to celebrate Marie Edmonds’ election to the Royal Society. Marie has also recently been chosen as the new Head of the Department of Earth Sciences. This was a lovely evening, with plenty of food, flowers and smiles. Thank
Dr Quentin Kriaa is a new Assistant Professor in Climate and Environmental Fluid Dynamics, and he joined the Institute at the beginning of Easter term. Today, he presented some of his recent research on particle clouds. At a late stage of its accretion, the Earth experienced high-energy planetary impacts. Following each collision, it is estimated
On Monday 9 June, an event was held at the University to celebrate members of staff who have been in Cambridge for 25 years. The event was attended by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice. Several members of the Institute were among the smiling participants, including Catherine, Lotty, Jie and Andy. Congratulations to all!
Prof Mahesh Tirumkudulu from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay has developed a unique method to measure the viscosity of a drop of liquid based on the fluid mechanics of thin films. A drop of liquid is spread over a substrate by contacting a blade with the drop and moving the blade across the