Greenland and Antarctica are the world’s largest store of freshwater ice, with the potential to become the main drivers of sea-level rise. Subglacial water plays a key role in determining how the ice sheets slide over their bases, and hence how much ice is transported to regions where melting is enhanced. At the base of
Carbon capture and storage must play a central part of the decarbonisation of the energy system, and researchers at the Institute has been working on carbon storage for over 15 years, exploring the control of CO2 in subsurface saline aquifers. A new research paper has just been published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and illustrates
Corrosion continues to be a major global challenge representing 3% of the GDP of industrialised nations. However, there are still many unanswered scientific and technical questions about the corrosion process and the corrosion products that iron forms. It is not clear which of the many iron oxides, hydroxide and oxyhydroxides form as a scale, particularly
Small-scale turbulent mixing in the ocean interior is vital in governing ocean circulation and tracer distributions, and hence global climate. However, the planetary extent of this role and its dependence on the microphysics of mixing remain inadequately understood. A new article published in Nature Communications and co-authored by professors Colm Caulfield and Ali Mashayek emphasises
The upwelling of warm Circumpolar Deep Water is a key process in the global climate system, transporting heat, nutrients, and carbon poleward towards Antarctic ice shelves. Dr Ali Mashayek and colleagues from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and UC San Diego have recently co-authored a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment, in which physical
Water masses are large bodies of water with distinct properties. Identifying them helps us understand how the ocean moves, mixes, and transports heat, carbon, oxygen, and other properties. This usually requires detailed chemical measurements, which are typically only available in few sparse locations along ship tracks. In a new study co-authored by Dr Ali Mashayek,
Thin elastomeric gloves are protective equipment and essential in many occupations. Their value in the health and care sector was demonstrated during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Most thin gloves are made from aqueous polymer dispersions, often called a latex, using a dipping process. A hand-shaped mould is dipped into a saturated calcium nitrate solution, followed
The Arctic Ocean has been changing rapidly in a warming climate. To monitor these changes, it is useful to classify the Arctic Ocean into water masses – bodies of water with similar origin and physical and biogeochemical properties. However, there are significant barriers to Arctic water mass classification: observations of seawater properties are sparse, and
The effect of pressure on gas-phase adsorption on a solid surface has been well-known since the time of Irving Langmuir, but the situation is less clear for the adsorption of a solute from a liquid solution at high pressure. This could be important in solutions of surface-active molecules for applications under high pressure, such as
Developing systems to capture, store and reuse the vast amounts of waste heat generated through industry could be a huge opportunity for the UK to strengthen its industrial competitiveness and reduce operational costs for businesses, as well as accelerate progress towards net zero. Industrial heating accounts for around 14% of UK emissions, yet approximately half