Geology and Earth Science

From investigating the causes and timing of Phanerozoic Great Oxidation Event, to understanding carbonate mineralogy for CO2 sequestration applications, our Geology and Earth Science staff and PhD students at the University of Brighton are at the leading edge of fundamental and applied earth science research.

The majority of our work at the University of Brighton University of Brighton has real-world application. Data generated by researchers in our Applied Geosciences Research and Enterprise Group is being used, for example, to clean up metal contaminated environments, aid the exploration for critical mineral resources such as Rare Earth Elements, and to understand the sources of stones used in the construction of Stonehenge.

Key facts

As a Geology and Earth Science Geology and Earth Science PhD student at Brighton, you will benefit from:

• a supervisory team comprising two to three members of academic staff. Depending on your research specialism you may also have an additional external supervisor from another School, another research institution, or industry.

• desk space and access to a desktop PC, either in one of the postgraduate offices on the sixth floor of the award-winning Cockcroft Building, or within the adjacent Heavy Engineering Block.

• access to a range of electronic resources via the university’s Online Library, as well as to the physical book and journal collections housed within the Aldrich Library and other campus libraries.

• various state-of-the-art research facilities on the Moulsecoomb site, including specialist geochemical and geotechnical laboratories, microscopy laboratories (optical and scanning electron microscopes), microbial and water quality laboratories, hydraulic flumes, an experimental river basin, a water efficiency laboratory, and a concrete laboratory, as well as a large array of field equipment. All of these facilities are supported by a team of dedicated laboratory and workshop technicians.

Current particular areas of specialism include:

• Applied geochemistry

• Coastal neotectonics

• Contaminated land remediation

• Critical metal deposits

• Environmental change in deep time

• Environmental fate of metals

• Hydrogeology

• Igneous magmatism and petrology

• Mineral deposit genesis

• Sediment dynamics in fluvial, estuarine and coastal environments

• Sedimentary records of ancient fluvial systems

• Terrestrial geochemical sediments