Nyheder fra Institut for Geoscience

Bachelor project provides new insights into 1.8-billion-year-old metamorphism in West Greenland

Anna Christine Aamand Buhl — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 10:07:52 +0200

Valdemar Enevoldsen has recently had his bachelors thesis published in GEUS Bulletin.

In the project, he analysed the mineral compositions of Archean and Paleoproterozoic gneisses from the Nagssugtoqidian Orogen in West Greenland. Based on these analyses, he was able for the first time to constrain the pressure and temperature conditions during the metamorphism that affected the area around 1.8 billion years ago, in connection with the collision between the Rae and North Atlantic cratons.

The results show that the rocks reached temperatures of around 700750 °C at depths of nearly 35 kilometres. This also indicates that the area has since undergone extensive erosion.

The project was carried out in collaboration with GEUS, which collected the rock samples, as well as the University of Copenhagen and the University of Alberta, which contributed to the mineral analyses.

Read the article here: PT conditions of anthophyllite- and garnet-bearing metapelites of the Nunatarsuaq domain, Nagssugtoqidian orogen, West Greenland | GEUS Bulletin

Water from Space Hackathon brought students, researchers, and external partners together to develop the water solutions of the future

Anna Christine Aamand Buhl — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:30:05 +0200

The hackathon brought together students, researchers, and external partners to develop solutions within the fields of water, climate and space data. The objective was to transform knowledge into tangible solutions with the potential to create value for society.

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Seven teams presented their solutions at the hackathons final showcase, where Team Space Aqua emerged as the winner. The team developed a machine learning-based solution to monitor changes in water levels and predict how they may evolve in the future using environmental and climate data.

According to Associate Professor Christoffer Karoff from the Department of Geoscience, the hackathon demonstrates how participants knowledge can be applied to real-world challenges and lead to solutions that make a meaningful impact on society.

Collaboration with external partners was also a key element of the hackathon. Torsten Bondo, Business Development Manager at DHI, highlighted the value of the partnership with Aarhus University and the Department of Geoscience, which provides access to new knowledge on water and space data.

The hackathon illustrates how research, education, and external partners can drive innovation together. When students and researchers work on real societal challenges and external partners contribute practical perspectives, solutions emerge that have the potential to create tangible value for society.

New evidence pushes the first continental-scale Eurasian Ice Sheet back to 2.4 million years ago

Anna Christine Aamand Buhl — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:43:36 +0200

Timestamping when ice sheets first developed over the northern continents is essential for our understanding of the global climate system and our ability to resolve the drivers of longterm climate change, including the role of atmospheric CO2. An international team of researchers from Czechia, Denmark and the USA has published a paper in the journal Nature Communications that constrains the first expansions of the Eurasian Ice Sheet at ~ 2.4 million years ago (Ma). The paper is led by visiting PhD students Kaleb Wagner and Lotta Ylä-Mella, who visited the Department of Geoscience (AU) from the Institute of Geophysics, Czech Academy of Science, and Charles University in Prague. The method used to date the first expansion of the Eurasian Ice Sheet was developed by researchers at the Department of Geoscience (AU).

The new study resolves a long-standing mismatch between indices of timing of the first Eurasian Ice Sheet expansion in terrestrial and marine records by dating the earliest known glaciogenic sediments in northwest Europe, the Hattem Bed Complex in the Netherlands. Burial dating with cosmogenic ²⁶Al-¹⁰Be and detrital zircon fingerprinting indicate that the Fennoscandia-sourced Hattem gravels reached the Netherlands by ~ 2.4 Ma, while ages from the overlying Appelscha Formation record a second ice-sheet advance and glacial destruction of the former Baltic River System at ~ 1.7 Ma.

The new results represent a major departure from the traditional interpretation of the glaciogenic sediment record in northern Europe, because it implies the Eurasian Ice Sheet reached a continental-scale size more than 1 million years earlier than hitherto believed. However, the new ages accord with estimates from North America showing that the Laurentide Ice Sheet reached its maximum extent in northern USA ~2.4 million years ago.

Students shared geoscience insights aboard the research vessel Aurora

Anna Christine Aamand Buhl — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:09:49 +0200

Tall Ships Races at Aarhus Harbour on 26 and 27 June 2026 provided the perfect setting to showcase what geoscience is all about: exciting research, major societal challenges, and plenty of curious questions from the public. Our students were on board the research vessel Aurora, where they shared their knowledge of geoscience with visitors. Many people were eager to learn more about geoscience and gain a better understanding of Earths past, present, and future.