News
A new ERC Advanced Grant “DEVENDRA” starts 1. April 2023
DEVENDRA: Deciphering the Effect of Vegetation and Erosion on basalt and carbonate weathering by Novel Denudation Rate Approaches
Jun 28, 2023
A Rock Murder Mystery – What Happens Deep Beneath Earth’s Surface?
A new science film by our associate geochemist Friedhelm von Blanckenburg has been released in three languages.
Mar 10, 2023
In search of Earth’s building blocks
Two international research teams, including scientists from Freie Universität Berlin, have independently shown with new, highly precise isotope measurements that the Earth consists at least partly of material that cannot be explained by known meteorite compositions. The studies were published in Nature and Science , respectively.
Oct 28, 2022
Installation of the new Neoma mass spectrometer at Freie Universität Berlin
In June 2022, a new Mass Spectrometer was installed in the Geochemistry labs at the Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin.
Aug 29, 2022
Meteoritic evidence for very early volcanism in the nascent solar system
Scientists from Freie Universität Berlin, University of Bristol, Northwest University Xi'an and the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have published the results of a new determination of the crystallization age of 4566.6 ± 0.6 million years for a meteorite called Erg Chech 002 (EC 002). The new age, determined using the manganese-chromium dating method, shows this rock crystallized only 0.7 ± 0.6 million years after the formation of the solar system.
Jul 26, 2022
Milena Waag receives the Heitfeld Award 2022
Milena Waag, doctoral student with the geochemistry group, received the 'Hildegard und Karl-Heinrich Heitfeld Stiftung' award for her master thesis on Hafnium isotopes of abyssal peridotites from the American-Antarctic Ridge: Identification of an ultra depleted mantle?
Jul 11, 2022
Long-term preservation of Hadean protocrust in Earth’s mantle
Due to active plate tectonics, there are no direct rock archives covering the first ca. 500 million y of Earth’s history. Therefore, insights into Hadean geodynamics rely on indirect observations from geochemistry. We present a high-precision 182W dataset for rocks from the Kaapvaal Craton, southern Africa, revealing the presence of Hadean protocrustal remnants in the Earth’s mantle. See full publication here . Summary in German here .
Apr 29, 2022
Guillaume Florin received an award by the SFIS
Guillaume Florin (TRR 170-B01) received an award by the SFIS (Société Française des IsotopeS) for the best paper written by a French scientist in 2020.
Dec 03, 2021
TRR 170 Second Funding Periode (2020-23)
The TRR 170 " Late Accretion onto Terrestrial Planets " was awarded a DFG grant of about 9 Mio € for its second funding period (2020-2023). TRR 170 projects continue to study how terrestrial planets are formed. Current spokesperson is Thorsten Kleine at the Institut für Planetologie, University of Münster (WWU). Other projects are located at Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and the German Aerospace Center.
Aug 06, 2020
A new science movie made in Potsdam at the GFZ
Last week, the premiere of a science movie made in Potsdam took place at the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ in Potsdam. The movie shows how not only geological forces shape Earth's surface, but also biological processes. These two fundamentally different influences are being explored along the Chilean coastal mountains...
Oct 31, 2019
Houston, the eagle has landed.
50 years ago, the Apollo 11 mission brought the first humans to the Moon. Today, TRR 170 geologists work on those lunar rock samples that were brought back to provide new insights into the origin of Moon and Earth. Read more here
Jun 13, 2019
SFB-TRR 170 and NASA's InSight Mission
On November 26, 2018, NASA has successfully deployed the InSight (short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander on Mars. ...
Nov 26, 2018
Earth’s oldest rocks, 2nd Edition, co-edited by Elis Hoffmann
A new book on Earth’s oldest rocks, 2nd Edition, co-edited by Elis Hoffmann in collaboration with Martin van Kranendonk at University of New South Wales and Vickie Bennett at ANU.
Oct 12, 2018
Erde an Exoplanet: Ist da jemand?
Gibt es Leben auf fernen Planeten? Kaum eine Frage fasziniert die Menschheit sowie diese.
Oct 09, 2018
Press Release on Nature Astronomy publication
The magnetic field of a low-mass star can lead to magma oceans and strong volcanic activity on closely orbiting rocky planets due to induction heating - this has been shown in a new study published in Nature Astronomy, co-authored by Prof. Lena Noack from the geochemistry group at FU Berlin.
Oct 23, 2017