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According to the latest research results of a German-Mexican team of geoscientists, the gradual decline of the dinosaurs and pterosaurs presumably came before the impact of the Chicxulub asteroid and the global mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Studies under the direction of Wolfgang Stinnesbeck of Heidelberg University and Eberhard Frey of the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe also indicate that bird species spread and diversified at the same time the dinosaurs disappeared.

Findings of Study by Scientists from Freie Universität Berlin and Utrecht University Published in "Nature Geoscience" ' 444/2016 from Dec 29, 2016 Earth scientists from among others Utrecht University and Freie Universität Berlin have found new clues how water moves inside the Earth's deep subsurface layers and ultimately back to the surface through volcanic activity.

Geologists Found Traces of Microorganisms in Rock Layer Several Billions of Years Old / Findings Published in "Geology" ' 389/2016 from Nov 11, 2016 According to a recent study, life on Earth took hold on land at least 3.2 billion years ago - 300 million years earlier than previously thought.

Research news High-resolution aerial Photographs provides information that is both up-to-date and tailored for the task at hand?information that could previously only be obtained by observations in the field and only for a limited spatial area. For the very first time, a team of scientists led by Jan C. Habel at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has used drones to predict suitable microhabitats for the larvae of endangered butterfly species (larval habitats), recently published in Landscape Ecology.

In 2015 the Dawn spacecraft reached the asteroid Ceres, the largest celestial body in the so-called asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The data collected by Dawn will make it possible for scientists to analyse the geological properties of Ceres and understand its origins. The latest issue of the "Science" journal contains reports by several international teams of researchers on their findings.

Study Indicates Industrial Revolution Had Noticeable Impact on Global Warming ' 283/2016 from Aug 24, 2016 An international research team has now found out that climate change already began 180 years ago, much earlier than believed up to now. To determine the earliest time of global warming, the scientists studied the so-called natural climate archives of the northern and southern hemispheres, both on land and in the oceans, from the past 500 years.

A new Emmy Noether junior research group at Heidelberg University's Institute of Earth Sciences will delve into the central questions of climate history. The research team led by Dr. Jörg Lippold will study the history of ocean currents over the last 30,000 years in an attempt to uncover key parameters for understanding future climatic changes.

Geoscientists from Heidelberg University have discovered accumulations of magma in the Andes sufficient to have set off a super-eruption but which, in fact, did not. Such eruptions, which expel enormous quantities of magma, are the largest volcanic events on earth. Together with colleagues from the USA, researchers from the Institute of Earth Sciences discovered that magma volumes of supervolcanic proportions have been continuously accumulating in the Altiplano-Puna region since the last super-eruption nearly 2.9 million years ago.

Research news Fog, blizzards, gusts of wind - poor weather can often make the operation of rescue helicopters a highly risky business, and sometimes even impossible. A new helmet-mounted display, developed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), may in the future be able to help pilots detect hazards at an early stage, even when their visibility is severely impaired: the information required to do this is created in an on-board computer and imported into digital eye glasses.

Researchers reveal geographic distribution of emerging viral variants No 233/2016 from Jun 29, 2016 According to an international research group, a genetic variant of the deformed wing virus (DWV) is more dangerous to honeybees than the original virus strain. The consortium of researchers is based at Freie Universität Berlin and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

Volcanic ash can damage jet engines, and LMU volcanologists have developed a new empirical model for assessment of the risk. Their results show that tests using sand do not reflect the behavior of ash in this context. Volcanic ash is hazardous to commercial aircraft because, when drawn into jet engines, it can severely damage the turbines as well as compromising the operation of other components.

Approximately 790,000 years ago there were multiple cosmic impacts on earth with global consequences. Geoscientists from Heidelberg University reached this conclusion after dating so-called tektites from various parts of the world. The research group under the direction of Mario Trieloff studied several of such rock glasses, which originated during impacts of asteroids or comets.

Findings Published in Prestigious Journal Science / Earth Scientist Reinhold Leinfelder from Freie Universität Berlin Is Contributing Author An international group of Earth scientists as well as scientists from other disciplines has determined that the impact of human activities on the Earth marks a new geological era: the Anthropocene.

New Findings by Earth Scientists from Potsdam and Berlin Published in Science Earth scientists Dr. Wolfgang Schwanghart and Prof. Oliver Korup, PhD, from the Natural Hazards Group at the University of Potsdam investigate extreme events in the Earth's recent history. In a study recently published in the science journal Science, Schwanghart and Korup were part of an international team who investigated thick deposits in the Pokhara valley in the Himalayan country Nepal.

DFG Funds New Collaborative Research Center at Freie Universität Berlin: Project to Study the Late Growth History of the Earth, Its Moon, and Other Terrestrial Planets Joint Project with Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Technische Universität Berlin, Museum für Naturkunde, and German Aerospace Center in Berlin A new Collaborative Research Center (CRC) at Freie Universität aims to provide insights on the late growth history of the Earth, its moon, and other terrestrial planets.

How long is the interval between the trigger for a volcanic eruption and the eruption itself? A new study by LMU volcanologists indicates that compositional variations in erupted Magmas can answer this question. In the lithosphere beneath an active volcano the magma is never at rest. When melts with different chemical compositions come into, the result is often an explosive mixture: the molten rock begins to bubble, and an eruption becomes inevitable.

Freie Universität Berlin Receives Grants from German Research Foundation for Earth Science Project in Botswana Earth scientists Frank Riedel and Dr. Kai Hartmann from Freie Universität are studying environmental and climate changes over the past millennia in Tsodilo Hills, Botswana, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.

The highest and coldest battleground in the world lies on the Siachen Glacier in Northern Kashmir, where Indian and Pakistani military outposts face off at an altitude over 6,500 metres. This extremely high mountainous region, with its constant threat of avalanches, crevasse falls, and frostbite, is a logistical nightmare to supply and imposes tremendous expenses.

An international team led by Heidelberg University geoscientists will embark on a four-week marine expedition in the Tropical West Atlantic in the spring of 2016 to study historical precipitation changes in Brazil. In March and April of next year, the researchers are planning to collect water and sediment samples along the Brazilian coast and reconstruct the changes in the local precipitation over the past 150,000 years.