Research Focus Solid Earth and Geomaterials
Faculty of Geosciences, MARUM and Associated Members

The Earth is alive: tectonic plates spread apart along mid-ocean ridges and form deep-sea trenches or monumental mountain ranges where they collide. How do these fascinating landscapes develop? How fast and by what underlying processes does this take place? These are some of the questions that drive our research. We do detailed seafloor mapping and geophysical surveys to find out about plate motions and related magmatism. We extract minerals containing radioactive clocks and get them to tell us how fast they came up to the surface. We attempt to understand how interactions between water and rock form new minerals and dissolve others. Zeolites form where water and rock interact; they are important Earth materials used in countless technological applications. The rocky foundation of our restless planet holds plentiful other resources that are cornerstone of our society.
Research Programs and Structures
- International Ocean Discovery Program at MARUM
Bremen Core Repository and ECORD Science Operator
Research Groups and their Core Areas
- FB5 Research Group Geodynamics of the Polar Regions Prof. Dr. Cornelia Spiegel
Fission Track Dating, Thermochronology, Terrestrial Cosmogenic Nuclide Analysis, Petrography - FB5 Research Group Geophysics - Geodynamics Prof. Dr. Marta Pérez Gussinyé
Numerical Modelling of rifting processes - FB5 Research Group Crystallography and Geomaterials Prof. Dr. Ella Schmidt
Misordering in crystalline materials, X-ray and neutron diffraction, simulations of misordered materials - FB5 Research Group Mineralogy Prof. Dr. Andreas Lüttge
Mineral Surface Reactions, Laboratory Analytics, Stochastic Modeling - FB5 Research Group Petrology of the Ocean Crust Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bach
Rock Analyses, Submarine Volcanism, Hydrothermal Systems - AWI Section Geophysics Prof. Dr. Vera Schlindwein, Prof. Dr. Karsten Gohl
Plate Tectonics, Reflection and Refraction Seismics, Seismology, Gravity and Magnetic Surveying