Were it not for the geoscience disciplines probing the deep interior of the Earth, humanity would know rather little of the physical state and internal structure of Earth, e.g. the crustal roots supporting all mountain ranges, the formation of hydrocarbon rich sedimentary basins like the North Sea, and the mechanics of the great engine driving plate tectonics and the associated hazards of volcanism and earthquakes.

At Department of Geoscience the two corner stones of Deep Earth Systems comprise

• the Niels Bohr centre with world class geochemical analytical facilities probing the minerals of magmas and other rocks and materials
• deep geophysics providing orthogonal constraints on the deep structure through remote sensing using gravity, heatflow and wavefields.