Professor Michael Rogerson

I am interested in how the Earth works. I’ve always followed my curiosity, and at different times have looked at movement of water between ocean basins, recolonisation of the tops of marine avalanches by microorganisms, how petrifying springs work, cleaning up hyperalkaline pollution, rainfall changes in northern Africa and the Mediterranean, icebergs in the North Pacific and the carbon flow between bedrock and surface water. Surprisingly, I’ve been using the same tools in all these studies, through investigating the chemistry of sediment, especially limestone and similar carbonate bodies. Carbonate makes up the shells of microorganisms I use to study changes in the ocean, are the major mineral forming in freshwater springs, rivers and lakes, forms a sink for hyperalkaline pollution and carries most of the inorganic carbon in the Earths crust. Carbonate geochemistry is a really diverse area to work in, and there are always surprising new things to learn!

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• A Change-Detection Approach Using Google Earth Engine to Monitor the Loss of Historically-Significant Sustainable Traditional OASIS Agriculture, Rayne, L., Cigna, F., Tapete, D., Rogerson, M., De Gruchy, M., Ait Brahim, Y., Jotheri, J., Kinnaird, T., Makovics, J., Irvine, H., Shillito, L. 22 Apr 2026, 2026 IEEE Mediterranean and Middle-East Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, M2GARSS 2026 - Proceedings, Piscataway, US, IEEE
• Formation of Mg-silicates in the microbial sediments of a saline, mildly alkaline coastal lake (Lake Clifton, Australia): environmental versus microbiological drivers, Mercedes-Martín, R., Ayora, C., Sánchez‐Román, M., Rogerson, M., Thomas, C., van Spanning, R., Brasier, A., Wacey, D., Reijmer, J. 1 Aug 2025, In: Sedimentology
• Karst groundwater exhibits piston-like response to heavy rainfall during winter Storm Franklin in 2022 (Derbyshire, UK), Rogerson, M., Ersek, V., White, J. 1 Dec 2025, In: Cave and Karst Science
• Spatio-temporal dynamics of speleothem growth and glaciation in the British Isles, Panitz, S., Rogerson, M., Longman, J., Scroxton, N., Lawson, T., Atkinson, T., Ersek, V., Baldini, J., Baldini, L., Umbo, S., Lone, M., Henderson, G., Breitenbach, S. 29 Jan 2025, In: Climate of the Past
• Where did the river go? Testing the hypothesis of rivers discharging into the Gulf of Sirt (East Mediterranean) during the late Pleistocene, Mauz, B., Abdulsamad, E., Emhanna, S., Elmejdoub, N., Mansoura, M., Rogerson, M. 8 Oct 2025, In: PLoS One
• Environmental and climatic significance of the Pliocene-Pleistocene calcretes in North Africa, Jarraya, F., Rogerson, M., Kallel, N., Mauz, B., Elmejdoub, N., Sghari, A. 1 Sep 2024, In: Catena
• Ikaite formation in streams affected by steel waste leachate: first report and potential impact on contaminant dynamics, Bastianini, L., Rogerson, M., Brasier, A., Prior, T., Hardman, K., Dempsey, E., Bird, A., Mayes, W. 20 Jan 2024, In: Chemical Geology
• Understanding the moisture source of orbitally controlled changes in northern Sahara rainfall: a multi-proxy speleothem approach, Lone, M., Rogerson, M., Hoffmann, D., Luetscher, M., Spötl, C., Mansoura, M., Kallel, N., Elmejdoub, N., Dublyanski, Y. 11 Mar 2024, EGU General Assembly 2024
• Why does it rain in the desert? The dust record in Tunisia., Bird, A., Millar, I., Wagner, D., Fenn, K., Smedley, R., Mauz, B., Mansoura, M., Rogerson, M., Luetscher, M., Lone, M., Elmejdoub, N. 11 Mar 2024
• Effects of salinity, organic acids and alkalinity on the growth of calcite spherulites: Implications for evaporitic lacustrine sedimentation, Mercedes‐Martín, R., Rao, A., Rogerson, M., Sánchez‐Román, M. 1 Feb 2022, In: The Depositional Record