Natural Hazards

Imaggeo on Mondays: Aoraki & a round-up of the latest New Zealand earthquake news

Laura Roberts-Artal November 14, 2016

Alpenglow on Aoraki . Credit: Katrina Sauer (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

On Sunday the 13th November, New Zealand’s South Island was struck by a powerful 7.8 M earthquake. Initial analysis by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) indicates that the source of the tremor was faulting on or near the boundary between the Pacific and Australia plates. A tsunami alert (no longer active) was triggered following the earthquake, with risk of tsunami waves along coastal are ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: A look inside a thunderstorm

Mareike Schuster October 31, 2016

Mesocyclone . Credit: Mareike Schuster (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

This week’s contribution to Imaggeo on Mondays is a photograph of a mesocyclone – and its rotating wall cloud – photographed by Mareike Schuster, an atmospheric scientist from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. The picture was taken in June 2012 near Cheyenne, Wyoming in the United States during a field campaign, ROTATE, led by the Center for Severe Weather Research, based in Boulder, Colora ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: Drilling into the crater which contributed to the demise of dinosaurs

Laura Roberts-Artal October 28, 2016

The Onshore Science Party for Expedition 364. Image courtesy of Volker Diekamp@ECORD_IODP

Six months ago, somewhere in the tropical waters off the coast of Mexico, scientists began drilling into one of the most iconic geological features on Earth: the Chicxulub crater; the 66 million year old remnants of a deadly asteroid impact, thought to have contributed to the demise of dinosaurs and most other forms of life which inhabited the Earth at the time. Today we speak to Sonia Tikoo, Assi ...[Read More]

Geosciences column: Making aurora photos taken by ISS astronauts useful for research

Laura Roberts-Artal October 7, 2016

Northern lights appeared over Murphy Dome, Alaska. Credit: Taro Nakai (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

It’s a clear night, much like any other, except that billions of kilometers away the Sun has gone into overdrive and (hours earlier) hurled a mass of charged particles, including protons, electrons and atoms towards the Earth. As the electrons slam into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, the night sky explodes into a spectacular display of dancing lights: aurora. Aurora remain shrouded in myste ...[Read More]