EGU Blogs

GeoLog

A message from EGU President Alberto Montanari on what geoscientists can do to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19

Alberto Montanari March 25, 2020

What can the Earth, planetary and space sciences do to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19? While I am considering this challenging question, I am looking out of the window of my home in Italy, in Reggio Emilia. I am close to the epidemic center of the Italian outbreak of COVID-19. I have been at home for the last two weeks without going out, something which I have never experienced before. Sudde ...[Read More]

GeoLog

EGU General Assembly 2020 cancellation: Alberto Montanari and Susanne Buiter talk about the decision – and what comes next

Hazel Gibson March 19, 2020

On 19 March EGU announced that it has cancelled the physical EGU General Assembly 2020 in Vienna, Austria. We spoke to the Union President Alberto Montanari and Programme Committee Chair Susanne Buiter to get some more information about what this means, how this decision was made and what comes next. Hello Alberto and Susanne, thank you for answering my questions. Today we found out the EGU ...[Read More]

HS

Hydrological Sciences

When the students are gone: Transition to online teaching

Matthias Sprenger March 18, 2020

With the ongoing Corona crisis, universities are closed and in-person classes are/were rapidly transitioning to online courses with only little time for preparation for instructors. Preparing online classes usually takes lots of effort and time, which is why we should probably all just release ourselves from too high expectation. Motivated by the ongoing discussion on Twitter about the challenges ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

Graduate students worldwide deserve living wages

Emilia Hernandez - edited by Diogo Lourenço March 18, 2020

‘Now, more than ever, we need science’, thinks the editor of this blogpost as he works from his small studio paid by a rent-burdened academic salary while under lockdown in California due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the need for an open, fair, inclusive science seems to be ignored all across the world by policy makers and university administrations, who refuse to pay graduate st ...[Read More]

TS

Tectonics and Structural Geology

Mind your head: Taking care of yourself during the Corona-virus crisis

Anne Pluymakers March 17, 2020

By now more and more countries in Europe are hit by the Corona-virus, leading to increasingly strict measures and closures of many public places. We are being asked or obliged to work from home, to limit social contact by staying away from bars, restaurants, sports clubs, museums, theatres and all other places where gatherings of people take place. Simultaneously, we continue to receive worrying m ...[Read More]

GeoLog

EGU President Alberto Montanari introduces the new EGUsphere

Alberto Montanari March 17, 2020

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) just announced the launch of EGUsphere, a new online platform designed to promote global networking and open discussion within the Earth, planetary and space science community. EGUsphere will serve as a central repository for all contributions, presentations and manuscripts presented to EGU. In particular, EGUsphere will host abstracts and presentations from th ...[Read More]

CL

Climate: Past, Present & Future

Are the risks of zoonotic diseases rising in the Anthropocene due to climate change?

Ichiko Sugiyama, Ph.D. Candidate in the Faculty of Chemistry in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel March 16, 2020

The recent coronavirus outbreak (i.e., nCovID-19; Fig. 1) has caused global panic, along with widespread travel bans, home quarantines and country-wide lockdowns. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared nCoVID-19 as a pandemic as of March 11th, 2020 (WHO, 2020). To tackle this global health crisis, scientists are attempting to synthesize a vaccine, while countries are trying to mitigate the n ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo on Mondays: The mirror of the volcano

Hazel Gibson March 16, 2020

Lascar volcano is located in the Antofagasta Region of Chile. This stratovolcano (a conical volcano built up over time through successive eruptions of lava, tephra and ash) of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes is the most active volcano of the region, with a height of 5.592 m (18,34 ft). The last phase of eruptive activity before this photo was taken was on October 30, 2015, which produced an ...[Read More]

GeoLog

GeoPolicy: Interview with the former President of the European Research Council – Jean-Pierre Bourguignon

Chloe Hill March 13, 2020

The EGU recently had the honour of interviewing Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, who completed his six-year term as the President of the European Research Council (ERC) at the end of 2019. As an award-winning mathematician, he has been a fellow of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique for most of his career. Bourguignon held a Professor position at École Polytechnique (1986-2012) and ...[Read More]

CR

Cryospheric Sciences

What’s up on Thwaites Glacier?

David Docquier March 13, 2020

With the West Antarctic Ice Sheet currently losing ice at a fast pace, leading to sea-level rise, it is very important to better understand the processes by which this ice melting occurs. In this context, Thwaites Glacier is a very good case study of an accelerating glacier, which contributes substantially to sea-level rise, and for which a huge scientific collaboration effort has recently been se ...[Read More]