The Idrija fault is a an active fault crossing Slovenia for more than 100 km in a NW-SE direction and is responsible for several important geological features in the country. Among them, we can mention the former-active mercury mine of Idrija which has registered as a Unesco World Heritage site since 2012. Another example that demonstrates the impact of this fault is it’s effect on th ...[Read More]
One of the saddest things for mineralogists is to see beautiful minerals crushed to extract their valuable contents, but often, without mining, we don’t get to see these minerals in the first place. Mineral hunters often scrounge around in the big piles of waste rock from mines, because the machines used for smashing up rock do a much better job of exposing minerals than a geological hammer ...[Read More]
As a part of any field-based science work, whether it be as an individual scientist, research team or with students, we must first conduct a risk assessment. This often focuses on the physical dangers that you, your colleagues or students may encounter whilst working in stressful and sometimes unfamiliar environments. More recently, field-based risk assessments for physical/environmental scientist ...[Read More]
Extending for almost 8,000 km along the west of South America, the Andes are the longest continental mountain range in the world. They portray an impressive richness and diversity of cryospheric features, including: the most substantial extension of tropical glaciers on Earth, one of the highest densities of rock glaciers, the largest glacierized area in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica, ...[Read More]
In reaction to the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Tayloy and too many others, we, early career scientists of the Young Hydrologic Society, are taking a stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. We pledge to take actionable steps to amplify the voices of Black hydrologists in particular, and our Researchers of Colour colleagues in general, while fighting racial disc ...[Read More]
Volcanic lightning is a common phenomenon related to explosive volcanism, often rattling down in a spectacle of hundreds of lightning strikes within a single eruptive event. Apart from its spectacular appearance, lightning can also be used as helpful tool to detect and monitor volcanic activity in remote locations on Earth and potentially on other planets, and is even questioned to have influenced ...[Read More]
Seismologists are not surprised to see that the coronavirus lockdowns reduce seismic ambient noise; but what is emerging from the data is that the reduction is quite spectacular. This shows that human activities – road and railroad traffic, industrial machinery – account for a significant chunk of background Earth’s vibration: and that is a form of pollution that deserves more at ...[Read More]
This week on the EGU GD Blog, we interview the newly elected incoming Geodynamics Division President, Jeroen van Hunen (Durham University). Jeroen takes on the role for 2021-2023, from Paul Tackley (ETH Zürich). Jeroen is a Professor within the Department of Geosciences, including the Geodynamics, Geophysics, and The Solid Earth research groups. He is originally from the Netherlands, having studie ...[Read More]
We all know it: the heart of many Master level courses is the term paper, a scientific essay drawn from the students’ work during the semester. It is a way of teaching students not only the content, but also the methodology of scientific work. And to keep them occupied during the semester break, of course. But last semester one of our courses took a slightly different approach. After writing a pr ...[Read More]
This natural arch named Pirulico’s tower is located in Mojácar, situated in the south east of the Province of Almería (Andalucia) in southern Spain. A natural arch, natural bridge or, less commonly, a rock arch is a natural rock formation where a rock arch forms, with an opening underneath. Most natural arches form as a narrow bridge, walled by cliffs, become narrower from erosion, wi ...[Read More]
