EGU Blogs

Highlights

HS
Hydrological Sciences

Do you know about the 3MT competition? What a challenging experience for a PhD student!

September 23, 2020
Do you know about the 3MT competition? What a challenging experience for a PhD student!

Effective communication plays a vital role in our PhD life. We spend significant amount of time working on a desk or in a lab performing our research for many years. However, if we do not effectively communicate our results and ideas to other scientists and researchers, our research will be unacknowledged. Of course, we all learn how to give scientific talks, via PhD concept talks, final defenses ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

Venus: science! Today!

September 23, 2020
Venus: science! Today!

After many (attempted) visits to Venus in an earlier era of space exploration, the focus of terrestrial planet science was shifted towards e.g. our other neighbour Mars. Yet, lately, Venus seems to gain scientific popularity and not without reason – there remains so much to figure out about the puzzling planet. The virtual mini-workshop ‘Venus Science Today’ was held a few weeks ago to bring toget ...[Read More]

OS
Ocean Sciences

Satellite data for ocean reanalysis

September 22, 2020
Satellite data for ocean reanalysis

To understand the fundamental behaviour of the ocean, and any changes it’s undergoing, we need to know what the ocean is doing today, and on each day in the recent past. We can do this by creating reanalyses, which use data assimilation to combine state-of-the-art models with observations. The focus is often on ocean physics, but we also need to know about the marine ecosystem and carbon cycle. As ...[Read More]

SSP
Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

Who needs stratigraphers, sedimentologists and palaeontologists? Evolving roles through the energy transition.

and September 22, 2020
Who needs stratigraphers, sedimentologists and palaeontologists? Evolving roles through the energy transition.

By Mike Simmons and Andy Davies. It seems that geoscience is facing something of an existential crisis. The September 2020 issue of Geoscientist, the magazine of the Geological Society of London, contains a number of articles on the future of geoscience and its relevance to society. At the heart of the concerns are a drop in student numbers, with total 2019 undergraduate student enrolments down by ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo On Monday: Hedenbergite – Ilvaite skarn, Calamita, Island of Elba

September 21, 2020
Imaggeo On Monday: Hedenbergite – Ilvaite skarn, Calamita, Island of Elba

In this photo taken on the Isle of Elba in Italy you can see several radiating crystals of greenish Hedenbergite, inter-grown with blackish coloured Ilvaite in skarn bodies. Skarn is an unique formation that formed as a result of the interaction between geothermal fluids and the host rock. In this case the geothermal fluids come from the Late Miocene Porto Azzurro monzogranite, and Mesozoic marble ...[Read More]

CL
Climate: Past, Present & Future

InterArctic project: understanding the interaction between artic environments and societies

September 21, 2020
InterArctic project: understanding the interaction between artic environments and societies

The InterArctic project (Fig. 1) focuses on vulnerability, resilience and adaptation of northern societies facing global change. The current rapid warming of Arctic and Subarctic climates has already produced many changes in the social, economic and cultural behaviour of the populations inhabiting these regions and more changes are expected to come. In this context, looking at the past provides th ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Colour deficient vision and the geosciences; just another way of looking at things

September 18, 2020
Colour deficient vision and the geosciences; just another way of looking at things

Like a reasonably large proportion of the population, I have colour vision deficiency (also known as colour deficient vision or colourblindness). I’m not going to get into the technical aspects of what this is like as they are covered well here and here, and you can do an Ishihara test, and other tests here, to check your own vision. The other reason I’m not going to discuss the technicalities of ...[Read More]

AS
Atmospheric Sciences

Atmospheric research in the middle of the Amazon forest: The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory celebrates its anniversary

September 16, 2020
Atmospheric research in the middle of the Amazon forest: The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory celebrates its anniversary

It looks like a spike, orange against the blue sky, sticking out the green ocean of the Amazon forest: Standing 325 m tall, the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) is the highest construction in South America. This tower celebrates its 5th anniversary this year, while the ATTO research site, located ~150 km northeast of Manaus, Brazil, has been in operation for 10 years. During the past 5 years, ...[Read More]

SM
Seismology

Earthquake of the month: Bengkulu – Indonesia M 6.8-6.9

September 16, 2020
Earthquake of the month: Bengkulu – Indonesia M 6.8-6.9

August was not highlighted by a large event (> M7) and the choice for the earthquake of the month was a bit tricky. Four events were available to choose from: An intraplate EQ in the US (M5.1), the largest event in this region since 1916, an M6.6 in the Philippines, a deep earthquake (~620 km) M6.9 in Indonesia, and a doublet earthquake (M6.8 – 6.9) in Indonesia. After some discussion, we ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo On Monday: Emoji from meteorites; impact spherule

September 14, 2020
Imaggeo On Monday: Emoji from meteorites; impact spherule

This is a crossed polarized light photomicrograph of an impact spherule; a small mineralisation made when a meteorite hits the Earth and melts the rock at the point of impact, from Barberton Greenstone Belt, in South Africa. These spherules are the only remnants of Early Earth’s meteorite impact history, from between of 3.2 and 3.5 billion years ago. In this photo you can see the K-feldspar ...[Read More]