Groundwater is water stored within permeable geological formations, and nearly a third of Earth’s freshwater supply comes from this source (a). In Africa, the overwhelming majority of distributable freshwater is contained in groundwater, and in the EU, 75% of the population relies on groundwater (b). This dependence on groundwater is steadily rising. As humanity as a whole, figures out how ...[Read More]
On February 9th, a British Airways Boeing 747 landed in London Heathrow airport just four hours and 56 minutes after its take-off in JFK, New York, setting the shortest flight-time for non-supersonic jets over this route. The jumbo jet took advantage of the fast upper-tropospheric winds associated with an exceptionally strong jet-stream which created tail winds of about 400km/h. Over the United Ki ...[Read More]
Uluru in Australia is one of the most visibly recognisable geological features in the world. This sandstone formation covers an area of 3.3 kilometres and stands 345 metres above the plains around it. According to geoscientists, the rocks that form Uluru were deposited in an inland sea during the Cambrian Period approximately 500 million years ago. The arkose sandstones were then uplifted and fold ...[Read More]
Why Early Career Scientist (ECS) representatives? The EGU SM division tackles cutting-edge research topics covering a large variety of basic and applied scientific fields in the context of both natural resources and natural hazards. The EGU SM division is a space where one can discuss a wide range of scientific questions and their societal impact. To engage in a forward-looking discussion and stre ...[Read More]
Recent studies have shown that mental health conditions are far more common in graduate students than in the general public (e.g. Bolotnyy et al., 2020). Despite the prevalence, these issues are not something that are often openly discussed, and graduate students often don’t seek treatment. This week, we are interviewing Jean Holloway who aims to shed some light on her personal experience with som ...[Read More]
Athena is torn between desire and duty, and asks: What is your opinion on workplace romances? Dear Athena, Following the overwhelming success of the last two posts on workplace romance, this Valentine’s Day has prompted a return to the magic of poetry to answer this question. In the form of the villanelle this time. No, not the beloved character from the tv show or the novella series, but th ...[Read More]
In a study recently published in Nature Communications [1], an international team led by researchers from the Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP) has sought to better understand how the 2011 Tohoku-Oki mega-earthquake in Japan disrupted volcanic regions, by monitoring the seismic anisotropy in these regions before and after the earthquake. What is seismic anisotropy? A seismic wav ...[Read More]
In October 2019, an open letter was published, addressing both EGU and AGU regarding their policy to reduce the carbon footprint of their annual conferences. Almost 2000 scientists already signed this letter, asking for more ambitious measures to decline carbon emissions, in line with the goals of 50% reduction by 2030 and near-zero emissions by 2050 (IPCC SR15, 2018). Some of the proposed improve ...[Read More]
Last year I had the opportunity to attend my first General Assembly to speak at several sessions about my experience working as a science journalist and reporting in the field during an EGU Science Journalism Fellowship. With my tickets booked and accommodations reserved, I was ready to go — until I tore a ligament in my knee while skiing in my native state: Colorado in the U.S. The timing ...[Read More]
Soil is a fragile and finite natural resource that must be carefully managed and protected to ensure future food and fiber provision as well as delivery of many other ecosystem services such as water purification or flood regulation [1]. Soil health and preservation at global scales has been receiving increasing attention, for example, in discussions at the 2019 UN climate conference, COP25 in Mad ...[Read More]
