Folk tales and myths, they’ve lasted for a reason. We tell them over and over because we keep finding truths in them, and we keep finding life in them. ~ Patrick Ness, American-British author (*nae, this Ness isn’t related to Nessie) Is it an eel? Is it a snake? Is it a diplodocus with fins? No, it’s Nessie! If there’s one myth that has weathered the passage of time and stands in defi ...[Read More]
Geodesy
Geodesists on Tour: On a Campaign in the Arctic with a Giraf(f)e in the Aircraft
Way too early on a Saturday morning in late June 2023 I woke up and started my travel to a small airport in Akureyri, North-East Iceland. This is the location of an Icelandic charter company called Norlandair that we used for our airborne geophysical surveys and logistic operations in the Arctic. For a few months I had been preparing a survey to test a new quantum-based technology for airbo ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Biosphere Reserves: What are they and why must we care for them?
Today, 3 November, is globally recognized as the International Day for Biosphere Reserves. The first edition of this observance day was marked last year, with UNESCO urging our relationship with nature needed “a radical rethink.” As Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO explains, “The logic is simple: to improve our relationship with nature, we must first improve our understanding of how we a ...[Read More]
GeoLog
GeoRoundup: the highlights of EGU Journals published during October!
Each month we feature specific Divisions of EGU and during the monthly GeoRoundup we put the journals that publish science from those Divisions at the top of the Highlights roundup. For October, the Divisions we are featuring are: Planetary and Solar System Sciences (PS) and Solar-terrestrial Sciences (ST). They are served by the journals: Annales Geophysicae (ANGEO) and Geoscientific Model Develo ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Swamps may be considered spooky, but is there more than meets the eye?
Swamps are spooky. This is the prevailing notion from the depiction of wetlands – the saturated lands of swamps, bogs, and fens – in the media. From the folktales of Will-o’-the-Wisps guiding travellers astray to the many, many swamp monsters of Scooby Doo, the sign is clear: a scrawled “stay away from here” thrust deep in the mud, writ by centuries of storytellers. As a reputation it’ ...[Read More]
GeoLog
GeoPolicy: From research to regulation – unpacking the EU Soil Directive
This month’s GeoPolicy Blog post unpacks the Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience, it’s impacts from research to regulation and how scientists can get involved with it. It can be challenging for scientists to understand and engage with the European policymaking process. The intricacies and nuances of the legislative process, with its numerous institutions, committees, and political pr ...[Read More]
GeoLog
GeoTalk: Meet Liliana Macotela, researcher of radio waves at the Earth-Space boundary & Solar-Terrestrial ECS Representative!
Hi Liliana. Welcome to GeoTalk! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Hi, I was born in the highlands in Peru. This gave me the advantage of living more in contact with nature. Since I remember, I was fascinated about the shape of the clouds, the sounds of the wind in the mountains or trees, the sounds of the rain and what they do to our surrounding; the lightning flashes and t ...[Read More]
GeoLog
International Archaeology Day: Challenging stereotypes about migration
Discoveries like excavations of prehistoric civilizations, shipwrecks with long-lost treasures, forgotten cities, and ancient tombs and temples, paint a vivid picture of archaeology and human history. Yet understanding how cultures evolved is often a more laborious process focused on prosaic finds; pottery shards, tools, implements, skeletal remains, art, inscriptions, pollen or soil samples, amon ...[Read More]
GeoLog
What does open science mean in the real world? My experiences in becoming EGU’s editorial manager
For nearly 7 months now, I have held the position of EGU’s editorial manager. However, my interest in and passion for open access and open science in general goes back several years. Here, it is important to make the distinction: open science is a broad concept that encompasses transparency and accessibility in the entire research process, while open access is an important component of open scienc ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Far over the Misty Mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old: the geology of the Lord of the Rings.
“He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away; but now he was borne down by the insupportable weight of Middle-earth.” J.R.R. Tolkien (1955) Return of the King ‘The Lord of the Rings‘ by J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the most famous english-language fantasy book series’ ever written. It set the blueprint for ...[Read More]