EGU Blogs

Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – Permafrost features disappearing from subarctic peatlands

Mariana Verdonen December 14, 2018

Some of the most remarkable, marginal features of permafrost – palsas – are degrading and disappearing metre by metre from North European peatlands, and are driven close to extinction by the climate change. What are these permafrost features? A palsa is a peat mound with an icy core, which stays frozen throughout summer due to the insulating property of dry peat. These mounds can rise up to 10 met ...[Read More]

SSP

Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

Mining the Carboniferous in the Ruhr area (Germany)

Alena Ebinghaus December 11, 2018

During the upper Carboniferous period (Namurian, Westfalian and Stephanian) large areas of central western Germany were covered by coastal swamp forests dominated by Lepidodendron und Sigillaria. Periodic marine and fluvial transgressions caused the swamps being regularly buried by siliciclastic material, resulting in up to 5500 m thick successions of alternating organic-rich and clastic-rich sed ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo on Mondays: The ash cloud of Eyjafjallajökull approaches

Martin Hensch December 10, 2018

This photo depicts the famous ash cloud of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, which disrupted air traffic in Europe and over the North Atlantic Ocean for several days in spring 2010. The picture was taken during the initial phase of the eruption south of the town of Kirjubæjarklaustur, at the end of a long field work day. Visibility inside the ash cloud was within only a few metres. The erupt ...[Read More]

CR

Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – Ice-Spy: the launch of ICESat-2

Liam Taylor December 7, 2018

On September 15th, 2018, at 18:02 local time, NASA launched its newest satellite – the second generation Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2). ICESat-2 only contains one instrument – a space laser that fires 10,000 pulses per second to Earth to measure elevation. Its primary purpose is for monitoring the ever changing cryosphere, so naturally there are plenty of ice enthusiasts ...[Read More]

TS

Tectonics and Structural Geology

Meeting Plate Tectonics – Mathilde Cannat

David Fernández-Blanco December 7, 2018

These blogposts present interviews with outstanding scientists that bloomed and shape the theory that revolutionised Earth Sciences — Plate Tectonics. Get to know them, learn from their experience, discover the pieces of advice they share and find out where the newest challenges lie! Meeting Mathilde Cannat Mathilde Cannat started her career at the early age of 26 when she obtained her Doctorate i ...[Read More]

GeoLog

November GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from around the web

Olivia Trani December 5, 2018

Drawing inspiration from popular stories on our social media channels, major geoscience headlines, as well as unique and quirky research, this monthly column aims to bring you the latest Earth and planetary science news from around the web. Major stories Earth’s red and rocky neighbor has been grabbing a significant amount of attention from the geoscience media this month. We’ll give you the rundo ...[Read More]

CR

Cryospheric Sciences

Ice-hot news: The cryosphere and the 1.5°C target

Lionel Favier, Laura H. Rasmussen, and Clara Burgard December 5, 2018

Every year again, the Conference of Parties takes place, an event where politicians and activists from all over the world meet for two weeks to discuss further actions concerning climate change. In the context the COP24, which started this Monday in Katowice (Poland), let’s revisit an important decision made three years ago, during the COP21 in Paris, and its consequences for the state of the cryo ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

Get conference ready!

Iris van Zelst December 5, 2018

It’s almost time for the AGU fall meeting 2018! Are you ready? Have you prepared your schedule and set up all your important business meetings? Here are some final tips to nail your presentation and/or poster! Nailing your presentation • The art of the 15-minute talk: how to design the best 15-minute talk • Presentation skills – 1. Voice: how to get the most out of your presentation vo ...[Read More]

NH

Natural Hazards

Combining geomorphology, geomorphometry and natural hazards research: the way forward

Giulia Roder December 4, 2018

Today I have the honour to introduce a friend and a brilliant scientist that recently won the 2019 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists of the EGU, Dr Giulia Sofia. Dr Sofia is currently Assistant Research Professor at the University of Connecticut (USA) in the Hydrometeorology and Hydrologic Remote Sensing group. She received a B.S. and M.S. in Forestry Science, and PhD (201 ...[Read More]

CL

Climate: Past, Present & Future

God does not play DICE – but Bill Nordhaus does! What can models tell us about the economics of climate change?

Claudia Elisabeth Wieners, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research, Utrecht And Centre for Complex Systems Studies, Utrecht University December 3, 2018

Climate change has been described as “the biggest market failure in human history”[1]. Although fuel is costly, emitting the by-product CO2 is for free; yet it causes damages to society. In other words, those who benefit, by using the atmosphere as waste dump, do not pay the full costs, i.e. the adverse effects climate change has on societies on a global scale. Can this market failure be cured? Sh ...[Read More]