EGU Blogs

Geodynamics

The lost Tethyan seaways: A deep-Earth and deep-time perspective on eastern Tethyan tectonics

Editorial Team 2 October 4, 2017

Every 8 weeks we turn our attention to a Remarkable Region that deserves a spot in the scientific limelight. Following from the first entry which showcased the Eastern Mediterranean, we move further east, and back in time, to the realm of the Tethys. The post is by postdoctoral researcher Sabin Zahirovic of the EarthByte Group and Basin GENESIS Hub, The University of Sydney. The southern and south ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo on Mondays: Measuring the wind direction

Laura Roberts-Artal October 2, 2017

Remote, rugged, raw and beautiful beyond measure, the island of South Georgia rises from the wild waters of the South Atlantic, 1300 km south east of the Falkland Islands. The Allardyce Range rises imposingly, south of Cumberland Bay, dominating the central part of the island. At its highest, it towers 2935 m (Mount Paget) above the surrounding landscape. In the region of 150 glaciers carve their ...[Read More]

GfGD

Geology for Global Development

Wearing the Earth Down: The Environmental Cost of Fashion

EGU Guest blogger October 2, 2017

Eloise Hunt is an Earth science student at Imperial College London, and coordinator of the GfGD University group there. Today we publish her first guest article for the GfGD blog, exploring the environmental cost of fashion. When we think of pollution, we imagine raw sewage pumped into rivers, open-cast mines or oil spills. We don’t often think of our inconspicuous white shirt or new jeans. But, ...[Read More]

GMPV

Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

Ongoing unrest at Agung Volcano, Indonesia

Will Hutchison September 29, 2017

Agung volcano, a 3.1 km high cone located in the east of Bali, Indonesia, which last erupted in 1963 killing ~1500 people (Self and Rampino, 2012), is currently undergoing seismic unrest, and steam/gas emissions have been observed at the surface. This has led the Indonesian authorities to evacuate areas around Agung which could be affected by volcanic hazards, leading to the displacement of over 7 ...[Read More]

BG

Biogeosciences

Identification of past methane emission altering the foraminiferal tests by secondary overgrowth of calcium carbonate.

Jasper Bloemen September 29, 2017

Ever heard about foraminifera? These tiny benthic (living at the seafloor) marine organisms are common in oceans across the globe and can be used to accurately give relative dates to sedimentary rocks. But we can also use them to identify past methane emissions from the seabed by studing their test or shell! The measurements were done on foraminifera called Cassidulina neoteretis , which is a ty ...[Read More]

GeoLog

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

Laura Roberts-Artal September 29, 2017

Drawing inspiration from popular stories on our social media channels, as well as unique and quirky research news, this monthly column aims to bring you the best of the Earth and planetary sciences from around the web. Major story and what you might have missed This month has been an onslaught of Earth and space science news; the majority focusing on natural hazards. Hurricanes, earthquakes and v ...[Read More]

WaterUnderground

Western water wells are going dry

WaterUnderground 28th September 2017

Post by Scott Jasechko, Assistant Professor of Water Resources at the University of Calgary, in Canada, and by Debra Perrone, Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Stanford University, in the United States of America. __________________________________________________ Wells are excavated structures, dug, drilled or driven into the ground to access groundwater for drinking, cleaning, irrigating, and coo ...[Read More]

GMPV

Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

Unseen but not unfelt: resilience to persistent volcanic emissions

Will Hutchison September 28, 2017

The last decade has been inundated with reports of environmental disasters impacting the lives of billions of people around the world. While news coverage of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes or wild fires are always accompanied with spectacular images of destruction that emphasise the speed at which they strike, a myriad of slow and latent hazards have been left in the shadow of the public attenti ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Record-setting forest fires in 2017 – what is to blame?

Robert Emberson September 28, 2017

Forest fires have once again seized the public consciousness in both Europe and North America. Extreme drought and temperatures contributed to a tinderbox in many forests, and have led to deadly fires across Europe and record-breaking, highly disruptive fires in the USA and Canada, from where I’m currently writing. A simple way to understand fire is by thinking about the fire triangle – the three ...[Read More]

GeoLog

GeoPolicy: IPCC decides on fresh approach for next major report

Sarah Connors September 27, 2017

This month’s GeoPolicy post is a guest post from Sarah Connors, a Science Officer in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group 1 Technical Support Unit (and former EGU Science Policy Officer). The IPCC is starting its sixth cycle, in which hundreds of scientists take stock of the world’s climate change knowledge by assessing the current scientific literature and then summa ...[Read More]