In 1904, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius suggested that the burning of fossil fuels to satiate our hunger for energy would increase the percentage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, which would change the Earth’s temperature. Regular measurements of atmospheric CO2, started in the late 1950’s at remote locations such as Mauna Loa in Hawaii and the South Pole, confirmed his hypothesis ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Communicate your Science Video Competition finalists 2017: time to get voting!
For the fourth year in a row we’re running the EGU Communicate Your Science Video Competition – the aim being for early career scientists to communicate their research in a short, sweet and public-friendly video. Our judges have now selected 4 fantastic finalists from the excellent entries we received this year and it’s time to find the best geoscience communication clip! The shortlisted videos wi ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: Concord at midnight
The high peaks of the Alps are always awe inspiring, but this midnight shot, captured by Alessandro Lechmann, a PhD student at the Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of Bern, further enhance their fragile beauty. With a warming climate threatening snow availability to even the highest peaks, it has never been more important to appreciate the importance of the glaciers which drape t ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
Image of the Week — Hidden lakes in East Antarctica !
Who would have guessed that such a beautiful picture could get you interviewed for the national news?! Certainly not me! And yet, the photo of this englacial lake (a lake trapped within the ice in Antarctica), or rather science behind it, managed to capture the media attention and brought me, one of the happy co-author of this study, on the Belgian television… But what do we see on the pic ...[Read More]
GeoLog
GeoEd: Do as I say… AND as I do
Bridging the gap between student and teacher is not always easy. For students, the educator might seem ‘untouchable’ and inaccessible. A sense exacerbated when assignments are set and they turn out to be new, complex and unfamiliar. In this new installment of our GeoEd column, regular guest blogger Rhian Meara of Swansea University, discusses a simple approach to overcome some of these ...[Read More]
WaterUnderground
Deep challenges: China’s ‘war on water pollution’ must tackle deep groundwater pollution pathways
by Matthew Currell, School of Engineering, RMIT University, Australia As part of its recent ‘war on pollution’, the Chinese Central Government released a major policy on water pollution control and clean-up, called the ‘10-point water plan’ in 2015. The plan aims to deal once and for all with China’s chronic water quality problems. China’s water quality deficiencies became widely recognised around ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Presenting at the General Assembly 2017: A quick ‘how to’ from the EGU
The schedule is out, presentation slots have been assigned and it’s time to start thinking about putting yours together. Whether you have an oral, poster or PICO slot, we have a suite of simple guidelines to get you ready for the conference! Orals The guidelines for oral presentations are online. All oral presentations should have the dimensions 4:3 or 16:9 and last about 12 minutes, with 3 minute ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: A Fijian paradise
Today’s post is brought to you by Lisa-Marie Shillito, a Lecturer in Landscape Archaeology at Newcastle University. Initially, this photo may seem like any other tropical paradise: lush forests line a meandering river, but there is much more to the forests in the foreground than first meets the eye. Over to Lisa for the details. I first visited Fiji as an undergraduate student, where I undertook m ...[Read More]
WaterUnderground
What is a hydrogeologist?
Hydrogeologists are a diverse group, in part because we come to this discipline from so many different paths. We come from different academic programs in engineering, geological sciences and environmental sciences. These differences in backgrounds create a diversity of perspectives, which enriches hydrogeology and allows for dynamic collaborations. Engineers and geophysicists are known for brin ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
Image of The Week – The Pulsating Ice Sheet!
During the last glacial period (~110,000-12,500 years ago) the Laurentide Ice Sheet (North America) experienced rapid, episodic, mass loss events – known as Heinrich events. These events are particularly curious as they occurred during the colder portions of the last glacial period, when we would intuitively expect large-scale mass loss during warmer times. In order to understand mass loss m ...[Read More]