EGU Blogs

Biogeosciences

Insights into the ocean crust and deep biosphere – ECORD Summer School 2015

Rachael Moore December 22, 2015

Summer time as an early career geochemist can mean many things, to some it is vacation time, to others it is field season, and yet for others it is time to enroll in a summer school. ECORD, the European Consortium for Ocean Drilling, offers at least one summer school a year. If you work with foraminifera you may be familiar with the Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology, sorry to disappoint, bu ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Geoscience hot topics – The finale: Understanding planet Earth

Laura Roberts-Artal December 22, 2015

What are the most interesting, cutting-edge and compelling research topics within the scientific areas represented in the EGU divisions? Ground-breaking and innovative research features yearly at our annual General Assembly, but what are the overarching ideas and big research questions that still remain unanswered? We spoke to some of our division presidents and canvased their thoughts on what the ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo on Mondays: Drawing in pencil

Laura Roberts-Artal December 21, 2015

The picture was taken in Salina Turda, a fascinating salt mine in western Transylvania, in Durgău – Valea Sarată near Turda city. In the picture, the pockets created by salt dissolution can be observed. Over time, due to the erosive power of air currents, the walls have been reshaped: the corners have been rounded and, at the contact between the roof and the walls, a series of dissolution po ...[Read More]

GeoSphere

Tracking the Fallout and Fate of Fukushima Iodine-129 in Rain and Groundwater

Matt Herod December 21, 2015

A recently published paper (by myself and colleagues from uOttawa and Environment Canada) investigates the environmental fate of the long lived radioisotope of iodine, 129I, which was released by the Fukushima-Daichii Nuclear Accident (FDNA). Within 6 days of the FDNA 129I concentrations in Vancouver precipitation increased 5-15 times above pre-Fukushima concentrations and then rapidly returned to ...[Read More]

CR

Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week — AGU Fall Meeting 2015

Sophie Berger December 18, 2015

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, which takes place every December in San Francisco is ending today. With more than 24 000 attendees, 14 000 poster presentations and 7 000 talks, the AGU meeting is the largest conference on geophysical sciences in the World. The cryosphere is one the topics covered by the meeting and we hope that this year edition was a fruitful for every partici ...[Read More]

GeoLog

GeoPolicy: What was decided from the Paris COP21?

Sarah Connors December 16, 2015

Last week saw the world’s leaders come together in Paris for the 21st ‘Conference of the Parties’ (aka COP21) to discuss climate change. The 12 day meeting saw over 50,000 participants (half of which from Government organisations) come to reach an agreement on limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) production. Background Manmade climate change, resulting from the increased production of GHG into the atmosp ...[Read More]

VolcanicDegassing

The first volcanic eruption to be photographed?

David Pyle December 15, 2015

In the digital era of instant communication, breaking news of volcanic eruptions usually arrive image-first. This year, spectacular eruptions of Calbuco (Chile), Fuego (Guatemala) and Etna (Italy) have all made it into the end-of-year ‘top tens‘, in glorious multicolour detail. But when was the first photograph taken that captured one instant during a volcanic eruption? And which was t ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo on Mondays: Flying Rocks

Laura Roberts-Artal December 14, 2015

The picture was taken at a hillslope close to the glacier tongue of the Great Aletsch Glacier, the largest glacier in the Alps. With a length of 23 km it is located in the eastern Bernese Alps of Switzerland and composed of the three smaller glaciers Aletschfirn, Jungfraufirn and Eternal snow field converging at Concordia where the ice thickness was measured to be around 900m. The whole area was d ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Geoscience hot topics – Part II: the Earth as it is now and what its future looks like

Laura Roberts-Artal December 11, 2015

What are the most interesting, cutting-edge and compelling research topics within the scientific areas represented in the EGU divisions? Ground-breaking and innovative research features yearly at our annual General Assembly, but what are the overarching ideas and big research questions that still remain unanswered? We spoke to some of our division presidents and canvased their thoughts on what the ...[Read More]

G

Geodesy

EGSIEM wants to use GRACE gravity field data for operational flooding and drought management

Roelof Rietbroek December 10, 2015

The terrestial water cycle leaves traces in the Earth’s gravity field The current onset of el Nino is raising hope in California to replenish some of its multiyear water deficit. Due to the warm pool of water on the East side of the Pacific, more rain, and consequently also larger potential for flooding is expected. At the other side of the Pacific, the water is colder than usual leading to ...[Read More]