It’s the 2nd December 2013 and I find myself in one of those rare occasions in life where I feel I need to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming. Why? Somehow I’m in control of a British Antarctic Survey De Havilland Twin Otter aircraft flying over the white featureless expanse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. I’m part of a team of 12 heading to Pine Island Glacier, a remote ice stream 75°S and arou ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: A fold belt within a grain
Tiny crinkly folds form the main basis of today’s Imaggeo on Mondays. Folding can occur on a number of scales; studying folds at all scales can reveal critical information about how rocks behave when they are squeeze and pinched, as described by Sina Marti, from the University of Basel. Although many geoscientists have seen such fold structures many times before, if you noticed the scale bar in th ...[Read More]
GeoLog
GeoEd: Why So Serious?
In this edition of GeoEd, Sam Illingworth, a lecturer in science communication at Manchester Metropolitan University, explores the benefits of a more informal teaching style and how the incorporation of play into everyday teaching can help to engage and enthuse students who oterhwise struggle to connect with the sciences. Despite the hard work, there are some real perks to being a scientists: fiel ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Guest Blog: Exploring Land Use in Guatemala
Jane Robb is GfGD’s University Groups Training Programme Officer, and a new PhD student at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich. Jane has just returned from Guatemala, where she was meeting with community groups and exploring land use issues. Here she shares some of the highlights of her trip with us. In 2014 I started my PhD in Natural Resources at the Natural Resources ...[Read More]
GeoLog
General Assembly 2015 – Highlights
It’s been just over a month since the EGU General Assembly 2015 in Vienna. The conference this year was a great success with 4,870 oral, 8,489 poster, and 705 PICO presentations. There were 577 unique scientific sessions, complimented by an impressive 310 side events, making for an interesting and diverse programme. The conference brought together 11,837 scientists from 108 countries, 23% of ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: A thermal inversion
This week’s Imaggeo on Mondays image is brought to you by Cyril Mayaud, from the University of Graz (Austria), who writes about an impressive hike and layers of cold and warm air. Thermal inversion is a meteorological phenomenon which occurs when a layer of cold air is trapped near the Earth’s surface by an overlying layer of warmer air. This can happen frequently at the boundary between mountaino ...[Read More]
GeoLog
GeoTalk: How hydrothermal gases change soil biology
The biosphere is an incredible thing – whether you’re looking at it through the eye of a satellite and admiring the Amazon’s vast green landscape, or looking at Earth’s surface much more closely and watching the life that blossoms on scales the naked eye might never see, you are sure to be inspired. Geochemist, Antonina Lisa Gagliano has been working on the slopes of Pantelleria Island in an effor ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Meet the experts: The future of solar-terrestrial research
This year’s General Assembly saw more Short Courses than ever before! With many of the 50 courses on offer having been organised by and/or for early career scientitst, there was no excuse not to pick up some new skills. In this guest blog post, Jone Peter Reistad a PhD candidate at the University of Bergen, outlines the details of a session which explored what the future might hold for resea ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: Foehn clouds
This week’s post is brought to you by Stefan Winkler, a Senior Lecturer in Quaternary Geology & Palaeoclimatology, who explains how the mountain tops of the Southern Alps become decorated by beautiful blanket-like cloud formations. The Sothern Alps of New Zealand are a geoscientifically dynamic environment in all aspects. They are arguably one of the youngest high mountain ranges in the ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Iceland’s Bárðarbunga-Holuhraun: a remarkable volcanic eruption
A six month long eruption accompanied by caldera subsidence and huge amounts of emitted gasses and extruded lavas; there is no doubt that the eruption of the Icelandic volcano in late 2014 and early 2015 was truly remarkable. In a press conference, (you can live stream it here), which took place during the recent EGU General Assembly, scientists reported on the latest from the volcano. Seismic act ...[Read More]