Simplified models or toy models explain the complex Earth processes fairly well, even though they are far from reality. In this week’s Geodynamics 101, Adam Beall, Research Associate at Cardiff University, discusses some of his favourite geophysical toy models! I remember being excited to first hear about scientists doing Earth modelling and imagined impressive computer visualisations of tec ...[Read More]
Plymouth, the capital of Montserrat, was evacuated in 1995 after the nearby Soufrière Hills Volcano (background of the image) had reactivated. Later on the town was struck by pyroclastic flows, and its centre was almost completely buried by material relocated from the upper slopes through lahars. The suburb of Town Hill can still be seen in the right centre of the photo. It remains an exclusion zo ...[Read More]
Even though significant epidemics and pandemics have been recorded many times throughout human history, the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated how vulnerable our societies still are. While the consequences of the pandemic are still ongoing, the global response so far can potentially offer some insights to support climate change response. Undoubtedly, the world is already experiencing a wide range of c ...[Read More]
If you are a higher-education instructor and want to teach climate science and a suite of relevant technical skills to those with no (or minimal) prior knowledge of climatology, you may want to begin with INTEGRATE (Integrated Teaching of Atmospheric Science, Technical Skills and Empirical Methods). This teaching package is self-contained, open-access, and available online. Topics covered include ...[Read More]
The universe is made up of stars and planets but have you ever wondered if there is anything in between? This week, Laci Brock, a PhD student from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, takes us on a journey into this murky region of stellar classification… Four years before the cult classic science fiction show Star Trek debuted on television in 1966, astrophysicist Dr. Shiv ...[Read More]
A double rainbow was captured when heading through the glaciated Benasque valley, located in the heart of the Pyrenees. The photo was taken just before the sunset, after heavy rainfall. A rainbow is caused by reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets. Second rainbow arc results from one reflection more than in the first one, thus the rainbow colours are “reverted”. The geome ...[Read More]
On May 21, a major shallower earthquake (M7.3) hit Central China at 18:04 UTC in the southern Qinghai province (Figure 1). Until this date, this event is the largest onshore earthquake during 2021. The so-called Qinghai earthquake’s hypocenter is located in a remote area near the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, which is formed due to the collision between the India Plate and the Eurasia ...[Read More]
For our last interview we haven’t talked to a member of the current Geodesy division team. Instead we asked the past ECS (Early Career Scientist) representative of the Geodesy division, Katrin Bentel, a few questions. Fortunately, she gave us some insights about the role of an ECS Representative. Find out below. What did you like most about your time as the Geodesy ECS Representative? ...[Read More]
The May 2021 NPG Paper of the Month award goes Abhirup Banerjee and his co-authors for their paper “Recurrence analysis of extreme event-like data“. Abhirup is pursuing a doctoral degree in Theoretical Physics at University of Potsdam. He is working at Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research as a guest researcher as part of the DFG funded NatRiskChange project. In this project, he ...[Read More]
Nowadays, there are plenty of media reports about the impacts of climate change around the world. Glaciers are disappearing, gigantic craters form in Siberia as the previously frozen ground thaws, the sea is threatening to swallow entire islands, floods cause large damages to people and economy, heat waves periodically destroy crops and can reach dangerous levels for people’s health. And this is o ...[Read More]
