EGU Blogs

Highlights

GM
Geomorphology

Pandemics vs. Academia: How do German geomorphologists deal with teaching, research projects and online conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Pandemics vs. Academia: How do German geomorphologists deal with teaching, research projects and online conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic?

– Authors: The German Young Geomorphologists (Renee van Dongen, Jörn Profe, Steffi Tofelde, Janek Walk, Mario Kirchhoff, Julian Trappe, Johannes Buckel, Stefan Haselberger, Simon Meyer-Heintze) – COVID-19 Pandemic has changed the world this year. We as scientists are affected by this pandemic, but we can mostly work from home and most importantly, we can conduct our jobs. Nonetheless, ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo On Monday: Lahar in the jungle, Mexico

Imaggeo On Monday: Lahar in the jungle, Mexico

Volcán de Colima currently is the most active volcano in Mexico where many rain-induced lahars occur every year. La Lumbre ravine is the ephemeral channel that drains the west-southwestern slopes of the volcano. In 2016, while Volcán de Colima experienced a prolonged explosive phase, several lahars were documented in this channel. One of them is shown in his picture, taken on August 13, 2016, du ...[Read More]

SM
Seismology

Forensic Seismology: The Beirut Explosion

Forensic Seismology: The Beirut Explosion

On August 4, 2020, the coast of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, was rocked by an explosion caused by the blowing up of 2750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers (Figure 1). It resulted in at least 181 casualties, 6,000 injuries and 10-15 billion US dollars in damage [Ref 2]. Footage of the explosion has circulated widely: a large fire near the port’s warehouses and an in ...[Read More]

NP
Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences

Perspectives on Climate Science: from historical developments to research frontiers

Perspectives on Climate Science: from historical developments to research frontiers

Breaking news: a bizarre early-September snowstorm dumped snow from Montana to New Mexico, a medicane hit Southern Italian regions and Greece, heatwaves and droughts are expected to increase in the future… These extreme events are becoming more and more frequent and one question spontaneously arises: is climate change making the weather more extreme? This is one of the reasons why climate change i ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Earth Science Week 2020: Earth Materials in Our Lives – an A-Z!

Earth Science Week 2020: Earth Materials in Our Lives – an A-Z!

Since 1998 the American Geosciences Institute has been running an annual celebration of all things geoscience – Earth Science Week. From its inception, Earth Science Week has grown in popularity and is now celebrated across the planet. This year Earth Science Week will run from 11 to 17 October and the theme of the week is  “Earth Materials in Our Lives.” As the American Geoscien ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

The Sassy Scientist – Diamonds Are Forever

The Sassy Scientist – Diamonds Are Forever

Jade feels uncomfortable as she glides across the multi-faceted piazza of Earth sciences. Sometimes parents should think a tad longer about prospective names for their progeny, especially in case they push them into the world of minerals, rocks and equations-of-state. With all the facts on jade in her back-pocket, Jade wonders whether she should brush up and expand her knowledge: What is your favo ...[Read More]

HS
Hydrological Sciences

Why social inequalities matter for hydrologists?

Why social inequalities matter for hydrologists?

After a few years spent at an Earth Science department researching social inequalities and hydrological extremes — i.e. floods and droughts — I have often been asked these rhetorical questions: “Isn’t it obvious that the weakest individuals or social groups suffer the most in case of extreme hydrological events? So, why should we study these inequalities?” Driven by these questions, and the years ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

The mantle as seen from the core: more than a thermostat

The mantle as seen from the core: more than a thermostat

Geodynamics does not stop at the core-mantle boundary – the Earth’s outer core is a truly dynamic geosystem. This week Stefano Maffei (Research fellow) and Chris Davies (Associate Professor) from the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds tell us more about the possible interplay between mantle and core and some of the remaining mysteries of the Earth’s magnetic field generatio ...[Read More]

SSP
Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

Desert loess: formation, distribution, geoscientific value

Desert loess: formation, distribution, geoscientific value

Loess is an aeolian (wind-driven) silty sediment covering over 10% of the Earth’s land surface; it occurs predominantly in the mid-latitudes. On a global scale, loess is among the most widespread unconsolidated sediments, and of crucial importance for agricultural regions where loess deposits are known to form fertile soils because of its ability to store water and retain nutrients. Loess is compr ...[Read More]

GeoLog

GeoRoundup: the highlights of EGU Journals published during September!

GeoRoundup: the highlights of EGU Journals published during September!

Each month we feature specific Divisions of EGU and during the monthly GeoRoundup we will be putting the journals that publish science from those Divisions at the top of the Highlights roundup. For September, the Divisions we are featuring are: Energy, Resources and Environment (ERE) and Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology and Volcanology (GMPV). They are served by the journals: Geoscientific Mode ...[Read More]