EGU Blogs

Simon Jowitt September 18, 2020

Colour deficient vision and the geosciences; just another way of looking at things

Like a reasonably large proportion of the population, I have colour vision deficiency (also known as colour deficient vision or colourblindness). I’m not going to get into the technical aspects of what this is like as they are covered well here and here, and you can do an Ishihara test, and other tests here, to check your own vision. The other reason I’m not going to discuss the technicalities of ...[Read More]

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Atmospheric Sciences

Atmospheric research in the middle of the Amazon forest: The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory celebrates its anniversary

Eva Pfannerstill September 16, 2020

It looks like a spike, orange against the blue sky, sticking out the green ocean of the Amazon forest: Standing 325 m tall, the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) is the highest construction in South America. This tower celebrates its 5th anniversary this year, while the ATTO research site, located ~150 km northeast of Manaus, Brazil, has been in operation for 10 years. During the past 5 years, ...[Read More]

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Seismology

Earthquake of the month: Bengkulu – Indonesia M 6.8-6.9

EGU Seismology ECS Team September 16, 2020

August was not highlighted by a large event (> M7) and the choice for the earthquake of the month was a bit tricky. Four events were available to choose from: An intraplate EQ in the US (M5.1), the largest event in this region since 1916, an M6.6 in the Philippines, a deep earthquake (~620 km) M6.9 in Indonesia, and a doublet earthquake (M6.8 – 6.9) in Indonesia. After some discussion, we ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo On Monday: Emoji from meteorites; impact spherule

Seda Özdemir September 14, 2020

This is a crossed polarized light photomicrograph of an impact spherule; a small mineralisation made when a meteorite hits the Earth and melts the rock at the point of impact, from Barberton Greenstone Belt, in South Africa. These spherules are the only remnants of Early Earth’s meteorite impact history, from between of 3.2 and 3.5 billion years ago. In this photo you can see the K-feldspar ...[Read More]

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Natural Hazards

Natural Hazards 101 – What is a – natural – hazard?

Vale Cigala September 14, 2020

We often talk about different natural hazards, how researchers investigate them and solutions to mitigate their effects on society, infrastructures and the environment. However, we have never really stopped for a moment to define a hazard, a natural hazard and much of the terminology in the field that can sometimes be evasive and not so straightforward to understand. Thus, we start this series of ...[Read More]

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Geodynamics

Locking people up to program — or: “What is a hackathon?”

Editorial team 1 September 12, 2020

This week the seventh yearly hackathon of the geodynamics code ASPECT is taking place. But what actually is a hackathon, why is it useful and how did it get started in the first place? This week, Wolfgang Bangerth, one of the founders of ASPECT, explores all these questions for us. Due to the intensity of a hackathon, he wrote this article before the start of the hackathon. It’s really not p ...[Read More]

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Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences

Is climate change making the weather more extreme?

Davide Faranda September 11, 2020

Denver, Sept. 06: it is midday and Jonathan and Maria are sunbathing at City Park. They feel uncomfortable as the temperature has already reached 36°C. While they decide to go back home, their favoured weather app displays an unbelievable snowstorm watch for Tuesday Sept. 08. The forecast turns out to be rather accurate as all Colorado experiences one of the earliest snowstorms on record in Septem ...[Read More]

GeoLog

GeoTalk: Nadine Gabriel, creator of #AreYouSiO2? and Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals.

Hazel Gibson September 11, 2020

Hi Nadine, thanks for speaking with us today, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are now? Thank you for inviting me! I’m a geologist and the Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals at the Natural History Museum, London. I studied MSci Geology at University College London and I absolutely enjoyed the subject. It was really interesting to learn about the geol ...[Read More]

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Cryospheric Sciences

Climatic drivers of permafrost mounds in North American peatlands

Richard Fewster September 11, 2020

Permafrost, or perennially frozen, peatlands are among the world’s largest terrestrial carbon stores and are particularly threatened by warming climates. Understanding how modern climate controls the distribution of permafrost peatlands is crucial for making confident predictions of their past and future extents. What are permafrost peatlands? Peatlands are wetlands that develop where cold, wet co ...[Read More]

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Climate: Past, Present & Future

Climate models and Bach’s unfinished fugue

Faranak Tootoonchi September 10, 2020

Johann Sebastian Bach’s last work – Contrapunctus XIV – is an unfinished musical composition. For many years, scholars considered that this piece was left unfinished because of Bach’s deteriorating health in his final years and eventual death. However, researchers recently found evidence that Bach might have left this piece intentionally unfinished, as he thought that there was still room for impr ...[Read More]