EGU Blogs

Franziska Keller August 31, 2020

‘Job’ alert! GMPV is looking for a (deputy) early career scientist rep!

The Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology and Volcanology division of the European Geosciences Union is looking for a new Early Career Scientist representative! The current rep will stand down at the General Assembly in 2021, but we’d like some handover time between reps so we’re advertising now with the aim of the incoming rep starting in ~November 2020. They’ll officially be the ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Imaggeo On Monday: The kidneys of the Planet

Elisa Palazzi August 31, 2020

In the past, humans considered wetlands as morbid environments where it was difficult, if not impossible, to live. Wetlands, instead, are vital to the health of wildlife and humans, as the Ramsar convention stated in 1971. Wetlands regulate the water flow, buffering droughts as well as floods, and also contribute to the provision of clean water. In addition to water flow regulations and to the pro ...[Read More]

NH

Natural Hazards

Pros & cons of an academic life

Luigi Lombardo August 31, 2020

The life of an academic is supposed to be fulfilling. To study a specific topic, understand it and share the acquired knowledge with everyone is something of great societal value and should make anyone proud. But, everything in life comes with pros and cons. So, today we will try to talk about the beauty and the problems that come with being an academic. My name is Luigi Lombardo and today I will ...[Read More]

GeoLog

GeoRoundup: the highlights of EGU Journals published during August!

Hazel Gibson August 31, 2020

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 August, the Divisions we are featuring are: Biogeosciences (BG) and Soil System Sciences (SSS). They are served by the journals: Biogeosciences (BG), SOIL, Advances in Geosciences (ADGEO), Earth Surface ...[Read More]

GeoLog

3 ways geoscientists can support the Biodiversity Strategy for the EU’s Green Deal

Ned Staniland August 28, 2020

The European Union Green Deal outlines an ambitious plan for turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities to make the EU’s economy sustainable and make Europe the first climate-neutral continent. This plan covers a wide range of topics such as preventing biodiversity loss, achieving net-zero pollution and making the agricultural industry more sustainable. These topics include sp ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Don’t leaf it to the trees: Amazonian soils also work to store carbon.

Hazel Gibson August 26, 2020

The Amazon rainforest covers an area of 5.5 million km² and is well known for being an invaluable global resource for carbon storage. But it’s not just the trees and vegetation of the Amazonian rainforest that lock in and store carbon – the very soil in these forests can do the same thing, according to research published in EGU’s journal SOIL earlier this year. In this study Carlos Alberto Quesada ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

How to fall in love?

Iris van Zelst August 26, 2020

Ah, love – that elusive feeling most people search for. It can be hard to find and hard to hold on to. Let me help you out. This week, I will give you 10 definitive tips to find your perfect match and fall and stay in love with your research. 1. Size doesn’t matter Some people like big, broad research topics, while others like smaller, niche research topics for which you really need to dive ...[Read More]

TS

Tectonics and Structural Geology

Marguerite Thomas Williams: The US’ first black person to obtain a doctorate in Geology

Anouk Beniest August 26, 2020

On the day of Christmas Eve, five years before the turn of the century, Marguerite Thomas Williams (December 1895 – August 1991) was born. She was the youngest of her five siblings born to her parents Henry and Clara Thomas. We don’t know much about her early life. Perhaps her older brothers and sisters would take her by the hand when walking to school, maybe the family would g ...[Read More]

SM

Seismology

Git or Perish

Maria Tsekhmistrenko August 25, 2020

Tell me if this sounds familiar to you: Act I After a fruitful discussion with a colleague, you exchange codes and algorithms. You are happy because you are convinced you will save some time through this collaboration and you don’t need to develop the same codes yourself. Act II The drama unfolds slowly. Firstly, you search without success for a README file or instructions on how to execute ...[Read More]

GMPV

Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

Ask us (almost) anything: how is tuff formed?

Gabriela Bunga Naen, Franziska Keller and Mike Jollands August 25, 2020

Tarun Goswami, an archaeologist from India, asks: How is a tuff formed? and more specifically… Why do some deposits have more ash than others? We are paraphrasing – the questions are specifically about the tuffs formed in the Toba supereruption. So… you asked, we answer! First of all, modern definitions generally describe a tuff as a volcaniclastic rock composed of solid volcanic ...[Read More]