edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda

Mathematical closed-form solutions in Geodynamics: insightful or detrimental?

Dimitrios Papadomarkakis and edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda January 14, 2026

(credit: modified from Unsplash)

Mathematics is certainly not every scientist’s cup of tea. Despite the latter, they are, for the most part, very important, since most problems, regardless of their complexity, start and end with a mathematical equation (or set of equations). In this week’s blog, Dimitrios Papadomarkakis (student at the National Technical University of Athens), discusses the subject of closed-form (analytical) sol ...[Read More]

Cratons: building blocks of continents and their economic importance

Arijit Chakraborty, edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda and edited by Michaël Pons December 17, 2025

A map showing how mineral deposits are often concentrated along the edges of the thick lithosphere. The coloured boxes represent distribution of large igneous intrusions, which contains Ni-Cu-PGE deposits and the circles represent distribution of carbonatites which might contain REEs (Lithosphere thickness data from Priestley et al, 2024, Carbonatite locations from Liu et al., 2022, large igneous intrusion locations from Smith and Maier, 2021)

The 4.5 billion years of geologic evolution has shaped the tectonic processes in Earth we see today. Over the span of time, Earth has changed from being a magma ocean to a tectonically active planet, by transitioning through different tectonic regimes. A silent witness of this journey have been cratons which have survived for billions of years. Therefore cratons preserve clues of past tectonic pr ...[Read More]

The hidden effects of academic excellence: workaholism in Academia

Katherine Villavicencio and edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda September 17, 2025

Figure generated using VEED IA.

Years have passed since I started my academic career, and I have come to realise that, in academia, excellence appears to come with a price tag. Stress and pressure have become commonplace for academics, often normalising certain behaviours such as workaholism. This essay explores how workaholism have become a common practice in these working environments. It was late, the library lights were blin ...[Read More]

How do rocks fail and flow: A beginners guide to rock rheology

Dimitrios Papadomarkakis and edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda September 3, 2025

The field of rock rheology may seem a bit ‘odd’ at first glance to those geoscientists who are vaguely familiarized with the topic of geodynamics. Often, rocks are considered massive and competent geomaterials that display a sudden (and sometimes violent) brittle failure (earthquake alert!). However, when considering the high temperatures and large timescale characteristics of most geo ...[Read More]