edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda

The courage to be disliked: reflections on peer-review processes

Jean-Baptiste Koehl, edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda and edited by Michaël Pons February 4, 2026

Peer-review strikes back (Credit: Lea Pennacchioni)

Although often daunting and discouraging, every academic must navigate the inevitable process of peer review. In this week’s post, Jean-Baptiste Koehl, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo (Norway), reflects on what the future of peer review might be. Author disclaimer: The reflections presented here reflect my perspective grounded in my own experience. While peer review is a key mech ...[Read More]

Understanding geodynamic modelling results through maps of neural networks

João Paulo de Souza Bueno and edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda January 21, 2026

The huge amount of data produced in Geosciences is increasing exponentially, and numerical modelling has become a key tool for understanding tectonic evolution over time, which also increases the volume of data produced. Here, I, João Bueno (PhD student at University of São Paulo, Brazil) will present how a machine learning technique known as Self-Organising Maps can be used to understand the int ...[Read More]

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]