This week one of our editor’s, Aisling Dunn, brings back the book reviews, talking through her thoughts on her most recent read and why she recommends you all read it too. There’s no doubt about it – I am a self-confessed book lover. Whether its fantasy stories about imagined worlds, classic tales set in 19th century England, travel writing, historical non-fiction, biographies, there are ver ...[Read More]
Watch and learn!
Too envious to watch Netflix’s Selling Sunset? Gone through the top 5 geodynamic movies? Lock-down vacation too boring for words? In need of useful procrastination? Search no longer! We have compiled an extensive list of online webinars and speaker series that were already active pre-Corona or saw the daylight during the pandemic to stay in touch with our colleagues both abroad and next door ...[Read More]
What controls Victoria microplate rotation in the East African Rift?
This week in News & Views, Anne Glerum, postdoc at GFZ Potsdam, discusses how her numerical models support a lithosphere-driven mechanism for the rotation of large continental microplates, like Victoria in the East African Rift System. The East African Rift System (EARS) is a newly forming divergent boundary between the Nubian and Somalian plates (Fig. 1). The plate boundary system includes se ...[Read More]
Starting to teach? Here are 3 tips!
Starting to teach a course at a university can be an exciting but daunting experience. In today’s post Menno Fraters shares his experiences of starting to teach a class of 100+ students during the challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic. He provides three quick tips for when you start teaching, that may be useful for teaching in academics. During your time as a PhD student, you may have al ...[Read More]
#shareEGU20_GD: online EGU General Assembly highlights
In response to the growing concerns over the COVID-19 epidemic, EGU has cancelled the physical General Assembly in Vienna and will instead host EGU 2020: Sharing Geoscience Online (#shareEGU20), a week-long series of online activities during which attendees can remotely interact, discuss and share research. With the virtual GA looming in less than a week, it’s time for all attendees to finis ...[Read More]
Can plume-lithosphere interaction initiate a modern subduction zone?
This week in News & Views, dr. Marzieh Baes from GFZ Potsdam introduces us to the mechanisms behind subduction initiation. Moreover, she discusses the different types of subduction initiation in reaction to plume-lithosphere interaction that she observed in her recent 3-d numerical modelling study. Possible scenarios of subduction initiation According to plate tectonics, oceanic plates are for ...[Read More]
The challenges (and the perks) of being academic nomads
It has become inevitable for scientists to move abroad for their jobs. Moving to and living in a new country can be a very exciting, yet also tough experience. In today’s blog post, Irene Bonati (PhD Student at the Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo) discusses the challenges and perks that come with the nomad lifestyle of many academics. Research provides a kind of freedom that almost no ...[Read More]
Science. Exploration. Survival.
A scientific career can be a struggle. This week Dave Stegman, Associate Professor at Scripps, draws parallels between being a scientist and being an Antarctic explorer. He dangled in the crevasse, unable to touch the sides; the abyss beneath was hundreds of feet deep; the rope he was suspended from was 14 feet long, connected above to the sledge he had been hauling. Was it luck when his sledge ha ...[Read More]
post-AGU blues
Under the motto Better Late than Never, in today’s blog post we look back at the AGU 2019 Fall Meeting 2019. Last December (9-13th December) the AGU 2019 Fall Meeting took place during which Earth and Space scientists from all over the world gathered in San Francisco in the pursuit of high-quality science and a more sustainable future, through worthy discussions and networking. Whilst the pr ...[Read More]
Enigmas at depth
The Geodynamics 101 series serves to showcase the diversity of research topics and/or methods in the geodynamics community in an understandable manner. In this week’s Geodynamics 101 post, Marcel Thielmann, Senior Researcher at the University of Bayreuth, discusses the possible mechanisms behind the ductile deformation at great depths that causes deep earthquakes. Earthquakes are one of the expre ...[Read More]