GD
Geodynamics

Manel Ramos

Manel Ramos is a PhD student at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (France) and the University of Bergen (Norway). His research focuses on the numerical modelling of salt tectonics, particularly the architecture and controlling factors of diapiric structures, with a special interest in intra-salt deformation. His work has direct applications to the Zechstein Basin in the North Sea and other evaporite basins worldwide.

The truth about The Odyssey: Geodynamics, lies, cries and the hunt for Ithaca

and July 15, 2026
The truth about The Odyssey: Geodynamics, lies, cries and the hunt for Ithaca
Odysseus (drama queen) and Strabo trying to understand where is Itaka. Illustration made by Lea Pennacchioni

If you have ever tried to draw a geological cross-section under a fantasy map, Homer is surprisingly cooperative (and if you remember my Middle-earth geology post, you already know I live for this). The Odyssey is full of real places and real people—Troy, Mycenae, Sparta—stitched together with storms, monsters and divine interventions that would make any structural geologist reach for a stress ten ...[Read More]

At the Mountains of Madness: Lovecraft Applied for Geology (and Failed)

April 15, 2026
At the Mountains of Madness: Lovecraft Applied for Geology (and Failed)
Howard Phillips Lovecraft © Wikimedia

“I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why. It is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this contemplated invasion of the antarctic—with its vast fossil-hunt and its wholesale boring and melting of the ancient ice-cap —and I am the more reluctant because my warning may be in vain.” The opening lines from At the Moun ...[Read More]

Growing geological Christmas trees: salt ‘Christmas-tree’ structures explained

and December 3, 2025
Regional profile through salt structures in the eastern part of the Dutch graben, southern North Sea
Figure 1: Regional profile through salt structures in the eastern part of the Dutch graben, southern North Sea (adapted from Butler, 2022).

As geoscientists, we tend to see geology everywhere. Around Christmas, many people stare at decorated fir trees and twinkling lights; salt tectonicists stare at seismic lines and outcrops and see… trees as well. Tall stems, branching limbs, stacked “tiers” of material; a whole forest of geological Christmas trees hiding in the subsurface. In salt provinces around the world, from the Flinders Range ...[Read More]

One Ring to Rule Them All: The Geology of Middle-earth

August 13, 2025
One Ring to Rule Them All: The Geology of Middle-earth

Few fantasy worlds have captured the imagination of readers and viewers like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Whether you first encountered it through The Lord of the Rings or the sweeping visuals of Peter Jackson’s films, chances are your eyes lingered on the same thing geologists can’t help obsessing over: the mountains. Towering, treacherous, mysterious — the Misty Mountains, the White Mountains, ...[Read More]