This week on the EGU GD Blog, we interview the newly elected incoming Geodynamics Division President, Jeroen van Hunen (Durham University). Jeroen takes on the role for 2021-2023, from Paul Tackley (ETH Zürich). Jeroen is a Professor within the Department of Geosciences, including the Geodynamics, Geophysics, and The Solid Earth research groups. He is originally from the Netherlands, having studie ...[Read More]
The last few weeks have been filled with devastating news – harrowing stories about the police killing black people. Racial inequalities and discrimination go far beyond current events. In science in general, and in the geosciences in particular, little progress has been made regarding diversity over the past few decades. This is both the result of deep-seated institutional racism (sometimes refe ...[Read More]
This week, the EGU General Assembly is taking place. As it was announced a long time ago: More than 16’000 scientists from all over the globe are meeting and sharing their science in sessions that cover all disciplines in Earth, planetary and space science. But still, everything is a little bit different this year: The EGU General Assembly 2020 takes place online Due to the ongoing coronavirus pan ...[Read More]
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]
‘Now, more than ever, we need science’, thinks the editor of this blogpost as he works from his small studio paid by a rent-burdened academic salary while under lockdown in California due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the need for an open, fair, inclusive science seems to be ignored all across the world by policy makers and university administrations, who refuse to pay graduate st ...[Read More]
How can geoscience methods be incorporated into the research of extrasolar planets? These are planets that are beyond our own solar system and their geological properties are mostly unknown. Kaustubh Hakim is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Space and Habitability in Bern, Switzerland where he studies the interiors of rocky exoplanets and geochemical cycles using theory and lab experime ...[Read More]
How much we pay, as both scientists and the public, for publishing and accessing papers is a hot topic right across the academic community – and rightly so. Publishing houses, and their fees, are big, big business. To which journal we should submit our work is a regular decision we face. But what are the Green, Golden or Hybrid roads? How do pre- and post-prints fit into the journey? In this ...[Read More]
This week, Caroline Dorn, Ambizione Fellow at the University of Zurich, tells us her view on space travel and why we shouldn’t pack our bags just yet. Space exploration is experiencing a new boom, a come-back since the 60s & 70s! First discoveries of planets outside our solar system in the 90s have set the foundations of a new discipline that is exoplanet science – the field in wh ...[Read More]
For months, students have skipped school on Fridays to ask for more action against climate change. To kick off the Global Week for Future, last Friday saw thousands of demonstrations in many countries around the globe, with not only high school students joining the fray, but people from all walks of life. GFZ Potsdam’s Bernhard Steinberger and Thilo Wrona share their experiences in Potsdam and Ber ...[Read More]
As temperature records have continuously been broken all over the world, many of us scientist had to endure extreme conditions in our overheated offices. Climate change is happening, and faster than we’d like to think, but how does this play a role in the scientific community? In this week’s blog post, geodynamicist Nicolas Coltice (professor at Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris) share ...[Read More]