News & Views

Finding stillness in chaos: The emergence of stable cratons in a hectic young Earth

Fabio Capitanio and edited by Tobias Rolf April 7, 2021

Artistic concept of the young Earth (Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab)

Today we know the Earth as a tectonically busy planet, shaped by mantle convection and plate tectonics. But this is nothing compared to the earlier phases of planetary evolution. This week, Fabio Capitanio (ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor at the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University, Australia) takes us on a modelling tour back to a time when the Earth’s tecton ...[Read More]

Modelling the deformation in the Indian plate and the India-Eurasia collision zone

Srishti Singh and edited by Jyotirmoy Paul March 24, 2021

Mighty Himalayas at the India-Eurasia collision zone, Kashmir. photo @GeophyJo

A complete fluid dynamical approach of modeling the Earth’s deformation can not provide a complete picture due to presence of rigid lithospheric plates. In this week’s news and views, Srishti Singh, scientist at National Geophysical Research Institute, India, explains how coupled models of lithosphere dynamics and mantle convection are developed. The ongoing collision of the Indian plate wi ...[Read More]

The Indian Ocean Geoid Low at a plume-slab overpass

Elodie Kendall and edited by Anne Glerum February 24, 2021

Potsdam gravity potato (image: GFZ, 2011)

In this week’s News & Views, Postdoc Elodie Kendall from GFZ Potsdam shares with us recent work on the mantle structures that could explain the Indian Ocean Geoid Low. What is the geoid, what does it look like and what can it tell us about mantle structure? The geoid is a model of the shape of the oceans’ surface if only gravity and Earth’s rotation act ...[Read More]

Carbon in the cloud

Eoghan Totten and edited by Lucía Pérez-Díaz February 10, 2021

If I asked you about what your carbon footprint is, your mind might jump to the food choices you make when at the supermarket, or how many conferences you fly to when you could get a train (well, not now, but you know, back in ye olden days). In this week’s post, Eoghan Totten, a PhD student at the University of Oxford, discusses the potential “hidden” impacts on your contributio ...[Read More]