News & Views

An industrial placement as a geodynamicist

Iris van Zelst November 23, 2018

This was one of the first image that popped up when I searched for 'industry' on google. Pretty isn't it? I don't think it's representative of working in industry though. Most likely you'll be behind a computer rather than staring at industry plants.
Credit: flickr

After years of trying to get a PhD, publishing papers, networking with professors, and trying to land that one, elusive, permanent job in science, it can be quite easy to forget that you actually do have career options outside of academia. To get a little taste of this, Nico Schliffke, PhD student in geodynamics at Durham University, tries out the industry life for a few weeks! When coming close t ...[Read More]

Thoughts on geological modelling: an analogue perspective

Editorial Team 3 November 15, 2018

Final stage of a sandbox analogue model of an accretionary wedge. University of Lisbon, 2009. Experiments published in Duarte et al. (2011).

In geodynamics we study the dynamics of the Earth (and other planets). We ground our studies in as much data as possible, however we are constrained by the fact that pretty much all direct information we can collect from the interior of the Earth only shows its present-day state. The surface rock record gives us a glimpse into the past dynamics and evolution of our planet, but this record gets spa ...[Read More]

Let’s talk about disability in geosciences

Iris van Zelst July 4, 2018

Geosciences should be accessible for everyone
Credit: Pixabay

Climbing towards outcrops during fieldwork for your undergraduate studies simply isn’t doable for everyone. However, this doesn’t mean that there are adequate alternative solutions available. This week, Katy Willis, PhD student on strain-localisation in the continental lithosphere at the University of Leeds, UK, discusses disability in the geosciences, because regardless of who you are ...[Read More]

Going with the toroidal mantle flow

Anna Gülcher / Lucía Pérez Díaz October 25, 2017

Topography and bathymetry in the region of the northwestern Pacific. This area characterized by multiple subduction zones as indicated by a deep trench (darkest blue), such as that along Japan. Credit: NOAA

Subduction zones host one of the most complex and fascinating tectonic systems on the planet. Numerical models by Király and colleagues recently published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters reveal that the strength of the toroidal flow depends on the mantle viscosity and the magnitude of the slab pull force while the characteristic size of the toroidal cells mainly depends on the size of the c ...[Read More]