Remarkable Regions

Kamchatka Megathrust Earthquake: What lies in the Pacific Ring of Fire

Kleoniki Lydia Theodoridou October 1, 2025

‘Continents in Relief, Bound by Shifting Plates’. Map of the World made out of chocolate. Source: (Unsplash, 2025).

From the very early years on this Planet, earthquakes have always captivated people’s attention. The feeling of admiration and fear always lies within us, especially drawing on the most recent megathrust earthquake that hit the south coast of Kamchatka’s Peninsula, in Russia, twice this year. Therefore, in this week’s blog, we aim to explore how this phenomenon evolved and why this specific region ...[Read More]

Unraveling volcanic patterns between adjacent rift zones

Valentina Armeni and edited by Lorenzo Mantiloni July 16, 2025

The Sleeping Warrior volcano, located near Lake Elementaita in the Kenya Rift (East African Rift System). Its profile, shaped by erosion and tectonic activity, resembles a sleeping Maasai warrior, which is why it got its name.

Continental rifts are a prime example of how the forces at work beneath our feet are constantly shaping our world, and often host volcanic activity. The patterns and distribution of volcanism in rift settings, however, is far from intuitive. The picture gets even more complicated if we look between the segments that often make up a rift. This week, Valentina Armeni from the University of Potsdam, ...[Read More]

What drives the extensional deformation in the central Apennines (Italy)?

Maaike Fonteijn and edited by Alexis Gauthier June 18, 2025

The central Mediterranean is a geodynamically complex region shaped by the interaction of multiple active subduction zones. In Italy, the central Apennines display a distinctive pattern of surface deformation that is proposed to be linked to a slab break-off beneath the area. In this week’s blog post, Maaike, a PhD student at ISTerre in Grenoble, France, explores the key processes driving surface ...[Read More]

Going Around Mars

Rajani Shrestha February 5, 2025

The National Geographic Map of Mars. (Image Credit: National Geographic Society, MOLA Science Team, MSS, JPL, NASA.)

One of our closest neighbors in the universe, the red planet, has long intrigued geoscientists. Mars has been the destination for multiple spacecraft missions. Two rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance, are still exploring the planet as of 2025. This week, let us go on a short tour around Mars and show a little love to this fascinating planet. We will start our tour by looking at the global topograph ...[Read More]