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]
Remarkable Regions
Between the Volcano and the Deep Blue Sea: Tales from Montserrat (Part 2)
In 1995, the Caribbean Island of Montserrat was shaken by the beginning of one of the most significant volcanic eruptions in recent history: one that profoundly changed the natural, social and economical landscape of the country. Three decades later, Soufrière Hills Volcano and its legacy of destruction still shape the lives of Montserrat’s people. Last October, we took you on the first half of ou ...[Read More]
Between the Volcano and the Deep Blue Sea: Tales from Montserrat (Part 1)
In 1995, the Caribbean Island of Montserrat was shaken by the beginning of one of the most significant volcanic eruptions in recent history: one that profoundly changed the natural, social and economical landscape of the country. Three decades later, Soufrière Hills Volcano and its legacy of destruction still shape the lives of Montserrat’s people. Join us on the first part of our reportage and fi ...[Read More]
The nature of the shortening in the Central Andes : Part 1
An Arctic enigma: Can a single plume explain a massive and long-lived ancient volcanic eruption?
Across the Arctic lies evidence for a massive past volcanic event, called the High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP). This ancient volcanic event is particularly unusual in that it appears to have lasted for over 50 million years. Could a single deep-seated mantle plume cause such wide-spread and long-lived volcanism? In a recent study published in the journal G-cubed (Heyn et al., 2024 ...[Read More]
Exploring the Evolution of Rift Magmatism through Numerical Modelling
Continental rifts are a striking manifestation of the forces at work in the Earth’s interior and are often associated with volcanic activity. Contrary to intuition, volcanism is not confined to rift grabens, but migrates as the rifts evolve. How and why this happens is still not clear. This week, Gaetano Ferrante from Rice University, Houston (USA) will share his research with us, showing ho ...[Read More]
Unravelling the Magma Plumbing network of the Deccan Traps
In this week’s blog, Garima Shukla, ECS representative of the Geodynamics Division and PhD student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, India, working with Dr. Jyotirmoy Mallik, discusses her research involving fieldwork and statistical calculations. Her research also delves into rock magnetism and palaeomagnetism to unravel the longstanding enigmas surrounding ...[Read More]
Summer of ‘23: Chronicles of a summer school on meteorite and comet impacts.
One of the best-researched and preserved impact craters on Earth is the Ries Crater (Germany). Hikers, bikers, school groups, and geo-tourists from all over the world come here in search for the evidence of the cosmic catastrophe. In this week’s blog post, PhD student Katherine Villavicencio from University G. d’Annunzio (Italy) shares her experience when attending the Summer School “Impacts and ...[Read More]
Revisiting Sagarmatha: Reflections on Fieldwork in the Eastern Nepal Himalaya
“The mountains are calling.” This week, we are embarking on an adventure to the highest mountain in the world – Sagarmatha (also known as Mt. Everest). We will join Tshering Lama Sherpa, from the University of Arizona, as she unveils the exciting world of geological fieldwork amidst the majestic Himalayas in her post. In October of 2023, I set out on my fourth geological fieldwo ...[Read More]
The enigmatic tectonics of the Caribbean Large Igneous Plateau
As we approach the Christmas break and the end of the year, what resonates with the concept of ‘holidays’ more than the Caribbean? In this week post, Angela Gomez-Garcia, postdoc at the Geoscience Institute of Barcelona, and Eline Le Breton, professor at Freie Universität Berlin, take us on a geodynamic journey through the Caribbean Large Igneous Plateau and its enigmatic connection with the Galáp ...[Read More]