Linking slab graveyards and ghost-arc geochemical signatures in the South Atlantic and Southwest Indian Mid-Ocean Ridges
Remarkable Regions
Back-arc systems: arguably the most influential tectonic feature in the oceanic domain
Dr. Anouk Beniest, an Assistant Professor in Tectonics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdamat, is an interdisciplinary earth scientist, bringing together geology, geophysics and geodynamics to help us understand complex geological problems. Her research revolves predominantly around plate tectonics, with a focus on extensional systems and she has kindly put together this blog post to convince you t ...[Read More]
Where are the far-side deep moonquakes?
The Moon is our nearest neighbour but despite its proximity to Earth its two faces are still veiled in mystery! This week PhD student Alice Turner from the University of Oxford explores deep lunar seismicity and what this can (or cannot!) tell us about the Moon’s interior and its near- & far-sides! Outlining the Earth and its Moon with seismicity Mapping out the locations of earthquak ...[Read More]
Investigating earthquake activity of the 2018 Kīlauea Volcano eruption
Both earthquakes and research project directions can be hard to predict. This week Becky Fildes, a graduate student at UC Davis, takes us on a journey of how she came to study earthquake behavior in Hawaii during an active volcanic eruption and how our understanding of caldera collapses can be further improved. In my first year of graduate school in 2017, I had started studying earthquake statisti ...[Read More]
Paleogeography and the Northern Hemisphere Oceanic Gateways
Eivind Straume a Postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Geological Sciences within the Jackson School of Geosciences explores how the opening and closing ocean gateways have influenced the Earth’s climate in the past. Changes in Earth’s geography due to tectonic plate motions and mantle convection influence climate evolution on geological timescales. Over millions of years, continen ...[Read More]
Sliding across the Solar System – The missing origins of gigantic landslides
Landslides can be impressively huge and fast and can occur on all sorts of places including asteroids, rocky moons and Mars! Giulia Magnarini Post Doctoral Researcher at the Natural History Museum in London writes all about these gigantic landslides and the clues they could hold into the martian past! Gigantic landslides are ubiquitous in our solar system. Indeed, Earth, Mars, Mercury, Venus, aste ...[Read More]
The Deccan Chronicle: Plume or no-Plume? Perspective from a Deccan dyke swarm
Deccan volcanism is one of the landmark events in India’s geodynamical history. Yet, its origin is still under debate regarding its association with the Réunion plume. In this week’s news and views, Ayanangshu Das, a PhD student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal, explains their recent study to understand the emplacement mechanism by observing the magm ...[Read More]
Rift linkage and rotating microplates
2020 left your head spinning? This week Derek Neuharth from GFZ Potsdam introduces us to the spinning microplates that can be found in extensional plate boundaries such as the East African Rift System and the East Pacific Rise. Divergent plate boundaries Microplates are enigmatic features that form in the boundaries between tectonic plates. Generally, plate boundary dynamics are divided into three ...[Read More]
The mantle as seen from the core: more than a thermostat
Geodynamics does not stop at the core-mantle boundary – the Earth’s outer core is a truly dynamic geosystem. This week Stefano Maffei (Research fellow) and Chris Davies (Associate Professor) from the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds tell us more about the possible interplay between mantle and core and some of the remaining mysteries of the Earth’s magnetic field generatio ...[Read More]
Remarkable Regions – The Réunion Hotspot
This week we again turn our attention to a Remarkable Region that deserves a spot in the scientific limelight. Postdoctoral researcher Eva Bredow of Kiel University shares with us her long history with Réunion Island. At first glance, Réunion is a relatively small tropical island, located between Madagascar and Mauritius, and from my personal experience, most Germans have never even heard of it. T ...[Read More]