The Geodynamics 101 series serves to showcase the diversity of research topics and/or methods in the geodynamics community. In this week’s post, Fred Richards explains how ‘Dynamic Topography’ is used in the Geosciences, and discusses the knowns, unknowns, and the challenges ahead. Since shortly after its tumultuous formation 4.5 billion years ago, Earth has been steadily cooling, wit ...[Read More]
While coming down from a caffeine-high after his online thesis submission, Giulio think about the next step: How should I prepare for my geodynamics PhD viva? Dear Giulio, I like how you omitted to specify if your viva is online or offline, but I am working under the assumption that everything happens in the virtual realm now. It seems unbelievable now that busy academics such as myself used to fl ...[Read More]
It is the smallest planet of the Solar System, the closest to the Sun and the quickest at orbiting around it, the one with the least inclined and most elongated orbit, the only one where a day lasts two-thirds of a full year, the one with the highest bulk density. Mercury is a planet of extremes, but rarely visited by space missions (compared to Mars, Venus and the Moon). This week Dr. Nicola Tosi ...[Read More]
In a world of repetitive home office clean-ups, Freya is teetering on the brink of mental breakdown. Whereas al of our brilliant suggestions, such as cooking, befriending your neighbours, brush up on your programming skills, consider a career outside academia, acquiring new hobbies or wasting your time watching silly movies, have not posed good enough of an answer to alleviate the worries floating ...[Read More]
As we are 11 days into November, you might have started to become suspicious of the increased number of people around you growing out their moustaches. While this could be due to the fact that many of us are sequestered at home and may have forgotten the point of personal grooming, there is a good chance these people are participating in Movember (yes, that is a word play on November and mo, for m ...[Read More]
With real-life water cooler time at a premium, Paul has found that talking about the weather and Emily in Paris just isn’t breaking the ice. By Zoom, he asks possibly the worst qualified person in geodynamics: How can you turn your colleagues into friends? Dear Paul, Why would you want to? You only have a contract of up to three years, so by the time you’ve moved on from Emily in Paris ...[Read More]
In this week’s wit and wisdom, Jyotirmoy Paul, a PhD student at the Indian Institute of Science, analyses the outlook of geoscience from the third world’s perspective. Academia has been shaped and influenced by the course of world history. The third world concept was seeded in Brussels, 1927, in a gathering of the League Against Imperialism1 and became popular in the mid-1950s through variou ...[Read More]
Stuck at home, Roger keeps alive the hope of returning to fieldwork. Obviously, he wants my thoughts on: What are your top tips for planning fieldwork during a pandemic? Dear Roger, I see you started the long and costly process of planning remote fieldwork, only to have it cancelled by a pandemic. Given the huge uncertainties you have two big options ahead of you (and no middle group of course, be ...[Read More]
In this week’s post, Mohamed Gouiza discusses the challenges of living under constant stress, paralysed by the possibility of failure and self-perceived inevitability of impending breakup. Continental rifting, of course! Oh… did you think I was talking about life as a researcher? Under tensile stress, the lithosphere stretches, the asthenosphere rises, the crust fails, and rifts form. During this ...[Read More]
Hermione has finally completed her graduate studies, with some extra-curricular training that will remain unnamed here and with activities which some will not remember. Now the time has come to use that newly acquired title for good although demands, desires and duties meander through the realm of possibilities, leaving Hermione in a perpetual plight: What to do when obtaining a PhD in geodynamics ...[Read More]