Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

An Overview on the 15 Jan 2022 Hunga Tonga-Huna Ha’apai Eruption

Alessandro Musu February 9, 2022

Picture taken on 5th June 2017 by Damien Grouille together with Cécile Sabau, during an geological and photographic expedition carried out for the NASA. The shot is done from the summit of Hunga Tonga -Hunga Ha'apai island (HTHH), giving a view to the East and the island of Hunga Tonga. Photo credit: Damien Grouille, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Since 15 January 2022, the islands of the Tonga archipelago and surrounding territories have been suffering the effects of what has turned out to be one of the biggest eruptions of this century. The eruption occurred on Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, an island created by the emergence of a large submarine volcano. HTHH is located among the ~170 islands of the Kingdom of Tonga and about 65 km nor ...[Read More]

EGU GMPV ECS Campfires – 16th Edition

GMPV ECS Campfires Team February 7, 2022

After a short winter break, the Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology and Volcanology division’s early career scientists talks (EGU campfires) are back! The first session in 2022 (and 16th overall) will be a general format event. The talks will be held on Wednesday 16th February at 4pm CET on Zoom. Our four speakers are: Barbara Bonechi (PostDoc @ Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) – High pre ...[Read More]

Minerals and Art: a centuries-old connection

Simona Gabrielli January 28, 2022

Featured image from https://unsplash.com/photos/QGQz-IBBl5w

Since ancient times, colours have been fundamental for artistic expression: pigments have always been created from fruits, leaves-flowers, and minerals. During the centuries, new material discoveries and techniques increased the shades we can still see and use nowadays. Once upon a Prehistoric time… El Castillo Cave, in Spain, is one of the earliest known cave paintings, dated to more than 40,000 ...[Read More]

Challenging racism in the geosciences

Franziska Keller January 13, 2022

Featured image from pexels.com (https://www.pexels.com/search/racism/)

The hard truth is, that the geosciences are among the least diverse disciplines in the wide fields of the natural sciences. When we look at the time span from 1973 to 2016, we find that 14,246 PhD degrees were given to white men, while “only” ~5234 were earned by white women in the US. These numbers are already quite shocking, but I promise you it will even get worse: a total of only 163 PhD degre ...[Read More]