#naturalhazards

An epic blockbuster of natural extreme forces: natural hazards through cinematic lenses

Asimina Voskaki November 13, 2024

Do you enjoy watching natural hazard movies? Exploring the unfolding of the Earth’s immense power, the level of destruction, human responses and resilience? Can movies offer a glimpse into the chaos and devastation that natural hazard events can bring? Imagine the havoc a storm surge overtopping the Thames Barrier could cause in London. Without a doubt, natural hazard movies raise questions about ...[Read More]

Earth Citizens and Natural Hazards: a few words from the perspective of our environment, the inhabited planet, Earth

Hedieh Soltanpour December 4, 2023

In January 2023, I visited the Amazon Forest in Suriname. During my visit, I met indigenous people known as the Saramaccers, a Maroon tribe residing in the heart of the Amazon Forest. I found it fascinating that the Saramaccers consider themselves an integral part of nature. Their motto is ‘If you respect nature, nature will be your friend and stand by you’. Nature extends a helping ha ...[Read More]

Is culture the missing link to disaster risk reduction?

Asimina Voskaki September 11, 2023

The City of Kobe, Chuo Ward (photo credit: Asimina Voskaki)

Sophocles, a great tragic writer of Classical Athens, said that “success is dependent on effort”. When it comes to disaster risk reduction, are we doing enough to develop a culture of resilience and how do cultural factors affect people’s willingness to protect themselves and build an effective disaster reduction and reconstruction mechanism? In 1995 (17/01/1995), Kobe, Osaka (Ja ...[Read More]

Five (or more) reasons why… you should become a blog editor about natural hazards!

Asimina Voskaki and Silvia De Angeli July 10, 2023

If you want to be a blog editor about natural hazards… This post is for you! The EGU Natural Hazards Division Blog Editorial Team is looking for new motivated blog editors to join our interdisciplinary and inclusive team. Now you are wondering why you should join us. There are plenty of good reasons, indeed. In this blog post, we will do our best to convince you that becoming part of our editorial ...[Read More]

From compound extremes to risk perception: conversations with the EGU Natural Hazards Division 2023 Early Career Scientist Award Winner

Soheil Mohammadi June 19, 2023

I am pleased to interview Professor Ankit Agarwal from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. He specialises in hydro-meteorological (compound) extremes and complex networks and has been awarded the prestigious 2023 NH Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist award. Thank you, Ankit, for your time and for talking with us about your field of research. 1. Can you tell us more about y ...[Read More]

The EGU23 bucket list for Natural Hazards Early Career Scientists

Joana Parente April 17, 2023

The European Geoscience Union (EGU) General Assembly (GA) is a precious occasion to create new connections and receive new stimuli to feed your own research, specifically for those in the early stages of their career. Nevertheless, the occasions for networking and scientific discussion can be so many, that it could be difficult to choose what to attend. As a junior researcher and early career scie ...[Read More]

Building a risk-aware culture

Asimina Voskaki November 1, 2021

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The future depends on what you do today”. In the past months, we have witnessed extreme weather events, wildfires, earthquakes, and volcanic activity in different parts of the world. Although this activity is ordinary for a living planet like Earth, it can disturb the modern way of living and put people at risk. Even for the events that can be predicted with a higher deg ...[Read More]

The bad, the good and the unpredictable: living with volcanoes / part 2

Jazmin Scarlett November 11, 2019

Before continuing, if you haven’t read it yet, catch up with the first part of this blog article by clicking on this link. The good Living with volcanoes is not all bad. Volcanoes provide a wealth of natural resources in the form of building materials, hot springs, freshwater and fertile soil. However, there are more hidden aspects, which was the focus of a recent collaboration with an archa ...[Read More]

The bad, the good and the unpredictable: living with volcanoes / part 1

Jazmin Scarlett October 28, 2019

Introduction Humans have existed and lived alongside volcanoes for as long as we have been on the planet. For some, this has been beneficial and often, in fact, we can see how indigenous knowledge finds a sustainable approach living with them. However, in some cases, societies cannot cope and are overwhelmed with volcanic eruptions. There are many examples from archaeological studies dealing with ...[Read More]

Stromboli: The Lighthouse of the Mediterranean

Francisco Cáceres September 18, 2019

In the last months two paroxysmal explosive eruptions took place at Stromboli volcano: the first one, totally unexpected, on 3rd July (Video 1) that sadly cost the life of a person and the second and, currently, last one about three weeks ago, on the 28th August (Video 2). Today we try to answer a couple of questions about Stromboli and its eruptions. Are these paroxysmal eruptions common or rare ...[Read More]