EGU Blogs

Divisions

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Geodynamics

An Arctic enigma: Can a single plume explain a massive and long-lived ancient volcanic eruption?

and July 17, 2024
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]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Women of Cryo VII: Making Fieldwork More Inclusive

July 12, 2024
a drawing of women doing different scientific activities, with the words 'women of cryo' written

Women make up 50.8% of the world’s population, yet fewer than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. Of this percentage, women of colour comprise around 5%, with less than 1% represented in geoscience faculty positions. Women are published less, paid less, and do not progress as far in their careers as men. Even within our EGU community, women account for only one third of all members, and make ...[Read More]

HS
Hydrological Sciences

How to Convene an EGU Session in Hydrology

July 11, 2024
How to Convene an EGU Session in Hydrology

Have you ever thought about convening an EGU session instead of just attending them? Until September 9th you have the chance to do just that for the 2025 General Assembly, which will be taking place from April 27 to May 2 in Vienna, Austria.  Convening a session can sound a bit intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before or if you are an early career scientist. However, it’s an i ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

Modeling the Early Earth: Idealization and its Aims I

and July 10, 2024
Modeling the Early Earth: Idealization and its Aims I

The question of how we came to be is closely tied with how the Earth became what it now is. What was the early Earth like? How did it evolve to become a habitable world? Given a fragmentary rock record, how can we investigate the early Earth and its evolution? Dr. Junjie Dong from Caltech writes about modeling the early Earth in a two-part blog.  For the first part, he introduces the approach to e ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Cryobook review: The Quickening

July 8, 2024
The cover of Elizabeth Rush's book

Even before its publication, my partner stumbled over the book The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush on Twitter and send it to me. In this book, Rush describes her journey to Thwaites Glacier and – as I was very curious about it – I bought it immediately after its release. It is not only documentary work about the journey, but also a meditation on responsibility, motherhood and life in a world of chang ...[Read More]

Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

Volcanism, anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, and mass extinctions

July 7, 2024
Volcanism, anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, and mass extinctions

Only a very small fraction of the energy produced by nuclear fusion in the Sun (3.82 x 1023 kW) reaches the top of the Earth’s atmosphere (1.7 x 1014 kW), and then only about 50% of it reaches the Earth surface, where it is absorbed by the oceans and land. This energy is radiated back as longwave infrared radiation, which is partially absorbed and after reradiated downward to the surface by the gr ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

The uncertain tomographic lenses

and July 3, 2024
The uncertain tomographic lenses

Geodynamicists often try to answer scientific questions related to the Earth interior, but direct observations of such depths are rather limited–unless you are character in a Jules Verne’s novel or a prominent scientist in the movie The Core–. A way to deal with this issue is to rely on indirect methods, with seismic tomography being one of the most widely used by geoscientists. Howeve ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Climate Change & Cryosphere – Can the smallest ice make the greatest impact?

June 28, 2024
Climate Change & Cryosphere – Can the smallest ice make the greatest impact?

The cryosphere comprises all the ice on Earth, from glaciers in Antarctica, icebergs floating in the ocean, to millimetric ice found in the soils. Soil can hold ice wedges and ice lenses, but there are small ice reservoirs that are usually overlooked: the pore ice. Pore ice is an unknown compartment whose role regarding matter degradation is yet to be determined… stay with us and you will see that ...[Read More]

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Geodesy

Around the world with Professor Vening Meinesz onboard the submarine K-XVIII: The Origin of Flexure Modelling

June 28, 2024
Around the world with Professor Vening Meinesz onboard the submarine K-XVIII: The Origin of Flexure Modelling

In my previous blog post, I wrote about the famous voyage of Professor Vening Meinesz aboard the submarine K-XVIII. At 30 meters underneath the surface, Vening Meinesz would observe the gravity field of Earth with a pendulum apparatus called the Golden Calf. In this post, I would like to discuss a different voyage the professor took part in. Normally the Dutch submarines took the Suez Canal to sai ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

The Sassy Scientist – Gotta Bake ‘Em All

June 28, 2024
The Sassy Scientist – Gotta Bake ‘Em All

Is it summer already? Have we come to the horrendous deadline period before the holidays? I know it’s impossible, but when you close your eyes, do you imagine the sea or the mountains? (Choose your fighter: Lapras or Machamp.) Luckily, we have a question that will give you a break from all this and act as a refreshment for that hot weather. I guess Emi is preparing for the holidays with the family ...[Read More]