The first hybrid EGU General Assembly (23–27 May 2022) is over. What a great achievement for the organizers and programme committee who managed to bring the community back to the face-to-face world of scientific conferences, while also offering the opportunity to those not able to travel to Vienna to attend it virtually. We attended the …[Read More]
Division blogs
The comprehensive Geodetic Information Portal of GGOS
The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) is a collaborative contribution of the global geodesy community to the observation and monitoring of the Earth System. Geodesy is the science of determining the shape of the Earth, its gravity field, and its rotation as functions of time. Essential to reaching …[Read More]
The Sassy Scientist – The Spinning Top
Whether from posed questions, other blog posts and cinematic detours, the core of Earth is every now and then sparking some interest. In a similar way “Inception” or “Shutter Island” spark interest: it sounds cool, you want to get what is going on, but although you tried several times, you still don’t get it. Today …[Read More]
Land snails in the service of paleoecological studies
Paleoecological use of land snail shells is no longer a new field of science. They are studied by malacologists and palaeontologists who specialise in the study of molluscs. During the last glaciation, loess, a light yellow, fine-grained sediment, was deposited over large areas, mainly in the periglacial regions of Eurasia and North America. In addition …[Read More]
What are Snow Mechanics and why should we care?
Every time we walk, ski, drive or build upon snow, we’re relying upon the theory of Snow Mechanics; but what is that and why should we care? Mechanics is the engineering terminology used to describe “the branch of applied mathematics dealing with motion and forces producing motion” (Oxford Languages) or more simply, the study of …[Read More]
Living with a Volcano
Since ancient times, the growth of populations has been strongly combined with the presence of volcanoes, due to their ability to provide nutrients to soils (and so to agriculture) and resource extraction. One great example is described in our blog post about Volcanoes and wine. However, living near a volcano has its (obvious) drawbacks, starting …[Read More]
Introducing the new blog team!
It’s that time of year again! Another EGU General Assembly has passed. Another EGU Geodynamics blog team has been assembled! Now with a blog team bigger than ever! Whoohoo! So let me introduce you to the amazing blog team of 2022-2023 who will start blogging in earnest from next week onwards. If you are interested …[Read More]
Winning a modern war is much about sedimentology
Russia has invaded Ukraine. We have been reading and watching in the news how some pieces of high-tech equipment and weapons are being determinant for Ukraine to push back Russia’s invasion. Guided missiles, drones or new generation satellites heavily relie on rare-earth elements for development and production. The aggressor and the invaded country crave for …[Read More]
Geomythology. The Sicilian Trilogy – Part II: Vulcano, Vulcan’s forge
Why is a fork actually called fork? And why are volcanoes actually called volcanoes? While I do not have any reply for the first question, I have one for the second… and with a quite interesting story. The Earth currently has around 1350 potentially active volcanoes, aside from the volcanoes along the spreading centres (USGS …[Read More]
Did you know… that glaciers can sing?
Have you ever wondered what the voice of a glacier sounds like? Well, listen here! And if you want to know how the glacier makes these sounds, then let’s take a walk on the ice side… Close your eyes and think of the time you were in the middle of the mountains. On a snow …[Read More]