In the first episode of the series of posts called Natural Hazards 101, we focused on the definition of hazard and natural hazard, considering the recent literature. In this episode, we wish to draw your attention to the concept of risk. Although a commonly used word, the term risk might mean different things to different people. What does risk represent, and what it means in the context of ...[Read More]
Thwaites Glacier is a massive region of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet on par with the size of Pennsylvania or the island of Britain and is over a mile thick in many places. It is currently retreating rapidly and is a likely candidate to contribute the most to rapid sea-level rise over the next few decades to a century. That’s the most important point there is to make. I’m part of a large internatio ...[Read More]
The 4th edition of the Geochemistry, Minerology, Petrology and Volcanology division’s early career scientists talks will be on Tuesday 20 October 10am CEST. Our speakers are: Alexis Bougouin (Université Clermont Auvergne) – ‘Experimental study of tsunamis generated by pyroclastic flows’ Carrie Soderman (University of Cambridge) – ‘Heavy stable Fe isotopes in OIB: tracing mantle sources and process ...[Read More]
![Lost in transl[ice]tion…](https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/wp-content/blogs.dir/17/files/2020/10/MainFigure-700x400.png)
Three years have passed since sea-ice scientists from both climate modeling and remote sensing backgrounds met for an international workshop in Hamburg. The goal was to discuss how to further improve our understanding of sea ice and reduce uncertainties in climate models and observations (see this previous post). One suggestion was to work on observation operators. Let’s see what has happened in t ...[Read More]
With time to spare during self-isolation and local lockdown, Mark wonders: What programming language should I learn for my geoscience career? Dear Mark, The pandemic has made us look long and hard at our career choices. Were you inspired as a student by a cool field geologist in a documentary? Were you profoundly marked by that school trip at an active volcano? Did you fell in love with coral reef ...[Read More]
GMPV is excited to announce in advance the next three sessions of ECS online talks for October, November and December 2020! We’ll be announcing speakers for each of the events in advance so keep a look-out here on the blog, on social media and in your inbox! Note: when you register for an event, you have the option to sign up for emails too – if you can’t attend but would like to receive emails, w ...[Read More]
You know what has been missing from this blog so far? Book reviews! This week, Maeve Murphy Quinlan, PhD student at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom studying meteorites, comes to our rescue and discusses the science fiction genre with a review and recommendation of the novella To be Taught, if Fortunate. I know what’s next on my reading list. What is science fiction? It is a wide-ran ...[Read More]
– Authors: The German Young Geomorphologists (Renee van Dongen, Jörn Profe, Steffi Tofelde, Janek Walk, Mario Kirchhoff, Julian Trappe, Johannes Buckel, Stefan Haselberger, Simon Meyer-Heintze) – COVID-19 Pandemic has changed the world this year. We as scientists are affected by this pandemic, but we can mostly work from home and most importantly, we can conduct our jobs. Nonetheless, ...[Read More]
On August 4, 2020, the coast of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, was rocked by an explosion caused by the blowing up of 2750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers (Figure 1). It resulted in at least 181 casualties, 6,000 injuries and 10-15 billion US dollars in damage [Ref 2]. Footage of the explosion has circulated widely: a large fire near the port’s warehouses and an in ...[Read More]
Breaking news: a bizarre early-September snowstorm dumped snow from Montana to New Mexico, a medicane hit Southern Italian regions and Greece, heatwaves and droughts are expected to increase in the future… These extreme events are becoming more and more frequent and one question spontaneously arises: is climate change making the weather more extreme? This is one of the reasons why climate change i ...[Read More]
