Some people claim that teaching online courses or virtual workshops is not very different from face-to-face meetings. In my experience, however, it is much harder to sneak away secretly from a half-occupied seminar room than to withdraw from a virtual meeting where you simply mute the speaker to work on your emails located only one mouse click away. And that’s not all! In contrast to physically pr ...[Read More]
Tectonics and Structural Geology
TS Must-Read – Wilson (1966) Did the Atlantic close and then re-open?
J.T. Wilson published “Did the Atlantic close and reopen?” in 1966, giving birth to the so called “Wilson Cycle”. The article is a key steppingstone for the theory of plate tectonics, and it is a must-read paper not only in tectonics studies but also in paleontology and stratigraphy. The questions raised can be generally abridged in two: “Why regions with similar fauna can be very far from each ot ...[Read More]
Natural Hazards
Natural Hazards 101: The concept of risk
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]
Seismology
The Journey of an Antarctic Seismologist
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]
Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology
GMPV ECS Online Talks: 20th October
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]
Cryospheric Sciences
Lost in transl[ice]tion…
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]
Geodynamics
The Sassy Scientist – sassy.disp(title = ‘geo-programming’);
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]
Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology
Upcoming dates for GMPV ECS online talks: October, November, December 2020
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]
Geodynamics
A love letter to science fiction
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]
Geomorphology
Pandemics vs. Academia: How do German geomorphologists deal with teaching, research projects and online conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic?
– 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]