Divisions

Mike Jollands August 6, 2020

Ask us (almost) anything: Were Chixculub and Deccan related?

Doc Rock from twitter asks Has anyone investigated the hypothesis that the Deccan Traps basalt flows came after, and were the result of, the Chixculub impact event, based on the DT basalts being on the exact opposite side of Earth at the time of the event? For context, the Chixculub crater is buried under the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, and resulted from a meteorite impact that is widely believed ...[Read More]

CL

Climate: Past, Present & Future

Breathing life into a d(r)ying lake in northwest Iran

P. Saemian ^a, O. Elmi ^a, B.D. Vishwakarma ^b, M.J. Tourian ^a, N. Sneeuw ^a
^aUniversity of Stuttgart, Institute of Geodesy (GIS), Germany
^bBristol Glaciology Center, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK
August 6, 2020

Lake Urmia, in Northwest Iran, was once the most extensive and permanent hypersaline lake (salinity >> of ocean) in the world. Since 1995, the lake water level has dropped about 8 m, shrinking to less than 30% of its original surface area and losing more than 90% of its water volume over two decades [1]. Unsustainable water management in response to increasing demand together with climatic e ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

Watch and learn!

Editorial team 1 August 5, 2020

Too envious to watch Netflix’s Selling Sunset? Gone through the top 5 geodynamic movies? Lock-down vacation too boring for words? In need of useful procrastination? Search no longer! We have compiled an extensive list of online webinars and speaker series that were already active pre-Corona or saw the daylight during the pandemic to stay in touch with our colleagues both abroad and next door ...[Read More]

OS

Ocean Sciences

Why do mesoscale eddies disappear at ocean western boundaries?

Gwyn Evans August 4, 2020

In the ocean, mesoscale eddies are everywhere. In fact, about 90% of the ocean’s kinetic energy is contained within these ubiquitous, ~100 km swirling vortices. We know how these eddies form, through a process known as baroclinic instability, where density surfaces are tilted too steeply and become unstable. What remains unclear however, is what happens to this energy when eddies die. This knowled ...[Read More]

NH

Natural Hazards

Faults and earthquakes as friends and not foes

Afroz Shah August 3, 2020

The earthquakes’ occurrence on the planet Earth is largely considered synonymous with disasters and people generally perceive geological faults as a threat to life and belongings. However, there are exceptions since a small community of earthquake researchers relate the occurrence of earthquakes with the lithospheric plate interactions where movement on faults causes earthquakes. Therefore, ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

The Sassy Scientist – Out Of Orientation

The Sassy Scientist July 31, 2020

Ravi is done with his research, mentally. As he muses on a potential departure from academia – awaiting an unhackneyed sense of perspective – he asks: I want to leave academia! Where do I go? Dear Ravi, I am sorry to hear you’ve given thought to a termination of your academic career. After years of working in geodynamics, it sure shall be a great challenge to find new perspective ...[Read More]

TS

Tectonics and Structural Geology

100 years of Marie Tharp – The woman who mapped the ocean floor and laid the foundations of modern geology

Derya Gürer July 30, 2020

Marie Tharp (July 30, 1920 – August 23, 2006) would have turned 100 on this very day and she continues to live through her legacy of having mapped the world’s oceans. Similar to famous painters, some of whom only gain appreciation after their death, Marie Tharp is one of the most underappreciated scientists in the history of the earth sciences. Marie was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Due to h ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

InSights into Mars’ interior

Editorial Team 3 July 29, 2020

This week Ana-Catalina Plesa, Junior Research Group Leader at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in Berlin/Germany takes us on a journey to Mars. Enjoy the read about how spacecraft observations and numerical models provide InSight into the deep enigmas of the “red planet”. Over the course of its evolution, Mars has accumulated heat in its interior arising from the planet’s formation, differentiati ...[Read More]

HS

Hydrological Sciences

Featured Catchment: The Weierbach – Yet another temperate forested headwater?

EGU Guest blogger July 29, 2020

Slate bedrock, an often overlooked system At first sight, the Weierbach catchment may seem unspectacular. It is indeed a small (42 ha) forested headwater catchment, located at mid-latitude in a low mountain range (450-500 m a.s.l.). However, when you take a closer look, and particularly below the surface, the Weierbach is a truly exciting eco-hydrological system. Located in the Luxembourgish Arden ...[Read More]

OS

Ocean Sciences

OceanTalk with Frédéric Le Moigne

Meriel Bittner July 28, 2020

Frédéric Le Moigne has been awarded the 2020 Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award for the Division of Ocean Sciences and he agreed to be interviewed for our first blog post on the new Ocean Sciences blog. Frédéric can you tell us about your background and education? I was born and raised on the Atlantic coast, near the bay of Brest in Brittany, western France. In Brittany the ocean is an impor ...[Read More]