EGU Blogs

Divisions

NH
Natural Hazards

Natural Groundwater Quality: an underestimated and yet dangerous hazard.

May 21, 2018
Natural Groundwater Quality: an underestimated and yet dangerous hazard.

Today I have the pleasure to interview Dr. Evangelos Tziritis, a brilliant scientist and a friend. He will talk to us about Natural groundwater quality hazard and its implications. This blog aim is to discuss Natural Hazards. Therefore, today we will focus on the natural component of water quality, disregarding anthropogenic sources.  Evangelos is a Research Scientist at the Soil and Water Resourc ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week — Biscuits in the Permafrost

May 18, 2018
Image of the Week — Biscuits in the Permafrost

In Svalbard, the snow melts to reveal a mysterious honeycomb network of irregular shapes (fig. 1). These shapes may look as though they have been created by a rogue baker with an unusual set of biscuit cutters, but they are in fact distinctive permafrost landforms known as ice-wedge polygons, and they play an important role in the global climate. Ice-wedge polygons: Nature’s biscuit-cutter In wint ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

EGU 2018: Experience of a first time attendee

May 17, 2018
EGU 2018: Experience of a first time attendee

Your first time at the General Assembly can be a daunting experience. It’s not easy to navigate the scientific programme and let’s not even mention navigating the building! It becomes even more difficult if you do not know many people in your scientific community yet. Luckily, one of the easiest things to do at EGU is meeting new people. Jyotirmoy Paul, PhD student at the Indian Instit ...[Read More]

ST
Solar-Terrestrial Sciences

Prof. Ilya Usoskin – A discussion with an inquiry mind

May 16, 2018
Prof. Ilya Usoskin – A discussion with an inquiry mind

In the May issue of the Life of a Scientist we have the pleasure to talk to Prof. Ilya Usoskin from the Univeristy of Oulu, Finland. Among numerous things, he is the head of the Oulu Cosmic Ray station and receipent of this year’s Julius Bartels EGU Medal; a decision that was based:  “on his contributions to the understanding of the heliosphere, long-term changes in the solar activity ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – Cure from the Cold?

May 11, 2018
Image of the Week – Cure from the Cold?

Humans rely on antibiotics for survival, but over time they are becoming less effective. So-called ‘superbugs’ are developing resistance to our most important drugs. The key to this global issue may be found in the cryosphere, where extreme microbiologists are hunting for new compounds in the cold that could help us win the war against antimicrobial resistance. Discovering drugs in Earth’s coldest ...[Read More]

SM
Seismology

The new ECS-reps team of the Seismology Division!

May 11, 2018

At the EGU General Assembly 2018, a new team of Seismology Early Career Scientist representatives was introduced and installed. With more than half of the EGU membership consisting of Early Career Scientists, the team represent an important part of the community and want to be approachable for all. They will be responsible for the Seismology blog, organize the yearly short course “Seismology for n ...[Read More]

Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

Fire, Fog, Frost, Famine – French Revolution? The Lakagígar eruption in Iceland, 1783-1784 [Part 1]

May 9, 2018
Fire, Fog, Frost, Famine – French Revolution? The Lakagígar eruption in Iceland, 1783-1784 [Part 1]

“On the 8th of June 1783, at Whitsun, there gushed forth from the mountains behind the summer pastures a fire which devastated land, cattle and humans with its effects, both nearby and far away”, wrote Reverend Jón Steingrímsson of Kirkjubæjarklaustur in his autobiography [2]. The “fire” which welled up from a volcanic fissure now known as Lakagígar (the craters of Mount Laki) was the biggest floo ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

To serve Geoscientists

May 9, 2018
To serve Geoscientists

The Geodynamics 101 series serves to showcase the diversity of research topics and methods in the geodynamics community in an understandable manner. We welcome all researchers – PhD students to professors – to introduce their area of expertise in a lighthearted, entertaining manner and touch upon some of the outstanding questions and problems related to their fields. For our latest ‘Geodynamics 10 ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – Why is ice colourful?

May 4, 2018
Image of the Week – Why is ice colourful?

When you think of glacier ice, what colour first springs to mind? Maybe white, blue or transparent? Well, glacier ice can, in fact, be mesmerising and multi-coloured! Our image of the week shows thin sections of glacier ice under polarised light. These sections were cut from block samples of two Alpine glaciers in Switzerland (Chli Titlis and Grenzgletscher).   In these images the individual ice c ...[Read More]