Divisions

Solar-Terrestrial Sciences

Dr. Helen Mason – Solar space missions: a life with the Sun

Kamalam December 15, 2017

In the December issue of Life of a Scientist we have an interview of Dr. Helen Mason. She was working at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, UK until recently when she retired. Her research interests include UV and X-Ray spectrum of the Sun. She has also devoted a lot of time in promoting science and working with schools from all over the w ...[Read More]

CR

Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – Understanding Antarctic Sea Ice Expansion

Rebecca Frew December 15, 2017

Sea ice is an extremely sensitive indicator of climate change. Arctic sea ice has been dubbed ‘the canary in the coal mine’, due to the observed steady decline in the summer sea ice extent in response to global warming over recent decades (see this and this previous posts). However, the story has not been mirrored at the other pole. As shown in our image of the week (blue line in Fig. 1), Antarcti ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

2017 AGU Fall Meeting

Anna Gülcher / Lucía Pérez Díaz December 13, 2017

The largest Earth and Space science meeting in the world is taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana. As usual, once a year AGU gathers the best and brightest minds from around the globe in the pursuit of high quality science, knowledge, and a more sustainable future. In particular, AGU allows to share your science, advance your career, and gain visibility and recognition for your own scienti ...[Read More]

NH

Natural Hazards

The risk of a Natural Hazard blog is now real, be prepared!

Luigi Lombardo December 12, 2017

Hello and welcome to the blog of the Natural Hazards division! Starting from today we will try to enrich your readings every two weeks on Monday morning with a new blog post! Our division encompasses and intersects various topics in geoscience. For this reason, we will aim to diversify the content from post to post, each time focusing on a different aspect of the complex natural hazard world. We h ...[Read More]

GM

Geomorphology

Theoretical Geomorphology: Selling a seemingly boring topic

EGU Guest blogger December 10, 2017

Anne Voigtländer (TUM Munich) presented her poster at the EGU 2017 and attracted quite some attention. She drew everything per hand and besides chocolate bars and smiling mountains she touched some very interesting topics. Have a look and get inspired! – written by Anne Voigtländer (TUM Munich) – Have you ever tried to sell a text on theoretical geomorphology to students? Or even to your fellow sc ...[Read More]

CR

Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – Searching for clues of extraterrestrial life on the Antarctic ice sheet

Sophie Nixon December 8, 2017

Last week we celebrated Antarctica Day, 50 years after the Antarctic Treaty was signed. This treaty includes an agreement to protect Antarctic ecosystems. But what if, unintentionally, this protection also covered clues of life beyond Earth? In this Image of the Week, we explore how meteorites found in Antarctica are an important piece of the puzzle in the search for extraterrestrial life. Meteori ...[Read More]

CL

Climate: Past, Present & Future

What is in the (European) air?

Caroline Jacques December 6, 2017

You thought that Mauna Loa was the only observatory to provide continuous measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and were disappointed because Hawaii is way too far from your study area or because you wanted to know how bad the air is in your hometown? The US have been monitoring the composition of the atmosphere since 1972, but what about Europe? Since 2008, Europe has its own ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

Conferences – so near and yet so far

Iris van Zelst December 6, 2017

Attending conferences is expensive and time consuming, so going to all the conferences relevant for your research topic(s) is an impossible mission. One solution might be to attend (parts of) conferences remotely. Suzanne Atkins, postdoc at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, discusses the pros and cons of remote conferencing. Last month the Geological Society of London live-streamed their celebration of 50 ...[Read More]

TS

Tectonics and Structural Geology

How Rome and its geology are strongly connected

Elenora van Rijsingen December 3, 2017

Walking through an ancient and fascinating city like Rome, there are signs of history everywhere. The whole city forms an open-air museum, full of remnants of many different times the city has known, from the Imperial to the Medieval times, the Renaissance, the Fascist period, and finally the present day version of Rome. For historians and archaeologists, unravelling the exact history of the city ...[Read More]

GMPV

Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

A little fracture can go a long way: How experiments illuminate our understanding of volcanic eruptions

Will Hutchison December 1, 2017

$A little fracture can go a long way: How experiments illuminate our understanding of volcanic eruptions$

What controls how violently a volcano erupts? Stratovolcanoes like Mount St Helens (USA), Gunung Merapi (Indonesia), or Volcán de Colima (Mexico) tend to erupt in two distinct ways: effusively and/or explosively. Effusive eruptions are eruptions where lava is extruded without any major explosions. Although effusive eruptions can be dangerous, at stratovolcanoes they tend to be restricted to volcan ...[Read More]