Division blogs

Climate: Past, Present & Future

Studying societal climate impacts: why is it hard and what can we do about it

Gabriele Messori February 20, 2026

Due to the rapid rise in temperatures, it started raining on the snow and ice-covered roads, prompting the regional public transport operator to suspend all bus services. The rain also resulted in icing on the overhead lines of the main railway line coming into town. Rail traffic was also temporarily suspended. Before the adjacent highway could be salted, several tens of cars were involved in a ch ...[Read More]

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Natural Hazards

Same hills, different rules: why urban and rural landslides should not be considered together?

Zakaria Matougui February 20, 2026

Cities are expanding faster than ever, often onto steep and unstable terrain. As urban areas grow, landslides increasingly threaten homes, roads, and critical infrastructure. To manage this risk, scientists produce landslide susceptibility maps, which estimate where landslides are most likely to occur. These maps are widely used by planners and decision-makers. But there is a quiet assumption buil ...[Read More]

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Ocean Sciences

A synergy of observations: Filling the gaps in an ocean colour chlorophyll-a record

Daniel J. Ford February 20, 2026

Chlorophyll-a (chl-a), as the dominant photosynthetic pigment within phytoplankton, provides an indication of the phytoplankton biomass and are essential for understanding global and regional changes in primary production in the oceans. Multiple ocean colour satellites have unlocked routine synoptical scale observations of chl-a which now extends from 1997 to the present day. Differing numbers of ...[Read More]

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Hydrological Sciences

HydroTalks: Prof. Sally E. Thompson on ecohydrology, vegetation, climate change and working across continents

Archita Bhatt, Archita Bhattacharyya, Melissa Reidy and Christina Anna Orieschnig February 19, 2026

In episode 7 of the Hydrotalks podcast, our guest was Dr. Sally Thompson (Sally Thompson – the UWA Profiles and Research Repository). She is a Professor at the University of Western Australia, and the Co-Director of the Centre for Water and Spatial Science. Her research spans ecohydrology, surface hydrology, and Critical Zone Science, exploring how vegetation and ecosystems interact with wat ...[Read More]

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Tectonics and Structural Geology

Finding Geothermal Energy with Structural Geologists!

Dripta Dutta February 19, 2026

Imagine harnessing the Earth’s natural warmth to heat our homes and generate clean electricity. That is the promise of geothermal energy. It taps into the heat from beneath the Earth’s surface, providing a consistent and low-carbon power source. Geothermal energy plays a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions because it produces very little greenhouse gas over its entire lifecycle. Studie ...[Read More]

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Geodynamics

Running Models, Chasing Bugs – from Crashes to Convection

Prachi Kar February 18, 2026

Mantle convection may unfold the hidden stories of planetary interiors over billions of years, but geodynamic models can crash in milliseconds. While figures in papers often show smooth convective flows with elegant plumes and slabs, the path to those results is not very easy. This week, Prachi Kar, a PhD candidate at Arizona State University, shares her honest thoughts on the part of geodynamics ...[Read More]

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Ocean Sciences

From Signals to the Sea: Building an AI Sound Library for the Ocean

Maurie Keppens February 17, 2026

We chatted with Bram Cuyx, an underwater acoustics AI research engineer at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Belgium, about his unique path from engineering into marine science. In this interview, he shares how he made the leap from signal processing in electronics to listening to the soundscape of the North Sea, what it’s like to build a sound library for AI, and why acoustics might b ...[Read More]

GM

Geomorphology

annavdb February 16, 2026

This blog post is part of our series: “Highlights” for which we’re accepting contributions! Please contact Emma Lodes and Anna van den Broek (GM blog editor, elodes@asu.edu, a.j.vandenbroek@uu.nl), if you’d like to contribute on this topic or others. by Grace Nield, Assistant Professor (Research) – Royal Society University Research Fellow at Durham University. Email: grace.a.nield@durham.ac ...[Read More]

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Cryospheric Sciences

Peak glacier extinction in the mid-twenty-first century

Lander Van Tricht February 13, 2026

Have you ever wondered how many glaciers will still exist in the future? Or how many glaciers we might lose each year in the coming decades? In our new study (Van Tricht et al., 2025), we shift the focus of glacier modelling from ice volume to individual glaciers. Because every glacier, no matter how small, can matter. Not necessarily for global sea-level rise, but for landscapes, ecosystems, cult ...[Read More]

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Tectonics and Structural Geology

Using drones for geological mapping

Ritabrata Dobe February 12, 2026

This image shows a drone operator guiding a drone to its landing spot.

Geological teaching and education is fast-changing in the 21st century. While fieldwork has long been considered to be the bedrock of geological instruction, over time an increased acceptance has developed for the need to make geological education and training more accessible, especially with regard to fieldwork as this can often involve days and weeks of arduous treks over inhospitable terrain, t ...[Read More]