In case you have missed the news, “Starting 1 May, all AGU journal content from 1997 to content published 24 months ago will be freely available“. Below is the announcement sent out to the AGU members. Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to let you know that we are announcing a major step forward in making AGU research more accessible to scientists and the many sectors of the public t ...[Read More]
Seismology
What a GA
The Euroepan Geoscience Union General Assembly has come and gone, lets hope that this was a great experience to all especially those attending for first time. This year EGU saw as many as 12,000+ scientists attending from over 100 countries. Scientific contributions consisted of 4,800+ oral, 9,500+ poster, and 483 PICO presentations. Here is a small gallery showing the various aspects of EGU (thro ...[Read More]
Seismology
Less than a week to EGU2014. What’s on?
The European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2014 is less than a week away. Here are some information you might find useful. REGISTRATION: Pick up your name badge from Hall Z (from the forecourt of the congress centre Austria Centre Vienna – ACV) by simply providing your Copernicus Office User ID at the Name Badge Pickup counters. Remember your name badge will be printed containing also y ...[Read More]
Seismology
A small tribute to the pioneers of plate tectonics
The Geological Society has prepared an interactive website that pays a small tribute to the pioneers of plate tectonics: Alfred Lothar Wegener Harry Hammond Hess Frederick Vine and Drummond Matthews John Tuzo-Wilson Dan McKenzie The website also features a Teacher Zone with good teaching material, a Glossary for nicely explained geological terms, and a Test Your Knowledge section with multiple cho ...[Read More]
Seismology
125 years since the first recorded seismogram
17th April marks the 125 anniversary of the first ever recorded seismogram from a distant earthquake. The widely recognised first teleseismic seismogram was recorded on April 17, 1889, in Potsdam, Germany by E. von Rebeur-Pacshwitz (Nature, 1889). The earthquake was in Japan and had a magnitude of about 5.8. Ironically the instrument was originally installed for astronomical purposes. The instrume ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Soil colors – what more could you want?
Nuno Simões University of Algarve, Portugal E-mail: nuno_simoes58@hotmail.com We can easily see that soil color varies from one site to another, with depth, with topographic position and composition. Even color may be light brown in one side of the road and dark brown in the other. Whether for scientific purposes, or just curious, you study the colorimetric interesting variations. Why does soil co ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Will drinking tea get us thinking about soils? Yes, but only if you help us spread the word!
Taru Lehtinen PhD candidate at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland tmk2@hi.is The Tea Bag Index Project wants to create a global map on decomposition with the help of citizen scientists. We use teabags to collect vital information on the global carbon cycle. With our protocol (see our web page and our article: Keuskamp et al., 2013), citizen scientists worldwide c ...[Read More]
Seismology
Molding seismic surface waves
Following each major earthquake that occurs close to nearby cities many people wonder what scientist and engineers can do to minimise the seismic hazard on society. Whilst scientist try to understand the mechanism of each fault system on the globe, engineers try to find solutions for buildings to be more safe. One interesting experiment I came across lately is published in last month’s Physi ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Soils at Imaggeo: gully erosion in Swaziland
John Quinton, UK This post was also published simultaneously in G-Soil.
Soil System Sciences
Monday paper: Soil carbon stocks and their variability across the forests, shrublands and grasslands of peninsular Spain
Doblas-Miranda, E., Rovira, P., Brotons, L., Martínez-Vilalta, J., Retana, J., Pla, M., and Vayreda, J. 2013. Soil carbon stocks and their variability across the forests, shrublands and grasslands of peninsular Spain. Biogeosciences, 10, 8353-8361. DOI: 10.5194/bg-10-8353-2013. Abstract Accurate estimates of C stocks and fluxes of soil organic carbon (SOC) are needed to assess the impact of climat ...[Read More]