EGU Blogs

Divisions

HS
Hydrological Sciences

United Nations 101 for Hydrologists

United Nations 101 for Hydrologists

Did you feel the roar of water during the 2021 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (aka COP 26) hosted at the Scottish Lowlands? It was the first time that the venue had a Water Pavilion in the COP history since 1995. The hashtags #Water4Climate with #COP26 were extremely popular in the social media channels. With the elevated status of water for climate adaptation, hydrological sciences ...[Read More]

BG
Biogeosciences

Meet Adina Paytan- Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky medal winner 2022

Dr Adina Paytan's research group in a field

We spoke to Dr. Adina Paytan, Research Scientist at the Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz and Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky medal winner for 2022. The Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky medal is awarded annually by the Biogeosciences division to those who make an exceptional contribution to biogeosciences. Can you tell us a bit about your background and how your career pr ...[Read More]

TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

TS Must-Read – Fossen and Tikoff (1993): The deformation matrix for simultaneous simple shearing, pure shearing and volume change, and its application to transpression-transtension tectonics

TS Must-Read – Fossen and Tikoff (1993): The deformation matrix for simultaneous simple shearing, pure shearing and volume change, and its application to transpression-transtension tectonics

With their milestone article in Journal of Structural Geology (Fossen and Tikoff, 1993)⁠ and its companion article in Tectonophysics (Tikoff and Fossen, 1993)⁠, the authors marked a step forward for the quantification of strain in the deep crust. These articles popularized a new approach, the deformation matrix. An easy solution to quantify strain in finite geological systems is to find continuous ...[Read More]

Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

Minerals and Art: a centuries-old connection

Minerals and Art: a centuries-old connection

Since ancient times, colours have been fundamental for artistic expression: pigments have always been created from fruits, leaves-flowers, and minerals. During the centuries, new material discoveries and techniques increased the shades we can still see and use nowadays. Once upon a Prehistoric time… El Castillo Cave, in Spain, is one of the earliest known cave paintings, dated to more than 40,000 ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Camp Century re-visited: sediment from the bottom of a Cold War ice core reveals Greenland’s warm past

Camp Century re-visited: sediment from the bottom of a Cold War ice core reveals Greenland’s warm past

A Cold War nuclear-powered military base inside the Greenland Ice Sheet sounds like science fiction, but the science that came out of this U.S. army installation was anything but fiction. In last week’s EGU CR blog post, Paul Bierman and Amanda Schmidt discussed the advances made by the U.S. military in operating across the Greenland Ice Sheet that culminated in the establishment of Camp Century i ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

The Sassy Scientist – Seek The Spotlight

The Sassy Scientist – Seek The Spotlight

Mabi has seen a smattering of presentations at conferences. Some of those had the annotation “invited talk”. She wonders: How do you get invited to give a talk? Dear Mabi, Easy: get noticed. I don’t just mean that you should write a stellar paper. There might just be a chance that people miss it. Out of laziness, a crammed schedule or plain disinterest (wrongfully so, of course). ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

The toxic and wondrous world of academia with Science Sisters

The toxic and wondrous world of academia with Science Sisters

Good morning, dear readers, this is your editor-in-chief speaking. We are currently experiencing some difficulties in academia, but we ask you to stay calm and remain in your seats with the seatbelt fastened. In the event of loss of pressure, make sure to publish your own paper first (to increase the pressure on your peers). Yes, it’s me! Your favourite (and only) editor-in-chief! And because runn ...[Read More]

NH
Natural Hazards

Geoscience communication series: navigating the light and dark sides of social media

Geoscience communication series: navigating the light and dark sides of social media

We are thrilled to present the last episode of the EGU WEBINARS: Digitalk: online (geo)science communication series. In this episode, we will explore the light and the dark sides of using social media for science communication by a special guest, Roberto Guardo.  Roberto wished to engage in science communication just after completing his PhD. “I have never liked writing scientific papers,” he said ...[Read More]

TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

TS Must-read – Buck (1991): Modes of continental lithospheric extension

TS Must-read – Buck (1991): Modes of continental lithospheric extension

Buck (1991) aims at solving the  intense ‘70s and ‘80s tectonic debate concerning the way extension is accommodated in continental regions (see our previous blog posts here and here). His article explores the physical conditions that can lead to the three end-member modes of lithospheric extension in continents: core complex mode, wide rift mode and narrow rift mode. The three extensional modes th ...[Read More]

G
Geodesy

Geodesists on Tour: On the left side of the road for getting the g

Geodesists on Tour: On the left side of the road for getting the g

Getting the small g (the absolute gravity value) outdoors has always been some sort of a challenge. But, in the early 2000s the possibility to measure gravity has changed by the arrival of the first A10 absolute gravimeters. They to a large extent revolutionized the approach of performing gravity measurements in the open field and with that improved the approach to design and measure national grav ...[Read More]