While working on the exceptional, but remote outcrops of Baja California, I have encountered an extraordinary quantity of fossilized tree fragments in Cretaceous deposits. These fossils were preserved in both subaerial, fluvial, and marine environments. Does this mean that preservation of tree trunks is easy? How can wood be preserved for more than 70 million years? What kind of information can we ...[Read More]
Geodynamics
Modeling the Early Earth: Idealization and its Aims II
This week we have the second part of Junjie Dong’s insightful blog on modeling the early Earth. Following the discussion (“Modeling the Early Earth: Idealization and its Aims I”) about the major early Earth questions and challenges in modeling early Earth, Junjie now explores the imprtance of modeling as a scientific endeavor. He presents how one could more effectively model the ...[Read More]
Natural Hazards
Modern Solutions for Ancient Hazards: Speaking with Jacopo Selva, the 2024 EGU Plinius Medalist
Jacopo Selva is an associate professor at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and a former researcher at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Italy. His research on seismic, volcanic, and tsunami hazards has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of these natural phenomena, particularly by developing probabilistic methods for hazard assessment and forecasti ...[Read More]
Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology
THE CHALLENGES OF DATING – GEOLOGISTS’ VERSION (part one)
When it comes to dating profiles, minerals can put up a really good face at first. But, as some of the users in dating apps out there, they might not be worthy of a second try, or maybe not even of a first depending on what your intentions are… To help out, we will tackle some of the main minerals used in geochronology, as if they were featured on online dating apps, plus some ‘red flags’ from pre ...[Read More]
Biogeosciences
Meet your BG team 2024/2025
The Biogeoscience division team has changed over the last year, and in this blog post, we are delighted to introduce our new team of representatives and describe their roles and research interests so that you can get to know them better. Our division is led by a President and Deputy President, supported by two Early Career Scientist Representatives and several sub-division officers who cover vario ...[Read More]
Hydrological Sciences
HydroData Chronicles: Piecing Together Italy’s Hydrological Puzzle with FOCA
Welcome back to the HydroData Chronicles! In our previous post, we explored the innovative pRecipe package developed by Mijael Rodrigo Vargas Godoy and Yannis Markonis in 2023 and its impact on precipitation research. Today, we shift our focus to Italy with the introduction of the Italian FlOod and Catchment Atlas (FOCA) database, introduced in 2023 by Pierluigi Claps, Giulia Evangelista, Daniele ...[Read More]
Geodynamics
An Arctic enigma: Can a single plume explain a massive and long-lived ancient volcanic eruption?
Across the Arctic lies evidence for a massive past volcanic event, called the High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP). This ancient volcanic event is particularly unusual in that it appears to have lasted for over 50 million years. Could a single deep-seated mantle plume cause such wide-spread and long-lived volcanism? In a recent study published in the journal G-cubed (Heyn et al., 2024 ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
Women of Cryo VII: Making Fieldwork More Inclusive
Women make up 50.8% of the world’s population, yet fewer than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. Of this percentage, women of colour comprise around 5%, with less than 1% represented in geoscience faculty positions. Women are published less, paid less, and do not progress as far in their careers as men. Even within our EGU community, women account for only one third of all members, and make ...[Read More]
Hydrological Sciences
How to Convene an EGU Session in Hydrology
Have you ever thought about convening an EGU session instead of just attending them? Until September 9th you have the chance to do just that for the 2025 General Assembly, which will be taking place from April 27 to May 2 in Vienna, Austria. Convening a session can sound a bit intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before or if you are an early career scientist. However, it’s an i ...[Read More]
Geodynamics
Modeling the Early Earth: Idealization and its Aims I
The question of how we came to be is closely tied with how the Earth became what it now is. What was the early Earth like? How did it evolve to become a habitable world? Given a fragmentary rock record, how can we investigate the early Earth and its evolution? Dr. Junjie Dong from Caltech writes about modeling the early Earth in a two-part blog. For the first part, he introduces the approach to e ...[Read More]