Biomineralization is a fascinating natural process by which living organisms produce hierarchical mineral structures with diverse functions. The “secrets” of biomineralization are explored by the scientists since decades but there are still open questions regarding its function, the regulating mechanisms and why and when biomineralization started.This process occurs through self-organization of or ...[Read More]
Investigating the climate history of Central Asia in Kashmir/India
As in most arid areas, dust storms are quite common in India. Repeatedly, the wind carries large quantities of dust from the Thar Desert in the south-west into the Asian country, sometimes across long distances. There have also been dust storms in India in the past, making geoarchives of aeolian dust a suitable recorder of the past local climate- and dust history. When the climate was rather warm ...[Read More]
Slimy Landscapes 2: This time it’s Precambrian
Slime is important to the developments of Earth’s landscapes – I have already explored this in a previous post where I learnt how Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS), a fancy phrase for a slime produced by organisms, can bind sediments together and making them resistant to erosion. This has impacts on the development of landscapes, from the types of bedforms forming below flows, the rate at w ...[Read More]
DeepDust ICDP workshop in Norman, Oklahoma, USA discussed drilling the equatorial terrestrial Permian
From microbiology to geophysics – more than 50 international participants of the first DeepDust Workshop covered a wide range of topics. In Oklahoma researchers exchanged views on a possible international drilling project to study the continental geology of the Permian. During a change from the cold to a warm period, large ice masses melted. This may provide interesting insights into current and f ...[Read More]