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Tectonics and Structural Geology

Tectonics and Structural Geology

The role of structural geology in radioactive waste disposal

October 23, 2025
A photo of Dr. Isabel Ashman who's work has been featured in this blog
Dr. Isabel Ashman is a postdoctoral research associate at the rock mechanics and deformation laboratory at the University of Liverpool

In this blog post, I have interviewed Dr. Isabel Ashman, who is part of the GeoSafe consortium at the University of Liverpool, looking into safe and long-term containment of radioactive waste in geological formations. Dr. Ashman, along with other project partners at the University of Liverpool, aim to better understand how small to large-scale (sub-mm to several km) structural variabilities in tar ...[Read More]

Faults vs. Fractures — How to Tell Them Apart ?

October 16, 2025
A futuristic Black geologist wearing AR glasses stands in a glowing cave surrounded by four holographic screens labeled Geological Aspect, Geometry, Topology, and Kinematics & Mechanism, each displaying geological diagrams and fracture models, symbolizing modern geoscience visualization.
Observation. Measurement. Connection. Motion — the four pillars of the Holo-Geologist. Credit: Gemini 2.5.

Faults and fractures can sometimes be confusing, especially for students taking their first geology courses. When they go hiking in the mountains and see a crack in the rock, they often wonder — is this a fracture or a fault? Even scientists sometimes mix the two terms, so it’s good to understand the difference. Since faults and fractures are important in many fields such as tunnel engineering, hy ...[Read More]

Where earthquake faults reach the ground surface: insight from 2016 Kumamoto event

October 2, 2025
Where earthquake faults reach the ground surface: insight from 2016 Kumamoto event
Futagawa fault cutting across a road. Picture taken shortly after the earthquake in 2016 (Kumamoto Earthquake Memorial Museum KIOKU, 2025)

What does a seismogenic fault look like? We can sometimes observe surface earthquake faults, which propagate ruptures from the hypocenter to the ground surface. In 2016, intense seismicity was observed during the Kumamoto earthquake sequence in Japan. This sequence consisted of many shallow earthquakes, including a strong foreshock and the subsequent mainshock with numerous aftershocks. The earthq ...[Read More]

Geomythology. True science and/or strong communication medium ?!

September 26, 2025
Geomythology. True science and/or strong communication medium ?!
World maps obtained from Google Earth Pro Desktop

Geomythology is a relatively recent term, coined by Dorothy B. Vitaliano in 1966. It represented the birth of what will become a new multidisciplinary approach, aimed not only at explaining the geological meaning of natural phenomenon behind long-told folklore (myths and legends), but also at bridging the communication gap between scientists and non-scientists (Vitaliano, 1973). Geomythology estab ...[Read More]

Throwback Summer – retracing student steps at the Pic Saint-Loup, France

September 18, 2025
picture pic Sant Loup
The Pic Saint-Loup, Occitania, France (Credit: Lauretta Kaerger)

The region around the Pic Saint-Loup is a popular destination for many European universities to teach mapping field courses – and there is a reason for it, even besides the great landscape, good food and nice weather. Let’s take a tour to discover why! The Pic Saint-Loup itself is indeed so impressive that some former students return at later stages in life “dragging” along other geologists ...[Read More]

TS Must-Read – Fossen and Cavalcante (2017): Shear zones – A review

September 4, 2025
TS Must-Read – Fossen and Cavalcante (2017): Shear zones – A review

Haakon Fossen and Geane Carolina G. Cavalcante published their seminal review on the topic of shear zones in 2017 in the journal Earth-Science Reviews. The work summarizes the scientific findings on the development and quantification of ductile shear zones sincefrom the the 1960s up to recently. It describes the fundamental aspects of the initiation and growth of shear zones across scales. First, ...[Read More]

Introducing the blog team 2025-2026

September 1, 2025
Pictures portraits of the 12 editors of the TS blog
TS editorial team 2025-2026

For many of you September means back to school, for us September means the return of the blog. Behind the scene this summer, the bright new editorial team prepared fresh blog posts to share with the community. We are very excited to welcome the new editors, happy to start their blog adventure. The 2025-2026 team is a group of early career scientists editors from diverse backgrounds, continents and ...[Read More]

Queer Quarterly: What does queer visibility mean in academia?

April 16, 2025
Queer Quarterly: What does queer visibility mean in academia?
Queer Quarterly logo, designed by Lea Pennac

Queer Quarterly is the blog series of the EGU pride group, a LGBTQIA+ team of geoscientists engaged to uphold and improve the rights of the community in the EGU organization. This week’s post is dedicated to allyship: how people outside of the community can support our efforts. The term LGBTQIA+ is the abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual. The addition ...[Read More]

TS Must-Read – Rowe and Griffith (2015) Do faults preserve a record of seismic slip: A second opinion

April 1, 2025
TS Must-Read – Rowe and Griffith (2015) Do faults preserve a record of seismic slip: A second opinion

Earthquakes shake the Earth almost every day, but what exactly happens within rocks during these seismic events is a matter of debate in the scientific community. The article “Do faults preserve a record of seismic slip: A second opinion,” published in 2015, offers a thoughtful review of the sure and potential records of seismic slip in rocks. The paper examines the notion that rocks i ...[Read More]

Geomythology. Crater Lake: from Love, War and/or natural phenomena

February 28, 2025
Geomythology. Crater Lake: from Love, War and/or natural phenomena
Crater Lake from Watchman Overlook. From Athleticamps through Wikimedia Commons.

The worldwide relatively frequent recurrence of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as their strong impact on society make them the most common sources of myths. The most intriguing part is how different cultures describe relatively similar events in very different ways. Among them, the myths at the base of the origins of the Crater Lake in Oregon (USA), mainly orally inherited f ...[Read More]