Tectonics and Structural Geology

Zürich: surrounded by a geologist’s playground

Anna Gülcher March 4, 2020

View on the centre of Zurich, its lake and the Swiss Alps. Credit: Zurich General view by Zürich Tourismus, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Zürich, with its lake stretching towards the foot of the Swiss Alps in the South, is currently a charming city full of watersides, lively bars, students and bankers. In Switzerland, you’ll find a wide variety of landscapes and geological features over a relatively small area – from the Alpine mountain range in the South to the low-lying plateau and the Jura Mountains in the North. Located in close ...[Read More]

How to reduce your carbon footprint when attending EGU’s General Assembly

Elenora van Rijsingen February 12, 2020

Credit: Markus Spiske. Distributed via Pexels

In October 2019, an open letter was published, addressing both EGU and AGU regarding their policy to reduce the carbon footprint of their annual conferences. Almost 2000 scientists already signed this letter, asking for more ambitious measures to decline carbon emissions, in line with the goals of 50% reduction by 2030 and near-zero emissions by 2050 (IPCC SR15, 2018). Some of the proposed improve ...[Read More]

Beyond Tectonics: How mountain building shaped biodiversity

Hannah Davies January 31, 2020

Humboldt's drawing of vegetation zones at mountains of the Andes, Tenerife, Himalaya, Alpes and Pyrenees, and Lapland, inspired by his travels through Europe and South America. Available via license: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

This edition of “Beyond Tectonics” is brought to you by Lydian Boschman. Lydian is a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zürich. She has a background in geology and plate tectonic reconstructions, but now works with a group of biodiversity modelers of the Landscape Ecology group at ETH, bridging the gap between geology and biology. In her research, she focuses on the uplift history of the Andes, and ho ...[Read More]

Sendai, living on the edge!

Daniel Pastor-Galán January 22, 2020

View of Sendai from Hirose river. Credit: Daniel Pastor-Galán.

Sendai and its people live on the edge. The city and its citizens learned to live over a subduction zone. Sendai has survived 500 years of hazards; it is a resilient and industrious city. People know disaster will strike again, but also that they will rise up when it does. Japan, ‘the sunrise country’, would be much better named ‘the land of sinking tectonic plates’. Above the point where the Paci ...[Read More]

Features from the field: Bedding/Stratification

Samuele Papeschi December 27, 2019

Inclined bedding planes in Ladakh (India). Photo credits: Arjun Datta (Imaggeo)

Bedding (also called stratification) is one of the most prominent features of sedimentary rocks, which are usually made up of ‘piles’ of layers (called ‘strata‘) of sediments deposited one on top of another. Every stratum is characterized by its own lithology (composition), sedimentary structures, grain size and fossil content that make it unique and different from the stra ...[Read More]

Civita di Bagnoregio – the dying town

Elenora van Rijsingen December 4, 2019

Civita di Bagnoregio - The Dying Town. Credit: Elenora van Rijsingen (distributed via Immageo)

On top of a steep cliff standing out from the surrounding countryside, lies the small town of Civita di Bagnoregio, one of the most famous villages of Italy. It is often called the dying town, although more recently people have started to refer to it as fighting to live. What this little town is fighting against is the threat of erosion, as its walls are slowly crumbling down. Located in central I ...[Read More]

Bangor and Snowdonia, a natural laboratory for geologists of the scientific revolution

Hannah Davies November 20, 2019

Bangor Pier with a snowy mountain backdrop Credit: Crown copyright (2012) Visit Wales

Bangor, once a tropical paradise on the coast of Gondwana, then a volcanic wasteland at the foothills of an immense mountain chain. The region would then be buried under glaciers for thousands of years before finally developing into an unassuming Welsh University town. Wales’ place in modern geology Perhaps you have looked at the chronostratigraphic chart of Earth history and wondered what ...[Read More]

Geothermal Energy and Structural Geology?

Anne Pluymakers October 25, 2019

Green pipelines and cooling towers of geothermal power plants in the hills of Tuscany. Credit: Anne Pluymakers.

Fieldwork is a necessity to expand the brain, to kick-start 3D thinking. Field studies with a specific application in mind have – until now – usually been geared towards hydrocarbon reservoirs. However, with the increasing use of the subsurface, for example for CO2 storage and geothermal energy, alternative field studies gain importance. Here, we will focus on geothermal energy, which is in ...[Read More]

Trieste, where the word Karst originates

Simon Blondel October 16, 2019

The Gulf and city of Trieste viewed from the Strada Napoleonica. Credit: Simon Blondel.

The city of Trieste lies in north-eastern Italy along the border with Slovenia. It is positioned at the corner point between the Romance, Germanic and Slavic worlds and serves as an important seaport in the region. It is fascinating for both its history and geology. My relationship with Italy’s town of Science, as Trieste is often referred to, started about a year ago. I got the opportunity to st ...[Read More]

Features from the field: Ripple Marks

Samuele Papeschi October 11, 2019

300 million year old ripples next to 300 minute old ripples. Photo credits Ian Kane

Earlier this year, Ian Kane, geologist at the University of Manchester, captured the iconic snapshot shown above. The picture reveals ripples, developed due to waves and currents in the sand of White Strand (near Killard, county Clare, Ireland) right next to Carboniferous sandstone that contains ‘petrified’ ripple marks! The image is powerful, because it shows the basic principle of geological act ...[Read More]