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 …[Read More]
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 …[Read More]
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. …[Read More]
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). …[Read More]
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 …[Read More]
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 …[Read More]
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 …[Read More]
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, …[Read More]
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 …[Read More]
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 …[Read More]
