Tectonics and Structural Geology

Beyond Tectonics: Fishing for Continents in the Furious Fifties and Roaring Forties

Derya Gürer and Luca Magri December 18, 2020

Some of the research team of IN2020_V01 in front of the bridge of the R/V Investigator (credit: Paige Maroni)

This edition of “Beyond Tectonics” is brought to you by Dr. Derya Gürer and Luca Magri. Derya is a Lecturer in Earth Sciences at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Tasmania, and Luca is a PhD student at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia. In early 2020, they participated in a research voyage to one of the most remote places on the plane ...[Read More]

Beyond Tectonics: Building fictional worlds to better understand our own

Hannah Davies April 10, 2020

Artists illustration of the TRAPPIST-1 system. Image credit NASA

In this edition of “Beyond Tectonics” Ben Blackledge and Hannah Davies talk about worldbuilding and how it can be applied to the discipline of tectonics and tides. Ben Blackledge recently completed his MSc in Bangor and will soon be beginning a PhD in Bristol University. Let’s begin with a question. Are the tides always the same on every planet? Because of the force of gravity, ...[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]

Beyond Tectonics: Can only tectonically active planets sustain life?

Hannah Davies September 23, 2019

Earthrise, image source: Wikipedia

This edition of “Beyond Tectonics” is brought to you by David Waltham. David is a professor of Geophysics at Royal Holloway who studies Geology, Astronomy and Astrobiology. His current research focus is on whether the Earth is “special” because it is habitable, or if the Earth is one of a vast amount of life-bearing planets. “Is Earth Special? Do we live on a typical rocky ...[Read More]

Beyond Tectonics: How the tectonic events of 1783 were perceived by the population of Europe

Hannah Davies September 4, 2019

A contemporary print of the first of the 1783 Calabrian earthquakes. Image source: Wikipedia

This edition of “Beyond Tectonics” is brought to you by Katrin Kleemann. Katrin is a doctoral candidate at the Rachel Carson Center/LMU Munich in Germany, she studies environmental history and geology. Her doctoral project investigates the Icelandic Laki fissure eruption of 1783 and its impacts on the northern hemisphere. “A Violent Revolution of Planet Earth” – The C ...[Read More]

Beyond tectonics: The present-day tides are the biggest they have been since the formation of Pangea

Hannah Davies July 12, 2019

Couesnon river estuary feeding into the English channel, at low tide, Northern France. Credit: Twitter

“Beyond tectonics” is a blog series which aims to highlight the connections between tectonics and other aspects of the Earth system. In this iteration of the “Beyond tectonics” series we talk about how plate tectonics have affected the tides on Earth over geological timescales. We will talk about tectonics on the Earth since the formation of Pangea to the present day, and i ...[Read More]