GeoLog

How long does an ecosystem remember the weather?

Wenli Zhao August 27, 2026

The hills around Jena, Germany, home to the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, where this study began. Photo credit: Wenli Zhao.

“Plants carry traces of past weather. Reading them may help us navigate a hotter, drier world.” Wenli Zhao As global warming intensifies drought frequency, understanding how ecosystems store and deplete water is critical for anticipating vegetation stress. This blog walks us through a novel groundbreaking study published on EGU journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS). Led b ...[Read More]

From under Lake Nyos: The geology, physics, and engineering of limnic eruptions

Asmae Ourkiya August 21, 2026

In 1986, Lake Nyos, in the volcanic region of Cameroon, released a cloud of CO2 into the atmosphere, killing 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby towns and villages. Since then, engineers have been artificially removing the gas from the lake through piping. The gas burst in 1986 from the 200-meter deep Lake Nyos was so violent that water washed over the 80-meter high promontory in the foreground. Source: United States Geological Survey

On the evening of August 21, 1986, an unusual stillness blanketed the green highlands of northwestern Cameroon. The local villagers in Nyos, Cha, and Subum were preparing for bed, totally unaware that the crater lake nearby had reached its breaking point. Without warning, a wave of gas burst from the lake and spilled over the volcanic crater rim and cascaded into the valleys. Unseen, heavy, and co ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: Meet Elisa Nobile, Flood Loss & Damage researcher, & Natural Hazards Early Career Representative!

Simon Clark August 20, 2026

Elisa Nobile

Hello Elisa! Thank you for agreeing to this GeoTalk interview. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your background to our readers? Hello, and thank you for having me. My name is Elisa Nobile and I recently completed my PhD at IUSS Pavia, in Italy. My background is in engineering for the mitigation of risk from natural hazards, and during my studies I quickly became interested in the impacts o ...[Read More]

Under the Mediterranean sun: The thousand year tale of changing skies

Nazzareno Diodato and Gianni Bellocchi August 17, 2026

Schematic illustration of the Earth’s climate system, including the interplay between the water cycle and the clouds.Source: Freepik (https://www.freepik.com).

When you picture the western Mediterranean, you likely imagine sun-drenched beaches, terracotta roofs, and bright blue skies. But has it always been this sunny? A groundbreaking study published in the journal Research provides a definitive answer: it has not. By pulling back the curtain – or rather, the cloud cover – on a thousand years of climate history, scientists have developed the ...[Read More]