Asmae Ourkiya

70 years of tech: Does it serve science or separate us from it? My take as an EGU media professional

Asmae Ourkiya September 4, 2026

Improvised modeling of volcanos by Tatiana Matveeva. Source: Imaggeo

When I joined the European Geosciences Union in 2024 as a media professional, my primary mandate felt straightforward: democratising scientific understanding and building durable, trustworthy bridges that connect scientists, researchers, journalists, and public communicators. Now, in my third year at EGU, I find myself looking out over our scientific community with a mixture of reverence and uneas ...[Read More]

GeoRoundup: the highlights of EGU Journals published during August!

Asmae Ourkiya August 31, 2026

Each month we feature specific Divisions of EGU and during the monthly GeoRoundup we put the journals that publish science from those Divisions at the top of the Highlights section. For August, we are featuring the Natural Hazards (NH), Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology (GMPV), and Geodesy (G). They are represented by the journals Solid Earth (SE), Geoscientific Model Developme ...[Read More]

Geolog series: Communicating uncertainty in science -Student perspectives from the University of Tübingen

Asmae Ourkiya and Solmaz Mohadjer August 28, 2026

Students’ drawings of uncertainty in their field of studies. (L) Uncertainty in Sociology: the complexity of social identity categorization (image credit: Zisan Tosun), (R) Uncertainty in Sport Sciences; training results for different athletes following the exact same plan. Drawing by Felix Seibold.

Welcome to a new series on GeoLog dedicated to one of the most critical yet frequently misunderstood aspects of research: Communicating uncertainty in science. Over the coming months, we will feature six guest posts written by students from a summer course at the University of Tübingen. Bringing together 13 students across diverse disciplines, the course challenged them to reframe uncertainty as a ...[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]