This week’s Imaggeo on Mondays is no ordinary image; it’s a snapshot of surface ocean speeds and the extent of ice cover in the North Atlantic. It was produced using a high resolution model of ocean eddies – high resolution here means that details are simplified into grids 3 km across, or one 20th of a degree. Three kilometres may sound like a pretty large area, but in oceanographic modelling, thi ...[Read More]
New Educational Fellow at the EGU Office
Hello, I am Jane, the new Education Officer at the EGU. My role here is to help develop and implement the EGU’s educational strategy and initiatives for formal and informal education as well as working on exciting new education-related collaborations for the EGU. I earned my BSc (Hons) Geology from the University of Edinburgh then went on to gain an MRes in Heritage Science from University College ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: Stitching the seafloor together
You’re standing on a mountain peak, with a fabulous field site before you. Wanting to capture the moment, you take out your iPhone, snap a dozen pictures and your mobile stitches them together beautifully – a nice record to show your colleagues back in the office. Unfortunately, not all field sites are so easy to capture – especially when you need to do a little science with the images. Seafloor p ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Capturing the aurora
The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are created as charged particles interact with the Earth’s atmosphere. These electrons are part of the solar wind and as they pass through the Earth’s magnetic shield (the magnetosphere); the charged particles collide with those in our atmosphere, emitting light. In the southern hemisphere this phenomenon is known as the aurora australis, but both are caus ...[Read More]
Letting the methane genie out of the bottle
Greenhouse gas levels and globally averaged surface temperatures are both on the rise. Whilst slow increases in temperatures are not easily perceived as threatening, and might even be welcomed by some, climate change can also include fast and sudden changes. These sudden changes could have disastrous effect on not only us humans, but also life on this planet more generally. When it comes to places ...[Read More]
GeoTalk: Catharina Landström on the safe storage of nuclear waste
Following Science in Public 2013 I had the pleasure of talking to Catharina Landström about the social and technical challenges to the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste… Could you introduce yourself and let us know what propelled you into a project looking at the issues surrounding geological disposal of radioactive waste? Specialising in Science and Technology Studies (STS ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Lime Pancakes
These are the Pancake Rocks of Punakaiki, on the west coast of New Zealand. They are made of limestone that was deposited as calcifying organisms fell to their fate on the sea floor about 30 million years ago. Since then, the limestone has been uplifted, exposed, and eroded by the wind and the sea. Each of the limestone layers are separated by a thin sheet of mudstone in an arrangement known as st ...[Read More]
EGU elections – propose a candidate!
EGU members will be able to vote for the next president/vice-president and general secretary during the autumn election, which takes place from 1 November to 1 December. But first, you need to choose your candidates! You can propose a candidate for either vacancy by filling in the proposal form up until 30 September. You are welcome and encouraged to nominate yourself. If you are nominating someon ...[Read More]
Natural hazards workshop videos are online!
Every year, the EGU host a two day workshop for primary and secondary school teachers during the General Assembly. Geosciences Information For Teachers (GIFT) workshops aim to shorten the time between discovery and textbook, while providing teachers with material that can be used in the classroom. This year, the workshop was on natural hazards, with scientists from the fields of seismology, volcan ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: The perfect partnership
Pogonophores are deep sea worms that thrive in dark, deep sea conditions thanks to the presence of symbiotic bacteria. The bacteria are chemoautotrophic, that is, they fix carbon through oxidation processes, rather than using light to fix it, as is the case for photosynthesis. By utilising oxygen in the water, the bacteria can oxidise compounds such as hydrogen sulphide in order to fix carbon. The ...[Read More]