Making measurements from the space and looking to the skies has hugely enhanced our understanding of the Earth, it’s surface processes and its movement in space. This short episode of GeoCinema Online takes you through some of the great technological developments in the Earth and planetary sciences! Looking Down a Well: A Brief History of Geodesy Geodesy is a field of study that deals with ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: Tracing Toba
Large volcanic eruptions have a significant impact on the Earth’s climate as aerosols (including sulphur dioxide and water vapour), together with ash are released into the atmosphere and increase the amount of sunlight reflected back into space (the albedo). This increase in reflectance (or decrease in energy absorption) can cause widespread climatic cooling, known as a ‘volcanic winter’. However, ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Vanishing Lakes and Dry Arctic Landscapes
The Koukdjuak Plains (south-west Baffin Island, Canada) form a vast postglacial marine plain that borders the Foxe Basin, an area that has been progressively uplifted due to glacio-isostatic rebound following the end of the last glaciation about 6600 years ago. The weight of glaciers on the Earth’s crust causes the ground to be depressed, which, once the glacier melts, bounces back (at a geologica ...[Read More]
GeoCinema Online: Hazards
In this week’s GeoCinema Online, we’re taking you to regions of the world that have experienced large eruptions in both the recent and distant past. These films take you through what it’s like to live in an active volcanic area or fault zone, from dealing with disasters, to how scientists are working towards better methods of earthquake and eruption forecasting: Mayon: The Volcano Princess I ...[Read More]
GeoTalk: Xavier Fettweis
Today in GeoTalk, we’re talking to Xavier Fettweis, an award-winning climate scientist from the University of Liège. He tells us about his work on the Greenland ice sheet. First, could you introduce yourself and let us know a bit about your current projects at the University of Liège? As a child, I was already interested by the meteorology thanks to a small weather station installed at my parents’ ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: An Icy Illusion
This week’s Imaggeo on Mondays is brought to you by Robert Wills, a Caltech Ph.D. student studying how mountain ranges help set the global pattern of rainfall and how these rainfall patterns affect the erosional evolution of mountain ranges. Robert is also an avid photographer who particularly enjoys nature photography in the American Southwest. This is one of his finest snapshots from the area… W ...[Read More]
GeoCinema Online: Space & Planetary Science
If you were at our General Assembly, you probably spotted GeoCinema, or took a moment to catch your breath between sessions and relax with a geological film. But with all the science to be heard and discussions to join, watching the full programme would have been impossible. How do we get around this? By bringing GeoCinema straight to your living room! Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing a de ...[Read More]
EGU 2013: The Highlights
Missing EGU 2013? Not to fear! Sue Voice has compiled some of the best moments from the General Assembly so sit back and transport yourself to the fantastic blur of breakthroughs in geoscience, wonderful workshops and scintillating scientific conversation at EGU 2013… A huge thanks to Sue for filming the goings on at the General Assembly and for putting this clip together! Can you spot you ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Volcanic Zones and Colourful Stones
This week’s Imaggeo on Mondays is Written by Yiming Wang, a paleoceanographer and paleolimnologist and keen photographer from the University of Kiel, Germany… Námafjall is a high temperature geothermal area by Lake Myvatn in northeastern Iceland, which known for its sulphurous mud springs. My fascination of Iceland began during a fieldwork expedition in March 2004 as I began to collect data for my ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: Rainfall and Climate – a Dynamic Problem
“Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” – John Updike Rain quenches the thirst of soils and vegetation, fuelling ecosystems and much of the world’s agriculture. Whether it ruins a day on the beach or destroys a season’s harvest, it makes humans deeply aware of their vulnerability to the vagaries of the atmosphere. It’s important to understand ...[Read More]