You’ve probably heard of supermodels like Heidi Klum and Kate Moss, but have you heard of SUMO? It’s an abbreviation for a project called Super Modeling by Combining Imperfect Models, and although it doesn’t sound nearly as glamorous, it may mean big things for climate modeling. This innovative approach, pioneered by an interdisciplinary group of scientists from around the world, seeks to build on ...[Read More]
CCS – what’s the hold up?
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been on the research and political agenda for some time now, but there has been a surge in media coverage recently in the European Union (EU). This is in part due to the announcement of the results of the CCS funding commercialisation competition run by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in the UK and also the second call for European Commission ...[Read More]
Introducing ESurf
ESurf, more formally known as Earth Surface Dynamics is the new open access journal from the EGU. Focussing on the processes that affect the Earth’s surface at all scales, ESurf aims to communicate the interactions of Earth surface processes with the lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and pedosphere. Highlighting field measurements, remote sensing and experimental and numerical modeli ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Grand Prismatic Spring
Yellowstone National Park, USA, is well known for its outstanding natural beauty. This is the Grand Prismatic Spring in the Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. It is the third largest hotspring in the world and the largest found in the United States, with a maximum diameter of about 90 m. It discharges roughly 2.5 cubic metres of mineral-rich water per minute, which flows down the rock ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Alas, allases are abound!
The Lena River flows throughout Russia from its source in the Baikal Mountains out into the Arctic Ocean, where the delta’s landscape is dominated by ice-rich Yedoma and thermokarst lakes. Thermokarst lakes have been identified as a source of carbon release to the atmosphere and Yedoma-like lake sediments are known to release more methane than any other sediment due to their incredibly high carbon ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: Tag – you’re it! Chasing atmospheric tracers
I’ve been ruminating over the idea for this post for some time now; since last October in fact, when the EGU Twitter Journal Club discussed a paper about tagging (You can find the Storify for the discussion here). Not tagging as in the playground favourite, but the idea of keeping track of certain molecules in your chemical transport model, so you can follow them as they move through the atm ...[Read More]
Events for Young Scientists at EGU 2013
Short Courses Demystifying Open Access – an open discussion for early career researchers tackling how OA can benefit young scientists without compromising their careers. From what it costs to publish an open access paper to how we can measure its impact, all interested scientists are invited to drop in and join us over drinks in a marketplace of discussion. How to apply for a job. It’s a topic rar ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Stirring up a sandstorm
These are the outwash plains for the Icelandic volcano, Katla: An outwash plain (or sandur) is a broad, shallowly sloping region ahead of a glacial front. They are made up of material that has been deposited by glacial meltwater, released either by geothermal heating or a subglacial eruption. The extensive volcanism and abundance of ice-capped volcanoes in southern Iceland means that the outwash p ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Metamorphosis
This fold is part of the metamorphic core of the Pyrenees. The shear zone is almost vertical, producing a small parasitic fold (a smaller fold within a larger one), which looks almost as if it continues into the sky. The metamorphic sediments are about 500 million years old and have been deformed several times, most recently during the alpine orogeny. The alpine orogeny was period of extensive mou ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: A fractured relationship – when lava meets ice
The Kuril Island Chain is formed by four active volcanoes: Golovnin, Mendeleev, Tyatya and Smirnov. Stolbchaty Cape, where the Okhotsk Sea meets the coast of Kunashir Island, is not far from Mendeleev Volcano – responsible for the many hot springs in the area. These are fed by seawater and heated as the water comes into contact with magma and hot rocks within the mantle. The picture shows an outcr ...[Read More]