This year, from 6 to 20 November, the United Nation’s COP27 took place in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The conference hosted several high-level and side events, key negotiations and press conferences, attended by more than 100 Heads of State and Governments and over 35,000 participants who deliberated climate action strategies around the world. I had the chance to speak with Dr Munira Raji about her ...[Read More]
GeoTalk: meet Morelia Urlaub, researcher of underwater landslides!
Hi Morelia. Thank you for joining us today! Could you tell our readers a bit about yourself and your research? Hi, I am Junior Professor for Marine Geomechanics at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Kiel University in Germany. I graduated at the University of Bremen (Germany) and did my PhD in 2013 at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton in the UK. After a short postdoc th ...[Read More]
The theory of continental drift and how it changed the geosciences forever
German scientist Alfred Wegener spent most of his life defending a shocking theory: that all the world’s continents were once part of the same land mass before they drifted away. For many years after he passed, his theory continued to be shunned, ridiculed, and labelled as pseudoscience. And then, several decades later, geologists began to find more and more proof to support his continental drift ...[Read More]
Why do we keep dismissing drought?
“If you see me, then weep” Like the foreboding inscription witnessed by Dante as he passed through the gates of Hell, the inscription chiselled into the so-called “hunger stone” marks the passing of a threshold into suffering. As the hunger stone emerges from the dwindling waters of the Elbe River, Czechia, it reveals a history of desiccation. Where spiritual torment is pro ...[Read More]
When race and natural hazards intersect: three geoscientists share their experiences
Around the world, the month of October is observed as Black History Month and includes the International Day for Disaster Reduction. While both these observances are significant in their own right, it gave EGU the opportunity to hear from geoscientists of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities about the many ways that race and natural hazards are linked: does one affect the ot ...[Read More]
GeoTalk: meet Blaise Nyandwi, researcher in public perceptions of volcanic hazards!
Thanks for joining us today Blaise! To begin, could you talk about your background and why you pursued research on people’s perceptions of natural hazards? I have a background in geology and environmental sciences. Goma is my hometown and I work as a lecturer at the University of Goma. Living and working in a city built on lava flows and permanently threatened by several hazards from Nyiragongo vo ...[Read More]
Glacial lake outburst floods: What we know about this destructive ice hazard
Glacial lake outburst floods are among the most concerning consequences of retreating glaciers in mountain ranges around the world. Although the phenomenon isn’t a new one, it has increasingly become the focus of research efforts in the last two decades, with many scientists seeing these floods as an emblematic symptom of climate change. This blog sheds some light on this lesser-known geological e ...[Read More]
Imaggeo On Monday: Rock flour in suspension in Lake Louise
The waters of Lake Lousie in the Canadian Rockies are cold and fresh, supplied direct from the glaciers nestled in the mountains, but as the water from the glacier melts it carries with it tiny particles of rock dust that are also transported into the lake. As you can see in this image, the particulate rock matter, held in suspension in the lake, creates this beautiful pale turquoise colour, that ...[Read More]
GeoPolicy: Responding to the EU Nature Restoration Law
On 22 June 2022, the European Commission presented its proposal for the EU Nature Restoration Law with the aim to recover biodiverse and resilient nature across the EU. Like all new legislation, the EU Nature Restoration Law was proposed by the European Commission and underwent numerous rounds of feedback from the public, stakeholders, and organisations via the Commission’s Have your say pla ...[Read More]
Why hydrogen – the ‘fuel of the future’ – may not be as clean as we think
Around the world, the shift to hydrogen is being considered a key strategy to decarbonize the environment, with experts even calling it the fuel of the future. Hydrogen now features in all eight of the European Commission’s net zero emissions scenarios for 2050, promising to end our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce CO2 emissions across industries. So it comes as no surprise that billions of e ...[Read More]