Biochar is a carbon rich product of biomass pyrolysis, a process where biological material is exposed to high temperatures, in the absence of oxygen, to cause the decomposition of that material into various chemical and physical components. By going through this process, biochar can be a valuable soil additive and a carbon sink with a …[Read More]
Today marks the centennial of the birth of Marie Tharp, the person responsible for creating the first map of our planet’s ocean floors. Though her work was underappreciated at the time of its publication – mainly because she faced many significant barriers due to her gender – her maps ended up being instrumental evidence in …[Read More]
We know the topography of the moon better than the Earth’s seafloor, so we need to keep studying the ocean, and, for me, going to sea is the best way. Only twenty percent of the seafloor is already mapped (see the Seabed 2030 Project), leaving eighty percent of our ocean unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored. …[Read More]
This month for GeoTalk, as we approach the centennial of Marie Tharp’s birth next week, we were lucky enough to speak with the author of her biography ‘Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor‘; Hali Felt. Hali has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa and …[Read More]
The photo was taken from the International Space Station (ISS), approx. 400 km above the Earth, in the educational project administered by NASA: Sally Ride EarthKAM, Mission 59, November 2017. The image was requested by a team of students from my college, coordinated by me. Even though we weren’t there, on ISS, to trigger the …[Read More]
650 metres below the chilly waves of the North Atlantic Arctic Ocean, equidistant between Norway, Iceland and Greenland, are the Jan Mayen Vent Fields. Home to a series of hydrothermal vents strung along a set of normal faults and fissures that run parallel to the seafloor ridge, this is a strange and fascinating place. Hydrothermal …[Read More]
This is an aerial image taken from a balloon at around 150m height, at the eastern shoreline of the Dead Sea. Such “selfies” are scientifically valuable, providing important data that help researchers to analyze the morphology of the retreating lake and investigate associated hazards like sinkholes, subsidence and landslides. The older shorelines, visible as lines …[Read More]
The badlands at the Zabriskie Point (Death Valley, California, USA) rest upon a mudstone foundation. In the prehistoric lakes of Death Valley, fine grained sediments were deposited to form soft rocks. The clay minerals in the mudstone are shaped like tiny plates, which helps create the layers. The combination of the almost impermeable mudstone and …[Read More]
In October 2015 a series of massive thunderstorms rolled across the Eastern Mediterranean. In the hours and days that followed many people living along the Israeli coast had to go to their nearest medical centre because they were experiencing respiratory problems, which appeared very similar to asthma. But what could have caused these breathing problems? …[Read More]
Marine plastic is just one of the many challenges facing the future of our oceans. For many years researchers have been attempting to understand this problem, but it can be surprising to learn how many things are still unknown, even in oceans we may think of as being familiar. The Mediterranean Sea is one such …[Read More]
