As I read the abstract of ‘Women in UK Ocean Science: Experiences of female leadership roles at sea’ by Katharine Hendry et al., it reminds me my own experience at sea! Indeed, more than one year ago, I had the chance to join the IODP Exp 379 in the Amundsen Sea (Antarctica) which was co-led by a woman, Julia Wellner from the University of Houston. It was her first IODP (International ...[Read More]
The seafloor mapping pioneered by Marie Tharp, an American geologist and cartographer, though originally underappreciated, ended up playing a key role in the acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics. This week the EGU is highlighting Tharp’s groundbreaking contributions by hosting both a press conference and a session in her honour at the Union’s virtual annual meeting, Sharing Geoscience Onlin ...[Read More]
On Wednesday 6 May (6-8pm CEST), the now famous Geoscience Games Night is going to take place on YouTube as a live stream! So, this is the perfect moment to introduce a new scientific game which for many of you, is going to remind you of a game created in the late 70s in Quebec. Yes, I am talking about Trivial Pursuit! But instead of History, Entertainment and Sports questions, creators Valeria Mi ...[Read More]
From Monday to Thursday during the week of #shareEGU20, the Early Career Scientists in our various Divisions are going to host a series of evening networking events. Find out more by clicking on the ‘Networking’ session search in the EGU Programme. If you are wondering if these events are for you, check out the Division description by the hosts included below. Every day this week we wi ...[Read More]
As child growing up on the south coast of Devon in the UK, I never really realised that our beaches were unusual. A glorious, glowing orange-red colour, the cliffs that you can see in this photograph by Sarah Weick produced similarly red sand beaches and warm ochre soils. The bright colour is the result of the sandstone and conglomerates of these rocks, collectively called the New Red Sandstones, ...[Read More]
This is a transmitted light microscope image of a thin section – a 50-micron thick sliver of rock. This sample was collected from Jebel Hafit, a mountain which straddles the United Arab Emirates and Oman border. Jebel Hafit is approximately 900 m high and is made up of Eocene to Miocene age carbonate rocks which were mainly deposited in a shallow water, tropical setting. More specifically, this im ...[Read More]
Last weekend, with a strict, stay-at-home coronavirus order looming on the horizon, I decided to practice social distancing by escaping on one last hike. Since I’m currently in Colorado, I chose to climb North Table Mountain, the remnant of an ancient basalt lava flow located on the outskirts of Denver. Locally this mesa, along with its twin located a short distance to the south, are popula ...[Read More]
Lascar volcano is located in the Antofagasta Region of Chile. This stratovolcano (a conical volcano built up over time through successive eruptions of lava, tephra and ash) of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes is the most active volcano of the region, with a height of 5.592 m (18,34 ft). The last phase of eruptive activity before this photo was taken was on October 30, 2015, which produced an ...[Read More]
During my PhD I was working at the German Neumayer III station in Antarctica for my research on polar atmospheric chemistry. Since my instrument was set up on an observatory south of the main station, every day I would walk past a Scott pyramid tent to go and do my research. One day, in the midst of an Antarctic storm, I caught sight of the tent deep in the drifting snow, and took this picture. Th ...[Read More]
Besides for the purposes of documenting my research, I like to take photos of rocks under the microscope also because of their aesthetic appeal. It’s an hidden, marvelous world. These flying-saucer-looking objects are in fact the fossil skeletons of a Nummulites (the larger) and a Discocyclina (the one on top left), both belong to the phylum of Foraminifera. These single-celled organisms occupyied ...[Read More]