Since 2010, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) has been holding an annual photo competition and exhibit in association with its General Assembly and with Imaggeo – the EGU’s open access image repository. In addition to the still photographs, imaggeo also accepts moving images – short videos – which are also a part of the annual photo contest. However, 20 or more images have to be submitted ...[Read More]
Livers, guts and gills: understanding how organisms become fossils
It’s 10am and Thomas Clements, a 3rd year palaeobiology PhD Student, is getting ready to check on his latest experiment. Full kited up in what can only be described as a space suit, Thomas carefully approaches the fume cupboard home to his latest specimen: a decaying seabass, balanced on a specially designed ‘hammock’ in a tank of salty water. Opening the lid to check on the rotting fish, Thomas i ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Half dome at sunset
Yosemite’s Half Dome stands, majestic, over a granite dominated terrain in the Yosemite Valley area; one of the most beautiful landscapes in northern America, and arguably, the world – it is also an Earth scientist’ playground. Stamped into the west slope of the Sierra Nevada range, the Yosemite Valley is a collection of lush forests, deep valleys, meandering rivers and streams, all punctua ...[Read More]
Geo Talk: One of the youngest EGU 2016 General Assembly delegates sends sensor to space
Presenting at an international conference is daunting, even for the most seasoned of scientists; not so for Thomas Maier (a second year university student) who took his research (co-authored by Lukas Kamm, a high-school student) to the EGU 2016 General Assembly! Not only was their work on developing a moisture sensor impressive, so was Thomas’ enthusiasm and confidence when presenting his r ...[Read More]
The final days of the mountain glaciers
In 1896 British lawyer, mountaineer and author Douglas Freshfield climbed an obscure mountain in the Caucasus called Kasbek and in his book detailing his adventures he described the mountain: “From this point the view of Kasbek is superb: its whole north-eastern face is a sheet of snow and ice, broken by the steepness of the slope into magnificent towers, and seamed by enormous blue chasms.” D Fre ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Earth Wave
Take a stroll along the norther beaches of the French Channel Coast, some kilometers east from the entrance of the Channel Tunnel, and you’ll encounter an imposing cliff of soft, sandy composition which dominates the landscape. On close inspection, the sediments which make up the Quaternary aged deposits of the Sangatte Cliff, are beautiful, revealing intricate patterns which hold the key to the g ...[Read More]
GeoSciences Column: Hazagora – will you survive the next disaster?
There is no better thing, on a cold and stormy winter’s evening, than to gather your friends for a night of games / board games. Fire blazing (if you have one), tasty snacks laid out and drinks poured, you are all set to indulge in a night of scheming (if you are playing battle ship), deceit (Cluedo), or even all out comedy (think Pictionary or Charades). The main purpose of the games you are like ...[Read More]
GeoPolicy: How to communicate science to policy officials – tips and tricks from the experts
The EGU General Assembly was bigger than ever this year. Over 16,500 people attended more than 500 sessions. Although many sessions featured policy-relevant science, the short course entitled ‘Working at the science policy interface‘ focused purely on the role of scientists within the policy landscape. For those of you that couldn’t attend, this month’s GeoPolicy post takes a clo ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: The waxing Earth
These incredible images of Earth were acquired from the European MSG-2 satellite on July 21, 2009. The MSG, which stands for Meteosat Second Generation, satellites are operated as a series of satellites which continually orbit our planet, capturing detailed images of Europe, Africa and parts of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean every 15 minutes. The data acquired is largely used by meteorologists. The ...[Read More]
GeoTalk: A smart way to map earthquake impact
Last week at the 2016 General Assembly Sara, one of the EGU’s press assistants, had the opportunity to speak to Koen Van Noten about his research into how crowdsourcing can be used to find out more about where earthquakes have the biggest impact at the surface. Firstly, can you tell me a little about yourself? I did a PhD in structural geology at KULeuven and, after I finished, I started to ...[Read More]