Field Work

Imaggeo on Mondays: Namibia’s mysterious fairy circles

Olivia Trani July 9, 2018

The mysterious fairy circles. Credit: Hezi Yizhaq (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The grassy Namibian desert is pock-marked with millions of circular patches of bare earth just like these shown in the picture between linear dunes. Viewed from a balloon, they make the ground look like a moonscape. Commonly known as fairy circles, the patches range from two to 12 metres across and appear in a 2000 kilometre strip that stretches from Angola to South Africa. For many decades, the f ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Arctic cottongrass in Svalbard

Olivia Trani July 2, 2018

Eriophorum scheuchzeri spp. arcticum. Credit: Gunnar Mallon (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

In the High Arctic, where vegetation is limited in height, cottongrass stands out as some of the tallest plant species around. This photo shows a wispy white patch of Arctic cottongrass growing amongst other tundra vegetation in the Advent river floodplain of Adventdalen, a valley on the Norwegian archipelago island Svalbard. Svalbard is of particular scientific interest as it is a relatively warm ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Science in the Arctic trenches

Vasileios Gkinis June 25, 2018

The ghosts of the science trench. Credit: Vasileios Gkinis (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Pictured here are climate scientists processing ice core samples in the East Greenland Ice-core Project (EastGRIP) science trench 10 m under the surface of the Greenland ice cap. The trenches of this ice core camp require minimum building materials, utilising giant inflatable balloons that are dug in and covered with snow. The snow is left to compact for a few days, thereafter leaving back an arch ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Probing the Pliocene

Kathryn Fitzsimmons and Giancarlo Scardia May 7, 2018

Probing the Pliocene. Credit: Kathryn Fitzsimmons (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The heights we go to for science… This photograph shows a member of our team preparing to abseil down a cliff in the Charyn Canyon, in the Ili River basin of southeast Kazakhstan. The Charyn River and its tributaries, a branch of the Ili River north of the Tien Shan Mountains, have cut canyons up to 300 metres deep, carving through rocks of different geologic ages, some as old as 540 million years ...[Read More]