Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

Mapping Ancient Oceans

Grace Shephard September 14, 2017

An example of a new map identifying potential chunks of ancient oceans now located deep inside Earth. A vote map at 1400 km depth has been projected to the surface, and is overlain with the position of the continents (grey-white) at around 120 Million years ago. Credit: G Shephard (CEED/UiO) using GPlates software.

This guest post is by Dr Grace Shephard, a postdoctoral researcher in tectonics and geodynamics at the Centre of Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED) at the University of Oslo, Norway. This blog entry describes the latest findings of a study that maps deep remnants of past oceans. Her open access study, in collaboration with colleagues at CEED and the University of Oxford, was published this week i ...[Read More]

August GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from around the web

Laura Roberts-Artal September 1, 2017

The International Space Station orbited over Hurricane Harvey and photographed the storm bearing down on the Texas coast. Credit: NASA.

Drawing inspiration from popular stories on our social media channels, as well as unique and quirky research news, this monthly column aims to bring you the best of the Earth and planetary sciences from around the web. Major Stories On August 25th Hurricane Harvey made landfall along the southern coast of the U.S.A, bringing record breaking rainfall, widespread flooding and a natural disaster on a ...[Read More]

Volcanic ash layers in Svalbard hold clues to the formation of the North Atlantic

Morgan Jones August 4, 2017

This is what the Central Basin of Svalbard looks like today. Since the formation of the sedimentary sequence, the area has been uplifted and then eroded. Rocks that were formed in shallow seas now form high points cut by deep fjords and glaciers. Credit: Morgan Jones

This guest post by Dr Morgan Jones (a Researcher in Volcanology at the Centre of Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED) at the University of Oslo, Norway) describes the latest findings of his multidisciplinary research into how the North Atlantic formed. His open access study, in collaboration with colleagues at CEED and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is published in the Nature Journ ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Sediments make the colour

Eva Eibl July 17, 2017

Sediment makes the colour . Credit: Eva P.S. Eibl (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Earth is spectacularly beautiful, especially when seen from a bird’s eye view. This image, of a sweeping pattern made by a river in Iceland is testimony to it. The picture shows river Leirá which drains sediment-loaded glacial water from the Myrdalsjökull glacier in Iceland. Myrdalsjökull glacier covers Katla, one of Iceland’s most active and ice-covered volcanoes. A high sediment load (the suspen ...[Read More]