Iceland, with its stunning volcanic landscapes, is one of the world’s most geologically rich countries. Kerlingarfjöll, featured in this week’s image, is a prime example of that. This Icelandic mountain range, covering an area of 150 square kilometres, formed during a volcanic eruption in the Late Pleistocene – some 100 thousand years ago. “Kerlingarfjöll is very different to the environment aroun ...[Read More]
Imaggeo
Imaggeo on Mondays: Sequoias in full moon
The Sequoia National Park in Sierra Nevada, California, is one of the most beautiful wilderness areas in the United States. The park, spanning over 1,600 square kilometres, is home to high mountains, deep canyons, and long and pristine caves. But its most distinct feature are giant sequoias, the world’s largest trees. Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) grow to an average height of 50 to 85 metres ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Jointed Colorado Rockies
The Rocky Mountains, or Rockies, are a North American mountain system stretching around 5,000 km from northern British Columbia, Canada, to New Mexico in the southwestern United States. They are made up of a discontinuous series of mountain ranges with distinct geological origins, the last of which was formed during the Laramide orogeny (mountain formation event) 80–55 million years ago. With a po ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Halo
“Ring around the sun or moon brings rain or snow upon you soon.” Before the development of meteorology, visible atmospheric phenomena, such as halos, were used to forecast the weather. Though meteorological prediction has come a long way since then, these extraordinary halos really do appear in the sky on otherwise ordinary days, a lesson learned by Farahnaz Khosrawi when she saw the sun rise on a ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Apostles along the Great Ocean Road
Tucked between the rough Southern Ocean and stunning cliff tops, Australia’s Great Ocean Road is one of the world’s most scenic routes. The 243-kilometre stretch of road along the country’s south-eastern coastline is surrounded by beautiful beaches, lush rainforests, as well as incredible geological formations. The 12 Apostles, stacks of rocks located in the Port Campbell National Park, are ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Melt Stream
Supraglacial lakes are created when water forms in depressions on top of a glacier, remaining there until it dissipates by seeping through crevasses, or cracks in the ice sheet. Despite their sometimes impressive size, supraglacial lakes may drain in a matter of hours under the right conditions, when the pressure they exert on the ice causes it to crack creating a sometimes spectacular lake draini ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Icy Landscape
Ice is a hazardous beauty, ephemeral in nature and, under the right conditions, capable of dominating landscapes. Earlier this year, while North America enjoyed an unusually mild winter, central and eastern Europe experienced brutal cold spells. The continent witnessed widespread freezing as cold air swept south from Siberia, claiming hundreds of lives, knocking out power supplies, and disrupting ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Burst
This photo won 2nd Prize at the 2012 General Assembly photo competition and, according to the photographer, Melissa S. Bukovsky, epitomises the idea that an expensive camera is not a necessity for taking great photos. “You just need to know how to use what you have. I travel with a point and shoot that fits in my back pocket,” she explains. Currently a Project Scientist at the National ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Traveling resource
An iceberg is formed when large pieces of ice break from snow-formed glaciers or ice shelves and float through the open oceans carried by wind and currents. They range in size and can be as large as over 75 m high and over 200 m wide, an important threat to unknowing ships. To that end, last month marked a century since the Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg, killing over 1,500 passenger ...[Read More]
EGU2012 photo competition results
The three 2012 General Assembly photo competition winners are: