GeoLog

Imaggeo

Geosciences Column: How fast are Greenland’s glaciers melting into the sea?

Geosciences Column: How fast are Greenland’s glaciers melting into the sea?

The Greenland ice sheet is undergoing rapid change, and nowhere more so than at its margins, where large outlet glaciers reach sea level. Because these glaciers are fed by very large reservoirs of ice, they don’t just flow to the coast, but can extend many kilometres out into the ocean. Here, the ice – being lighter than water – will float, but remain connected to the ice on the mainland. This phe ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Robberg Peninsula – a home of seals

Imaggeo on Mondays: Robberg Peninsula – a home of seals

This picture is taken from the Robberg Peninsula, one of the most beautiful places, and definitely one of my favorite places in South Africa. The Peninsula forms the Robberg Nature Reserve and is situated close to the Plettenberg Bay on the picturesque Garden Route. “Rob” in Dutch means “seal”, so the name of the Peninsula is translated as “the seal mountain”. T ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Snow folded by advancing lava

Imaggeo on Mondays: Snow folded by advancing lava

The photograph shows the interaction of the first snow and an active lava flow during the 2014 / 2015 Holuhraun eruption in Iceland. The first snow fell onto a ground covered by fine black ash on 26 September 2014. While the meter thick lava flow advanced a few meters per day, it neither melted the snow nor flowed on top of it. Instead, it pushed a layer of centimetre-thick snow and millimetre-thi ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Decreasing Moon

Decreasing Moon Imaggeo

This picture shows the decreasing Moon on May 6, 2015, two days after the full Moon, as viewed from Hamburg, Germany. There are still 96.4% of the lunar front illuminated. The Moon does not glow on its own, but its surface reflects the sunlight. The Sun always illuminates a complete half of our natural satellite, which, in its orbit around our planet, always turns its face (which we see at full Mo ...[Read More]