In this month’s GeoEd post, Sam Illingworth explores the pitfalls of being a scientist in the public eye. Following the recent acquittal of 6 geoscientists on manslaughter charges after ‘failing’ to predict the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake, is it time we thought about improving how risk is communicated to the wider public? At the beginning of November of this year, six Italian scientists were acquitte ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Lusi from the sky with drones
The picture shows a spectacular aerial view of a sunset over the Lusi mud eruption in East Java, Indonesia. Here thousands of cubic meters of mud, are spewed out every day from a 100 m sized central crater. Since the initial eruption of the volcano in 2006, following a 6.3 M earthquake, a surface of about 7 km2 has been covered by boiling mud, which has buried more than 12 villages and resulted in ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Stone Flower
In a true feat of endurance, self-discovery and resilience, Solmaz Mohadjer and Josy Strunden, geology students at the University of Tübingen (Germany), cycled 800 km in the Pamir Mountains as part of a trip to raise awareness about autism in Tajikistan. ““We cycled through one of the most tectonically active regions on the planet, passing by mountain communities that welcomed us warmly as well as ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Fresh breakout in the lava fields
Kate Dobson was a volunteer at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory (HVO) in 2001/02 and revisited the stunning Big Island in 2006. During her holidays Kate ventured out to the coastal section of the Pu’uO’o lava flow field and captured this spectacular image of a fresh lava breakout. The Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō vent is in the East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano and began erupting on January 3, 1983, and has continued ...[Read More]