Open Access

GeoPolicy: The importance of scientific foresight

Chloe Hill October 27, 2017

Foresight shows us where we are going. Credit: marfis75 (distributed via Flickr).

Many of the issues that society currently faces are complex and research on just one angle or area does not provide sufficient information to address the problem. These challenges are compounded when more than one region (or even the entire planet) is impacted. Many of the decisions and legislations passed by governments today will go on to impact how these issues either develop or are resolved ye ...[Read More]

GeoSciences Column: When could humans last walk, on land, between Asia & America?

Laura Roberts-Artal August 25, 2017

Map showing the Chukchi Sea, north of the Bering Strait and Sea, between Russia and the United States. Credit: NormanEinstein, distributed via Wikimedia Commons.

Though now submerged under 53 m of ocean waters, there once was a land bridge which connected North America with Asia, allowing the passage of species, including early humans, between the two continents. A new study, published in the EGU’s open access journal Climate of the Past, explores when the land bridge was last inundated, cutting off the link between the two landmasses. The Bering Strait, a ...[Read More]

Enmeshed in the gears of publishing – lessons from working as a young editor

Robert Emberson June 14, 2017

Robert shares details about what he learned while working as associate editor at Nature Geoscience . Credit: Lum3n.com (distributed via pexels).

Editors of scientific journals play an important role in the process research publication. They act as the midpoint between authors and reviewers, and set the direction of a given journal. However, for an early career scientist like me (I only defended my PhD in early December 2016) the intricacies of editorial work remained somewhat mysterious. Many academic journals tend to appoint established, ...[Read More]

GeoSciences Column: Can seismic signals help understand landslides and rockfalls?

Laura Roberts-Artal June 9, 2017

Landslide Gschliefgraben . Credit: Robert Supper (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu).

From the top of a small gully in the French Alps, a 472 kg block is launched into the chasm. Every detail of it’s trajectory down the slope is scrutinised by two cameras and a network of seismometers. They zealously record every bounce, scrape and tumble – precious data in the quest to better understand landslides. What makes landslides tick? In 2016, fatalities caused by landslides tipped 2 ...[Read More]