GeoLog

Geosciences Column

Geosciences Column: Do roads mean landslides are more likely?

January 16, 2015
Geosciences Column: Do roads mean landslides are more likely?
The Hvalsnes landslide, Eastern Iceland. Credit: Ragnar Sigurdsson (arctic-images.com; distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Landslides have been in the news frequently over the past 12 months or so. It’s not surprising considering their devastating consequences and potential impact on nearby communities. Data collected by Dave Petley in his Landslide Blog shows that from January to July 2014 alone, there were 222 landslides that caused loss of life, resulting in 1466 deaths. A recent paper, in the journal Natural Hazar ...[Read More]

When Astronomy Gets Closer to Home: Why space weather outreach is important and how to give it impact

December 19, 2014

When the public think about natural hazards, space weather is not the first thing to come to mind. Yet, though uncommon, extreme space weather events can have an economic impact similar to that of large floods or earthquakes. Although there have been efforts across various sectors of society to communicate this topic, many people are still quite confused about it, having only a limited understandi ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Is it possible to quantify the effect of natural emissions on climate?

November 14, 2014
Geosciences Column: Is it possible to quantify the effect of natural emissions on climate?
Aerosols over hurricane Irene, (Credit: Nir Benmoshe, via imaggeo.egu.eu).

The air we breathe is full of tiny particles that can have a big impact on our climate. Industrial activities have greatly increased the number of these particles, cooling the climate and potentially offsetting some of the warming due to greenhouse gases. In this post Kirsty Pringle introduces new research that suggests that it might not be possible to quantify the effect of industrial emissions o ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Adapting to acidification, scientists add another piece to the puzzle

September 12, 2014

In the latest Geosciences Column Sara Mynott sheds light on recent research into how ocean acidification is affecting the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. The findings, published in Biogeosciences, reveal large differences between the abilities of different animals to adapt and highlight the urgent need to understand the way a greater suite of species are responding… Large Marine Ecosyst ...[Read More]