GeoLog

Regular Features

Geosciences Column: Tag – you’re it! Chasing atmospheric tracers

I’ve been ruminating over the idea for this post for some time now; since last October in fact, when the EGU Twitter Journal Club discussed a paper about tagging (You can find the Storify for the discussion here). Not tagging as in the playground favourite, but the idea of keeping track of certain molecules in your chemical transport model, so you can follow them as they move through the atm ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Stirring up a sandstorm

These are the outwash plains for the Icelandic volcano, Katla: An outwash plain (or sandur) is a broad, shallowly sloping region ahead of a glacial front. They are made up of material that has been deposited by glacial meltwater, released either by geothermal heating or a subglacial eruption. The extensive volcanism and abundance of ice-capped volcanoes in southern Iceland means that the outwash p ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Metamorphosis

This fold is part of the metamorphic core of the Pyrenees. The shear zone is almost vertical, producing a small parasitic fold (a smaller fold within a larger one), which looks almost as if it continues into the sky. The metamorphic sediments are about 500 million years old and have been deformed several times, most recently during the alpine orogeny. The alpine orogeny was period of extensive mou ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: A fractured relationship – when lava meets ice

The Kuril Island Chain is formed by four active volcanoes: Golovnin, Mendeleev, Tyatya and Smirnov. Stolbchaty Cape, where the Okhotsk Sea meets the coast of Kunashir Island, is not far from Mendeleev Volcano – responsible for the many hot springs in the area. These are fed by seawater and heated as the water comes into contact with magma and hot rocks within the mantle. The picture shows an outcr ...[Read More]