GeoLog

Regular Features

Geosciences Column: Spotting signs of sea-quakes

A French and Algerian study team seeks markers of underwater earthquakes off the Algerian coast. The team also matched the site’s paleoseismic history to land-based historical reports. Wayne Deeker reports. The Mediterranean Sea represents the boundary between the African and Eurasian plates. Yet the fault segment off the Algerian coast is one of the most active in the western Mediterranean. It is ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Irish coast

Among geoscientists, the beautiful island of Ireland is best known for its Giant’s Causeway, an area with some 40,000 polygonal columns of layered basalt that formed 60 million years ago as a result of a volcanic eruption. But another recognisable feature of the Emerald Isle, is its lush green vegetation, a product of the island’s mild climate and frequent rainfall. It was on a rare sunny day of a ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Melting ice

The speed and extent of Greenland’s ice sheet melt dominated the media over the summer, and for good reason. Dramatic satellite images showed that, in just a few days, 97% of the island’s ice sheet surface thawed, melting over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Usually, during the summer only around half of the surface of Greenland’s ice sheet melts and ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Ellesmere Island

Located within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Ellesmere Island is the world’s tenth largest island and features Canada’s most northerly point but little else apart from vast landscapes of pristine natural habitat. It is separated from Greenland only by the Nares Strait, a major pathway for sea ice flushing out of the High Arctic. Belonging to the Canadian territory of Nunavut, Ellesmere’s perman ...[Read More]