The heights we go to for science… This photograph shows a member of our team preparing to abseil down a cliff in the Charyn Canyon, in the Ili River basin of southeast Kazakhstan. The Charyn River and its tributaries, a branch of the Ili River north of the Tien Shan Mountains, have cut canyons up to 300 metres deep, carving through rocks of different geologic ages, some as old as 540 million years ...[Read More]
The 2018 General Assembly took place in Vienna last month, drawing more than 15,000 participants from 106 countries. This month’s GeoRoundUp will focus on some of the unique and interesting stories that came out of research presented at the Assembly. Mystery solved The World War II battleship Tirpitz was the largest vessel in the German navy, stationed primarily off the Norwegian coastline as a fo ...[Read More]
Scientific research in a changing European Union The 2018 EGU General Assembly was a huge success. Not only was it the biggest yet (with over 15,000 participants) but it also held a large variety of Short Courses, Townhalls and Union Symposia that gave the scientists attending a chance to step out of their comfort zone and learn about something other than their area of expertise. One example of su ...[Read More]
Iceland is a country of dramatically rugged landscapes. The region is home to sweeping valleys and mountain ranges, dotted with lava fields, large glaciers, hot springs and impressive waterfalls. The territory is also notoriously treeless. As of 2016, forests only made up 1.9 percent of Iceland, according to the Icelandic Forest Service. However, about a thousand years ago the country’s landscape ...[Read More]
The action of glaciers combined with the structure of the rock to form this little platform, probably once a small lake enclosed between a moraine at the mountain side and the ice in the valley. Now it has become a green haven in the mountain landscape, a perfect place for an alp. In the Alps, stratus clouds opening up on autumn mornings often create gorgeous light display. That day, some of the f ...[Read More]
The photograph shows the Valle de la Luna, part of the amazing Cordillera de la Sal mountain range in northern Chile. Rising only 200 metres above the basin of the Salar de Atacama salt flat, the ridges of the Cordillera de la Sal represent a strongly folded sequence of clastic sediments and evapourites (salt can be seen in the left portion of the image), with interspersed volcanic material. This ...[Read More]
The selection committee received over 600 photos for this year’s EGU Photo Competition, covering fields across the geosciences. The fantastic finalist photos are below and they are being exhibited in Hall X2 (basement, Brown Level) of the Austria Center Vienna – see for yourself! Do you have a favourite? Vote for it! There is a voting terminal (also in Hall X2), just next to the exhibit. The resul ...[Read More]
Cape Spear in Newfoundland, Canada is the easternmost location in North America and one of the few places in the world where you can contemplate icebergs from the shore. Every year, about 400 to 800 bergs journey down to this particular point. These 10,000-year-old ice giants drift along the northern shore of Newfoundland with the Labrador Current. About 90 percent of these icebergs come from west ...[Read More]
This colourful cropland patchwork is located on the fertile flanks of Mount Elgon, Uganda at an elevation of 2,400 metres above sea level. The extinct shield volcano, the oldest in East Africa, is mostly covered in clouds and provides an infinite flow of wonderful waterfalls. Due to the climate at this elevation, the cultivated crops experience more temperate weather conditions compared to crops m ...[Read More]
The EGU General Assembly is an amazing event, not only because of its size but also due to the number of disciplines represented! This gives scientists, who are diligently focused on their specific research for the majority of the year, the chance to let loose and learn something a bit different. This year’s assembly will host a multitude of science-policy related sessions that aim to help researc ...[Read More]