Science Communication

Earth Science Week 2020: Earth Materials in Our Lives – an A-Z!

Hazel Gibson and Terri Cook October 2, 2020

Large similar folds in a salt mine in the Carpathians. Credit: Janos Urai (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Since 1998 the American Geosciences Institute has been running an annual celebration of all things geoscience – Earth Science Week. From its inception, Earth Science Week has grown in popularity and is now celebrated across the planet. This year Earth Science Week will run from 11 to 17 October and the theme of the week is “Earth Materials in Our Lives.” As the American Geoscien ...[Read More]

Friedrich Mohs and the mineral scale of hardness

Hazel Gibson September 25, 2020

Image credit: Hazel Gibson

One of the most famous identification methods in the study of mineralogy is the Mohs Scale of Hardness. A comparative scale, based on the hardness of each mineral, it is a way geoscientists can compare minerals to each other and organise them based upon an easily testable physical characteristic. Each level of hardness has a value, from 1 (the softest) to 10 (the hardest) and each number is associ ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: Nadine Gabriel, creator of #AreYouSiO2? and Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals.

Hazel Gibson September 11, 2020

Credit: Nadine Gabriel

Hi Nadine, thanks for speaking with us today, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are now? Thank you for inviting me! I’m a geologist and the Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals at the Natural History Museum, London. I studied MSci Geology at University College London and I absolutely enjoyed the subject. It was really interesting to learn about the geol ...[Read More]

Imaggeo On Monday: Condensation drop on sulphur

Hazel Gibson September 7, 2020

Condensation drop on Sulphur. Credit: Ulrich Kueppers (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Mineralogy, as a subject, often has a hard time. Despite it’s place at the core of the traditional geological sciences, and its importance in a huge variety of other subjects, mineralogy sometimes has a reputation of being complicated and inaccessible and, well, some people have even called it boring. This is also related to the way that minerals are often hugely misunderstood by non-geoscie ...[Read More]