This photo depicts the famous ash cloud of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, which disrupted air traffic in Europe and over the North Atlantic Ocean for several days in spring 2010. The picture was taken during the initial phase of the eruption south of the town of Kirjubæjarklaustur, at the end of a long field work day. Visibility inside the ash cloud was within only a few metres. The erupt ...[Read More]
November GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from around the web
Drawing inspiration from popular stories on our social media channels, major geoscience headlines, as well as unique and quirky research, this monthly column aims to bring you the latest Earth and planetary science news from around the web. Major stories Earth’s red and rocky neighbor has been grabbing a significant amount of attention from the geoscience media this month. We’ll give you the rundo ...[Read More]
NASA’s InSight mission: detecting ‘earthquakes*’ on the surface of Mars
In three days’ time, NASA’s InSight Lander is expected to plunge through Mars’ atmosphere before parachuting down to a controlled landing on the flat plains of the Elysium Planitia. Once the dust has settled, a solar powered robotic arm will painstakingly unload the precious instruments stored onboard onto the planet’s surface, carefully guided by scientists back on Earth. These instruments are de ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: On the way to Tristan’s penguins
Tristan da Cunha is a remote volcanic island in the south Atlantic Ocean. In fact, it is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world. Tristan is still volcanically active; the last time it erupted was in 1961. After the eruption, which luckily did not have any casualties, the whole population of around 260 people evacuated the island for some time, but they all returned back to the island b ...[Read More]