Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

Imaggeo on Mondays: Of ancient winds and sands

Elizaveta Kovaleva November 6, 2017

Movement of ancient sand . Credit: Elizaveta Kovaleva (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Snippets of our planet’s ancient past are frozen in rocks around the world. By studying the information locked in formations across the globe, geoscientist unpick the history of Earth. Though the layers in today’s featured image may seem abstract to the untrained eye, Elizaveta Kovaleva (a researcher at the University of the Free State in South Africa) describes how they reveal the secrets of anci ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Ice forming on Chesapeake Bay

Laura Roberts-Artal October 23, 2017

Ice forming on Chesapeake Bay. Credit: Melissa Bukovsky (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Sandwiched between the U.S states of Mayland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York State, the District of Columbia and Virginia, lies Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in North America. It is of huge ecological importance: “the bay, its rivers, wetlands and forests provide homes, food and protection for countless animals and plants”, says the Chesapeake Bay Program. Up to 150 major rivers and stream ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: Hellishly hot period contributed to one of the most catastrophic mass extinctions of Earth’s history

Laura Roberts-Artal October 20, 2017

Could the eruption of the super volcano in present day Siberia have been the cause of a mass extinction 252 million years ago? From the boundless deep. Credit: Martin Mergili (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu).

Geotalk is a regular feature highlighting early career researchers and their work. Following the EGU General Assembly, we spoke to Yadong Sun, the winner of a 2017 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists, about his work on understanding mass-extinctions. Using a unique combination of sedimentological, palaeontological and geochemical techniques Yadong was able to identify some o ...[Read More]

How certain plants survive mass extinction events: study

Conor Purcell October 11, 2017

How do plants survive mass extinctions? . Credit: Marta Galvagno (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu).

We often read about Earth’s mass extinction events and how they wiped out vast numbers of animal species, leaving survivors to evolve and repopulate the planet. But it’s rarer to hear about how plants managed these catastrophes. A new study published last month by a team at University College Dublin, Ireland, in the journal Nature Plants shows how plants with thicker, heavier leaves we ...[Read More]