The world’s oldest, deepest freshwater lake lies in southeast Siberia: Lake Baikal. Stretching some 600 kilometres across the Russian landscape, Baikal marks what the very early stages of a new ocean – an ancient rift that cleaved the centre of Asia apart throughout the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Today, there are still signs of tectonic activity and the rift continues to diverge 4 mm furth ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: Could plants be a cheap solution to soil contamination in developing countries?
There are many ways to remove contaminants from the land, but it is a constant battle for scientists to find better and cheaper ways to the job. Recent research published in Soild Earth suggests plants may present a solution – one that’s particularly promising for poor areas. Jane Robb describes the findings… Bolivia has a long and complicated mining history, going back to the 1500s. Untreated tai ...[Read More]
Climate-proofing the Netherlands
Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy (ELEEP) fosters transatlantic relations, forges dialogue, and promotes leadership across energy and environmental policy landscapes. Former EGU Science Communications Fellow and ELEEP member Edvard Glücksman reports back from the Netherlands, where citizens manage the continuous threat of climate-related devastation through a combination of creat ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Quartz lawns and crystal flowers
Petrologists spend a large part of their time peering down microscopes at wafer thin slices of rock to work out what they’re made of and how they were formed. What lies on the other side of the lens can be an incredibly beautiful pattern, a kaleidoscope of colour, or stark bands of black and white, all of which provide clues to the rock’s history, and the history of the landscape it came from. Ber ...[Read More]
How to share your science through film
This year was the first ever EGU Communicate Your Science Video Competition, an opportunity for young scientists to share their research with the wider public. It was also the first year to have a science film workshop at the Assembly – one to meet the needs of budding science communicators at the conference. Dan Brinkhuis from ScienceMedia.nl and Maarten Roos of Lightcurve Films set out to share ...[Read More]
GeoEd: We need to talk about evaluation
Say hello to Sam Illingworth, Young Scientist Representative, Science Communication Lecturer and education enthusiast! Sam will be making regular contributions to the GeoEd series, sharing his experience of science outreach with geoscientists, educators and the public at large. In his GeoEd debut Sam reports on the importance of evaluating outreach activities, one of the key areas covered in EGU 2 ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Light fantastic – flashing phenomena in Norway’s night sky
In this week’s Imaggeo on Mondays, Bjørn Gitle Hauge – from Østfold University College – opens our eyes to the astounding aurora borealis, and the unusual phenomena seen in Norway’s night sky… Hessdalen is a former mining district in the middle of Norway with huge ores of copper and mineshafts up to a kilometre deep. The climate here is sub-Arctic, with temperatures reaching as low as -50 de ...[Read More]
Capturing Cassini – 10 years of Saturnian science on camera
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Cassini-Huygens mission to study Saturn and its moons. But what’s 10 years to us is only a fraction of the Saturnian calendar – in the decade we’ve been studying Saturn up close, the planet has been through only a third of its annual cycle. In that short time though, scientists have made a multitude of amazing and surprising discoveries about the system ...[Read More]
GeoEd: New educational activities at the EGU!
In the past few months, the EGU worked particularly hard on its educational activities. The Committee on Education organised no less than three GIFT workshops and, with the help of Jane Robb, who took part in EGU’s Educational Fellowship, the Union has expanded its education portfolio. Here Jane shares these new and exciting EGU educational initiatives, which range from action-packed online ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Layers of leg-like sandstone
John Clemens, a researcher from Stellenbosch University and one of the winners in the EGU Photo Contest 2014, opens our eyes to erosional processes in the Grand Canyon in this week’s Imaggeo on Mondays… The photo below was taken late in the afternoon while doing some geological tourism at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA. The light at this time of day is ideal for such locations as it has a ...[Read More]