GeoLog

Imaggeo on Mondays: Bristlecone pines, some of Earth’s oldest living life forms

Raphael Knevels September 3, 2018

A thousands of years Old Beauty. Credit: Raphael Knevels (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

About 5,000 years ago, the ancient city Troy was founded, Stonehenge was under construction, and in the rugged Sierra Nevada mountain range, groves of bristlecone pine seedlings began to take root. Many of these pines are still alive today, making them the world’s oldest known living non-clonal life forms. Raphael Knevels, a PhD student from the Friedrich-Schiller-University’s Department of Geogra ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Antarctic winds make honeycomb ice

Olivia Trani August 27, 2018

Honeycomb Ice, Antarctica. Credit: Helen Millman (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

These delicate ice structures may look like frozen honeycombs from another world, but the crystalline patterns can be found 80 degrees south, in Antarctica, where they are shaped by the white continent’s windy conditions. In Western Antarctica is a 9-kilometre line of rocky ridges, called Patriot Hills. Often cold wind furiously descends from the hills across Horseshoe Valley glacier, sculpting do ...[Read More]

An overnight train view of China’s Anthropocene – Part 2

Conor Purcell August 22, 2018

Tiananmen Square in Beijing, enveloped by heavy fog and haze. (Credit: Argonne National Laboratory, distributed via Flickr)

Science fiction is no match for industrial non-stop China. Electric bikes zip across the cities of Shanghai and Beijing, and soundtrack the neon nights with their passing whirr. Here, some kind of two-wheeled revolution has taken place which are we completely unaware of in the West. It’s Blade Runner meets Total Recall in a future which has already come to pass. The very existence of our ele ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Fairy chimneys in Love Valley

Olivia Trani August 20, 2018

Fairy Chimneys in The Love Valley. Credit: Alessandro Demarchi (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Every year tourists from around the world flock to Love Valley in Göreme National Park in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey to marvel at the region’s peculiarly pointy geological features. These cone-shaped formations, known as ‘fairy chimneys’ or hoodoos, dominate the park’s skyline, with some rocky spires extending up to 40 metres towards the sky. While the name ‘fairy chimney’ suggests my ...[Read More]