GeoLog

Imaggeo on Mondays: Storm on the Rock

Laura Roberts-Artal May 30, 2016

Storm on the rock. Credit: John Clemens (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

This is a photograph of Uluru, in the Northern Territory of Australia, on a hot and humid summer afternoon. As lightning flashed about, torrential rains swept across the landscape and silver rivulets of water began to rush down the sides of the mountain. Uluru is made of red-coloured Proterozoic arkosic sandstones, a coarse grained lithology rich in quartz and feldspars. However, on rare days such ...[Read More]

Great walls of fire – Vitrification and thermal engineering in the British Iron Age

Fabian Wadsworth and Rebecca Hearne May 25, 2016

It’s long been recognised the peoples of European prehistory occasionally, and quite deliberately, melted the rocks from which their hilltop enclosures were made. But why did they do it? In today’s blog post Fabian Wadsworth and Rebecca Hearne explore this question. Burning questions Throughout the European Bronze and Iron Ages (spanning 2600 years from 3200 BC to 600 BC), people constructed stone ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Moving images – Photo Contest 2016

Laura Roberts-Artal May 23, 2016

Since 2010, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) has been holding an annual photo competition and exhibit in association with its General Assembly and with Imaggeo – the EGU’s open access image repository. In addition to the still photographs, imaggeo also accepts moving images – short videos – which are also a part of the annual photo contest. However, 20 or more images have to be submitted ...[Read More]

Livers, guts and gills: understanding how organisms become fossils

Laura Roberts-Artal May 20, 2016

Thomas practicing his dissection techniques . (Credit: Thomas Clemens)

It’s 10am and Thomas Clements, a 3rd year palaeobiology PhD Student, is getting ready to check on his latest experiment. Full kited up in what can only be described as a space suit, Thomas carefully approaches the fume cupboard home to his latest specimen: a decaying seabass, balanced on a specially designed ‘hammock’ in a tank of salty water. Opening the lid to check on the rotting fish, Thomas i ...[Read More]