At over 5 million years old, the island of Kauai is the oldest island in the Hawaiian Achipelago. Hawaii, Maui and Oahu are all younger and lie further to the southeast. This island chronology is no coincidence – the Archipelago formed as a result of intra-plate volcanic activity. Intra-plate volcanism occurs where an upwelling magma plume or ‘hot spot’ lies beneath a continental plate. In this ca ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: The contribution of climate change to water scarcity in the MENA region
In this month’s Geoscience’s column, Alex Stubbings discusses the water scarcity problems in the Middle East and North Africa region and the recent developments in modelling water resources here. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is considered the most water-scarce region in the world. As such, the region faces a multitude of challenges in the 21st century including population growt ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: Hazard perception – how great is the risk of a rockfall?
In this month’s Geoscience’s column, Sara Mynott discusses the geological hazards associated with climate warming and how recent research sheds new light on our understanding of rockfall frequency. Rockfalls are the free-falling movement of bedrock material from a rock face, a phenomenon also encompassed by the terms ‘landslide’, ‘rockslide’ and ‘rock avalanche’. They range from small debris falls ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Rainbow in stone
Nothing better characterises the wild US West than endless landscapes of red hoodoos, spires of rock protruding from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. Found mainly in desert and dry, hot areas, hoodoos are distinctive from similarly-shaped formations, such as spires or pinnacles, because their profiles vary in thickness throughout their length. Their distinctive colour bands are the ...[Read More]