California

Imaggeo on Mondays: Sunset and moonrise at Yosemite

Teamrat Ghezzehei June 24, 2019

Sunset and Moonrise at Yosemite Credit: Teamrat Ghezzehei (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

This side view of Half Dome at Yosemite National Park (California, USA) was taken from Washburn Point, a less frequented overlook a few hundred meters away from the popular Glacier Point outlook. The sun just on the right side behind the camera, which gave the orange tint to the back side of Half Dome. At the same time a full moon was mere minutes from bursting in the background, which resulted in ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Using volcanoes to study carbon emissions’ long-term environmental effect

Olivia Trani January 17, 2019

Mammoth Mountain, a lava dome complex in the Sierra Nevada, California. Scientists have been studying the ecosystem's response to the volcano's carbon emissions. Credit: Hike395 distributed via Wikimedia Commons

In a world where carbon dioxide levels are rapidly rising, how do you study the long-term effect of carbon emissions? To answer this question, some scientists have turned to Mammoth Mountain, a volcano in California that’s been releasing carbon dioxide for years. Recently, a team of researchers found that this volcanic ecosystem could give clues to how plants respond to elevated levels of carbon d ...[Read More]

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]

Wildfires in the wake of climate change

Sara Mynott May 9, 2018

The 2017 Thomas Fire in California. (Credit: Kari Greer, Forest Service / Wikimedia Commons.)

Last year saw some of the biggest blazes in history, and may be a sign of things to come. 2017 was a record year for wildfires. California and neighboring western states saw the most destructive fire in US history, with an estimated 18 billion dollars worth of damage over the season. In central Portugal, fires caused 115 deaths over the same period. Researchers presenting at a press conference at ...[Read More]