natural hazards

How extreme events impact Earth’s surface: reports from the 6th EGU Galileo conference

Maarten Lupker November 6, 2019

Researchers convene at the Bhote Kosi valley in Nepal for a week long EGU Galileo Conference on how rare and catastrophic events influence Earth system dynamics. (Credit: Kristen Cook)

Throughout the year, EGU hosts a number of meetings, workshops, and conferences for the geoscience community. While the EGU’s annual General Assembly brings more than 15,000 scientists together under one roof, the EGU Galileo Conferences allows a smaller number of scientists to discuss and debate issues at the forefront of their discipline. In this blog post, the organisers of the 6th Galileo Conf ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: At the edge of a wildfire

Teamrat Ghezzehei July 29, 2019

Boundary of the Carpenter One Fire. Credit: Teamrat Ghezzehei (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The Carpenter 1 fire burned approximately 11,000 ha in the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area (Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest) near Las Vegas, Nevada between July 1, 2013 and its containment on August 18, 2013. The left side of the photo shows the fire affected arid desert scrub ecosystems at 1500 m (foreground) to subalpine pine ecosystems at 3400 m (background). The foreground of the pho ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Recreating monster waves in art and science

Olivia Trani July 8, 2019

Recreating a monster wave. Credit: Mark McAllister (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Featured in this blog post is a collection of images that gives a picture-perfect example of life imitating art. The photos in the left column are three consecutive still frames of a breaking wave that scientists generated in a lab environment at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. The pictures in the centre and right columns show the same wave images, but now superimposed with the famous 19th ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: Preventing mercury leakage from a WWII submarine

Chloe Hill July 5, 2019

U-864 Submarine Wreckage. Credit: NGI - Norges Geotekniske Institutt (distributed via Youtube).

I recently had the opportunity to interview Matthias Kaiser, a professor at Bergen University and, at the time of the interview, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities. He is part of an expert team that has given scientific advice to Norwegian policymakers, highlighting the issues that should be considered when dealing with the U-864 submarine wreckage and its carg ...[Read More]