soil science

Imaggeo on Mondays: Namibia’s mysterious fairy circles

Olivia Trani July 9, 2018

The mysterious fairy circles. Credit: Hezi Yizhaq (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The grassy Namibian desert is pock-marked with millions of circular patches of bare earth just like these shown in the picture between linear dunes. Viewed from a balloon, they make the ground look like a moonscape. Commonly known as fairy circles, the patches range from two to 12 metres across and appear in a 2000 kilometre strip that stretches from Angola to South Africa. For many decades, the f ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Iceland’s original birch forest

Olivia Trani April 30, 2018

Icelandic original birch forest. Credit: Marco Cavalli (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Iceland is a country of dramatically rugged landscapes. The region is home to sweeping valleys and mountain ranges, dotted with lava fields, large glaciers, hot springs and impressive waterfalls. The territory is also notoriously treeless. As of 2016, forests only made up 1.9 percent of Iceland, according to the Icelandic Forest Service. However, about a thousand years ago the country’s landscape ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Soil in art

Laura Roberts-Artal September 18, 2015

Soil profiles and associated vegetation represented as paintings in Walter Kubiena’s textbook (1953) Bestimmungsbuch und Systematik der Böden Europas (The Soils of Europe). Taken from Feller et al., 2015 .

When you think of soil, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The answer will depend on your perception of soil: to some it has a patriotic meaning (“soil of Britain”, for example), while to others it has a strong agricultural connection and to an Earth scientist, well, it’ll depend on their field of expertise. A geotechnical engineer’s perception of soil is different to how it might be view ...[Read More]

Introducing the new EGU Bloggers!

Sara Mynott August 8, 2013

Since it started, the EGU Blog Network has had great coverage of geochemistry, palaeontology and geoscience in global development, but what about the other fields in the geosciences? Well, over the past couple of months we’ve been seeking out some fantastic Earth science bloggers who are keen to share their knowledge, experiences and the latest research in their fields with you. They’ve put togeth ...[Read More]