From the easterly Atlantic waters of the Bay of Biscay to the Catalan wild coast (Costa Brava) in the west, the Spanish Pyrenees stretch 430 km across the north of the country. At the foothills of the Catalan Pyrenees you’ll find the Pre-Pyrenees. Despite not reaching the soaring heights of the peaks of the Pyrenees, they nonetheless offer important insights into the geology of the range and stunn ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Dragon Blood Tree
On a small and isolated island in the Indian Ocean you’ll find an endemic population of Dragon Blood Trees (Dracaena cinnabari). Burly, with an interesting umbrella-shaped fractal canopy, these unique trees are a sight to behold. To see them for yourself, you’ll have to travel to the little known Socotra archipelago. Off the coast of Somalia, but belonging to Yemen, the group of islands boast an i ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: An explosive cloud
One of the world’s most volcanically active regions is the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia. It is the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Okhotsk microplate (belonging to the large North America Plate) which drives the volcanic and seismic hazard in this remote area. The surface expression of the subduction zone is the 2100 km long Kuril-Kamchatka volcanic arc: a chain of volcanic isla ...[Read More]
GeoTalk: The mantle and models and measurements, oh my! Talking geophysics with Juan Carlos Afonso
This week in GeoTalk, we’re talking to Juan Carlos Afonso, a geophysicist from Macquarie University, Sydney. He explains how a holistic approach is crucial to understanding tectonic processes and how a little “LitMod philosophy” can go a long way to achieving this… First, could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you are currently working on? My name is Juan Carlos Afonso and I’ ...[Read More]