Mel Auker is an Earth Sciences PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A mathematician by trade, Mel’s PhD uses numerical approaches to better understand past, present, and future global volcanic hazard and risk. You might remember Charly’s “Fifity Shades of Grey” post, highlighting the colourful spectrum of rocks; …[Read More]
Science snap (7): Thrusting under our noses
As Earth Science researchers, we are extremely fortunate that fieldwork often necessitates trips to exotic and far-flung places. But sometimes we are guilty of ignoring the riches right on our doorstep. In Bristol (UK), perhaps our greatest geological asset is the Avon Gorge. At the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, torrents of icy meltwater …[Read More]
Conference diaries: Goldschmidt 2013
Following on from Mel Auker’s report on her visit to Japan for the The IAVCEI Scientific Assembly, Bristol PhD students Kate Hibbert and Sorcha McMahon tell us about their recent trip to Florence for Goldschmidt 2013. What? The annual Goldschmidt conference is a major geochemistry conference, alternating between Europe and North America each year. With …[Read More]
Science Snap (6): SEM images of a high-pressure experiment
Sorcha McMahon is a third year PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. Sorcha is investigating how strange igneous rocks called carbonatites may have formed, using both natural samples and high-pressure experiments. These back-scattered electron (BSE) images are a typical view of one of the high-pressure experiments that I …[Read More]
Abbreviated science
KFC, MTV, BP, BBC, NASA, NHS, UNICEF, FIFA…combinations of letters that are known the world over. These famous examples demonstrate the power of the acronym, a word formed from the initial components of a series of other words. You may have noticed that acronyms in science seem to be everywhere. No grant proposal, research group …[Read More]
Science Snap (3): Earth’s biggest volcano?
James Hickey is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A geophysicist and volcanologist by trade, his PhD project is focussed on attempting to place constraints on volcanic unrest using integrated geodetic modelling. The newly discovered submarine Tamu Massif (pictured below), approximately 1500 km east …[Read More]
The Cascades: A carbonate geochemist’s point of view
KT Cooper is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A carbonate geochemist by training, she is currently on a three-month secondment to Houston, Texas, USA working with Exxon Mobil. Recently, I was lucky enough to visit a fellow Bristol Earth Sciences PhD student in Vancouver, Washington for …[Read More]
Science snaps (2): Soufrière Saint Vincent
Soufrière Saint Vincent is youngest volcanic centre on the Caribbean island of St Vincent. A stratovolcano some 1,230m in height, La Soufrière has erupted five times in the last three hundred years, most notably in 1902 when 1,680 people were killed. The explosive volcanism here is the surface manifestation of the slow, westwards subduction of …[Read More]
PhD profile #6 – Sorcha McMahon
Sorcha McMahon – 3rd year PhD student “New insights into deep mantle melts and the carbonatite-meliliitite connection” 1) The Twitter challenge: Your PhD in 140 characters Investigating how strange igneous rocks called carbonatites may have formed, using both natural samples and high-pressure experiments
Conference diaries: The IAVCEI Scientific Assembly, 2013
With the undergraduates off on their holidays, summer sees a lot of large geology conferences take place. We’ll be using the Conference Diaries series to bring you the highs and lows of all things geology conference. Here, Mel Auker talks us through the IAVCEI Scientific Assembly…