Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Charly Stamper

Charly completed a PhD in experimental petrology. She used to make pretend volcanoes; now she works in renewable energy. Charly tweets at @C_Stamper.

Conference Diaries: VMSG Meeting 2014

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 Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group (VMSG) is a combined specialist group of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain & Ireland, and the Geological Society of London. Each year they hold a meeting, alternating the venue between different UK university departments. This year marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of VMSG and over 200 participants headed to Edinburgh to be involved. [Read More]

Seems like everyone is a climate modeller these days!

KT Cooper is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A carbonate geochemist by training, she has just returned from a three-month secondment to Houston, Texas, USA working with Exxon Mobil.

In December last year there was a lot of buzz around J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy land Middle Earth, and I am not just talking the second instalment of The Hobbit franchise. Taking a break from racing his rabbits about Anduin, Radagast the Brown (otherwise known as Dr Dan Lunt, University of Bristol) got involved in some of the climate modelling that is happening here at the University of Bristol and prepared a very interesting article for Journal Hobbitlore on The Climate of Middle Earth. Just adding a new feather to his hat!

Climate model prediction of annual average temperature (in Centigrade) of Middle Earth. Credited University of Bristol Press release

Climate model prediction of annual average temperature (°C) of Middle Earth. Credit: University of Bristol Press release

Climate model prediction of rain and snow fall (mm/day) of Middle Earth. Credited University of Bristol Press release

Climate model prediction of rain and snow fall (mm/day) of Middle Earth. Credit: University of Bristol Press release

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The paper suggests that the Shire has a climate similar to that of Lincolnshire and Leicestershire in the UK, which would account for the green lusciousness of the Hobbit Holes, and that Mordor is very dry and ‘subtropical’, a bit like Los Angeles or western Texas. This may go some way to explaining the dryness of the Orc’s skin!

Radagast’s paper also describes climate model simulation results from Modern Earth and Dinosaur Earth (Late Cretaceous) time periods. It then details the importance of climate sensitivity in the context of current global warming and explains the role of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

As a non-climate scientist, this was a really useful insight into state-of-the-art climate modelling via a lighthearted example. Well worth a read, especially in Elvish or even Dwarfish! But as with most things, I prefer both my science and my fantasy worlds in cake form.

Hobbit Hole Birthday Cake made by a very talented friend of the Family. Credited Pat Ackland

Hobbit Hole Birthday Cake made by a very talented friend. Credit Pat Ackland

Conference diaries: AGU Fall Meeting 2013

Following on from blog entries from the IAVCEI Scientific Assembly and Goldschmidt 2013, Kate and Charly report back from the AGU Fall Meeting 2013, held between 9-13th December in San Francisco, USA.

IMG_0067

AGU pride outside Moscone South, one of three buildings the conference was held in. Credit: Charly Stamper

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting is the largest gathering of geologists in the world, with over 22,000 congregating in San Francisco every December. As first time attendees we weren’t really sure what to expect from a conference on such a scale. The schdeule promised approximately 100 parallel sessions and literally thousands of posters every day, and so the normal pre-conference planning took a little more effort than normal. It’s safe to say that prior to arrival we felt a little overwhelmed!

Both Kate and Charly travelled out to California a few days before the conference started, in theory to get over the jet lag before work began but largely to spend some time sight seeing. Highlights included wine tasting in the Sonoma Valley (Kate) and the San Andreas Fault (Charly).

Monday
Monday involved a very early start; talks at AGU begin at 8am. Despite our different PhD topics (isotope geochemistry and igneous petrology) we both headed for the same session on ocean islands and large igneous provinces. The best talk of the day was worth the early get up, with John Maclennan proposing that trace element arrays in the mantle can be generated by combining deep heterogeneous melts, and don’t necessarily reflect mixing of mantle zoo solid end-members.

After a short break for lunch it was all systems go for Charly who presented her poster on plutonic xenoliths from the volcanic island of Grenada. The sheer size of the conference ensured a lot of passing traffic and it was a busy but rewarding four hours. As is customary at AGU we went for dinner with both old and newfound friends, plumping for the typical American option of pizza.

AGU poster hall

Approx. 1/4 of the AGU poster hall and Charly presenting her poster on Grenadan plutonic xenoliths. Credit: Kate Hibbert

A convenient break in both schedules allowed time for a bit of Christmas shopping on Tuesday morning. We did try to buy some presents but can’t deny buying the odd thing for ourselves! Kate returned from shopping to a great session on the early Earth including an interesting talk by Robin Canup on the moon forming impact and how to resolve differences between models and isotopic constraints.

One of the great things about AGU is the variety of topics covered, and the breadth of ‘extracurricular’ sessions. Charly and James took advantage of this to represent Team Between a Rock at the Bloggers Forum. This was more of a discussion than a talk, with a panel of experts leading a chat about the value of blogging (definitely preaching to the converted as far as we were concerned!).

AGU bloggers forum

Charly and James representing Team Between a Rock at the Bloggers Forum. Credit: Charly Stamper

Once again we both ended up in the same session on Wednesday morning, covering aspects of the chemical evolution of the Earth’s mantle. Kate’s favourite lecture was by Allen McNamara on mantle recycling and their relation to LLSVPs (large low shear velocity provinces). Charly was particularly interested in Tim Grove’s talk about distinguishing between the melts produced from different mantle lithologies by using an experimental approach. The conclusion that the mantle source beneath Hawaii is olivine-bearing, and not pyroxenetic, caused some visible consternation in the audience!

Wednesday night saw a variety of entertainments with Kate attending a party thrown by the Schools of Geography and Earth Science at Bristol, bringing together lots of familiar faces. Rather aptly the location was the Thirsty Bear, a micro brewery close to the conference centre. A breakaway group, of which Charly was one, took the opportunity to get BART to Oakland to catch a game of basketball, a quintessential American experience. The Golden State Warriors even produced a last gasp victory for our enjoyment.

Golden State Warriors

Watching the basketball – a quintessential American experience. Credit: Amy Parker

On Thursday, Kate attended the Daly lecture given by Dante Canil on subduction zone redox. This was an hour long lecture, in contrast to the normal 12 minutes at AGU, which gave the opportunity for a great talk on a complex topic. Charly agonised over whether to attend, but instead plumped for a session on communicating Earth science through video, which included a talk about rapping. Weirdly brilliant. Oh, and sushi for lunch was definitely the food highlight of the week.

Sushi

Lunchtime sushi – the food highlight of the week. Credit: Kate Hibbert

Friday morning was the time for Kate to give her talk on molybdenum isotopes in mid ocean ridge basalts. It being the end of a long week of science, attendance was not as terrifyingly large as it might have been earlier in the week; however, it did make friendly faces easier to spot. Probably the best part of the session was meeting the convener who was bringing a delivery of samples for Kate to eagerly take back to her lab. Charly flitted in to Kate’s talk to provide moral support but spent most of the morning in a session concerned with deciphering signals from deep magma chambers in erupted volcanic rocks. The consensus was that more experiments are needed in order to validate our existing models – good news for the piston cylinder community! After a long week of thinking about the mantle, Kate decided to explore some slightly different sessions in the final afternoon, including a great talk by Tom Chalk on the boron isotope record of the Pliocene.

Friday evening saw Kate visit one last tourist stop in San Francisco – the Stinking Rose restaurant where all of the food is made with garlic. Lots of garlic. Possibly more garlic than Charly enjoyed having to sit next to Kate on the long plane journey home.

The overwhelming feeling between us was that the week was a great experience, perhaps simply because of the sheer size of everything. With a poster hall the size of a large aircraft hanger and three enormous buildings all hosting talks, you can’t help but meet some new people with shared interests and bump into lots of old friends. Every other conference will seem small after this.

Our AGU in numbers

  • Number of Californian wines tasted: Kate – 19, Charly – 1
  • Local beers tried – Kate – 5, Charly – 5
  • 8am talks attended: Kate – 2, Charly – 1
  • Pounds gained from eating American food – we’re not telling, but too many for before Christmas
  • Dollars spent – many $$$
  • Severe bouts of academic FOMO (fear of missing out) – lots
  • Number of times we wished we could have a proper cup of tea – innumerable
Golden Gate Bridge

No post about San Francisco would be complete without a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge. Credit: Charly Stamper

Science snap (#14): San Andreas Fault

San Andreas fault

Historic fence line on the San Andreas Fault showing relative movement during the 1906 earthquake. Credit: Charly Stamper

As one of ~20,000 geologists flocking to AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, I’ve headed out a few days early to take in a few West Coast sights. For many, the Foggy City will always be synonymous with earthquakes. San Francisco is located right on the San Andreas Fault, which is part of a larger fracture zone marking the boundary between the North American and Pacific tectonic plates. In 1906, a sudden release of stress along the San Andreas Fault resulted in a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The city of San Francisco was ravaged by fire and over 3,000 people lost their lives. Along the fault suture, the north-west moved 6m relative to the south-east, a feature preserved in historic fence lines. More recently, the fault was responsible for the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta quake. Nobody knows when the next ‘big one’ is due, but there is no doubt that seismic activity will continue to be felt in this area. A small shake would probably go down quite well with the visitors in town!