The severe flooding that has hit much of northern England during the last few weeks (and northeastern Scotland right now) has generated significant discussion and debate about why floods happen, how often they occur and what we can do about it. The fact is there’s no simple answer to any of these questions: the hydrometeorological …[Read More]
Lake sediments
A real-world example of ‘networking’ success
One piece of advice that Early Career Researchers (certainly including PhD students) encounter repeatedly is this concept of ‘developing academic networks’ that may potentially lead to collaborative research and ideally a job in the future. I often wondered what on earth that actually meant when I started my PhD. Attending conferences and speaking to colleagues …[Read More]
Sharing my new discovery – aquatic plants are (sometimes) suitable for radiocarbon dating!
Radiocarbon dating is probably the most well-known chronological technique regularly employed by archaeologists, geomorphologists and researchers analysing sediment cores. Palaeolimnologists (those who study lake sediments) hoping to determine the age of a sample extracted from a long sediment core traditionally seek terrestrial plant macrofossils (fragments of organic matter visible without a microscope), as these are …[Read More]
A much shorter review of flood stratigraphies in lake sediments
Earlier this year my PhD supervisors and I (Daniel) had a paper accepted for publication in Earth-Science Reviews entitled ‘Flood stratigraphies in lake sediments: A review’ (Schillereff et al., 2014). It’s been fairly popular in terms of downloads but it occurred to me the other day that many of those prospective readers may be put …[Read More]
Moraines in Costa Rica? Really?
During a recent trip to Costa Rica in May, I had a conversation with some family and friends in which I uttered those words: “Moraines in Costa Rica? Really?” as they were describing a trek they’d undertaken earlier this year to the summit of Cerro Chirripó. This is the highest peak in the country (3819 …[Read More]