On Wednesday morning I woke up to a flurry of activity on my twitter feed: there had been a large earthquake in northern Chile. I followed up some of the tweets and realised that there had also been some tsunami warnings as a result of the earthquake. After ascertaining that the scale of the disaster …[Read More]
Geology Jenga
Some personal perspectives from a PhD student on the peer-review system
This is a follow-up to a previous post from September 2013 entitled ‘Soliciting peer reviews from PhD students’. In that piece, I summarised the responses I’d received from a number of editors of peer-reviewed journals in the field of Quaternary Science having asked them their feelings on soliciting peer reviews from PhD students. Some recent …[Read More]
Towards better quantifying human impacts: Looking back on the PAGES Workshop in Leuven
Firstly, I’d like to express my sincere thanks to Dr Jennifer Clear (Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague) for her input to this blog article. The first week of February saw dozens of scientists arrive at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for the PAGES Focus 4 Workshop. This event brought together geomorphologists, soil scientists, palaeoecologists, archaeologists …[Read More]
Seismologists must leave their comfort zone: A Guest post by Steve Hicks
Scientists studying earthquakes should be prepared to put themselves forward to reduce the risk of earthquake damage. This was one conclusion from a meeting of scientists and engineers in London last week. Picture yourself here. You are an earthquake scientist. Years of research conclude that a capital city lies close to active fault that has …[Read More]
The Earth’s protective shield
I came across this video, which very clearly explains how the Earth’s magnetic field protects us from Solar Storms. It then goes on to explain the link of these phenomena to our planet’s climate. The added bonus is that the images are very cool and I think the voice over is done by Liam Neeson…. …[Read More]
10 Minute Interview – Finding the right path
It turns out, I’m not so great at keep the promises I make our blog readers… I AM working on the next post for the Making the most of your PhD series. In the mean time, this 10 minute interview actually fits the theme of the Making the most of your PhD series quite well. …[Read More]
Geology makes a difference to Society
The Geological Society of London have just today released a great report highlighting how geology contributes to our society. All too often the impression is that all geologists do is study rocks. Whilst in essence, this is what we do, the implications of geological research are far reaching and not always understood by the wider …[Read More]
Making the Most of your PhD – Engage & communicate
As promised, here is the next post in the series I started towards the end of last year: Making the Most of you PhD. This is the third post in the series and I want to cover a subject very close to my heart. (For the previous posts in the series, have a look here …[Read More]
10 Minute Interview – Earth Science Communicator
Dan and I are both advocates for the communication of science,via all possible means, and that is why this week’s interview is close to our hearts. Sarah Day’s role at the Geological Society of London focuses on conveying the importance of the study of the science behind how our planet works. I met Sarah about …[Read More]
A round-up of some newsworthy geomagnetism stories
Happy New Year to you all! We’ve had a long Christmas break at Geology Jenga, but we are back! For 2014 we’ve got some really interesting 10 minute interviews lined up, as well as the continuation of the ‘Making the most of your PhD’ series and musings on all the things that interest Dan & …[Read More]