The fossil record is brutally frustrating; it mostly preserves only vestiges of deaths long past as body fossils, with occasional glimpses of life being gleaned from their surroundings and any trace fossils, or activity fossils that we might find. One question palaeontologists have long been seeking the answer for is how good were dinosaurs as …[Read More]
Retired blogs
Geology Photo of the Week #19 – Jan 20-26
Wow! January is flying by! We are already in the last full week of January since next Friday is Feb 1. It has been a very busy first month of 2013 for me. My goal this semester is to finish my lab work by the summer, which would allow me to focus on writing the …[Read More]
Guest Blog: Can Humans Make the Earth Shake?
Robin Wylie studied geophysics at the University of Edinburgh, and then spent some time working at a volcanic observatory in Hawaii before starting his Master’s in Earth and Atmospheric Physics at the University of Leeds. Robin is now doing a PhD at University College London, looking at magma chamber processes at Mt Etna, Sicily. This is …[Read More]
Friday Photo (63): Active Geology – Mt Etna Spitting Lava
Following on from last week’s spectacular photo, we have a photo of an active vent at Mt Etna, Sicily. Credit: Robin Wylie (c) Geology for Global Development
Translate Radioisotope Hydrogeochemist – #1000simplewords
There is a new craze sweeping twitter…at least among those that I follow, which is mostly geoscientists. This is of course the #1000simplewords challenge. In essence the challenge is to explain your profession using only the 1000 most common words in the English language. The most complex/specific title that I could come up with for …[Read More]
Thinking Development: An Academic Partnership Between London and Haiti.
The Sisters of St Joseph provided education for a large number of young girls in Haiti, but their school was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. It is vital that it is rebuilt. The sisters have many years of teaching experience, but no experience in construction. At University College London (UCL) there is plenty of expertise …[Read More]
Geology Photo of the Week # 18 – Jan 13-19
The photo for this week is something that I stumbled upon the other day when looking for directions to a friend’s house. It is a large scale concentric feature on the landscape and is located about 40 minutes north of Kingston near the hamlet of Holleford. I have actually been to this location in person …[Read More]
Natural Resources: our Responsibility?
Last week I discussed the inherent problems associated with the extraction industry. Now I ask, do companies and governments play a role in exacerbating these problems? Although I manage the GfGD blog, in this instance I am blogging in a personal capacity, and the views expressed are my own, and not policy positions of GfGD as …[Read More]
Field report: Pumice
One of the most rewarding parts of fieldwork on volcanoes is when the parts start to fit together, and hunches turn into firmer ideas. When piecing together ancient volcanic eruptions, the process often starts with the discovery of the trace of a new deposit in a road cut section. This might be something as simple …[Read More]
Friday Photo (62): Active Geology – Smoke from Mt Etna
For our first Friday photo of 2013, we have this incredible image of a smoking volcano, taken during field work at Mt Etna, Sicily. The tripod in the foreground is monitoring the composition of the volcanic gases. Credit: Robin Wylie (c) Geology for Global Development