China, one of the largest and most populated countries on Earth, is emerging as an economic superpower. More and more frequently, emerging economies are choosing to peg their currency to the Yuan, rather than the US dollar. Their success is built on a strong research and development sector. Having just come under new leadership, China is entering an exciting decade. On a recent trip to Xuzhou city ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
The role of TV in geoscience communication
This is now the fifth part in a series exploring the public communication of geoscience, this time focusing on the role that television can play as a communication medium. It is based on, and a development of the ideas conveyed within a paper by Iain Stewart, no stranger to TV himself, and Ted Nield, a writer of popular geoscientific novels and Editor of Geoscientist magazine published by the Geol ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Friday Photo (58): Active Geology – Striations on a Fault Surface, Greece
An active fault surface in Greece – one of the most seismically active places on Earth. The striations on the surface can be used to measure the direction of movement on the fault. The exposed surface can be dated at various heights (using dating systems such as Beryllium-10) to infer the rate of slip. (c) Geology for Global Development
Green Tea and Velociraptors
Flying on the wings of dinosaurs
Archaeopteryx lithogaphica is probably the most iconic dinosaur ever. When it was first discovered, it was heralded as the holy grail of palaeontological findings, as it helped to consolidate the evolutionary continuum between theropod dinosaurs and modern birds. What it also represents though, is an example of the evolution of scientific thought through time. Palaeontologists, mechanists and deve ...[Read More]
GeoSphere
The 46th Ottawa Gem and Mineral Show
A few weeks ago I went to the 46th annual Ottawa Gem and Mineral show. I have always been a dedicated mineral and fossil collector and shows like this allow me to indulge my inner collector and drool over all the fantastic specimens. I have been to a lot of shows, all local such as Kingston, Peterborough and now the Ottawa show, but there are tons all over the world. In fact, I would speculate tha ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
GfGD News: Student Forum with the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction
The ‘Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction’ (IRDR), headed up by Professor Peter Sammonds, is based at University College London (UCL). UCL’s GfGD University group hosted a student forum at the end of October in collaboration with the IRDR. This was a chance for students to engage with people from academic backgrounds and NGOs to share ideas on student placements in the development sector and ...[Read More]
GeoSphere
It’s all about scales
It has often been said that geology is the study of scales. Time scales, large scales, small scales and many others. Indeed, one of the most crucial parts of any photo or map is the scale. Furthermore, geologic concepts can be applied from the planet scale to the atomic scale and every size in between. What confuses most people though is not only do we work in terms of huge size/magnitude variatio ...[Read More]
VolcanicDegassing
Polygons, columns and joints
Over on her Georney‘s blog, Evelyn Mervine has recently posted a nice piece with some spectacular images of columnar jointing. This seemed like a good opportunity to dust off some field photos, with some more examples of polygonal joint sets in lavas from a variety of settings, to illustrate the diversity of forms that cooling-contraction joints may take in volcanic rocks. The first example ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
Geoscience in the news
This is the fourth part of a series looking at how we should effectively communicate geoscience, based largely on a recent paper by Iain Stewart and Ted Nield. The previous post attempted to address the insanely impossible question of ‘who are the public?’, when it comes to public engagement’. It seems that this is very much a disciplinary issue, each with their own collective su ...[Read More]
GeoSphere
Geology Photo of the Week # 12 – Nov 18-24
Check out this beauty! AMAZING. Those crystals are a few centimetres in size, flawless and have a great colour. Unfortunately, I don’t remember where it came from. I know, I know, this is the cardinal sin, so I apologize for that. I hope you enjoy looking at it all the same. Cheers, Matt