Southern Gansu Province, China: Poorly Maintained Debris Flow Channel This channel is designed to transport debris flow material away from the road, thus preventing a major road blockage. The poor design and maintenance of the channel, however, is resulting in material coming down the channel and then being pushed back on to the road. (c) …[Read More]
Retired blogs
Geology Photo of the Week #9 – Oct 21-27
Check out this wicked awesome rock!! This awesome formation is aptly known as “Split Apple Rock”. It is probably one of the more unique rock formations that I have seen. It is located in Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand’s South Island. As the with the Pancake Rocks post a few weeks ago I …[Read More]
Introducing the GfGD National Committee (1)
Geology for Global Development has now been operating for around 18 months. In such a short time, the Founder and Director, Joel Gill, has overseen vast amounts of growth. GfGD has expanded beyond its initial horizons and so we have established a national committee. These positions were advertised through the blog over the past few months …[Read More]
Guilty: L’Aquila Earthquake Scientists Sentenced to 6 Years Imprisonment
As a young scientist undertaking research into natural hazards and disaster reduction, I found the decision yesterday to find a number of scientists guilty of manslaughter very worrying. The case against the scientists is centred on the L’Aquila earthquake of 2009 and argues that they were guilty of providing “inexact, incomplete and contradictory” information. There is helpful analysis and descriptions …[Read More]
Week 3, and the rising of a new dawn
It hit me. As I stared in to the depths of the ~500 or so papers I’d carefully curated in Mendeley, the gravity of a PhD came down like a tonne of dinosaur bones. This is big. Even simply in terms of background reading, there was so much to do it would probably take a …[Read More]
Friday Photo (53) – Earthquake Emergency Shelter – Lanzhou, China
Lanzhou, China – Earthquake Emergency Shelter Interesting questions about preparedness, local education and awareness were raised on a recent visit to Lanzhou, China, after I was told on a coach from the airport that Lanzhou was not affected by earthquakes. During my visit to the University there, I came across this sign which offered a stark contradiction. Lanzhou regularly …[Read More]
Co-evolution, the greatest show on Earth?
One of the great questions that Palaeontology poses is how did life and the Earth co-evolve together? This is especially so in the case of early life during the Phanerozoic period (540 million years ago until now), when complex multi-cellular life took off and ultimately came to dominate the planet. When one considers the vast …[Read More]
Workshop Advertisement: Dynamics and Impact of Interacting Natural Hazards
The workshop below may be of interest to some of our readers undertaking research into natural hazards, or working within the disaster risk reduction community. Please note that this workshop is not organised by Geology for Global Development: THE DYNAMICS AND IMPACT OF INTERACTING NATURAL HAZARDS An interdisciplinary workshop on current research and future directions 14th‒15th …[Read More]
Geology Photo of the Week #8 – Oct 14-20 – Guessing Game!
This weeks photo is a giant bone! I leave it to you to surmise which creature it belongs to….I hope you accept the challenge. Please post your guesses in the comment section below. If no one gets it within the first few hours I’ll start posting hints about the creature. You can click on the …[Read More]
International Day for Disaster Reduction: A Challenge to Geoscientists
Today is the start of Earth Science Week, Global Handwashing Day and the UN’s International Day for Rural Women. Tomorrow is World Food Day, and Wednesday is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. You could write a blog on any one of these, and the role good geoscience can play! Saturday, as some of you may have …[Read More]