‘Natural disasters’ is a phrase widely used by the geoscience community but how accurate is it? Given the human and societal factors that create a disaster, it has been highlighted that there is no such thing as a natural disaster. Is this simply a convenient phrase that recognises the contribution of natural processes (e.g., earthquakes), are we being sloppy with our language, or are ...[Read More]
Is anyone else overwhelmed by updating their many webpages, blogs, streams etc? Jason Priem described the shift from a paper-native academia to a web-native academia, in an excellent article last year in Nature, a shift well beyond the traditional peer-reviewed journal to more diverse outlets of information, interaction and discussion. I am part of the first generation of researchers who are excit ...[Read More]
We’re expecting a strong GfGD presence again at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in 2015 and look forward to meeting some of you there. Last week we noted some great sessions on natural hazards education, communications and geoethics (all with exemption from abstract processing charges). Here we note some sessions from the ‘Natural Hazards and Society’ session within the ...[Read More]
I teach how to peer-review in graduate class because I think it is a core skill for any professional. I first demystify peer-reviewing and academic journals, and answer questions that all students have about these topics that they have heard about but rarely learn about using this: I describe my personal experience as a manuscript submitter, reviewer and associate editor. And then I outline the s ...[Read More]
The volcanic observatories, run by the National Institute for Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology (INSIVUMEH), are based close to Guatemala’s active volcanoes, including Fuego and Santiaguito. Observers, located at each observatory, make observations and work with those in the local community to share information about the volcano. Our fundraising project will be working to st ...[Read More]
Yesterday we shared a blog written by Christopher Barry (University of Birmingham), outlining previous work in Burkina Faso with the charity ‘Friends in Action’. Christopher and Logan Mills (University of Warwick) are cycling 270 km from Bristol to Birmingham on the 12th and 13th December, in aid of ‘Friends in Action’, and here write about their latest contribution to this ...[Read More]
Christopher Barry was the winner of our Blog Competition in 2012, with this article on safe drinking water in Burkina Faso. Christopher was privileged to be able to visit Burkina Faso prior to writing this, a very rural country where a great number of people are dependent on drilled wells with hand pumps for clean water. In Ouagadougou he met Mark Collier, where they talked at length about hydroge ...[Read More]
We’re expecting a strong GfGD presence again at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in 2015. We note below a number of relevant sessions that our readers may like to get involved with. Deadline for abstracts is 7th January 2015. NH9.4/EOS19 **Natural Hazards Education, Communications and Policy-Practice Interface** This session addresses how we communicate and educate students, t ...[Read More]
The dramatic landscapes of Guatemala are an important source of inspiration for some of the creative arts being produced in Guatemala. The images above (from top to bottom) a shop selling paintings aimed at the tourist market, a wall painting as part of a commercial advertisement, and my own purchased collection of three hand painted ‘volcano’ tiles from a local artist based around Lak ...[Read More]
Over the past few years, we have been working to piece together the record of major post-glacial volcanic eruptions in southern Chile that have occurred over the past 18,000 years. This work started off with a search for volcanic ash layers that were preserved in road cuttings, or cliff faces other accessible geological locations in the region. Since then it has expanded to include the search for ...[Read More]
