Saharan dust is currently escaping the confines of the desert and making a break for it over the Atlantic Ocean towards South America. Below is a true colour image from the MODIS instrument on the TERRA satellite from this morning (6th June). You can see the dust from the desert over the ocean; note the constrast between the darker blue ocean surface and the lighter shade where the dust resides. B ...[Read More]
WaterUnderground
and we have a winner….Coolest Hydrogeology Paper of 2013 Winners announcement
From Matt Currell on Linkedin: It is with great pleasure that I can announce the winners of the first ever ‘coolest paper of the year’ competition, organised by the steering committee of the ECHN. Big congratulations to the authors of our winning paper: Şebnem Arslan et al: Environmental isotopes and noble gases in the deep aquifer system of Kazan Trona Ore Field, Ankara, central Turk ...[Read More]
WaterUnderground
One in four of world’s big cities water-stressed
From the McGill Newsroom As more people move to urban areas, cities around the world are experiencing increased water stress and looking for additional water supplies to support their continued grow. The first global database of urban water sources and stress, published online this week in Global Environmental Change, estimates that cities move 504 billion litres of water a distance of 27,000 kilo ...[Read More]
VolcanicDegassing
Looking ahead to the London Volcano and Universities UK Week, 2014
Over at http://LondonVolcano.com we are getting ready for Universities UK Week, and the launch of our ‘live’ volcano in front of London’s Natural History Museum
WaterUnderground
Groundwater extraction can move mountains
Contributed by Pascal Audet (webpage or email) Next time you eat food grown in the San Joaquin Valley of California, think about this: the water used for growing them probably came from under ground. Farmers do not really have a choice because the amount of water from rain and snow can’t keep up with the needs for growing food. Every year more water is drawn out of the ground for irrigation. ...[Read More]
Four Degrees
What’s geology got to do with it? 4 – Tennis!
As part of the ‘What’s geology got to do with it?’ series, Flo takes us on a tour of the links between geology and tennis! Warning: You may not want to read this if you have no interest in Geology OR tennis…. Now the disclaimer’s out of the way, I thought it was about time I married two of my greatest loves in life, Geology and Tennis. These two interests may seem c ...[Read More]
VolcanicDegassing
Friday Field Photo – St Vincent, 1902
Today’s field photo is by Tempest Anderson, of the ‘Roseau Dry River flowing with Boiling Mud’, a picture taken in the aftermath of the May 1902 eruptions of the Soufrière of St Vincent. The full published caption explains the origins of this boiling mud – a phenomenon we now call a lahar: ‘This is a small stream in the Wallibu Basin. When the water undermines the ba ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Reminder: 2nd Annual Conference (19 Sept 2014)
A quick reminder about a date that you should all put in your calendars… Following the success of our first National Conference in October 2013, we are very pleased to announce that Friday 19th September 2014 has now been booked for our next conference… On Friday 19th September we hope to again gather over 150 young geoscientists for a one-day event, exploring further the role of geoscience ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
Your bite or mine?
It rises from the dark waters like some behemoth from the deep, and lets out a blood-curdling roar. It’s feeding time. One of the most iconic scenes from Jurassic Park III is where the long-snouted, sail-backed giant theropod dinosaur Spinosaurus emerges from underwater to try, yet again, to eat our beleaguered rabble of misfortunates. It’s always been the way these dinosaurs have been portrayed, ...[Read More]
VolcanicDegassing
How NOT to write to an editor
Over on the Nature Methods blogs site, there are some interesting posts with advice for authors on how to prepare cover letters, rebuttal letters, appeal letters and the like. Here’s an example of ‘how NOT to write to an editor‘, based on a recent experience of mine. I shall let the author remain anonymous, but my hunch is that this is not an isolated example of this sort of beha ...[Read More]