EGU Blogs

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WaterUnderground

Surprises and lessons learned from co-teaching an inter-university graduate course

12th May 2014
Surprises and lessons learned from co-teaching an inter-university graduate course

Contributed by Grant Ferguson, University of Saskatchewan grant.ferguson@usask.ca   In an earlier blog post, Tom discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages of co-teaching a blended graduate course to students at McGill University, the University of Wisconsin – Madison and the University of Saskatchewan. This course wrapped up last month… we definitely learned a few things during ...[Read More]

VolcanicDegassing

The destruction of St Pierre, Martinique: 8 May, 1902

May 8, 2014

May 8th marks the anniversary of one of the worst volcanic disasters on record: the destruction of St Pierre, Martinique, in 1902, at the climax of the eruption of Mont Pelée. Below are a snapshot of images from one of the contemporary accounts of the disaster, ‘The volcano’s deadly work‘, written by Charles Morris in 1902. This eruption followed just one day after a similarly de ...[Read More]

Geology Jenga

EGU DIARIES: Days 4 & 5 (1st & 2nd April).

May 8, 2014

The last two days of the conference were packed with geomagnetism related sessions. I had to leave my blogging and Earth Scientist self behind and fully embrace the wide range of talks and posters directly relevant and important to my own research. I’ve decided to merge my last two diary entries; whilst a lot of the science was very interesting to myself, I appreciate that reading about the mathem ...[Read More]

Geology Jenga

EGU DIARIES: Day Three (30th May).

May 7, 2014

After a busy start to the conference, I decided to take it easy on Wednesday. Whilst there was a range of really interesting sessions that caught my eye, I decided instead to dedicate some time to talking to people (I’ve got some really interesting 10 minute interviews coming up!). In the afternoon, I attended the Great Debate, Metals in our backyard: to mine or not to mine. As outreach is somethi ...[Read More]

BaR
Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Review of the BGS myVolcano iPhone app

May 6, 2014

A few months ago, Elspeth posted a review of her top geology-themed mobile phone apps. Since then, the resourceful folk at the British Geological Survey (BGS) have come up with a new contender; here we take a look at myVolcano. Before we get started, the important details: myVolcano is free to download but is only currently available on Apple’s iOS (an Android version is in the pipeline). Yo ...[Read More]

GeoSphere

GeoPoll # 1 – What does a geology education need?

May 5, 2014

I’d like to inaugurate a new series of posts, that will pop up on a semi-regular basis, namely, whenever I feel like it. Since day 1 of this blog, even way back in my pre-EGU days, I have tried to encourage participation from readers. To date, the only way for you to engage with me is to comment. However, in reality, not that many people are  so moved that they feel like responding directly. ...[Read More]

Polluting the Internet

EGU 2014: Measuring aerosol climate impacts from Space

May 4, 2014

In order to understand past climate change and to better project future changes, we need to understand how humans disturbed the radiative balance of our planet. Aerosols are one component of this disruption. The final report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) physical science basis concluded that aerosols dominate the uncertainty in the total anthropogenic radiative forcing. ...[Read More]

An Atom's-Eye View of the Planet

Global warming increases risk of winter flooding

May 2, 2014

Britain’s warm, wet winter brought floods and misery to many living across southern England, with large parts of Somerset lying underwater for months. When in January rainfall was double the expected average over wide areas, many people made cautious links between such extreme weather and global climate change. There were nay-sayers at the time but it now seems that there is evidence for those lin ...[Read More]

Geology for Global Development

#EGU2014: Cleaning with Coffee

May 1, 2014

We’re drinking an enormous amount of coffee in Vienna this week, but the residues at the bottom of the cafetière usually end up in the bin. Kalliopo Fotopoulou, from the University of Patras in Greece, has found a way to transform that residue into something far more useful. Baking coffee residues in an oven changes them into a carbon rich “biochar”, which can be added to soils t ...[Read More]

Geology Jenga

10 Minute Interview – Live from EGU 2014, Sam Illingworth

May 1, 2014

Today I had the great pleasure of chatting with Sam Illingworth, the representative of Young Scientists at EGU. I mostly wanted to learn more about his role as EGU young scientist representative, so the format of the interview has changed a little,we also touch on his research interests and our shared passion for science communication. Vital Statistics You are: Sam Illingworth You work at: Manches ...[Read More]