Last year, a throng of palaeoecologists from the world around descended into Oxford to discuss what the 50 most pressing questions in palaeoecology are. I was happy to see some great scientists and communicators among them, including Anson Mackay, Jacquelyn Gill, and Gavin Simpson, which gives me real hope that these questions were crafted with more than just ‘science for the sake of science ...[Read More]
Geology Jenga
Seismologists must leave their comfort zone: A Guest post by Steve Hicks
Scientists studying earthquakes should be prepared to put themselves forward to reduce the risk of earthquake damage. This was one conclusion from a meeting of scientists and engineers in London last week. Picture yourself here. You are an earthquake scientist. Years of research conclude that a capital city lies close to active fault that has the potential to generate a large earthquake. The local ...[Read More]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Alumnus profile #5 – Dr. Duncan Muir
Dr Duncan Muir Post-doctoral research assistant, Uppsala University PhD title “Investigating Magma Storage Conditions at Uturuncu Volcano, Bolivia”
VolcanicDegassing
The eruption of Kelut, Java, February 2014
I have used storify.com to put together a synopsis of the February eruption of Kelut, Java, Indonesia. There are some additional links to more detailed posts and related information below. Related posts Fascinating technical analysis of the satellite data from Nicarnica Aviation Erik Klemetti on Wired Volcano Discovery updates on Kelud Satellite imagery collated by Imageo on Discover Magazine Coll ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
Diving too deep?
A new initiative has just been announced that could help to revolutionise palaeontology. PaleoDeepDive is essentially an automated version of the Paleobiology Database, which is an online, professionally crowd-sourced and curated database of fossil occurrences pulled from the literature. They have a launch video here: I have a couple of reservations about this. Firstly, how do they expect to mine ...[Read More]
VolcanicDegassing
The Kameni islands, Santorini, Greece
A glimpse of the spectacular Kameni or ‘burnt’ islands of Santorini, Greece from the air reveals in intricate detail the overlapping lava flows, explosion craters and fields of volcanic ash from which the islands have been built in successive eruptions over the past 2000 years, and more. Of course, what we can see from the air is just the literal ‘tip’ of the present-day vo ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Friday Photo (115) – Pacaya Lava Flows
Lava Flows on the Volcano Pacaya, Guatemala (formed in January 2014) (Credit: Joel Gill, 2014)
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Science Snap (#19): Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Sorcha McMahon is a third year PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. Sorcha is investigating how strange igneous rocks called carbonatites may have formed, using both natural samples and high-pressure experiments. The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit term Nagara meaning “Holy City”, and was the capital city of the Khmer. It consists of successive city fo ...[Read More]
Four Degrees
Towards a greener energy world?
Marion reports on the latest Grantham Institute for Climate Change special lecture by International Energy Agency Chief Economist Dr Fatih Birol. On January 29th, I attended the Grantham Institute for Climate Change special lecture by International Energy Agency (IEA) Chief Economist Dr Fatih Birol at Imperial College London. Dr Birol discussed the future of the world’s energy market and outlined ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Hazards Education Booklet: Call for Contributions
GfGD are involved in an international project on Sustainable Resource Development of the Himalaya (see www.gfgd.org/projects/himalayas2014), which will cumulate in the delivery of a students’ programme in Ladakh, India, in June 2014. We are inviting students from across our network to submit material to be included in a booklet that will be used during teaching, and also given to the participating ...[Read More]