Why does the Moon have a very small core and Mercury one that makes up roughly 85% of the planet’s radius? Why are humans doing research in geoscience and not some evolved version of dinosaurs? In this week’s blog post, Harry Ballantyne, PhD student at the Department of Space and Planetary Sciences at the University …[Read More]
Dietz 1961 “Continent and Ocean Basin Evolution by Spreading of the Sea Floor” paper was ground-breaking for plate tectonics. Almost literally, as it discussed the sea-floor spreading theory. Certainly away from the consensus at the time, this article is a classic in divergent tectonic settings and it may be an interesting piece of work for …[Read More]
As many seagoing oceanographers find themselves on land for the foreseeable future, we’ve decided to share a tale of a research cruise to fill that ship-shaped void. Back in January 2020, four research vessels ventured out into the Tropical North Atlantic as part of the Eurec4a and ATOMIC campaigns. Eurec4a’s aim: to investigate the couplings between …[Read More]
What is Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and why is it exciting? Any observational seismologist would agree that our understanding of subsurface structure and dynamics is in great part limited by our ability to acquire data at the right locations, with the necessary spatial and temporal resolution. However, although our ultimate objective would be to cover …[Read More]
The Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology and Volcanology division of the European Geosciences Union is looking for a new Early Career Scientist representative! The current rep will stand down at the General Assembly in 2021, but we’d like some handover time between reps so we’re advertising now with the aim of the incoming rep starting in ~November …[Read More]
In the past, humans considered wetlands as morbid environments where it was difficult, if not impossible, to live. Wetlands, instead, are vital to the health of wildlife and humans, as the Ramsar convention stated in 1971. Wetlands regulate the water flow, buffering droughts as well as floods, and also contribute to the provision of clean …[Read More]
The life of an academic is supposed to be fulfilling. To study a specific topic, understand it and share the acquired knowledge with everyone is something of great societal value and should make anyone proud. But, everything in life comes with pros and cons. So, today we will try to talk about the beauty and …[Read More]
Each month we feature specific Divisions of EGU and during the monthly GeoRoundup we will be putting the journals that publish science from those Divisions at the top of the Highlights roundup. For August, the Divisions we are featuring are: Biogeosciences (BG) and Soil System Sciences (SSS). They are served by the journals: Biogeosciences (BG), …[Read More]
The European Union Green Deal outlines an ambitious plan for turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities to make the EU’s economy sustainable and make Europe the first climate-neutral continent. This plan covers a wide range of topics such as preventing biodiversity loss, achieving net-zero pollution and making the agricultural industry more sustainable. These topics …[Read More]
When you hear of Chilean glaciers, you probably think about the large glaciers of Patagonia. However, glaciers can be found further north in Chile as well (see this previous post). While the melting of the Patagonian glaciers mainly affects the global human population by contributing to sea level rise, the retreat of glaciers in central …[Read More]
