Post by Anne Jefferson, associate professor in the Department of Geology at Kent State University, in the United States. __________________________________________________ The title of this blog post might seem like a question with an obvious answer, or even a silly question to pose on a blog devoted to groundwater, but if you don’t see the connection between …[Read More]
Today is World Cities Day, and the week of our annual conference exploring the role of geoscience in sustainable cities. To mark these events, our newest contributor, Bárbara, writes on urban geology and underground urbanisation. Underground urbanisation is not a brand new topic, it has been discussed for more than 100 hundred years! But, why is it important to …[Read More]
Space weather is a ubiquitous, but little known, natural hazard. Though not as tangible as a volcanic eruption, storm or tsunami wave, space weather has the potenital to cause huge economic losses across the globe. In Europe alone, the interaction of solar wind with our planet’s magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere, could lead to disrutions to …[Read More]
Since the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed in 2015, Geology for Global Development has been at the forefront of mobilising and equipping the geoscience community to engage and make a positive contribution. In 2015, we organised the first major gathering of geologists/Earth scientists anywhere in the world to explore our role in delivering the UN …[Read More]
Many of the issues that society currently faces are complex and research on just one angle or area does not provide sufficient information to address the problem. These challenges are compounded when more than one region (or even the entire planet) is impacted. Many of the decisions and legislations passed by governments today will go …[Read More]
A cold seep is an area of the ocean seafloor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs. These parts of the ocean floor still remain a large mystery for scientists, in particular for the occurence of hydrothermal vents. In between these vents, microbes live that play a role in the local and global carbon budget. However their exact role …[Read More]
In the last fifty years, models and observations have enabled us to better understand sea-ice processes. On the one hand, global climate models have been developed, accounting for the sea-ice component in the climate system. On the other hand, satellite instruments have been developed to monitor the “real” sea-ice evolution. These satellite observations are often …[Read More]
The mobility program of the European Union, named after Erasmus of Rotterdam who studied in different places all over Europe, turns 30 this year. I wanted to take this opportunity to promote this great possibility for gathering international experience and getting insights into the teaching and research skills of our European colleagues. The ERASMUS program, …[Read More]
Collapsing dams are a staple of disaster films, but the form that these take in natural systems is also surprisingly varied. Streams and rivers can be blocked by a range of rapid and gradual inputs. One of the lesser-known causes of stream blockage is through the accumulation of large woody debris – tree trunks and …[Read More]
Subduction zones host one of the most complex and fascinating tectonic systems on the planet. Numerical models by Király and colleagues recently published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters reveal that the strength of the toroidal flow depends on the mantle viscosity and the magnitude of the slab pull force while the characteristic size of …[Read More]
