Development of Housing on Landslide Prone Slopes in Guatemala City. These slopes are regularly impacted by mass movement events, during the rainy season. Planning enforcement and monitoring is also reported to be impacted by ‘no-go’ zones for police in this part of the city. Credit: Joel Gill, 2014
Latest posts
Citizen science: how can we all contribute to the climate discussion?
Until the turn of the 20th century, science was an activity practiced by amateur naturalists and philosophers with enough money and time on their hands to devote their lives to the pursuit of knowledge and the understanding of the natural world. Today, scientific research is an industry of its own, carried out by highly trained …[Read More]
A foreseeable, yet surprising earthquake?
On Wednesday morning I woke up to a flurry of activity on my twitter feed: there had been a large earthquake in northern Chile. I followed up some of the tweets and realised that there had also been some tsunami warnings as a result of the earthquake. After ascertaining that the scale of the disaster …[Read More]
GeoEd: Why fieldwork is essential to training the next generation of Geoscientists
Our latest GeoEd article is brought to you by Simon Jung, a lecturer and palaeoceanographer from the University of Edinburgh, who highlights what makes fieldwork a brilliant way to understand Earth processes… Studying geosciences involves training across a broad range of natural sciences. Only equipped with such background knowledge will students be able to grasp …[Read More]
Boring Soil Science strikes back
Many scientists are currently debating whether soil science is an academic field in which scientists are engaged in talking to each other, ignoring the rest of society. Of course, traditionally, the dissemination of soil science has been a difficult field. Among other problems, some scientists have reviewed the use of complicated jargon. Soil Science academics …[Read More]
People power
Seismic monitoring is critical in earthquake-prone areas such as Nepal, but limited resources mean limited monitoring. EGU Science Journalism Fellowship awardee Kate Ravilious reports back on how scientists are using social media to fill the gap. Data gathering needn’t always involve expensive instruments or exotic fieldtrips. Here in resource strapped Nepal, seismologists are tapping into …[Read More]
UK Air Pollution: March/April 2014
Air pollution over the UK has been high on the agenda today with the media covering the widespread build up of aerosol pollution since the end of last week. This has led to health concerns, particularly for vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and people with pre-existing heart and lung conditions. This follows the …[Read More]
Earthquake shakes Twitter users and geeks do some science (oh, and celebrities said they felt it too)
The ever increasing use of mobile phones constantly connected to the internet is bring on a new era in scientific research called crowdsourcing. On Wikipedia crowdsourcing is the defined as the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community. In recent …[Read More]
Opportunity: Landslide Posters for Teaching
Geology for Global Development 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. The programme will include lessons on resources, climate, earthquakes and landslides. GfGD have particular responsibility for delivering the landslide part of the teaching programme. …[Read More]
Short courses at EGU 2014
This year there is a suite of super short courses to choose from at the General Assembly. You can supercharge your scientific skills, broaden your base in science communication and pick up tips on how to boost your career – be it in academia or outside. Here’s what’s in store at EGU 2014: Supercharge your …[Read More]