With the undergraduates off on their holidays, summer sees a lot of large geology conferences take place. We’ll be using the Conference Diaries series to bring you the highs and lows of all things geology conference. Here, Mel Auker talks us through the IAVCEI Scientific Assembly…
Latest posts
Fighting Global Poverty – Can Geologists Help? – Updated Programme
We’re currently nine weeks away from the GfGD National Conference and in the process of finalising the conference programme. Here is a summary of the key sessions and speakers. (N.B. In addition to the above speakers, we are delighted that Jane Joughin, Principal Environmental Consultant at SRK Consulting, will be speaking on the important role that …[Read More]
Becoming a Ghost Buster: What triggers sapropel formation?
As I touched upon in our first post, we can use the magnetic properties of minerals in sediments (and other environmental materials) to understand changes in environmental and climatic conditions. This is known as environmental magnetism. The basic idea is to identify links between the magnetic properties of a material and environmental conditions and depositional …[Read More]
Resource site for young scientists launched!
Early career researchers make up a large proportion of the EGU membership and students (both graduate and undergraduate) regularly make up about a third of General Assembly participants. With so many young scientists involved in the EGU, it’s time we had something that caters for them – the young scientists’ website! The new website is …[Read More]
Guest Blog: Community Water and Sanitation at Cranfield University
Alison Parker explains how and why she ended up lecturing in International Water and Sanitation at Cranfield Water Science Institute. Over millions of years, geological forces have built the Himalayas and carved the Grand Canyon and put abundant natural resources at human beings’ disposal. However, it is obvious that in the short time that humans …[Read More]
The greatest story ever told, by fossils
A lot of recent(ish) posts featured on this blog have been about the evolution of flight and feathered dinosaurs. I promised to kick this habit, and write about something different, but this video by Carl Zimmer adds a really nice narrative to the story and is quite a nice little overview for anyone interested. If …[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Curl up under a peat blanket
Rannoch Moor is the largest area of unbroken (no houses, no roads) blanket bog in the United Kingdom. Blanket bogs – as their name suggests – blanket the ground in an extensive layer of peat. They form in regions where there is high rainfall and comparatively little evapotranspiration. These waterlogged conditions are found throughout much …[Read More]
Professionalism and Social Responsibility (5): Some thoughts on disseminating research
Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at a number of important factors concerned with being geologists that have a high degree of professionalism and social responsibility. These posts have included a number of practical tips on writing, preparing reports and undertaking fieldwork overseas and in different cultures. Today we explore the importance of disseminating …[Read More]
Supervisor profile – Professor Mike Kendall
Professor Mike Kendall Professor in Earth Sciences School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol PhD (1992) “Contributions to the theory and modelling of seismic waves in anisotropic inhomogeneous media” Supervisor: Prof. C.J. Thomson 1) The Twitter challenge: Describe your PhD in 140 characters (if you can remember it) Developed theory and numerical methods to track seismic …[Read More]
Melting, microbes and methane: Are we about to face a carbon apocalypse?
Marion Ferrat takes a look under the frozen layers of Arctic permafrost and discusses how these soils may come back to haunt us. The vast plains of Siberian or Canadian permafrost are a sight to behold. Hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles of frozen soils cover these lands, a cold and barren environment. In places, however, …[Read More]