EGU Blogs

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TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

TS Must-Read – Riba (1976) Syntectonic unconformities of the Alto Cardener, Spanish Pyrenees: a genetic interpretation

December 14, 2020
TS Must-Read – Riba (1976) Syntectonic unconformities of the Alto Cardener, Spanish Pyrenees: a genetic interpretation

In 1976 Oriol Riba published his paper on “Syntectonic unconformities of the Alto Cardener, Spanish Pyrenees: a genetic interpretation”, and despite appearing as a niche topic at first glance, it was voted as one of the papers in our Must-Read series. A major reason for that is that the paper presents a general model for syntectonic unconformities  – an unconformity which illustrates both se ...[Read More]

TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

TS Must-read – Morgan (1968) Rises, Trenches, Great Faults, and Crustal Blocks

December 2, 2020
TS Must-read – Morgan (1968) Rises, Trenches, Great Faults, and Crustal Blocks

In his 1968 paper “Rises, Trenches, Great Faults, and Crustal Blocks”, Jason Morgan added the missing pieces of the plate tectonics: the representation of plates’ motion in terms of spherical surface, and plate rigidity. In the very first lines of the paper he describes his contribution as an “extension of the transform fault concept [of Wilson, 1965; see the TS-must-read blogpost of October 15, 2 ...[Read More]

TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

TS Must-Read – Wilson (1966) Did the Atlantic close and then re-open?

October 13, 2020
TS Must-Read – Wilson (1966) Did the Atlantic close and then re-open?

J.T. Wilson published “Did the Atlantic close and reopen?” in 1966, giving birth to the so called “Wilson Cycle”. The article is a key steppingstone for the theory of plate tectonics, and it is a must-read paper not only in tectonics studies but also in paleontology and stratigraphy. The questions raised can be generally abridged in two: “Why regions with similar fauna can be very far from each ot ...[Read More]

TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

TS Must-Read – Mckenzie and Parker (1967) The North Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere

September 30, 2020
TS Must-Read – Mckenzie and Parker (1967) The North Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere

The paper describes how large, rigid, aseismic regions can be defined with Euler’s theorem, which describes the geometry of motion on a sphere, i.e. the Earth’s surface. Points on these large and rigid blocks move in relation to other blocks describing small circles set by their rotation pole. The paper describes this as “paving stone theory”, where tectonic plates are “paving stones”, and success ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Climate Change & Cryosphere – A brief history of A68, the world’s largest iceberg

September 25, 2020
Climate Change & Cryosphere – A brief history of A68, the world’s largest iceberg

In July 2017, the world’s largest iceberg known as A68 calved from the Larsen C Ice Shelf, located in the western Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Since then, A68 has lost two chunks of ice, A68-B and A68-C, but still remains a giant after more than 3 years. How did it feel to be the greatest, A68? Being the greatest With a length of 175 km and being about 50 km wide, this giant iceberg also appropriately ...[Read More]

SM
Seismology

Earthquake of the month: Bengkulu – Indonesia M 6.8-6.9

September 16, 2020
Earthquake of the month: Bengkulu – Indonesia M 6.8-6.9

August was not highlighted by a large event (> M7) and the choice for the earthquake of the month was a bit tricky. Four events were available to choose from: An intraplate EQ in the US (M5.1), the largest event in this region since 1916, an M6.6 in the Philippines, a deep earthquake (~620 km) M6.9 in Indonesia, and a doublet earthquake (M6.8 – 6.9) in Indonesia. After some discussion, we ...[Read More]

TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

TS Must-Read – Wilson (1965) A New Class of Faults and their Bearing on Continental Drift

September 15, 2020
TS Must-Read – Wilson (1965) A New Class of Faults and their Bearing on Continental Drift

In 1965, JT Wilson published “A New Class of Faults and their Bearing on Continental Drift” (https://doi.org/10.1038/207343a0). This is one of the papers that led to a paradigm shift in Earth Sciences and would become one of the bases of plate tectonics. The concept of the transform fault, introduced in this paper in a very smart way, is fundamental in tectonics textbooks nowadays. Indeed many of ...[Read More]

TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

TS Must-Read – Dietz (1961) Continent and ocean basin evolution by spreading of the sea floor

September 2, 2020
TS Must-Read – Dietz (1961) Continent and ocean basin evolution by spreading of the sea floor

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 ECS working in tectonics and, more particularly, in conti ...[Read More]

TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

Patience Anne Cowie (1964 – 2020): A Geology Superhero

June 23, 2020
Patience Anne Cowie (1964 – 2020): A Geology Superhero

Welcome to the first post in a new series being hosted on the TS blog! This series “Influential women of Tectonics and Structural Geology” is aimed at highlighting women who have had a key contribution to the field of tectonics and/or structural geology. Patience’s contribution to the field of faults changed the way geologists looked at faults. Her work continues to be used to an ...[Read More]

BG
Biogeosciences

Phosphorus-cycle perturbations and environmental disturbances 380–360 million years ago

May 2, 2020
Phosphorus-cycle perturbations and environmental disturbances 380–360 million years ago

This is a solicited blogpost written by Lawrence Percival, who will also present his work on the Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 as part of session SSP2.1 of the upcoming EGU GA.   The increasing concern regarding 21st climate change and environmental disturbance has led to a renewed focus on similar episodes of global crisis through Earth’s history. During the Late Devonian Period, 380–360 million ye ...[Read More]