If you didn't find what you was looking for try searching again.
As part of my PhD research, I spent quite a lot of time at the Fort Hoofddijk (informally known as The Fort) – the palaeomagnetic laboratory of the University of Utrecht (in the Netherlands). For a little insight into what carrying research out in a 19th Century bunker, housed within the grounds of the botanical gardens of the University of Utrecht is like, take a look at this blog post that ...[Read More]
Deglaciation and formation of an ice rise with the ice-sheet model BISICLES. The simulation starts with an ice sheet in steady state that overrides a topographic high in the bed, close to the calving front. The sea level is then forced to rise steadily with 1 cm per year during 15 thousand years, and the simulation goes on until the ice sheet reaches steady state. The animation below shows that t ...[Read More]
New research on crocodiles shows that a combination of changing sea levels and temperatures were responsible for driving their biodiversity over millions of years. Living crocodiles are threatened by climate change, with 10 out of 23 species at a high risk of extinction. As ectotherms, animals which require external sources of heat to function, they are sensitive to changes in temperature. With 2- ...[Read More]
As part of the activities of the International Year of Soils, FAO has published the following Soil Facts. Contribute with your comments!
This week’s photo is another mineralogy themed one. This photo shows beautiful, yet also flattened crystals of the mineral natrolite that has grown in an acicular habit from a central point making them look sort of like little snowflakes. Natrolite is a relatively common hydrated sodium, aluminum silicate mineral (Na2Al2Si3O10 · 2H2O) that often forms within the void spaces of igneous rocks ...[Read More]
The picture shows the Elbe Rivervalley, one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It was taken from the Bastei Bridge close to Rathen, which towers 194 meters above the Elbe River in the state of Saxony in the south-eastern Germany. This region belongs to the national park known as Saxon Switzerland. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic, the Saxon Switzerland National Park ...[Read More]
Creating 1 Hz-seismograms in a 3-D Earth model, and comparing them to observed body waves, is a dream that’s today still too expensive for routine use. But even tackling the problem for a spherically symmetric Earth poses certain challenges. Recently, a new tool entered the stage (you might have followed the Solid Earth discussion): Instaseis allows users to extract seismograms for a spherically s ...[Read More]
Open kickoff meeting of the PAGES working group held in Bonn, Germany, 19th – 21st Aug. 2015 The open kickoff meeting of the PAGES working group GloSS aimed to set the boundary conditions that will enable the GloSS-WG to meet its scientific goals within the next three years. Therefore, this workshop focused on the development of a list of proxies/indices of human impacts on soils and sediments tha ...[Read More]
As a volcanologist based in the UK, I am in the privileged position of rarely being affected by the natural events that I study. And, although I have worked for extended periods of time in earthquake-prone regions, I have never experienced anything more than the gentle nudge of a small tremor. Thirty years ago, shortly after 7 am local time on 19 September 1985, Mexico City was struck by a large e ...[Read More]
When you think of soil, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The answer will depend on your perception of soil: to some it has a patriotic meaning (“soil of Britain”, for example), while to others it has a strong agricultural connection and to an Earth scientist, well, it’ll depend on their field of expertise. A geotechnical engineer’s perception of soil is different to how it might be view ...[Read More]
