Contributed by Grant Ferguson, University of Saskatchewan grant.ferguson@usask.ca In an earlier blog post, Tom discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages of co-teaching a blended graduate course to students at McGill University, the University of Wisconsin – Madison and the University of Saskatchewan. This course wrapped up last month… we definitely learned a few things during ...[Read More]
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VolcanicDegassing
The destruction of St Pierre, Martinique: 8 May, 1902
May 8th marks the anniversary of one of the worst volcanic disasters on record: the destruction of St Pierre, Martinique, in 1902, at the climax of the eruption of Mont Pelée. Below are a snapshot of images from one of the contemporary accounts of the disaster, ‘The volcano’s deadly work‘, written by Charles Morris in 1902. This eruption followed just one day after a similarly de ...[Read More]
Geology Jenga
EGU DIARIES: Days 4 & 5 (1st & 2nd April).
The last two days of the conference were packed with geomagnetism related sessions. I had to leave my blogging and Earth Scientist self behind and fully embrace the wide range of talks and posters directly relevant and important to my own research. I’ve decided to merge my last two diary entries; whilst a lot of the science was very interesting to myself, I appreciate that reading about the mathem ...[Read More]
Seismology
What a GA
The Euroepan Geoscience Union General Assembly has come and gone, lets hope that this was a great experience to all especially those attending for first time. This year EGU saw as many as 12,000+ scientists attending from over 100 countries. Scientific contributions consisted of 4,800+ oral, 9,500+ poster, and 483 PICO presentations. Here is a small gallery showing the various aspects of EGU (thro ...[Read More]
Geology Jenga
EGU DIARIES: Day Three (30th May).
After a busy start to the conference, I decided to take it easy on Wednesday. Whilst there was a range of really interesting sessions that caught my eye, I decided instead to dedicate some time to talking to people (I’ve got some really interesting 10 minute interviews coming up!). In the afternoon, I attended the Great Debate, Metals in our backyard: to mine or not to mine. As outreach is somethi ...[Read More]
GeoLog
GeoTalk: Want a record of historical floods? Ask the taxman
Extreme weather events, like catastrophic floods, are the malicious exclamation points of Earth’s chaotic and variable climate system; they arrive without warning and extract huge costs, both economic and humanitarian, from the communities they strike. Evidence suggests the frequency and severity of these events may be on the rise in a changing climate, but scientists struggle to place modern even ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Defining the age of humans
We are currently changing our planet like never before. But do these changes deserve a new name? The Anthropocene – a geological period marking the length of time for which humans have had a significant impact on the planet – was first proposed in the 1980s. But the word has gained significant attention in recent years thanks to the popularising work of Nobel prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen. Hu ...[Read More]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Review of the BGS myVolcano iPhone app
A few months ago, Elspeth posted a review of her top geology-themed mobile phone apps. Since then, the resourceful folk at the British Geological Survey (BGS) have come up with a new contender; here we take a look at myVolcano. Before we get started, the important details: myVolcano is free to download but is only currently available on Apple’s iOS (an Android version is in the pipeline). Yo ...[Read More]
GeoSphere
GeoPoll # 1 – What does a geology education need?
I’d like to inaugurate a new series of posts, that will pop up on a semi-regular basis, namely, whenever I feel like it. Since day 1 of this blog, even way back in my pre-EGU days, I have tried to encourage participation from readers. To date, the only way for you to engage with me is to comment. However, in reality, not that many people are so moved that they feel like responding directly. ...[Read More]
Polluting the Internet
EGU 2014: Measuring aerosol climate impacts from Space
In order to understand past climate change and to better project future changes, we need to understand how humans disturbed the radiative balance of our planet. Aerosols are one component of this disruption. The final report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) physical science basis concluded that aerosols dominate the uncertainty in the total anthropogenic radiative forcing. ...[Read More]