Often, soils from cold regions, such as Arctic soils, show polygonal forms in their surface. These polygons are formed because of the freeze-thaw cycle, characteristic of permafrost. What is permafrost? Permafrost is a subsurface soil layer which stays permanently frozen (below 0 oC) during long periods of time, usually more than two consecutive years. Most extensive permafrost areas can be found ...[Read More]
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Four Degrees
What’s Geology got to do with it? 3 – Christmas! Part 2
Dear Readers, Welcome to the last Four Degrees post of 2013! I’m back home with family and here the Christmas festivities happen today, on Christmas eve. So before I focus my attention on wrapping my last present and stuffing the goose for our family meal, here is the second instalment of our Christmas special of ‘What’s Geology got to do with it’! What has geology got to d ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Dense rocks rise higher because isostasy says so
From space, the Brandberg Igneous Complex looks like a coffee-coloured birthmark set upon the bony complexion of the Namibian desert. Perfectly circular, its peaks soar in a ring of mighty topography, its massive granite cliffs etched with the muscular definition of spheroidal weathering. Its bulk seems to rise out of the barren landscape, driven upward by some unseen force. In fact, granite intru ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
The 12 days of PhD Christmas
Twelve Dinners Delivered (to the lab) Eleven Papers Prepping Ten Bugs-a-Bugging Nine Ladies Dancing (but not with you) Eight Bunsens-a-Burnin’ Seven Dance Solos Six Words a Minute Fiiive Grants Rejected Four Calling Mates (“I’m busy“) Three Absent Supervisors Two Days off a Year (maybe) And a h-index of nooought. Merry Christmas everyone!
Soil System Sciences
Monday paper: Modelling soil organic carbon stocks in global change scenarios: a CarboSOIL application
Muñoz-Rojas, M., Jordán, A., Zavala, L. M., González-Peñaloza, F. A., De la Rosa, D., Pino-Mejias, R., and Anaya-Romero, M. 2013. Modelling soil organic carbon stocks in global change scenarios: a CarboSOIL application. Biogeosciences, 10, 8253-8268, DOI: 10.5194/bg-10-8253-2013. Abstract Global climate change, as a consequence of the increasing levels of atmospheric CO2 concentration, may ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: Carving polar canyons
This week Ian Joughin, a research scientist from the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington, takes us on the polar express to put glacial processes into perspective and find out what makes a moulin… This canyon formed when a melt lake on the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet overflowed and created a stream that extended out toward a crevasse field. This outflow stream filled a creva ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Monday paper: Managing soil nitrate with cover crops and buffer strips in Sicilian vineyards
A. Novara, L. Gristina, F. Guaitoli, A. Santoro, A. Cerdà. 2013. Managing soil nitrate with cover crops and buffer strips in Sicilian vineyards. Solid Earth, 4, 255-262, doi:10.5194/se-4-255-2013 Abstract When soil nitrate levels are low, plants suffer nitrogen (N) deficiency but when the levels are excessive, soil nitrates can pollute surface and subsurface waters. Strategies to reduce the nitrat ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
To bird or not to bird..
In 2012, the controversial case over whether or not Archaeopteryx lithographica, perhaps the most iconic dinosaur species of all time, was a bird was settled. Apparently. (free pdf) This was an important analysis for two reasons. Firstly, it countered a previous study showing that Archaeopteryx was more closely related to dinosaurs like Velociraptor and Deinonychus, and secondly used advanced, sor ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Christmas Break
We’ll be taking a break from blogging over the festive season – returning on January 6th! Do join us again then for more articles, photographs and opportunities to get involved in the fight against global poverty. In the meantime – if you haven’t ‘Liked’ our Facebook page or followed us on Twitter – do that now to keep up to date with breaking news and opp ...[Read More]
Four Degrees
What’s Geology got to do with it? 3 – Christmas! Part 1
Dear Readers! Christmas is almost upon us and so at Four Degrees we decided to devote our next post in the ‘What’s Geology got to do with it?’ series to Christmas! Marion and I have selected varying aspects of the festive season from trees to biblical stories and common Christmas presents, and linked them to geology (some tenuous, some not so tenuous…). We hope you enjoy! T ...[Read More]