Ruzi Mohammed thinks that he is around 110 years old. He keeps track of the years using the changing seasons, and there is no missing them in Turtuk, where winters reach -20˚C, and summers are warm and pleasant. Too high for mosquitos, and low enough for a good harvest, Turtuk is a paradise in the summer. The winter is survived by shutting down, almost hibernating, and surviving on wheat mixed wit ...[Read More]
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Green Tea and Velociraptors
Geology beyond science
This was originally posted at: http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/earthbound/geology_beyond_science So people who read this blog (*one person cheers off in the distance*) may have noticed that my partner-in-crime, Jane Robb, recently abandoned me to the fusty claws of Nature. *sniff* Fear not though! Jane is pursuing awesome things now with the European Geosciences Union, the other organisation I ...[Read More]
GeoSphere
Back to Basics on Groundwater
When many people hear the word groundwater they imagine a raging underground torrent of water flowing along a pathway called an aquifer. Well, sorry to disappoint you, but you could not be more wrong about how groundwater exists and flows. In this post we will discuss the very basics of groundwater science (hydrogeology) and flow. What is groundwater? As the name implies groundwater is simply wate ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Soils at Imaggeo: when a soil is born
Artemi Cerdà, University of Valencia, Valencia – Spain Soil development is based on the weathering of rocks and the deposition and decomposition of litter and roots, which are the main source or soil organic matter. Mosses are one of the key actors on those processes, as they are present at the initial stages of pedogenesis. This post was also published simultaneously in G-Soil.
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: Surface spirals
This week’s Imaggeo on Mondays is no ordinary image; it’s a snapshot of surface ocean speeds and the extent of ice cover in the North Atlantic. It was produced using a high resolution model of ocean eddies – high resolution here means that details are simplified into grids 3 km across, or one 20th of a degree. Three kilometres may sound like a pretty large area, but in oceanographic modelling, thi ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Blog Competition (1st Prize) – Robin Wylie: Hydro in India, a Dark Side to the Green Solution
For our Blog Competition 2013, we asked for people to submit articles addressing one of two topics. Robin’s article on the recent floods in Utttarakhand State, India, won first prize in its category. Robin Wylie studied geophysics at the University of Edinburgh, and then spent some time working at a volcanic observatory in Hawaii before starting his Master’s in Earth and Atmospheric Physics ...[Read More]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Abbreviated science
KFC, MTV, BP, BBC, NASA, NHS, UNICEF, FIFA…combinations of letters that are known the world over. These famous examples demonstrate the power of the acronym, a word formed from the initial components of a series of other words. You may have noticed that acronyms in science seem to be everywhere. No grant proposal, research group or society is complete without the obligatory ‘humorous&# ...[Read More]
VolcanicDegassing
Friday Field Photos: Eruptions at Lokon-Empung volcano, Indonesia
This week I am at a workshop near the twin-peaked volcano Lokon-Empung, in Sulawesi, Indonesia. True to form (it is the most active volcano in Sulawesi), Lokon has been rather active, with fairly frequent small explosions forming some small but dramatic ash plumes. The active vent is not at the summits of either Lokon, or Empung, but instead at the crater called Tompualan, which lies in the saddle ...[Read More]
Four Degrees
What’s all the Phos about?
Phosphate use for fertilisers, essential in modern agriculture, is hitting an all time high while resources are being heavily depleted. Flo discusses the background, numbers, geopolitics and potential solutions behind the issue of ‘the end of phosphorus’. The Issue The dilemma over diminishing natural resources is a topic of our times with the daily bulletins filled with reports relate ...[Read More]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Science Snap (3): Earth’s biggest volcano?
James Hickey is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A geophysicist and volcanologist by trade, his PhD project is focussed on attempting to place constraints on volcanic unrest using integrated geodetic modelling. The newly discovered submarine Tamu Massif (pictured below), approximately 1500 km east of Japan, has been proposed as the wo ...[Read More]