Wow! I have finally arrived at Goldschmidt 2013 and it is so, so great to be here! Day 1 was already a whirlwind. Unfortunately, I missed the icebreaker last night and arrived a bit late this morning due to scheduling conflicts so I missed a few talks, but I am here now and ready to listen, learn, discuss and blog! Talks I went to today: Sadly, I missed the first talk I wanted to see. My friend, E ...[Read More]
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VolcanicDegassing
August Anniversaries: the eruption of Krakatoa
August 27th marks the anniversary of the culmination of the great eruption of Krakatoa (or Krakatau) in Indonesia in 1883. This devastating eruption has become the archetype of a volcanic catastrophe, even though it was a geologically modest example of a ‘caldera forming’ event. The eruption of Krakatoa quickly made the headlines around the world, in part because newly installed unders ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Ladies and gentlemen: the Rolling Stones
Racetrack Playa is a plain without vegetation of a dry located above the northwestern side of Death Valley, in Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, CA, USA (click here to see in Google Maps). Although “playa” is the Spanish word for beach, it is also used in English to refer to a dry lake. Racetrack Playa occupies an area of 4.5 km (north-south) by 2 km (east-west) which is 1,130 m ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: The perfect partnership
Pogonophores are deep sea worms that thrive in dark, deep sea conditions thanks to the presence of symbiotic bacteria. The bacteria are chemoautotrophic, that is, they fix carbon through oxidation processes, rather than using light to fix it, as is the case for photosynthesis. By utilising oxygen in the water, the bacteria can oxidise compounds such as hydrogen sulphide in order to fix carbon. The ...[Read More]
GeoSphere
The Bloggers of Goldschmidt 2013
It isn’t long until the start of the annual V.M. Goldschmidt conference, the main international meeting for geochemists to share and discuss ideas. This year’s meeting in Florence, Italy, is set to be one of the largest yet with over 4000 abstracts submitted. The European Association of Geochemistry and the organisers of this 23rd Goldschmidt meeting have assembled a team of writers from the geobl ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Vegetation research in Finnish Lapland: mountains, sunshine and reindeer
People started warning me about the mosquitoes back in April. It sounded grim. But when I arrived in Finnish Lapland in August, the mozzies had peaked earlier in the season when temperatures were unusually high, and were all dead. This was a fortunate escape: Miska Luoto of the University of Helsinki and his team of researchers, who I was following as part of an EGU Science Journalism Fellowship, ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Friday Photo (93): Volcanic Damage in Japan
A school that was damaged by pyroclastic flows during the 1991-1993 eruption of Mt Unzen in Japan. In the background is the volcano, about 3.5 km from the summit. Credit: Rick Wall (c) Geology for Global Development
Polluting the Internet
Aerosols from space #1
A short post to illustrate the changing nature of aerosol in the atmosphere in terms of their spatial extent, source and properties. There are two images below showing the scene from the TERRA satellite as it passed over the Eastern Atlantic off the coast of Morocco. The first image shows the plume of smoke from wildfires from Madeira that swept through the island last weekend. The second image sh ...[Read More]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Conference diaries: The IAVCEI Scientific Assembly, 2013
With the undergraduates off on their holidays, summer sees a lot of large geology conferences take place. We’ll be using the Conference Diaries series to bring you the highs and lows of all things geology conference. Here, Mel Auker talks us through the IAVCEI Scientific Assembly…
Geology for Global Development
Fighting Global Poverty – Can Geologists Help? – Updated Programme
We’re currently nine weeks away from the GfGD National Conference and in the process of finalising the conference programme. Here is a summary of the key sessions and speakers. (N.B. In addition to the above speakers, we are delighted that Jane Joughin, Principal Environmental Consultant at SRK Consulting, will be speaking on the important role that mining geology can play in fighting global ...[Read More]