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June 2022: I was discussing the ongoing drought with my family over lunch, when my dad pointed to me and summarized things as follows: “You know, less snow in winter means less water in summer!” I almost choked … what? Not only was it the first time I realized my family had been listening to my scientific anecdotes for years, but I also had concrete evidence now that snow was entering public ...[Read More]
It may be not be known to the wider lectureship of this column, but every year, around May, the headquarters of EGU-blogs are up for some important (and crucially, self inflicted) bit of house-keeping: the confirmation of the members of the blog team for the incoming editorial year. Those of you with colleagues that are here with me behind the curtains, might know about it from the relentless recr ...[Read More]
Scientists and inventors like Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Nikola Tesla paved the road for generations of young people to pursue a career in STEM. Their curiosity underpinned their passion for science. Unfortunately, the bright side of something usually hides a dark side too. For example, Nikola Tesla struggled to find financial support for his experiments and inventions, often ending u ...[Read More]
One of the biggest challenges anyone leaving their undergraduate degree faces is often what to do next? Do you pursue a career inside academia, or seek work in a different field, in industry or policy, or something completely different? What if you change your mind part way down one of those paths and want to change, either moving back into academic research at a later stage, or leaving academia a ...[Read More]
It’s official: Europe’s leading organisation for Earth, planetary and space research has now entered the third decade of its existence! This week, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) celebrated its 20th birthday. Since it was first founded, EGU has grown in strength and scale to include 22 scientific divisions, responsible for activities related to the Earth, planetary and space sciences. I spoke ...[Read More]
When I was a student, Martin told me matter-of-factly that snow is hot. I probably looked as baffled as I felt (and you are probably doing the same). Were we talking about the same thing? Continue reading to discover why snow is hot! Discovering that snow is hot So why is snow hot? Most snow under Earth’s environmental conditions has a homologous temperature Th close to 1. The homologous temperatu ...[Read More]
Soaking up the sun and recharging batteries on a peaceful and quiet summer day, or fighting to stay upright during extreme snow storms in the middle of winter, while continuously recording valuable air temperature, pressure, wind-speed and so much more – such is the life of an automatic weather station on the Greenland ice sheet. Even though they are so remote, sitting by themselves surround ...[Read More]
Each month we feature specific Divisions of EGU and during the monthly GeoRoundup we will be putting the journals that publish science from those Divisions at the top of the Highlights roundup. For August, the Divisions we are featuring are: Climate: Past, Present and Future (CL), Energy, Resources and Environment (ERE) and Geosciences Instrumentation and Data Systems (GI). They are served by the ...[Read More]
Tapping into commercial datasets Over the last two years, I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of construction related projects across Alberta, both as a palaeontologist and as geologist. They have included pipeline lays and inspections, bridge and highway remediation, building projects, quarrying and dam construction. Each of the projects has offered the chance to examine brand new exp ...[Read More]
The waters of Lake Lousie in the Canadian Rockies are cold and fresh, supplied direct from the glaciers nestled in the mountains, but as the water from the glacier melts it carries with it tiny particles of rock dust that are also transported into the lake. As you can see in this image, the particulate rock matter, held in suspension in the lake, creates this beautiful pale turquoise colour, that ...[Read More]
