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Cryospheric Sciences

How small changes can make a big difference: tipping points in Antarctica

Ronja Reese & Dave Chandler November 13, 2020

As Antarctica’s mass loss increases, the threat of crossing tipping points both in the ice sheet and the surrounding Southern Ocean is increasing. But what actually is a tipping point? Have tipping points already been crossed in the past? And what might the future hold? What do we mean by a “tipping point”? Scientifically speaking, a tipping point is generally understood to be a threshold that, on ...[Read More]

NP

Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences

A new European effort to better understand extreme weather

Gabriele Messori November 12, 2020

Extreme weather events routinely have detrimental socio-economic impacts around the globe. In fact, weather-related events make up over 90% of natural disasters worldwide [1]. In the new millennium, the frequency of many extreme weather events such as droughts and high temperatures, has systematically exceeded the levels seen in the 1980s and 1990s [1], and anthropogenic climate change may further ...[Read More]

AS

Atmospheric Sciences

A new European effort to better understand extreme weather

Mengze Li November 12, 2020

Feature Image: Screenshot of the european weather Extremes: DrIvers, Predictability and Impacts (EDIPI) homepage. Background Image Credits: Copernicus Sentinel data, processed by ESA. Extreme weather events routinely have detrimental socio-economic impacts around the globe. In fact, weather-related events make up over 90% of natural disasters worldwide [1]. In the new millennium, the frequency of ...[Read More]

CL

Climate: Past, Present & Future

A new European effort to better understand extreme weather

November 11, 2020

Extreme weather events routinely have detrimental socio-economic impacts around the globe. In fact, weather-related events make up over 90% of natural disasters worldwide [1]. In the new millennium, the frequency of many extreme weather events such as droughts and high temperatures, has systematically exceeded the levels seen in the 1980s and 1990s [1], and anthropogenic climate change may further ...[Read More]

CR

Cryospheric Sciences

Running a live stream of proglacial processes

Floreana Miesen and Stuart Lane November 4, 2020

In Switzerland, nothing is really remote, but some places are more so than others. Dense infrastructure networks typically provide convenient access to research sites in the Alps where it is difficult to feel far away from home. However, this is not always the case… For us, our home for the summer is a bit different. We work at 2400 m above sea level in Southern Switzerland, in a narrow vall ...[Read More]

GM

Geomorphology

Running a live stream of proglacial processes

EGU Guest blogger November 4, 2020

This is a joint post, published together with the hydrological sciences division blog, the cryospheric sciences division blog, the geomorphology division blog, given the interdisciplinarity of the topic. – Floreana Miesen and Prof. Dr. Stuart Lane, University of Lausanne – In Switzerland, nothing is really remote, but some places are more so than others. Dense infrastructure networks t ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

Geoscience in the third world

Jyotirmoy Paul November 4, 2020

In this week’s wit and wisdom, Jyotirmoy Paul, a PhD student at the Indian Institute of Science, analyses the outlook of geoscience from the third world’s perspective. Academia has been shaped and influenced by the course of world history. The third world concept was seeded in Brussels, 1927, in a gathering of the League Against Imperialism1 and became popular in the mid-1950s through variou ...[Read More]

HS

Hydrological Sciences

Running a live stream of proglacial processes

Floreana Miesen and Stuart Lane November 4, 2020

In Switzerland, nothing is really remote, but some places are more so than others. Dense infrastructure networks typically provide convenient access to research sites in the Alps where it is difficult to feel far away from home. However, this is not always the case… For us, our home for the summer is a bit different. We work at 2400 m above sea level in Southern Switzerland, in a narrow vall ...[Read More]

SM

Seismology

Seismology throughout the years: from blown pre-amplifiers to the internet of things — a technician’s view on seismology

Nienke Blom November 3, 2020

An interview with Arie van Wettum In many universities, students and staff will go out into the field to deploy seismometers, collect data, and service instruments. Students get a sense of the area their data is coming from, the difficulties that are involved with deploying and recording data, and although inexperienced at the beginning, they are a relatively low-cost way of getting equipment out. ...[Read More]

GD

Geodynamics

What can we learn from geodynamic failure?

Moh Gouiza and edited by Lucía Pérez-Díaz October 28, 2020

In this week’s post, Mohamed Gouiza discusses the challenges of living under constant stress, paralysed by the possibility of failure and self-perceived inevitability of impending breakup. Continental rifting, of course! Oh… did you think I was talking about life as a researcher? Under tensile stress, the lithosphere stretches, the asthenosphere rises, the crust fails, and rifts form. During this ...[Read More]