Author Archives: John A. Stevenson

This week is the first anniversary of the volcan01010 blog.  With this post, I want to pick out some highlights from 2011, and to whet your appetites for some things to come in 2012. Top 3 posts: The main aim … Continue reading →

In 2014, Scotland will have a referendum to ask the people if they want to become an independent country.  The Scottish National Party will be campaigning hard for a ‘Yes’ vote.  Does that extend to some kind of deal with … Continue reading →

This post describes my highlights from the 30th Nordic Geological Winter Meeting that took place in Iceland last week. The most interesting results include that Iceland’s glaciers may be gone in 200 years, that the May 2011 Grímsvötn eruption was … Continue reading →

Note: 02 December 2011. The current media interest in Katla does not stem from a recent change in activity at the volcano, but from an article published on the BBC website today.  The same thing followed a Guardian article earlier … Continue reading →

Around 150 million years ago, plankton floated in warm seas.  Using energy from nuclear reactions in the Sun, they built their bodies from protein and fat and carbohydrate.  Then they died and their bodies sank to the muddy sea floor.  … Continue reading →

Geomorphology is the study of the formation of landscapes, and may not seem immediately relevant to the farmyard.  But heaps of wet grain and mountains of fractured rock are shaped by the same processes.  It’s all just a question of … Continue reading →

Last month, the Institute of Earth Sciences of the University of Iceland and the Iceland Glaciological Society organised an expedition to Grímsvötn to study the deposits of the eruption that took place there in May.  This post describes the journey … Continue reading →

The May 2011 Grímsvötn eruption blasted ash and pumice and rock fragments (collectively known as tephra) through the Vatnajökull glacier, forming a massive plume up to 20 km tall.  It was the biggest eruption in Iceland since Hekla 1947.  Locally, … Continue reading →