Monthly Archives: May 2007

The highs and lows of fieldwork

Four trying days into my latest field expedition, I seriously considered packing it all in and coming home, as I was clearly channelling the spirit of Murphy. Firstly, my vehicle broke down on the drive out. As it happened, this … Continue reading

Categories: fieldwork, geology, ranting

Nuclear Seismology

From ye olde blog, November 2006: A barely remembered anecdote, the buzz about the North Korean “nuclear” test, and a Web of Knowledge search combined to bring this paper up on my screen: Seismic tomographic inversion of Russian PNE data … Continue reading

Categories: geology, geophysics, paper reviews

Algae and earthquake precursors

From ye olde blog, May 2006: an interesting report from the BBC: Concentrations of the natural pigment chlorophyll in coastal waters have been shown to rise prior to earthquakes. These chlorophyll increases are due to blooms of plankton, which use … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, geohazards, geology, paper reviews

Gone drillin’

I’m off for a week to collect some samples. It’s the first time I’ve actually handled a drill since my last field season in New Zealand way back in 2003 (a scarily long time ago, now I think of it), … Continue reading

Categories: geology

A primer on the origin of the Earth

I heartily second Lab Lemmings recommendation of the Skepchick’s series on ‘The Origin of the Earth’, an opus in five parts: I: Introduction, the Scientific Toolbox, and Cosmic Starstuff II: Crustal Chemistry, the Solar Nebula, and the Solar System III: … Continue reading

Categories: basics, links, planets