Author Archives: Chris Rowan

Scenic Saturday: from desert to verdant grassland in 10 miles (and 1000 m)

Why large climatic contrasts occur over short distances on Hawaii – and why this is scientifically important. Continue reading

Categories: geomorphology, outcrops, photos, volcanoes

The humbling legacy of the Tohoku earthquake

A year ago on Sunday, one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded ruptured the subduction megathrust that dips beneath the east coast of Japan. The rupture displaced the seafloor by tens of metres and generated tsunami waves up to 20 … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, geohazards, tectonics

Stuff we linked to on Twitter last week

Other posts on All-geo On Earth Science Erratics, Erin Johnson tells us about the surprising lessons you learn when teaching Earth Science, including the willingness of students to boldly put their tongues where dozens of dirty hands have been before. … Continue reading

Categories: links

Now that’s what I call a geomagnetic storm!

It appears that I was a litte premature with yesterday’s post. Look at what happened to the ambient magnetic field at the two observatories at Boulder and Deadhorse today (the dotted line represents about where the plots I put up … Continue reading

Categories: geohazards, geophysics, palaeomagic, planets

The Earth weathers another geomagnetic storm

A couple of days ago, the sun got a bit excitable: This large flare produced what is known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), a blob of gas and radiation hurled at high velocities from the surface of the sun … Continue reading

Categories: geophysics, palaeomagic, planets