Category Archives: basics

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again: an introduction to How the Earth Works

For a couple of years now, I’ve been telling a story at the beginning of the introductory geology course I teach, called How the Earth Works. I like to think it gives a flavour of the kinds of stories you can tell about the Earth, if you know how to look: stories of how the world slowly remakes itself over hundreds of millions of years, of how the very high was once the very low, and will be again. This is that story. Continue reading

Categories: academic life, basics, deep time, geology, geomorphology, ice and glaciers, outcrops, past worlds, rocks & minerals, science education, tectonics

Visualising Earth Structure, redux

Last semester, when teaching my intro class about the composition and structure of the Earth and how we know, I went a bit overboard in producing a snazzy Earth cross-section: I’m still pretty proud of this, but one of its … Continue reading

Categories: basics, geology, teaching

A cross-section through the Earth

One of the first things I do in my introductory geology class is talk about the structure of the Earth. Knowing the names, composition and physical properties of the different layers is an important foundation for the rest of the … Continue reading

Categories: basics, geology, geophysics, planets, teaching

The far-travelled ground

Be honest: when Evelyn asked the geoblogosphere, ‘what’s your favourite geology word?’, you all knew which word I was going to pick, didn’t you? Allochthonous. Allochthonous, the word that no-one can spell. Allochthonous, the word no-one can pronounce, it seems, … Continue reading

Categories: basics, geology, hydrology, tectonics

Reverberations of the Honshu tsunami

On Friday 11 March 2011, when the fault ruptured off of the Japanese coast in a M9.0 earthquake, it caused a sudden vertical movement of the seafloor, displacing the water above it and transferring energy to the ocean. As the … Continue reading

Categories: basics, by Anne, geohazards, tectonics