Category Archives: tectonics

AAPG Day 1: rifting models, snowballs, and other miscellany

It has to be said that it’s never been a particular ambition of mine to mix with the luminaries of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Still, lots of interesting research does get done in the name of finding and … Continue reading

Categories: academic life, conferences, geology, tectonics

Geological analogies of the tectonic kind

Callan asks: What are some of your favorite analogies for explaining geological concepts to other people? Teaching through analogy – explaining new concepts to people by referring to things that they know or understand already – can be a powerful … Continue reading

Categories: geology, public science, tectonics

Dike swarms and continental barcodes

Who would have thought a mess of ridges could hold the key to reconstructing past geographies?
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Categories: geology, geopuzzling, tectonics, volcanoes

Tectonics shown to drive changes in biodiversity

No surprise to anyone – except biologists, apparently.
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Categories: Cenozoic, fossils, geology, paper reviews, tectonics

Volcanoes: our noble allies in the battle against export productivity

Finally, a blogospheric spat that actually matters. Craig McClain over at Deep Sea News has accused volcanoes of being the implacable enemies of marine life, based on new research linking them to some bouts of extreme ocean anoxia (where the … Continue reading

Categories: climate science, environment, geology, tectonics, volcanoes