Look in a bookshop and see how many shelves are taken up with murder mysteries. There’s little that is as compelling as the idea of a dead body on the ground and a search to find the culprit. I’m going to try out the genre here today. I can promise you the deaths of entire… Continue reading Volcanoes and mass extinctions – tracking a killer
Category: impacts
Scars, acne and others: circles on the ground
Looking is never just looking. When we gaze at something, we are not passive recipients of an image, instead our brain is constantly looking for patterns. If you are drifting over the earth, whether as an astronaut or via Google Maps then a simple shape such as a circle will ‘jump out’ at you. It turns out… Continue reading Scars, acne and others: circles on the ground
A world without subduction
The greatest achievement of the generation of Earth Scientists now retiring is the concept of plate tectonics. The insight that the earth’s surface is made up of rigid plates that move has shed light on all aspects of Earth Science, from palaeontology to geophysics to the study of ancient climates. What’s less well known is… Continue reading A world without subduction
Radioactivity and the earth (and moon?)
We tend to think of radioactivity as an artificial thing; some argue that the first nuclear explosions in 1945 should mark the start of a new human-dominated geological epoch called the Anthropocene. These man-made explosions have left distinctive radioactive traces that may well outlive us all. It turns out that natural radioactivity, even fission reactions,… Continue reading Radioactivity and the earth (and moon?)