The brutality of Surtsey’s laboratory
I recently came across a local newspaper article describing a new volcanic island, rising from its own ashes above the […]
Interpreting ancient environments
A burp and a hiccup; the volcanic contribution of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
Of the two certainties in life, volcanoes offer the most excitement (death and taxes are basically the same thing). They
The life of a Tuscan wall
Montefioralle, Chianti country, Tuscany, Italy, and from where I’m sitting (happily sampling a Chianti Classico) I see rolling, wooded hills,
There are two sides to every fault
In 1940-41, Harold Wellman, a creative but somewhat irreverent New Zealand geologist, along with his colleague Dick Willett, discovered a
It only takes a moment; the ups and downs of earthquakes
Seismic metaphors, or seismic as metaphor? Seismic, a word that geologists and geophysicists traditionally thought was reserved for their use,
Class 5; The falls and cataracts of Li Phi, southern Laos
I am of a generation that, at mention of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, I recall images of intense conflict, thankfully
Ediacara; Welcome to the revolutionary world of animals
Mistaken Point on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland (Canada) acquired its unfortunate reputation by fooling mariners. In a celebration of
A Watery Mars; Canals, a duped radio audience, and geological excursions
Deceptive news is the art of pulling wool over the eyes of the populace, a tool (recently resurrected by certain
Sand dunes but no beach; a Martian breeze
When James Hutton in 1785 presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh his ideas on the uniformity of earth processes (over
Comets; portents of doom or icy bits of space jetsam?
Omens, God’s wrath, or just plain misfortune; comets were seen by our Medieval forebears as a disturbance in the natural