European Geosciences Union
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Thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of our members and volunteers, EGU26 was another record breaking year with an amazing 22,497 people participating in the General Assembly, both in Vienna and online!
EGU has selected 10 member-proposed, high-profile or ‘out-of-the-box’ not-for-profit activities, with high visibility and large impact to receive up to 30,000€ from the EGU Special Activity Fund.
New research shows extreme heat and humidity are already pushing Hajj pilgrims beyond survivability limits, with the greatest danger during Arafat and future pilgrimages expected to become more hazardous.
Solar storms can quietly disrupt satellites, power grids, and communication systems across the globe. After a 2022 geomagnetic event knocked out dozens of Starlink satellites, the risks are no longer hypothetical. At EGU26, scientists unveil Swarm-AWARE, a new ESA project using satellite data and machine learning to distinguish space weather signals from natural hazards, paving the way for smarter forecasting and more resilient infrastructure.
For 350 million years, ammonites were the resilient masterpieces of the ancient seas. They survived the Great Dying of the Permian-Triassic, an event that wiped out 96% of marine life, only to vanish during the end-Cretaceous extinction that claimed the dinosaurs. Meanwhile, their less-diverse cousins, the nautiloids, sailed through the catastrophe and still inhabit our oceans today.
Why did the invincible ammonites fail while the nautiloids endured?
The surviving house in Pacific Palisades became one of the most discussed images from the 2025 California wildfires (Fig. 1). What makes it scientifically interesting, though, is not that it survived. It is that many of the features associated with the house’s survival – a more fire-resistant exterior, stronger windows, and details that reduce ember entry – are already well known. This case points to a broader problem explored in our paper: disaster losses remain high, not simply because knowledge …
Artificial Intelligence, and its rapid incursion into the (geo)sciences, was already impossible to ignore at last year’s EGU General Assembly. (you can read my reflections then in this blog post) This year, unsurprisingly, it felt equally present. On Thursday, I attended the Great Debate on “The ethics of using AI in Geosciences: opportunities and risks”, a discussion spanning everything from scientific integrity and transparency to environmental costs, bias, and human responsibility. Like many conversations around Generative AI, it was sprawling …
EGU26 is almost over. The question is: Now what? It is busy during the conference. Finding the way around the convention center, presenting work, learning what others are doing, back-to-back sessions, browsing eye-catching exhibits, not to forget the 20,000+ people to network with! It can feel exhausting, making me crave a still moment to chill from all that thrill. But when I finally walk out of the venue for the last time, I already miss the buzz. The friendly folks. …
