European Geosciences Union
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At 12:30 pm on 21 January 2020, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will be hosting its first-ever webinar, which will focus on the union’s open access journals.
The December 2019 edition of the EGU email newsletter, the monthly information service for Union members, is now available.
The 2020 General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) provides an opportunity for journalists to find out about the latest research in the Earth, planetary and space sciences and to talk to researchers from all over the world. The meeting, the largest geosciences conference in Europe, is anticipated to bring together more than 15,000 scientists. It runs from 3 to 8 May at the Austria Center Vienna, in Vienna, Austria.
Concentrations of methane, a greenhouse gas about 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide, have risen steadily in Earth’s atmosphere since 2007. Although several potential explanations, including an increase in methane emissions from the tropics, could account for this upsurge, due to a lack of regional data scientists have been unable to pinpoint the source. Now a study published in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics uses satellite data to determine that one-third of the global increase originates in Africa’s tropics.
The EGU is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. Membership is open to individuals who subscribe to the objectives of the EGU and who are professionally engaged in or associated with either the geosciences, planetary and space sciences, or related studies. Membership is affordable and provides a number of benefits, including eligibility to present your research at the annual EGU General Assembly and substantially reduced registrations rates to the meeting.
We propose a new exploration of the concept of “spontaneous” lithospheric collapse at a transform fault (TF) by performing a large study of conditions allowing instability of the thicker plate using 2-D thermomechanical simulations. Spontaneous subduction is modelled only if extreme mechanical conditions are assumed. We conclude that spontaneous collapse of the thick older plate at a TF evolving into mature subduction is an unlikely process of subduction initiation at modern Earth conditions.
Terrestrial ion transport and total escape are synthesized, with stress on the high-latitude polar region and the inner magnetosphere where Custer significantly improved knowledge. After estimating the outflow flux and destinations, complicated ion dynamics in the inner magnetosphere was classified and summarized, through which more than half the O+ is finally lost to space. Together with direct escapes, total O+ escape is high enough to influence the evolution of the biosphere.
Perhaps the oldest question in hydrology is “Where does water go when it rains?”. Here we present a new way to measure how the terrestrial water cycle partitions precipitation into its two ultimate fates: “green water” that is evaporated or transpired back to the atmosphere and “blue water” that is discharged to stream channels. Our analysis may help in gauging the vulnerability of both water resources and terrestrial ecosystems to changes in rainfall patterns.
The western USA is frequently affected by multiannual summer droughts. They can be separated into two groups with distinct spatial patterns. This study analyzes the atmospheric circulation during multiannual droughts in a new 3-D climate reconstruction. We confirm two distinct drought types differing with respect to atmospheric circulation as well as sea surface temperatures. Our results suggest that both the Pacific and the extratropical North Atlantic region affect North American droughts.
Australian wildfires have burned an impressively large surface and caused the death of at least 24 citizens as well as of numerous animals. This immense disaster raises questions about its linkage with climate change, the possibility of controlling these events and the future of Australian wildlife ecosystems. While the first question will be addressed by soon to come attribution studies, and the last one by ecobiologists, here we focus on the second one: how fires can get completely out of …
Sendai and its people live on the edge. The city and its citizens learned to live over a subduction zone. Sendai has survived 500 years of hazards; it is a resilient and industrious city. People know disaster will strike again, but also that they will rise up when it does. Japan, ‘the sunrise country’, would be much better named ‘the land of sinking tectonic plates’. Above the point where the Pacific plate sinks below East Asia and the Philippine Sea …
The cliffs look like a bas-relief sculpted by a tireless artist. Naturally carved by the wind and sea, Vlychada’s white cliffs border its black sands, on the southern shore of Thera (Santorini), Greece. Both are of volcanic origin. The material originates from the Late Bronze Age eruption around 1600 BCE, which also buried the prosperous Akrotiri settlement. This massive Plinian eruption led to the deposition of a layer dozen of meters thick of tephra that consolidated into the tuff cliffs …
