Tweets from Wegener 2014

Here are some of the highlight tweets from the Wegener 2014 conference held at the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK. Find all the tweets at #wegener2014.

GENAH 2014 Conference, Japan

A few weeks ago, CGS academic Tim Wright and PhD student Ekbal Hussain attended the Geodesy for Earthquakes and Natural Hazards (GENAH) conference held in Matsushima, Japan.

Check out some of our tweets from the event by clicking on the image below.

Ekbal

EGU 2014: The Landscape Detectives – Searching for prehistoric earthquakes

The annual European Geoscience Union meeting is the largest conference gathering of geoscientists in Europe. Held in the historic city of Vienna, the meeting brings together a diverse range of scientists, students and professionals to share and exchange their research and ideas.

Many CGS academics and students from the University of Leeds are attending this year’s event. For the next week or so I’ll be writing a few short posts about some of the talks that catch, my eye from the Natural Hazards sessions. The first in the EGU series of posts is about playing detective with the landscape and is based on a talk given by COMET+ scientist Richard Walker.

Earthquakes are caused by the sudden release of energy by movements along large fractures in the Earth called faults. These events release a lot of seismic energy that spreads away from the fault. These are what causes damage to buildings and the landscape. Earthquakes can be very destructive events, as we saw in 2010 when a magnitude 7.1earthquake in Haiti killed almost 230,000 people!

An earthquake rupture preserved in the landscape in Mongolia. Image courtesy of Richard Walker.

It is important to understand the history of earthquakes along large faults if we are to accurately understand its behaviour and be able to make reliable forecasts of the hazards it might pose. However, the historical record of past activity on large faults is very sparse. Particularly in regions around Central Asia where populations have historically been small and/or nomadic.

This is where the landscape detectives come in. Every large earthquake results in movements along faults. Very often these movements are preserved in the landscape. This might be in the form of an uplifted river terrace, a diverted stream, an offset hill etc.

The landscape detectives, or geomorphologist to use the technical term, hunt for these clues and gather evidence for past movements along faults and try to determine the size of the movements and when it occurred. Using these they can give an estimate of the size of the earthquake that caused the event and more importantly add constraints on how fast the fault is moving. All these are are vital if we are to understand the fault and forecasts it’s behaviour in the future.

If you would like more information be sure to send us an email. I will write a more detailed feature on the actual techniques used by geomorphologists to untangle the earthquake history from the landscape after the conference.

Ekbal

 

Earthquakes and Volcanoes: Highlights from the COMET+ kick-off meeting

The Centre for the Monitoring and Observation of Earthquakes, volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET+) involves the top researchers from various institutions around the country working on the themes of earth observation, monitoring and understanding the processes involved in volcanoes, earthquakes and tectonics.

The group is headed by Leeds and CGS academic Professor Tim Wright.

Over the last two days COMET+ had it’s annual kick-off meeting at the University of Leeds. We had some enlightening talks and great discussions.

Here are some of my tweets from the event in storify format. You can view all the tweets at: #CometLeeds

Ekbal

COMET+ Kick-Off Meeting

Over the next two days the Centre for the Observation and Monitoring of Earthquakes, volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET+), led by CGS academic Tim Wright, is having a kick-off meeting at Leeds.

The meeting aims to update all academic members of COMET+ with ongoing research and provide an outlook into the aims and goals for the next few years.

Discussions will also involve ways forward to strengthen and maximise the potential output with the new partnership with the British Geological Survey.

You can follow tweets from the event at #CometLeeds.

Geology for Global Development National Conference 2013

On Wednesday 23rd October the Geology for Global Development (GfGD) organisation held its first National Conference at the Geological Society headquarters in Burlington House, London. The general theme of the meeting was: Fighting Global Poverty – Can Geologists Help?

Entrance to the Geological Society headquarters in Burlington House, London.

20 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the School of Earth and Environment attended the conference.

Geology for Global Development (GfGD)

GfGD recognises the role good geoscience can play in international development and the fight against global poverty. The organisation aims to encourage and support young geoscientists in the growth of appropriate skills and knowledge they will need in order to make a positive, effective and lasting contribution to global development.

Part of this work is done through their university groups set up throughout the country. The Climate and Geohazard Services (CGS) is proud to support the work of GfGD though the GfGD Leeds student chapter.

The Conference

The conference day for the Leeds group started at the rather early time of 5am. Despite the early start and 5 hour coach journey down to London the group were keen (after a coffee) and enthusiastic to learn more about how geoscience students can get more involved in global development.

Opening Remarks

GfGD Director Joel Gill.

The day of talks started off by Jeremy Lefroy MP who is the MP for Stafford and a member of the International Development Select Committee. Jeremy started by expressing his firm support for the work GfGD is doing. He highlighted the need for increased involvement by the geoscience community in global development, particularly in countries such as Afghanistan and the sub-Saharan states. He encouraged students to be more aware and question where and how natural resources are used and whether the source countries are benefiting appropriately from the sale of their resources.

Following Jeremy’s talk was a series of presentations given by people working directly/indirectly in the development sector. These included talks by Dr Kate Crowley on disaster risk reduction, Dr Alison Parker on water and sanitation, Dr Gareth Hearn on engineering geology and Jane Joughin on mining geology. Each of these were fantastic talks highlighting a few of the various areas geoscience knowledge is used in a positive and sustainable way.

“Effective communication for effective development” – panel debate.

Lunch time provided an opportunity for everyone to do some all important networking. It was great to see students from different universities coming together to discuss and share their own ideas.

Effective Communication for Effective Development

After a post-lunch award ceremony for the GfGD blog competition, was a panel debate on the theme of ‘Effective Communication for Effective Development’. On the panel were Professor Bruce Malamud from Kings College, Dr Aaron Goater from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and Jane Robb from the European Geosciences Union. Scientists are generally only used to communicating their science to other experts within their field. The panel debate highlighted the need for effective communication skills training for scientists to communicate to non-specialists without altering the message of the science itself. Good science communication is not always about speaking or writing but also about listening and learning from others. The panel encouraged more integration of the social scientists with the natural scientists, not just at the final communication stage but throughout the research process.

Keynote Address – Geoscience and International Development

The keynote address for the conference was given by Dr Martin Smith from the British Geological Survey (BGS). The theme of Martin’s talk was the use of new smart technologies and as a means for effective geoscience communication. He used the iGeology mobile phone app created by the BGS as an example. This app was created by digitising the vast archives of geological maps of the UK and making a 3D model over which the geology of the UK can be seen via the app. This has enabled a better understanding of the subsurface geology beneath our cities and aided in improved planning for urbanisation projects.

Closing Remarks

Some of the Leeds students at the conference.

The closing remarks for the day were given by the GfGD Director Joel Gill who reiterated the need for more young geoscientists to be involved in global development. He expressed his support for the GfGD University groups and encouraged more to be set up in other universities throughout the UK and Ireland. He finished with an answer to the simple question posed by the conference:
“Fighting Global Poverty – Can Geologists Help? YES WE CAN!”

A massive thank you to the GfGD National team who organised this conference and to the Geological Society for hosting it at their headquarters. Also, big thanks to the GfGD Leeds team who woke up very early in the morning for the long journey down to London. I hope you learnt much from it. I certainly did.

Ekbal Hussain
PhD Student

You can read all the tweets from the event here.