GeoLog

Blogging

GeoLog will be updated regularly throughout the General Assembly, highlighting some of the meeting’s most interesting sessions, workshops and lectures as well as featuring interviews with scientists attending the Assembly.

Writers from the EGU Blog Network will also be posting about interesting research and sessions during the Assembly, so you can catch up on any sessions you’ve missed and get a feel for what’s going on in the press room through them!

As in previous years, the EGU will be compiling a list of General Assembly related blogs (the blogroll) and making them available through GeoLog.  If you would like to contribute to GeoLog, add your blog to the blogroll, or join the EGU Blog Network please contact Sara Mynott at mynott@egu.eu.

Tweeting

Participants can keep updated with General Assembly goings on by following the EGU twitter account (@EuroGeosciences) and the conference hashtag (#egu2013). You can also direct questions to the EGU communications staff and other participants using #egu2013, or by tweeting to @EuroGeosciences directly.

Some sessions also have their own hashtag including the Great Debate (GDB1; #eguFrack), the Union Session on Curiosity (US2; #eguMars), how to apply for a job (SC9/EOS13;#eguJobs), and how to use blogs and social media in scientific research (SC8/EOS12; #eguSMedia). Make sure to tag your tweets accordingly if you are posting about these sessions!

And other social media!

While these will be the main media streams during the Assembly, you can also follow the European Geosciences Union on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube to keep up with us there!

Will you be blogging at the 2013 General Assembly? If so, sign up here and we’ll add you to our official blogroll. We will be compiling a list (blogroll) of blogs that feature posts about the EGU General Assembly and making it available on our blog.

We’d ask you to write posts directly related to the Assembly during the meeting in Vienna. The content of each blog on this list is the responsibility of the authors and is not sanctioned by the EGU, but we will make details of all the blogs on the General Assembly blogroll available.

If you would like your blog to feature on our list, please submit your blog details to us.

With free (and open!) wireless internet and plugin points available throughout the building; we’ve got everything you need! International plug adapters can even be borrowed from the Austria Center Information Desk!

GeoLog, the official EGU blog, will also be updated regularly during the General Assembly. It will include posts about some of the meeting’s sessions, highlight media coverage of the assembly, and feature interviews with relevant scientists. If you would like to contribute to this official blog, please contact Sara Mynott with your idea. You may also use this email address for any questions you might have about the blogroll.

The time has come to expand the EGU blog network! We currently feature blogs in palaeontology (Green Tea and Velociraptors), international development (Geology for Global Development) and geochemistry (GeoSphere) – we love them, but it simply isn’t enough. With so much great geoscience out there, we’d love to hear from more fields within the Earth, planetary and space sciences!

The aim of the network is to share accurate information about geoscientific research in a language understandable not only to fellow scientists but also to the broader public. You, as an expert in your own area, are in a better position than we are to share recent development in your area of research.

The benefits: apart from your site gaining exposure by having its posts listed on the front page of the EGU website, we will also share highlights of your work on our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+) and advertise the blog network at our General Assembly, which has over 11,000 attendees.

If you’d like your blog to be considered for our network, fill out this form. Please note that only blogs in English will be considered.

Feel free to contact the EGU Communications Officer Sara Mynott if you have any questions. In the meantime – happy blogging!

The EGU is seeking to appoint a Communications Assistant to work with the EGU Media and Communications Officer in maintaining and further developing media-related and science information communications between the EGU and its membership, the working media, and the public at large. The position will be based at the EGU Executive Office in Munich, Germany.

More information about this vacancy, including main tasks, requirements, application materials, and salary and starting date, is available in PDF format or on the EGU website.

Informal enquiries about this position can be made to the Media and Communications Officer, Dr Bárbara Ferreira (media@egu.eu, +49-89-2180-6703). Applications should be submitted by e-mail in a single file to Dr Bárbara Ferreira by 15 November.

Do you know anyone who might be interested in this position? The EGU would be grateful if you shared this opportunity widely.

Today we proudly launch the EGU’s official blog network, a project we hope will unite a diverse community of insightful bloggers in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences. The aim of our network is to offer blogging researchers an online platform to share their insights with other scientists and, importantly, to distill complex and often misunderstood concepts so they are easier to understand for the general public. Furthermore, these blogs, chosen as examples of quality science writing by competent scientists, will hopefully inspire more researchers to share their work with the EGU’s legion of online followers and regular visitors of GeoLog, our official blog.

Although we are particularly keen to read about European research, we are happy to host bloggers based all over the world and working within any related discipline. If you’d like to know more about the network, including how to join, please email Bárbara Ferreira.

Our first three featured blogs are vastly different but equally absorbing, authored by scientists based in the UK and Canada. They are:

Geology for Global Development, by Joel Gill
Geology for Global Development’s blog is a series of articles, discussions, photos and links – all relating to the application of geoscience to international development. Geology for Global Development (GfGD) recognises the significant contribution good geoscience can make fighting poverty and improving lives across the world. The blog aims to discuss, promote and broaden understanding of this contribution, whilst working to support young geoscientists in the growth of appropriate skills and knowledge in order that they make a positive, effective, and greater contribution to development throughout their careers. Find out more at www.gfgd.org.

Green Tea and Velociraptors, by Jon Tennant
Palaeontologists have a unique position among scientists in unravelling the mystery of lost ancient worlds. Communicating this science is essential to maintain the fascination that captivates people of all ages. Jon is currently undertaking a PhD in vertebrate macroevolution in London, and co-hosts a podcast series called Palaeocast. Tweets as @protohedgehog.

GeoSphere, by Matt Herod
Matt Herod is a Ph.D Candidate in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. His research focuses on the environmental geochemistry of iodine and the radioactive isotope iodine-129. His work involves characterizing a 129I baseline in the Canadian Arctic and applying this to the transport and sources of 129I to remote regions as well as to long term radioactive waste disposal. His project includes both field work in the Yukon Territory and lab work back home. Matt blogs about any topic in geology that interests him, which is nearly everything, and attempts to make these topics understandable to everyone. Tweets as @GeoHerod.

To complement our official blog, we are launching a blog network related to the Earth, planetary, and space sciences. If you are a scientist who likes blogging about your research, or about geosciences in general, we would like to hear from you.

Join our network of bloggers and feature on the EGU's official website!

In a few months, the EGU blog will migrate from WordPress to the EGU website, and we would like to have other bloggers joining us within an EGU Blog Network. The aim of this project is to foster a diverse community of geoscientist bloggers and to offer them a place to interact with each other and with the Union.

The network would work similarly to Nature Network or Scientific American Blog Network, with all blogs having a unified design and general theme – Earth, space and planetary sciences – but with each blogger being responsible for the content of their own blog.

Apart from your site gaining exposure by having its name and a short introduction listed on the EGU website, we will also share highlights of your work on our social media channels, and may ask you to contribute original content on our official blog.

If you’d like your blog to be considered for our network, fill out this form. Please note that only blogs in English will be considered.

Feel free to contact the EGU Media and Communications Officer Bárbara Ferreira if you have any questions.

Happy blogging!

Will you be blogging at the 2012 EGU General Assembly? Sign up here and we’ll add you to our official blogroll.

Like last year, a list (“blogroll”) of General Assembly related blogs will be compiled and made available. The content of each blog on this list is the responsibility of the authors and is not sanctioned by the EGU, but we’d ask you to write posts directly related to the Assembly during the meeting. If you would like your blog to feature on our list, please submit your blog details to us.

There is free (unsecured) wireless internet throughout the General Assembly venue and plug points are available throughout the building. International plug adapters can be borrowed from the Austria Center Information Desk, for a deposit.

Got thoughts and opinions about the 2012 General Assembly? Sign up to the official blogroll!

GeoLog, the official EGU blog, will be updated regularly during the General Assembly. It will include posts about some of the meeting’s sessions, highlight media coverage of the assembly, and feature interviews with relevant scientists. If you would like to contribute to this official blog, please contact gamedia@egu.eu with your idea. You may also use this email address for any questions you might have about the blogroll.

Several participants in the Geoblogsphere having been posting recently about sand dunes. Its part of Sand Dune Week declared on twitter by Brian Romans. Some of the posts are listed by Matthew Francis or find more by searching on twitter for “sand dune week”.

There are three sessions at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2012 directly related to sand dunes, these are listed below. To submit an abstract visit the meeting website.

GM5.1 Aeolian Processes and Landforms

Convener: J.M. Nield, Co-Convener: J. King
Aeolian geomorphology covers a wide spectrum of research from the small scale study of processes in the field or laboratory to modelling projects predicting long-term dune field evolution. This session aims to bring together a diverse group of researchers that study wind-blown sediment (both sand and dust) and associated bedforms in a range of environments, from coastal and semi-arid regions, to hyper arid deserts. Contributions that use novel instrumentation in field studies, remote sensing at the landscape scale or innovative numerical modelling methods, are encouraged, particularly those which attempt to elucidate feedback between surface properties and sediment transport.

GM10.1/PS2.9 Planetary Geomorphology

Convener: S. Conway, Co-Conveners: M. Balme , C. Gallagher
This session aims to give a different perspective on planetary science by bringing together geomorphologists from terrestrial sciences with those who spend more time on other planets. Studies of landscapes on any scale on any solid body are welcome. We particularly encourage those who use Earth analogues (either in the field or laboratory) to present their work. Submissions can include studies on glacial, periglacial, aeolian, volcanic or fluvial landforms. We welcome submissions from geomorphologists who are new to planetary science.

AS4.13/CL4.7 Aeolian dust, initiator, player, and recorder of environmental change

Convener: P. Knippertz, Co-Convener: J.-B. Stuut

The interactions between aerosols, climate, and weather are among the large uncertainties of current climate and atmospheric research. Mineral dust is an important natural source of aerosol with significant implications on radiation, cloud microphysics, atmospheric chemistry and the carbon cycle via the fertilization of marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
In addition, properties of dust deposited in sediments and ice cores are important (paleo-)climate indicators.

This interdivision session is open to contributions dealing with:
(1) measurements of all aspects of the dust cycle (emission, transport, deposition, size distribution, particle characteristics) with in situ and remote sensing techniques,
(2) numerical simulations of dust on global and regional scales,
(3) meteorological conditions for dust storms, dust transport and deposition,
(4) interactions of dust with clouds and radiation,
(5) influence of dust on atmospheric chemistry,
(6) fertilization of ecosystems through dust deposition,
(7) any study using dust as a (paleo-)climate indicator including investigations of Loess, ice cores, lake sediments, ocean sediments and dunes.

We especially encourage our colleagues to submit papers on the integration of different disciplines and/or modeling of past, present and future climates.

Image by Ioannis Daglis, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Some of you may know me already since Jennifer was kind enough to introduce me in a previous blog post. For those of you who don’t, I am EGU’s Media and Communications Officer, who joined the EGU Executive Office in Munich in early September.

One of the perks of this job is receiving e-mails advertising interesting and exciting geosciences-related initiatives. In my first post on the EGU blog, I’d like to tell you about one of these, which popped up in my inbox just a few days ago.

The e-mail was from Ethan Steinman, a filmmaker based in Seattle, US, who wrote to me about his latest project, “Glacial Balance”. This documentary film shows the effects of climate change on Andean glaciers. In Ethan’s words:

“Glacial Balance is a look at the effects of Andean glaciers on the lives of those depending on their existence. Getting to know the individuals and lives of those who will be first affected by the dwindling glacier reserve, the canaries in the mine. For our journey we will be accompanied by an international team of glaciologists and paleoclimatologists who will give us a perspective on what is really happening and what we can expect. Our end goal, to bring home the global warming debate and understand just how this will affect us, the viewer. Regardless of the city, country, racial or ethnic background… we will all be affected, unless action is taken.”

The film features stunning views of the Andean landscape, and takes the viewer in an exciting journey through the Andes, from Argentina to Colombia. It includes interviews with famous personalities and renowned geoscientists, such as Al Gore and Dr. Lonnie Thompson, a member of the team accompanying Ethan to South America.

Ethan’s goal is to have the film completed in early March next year. At the moment, he’s trying to raise money for post-production expenses.

I’d love to see this documentary ready in time for EGU’s General Assembly in April, not only because I think it is a worthwhile and interesting project, but also because Ethan accepted to show it in the 2012 edition of the GeoCinema. There’s a campaign on at IndieGoGo, and I have donated already. Maybe you’d like to help Ethan out too?

By Bárbara Ferreira, EGU’s Media and Communications Officer

Are you going to be at the AOGS 2011 8th Annual Meeting and Geosciences World Community Exhibition? If so, come and meet the European Geosciences Union at Booth B4 of the Exhibition Area in Room 101 on Level 1 of the Taipei International Convention Center. The exhibits will be open Monday 8th to Thursday 11th August between 08:30 and 18:00 each day. The Executive Secretary Philippe Courtial and the EGU Science Communications Postdoctoral Fellow Jennifer Holden will be in attendance.