The 4 year anniversary of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption: My eyewitness account

A few years ago I was lucky enough to witness the infamous summit eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010. Despite all the hassle it caused, especially the financial losses incurred by the aviation industry, the eruption created more awareness of the importance of volcano research in the UK. Subsequent studies of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption have advanced… Read More The 4 year anniversary of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption: My eyewitness account

Shari Gallop awarded a Laurie Prandolini Fellowship Award

It has just been announced that Shari Gallop has been awarded a Laurie Prandolini Fellowship Award by the ANZSPAC Division of the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology (www.imarest.org). Only one Fellowship is awarded every year to a selected candidate judged to be of outstanding potential to enable a significant piece of work to be… Read More Shari Gallop awarded a Laurie Prandolini Fellowship Award

An automated tool for grain size analysis from sediment profile imagery

Acquiring physical properties of the seabed is important for understanding sediment transport and resuspension processes and for monitoring the changing health of benthic ecosystems. Increasingly sediment profile imagery (SPI), a rapid, in-situ technique is used in conjunction with grabs and cores to obtain these properties. SPI is an inverted periscope that penetrates the seabed and… Read More An automated tool for grain size analysis from sediment profile imagery

Rip current research attracts funding from the Royal Geographical Society

Geology and Geophysics PhD student Seb Pitman has been awarded a postgraduate research award from the Royal Geographical Society. The RGS offers two awards per annum in each of the following disciplines: physical environment; conservation/sustainability; and society/economy. The awards aim to help PhD students establish themselves in their particular field, and are preferentially awarded to… Read More Rip current research attracts funding from the Royal Geographical Society

Fine-scale gas distribution in marine sediments assessed from deep-towed seismic data

Stephan Ker from Ifremer (the French national institute for marine research) and co-authors including  Graham Westbrook and Tim Minshull from G&G have published a paper in Geophysical Journal International that uses novel deep-towed seismic data and a novel technique to infer the detailed properties of gas pockets in marine sediments.  The seismic data were collected… Read More Fine-scale gas distribution in marine sediments assessed from deep-towed seismic data

Fieldwork in Cabras Lagoon, Sardinia, Italy

  Prof Carl L. Amos and PhD student Hachem Kassem, from the coastal processes research theme within Geology and Geophysics at NOCS/University of Southampton, have recently participated in a scientific field campaign in the Cabras Lagoon, Sardinia, Italy. The work was undertaken within  RITMARE, the Italian National programme of scientific and technological marine research; through… Read More Fieldwork in Cabras Lagoon, Sardinia, Italy

Recent seismic cruises study ancient continental breakup offshore NW Spain – by Marianne Karplus

This summer a number of University of Southampton geophysicists participated in a large, international seismic expedition to study continental breakup in the Deep Galicia Basin, offshore northwest Spain. The project includes acquisition of ocean bottom seismometer as well as multi-channel seismic reflection data onboard two separate research vessels, RV Poseidon and RV Marcus G. Langseth.… Read More Recent seismic cruises study ancient continental breakup offshore NW Spain – by Marianne Karplus

A particularly volcanic volcano conference, Japan – by Mike Cassidy

I was recently lucky enough to spend some time in Japan as part of a scientific conference in the southern-most tip of Kyushu along with my colleague Sebastian Watt. The conference was called IAVCEI, and is the ‘world cup’ of volcanology meetings, as these international gatherings only occur every 4 years. This was my first… Read More A particularly volcanic volcano conference, Japan – by Mike Cassidy

Hot and Deep: Melting during late-stage rifting in Afar

A recent paper in Nature, Dr Derek Keir, from Geology and Geophysics research group at Ocean and Earth Science, has recently been involved in a study on the Afar Rift Valley. The Nature paper by Ferguson and coauthors used geochemical data from lavas erupted along the the Afar rift valley to constrain the origin of magmatism… Read More Hot and Deep: Melting during late-stage rifting in Afar