Back in 2009, my father made several references to my “Simpsons challenge” in Through the Sandglass. Having found several tenuous connections to sand, I cannot tell you how delighted I was, years later, to finally share this clip with the...
Apologies for the hiatus - medical issues disrupted things a bit. I intend to get back to whatever passes for normal life in 2017, including writing here. Meanwhile, a couple of stunning videos from Slava Ivanov, perfect, I think, for...
It's this year's Earth Science Week - see the American Geosciences Institute and Geological Society of London sites). I have periodically attempted to join the celebrations with posts on the "Nine big ideas" and the associated videos, Earth Science Literacy,...
I have just returned from an utterly memorable two weeks in the stunning, extraordinary, landscapes of Iceland. I have never seen anything quite like it. Iceland is, quite simply, unique - and wonderful. There will undoubtedly be further bulletins, but...
Erik Klemetti is an assistant professor of Geosciences at Ohio's Denison University and he writes Eruptions, a blog about all things volcanic for Wired. A few days ago, he put up the following which I sincerely hope will be taken...
I witnessed my first flash flood decades ago in the Oman. Fortunately we were camped far enough - just - above the floor of the wadi to be able to simply watch and listen - with a sense of terror....
For one reason or another (likely to be discussed in a future post), I have been working on an essay that attempts to address cross-cultural aspects of viewing and valuing the land and reviews the potential implications for learning geoscience...
He's been called "The Picasso of pumpkin carving" and his pumpkins are stunningly spectacular, but Ray Villafane is also a remarkable sand sculptor. His “Elephant and Mouse,” created in collaboration with Long Island-based artist Sue Beatrice, is now on view...
OK, granular materials behave strangely, but I really don't think this is going to work. [I have no idea where this picture was taken - it's been circulating on the net]
I'm not going to apologise for departing, once again, from the theme of this blog. I am appalled that my country has betrayed its younger generation, insulted its European friends, and revealed itself as a stupid, ignorant, self-centred and racist...
We only have ONE hydrologic system, dammit! School kids know that (it's in all their textbooks), geologists, geophysicists, geomorphologists, environmental scientists and ecologists, climatologists and meteorologists, resource scientists, most engineers, and a hell of a lot of people on the...
This happens very, very rarely, but right now I am completely, totally, and utterly lost for words. [Screen grabs from USA Today and the U.S. Drought Monitor. Video link thanks to regular commenter, Richard Bready.]
Back in November last year, I described how, very controversially, Arizona is exporting its water in vast quantities to Saudi Arabia, via alfalfa to feed Saudi cattle. In that post I quoted from the work of Elie Elhadj, who has...
Described as one of the last great enigmas or mysteries, the so-called fairy circles of the arid lands of Namibia remain to be explained. Theories abound, and the fairies have stimulated "lively" academic debate, if not discord. The circles occur...
"Epic" "intimate" "brutal" "riveting" "spellbinding" "spectacular." The adjectives come tumbling out of the reviews - but please see this movie for yourself. Described as an "Arabic Western" and a "coming of age story," I suspect that this is one of...
It just doesn't stop, and the scale of the damage to communities and the environment is staggering. NASA recently released the pair of images, above, showing changes to the sediment system of Poyang Lake and its rivers. The lake, these...
I spent twenty years of my life living and working in the US. My wife is American. My kids were born in Detroit and Dallas (and my daughter currently works in non-profit health care in New York). My first visit...
The desert has its own palette, distinctive and at the same time subtle yet dramatic. There are many factors at work creating the patterns and hues of arid lands - obviously the kind of sand, the kind of rock, the...
Curiosity, that hard-working field geologist, just keeps on delivering - this is surely the selfie to end all selfies (please). The rover continues to bustle around the Bagnold dunes, sending back extraordinary images, taking samples and sieving (Ralph Bagnold would...
Turn on the tap in your kitchen so that it's running at a typical (if not particularly conservative) rate of around three US gallons per minute. Ensure that your drain is working well and leave it flowing for 17 years....
