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#geophysics

3 posts3 participants0 posts today
Public
Nicole Sharp

Non-Newtonian Effects in Magma Flows

As magma approaches the surface, it forces its way through new and existing fractures in the crust, forming dikes. When a volcano finally erupts, the magma’s viscosity is a major factor in just how explosive and dangerous the eruption will be, but a new study shows that what we see from the surface is a poor predictor of how magma actually flows within the dike.

Researchers built their own artificial dike using a clear elastic gelatin, which they injected water and shear-thinning magma-mimics into. By tracking particles in the liquids, they could observe how each liquid followed on its way to the surface. All of the liquids formed similar-looking dikes at a similar speed, but within the dike, the liquids flowed very differently. Water cut a central jet through the gelatin, then showed areas of recirculation along the outer edges. In contrast, the shear-thinning liquids — which are likely more representative of actual magma — showed no recirculation. Instead, they flowed through the dike in a smooth, fan-like shape.

The team cautions that surface-level observations of developing magma dikes provide little information on the flow going on underneath. Instead, their results suggest that volcanologists modeling magma underground should take care to include the magma’s shear-thinning to properly capture the flow. (Image credit: T. Grypachevska; research credit: J. Kavanagh et al.; via Eos)

Fresh lava glows orange-red as it slowly cools and solidifies.
#fluidDynamics#geophysics#magma
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Ele Willoughby, PhD

Happy birthday to Danish #seismologist Inge Lehmann (1888 – 1993) who demonstrated that the Earth’s core is not a single molten sphere, but contained an inner solid core, in ‘36. She was a pioneer #womanInScience, a brilliant seismologist & lived to be 105.⁠
⁠
As she first postulated, the #earth has roughly 3 equal concentric sections: mantle, liquid outer core & solid inner core. The crust, on which we live is merely 🧵1/n

Square linocut print on white paper of seismologist Inge Lehmann in a fur coat, silk scarf and dapper hat, in dark grey-teal ink overprinted with her diagram of the cross-section of the Earth in orange and red from her P’ paper, showing the mantle, outer core and inner core, an earthquake epicentre marker E and labelled ray paths through the Earth.
#printmaking#sciArt#geophysics
Public
Mainz University

Energy from the depths of the Earth: Collaborative research project studies temperature-induced change of rocks in geothermal reservoirs / Geothermal energy as a major driver in the energy revolution / German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy provides funding for research on small-scale processes in rocks for deep #GeothermalReservoirs 👉 press.uni-mainz.de/energy-from

Kick-off meeting of the TRIGGER project on the Gutenberg campus: (fltr) Dr. Hagen Deckert (igem), Professor Miriam Christina Reiss (JGU), Professor Virginia Toy (JGU), Professor Boris Kaus (JGU), Dr. Eva Wellmann (MaP), Professor Jörg Renner (RUB), Manuela Richter (Project Management Jülich), Dr. Stephen Michalchuk (JGU), Dr. Joyce Schmatz (MaP), Dr. Hugo Dominguez Carranza (JGU), and Dr. Min Zhang (RUB) (photo/©: Valentin Koßmann / TRIGGER)
#GeothermalEnergy#EnergyRevolution#geophysics
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Adam Steer

4 years ago this month... leaving Kronprins Haakon for a day of ski touring with a GEM2 electromagnetic sounder and a Magnaprobe.

Polona Itkin (then UiT, now NPI) is in frame doing the work, I'm on bear watch for this session (skiing in company with a rifle and rescue pack). We had our small battles, and ultimately were a great team! I'm glad she's found a permanent role doing this stuff.

Thread about sea ice, safety, perceptions and realities incoming....

Polona leaving Kronprins Haakon (icebreaker in the centre of shot) behind, skiing out on sea ice towing an electromagnetic induction sounder and making snow depth measurements every metre or so with a Magnaprobe (the long stick thing she's carrying)
Polona heading back toward RV Kronprins Haakon (icebreaker in the background), towing an electromagnetic induction sounder and making snow measurements with a magnaprobe
#arctic#seaice#geophysics
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okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin

Let's talk about "#AI", #LLM, and #MachineLearning, which I don't put in quotes.
First, I am not anti-science, I am anti-JUNKscience and MARKETING, and there is a difference.
Why can I discuss a field I'm not in with some knowledge? I spent over 30 years in #geophysics, #SignalProcessing, and in #geology and #hydrology and #hydrogeology modelling. People doing this kind of work (along with #meteorology and #Climatology) are the progenitors of the current science. 1/

Public
Nicole Sharp

On the Mechanics of Wet Sand

Sand is a critical component of many built environments. As most of us learn (via sand castle), adding just the right amount of water allows sand to be quite strong. But with too little water — or too much — sand is prone to collapse. For those of us outside the construction industry, we’re most likely to run into this problem on the beach while digging holes in the sand. In this Practical Engineering video, Grady explains the forces that stabilize and destabilize piled sand and where the dangers of excavation lie. (Video and image credit: Practical Engineering)

#civilEngineering#fluidDynamics#geophysics
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Skeptical Science

Our own @BaerbelW traveled to Vienna for this year's #EGU25 General Assembly of the @EuroGeosciences

Baerbel herself did a couple of presentations in Vienna:

* Examples of Skeptical Science successfully collaborating with other organizations so as to better reach shared goals, get more gain for less effort. With so much reward, we're eager to do more.

* How Skeptical Science translates our content into 29 different languages, the challenges of maintaining a polyglot presence. You may be able to help!

Baerbel also kept a daily journal. It's loaded with links to scads of intriguing information presented at the assembly by many researchers, with teasers and organized for easy access.

Post facto virtual attendance , distilled and at our fingertips. :-)

#geoscience
#geophysics
#ScienceCommunication

skepticalscience.com/egu25-per

Collage of notes recorded by Skeptical Science staffer Baerbel Winkler, during sessions at the 2025 European Geosciences Union General Assembly.
Public
Nicole Sharp

Martian Mud Volcanoes

Mars features mounds that resemble our terrestrial mud volcanoes, suggesting that a similar form of mudflow occurs on Mars. But Mars’ thin atmosphere and frigid temperatures mean that water — a prime ingredient of any mud — is almost always in either solid or gaseous form on the planet. So researchers explored whether salty muds could flow under Martian conditions. They tested a variety of salts, at different concentrations, in a low-pressure chamber calibrated to Mars-like temperatures and pressures. The salts lowered water’s freezing point, allowing the muds to remain fluid. Even a relatively small amount of sodium chloride — 2.5% by weight — allowed muds to flow far. The team also found that the salt content affected the shape the flowing mud took, with flows ranging from narrow, ropey patterns to broad, even sheets. (Image credit: P. Brož/Wikimedia Commons; research credit: O. Krýza et al.; via Eos)

Mud volcanoes here on Earth.
#fluidDynamics#geophysics#Mars
Public
Nicole Sharp

Bifurcating Waterways

Your typical river has a single water basin and drains along a river or two on its way to the sea. But there are a handful of rivers and lakes that don’t obey our usual expectations. Some rivers flow in two directions. Some lakes have multiple outlets, each to a separate water basin. That means that water from a single lake can wind up in two entirely different bodies of water.

The most famous example of these odd waterways is South America’s Casiquiare River, seen running north to south in the image above. This navigable river connects the Orinoco River (flowing east to west in this image) with the Rio Negro (not pictured). Since the Rio Negro eventually joins the Amazon, the Casiquiare River’s meandering, nearly-flat course connects the continent’s two largest basins: the Orinoco and the Amazon.

For more strange waterways across the Americas, check out this review paper, which describes a total of 9 such hydrological head-scratchers. (Image credit: Coordenação-Geral de Observação da Terra/INPE; research credit: R. Sowby and A. Siegel; via Eos)

Black and white satellite image showing the Casiquiare River (flowing north to south in the center of this image), which connects the Orinoco River (running east to west) with the Rio Negro.
#fluidDynamics#geophysics#physics
Public
earthling

Energy Flow and Earth: How Earth Works by John A. Whitehead, 2024

This book shows how energy flow plays a major role in: plate tectonics; the formation of continents; ocean basins; and building mountains. Energy flow also produces and drives volcanos, Earth’s magnetic field, the wind belts, our weather, and ocean circulation.

Chapter abstracts:
link.springer.com/book/10.1007

@bookstodon
#books
#nonfiction
#geology
#geophysics
#EarthScience
#Earth
#energy

The studies of convection cells, eddies, and energy flow all contribute to our understanding of how they are all formed and driven. Insight accumulated during 55 years of research is presented using simple fluid mechanics. The mathematics is algebra. No calculus or advanced geometry is used, so the text is readable to a broad audience. Some laboratory and computer studies are described that help to visualize the applications. This book should appeal to anyone interested in how energy flow is responsible for much of the earth’s larger “workings”. In addition to the general public, these include people who work in applied mathematics, fluid mechanics, earth science, and climate.
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