Juneteenth 2020

Here at The Way of the Geophysicists, we have written about social justice before. Today marks Juneteenth. The day of slave liberation in the United States, where a lot of our readers come from. After the death of George Floyd and ongoing deaths through police brutality of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, … [I […]

Elephant Rocks, NZ

Uncertainty in Geoscience – Bayes and Expert opinions

In geoscience we’re not all that great with uncertainty. Since everything is uncertain, calculating the error margins in geoscience itself is often neglected. However, a geologist is perfectly suited to understand Bayes theorem, a little tool that statisticians swoon over. I haven’t been on too many field trips, however, most of the time it would […]

Caledonian Folding in Norway

Caledonian folding in Saltstraumen, Bodø, Norway

There are some rock faces that are simply spectacular, including this rock face in Saltstraumen, near Bodø in northern Norway. These fascinating folds have formed under distinct circumstances. About 490 – 390 million years ago the Caledonian Orogeny happened due to the continents of Laurentica, Avalonia and Baltica colliding. In Scandinavia, the collision involved Laurentica and Baltica only. The […]

Seismic Image with Hydrocarbon Indicator Interpretation

The subjective science of seismic interpretation

The final step in the work with seismic data is seismic interpretation. In a scientific field called geophysics, interpretation sounds highly subjective; Very different from the usual statistics, ray and wave phenomenae. This can’t be right, right? I’d love to say it’s very clear and seismic data reveals a perfect image of the subsurface. But […]

Moeraki Boulders

Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand

There are a couple of places in this world, I really would like to see. A friend just added the Moeraki Boulders to this list, posting it to facebook. These are spherical boulders off the coast of New Zealand of unusual size. My first guess, would be dinosaur eggs (wouldn’t that be cool?). The actual explanation […]

Do we even need math? – Calculus in geophysics and geology

The amount of calculus in geophysics and geology degrees varies throughout every university and even in uni itself, there seldomly is a consensus on how much math is actually needed. Jascha Polet from Cal Poly Pomona asked a very interesting question on Twitter: Should every student who graduates from a Geology (not Env Sciences) MSc […]

A geologic mystery solved! – The sailing stones

When you write about geology you inevitably come across a couple mysteries that are just unsolved. In the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley they have many names for this phenomenon. Racing Rocks Sailing Stones Wandering Stone Moving Stones In the end they were just as puzzling. These rocks were moving without any apparent force moving […]

Gain traction in the Geoscience community

The internet is a wonderful place. I am one of the lucky people who does not have to wait for weeks to get a hold of a paper I might need for my thesis. As a scientist this international network has become indispensible. Not just for retrieving papers, but also the review process and colaboration. […]

Scale matters

zafojones: Petrified wood fossil with opal formed in the growth rings. This looks amazing However, if you look closely, you realize, why scale is important in pictures like this. Can you spot the human fingers in the background? from Tumblr

52 things you should know about geology

How about a great book to read? People like to read in the most diverse situations. On the train, on a plane, when you take a couple of minutes off, or if you don’t have a working internet connection like me (it’s been over a month… I’m going crazy!). So finally I had the time […]