Zoom Geological Webinars from Cardiff University

The School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University is organising a series of Zoom webinars, held at 5PM on Wednesdays.

You can read all about it HERE. Instructions on how to join the webinar are on the site.

I have missed the first couple of seminars but the full list is as follows:- 

Date Speaker Seminar

12 August 2020 Aidan Starr

Iceberg Armadas in the Geological Past: An unlikely control on glacial climates

Off the coast of South Africa, tiny fragments of Antarctica can be found hidden in layers of deep-sea mud; relics of melting icebergs from the distant past. In this webinar, we will see how this surprising evidence is helping geologists, oceanographers, and climate scientists to better understand climate conditions during past ice ages.

19 August 2020 Dr Ake Fagereng

Exploring the 'Silent Earthquakes' of the Pacific Rim

In this webinar, we will talk about a recently discovered class of 'silent earthquakes': what they are, and why they are exciting. The webinar will particularly draw on discoveries from a recent scientific ocean drilling expedition, for which more information is available here.

26 August 2020 Oliver Campbell

The Impact of Conflict: The Role of Geology in Heritage Conservation

What does a 13th century church in the South of England have in common with a Roman amphitheatre in Syria? And why are geologists shooting at rocks in a lab? Find out the answers and more in this webinar and online here

02 September 2020 Oliver Francis

Earthquakes, landslides and rain. The aftermath of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.

Many of the largest earthquakes in the world happen in mountains. When these mountains shake big piles of rocks fall off and crush buildings and block rivers causing floods. After the earthquake towns begin to rebuild and recover however, a lot of the rocks remain on the mountainside and when it rains, they can move again. These rocks mix with the rain and rush down the mountainside and destroy roads and buildings that have just been repaired. In this talk we will investigate the landslides caused by the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China and what happened to them in the years that followed.

09 September 2020 Jasmin Millar

Snowball Earth: Ice creatures of the deep past

Before the first animals evolved, micro-life survived on a completely frozen planet. In this webinar we'll explore how life survived approximately 100 million years of ice and show you why scientists travel to the poles today to understand the past.

16 September 2020 Dr Jack Williams

What can geology tell us about forecasting earthquake hazards? New insights from the East African Rift.

In this webinar, we will explore how data from GPS stations in the East African Rift, and subtle clues in the rift's landscape and geology, can be combined to investigate the potential location and magnitude of its future earthquakes.

23 September 2020 Professor Thomas Blenkinsop

Minerals for the Green Economy.

Making the transition to a green economy requires vast changes in the supply of minerals for society. Which minerals will we need? How much of them do we need? Have we got enough? These questions will be addressed in the webinar.

30 September 2020 Aditee Mitra

Mixoplankton – the unsung heroes of our oceans.

Join us for the story of the mixoplankton. These unsung heroes have been mislabelled by scientists for over a century and sometimes even been called “freaks”! Yet, for millions of years these microscopic marine organisms have been looking after our planet, helping other life forms exist. For example, did you know that 50% of the oxygen that we breathe is produced by microscopic plankton in our oceans?

07 October 2020 Dr Adam Beall

Does the Earth behave like a giant lava lamp? How Earth's mantle convects, shaping our planet.

This webinar is a brief overview of how the Earth behaves like a giant lava lamp that drives plate tectonics and how scientists think the strong outer layer of the Earth fits into this picture.

14 October 2020 Dr Michael Prior-Jones

Exploring the hidden plumbing of glaciers.

Glaciers are made from ice, but often liquid water flows inside and underneath them. In this session, we’ll talk about how our “Cryoegg” probe uses new technology to help us explore the hidden “plumbing” underneath glaciers in Switzerland and Greenland.

21 October 2020 Dr David Buchs

How the rise of the Isthmus of Panama helped shape the modern world.

This webinar will take you to the jungle of Panama to find geological clues about the emergence of Panama, and will explain why this geological event helped create the world as we know it today. Learn more about research on the Isthmus of Panama at Cardiff University.

28 October 2020 Niall Groome

The story of Avalonia: How England & Wales crashed into Scotland.

This webinar will explore the origins of how the British Isles first joined together more than 400 million years ago, telling the story of how the ancient microcontinent of Avalonia (England and Wales) separated from Gondwana and eventually crashed into Laurentia (Scotland and North America).

04 November 2020 Dr Marc-Alban Millet

CSI volcano: how do geologist unravel past volcanic eruptions.

Volcanic eruptions are powerful geological events with potentially devastating effects. In this webinar, we will talk about how geologists study old eruptions to better understand how magma rises through the Earth's crust and erupts at the surface.

18 November 2020 Professor Christopher MacLeod

Have we got plate tectonics wrong? A new view of seafloor spreading at slower-spreading mid-ocean ridges.

Journey to the deepest oceans on the latest oceanographic research ships with Cardiff University's Prof Chris MacLeod, as he and fellow marine geologists question the textbook view of the fundamentals of plate tectonics: how new ocean crust is created by seafloor spreading at mid-ocean ridges. These underwater chains of volcanoes pave two-thirds of the planet yet are less well surveyed than the surface of Pluto. Learn how hard-won discoveries from the latest scientific expeditions at Earth's final frontier are leading to a new, very different view of seafloor spreading.