EGU needs you: Call for volunteers

Have you ever thought of considering to volunteer at the European Geosciences Union?

Even though the organisation is huge (+12,000 members) it is mostly run voluntarily, employing only a handful of people primarily focused on the administrative part of the organisation.

EGU is a truly bottom-up organisation that relies on, and values, the input of its members on a variety of projects and activities. There are a number of tasks members and other interested parties can help with on a voluntary basis. If you are an enthusiastic young scientist or a GIFT teacher, or simply someone who would be interested in helping in EGU activities, then check this page: http://www.egu.eu/structure/volunteer-work

EGU acknowledges the support of volunteers by, for example, lining their articles or naming them as reviewers or translators. This means you can add your EGU contribution to your CVs.

Examples you can contribute to:

Educational:

• Planet Press Articles
• GeoLocations Database
• Teacher’s Corner

Outreach activities:

• EGU Wikipedia
• Science Writing

Courses database:

• Database of undergraduate (bachelor, diploma, etc.) and master courses

Division activities:

• Young Scientists website

Can cloud formations predict earthquakes?

A new paper is out for discussion in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences titled On a report that the 2012 M = 6.0 earthquake in Italy was predicted after seeing an unusual cloud formation.

Po Valley, Italy

A group of researchers from various institutions in the USA and Italy took the task of studying cloud formations across the entire Italian peninsula. It all started after several reports had suggested that linear-cloud formations might be precursory to earthquakes. The researchers examined satellite images of northern Italy over the duration of four years in order to establish if the formations seen at the time of the 2012 magnitude 6 earthquake in the Po Valley, Italy were related to the earthquake itself.

Some of the presented examples of linear-cloud formations over Italy from January 2010 to December 2013.

The answer is no.
They observed numerous examples of linear-cloud formations over Italy, and concluded that there is no obvious statistical relationship between the occurrence of these cloud formations and earthquakes that occurred in and around Italy. Instead they claim that the cloud formations were formed by the interaction of moisture-laden wind flowing over mountains.

Access the full PDF here.

 

Turning science into fun games for citizens

Sounds like fun. Have a look at this interesting read and see how scientist are turning to citizens to help them with analysing large volumes of data.

Science can be fun, at least for citizens.

“A few days ago, I was an astrophysicist and contributed to a research project by organising sunspot images in order of complexity. After I’d had enough of that, I became a biochemist and worked late into the night on a project creating synthetic RNA.”

“Actually, I am not a scientist.”

Read the full article here:
https://theconversation.com/addictive-online-games-make-citizen-science-a-hit-30552