On the weekend of 12-14 May 2011, the Steering Committee, the Scientific Committee and the Outreach Committee held a meeting chaired by the Executive Director Benno Werlen in Jena, the City of Science. In his welcome address Christoph Matschie, the State’s Minister of Education, Science and Culture, welcomed the scientists who hailed from all five [...]
Planning for the 2012 IGU Conference in Cologne (www.igc2012.org) is now well and truly underway. The first meeting of the international Scientific Committee was held from 12th to 15th May at the University. The objectives were to discuss the state-of-the-art in the scientific fields of the selected key topics, to finalise the session selection for [...]
Established in 1991 the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize is the highest award that can be gained in the field of Geography. The award is modelled on the Nobel Prize and is called the “Nobel Prize for Geography”. It is named after the 16th century French scholar, Vautrin Lud, who is credited with naming the [...]
Dear All, Yesterday was 1st April, i.e. three weeks from that gigantic earthquake. The Government decided to call the earthquake “East Japan Earthquake”. A new fiscal/academic year started yesterday in Japan, and there were entrance ceremonies at government offices and companies everywhere. Prime Minister Kan and the other ministers started wearing suits, as if to [...]
A team of geographers led by Professor Yasuhiro Suzuki of Nagoya University mapped the tsunami front (red line) and the areas of severest damage (blue coloured) on 1:25,000 topographic maps, as you see at: http://danso.env.nagoya-u.ac.jp/20110311/map/index_e.html Provision of GIS-based maps is also underway.
Dear All, For many people in the world, the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster in Northeast Japan fortnight ago may be the incidence of the past. Even in Japan, articles on it occupy less and less space in newspapers day by day. However, I believe the situation is still very serious, or is becoming even more serious. Here [...]
Professor Yukio Himiyama reports... The hard situation in the disaster areas still continues, though relief operations are accelerated. The situation of the atomic plant is still at a critical level, and a large number of people have been evacuating from the danger zone. However, the general public, mass media, and many of the political leaders [...]
The hearts and minds of the global community of geographers go out to the nation of Japan as it begins to deal with the magnitude of their biggest ever seismic event. The IGU wishes to express its condolences to those who have lost loved ones in this latest tragedy. • 8.9 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks [...]
Scientists in helicopters survey lava rising from a crater floor on Hawaii's Kilauea volcano on March 6. The volcano's Pu'u 'O'o crater collapsed on Saturday, and a 0.33-mile-long (0.5-kilometer-long) fissure ripped open on a separate region of the volcano. The new vent has since been sporadically erupting lava up to 80 feet (25 meters) high, [...]
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/110228-antarctica-green-algae-bloom-global-warming-science-environment/ "Crazy green" pools teeming with life have been found among remote Antarctic sea ice, scientists say—and they may be a global warming boon. Observed in the little-studied Amundsen Sea (see map), the brilliant blooms owe their colors to chlorophyll, a pigment in various types of phytoplankton, or tiny algae. Algae-eating zooplankton, small crustaceans called [...]