October 2015

Goldschmidt2016: call for sessions deadline is 31 October

The 2016 Goldschmidt Conference will be held in the exciting city of Yokohama, Japan, located an hour by bus from the Tokyo airports and overlooking the beautiful Yokohama bay. The Goldschmidt2016 Science Committee is asking the community to suggest sessions across the whole of the 19 themes so that the theme chairs can take these building blocks and create a completed session list. Visit the Goldschmidt2016 website to learn more. Deadline is 31 October.

2016 Awards: send your nominations

If you know of scientists who deserve recognition, please nominate them for an EAG Award or for the EAG-GS Fellowship. The process is simple and the different awards recognize scientists at various stages of their career:

• Houtermans Award for scientists under 35 or within 6 years of their PhD
• Science Innovation Award (named after Ted Ringwood for his work in petrology and mineral physics) for scientists between 35 and 55
• Urey Award, recognizing scientific excellence over a career
• EAG-GS Geochemical Fellowship, recognizing scientists who have made major contributions to the field of geochemistry.

Please send your nomination before 31 October for EAG-GS Fellows and before 15 November for all other awards.

We provide some useful information about how to write nomination or support letters in this article. Here is an excerpt:

The letter must explain why the candidate deserves this award, what contributions they have made and their impact. How have they changed the field and what new work or insights have been stimulated as a result? The awards committee may be confronted with many such impressive records, however, so it is essential to make the candidates achievements stand out by being quite specific as to why they are special. Read more

EAG Photo Contest: submit your photo before 31 October

Winners of the EAG Photo Contest receive a 5-year EAG membership, providing reduced rates to the next 5 Goldschmidt conferences, subscription to Elements Magazine, Geochemical Perspectives, Geochemical Perspectives Letters and more. The winning photos are also widely advertised on the EAG website, newsletter and in Elements, so take your chance and submit your photo before 31 October (one photo max. per theme).

This year's themes are:

• The spirit of the Goldschmidt2015 conference
• What is geochemistry for you?
• Earth, Fire, Air, Water

New: Probing the Earth’s Deep Interior Through Geochemistry

The new Geochemical Perspectives issue, 'Probing the Earth’s Deep Interior Through Geochemistry' by Bill White, tells the story of how isotope and trace element geochemistry have elucidated the evolution of the Earth’s mantle through the window of basaltic volcanism over the last 50 years. The composition of mid-ocean ridge basalts show that the upper mantle bears the geochemical scars of partial melt extraction to form the oceanic and continental crust. In contrast, the geochemistry of oceanic island basalts... Read more

The online version is fully open access and printed copies are on their way to EAG members. To verify your address, please login to your member area.

New article in Geochemical Perspectives Letters

The pyroxenite-diamond connection by E.S. Kiseeva, B.J. Wood, S. Ghosh and T. Stachel is the latest article published in Geochemical Perspectives Letters.

Geochemical Perspectives Letters is the new EAG journal publishing peer-reviewed high quality articles spanning geochemical sciences, fully open access, carrying NO author charges. Find out more.

EAG Distinguished Lecture Tour 2015 starting 19 October

From 19 to 30 October, Miryam Bar-Matthews (Geological Survey of Israel) selected as EAG Distiguished Lecturer 2015, will give several lectures on the topic of speleothems in Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. See all dates and locations. These are public lectures so staff, students and visitors are welcome to attend.

EAG co-sponsors Workshop on Highly Siderophile Element

EAG happily co-sponsors the 4th International Workshop on Highly Siderophile Element taking place at the University of Durham, UK, on 11-15 July 2016. EAG will provide travel bursaries for students. Should you be interested in attending, please contact hseworkshopdurham@gmail.com asap. Abstract deadline will be 26 February.

Elements latest issue: Supergene Metal Deposits

Supergene metal deposits form when deeply buried ore bodies are exposed at the Earth's surface and undergo oxidation, dissolution, and significant reconcentration of metals. This issue highlights some of the most recent advances in the field, including cutting-edge research in economic geology, paleoclimate and geoarcheology studies, environmental geochemistry, geobiology, and corrosion science.

EAG members will receive their print copy shortly and have online access to all back issues of Elements (user id = email address, password = EAG membership number). To verify your postal address or your membership number, login to your member area.

Diffusion Studies to the Determination of Timescales...

[By Niklas Stausberg] With the support of a EAG student sponsorship, I was able to attend the shortcourse “Application of Diffusion Studies to the Determination of Timescales in Geochemistry and Petrology” at the Ruhr-University Bochum. The course was held right after this year’s Goldschmidt conference in Prague and brought together almost 40 students, postdocs and faculty from 11 countries. Read more

EAG Early Career Science Ambassador in 250th ACS in Boston

[By Silvia Orsetti] I had wanted to attend an ACS (American Chemical Society) meeting for many years. Thanks to the EAG Early Career Science Ambassador program I had the pleasure to be in Boston for the 250th ACS National Meeting & Exposition (16-20 August 2015), where I presented two posters at the Division of Environmental Chemistry. This event comprehends many areas in Chemistry. Read more

Earth's inner core was formed 1-1.5 billion years ago

[Science Daily] There have been many estimates for when the earth's inner core was formed, but scientists from the University of Liverpool have used new data which indicates that the Earth's inner core was formed 1 -- 1.5 billion years ago as it "froze" from the surrounding molten iron outer core. Read more

NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today's Mars

[NASA] New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars. Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. Read more

Giant asteroid may have triggered deadly volcano eruptions

[Science News] The demise of the dinosaurs may have been the result of a coordinated one-two punch. Eruption activity in a volcanic region in present-day India appears to have increased around the time of the asteroid impact that preceded the Cretaceous extinction, scientists report in the Oct. 2 Science. Read more

Exploring cost-effective, non-polluting enhanced...

[Science Daily] Exploring cost-effective, non-polluting enhanced geothermal systems. Tapping the natural heat of Earth may be more cost-effective and clean thanks to a research project by New Mexico State University Assistant Professor Kenneth C. Carroll and others. Carroll is a member of a group that has published two papers related to a new area of geothermal energy, called enhanced geothermal systems. Read more

Corals worldwide hit by bleaching

[Nature News] From Hawaii to Papua New Guinea to the Maldives, coral reefs are bleaching — in so many regions that the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officially declared a global bleaching event on 8 October. The event, the third in recorded history, is expected to grow worse in coming months. Read more

A humorous look at the world of science

Check our latest cartoon, created by geochemists for geochemists in need of comic relief... You will also find this cartoon in the Elements October 2015 issue.

Check the latest job opportunities

Receive job ads as they are posted: like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter (@EAG_). To post a position on the EAG job page (free of charge): click here.

• PhD Student Position in Environmental Geochemistry of Thallium - EAWAG
• PhD position ‘Early metal-silicate differentiation processes in small bodies of the solar system: integrative approach based on numerical modelling, petrological and geochemical data’ - Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, France
• 2016 Exploration Postdoctoral Fellowship - Arizona State University
• Lecturer/Reader in Earth Sciences - University of St Andrews
• Professor or Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) of Experimental Geochemistry/Mineral Physics - ETH Zurich
• Science Communication Internship - Hiroshima University
• Geochemical study of experimental CaCO3 biomineralization by cyanobacteria - CNRS, University Pierre et Marie Curie
• Postdoctoral Research Associate in: Autocatalysis and mineral/organic self-organization in the earliest Earth - School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University

Upcoming deadlines for geochemistry related events

• Pre-AGU short course: Highly Siderophile Elements and Strongly Chalcophile Elements in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry: 11-12 December, La Jolla, CA - Registration deadline 11 December
• AGU Fall Meeting 2015: Reduced rates housing deadline 12 November
• ISEG10 – 10th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry: Abstract deadline 13 November - EAG members can register at member rate
• 7th Geochemistry Symposium with International Participation: Abstract deadline 14 December

See all upcoming conferences and workshops.