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The Ugly Side of Malta’s Kaffir Figs

These pretty flowers have an ugly side. Carpobrotus edulis is one of Europe’s top 100 invasive alien species.

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🎶 When a glacier drops till, building a little

🎶 When a glacier drops till, building a little hill - that’s amor-aine!

Couldn’t resist that one! Apologies to anyone who doesn’t know the Dean Martin song and is scratching their head right now. 😄

So what is a moraine, really?

The grey mounds seen on both sides of this glacier are moraines. They are made up of rocks, soils and other debris left behind by a moving glacier. This debris is collectively known as glacial till. 🪨

The two in this pic are officially lateral moraines, as they’re on the sides of the glacier. (Other types can form above, inside, and at the ends of glaciers.)

Moraines remain long after a glacier has retreated and are often eventually successively colonized by plants - first just microorganisms, then lichens, mosses and little herbs. These slowly make the soil more hospitable for other plants to grow, until eventually forests can form. 🌱🌲
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#moraine #moraines #glaciers #alaska #glacierbay #glacierbaynationalpark #thatsamore #deanmartin #alaskacruise #insidepassage #princesscruises

Did you know that glacier ice is a type of rock? 🪨

It’s mono-mineralic, ie made up only one mineral: ice. But this ice is rather different from the ice in your freezer. 🧊

Glacier ice forms from the coalescing of tens of thousands of snowflakes. Each snowflake is a crystal in itself, but thanks to the immense weight of more overlying snow, these are pushed together, melt, and recrystallize into much larger, denser ice crystals. ❄️ ❄️ ❄️

It’s this change in density, and corresponding squeezing out of air bubbles, that accounts for glaciers’ blue colour. Typically, the bluer a glacier, the older it is! 👵🏻

Photo taken on Norway’s beautiful Nigardsbreen Glacier.
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#glacier #glacierice #crystallization #chemistry #nigardsbreen #nigardsbreenglacier #norway #blueice #glacierhike #gloriousglaciers #norwayroadtrip #metamorphic #lookup #minerals

Continuing the alliteration, my next series is #Gl

Continuing the alliteration, my next series is #GloriousGlaciers 😁

This beauty is Margerie Glacier, one of the many in Alaska’s Glacier Bay. 🇺🇸

It may look majestically staid, but glaciers are constantly on the move. This happens in two ways: by internal deformation of the glacier’s ice, and by the glacier sliding over rocks and sediments at its base.

Internal deformation happens due to a combination of the extreme pressure of all that ice combined with the pull of gravity. Sliding occurs thanks to a thin water layer at the glacier base, caused by glacial melt. 💦

Sometimes glaciers can even race forward in events known as surges. These are normally caused by some instability in the glacier driven by meltwater.

Margerie is quite a fast mover, advancing about 2 metres per day. 👟

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#alaska #alaskacruise #glacierbay #glaciers #princesscruises #margerieglacier #usnationalparks #glaciermovement #iceicebaby

Almannagjá is a rather special gorge. Formed at t

Almannagjá is a rather special gorge.
Formed at the boundary of the North American and Eurasian continental plates, it is this place and the surrounding Þingvellir national park that gave much of the evidence for the tectonic plate theory we learned about in school. 🌍

Here, the Eurasian and North American plates are constantly being pulled apart, forming a Rift Valley. It’s one of the only places in the world where this process is easy to see on land, as most of this continental drift takes place under the sea. 🐳

Almannagjá is a fault situated right at the border of the North American plate, formed when the edge of the plate collapsed due to the constant pull. To touch the wall here is to touch the edge of the continental plate. 🧗‍♂️

A bit further along at Þingvellir, the same can be done with the edge of the Eurasian plate.

Swipe for a different perspective 👉

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#almannagjá #pingvellir #pingvellirnationalpark #thingvellir #thingvellirnationalpark #almannagja #continentaldrift #tectonics #tectonicplates #geography #geotravel #unescoworldheritagesite #science #scienceblog #travelgram #iceland #icelandroadtrip #gorges #gorgeousgorges #travelblog #virtualtravel

Next up in my #GorgeousGorges list is Rakaia Gorge

Next up in my #GorgeousGorges list is Rakaia Gorge in New Zealand🇳🇿

Rakaia Gorge was created by a series of glacier formations and retreats. Each time the glacier retreated, it left behind a river which slowly cut through the rock and also deposited silts and gravel in various places, forming terraces.

The sides of the gorge were more recently colonized by plants, forming the beautiful combo of turquoise waters and lush forest seen today. 🌴🌴🌴
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#takemeback #newzealand #newzealandhikes #rakaiagorge #erosion #canterbury #geologyrocks #southislandnz #travelgram #sciencegram #naturegram #hiketheworld #atlasobscura #offthebeatenpath #offthebeatenpathnz

Visiting this canyon in Iceland felt straight out

Visiting this canyon in Iceland felt straight out of a fantasy. At the time, hail the size of ice cubes was pelting down, further adding to the surreality.

Its name is Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon, and it’s quite young compared to the #GorgeousGorges I’ve shared so far. It’s thought to have formed
after the last ice age, about 9000 years ago, after the glacier that was present retreated. A lake then formed behind the area that is now the canyon. Powerful runoff from this glacial lake carved out the curves that can be seen today. 💦💧

The lake no longer exists as it eventually carved through the rock that was hemming it in and drained itself. All that’s left is the much calmer Fjaðrá River, seen in this pic.
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#fjaðrárgljúfur #fjadrargljufur #fjadrargljufurcanyon #canyons #iceland #atlasobscura #geology #science #sciencetravel #virtualtravel
#erosion #glaciers #volcaniclandscape
#wondersoftheworld

When does a gorge become a canyon? It depends who

When does a gorge become a canyon? It depends who you ask! Geologically there isn’t much difference between the two. Wide gorges tend to be called canyons, but this depends on which country you’re in. 🌏

But this place wouldn’t have the same ring to it if it was called The Grand Gorge, would it?

Presenting the USA’s Grand Canyon. Some of the rock layers that can be seen in this canyon are almost two billion years old! The canyon itself though is much younger - a sprightly six million years. 👶

How is that possible? Well the rock formed way before the processes that exposed it. It sat there for a long while minding its own business until tectonic activity lifted it high up, whilst keeping its same flat surface. The
Colorado River and its tributaries then began steadily chipping away at it, forming the jagged canyon we see today. 💦

Stay tuned for more #GorgeousGorges
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#grandcanyon #grandcanyonnationalpark #weathering #sciencetravel #geology #whatawonderfulworld #travelgram #erosion #canyons #gorges #science

Get ready for some classification! I’ve been f $Get ready for some classification! I’ve been finding it quite daunting to share photos from my archives. Inspiration comes so much easier when visiting somewhere new. But I’m going to try out some classification. It is one of the bedrocks of science after all. 😄 Starting off with #GorgeousGorges This one is Verdon Gorge in France 🇫🇷 Gorges can show off millions of years of rock formation in one glance, as they cut through so many layers of rock. The limestone here originally formed under the sea. It was pushed upwards and fractured by nearby earthquakes. After it rose out of the water, large scale ice cover led to further rock erosion, and finally Verdon River slowly carved out the gorge we see today. . . . #verdongorge #gorgesduverdon #gorges #provence #geologyrocks #sciencetravel #scienceblog #traveldeeper #travelgram #outdoorclassroom #instalearn$

👋 Some random and rather icky summer science!

👋 Some random and rather icky summer science!

🏊‍♀️If your eyes redden and sting when swimming in a pool, it’s not because of the chlorine alone. It’s actually due to the chlorine reacting with urine and/or sweat in the pool!

😡When chlorine and urine meet, a group of irritant chemicals called chloramines form. So if this happens to you, you may want to use those red, itchy eyes to glare at your swim buddies.
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My own super cute swimming partner could be one such culprit. I recently realised that swim nappies don’t hold in urine. 😲They’re only worn to hold in poop. Possibly a well kept parenting secret to stop those glares from being directed our way! This cutie and I are sticking to the sea for now though. 🌊
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#scicomm #summerscience #pooltime #chemistry #womeninscience #womeninstem #momsinscience #thisiswhatascientistlookslike #maltagram #swimnappies #environmentalhealth #beachlife #mumlife #summertime #poolsafety

🎨Before there were selfies, there were self-por

🎨Before there were selfies, there were self-portraits!
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❓Can you guess which of these paintings is a self-portrait by Cezanne, and which has been painted by another artist?
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📸Selfies tend to get a bad rap, but humans’ need for self expression through self imaging has been going back a long while! Research comparing self-portraits to selfies have linked both to a desire to maintain and document aspects of one’s life. Both have also been linked to creativity, though on a less flattering note also narcissism. In fact self-portraits in Cezanne’s time involved lots of staring into a mirror. Instead we now stare into front-facing cameras 🙂
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Both paintings at the National Portrait Gallery in London, one of my favorite museums. ❤️
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#selfie #selfportrait #cezanne #paulcezanne #nationalportraitgallery #nationalportraitgallerylondon #anthropology #sciencetravel #scienceblog #artlover

💜 I love finding little loners like this flower

💜 I love finding little loners like this flower. Such a beautiful reminder of living things’ ability to survive.

🔎This one is a species that’s subendemic to the Maltese Islands: the Maltese Sand Crocus (Scientific name: Romulea variicolor)

🧐What’s the difference between subendemic and endemic? Endemic species are found only in a certain place (eg Malta), whereas subendemic species spread slightly further, in this case to parts of neighboring Sicily and other nearby islands.
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#romulea #romuleavariicolor #endemicspecies #flora #flowergram #botany #maltagram #maltesescience #sciencetravel #scienceblogger #instabotany #hikingtrail #majjistralpark #whatawonderfulworld #iwillsurvive #biophilia #naturegram #crocus #sandcrocus #purpleflowers #lookdown #appreciatethelittlethings

Terroir tour 4️⃣ - culture! 🤔This is the m

Terroir tour 4️⃣ - culture!

🤔This is the more hotly debated aspect of terroir, as a winery’s practices throughout a single year also contribute to the vintage.

🥴Having luckily stayed at a couple of vineyards, I’m in the culture-firmly-belongs camp. Leave a vineyard untended and it will quickly cease to exist, let alone yield a quality wine. A vineyard’s culture goes hand in hand with all other characteristics.

🤩Some more interesting examples of this are camels being used instead of tractors at Le Domaine du Val d’Argan in Morocco, keeping the land’s sabbath by fallowing it every seven years in Israeli vineyards, and pumping the residual water from a nuclear power plant through pipes within the soil to warm up the vines in Olkiluoto Island’s vineyards.

❓What do you think - should culture be considered part of terroir?

Find out more about how terroir affects a wine's final taste in my latest blog post 👇
bit.ly/TerroirTour
(link also in bio)
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#wine #winemaking #winemaking101 #terroir #wineculture ##vineyards #stemilion #vineyardhotel #travelgram #sciencetravel #sunsetoverthevines #chateaulamarzelle ##grandcruclassé #takemeback #imisstravelling #scienceblog #sciencelovers

Terroir tour 3️⃣ - Flora! What does this cuti

Terroir tour 2️⃣ - Soil! 🌨In my last post

Terroir tour 2️⃣ - Soil!

🌨In my last post I looked at how climate affects terroir. And soil's role goes hand in hand - it acts as a climate regulator, counteracting or multiplying climate aspects.

🔥Soil has multiple qualities which contribute to this. Firstly, it has a certain heat capacity – the amount of heat it retains. One way this affects the final wine is that soils which retain more heat advance grape ripening when compared to cooler soils.

☄️Soil also regulates how much and how quickly a plant can drink. Soils in which wine grapes thrive are those which retain some water, but drain it away from the surface, ensuring that the plant’s roots do not get waterlogged. Various soils fit the bill – ranging from the volcanic ones of Sicily, to glacial deposits in New Zealand, to limestone in Malta.

🧪But the chemical makeup of these soils is completely different, due to their different origins – the starting points of the ones mentioned above range from lava to seashells! This leads to different concentrations of nutrients within the vines, as the plants suck these up from the surrounding soil.

🔁These nutrients affect the chemical reactions that occur throughout the plant’s lifecycle, in turn affecting the taste of the grapes and the taste of the final wine. But it’s not a direct link – a wine described as having an “earthy” tone didn’t pick this up from the earth directly.

Find out more about how soil and other aspects of terroir affect a wine's final taste in my latest blog post 👇
bit.ly/TerroirTour
(link also in bio)
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#wine #agriculture #stemilion #stemilionwine #soil #soilscience #outdoorscience #stemsquad #scienceblogger #travelgram #sciencetravel #terroir #winelovers

Terroir tour 1️⃣ - Climate! 🌤There are thr

Terroir tour 1️⃣ - Climate!

🌤There are three levels at play here, feeding into each other like Russian dolls: macroclimate, mesoclimate and microclimate.

☀️Macroclimate is the climate of the whole region. For instance, St. Emilion wines grow in a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and cool, mild winters. One simple way this effects the wine is it leads to greater sugar content when compared to a colder clime such as Germany’s Mosel region. ❄️On the other end of the spectrum, ice wines need subzero temperatures, as the grapes are picked whilst frozen on the vine, and pressed whilst still frozen.

🥂The next Russian doll, mesoclimate, is what makes wine trails so interesting. Mesoclimate refers to the differences between vineyards in the same region. What direction do they face, what’s their altitude, are they close to a large body of water, are they on a slope?

🌬Lastly, microclimate looks at a single row of vines. Here, factors like shade and airflow contribute to the grape’s final taste.

Find out more about how climate and other aspects of terroir affect a wine's final taste in my latest blog post 👇
bit.ly/TerroirTour
(link also in bio)
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#terroir #wineterroir #winemaking #winelovers #wineoclock #vineyards #climate #waipara #winetrail #instascience #hiketheworld #staycurious #learnsomethingnew #newzealand

🍷Join me on a terroir tour! . In winemaking, te

🍷Join me on a terroir tour!
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In winemaking, terroir refers to the combination of climate, soil, flora and culture that makes the wine produced from one vineyard unique from that produced in another, even if grown from the same rootstock.
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📚It’s a complex topic, commandeering a library of books and research papers, so I’ll be keeping this to a brief tasting session over the next few posts.
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All info in my latest blog post as well - link in bio! Or go to 👇
bit.ly/TerroirTour
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#terroir #wineterroir #winemaking #winelovers #wineo #vineyards #biotechnology #womeninstem #womeninscience #waipara #sciencetravel #travelgram

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