Dr. Morelia Urlaub from GEOMAR gives Gauss Lecture at the EGU

21.04.2021/Kiel, Vienna. April is a special month for geoscientists. Traditionally, the annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) takes place in April and usually more than 10,000 experts from all over the world meet in Vienna. In 2021, of course, everything is different and the EGU meeting will take place largely online. But that does not mean that the program will be any less extensive. For example, the German Geophysical Society e.V. (DGG) has organized a C.-F.-Gauss Lecture again this year. The DGG invites a selected personality from geophysical research to present the latest developments in this scientific discipline. This year it is Dr. Morelia Urlaub from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. The geoscientist specializes in the study of marine natural hazards. Currently, funded by a prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council, she is focusing on the causes of flank collapses on coastal and island volcanoes. As historical and geological examples show, these can trigger devastating tsunamis that affect far more than the immediate vicinity of the volcano in question. But how great is the hazard at volcanoes like Etna (Italy) or Kilauea (Hawaii, USA) really? In her talk "Flank instability of coastal and ocean island volcanoes: Why it is not enough to look at the tip of the iceberg", Dr. Urlaub will give an overview of the current state of research and outline the approaches she and her research group will use to gain new insights into this topic in the coming years.

The lecture series honors mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), whose early investigations of the Earth's magnetic field also laid the foundations for modern geophysics.

The lecture starts today (21 April 2021) at 6 p.m. and is open to the public via the following link: https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/j/93222345234?pwd=REpqUEQ1Z1Rhc2haMU1zQlVFbithQT09