Great Geobake off photos

This entry ('Jurassic Park Toilet Death scene') in the Geol Soc's Geobake off was from Natasha Stephen at Plymouth Uni. Click the link to see other entries.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/geolsoc/albums/72157653663003405/with/17541678454/

I am sure there will be another Geobake off this year.

We could have a WCS competition, with a trophy, celebrity judges, 

maybe as a charity fund raiser? 

Winner goes on to compete against biology/English/chemistry/physics/geography/maths etc

in a grand final?

Here's how to make an evolution cake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3vn_5FLees

Indian man may be first to be killed by meteorite

Indian officials say a meteorite struck the campus of a private engineering college on Saturday, killing one person. If scientists confirm the explosion was due to a meteorite, it would be the first recorded human fatality due to a falling space rock.

According to local reports, a bus driver was killed on Saturday when a meteorite landed in the area where he was walking, damaging the window panes of nearby buses and buildings. Three other people were injured.

Keep your eyes open for more news and for verification of this story.

Here is the Daily Mail's report. I thought that gelatine was used in cooking!

Taiwan earthquake: death toll rises with dozens trapped in toppled building

A powerful earthquake in Taiwan has brought down a 16-storey apartment complex full of families gathered for the lunar new year celebrations, with at least 13 people dead and many more feared to be trapped.

Rescuers were searching late on Saturday for more than 100 people still missing after the 6.4-magnitude quake struck in the early hours, with the southern city of Tainan bearing the brunt of the damage.

About 340 people were rescued from the rubble over the course of the day. An entire residential complex of four buildings containing almost 100 homes toppled to the ground, with twisted metal girders exposed and clouds of dust rising from the jumbled concrete.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/05/earthquake-hits-tainan-southern-taiwan-causing-at-least-one-partial-building-collapse

Volcano prediction

We started 2016 with a bang. Both Chile and Indonesia saw a clutch of volcanoes erupting after laying dormant for a decade or more. This followed an eruption in April 2015, when Calbuco volcano in Chile burst back to life after more than 40 years of silence, with experts giving less than two hours of warning. In an era of global satellite monitoring with proliferating networks of instruments on the ground, why can we still not accurately predict volcanic eruptions?

For information click here.

Further information on volcano and earthquake prediction click here. The image above is from this site.