• Question: what is the thing that you most want to discover/find out?

    Asked by itsmillie to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 22 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by molly97.
    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 22 Jun 2012:

      Hi itsmillie,
      I think the ultimate aim in my area of science is to be able to completely predict when and where earthquakes and volcanoes occur, so that people can be warned and evacuated. However, the earth’s crust is so complicated that most scientists think that we’ll never be able to do that completely.

      We can, however, identify areas that are at greatest risk, and make plans to deal with disasters when they happen.

      A major part of my work is in understanding how our activities in the ground – sucking out oil and gas, mining for metals, minerals and for coal, as well as injecting our waste materials into reservoirs below the ground – can actually influence earthquakes, and in some cases they can actually create ‘man-made’ earthquakes! If I can help make sure that we understand why these happen, and adjust our activities so that we can avoid them, then I think that would be a major achievement for me.

    • Photo: Nuala Carson

      Nuala Carson answered on 22 Jun 2012:

      Hey,

      That’s an awesome question but pretty hard to answer. I think ultimately every scientist working in earth / climate science would like to discover a way of preventing further climate change, or reverse the damage we have already done. But this is a lot of work and would not be done by one person, so i suppose all i could ask for is to contribute to helping the world not be destroyed by climate change.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 22 Jun 2012:

      Hi itsmillie,

      When studying climate change, the real key to understanding what will happen resolves around an idea called “Climate Sensitivity”. It is the name given to the amount of warming the world will get from a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

      At the moment, climate scientists estimate this value is between 2°C to 4.5°C with it most likely to be 3°C.

      I would most like to discover a better estimate for Climate Sensitivity, which is one of the focusses of my science.

      This is important because this value gives us an idea of exactly what sort of warming climate change will cause and if we have a better idea of how warm it will get, we can better prepare the most vulnerable people in this world, especially in places such as Africa, but also in the USA and Europe, as climate change will affect everyone globally!

Comments