Conference ending; one last bike trip up the Danube before heading off

Today was the final day of the EGU conference. It has been a very hectic, crowded week; on their web page they say “The EGU General Assembly 2010 was a great success with 4,431 oral and 9,370 poster presentations in 594 sessions. More than 10,000 scientists participated in the conference”. Now that most of the sessions are over the hall is quiet, and it is easy to find a table near an electrical outlet, and therefore to blog in comfort.

I spent the morning attending the session on Subduction zone dynamics: A slab's journey in the upper and lower mantle. Unsurprisingly, most of the talks had to do with numerical modeling of subduction—such a high percentage of them that one guy felt compelled to apologize for offering a talk based on geochemical data from real rocks. I, for one, was delighted to hear his talk—while the pretty pictures and movies of what may be happening in the subjection process is certainly interesting, hearing details about real rocks and what we can infer from their chemistry is even more interesting.

Now it is time for me to shut down the computer, enjoy one final bike-ride along the pretty bike path.