J. Brian Balta
@drjbbalta.bsky.social
Planetary Scientist and Petrologist, dog parent.
Ralph Lorenz—Huygens showed that Titan can be wet, even at low latitudes. As Dragonfly flies across Titan, the odds it’ll land in mud are low (<1%), and if so, the stickiness will be again to sticky wheat dough (and Dragonfly could still takeoff). #AOGS2026
Absolutely insane footage of rock avalanches currently sweeping across the entire south face of the Matterhorn, as filmed from Cervinia! 🔥😱 📽️ Via @meteovalledosta
Did everyone see @janinekrippner.bsky.social explaining volcanoes for Encylopedia Britannica? www.britannica.com/video/what-a...
Volcanologist Janine Krippner Explains the Science Behind Volcanoes and Lava Flow | Britannica
Volcanologist Janine Krippner dives into the details.
britannica.com
Google has also decided to effectively kill the desktop version of Google Earth Pro - which has been a genuinely useful mapping tool for many years. They’ve apparently decided those resources are better spent allowing users to burn AI credits on creating satellite imagery disinformation.
Get Google Earth Pro while you still can.
In an update on Tuesday, Google says it will block users from downloading its Google Earth Pro desktop app starting June 25th, 2027. People can continue to use the app after that date, which offers ac...
theverge.com
Obviously a very bad situation. In addition to injection wells, Ohio has for decades allowed oilfield brine (aka produced water) to be used on roads for a winter de-icing and summer dust control.
Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they)@doctorvive.bsky.social · last wk.Ohio has more than 240 injection wells for oil and gas waste, and the radioactive fracking wastewater that was supposed to remain forever underground in them is bubbling to the surface. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/c...
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains.
First video of gnarly rip current in Venice Beach today, with a Los Angeles County Lifeguard rescuing a young boy who was swept out to sea. It was all moving so fast!!!
I’d like to make it clear for all the people following me what the sheer gravity of the news is. Without this facility we can’t ensure constant communication with spacecraft beyond Earth orbit. If this facility is off-line, the Artemis program cannot send a crew to the Moon.
Andy Scollick@andyscollick.bsky.social · 2w agoThe Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex at Robledo de Chavela municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain on fire. Burgohondo wildfire. 📷 via Infues Avila
Wow look at the lahar deposits in the river channel.
Mount St. Helens Archive@mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 2w ago"Look at that! You'll never see anything more beautiful in the whole goddamn world than that old mountain." — Harry Truman to his niece Shirley, summer of 1948. I have to agree, Harry. I have to agree.
It appears this quake is in a zone with a seismic history and a reasonable chance of a magnitude 6 earthquake, but also a history of oil and gas exploration and presumably waste fluid disposal. Many of these are listed in the attached document as uncertain trigger. www.weather.gov/media/ama/ea...
weather.gov
Andrew Alden@geology.bsky.social · 2w agoLooks like a proper tectonic quake (now M5.1) in the Texas panhandle. Deep disposal well activity is a possible trigger but that's TBD. (earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...)
(And the professional geologists grow increasingly impatient with universities and begin to set up alternatives...)
The Field Skills Crisis
Geologists warn that shrinking field camps threaten the profession’s future workforce — industry and academia race to save them.
aapg.org
Can’t wait for everybody else to realize that sand is in fact not an infinite resource, especially the really clean quartz sand we use to make stuff with. Not all sand is the same!
Estimated rainfall through the week over Southwest Texas. As much as 25" to 30" of rain has fallen in the area of Uvalde, Knippa, Sabinal. Catastrophic flooding continues this morning along the Frio & Guadalupe Rivers and surrounding areas. #txwx
I asked the first author of this study what he'd say to someone who is scared of a meteorite falling on their house, and he said "Don't be! It's a treasure! It's an honor!" 😬☄️🔭🧪 www.sciencenews.org/article/new-...
The 2024 New York City meteorite contains amino acids
The brine-formed meteorite that crashed into a New Jersey roof in 2024 could teach us about how life first arrived on Earth.
sciencenews.org
Here is a map of the Pathfinder landing site which uses HiRISE (greatly enlarged) as a base image and drapes a polar projection of the panorama over it, using lots of rocks as tie points. Some of the rocks are partially rectified in a very ad hoc manner to […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
Has anyone submitted (preferably won) a NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship that is willing to share their materials (even better if it was astrophysics or geosciences)? I’m trying to get an idea how to write a winning proposal.
Cookie Monster Says Hey!
ALT: Cookie Monster Says Hey!
static.klipy.com
80 Grand Canyon pics just posted to geologypics.com. There, you'll find 5000+ of my Earth Sci images, all searchable, captioned, and avail for free download. Please share, esp to teachers! #geology #teaching #earth clockwise fr LL: Colo R, Great Unconformity; Volc neck, debris flow w/rev grading.
This works awesomely for slight misreads of the first phrase. I too would like to reach an agreement with the mantle.
Howard Lee@hlee.bsky.social · last mo.Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes has signed an agreement with geothermal developer Mantle Reach Power to deliver up to 500 megawatts of capacity in North America ⚒️⚡ www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
I haven't seen anyone note this yet, but just to stress. Since many proposals are on 3 year or longer timescales, only a fraction of NSFs budget is available for new proposals each year, something close to 30%. A 20-30% cut basically eliminates 2/3 or more of new proposals this year.
Science Magazine@science.org · last mo.Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm
As someone who's spent an inordinate amount of time in Yellowstone geyser basins... you absolutely cannot stop the public from touching algae if they want to touch it. 😂
Ouch. Flood protection infrustructure is typically designed for a 1-in-50-year or 1-in-100-year flood. New study finds, “At nearly half of the 130 sites analyzed in the study, a flood expected once every 100 years in 1900 now occurs at least once per decade.” news.tulane.edu/pr/sea-level...
Planetary Research Jobs: A new job announcements platform for planetary science https://blog.planetary-research.org/2026/06/08/planetary-research-jobs-a-new-job-announcements-platform-for-planetary-science/
Planetary Research Jobs: A new job announcements platform for planetary science
A new job announcements platform for planetary science Planetary Research Jobs is a new online platform that centralizes job announcements in the field of planetary science. Any person can browse the website for free, and any person with an ORCID iD (which is almost everyone) can post an announcement at no cost. Job announcements can [...]
blog.planetary-research.org
Oh look, NSF is sending out job ads to list servs in at least the Earth Sciences that are looking for Trump flunkies, more or less, to serve as program directors. This has gone out to multiple mailing lists from multiple NSF accounts.
