Do you want to write a story about volcanoes that changed history? the editor asked. Why yes. Yes, I do. My piece in @knowablemag.bsky.social on the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days that can transpire after an eruption: knowablemagazine.org/content/arti... 🧪🌋

Volcanoes that made history

Long after the lava stopped flowing, enormous eruptions altered Earth’s climate and societies all over the globe

knowablemagazine.org

I made a raffle prize for a fundraiser tonight

There was some pretty odd emergency management news in Florida yesterday that I want to do a quick thread on. At this point I am not exactly sure what this all means but it seems like something to be aware of...

Also FYI, the majority of Colorado River water used for farms is actually for cattle feed (alfalfa and hay). The minority of the agricultural water use is for food people eat directly, like wheat or produce. science.nasa.gov/missions/lan...

mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social · 3d ago

e.g. Las Vegas is a huge and fast-growing metro area in one of the driest parts of the southwest and is now a net CONTRIBUTOR to Colorado River flows because they took water conservation extremely seriously. People don't actually use that much water! It's the farms!

They want to mine plagioclase dust. They want to mine the commonest least useful shit you've ever seen. Because they want to mine your pension and retirement accounts but can't come right out and say that.

David Burbach 🇺🇸@dburbach.bsky.social · 4d ago

Actual CEO of a space company people actually invest in says "by the early 2030s" -- just 5 to 7 years from now -- there will be mines and factories and large human workforce on the Moon, such that we'll be able to see lights of the lunar city from our front porches fortune.com/2026/08/17/b...

new blog post

The long-lost brickyard of Adams Point

Adams Point, the peninsula on Lake Merritt that’s now the heart of Lakeside Park, was always open space, but never empty. Activity went on there from Oakland’s earliest days. When a long-forgotten …

oaklandgeology.com

The most amazing cave formations I've seen since the Naica giant gypsum spears.

biting tongue

Brandon Bishop@brandontbishop.bsky.social · 4d ago

General question: Who discovered plate tectonics and what observations let them do it? (People with geo degrees, please sit this one out, trying to see something.)

New blog post coming tomorrow morning

Ah, the "Ring of Fire!" Imagine if *every* time anything involving light happened--from rainbows to solar eclipses to solar flares--had to be framed in terms of "luminiferous aether" by newspapers and other media. This is basically what it's like with geology and the "Ring of Fire."

[smacking forehead] Of course!

Jon Price@geotechnogeek.bsky.social · last wk.

Well, they seem to be wulfenites, so same crystalligraphic point group. Both are 4/m 2/m 2/m. I'm sure that's why they chose the photo.

Phooey.

Christina Toms@christinatoms.bsky.social · last wk.

And... that's all, folks. San Francisco State University is shutting down its Estuary and Ocean Science Center, the only marine lab on the shores of San Francisco Bay.

Gentle shaker in Oakland just now . . . waiting for it to show up on the map.

Why do media sites use obviously wrong pictures?

Howard Lee@hlee.bsky.social · last wk.

Jack Hills Zircon dated to 4.404 billion years old, right around the time the Moon itself finished crystallizing ⚒️ spacedaily.com/t-a-zircon-c...

when nature looks like a digital landscape evolution model

Those in the U.S. may only see a sliver of today's solar eclipse, but GOES-EAST gets a great view of the shadow as it crosses into Europe! 🌑

Here we go ... #Jökulhlaup

www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calend...

Total Solar Eclipse Watch Party | Exploratorium Museum Event

Join us at Pier 15 for a live broadcast of the total solar eclipse! Look up (safely), dive into the science behind the eclipse, and enjoy special programs for all ages.

exploratorium.edu

M7.4 earthquake in western Colombia: a deep event at 110 km, but not deep enough to prevent widespread damage earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

It's the famous landform known as Emod Flah

Ryan J Hollister@phaneritic.bsky.social · 2w ago

Why can’t I let myself buy this Banana Republic shirt? There’s a very specific answer.

Sometimes I think about this secret calcite cave in Montana that you need technical climbing to get to. I thought the pics were AI but they're not. The place is real and they're keeping the location private to protect it. Pics by calcite researcher Daniel, finemanerals on IG.

an academic suicide attempt

Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴@wamsleylab.bsky.social · 2w ago

🚨🚨🚨 ALERT: Vanderbilt's board just launched a horrifying assault on academic freedom that threatens the legitimacy of their university. 1/x #AAUP #academicsky #edusky

Make It Stop

Katie O'Reilly@drkatfish.bsky.social · 2w ago

ICYMI the latest chicanery surrounding the invasive carp barrier www.detroitnews.com/story/news/l...

Exhibit title: "Who dung it?"

Callan Bentley@callanbentley.bsky.social · 2w ago

Good 💩 on display at both the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History as well as the Maritime Museum:

SSFs stands for small shelly fossils*. This is genuinely the terminology, just in case you thought palaeontology was too sophisticated or complex. *Sometimes it's small shelly fauna, to pre-empt the "actually"

The Palaeontological Association@thepalass.bsky.social · 2w ago

Cambrian SSFs from North Greenland (eastern Laurentia) with regional & global correlations onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology

Questions sparked by this story: 1) Could Rx & cultural burns reduce emissions and increase sequestration in the southern Sierra, or do they only flatten emissions peaks & troughs, w/ no added C storage? 2) Could Tribal burning initiatives generate revenue from the California cap-and-trade program?

New blog post: cleanup on creek park

Recent work at Glen Echo Creek

Since March 2022 when I covered Glen Echo Creek in detail, the city and citizens have been making improvements. Like many Oakland streams, Glen Echo Creek is overgrown with invasive non-natives lik…

oaklandgeology.com

deep thread

Timnit Gebru@timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 4w ago

Now is a good reminder that machine learning is a rebranding of statistical learning. Reinforcement learning is something I first came across in control theory. Many ML formulations are from information theory, a much more theoretically grounded discipline that's been around for decades.

Today I finished collecting a set of distinctive Oakland rocks to be a raffle item for @oaklandreviewofbooks.org -- because they suggested it and why not. Next, preparing an intepretive leaflet to tuck into the box. Pics to come

Hey 🧪! I was just reminiscing with a friend about the time a very senior academic called a mid-career guy's work "completely meaningless" at a meeting and now I want to hear your best (public, academic) disses