A deep plunge into the magnetobiogeochronological weeds. I care (and am entertained) because Oakland has a bunch of Campanian-age rocks.

Was listening to Kraftwerk and missed it

If they're banning @heydaybooks.com authors now, can my Deep Oakland be far behind?

Even science is tainted

Bad science takes

Wide-ranging survey of fiber-optics based seismology uses unusual words for a science paper: incredible, revolutionizing. SRL paper

Interesting: deepduction fertilizes the deep lithosphere (i.e. upper mantle) just as regular subduction fertilizes the shallow lithosphere

Still think this was one of the best power moves of all time www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I’m pleased to share that a book I’ve coedited, *Landkeeping: Restoring Indigenous Fire Stewardship and Ecological Partnerships* is now available for preorder everywhere books are sold—including at the OSU Press website, where the promo code S26 will extend a 20% discount and free shipping to you.

New blog post on one of Oakland's (actually Piedmont's) more dramatic rock quarries

Of Bay area geoscience student interest; why not rustle up (or brush up) a cool talk about your work for an upcoming NCGS meeting?

Over in San Ramon

Distant earthquake just now (distant from oakland)

Good thread for travel in general. Every guy should learn to iron, like my mother taught me.

The bathymetry of eastern Lake Superior, the part that would be crossed by an ore carrier coming from the NW, trying to make Whitefish Bay in a storm, is fascinating. I have heard those N-S troughs explained as subglacially eroded tunnel channels, but there are probably other ideas out there.

Always more work to do in the Deccan. New estimates of K/Pg-era eruptive volumes push the huge majority of flood basalt into the Maastrichtian. GSA Bull paper, open access.

Space has always been a place of dreams

Once again I am taking my special traditional role in a malacological conference of being the person who asks bewildered students if they're aware that molluscs have a fossil record 😂

Definitely a rock, probably not a fossil.

Dusted my pet rocks today. I'll put this one back some day, but not soon.

Eighteen donors have given almost $1000 to support the Museum of the Earth today! Let me know if you donate (minimum $20) and I will happily send you a coupon for 50% off of Earthquake Insights. That's normally $80 a year, so you can get a discount AND help out the museum.

DO NOT add an option that can be GAMED.

I disagree with the choice of marble; makes the room look dirty. Also, for historical accuracy, shouldn't it have a chamberpot?

A giant Miocene landslide in the Wasatch Range, Utah - Geosphere paper. pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geospher...

A major shift in where L.A. gets water: The city will double the size of a project to transform wastewater into purified drinking water, producing enough for 500,000 people. The recycled water will allow L.A. to stop taking water from creeks that feed Mono Lake. www.latimes.com/environment/...

Paleontology is like asteroid hunting in leavening the study of strange and anonymous entities with human names and stories. Mineralogy too. Geologists don't name a lot of new rock types these days. All these sciences are humanities too.

C'mon, chip in along with me.

⚒️ 🧪 Today, Science released a special issue about the M7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar in March. We were invited to write a perspective about the four research papers in the special issue. Find our post, including the text of our perspective, here:

When Trump says "investigate," I think "torture."

My Substack newsletter Deeper Oakland goes out tomorrow; til then, catch up on previous issues.

How to do/not do a scientific poster #GSA2025

Ok, this is really a few questions. 1st we don't really have direct evidence of what the initial crust of the Earth looked like--all we have left from anything like that are a handful of zircon grains that have been incorporated into much younger rock. Dating this material is also difficult.

12 hours of Hurricane #Melissa, one frame every minute. 🛰️🗺️

New blog post: geology along the 88 bus line, following previous post on the 18 line. These are quickies made to drop during my time out of town; they're of permanent value but I promise something meatier next post in 2 weeks.

Request to #GSA2025 attendees: I would like a copy of the QGG Division president's remarks at the award ceremony. She urged us to continue doing great science, and the way she put it was inspiring.

Martin Rudwick describes the 1700s practice in "natural history" of sharing key specimens across the "republic of letters" by means of professionally printed engravings, a concept called paper museums. Such images could be regarded as precursors of type specimens (and today's 3D replicas).

still true in October

Having just enjoyed a sea cruise to Mexico, I'm picturing an Southeast Alaska cruise encountering "a tsunami triggered by a rock slope failure. A very serious scenario is that a large cruise ship is overwhelmed and sunk. The loss of life could be very high."

White Mountains are white

Deadline is early December.

Feel free to be appalled

Wow. Newsbreak keeps making up completely fictitious earthquakes. Pages of reporting on another earthquake that didn’t happen.

Standing ovations are rare at science meetings. It was electrifying to witness one last night at the QGG Division awards #GSA2025

“The Monday filing outlines where 2,050 positions would be eliminated; the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Land Management, and the main Interior office would be especially hard hit. Regional offices with the National Park Service are also targeted for significant cuts.”

The posters at #GSA2025 are most easily scanned/browsed *crosswise* but are organized orthogonally, unlike the arrangement at GSA2024. Took me too long to figure this out; organizers take note.

I needed something outside of politics for a few hours. Adding family mineralogy classes (from Soil Taxonomy) to SoilWeb/STE in the next release. These are very broad groupings of soil minerals that can have profound effects on use/management. kaolinitic (R), siliceous (G), smectitic (B):

Cash situation is OK now. I appreciate all your concern. I have copies of my book with me an look forward to #GSA2025

I was testing a 200x microscope attachment for smartphones and found this lovely zircon in sand from Gold Beach in Oregon (clear grain on middle left)