The time to protect British science from the trashing that US science is currently succumbing to from an ultra-right-wing government is now.

S-tier trolling by the Norwegians, there. Lol

Luton

The GA 2025 Annual Conference at Keele University is finally over after a weekend full of interesting and varied talks, displays and field trips. Thank you to NSGGA - North Staffs Group of the Geologists' Association and everyone involved in organising and delivering such a packed programme!

🥳 Happy Geodiversity Day! ⭐ As we celebrate with the theme 'One Earth, Many Stories', read this message from the new UNESCO Chair in Geodiversity and Geoconservation: 🌐 www.geodiversityday.org/post/unesco-...

Out doing reconnaissance for this Sunday’s Geologists’ Association @geolassoc.bsky.social annual conference field trip to the Staffordshire Moorlands. Near-vertical calc-turbidities with an inverted olistolith of carbonate mudmound reef. Milldale Fm. Tournaisian. Brown End Quarry, Waterhouses. ⚒️

P-waves from today’s (09:59:16 UTC 2025/09/28) M5.4 Türkiye earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

P-waves from yesterday’s (22:21:55 UTC 2025/09/24) M6.2 Venezuela earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England ⚒️🧪

Start of my thirty-ninth year at Keele University. First in the Department of Geology, then Department of Earth Sciences, then Earth Sciences and Geography, then School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, now School of Life Sciences. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

P-waves from today’s (18:58:13 UTC 2025/09/18) M7.8 near east coast of Kamchatka earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

Seems like quite a moment. This morning, the UK was powered entirely by low-carbon energy, it seems. Yes it's windy and sunny. But it's still a milestone.

P-waves from today’s (02:37:54UTC 2025/09/13) M7.4 near east coast of Kamchatka earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

P- and S-waves from today’s (08:49:14 UTC 2025/09/07) M2.6 earthquake 27km depth beneath Pontefract, North Yorkshire, UK recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England (about 100km southwest of the event) ⚒️🧪

Team Stibnite. Antinomy sulphide. The old Greek name for the mineral “stibi” gave rise to the Latin “Stibium”, the former name of the element antimony (Sb). Sample from Baia Sprie, Romania. Cotton Collection, Keele University.

Team chrysotile here. Back in the days of yore before health and safety had been invented, our A-level group used to learn mineral/rock id. at lunchtimes by selecting a random sample from a drawer, tossing it to someone who id’d it and threw it back. I recall chrysotile being one of those samples 😱

BGS has launched the UK Geothermal Platform, which provides national- to local-scale information on geothermal potential. Geothermal technologies have the potential to decarbonise heating and cooling, supporting the energy transition to net zero in the UK. www.bgs.ac.uk/news/new-pla...

P-waves from today’s (16:53:47UTC 2025/08/10) M6.1 western Türkiye earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

The Times @thetimes.com should have got a geologist to review this diagram before publishing. I think I’m going to get my first year students to discuss all the things wrong with it. From www.thetimes.com/article/9b50...

P-waves from yesterday’s (23:24:50 UTC 2025/07/29) M8.8 Off East Coast Kamchatka earthquake recorded on my Raspberry Shake seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England plus M6.9 (00:09:53 2025/07/30) and M6.3 (00:16:03) aftershocks ⚒️🧪

P-waves pretty much through the centre of the Earth from today’s (22:10:32UTC 2025/07/28) M6.9 Macquarie Islands region earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

P-wave from today’s (01:29:02UTC 2025/07/25) M5.2 Azores earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

P-wave from today’s (06:49:01UTC 2025/07/20) M7.4 Kamchatka earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. The strong 25Hz line on the spectrogram is the washing machine. ⚒️🧪

P-wave from today’s (20:37:39UTC 2025/07/16) M7.3 Alaskan earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

Epic victory, England. 🏏

Come to the GA Annual Conference at Keele 3-5th October. Keynote talk on Staffordshire Geology with a slant on geothermal potential and field trips around Keele Campus and to some unusual Staffordshire outcrops by some chancer 😉 ⚒️🧪

I can’t understand the UK Government’s decision to withdraw from the European Plate Observing System (EPOS), a significant blow to UK geoscience. After the trauma of Brexit, I had hoped that rejoining Horizon had signalled re-engagement with European research, but this appears to be a false dawn.

P-wave from today’s (13:08:05UTC 2025/06/08) M6.3 Colombia earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

P-wave from today’s (03:19:35UTC 2025/05/22) M6.2 Crete earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

P-wave from today’s (04:15:38UTC 2025/05/14) M6.4 Tonga Islands earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

Depressing morning. Obvious that the government doesn’t care what happens to universities (major employers and ‘exporters’), even looking at increasing tax on their main income stream. Our vice-chancellor announces 100 extra staff job losses. For a university our size, absolutely devastating.

For more context on today’s M6.2 #earthquake in the Sea of Marmara, a figure from Bohnhoff et al. (2013) shows the major North Anatolian Fault Zone segments with potential future rupture scenarios and their associated magnitudes. Today’s quake is located near the center of the Marmara segment. ⚒️🧪

P-wave from today’s (09:49:10UTC 2025/04/23) M6.2 Türkiye earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

OTD UK Earthquakes: April 22 1884 09:18 M4.6 Colchester. A lot of damage (up to EMS8) for a relatively low magnitude ‘quake, probably due to shallow (for UK - 3km) depth. Most of Wivenhoe and Abberton flattened. Many local churches damaged. Felt across England, Belgium, N. France ⚒️🧪

The Isle of Arran has officially been announced as a UNESCO Global Geopark! 🎉 UNESCO’s Global Geoparks are areas with internationally important landscapes & bring together other aspects of heritage such as archaeology, history, culture and biodiversity. www.bgs.ac.uk/news/isle-of...

Day 6 of the Keele Geology field course to Pembrokeshire. The Silurian rocks of the magnificent Marloes Sands.

Day five of the Keele Geology Pembrokeshire field course. Coal Measure strata at Broadhaven. Sedimentary logging and structural sections. ⚒️

Day four of the Keele Geology Pembrokeshire field course. The folded and thrust Lower Carboniferous Limestone at West Angle Bay. ⚒️

⚒️🧪

Day three of the Keele Geology field course. The folded gabbroic sill of St David’s Head. The rocks in the foreground are the same as those on the headland, folded in a tight syncline centred on the bay.

Any Labour SpAd arguing for restricting student imm should be sat down in front of a map and asked three Qs: 1. Where do you think the unis in most financial trouble are? 2. How many people rely on them for jobs and income? 3. Which party represents these seats?

Second day of the Keele Geology Pembrokeshire field course. The volcanics of Strumble Head. The headland in the middleground, Carregwastad, is the site of the last invasion of Britain, by the French, in 1797. ⚒️

A cracking start to Keele Geology’s Pembrokeshire field course. Lower Cambrian sediments intruded by Ordovician igneous rocks. Porth Clais. ⚒️

OTD UK Earthquakes: April 6, 1580. c18:00UTC M5.8 Dover Straits. One of the UK’s biggest earthquakes. Felt: England, N. France & Low Countries. Two apprentices, Thomas Gray & Mabel Everite, killed by falling stones from Christ Church Hospital, Newgate, London. Fatalities also in Flanders ⚒️🧪

P-wave from today’s (20:04:38UTC 2025/04/04) M6.9 New Britain Region, Papua New Guinea earthquake recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

P-wave from today’s (14:09:29UTC 2025/04/03) M6.9 Reykjanes Ridge earthquake 2000 km away recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social seismometer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. ⚒️🧪

OTD UK Earthquakes: April 2, 1990. 13:46:34.2UTC M5.1 Depth=14km Clun (Bishop’s Castle), Shropshire. Felt: England & Wales + southern Scotland & eastern Ireland. Damage: Clun Castle, Shrewsbury, Wrexham. Clun is on the Pontisford-Linley Fault, the western edge of the Midlands Microcraton. ⚒️🧪

Keele University’s Natural Laboratory. Keele has been a settlement since it became the northwestern headquarters of the Knights Templar in the 12th Century. No shortage of archaeological targets for student geophysical projects.

One of the benefits of working at Keele University is our National Collection of cherry trees. Meet ‘Martine’

And we are go in Iceland

-Eruption likely imminent says IMO- An intense earthquake swarm is ongoing in the Sundhnúk crater series. GPS measurements and pressure measurements in boreholes also show clear changes.