Want to learn more about NISAR (the new joint India/US synthetic aperture radar satellite mission)? Franz Meyer from UAF/Alaska Satellite Facility will be giving an online talk to introduce NISAR and its capabilities on Jan. 21. More info and registration below. ⚒️🧪 uaf-accap.org/event/vaws-i...

“It is no small thing to have the opportunity and permission to use all one's strengths” 🧪

From @AGU.org: Senators are working on legislation to save NCAR, but we need extra support for these 8 states. Your Senators in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming need to hear from you.

I love my two blackout drunk Minnesota sons

Time to repurpose #AGU25 as a mass mobilization in support of NCAR, NSF, NOAA, NASA, USGS, DOE BER, and the Congressional power of the purse.

Attendees of #AGU25! If you are at a loose end at 3:05, come to room 357 and hear UCR postdoc Axel Periollat present our work on the interseismic locking of the Kamchatka subduction zone (as shown below) and its agreement with slip in the 1952 and 2025 earthquakes! Do come along!

GEOSCIENTISTS OF NEW ORLEANS: I will be presenting this poster (#0267) on our EarthScope-supported and quite awesome annual InSAR short course this afternoon. Do stop by! #AGU25

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

wow who was he up against

"Today was a day of note, I gave the 40th and final lecture, And now, I think I'll head downtown, And drink a pitcher."

Monitoring crustal deformation: sometimes in the lithosphere, sometimes on your pie plate. 🍁🍂 Happy Thanksgiving from EarthScope!

Our preliminary analysis of the satellite observations of the #hayligubbi #eruption is now available online: comet.nerc.ac.uk/event-respon.... Details of the eruption onset, SO2 emissions and precursory deformation.

Activity at Hayli Gubbi began in July when there was an eruption at Erte Ale. Magma propagated 30 km south passing under Hayli Gubbi. Since then, there has been a small plume, quasi-continuous SO2 emissions and uplift. Details in @uk-comet.bsky.social event response report: tinyurl.com/y3nfdfj8

DONKEYS ON CAMPUS. THAT IS ALL.

We invite our community to read a summary of our proposal for the NSF National Geophysical Facility (NGF). The summary provides a broad overview of the scope included in the new facility. ➡️ NSF NGF proposal summary: https://loom.ly/OZaj1hs

The four-legged lawn service is currently working at *my* house. Bet you're jealous!

I knew it was Ray Wilkins, obvs, but Hugh Dennis? Gil Scott-Heron?! And the orange man was a Proper Actor! That's simply wonderful, Ralph. Smashing. T'riffic. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Fellow seismologists, we're going to get a lot of mileage out of the latest @xkcd.com

At the empty USGS booth at GSA. More out of view on both sides

Envious of the neighbors' lawn service

In Oakland at the UC Office of the President for a meeting, and the chances are good that we will be shaking out later on...

OK, so who turned all the power off? Holding office hours in the dark ain't all that much fun (not that anyone is here of course).

A lot of comments on Mars rovers or Moon landings, but it's important to remember that the planet NASA studies most is Earth. This is less about cutting flashy things like moonwalks and more about keeping communities in the dark on climate, weather, agriculture, pollution, natural hazards, and more.

Pomona, what's up? (Very excited about this one!)

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

EarthScope is excited to be undertaking operations of the NSF National Geophysical Facility, as of October 1. Curious what this means in terms of geophysical research and education support? Check out these helpful FAQs. ⬇️ https://ngf.earthscope.org/

Since kyanite made it to the final of Mineral Cup, I decided to contribute. Vote kyanite! Not only is kyanite gorgeous, it's also a key metamorphic index mineral and thus one of my favourite minerals to find. Here are a few examples I've come across. See alt text for details #MinCup25 #kyanite

I’m voting for the indicator mineral #Kyanite and the information it provides about metamorphic temperature and pressure, shown here with its pseudomorphs, Sillimanite and Andalusite. #MinCup25

As a founder member of the Campaign for Real Minerals (CAMRM), there can only be one winner – the one I've actually heard of. Kyanite all the way. #VoteBlue

Kyanite has fought long and hard these many years! Let’s get that win so it can retire with honour!

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), top Democrat on Senate Commerce Cmte, is out with a Democratic staff report: "The Destruction of NASA's Mission: Whistleblowers Reveal OMB's Unconstitutional Plot to Gut the Agency." www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

It's gotta be the metamorphic mineral for me, Clive. Forms under mountains, pressure/temperature indicator, high grade. Also, it's blue. #VoteBlueNoMatterWho #VoteKyanite

Since I love Spiritualized, and since Pure Phase was the first album of theirs I bought, and since it's a perfect title for someone who does InSAR and GNSS, and since they are here in LA, and since Jen got us tickets...

NSF today released instructions for the next round of applicants to its Graduate Research Fellowship Program. A key group—second-year Ph.D. students—is no longer eligible, and students who are still able to apply will face an unusually narrow timeframe. https://scim.ag/3KlQkQk

Pulp: "Do you remember the first time?" Me: "I think it was 1996! Fuck I'm old."

This is amazing.

If this is Thursday, I must be in... Boston?

This is a fantastic affirmation of the high-quality work that the EarthScope staff have been doing for years, and the vision and mission that they and their leaders communicated in the proposal! Congratulations to all involved! Proud to be a part of it!

In June 2024, EarthScope Consortium submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation to operate the National Geophysical Facility (NGF). We are thrilled to announce that EarthScope has been selected as the operator of NSF NGF. ➡️ https://loom.ly/gfaXxQ8

❤️❤️❤️ these posters in the Geology building at UC Riverside ❤️❤️❤️ Seriously, why aren't we putting messages like these everywhere? I'd happily chip in some pro-NSF and pro-NIH billboards? 🧪

Surely "fluids" is the explanation for everything we don't understand in geoscience?

The Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys is hiring a volcanologist who would work with the Alaska Volcano Observatory. A fantastic opportunity to work with great people and study very active volcanoes. Details in link below. Applications close on Oct. 1. ⚒️🌋🧪 bit.ly/3IkqN9n

Jen saw me looking on StubHub and asked if I was thinking of buying Oasis tickets for Saturday night? I said mayyyybeee...

Serpentine, always. #VoteChrysotile

Rock Looked Way Cooler Wet

Day 3 of the ISCE+ #InSAR course, and we are heading into time series territory. Besides presentations from Ann Chen and Eric Fielding on atmospheric noise and interferogram stacks, today saw Scott Staniewicz's instructor debut, presenting on PS/DS methods in InSAR time series! Welcome!

Day 2 of #InSAR fest, and we spent most of today's session being guided through Sentinel-1 TOPS processing by @ericfielding.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy – from SAR data all the way to this unwrapped interferogram! And then (not pictured) I talked about line-of-sight, downsampling and inverse modeling!

The 2025 InSAR Processing and Analysis (ISCE+) short course is officially underway! Graduate students, postdocs, and early career scientists are working side-by-side with instructors to master InSAR processing and analysis, from mitigating noise to building time series for research.

It's Day 1 proper of this year's EarthScope #InSAR Processing and Analysis short course (the "ISCE+" course)! Here, Franz Meyer is leading participants through a simple Mogi source modeling exercise using InSAR data from Okmok volcano! Real data and real models on an interactive online platform!

Went out downtown tonight and got leathered with my friend Gordon. (No reason, except Friday.) On the way home, my Uber driver asked me lots of fun questions about earthquakes. And now I'm home and learning that NISAR successfully deployed its reflector?! What a great evening!