Should I spin a Just So Story?

Chevrons in the ductile realm. Greater Himalaya Sequence, Naagling Glacier, Kumaon.

Tracing the collapse of a giant ancient Himalayan glacier. Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, Eastern Himalaya. Be10 dating shows pulses of glacier retreat over the past 60,000 years. www.nature.com/articles/d44...

Brittle. Lower Tethyan Sequence (Neoproterozoic-Cambrian), Darma Valley, Kumaon Himalaya.

Leucosomes, melanosomes, and gorgeous garnets. Greater Himalaya migmatite. Naagling Glacier, Darma Valley, Kumaon. May 2026.

Excited for this!

Geomorphologists always sit in the window seat ✅💯🪨💧

The Great Unconformity has been in the geo-news recently. But how many have heard of the Great Eparchean Unconformity, an old term for the unconformity between Archean & the famous Purana Basins of Peninsular India. Now added as a Geo-Heritage site. rapiduplift.substack.com/p/across-the...

This is an excellent book from a fantastically gifted writer. Might gift away my hardback and buy the paperback now 🙂 Original post: biodiversity.social/@mizoraman/1...

First they came for evolution Then they came for climate science Then they came for epidemiology Then they came for, like, really really basic math

the way this makes sense for RFK is that "healthy people" and "sick people" are ontological categories.

This is your brain on #minerals A specimen of geyserite (a type of siliceous rock that forms around hot springs and geysers) from Fire Hole River, Yellowstone, USA

Although a bit dated - published in 2006 - this was an engrossing read. Quite a bit on what the oil companies did across the developing world. Sonia Shah's book on malaria is also good. @maitrey.bsky.social @rapiduplift.bsky.social @mrajshekhar.bsky.social @[email protected]

Recommend. To understand the endless efforts aimed at improving accuracy in predictions, and monsoonal predictions for India in particular. The monsoon is often called the real finance minister because it drives economic health in the country. The book is weather and climate science for society

No yapping today, just polished #Olivine bomb in basalt 😊

Baltimore City sits atop a 490 million year old hydrothermal vent complex. I spent my childhood wandering around serpentine barrens near Bare Hills without knowing that the old chromium mines were there because half a billion years ago it was an ancient seafloor. Baltimore Rules.

Don't usually read non-fiction outside of science & ancient history, but this is interesting. Added to my "Third Word history" bookslist. @maitrey.bsky.social @rapiduplift.bsky.social @mrajshekhar.bsky.social @[email protected]

On The Origin of Metazoan Reefs- Insights from the Ediacaran-Cambrian sections of the Siberian Platform. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

At last! Ediacarans and Cambrian animals in the same site! Amazing! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#fossilfriday After 20 years, I finally found clam geodes in the Purisima Formation in Santa Cruz, CA! These are ~5 myo Clinocardium (cockle) shells that were incompletely filled in by sediment after death. Groundwater rich in dissolved calcium carbonate then precipitated calcite crystals.

A recent paper estimates that 70% of Deccan lava erupted in the 300k years before the asteroid impact, & concludes Deccan volcanism is the main cause of the end Cretaceous extinction. I thought their environmental reasoning is quite weak. details here - rapiduplift.substack.com/p/deccan-vol...

A recent paper argues that Deccan Volcanism was the main cause of the end Cretaceous mass extinction. I survey the fossil record and isotope proxies that signal ecosystem health of the late Cretaceous ocean and Terra firma. rapiduplift.substack.com/p/deccan-vol...

Colombia declares its entire Amazon biome a reserve for renewable natural resources—effectively bans any new oil exploration, hydrocarbon production, or large-scale mining. Protected area approx 483,000 sq km—equivalent to the size of Sweden #TropicalRainforest #decarbonization #envhist

I must finish reading @matthewcobb.bsky.social 's biography of Crick by the time this book hits the stores. @[email protected] @rapiduplift.bsky.social @maitrey.bsky.social @mrajshekhar.bsky.social

Of course the best fossils are always ✨Paleozoic plants✨ This is a polished section of a Psaronius tree fern from the early Permian (~290 million years) of the Czech Republic 🌿⛏️ We can see the root mantle (R) and the base of several leaves (arrows). Happy #FossilFriday & #FernFriday! #paleobotany

We are gambling away our health, says Monte Carlo risk modelling.

The grasslands of western India are, in the popular imagination, the remains of woodlands lost under British rule — areas to be reforested, not conserved. But an analysis of medieval songs and stories reveals the grasslands predate British colonization.

One last blast for the PM crowd: Eruptions is back! I have resurrected my blog and I will start (mostly) regularly updating with volcano news, research and culture. Check it out: eruptions.site/2026/01/28/w...

A couple of January lesser mohavea wildflowers sneaking in a bloom, Death Valley

No one ever thought that preservation was because of 'tough bodies'. It was always about trying to understand the specifics of taphonomy and diagenetic processes. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202... paper- pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...

I'm kind of surprised to see that map from USGS. It basically treats each aquifer (or section of the aquifer for the High Plains) like a bathtub and shades the whole thing by calculated volume of depletion. That's not how it works. Mapping it that way is misleading. The fairly severe drawdown

Links to Geology-related Open GIS Data open.substack.com/pub/ikegami/...

I appreciate this from @us.theconversation.com by Jonathan Paul. However, I think it’s making a mistake I commonly hear geologists make with regards to current events. I have a hunch that this mistake is one of the reasons geology programs are struggling 🧵🛠️🪨🧪 theconversation.com/greenland-is...

Anirudh Kanisetti echoing the complaint of pretty much every South Indian who has had to study "Indian history" at a non-state board school.

Fantastic new slab of eensy little sea urchin fossils from Oregon, courtesy of @smilodonichthys.bsky.social #FossilFriday ⚒️

Folding in Proterozoic South Delhi Fold Belt, Kumbhalgarh Fort, Rajasthan. Check out the polyphase folding (red arrow). Pic- Vivek Singh Grewal. #FridayFold

Archean Jagannathpur volcanics from Singbhum Craton, India. SEM BSE image- Pyroxene fibres with plagioclase. www.geosocindia.org/index.php/jg...

This is the reality we face. It is not physically possible to limit warming to 1.5°C. The required levels of emission cuts are impossibly steep drilled.media/news/cop30-g...

Thin Section Thursday! A cross-polarized image of a chondrule from the Allende (CV3) meteorite. The thin blades are crystals formed from the melt at very high cooling rates. FOV ~ 0.7 mm. Contributed by Bill Menarik. Send images & caption to akoziol1 at udayton dot edu. #thinsectionthursday

My top 10 books for 2025

Good company. @anjanakhatwa.bsky.social @laurapoppick.bsky.social

Possible desiccation cracks (mudcracks) in rock found by the Mars Curiosity Rover this week. flic.kr/p/2rLi9Lh flic.kr/p/2rLoXm3 flic.kr/p/2rL7ntV

Documenting ancient firemaking. A broader perspective from @johnhawks.net on the "earliest evidence of ignition" news reports of firemaking ~400k. www.johnhawks.net/p/sparking-a...

Our updated 54" x 36" Geology of Plate Tectonics chart reflects recent advances in geological thought over the past 40 years. Grab one below! English (folded): geosociety.co/3KO5SNe Spanish (folded): geosociety.co/3ML4Guy #PlateTectonics #Tectonics #Volcanism #Metamorphism #Seismicity #Geothermal

Thought provoking and well explained by Steven M Stanley. "Why the punctuational model of evolution is valid". www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

@bsky.app #FossilFriday Arborea arborea, one of many impressive enigmatic Ediacaran fossils from the Flinders Ranges on display at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.

Cool paper documenting ecological insights about Indian tropical savannas in traditional literature between the 13th and 20th century. Grassland-scrubland biomes are often misconceived as deforested and/ or degraded wastelands. So, important paper. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Manufacture of synthetic Ernestite thr' high temp sintering of sand & laterite raw material. Wonderful mineralogy and geochem study of origin of cylindrical drill bits used during the Bronze Age Harappan Civilization. www.nature.com/articles/s40... @johnhawks.net

Delhi Radioactive!