Completed my birthday pile and part of Mrs Mac's Christmas reads. Loved all of these but Jo Harkin's The Pretender goes straight onto the "don't leave too long to reread" list ... amazing. 📖

Corundum is red Corundum is blue Oxygen-three-aluminium-two ⚒️🧪

“It’s like molasses." ... sweet! ⚒️🧪🌋

Beautiful big biotite crystal. Nice clip showing how all the distinct (but parallel and related) cleavage planes in a single crystal reflect incident light simultaneously. ⚒️🧪

Granite-astic ⚒️🧪

Photo of the Day: Kelut's active lava dome in 2007

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BRAND NEW VLAD EPISODE released today by The Stranglers. And it is hilarious (yes, funnier than Dmitri)! 🤣🤣🤣 youtu.be/tgnCZH0haXc

#IsmuasMonthOfMusic 🎼 #MusicChallenge 🎶 6/3 (UK): A song you recognise after two bars Rush - Tom Sawyer First note ... youtu.be/WJoTxywiRG0

Ready for your new adventure in 2026? #FindAMasters 🌍 New MSc Environmental Sustainability at Durham University 🌍 Get more info here: www.durham.ac.uk/study/course... And share with someone you think would be a great candidate to make a real impact and help shape a sustainable future!

Spectacular olivine dolerite from Fair Head, County Antrim in XPL for #ThinSectionThursday. Olivine shows particularly vibrant interference colours while the ophitic intergrowth of twinned plagioclase and clinopyroxene is a textbook quality example. 🧪⚒️🌋

The final boss of volcano vistas 🌋⚒️🧪

The Volcanology and Magmatic Petrology group at ETH Zurich is looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Volcanology and Magmatic Processes to develop and lead an independent research programme in magmatic petrology, volcanology, and/or geochronology. #postdoc #jobalert www.jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/11402

👏Congratulations @openuniversity.bsky.social! My wife and mum both obtained OU degrees. I used to know by heart the second trombone part (for the whole suite, not just the fanfare) of Leonard Salzedo's Divertimento. The iconic opening fanfare introduced all OU programming. youtu.be/Mh_BkqIj1tg

And through the looking glass; here is a lake on an island in a lake on an island. Lake Taal caldera and volcanic island (with crater lake) on Luzon, Philippines.🌋⚒️🧪

Are you a fan of our Minerals gallery? 💎 Then there’s something else you might want to see…👀

"The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time; [as] we listened ... to [Hutton] unfolding to us ... these wonderful events, we became sensible how much further reason may ... go than imagination can venture to follow". Playfair's description of Hutton at Siccar Point ⚒️🧪

👇 1257 Samalas eruption. 🌋⚒️🧪

Come join us at Utrecht Eartn Sciences! www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

#DavidsMonthOfMusic Day 17: a song referencing being young or growing old Relentless - The Stranglers youtu.be/_hr1XcLYj20

Nice article celebrating the pioneering cartography and tectonic insight of Marie Tharp. 🧪⚒️🌍

Fantastic performance from Scotland in the Calcutta Cup today. Thoroughly deserved a big win over the Auld Enemy. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏉💪

Fabulous book 👇. If you haven't read it then you should. 📖

So, February 12th is a pretty cool day to have a Birthday, shared with Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, Gromit, and Moving Pictures by Rush. 🧪🎸🎩🐕

Some great visualisation of the reverse rain shadow that has been affecting UK this winter, especially during February. 🧪🌧️

As someone sat just adjacent to the letter K, I confirm this is accurate for last several days (without capturing the significant windchill) and appears to be set in for at least the next week☹️🌧️

My blog post on Ailsa Craig, curling stones, and the weird minerals that make this rock unique. 🥌

Really cool video on curling and curling stones that I provided some info for. 🥌

We're hiring a full-time technician to support radiocarbon analyses. If you have some experience with analytical instruments and background in chemistry, earth sciences, archaeology, and/or ecology, this could be the job for you! arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Evidence for both subduction and non-subduction tectonics in the very early Earth. Although I wish they'd gone with "Australia sucks and has always sucked" 😉. ⚒️🧪🌋🌍 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

(Long) Before mobile phones: hand drawn PPL and XPL views of porphyritic dolerite from Ben Hiant, Ardnamurchan, Scotland. From my undergraduate mapping report. #ThinSectionThursday 🧪⚒️🌋

Very happy to share our latest paper on Kolumbo volcano! 🌋This research was only possible thanks to IODP, which has allowed for new insights into this highly hazardous volcano!

How the mantle melts ... (outside subduction zones) 🧪⚒️

Fantastic thread on understanding how the Earth's mantle deforms. 🧪⚒️🌍

Conques Cathedral is stunning. Also has: 1. Spectacular granite steps. 2. Unique, greyscale stained glass windows representing light but which also evoke highly layered metamorphic gneisses, schists, and migmatites of the local basement geology. 🧪⚒️

The Night Manager series 2 finale … wow! Absolutely top class TV from the BBC.

One fish, two fish, Elsevier blew fish 👋🧪

#IsmuasMonthOfMusic #MusicChallenge 30 - a song with a memorable bridge I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) The Proclaimers "Da-de-da-dah ..." youtu.be/VKyWLAaStwM

Each UK graduate is estimated to generate an extra £75,000 for the exchequer, offsetting initial public funding www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/what-we-do/p...

Scottish Borders Council approval for improvements to the Siccar Point path in Berwickshire. The path will be renamed Siccar Point Deep Time Discovery Trail. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2580185...

Our @durhamphysics.bsky.social astronomers have helped create the highest resolution map of the dark matter that threads through our Universe - showing the mysterious substance’s influence on the formation of stars, galaxies and planets. Discover more 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/...

Last night finished the last of my Christmas books. All absolute crackers. @qntm.org @paulbradleycarr.bsky.social Have to start raiding @kate-mac.bsky.social's Christmas book pile now! 📖

Recipe for producing one of the finest geological features on the planet. ⚒️🧪

The Planetary Geochemistry group at ETH Zurich is offering a doctoral position in Isotope Cosmochemistry to investigate the pathways that led to the formation and evolution of planets in our solar system. #phd #jobalert www.jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/11259

Job alert: #postdoc in Isotope Geochemistry, University of Göttingen (DE). Apply by 15 Feb. More info: buff.ly/feMTNhd

I can attest (me wearing scarf) that invaders of Liege who are happy to drink the local beer get a very warm welcome (and even a football hat). Unfortunately, the pub pictured and RFC Liege no longer exist. (RFC Liege v @thehibees.bsky.social , 1989). #GGTTH

Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below! Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage

#IsmuasMonthOfMusic #MusicChallenge #Rush Day 21: A song with a powerful live version Working Man - Rush youtu.be/uJz049s4Pbg?...

Iddings is also the "I" in CIPW norm calculations (along with Cross, Pirsson, and Washington). ⚒️🧪🌋