Chris Rowan

@allochthonous.bsky.social

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I like rocks.

I think and talk about plate tectonics, geological hazards like earthquakes, the history of the Earth system, and how we silly humans can live sustainably on our amazing planet.

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Good call, homeland! I know Truss losing her seat will probably be considered the ‘Portillo moment’ of this election, but my moment of joy was the defenestration of walking entitlement zombie Jacob Rees-Mogg. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz47eze3lydo

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A nice summary of excellent work by Erlanger et al on CO2 drawdown in different tectonic settings across the Central Italy: nature.com/articles/s41... Full paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Deep CO2 release and the carbon budget of the central Apennines modulated by geodynamics - Nature Geosciencewww.nature.com The regional geodynamic gradient controls metamorphic carbon release during mountain building and regulates the inorganic carbon budget, according to carbon estimates in two river catchments of Italy’...

⚒️🧪 Serendipity! How a 2.4 billion year-old rock “picked up by chance” turned out to contain surprisingly complex microfossils from the time of the Great Oxidation Event. https://news.unsw.edu.au/en/erica-picked-up-a-rock-10-years-ago-it-might-hold-the-oldest-form-of-complex-life-on-earth

Hurricane Beryl says: buckle up for this year's hurricane season. "Prior to Beryl…the earliest a Category 5 hurricane…in the Atlantic was July 16...intensification is absolutely unheard of for June or July...formed farther east in the Atlantic than any previous hurricane on record."

Yes, you should be a little freaked out about Hurricane Berylarstechnica.com "It's hard to communicate how unbelievable this is."

Good thing I’m not superstitious, or the fact the handle broke off my mug as I was drinking from it, spilling hot coffee all over me, on the day I have to get on a plane, would be a little troubling.

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Asteroids are turning out to be weirder than we imagined. The sample returned from Bennu has mineral evidence that it may have been part of an Ocean World with enough water to change minerals! I examine the evidence for this watery rock: www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth...

Asteroids Are Turning Out to be More Complicated Than We Expectedwww.discovermagazine.com There may have been a former "Ocean World" in our solar system that met an untimely demise based on samples returned from Bennu.

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The rail industry has a climate problem. Rail lines typically follow rivers and shorelines due to the favorable topography. This will mean more washed out and flooded tracks. And it will be rough on the bridges.

North Sioux City homes flooded, railroad bridge collapsed after rivers hit record capacitywww.argusleader.com A rush of floodwaters forced officials to evacuate part of North Sioux City Sunday evening, and a BNSF bridge collapsed overnight from the flood.

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rocks, amirite just laying there holding the secrets of millennia in their nooks and crannies

My BS detector pings like mad every time I see ads touting the billions the plastics industry is putting into amazing new recycling technology that will totally work this time, and now ProPublica has worked through stonewalling, obfuscatory terminology and mathyness to report the gory details.

The Delusion of “Advanced” Plastic Recyclingwww.propublica.org The plastics industry has heralded a type of chemical recycling it claims could replace new shopping bags and candy wrappers with old ones — but not much is being recycled at all, and this method won’...

So… waking up to discover that to save US democracy, we must nullify the votes of everyone who voted in the Democratic primary?

🧪⚒️ Stromatolites can still grow in very salty waters; too salty for the organisms that outcompete them everywhere else. The last outposts of a form of life that, for a billion years or three, dominated the planet.

Growing up, I’d always heard that the last living Stromatolites — aka one of the most archaic organisms on earth—could only be found in a single isolated bit of Australian coastline. Imagine my shock at learning there’s a colony in Utah’s Great Salt Lake!? geology.utah.gov/map-pub/surv...

Although she is predictably terrible in many areas, I have to grudgingly admit that Amy Coney Barrett does seem to occasionally show an interest in actual facts that the likes of Alito & Thomas lack. From a good write-up of todays’s ‘let’s nobble the EPA’ decision. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

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Been out for a bit, but noticed that the 2023 data on BLM oil and gas leasing came out today. Biden is keeping it far lower than prior administrations. It's far easier to stop drilling by not leasing than through any kind of action once a lease is issued & a property right created.

As forseen by @cstross.bsky.social, the Torment Nexus approacheth.

oh my god now there's a "future of prison" startup that says it will use AI and brain implants to plant fake memories into the brains of criminals, "rehabilitating" them in minutes instead of years and I am going to spend the rest of the day screaming now sciencetimes.com/articles/509...

Cognify: Revolutionary Prison Concept Uses AI and Brain Implants to Fast-Track Criminal Rehabilitationsciencetimes.com Discover how AI and brain implants are transforming rehabilitation. Read more on Cognify's innovative prison concept now!

Guess I should do this too ⚒️ Open to suggestions for additions (although note there is a limit of 50 accounts)

Here’s a first attempt at a ‘starter pack’ for #geology on Bluesky. Not rigorous, but includes people in my follow list who post interesting stuff, and two good geo-feeds. go.bsky.app/UoyhmJg

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Version 11 of the ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1904-2020) has been released. This version marks the end of the 2nd year of the Further Improvement project. Download and further info at www.isc.ac.uk/iscgem/downl...

Download and Legalwww.isc.ac.uk

Here’s a first attempt at a ‘starter pack’ for #geology on Bluesky. Not rigorous, but includes people in my follow list who post interesting stuff, and two good geo-feeds. go.bsky.app/UoyhmJg

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OUT: scale bar IN: scale guy EVEN BETTER: scale guy in peril (figure source: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...) 🧪

Fascinating: as explained at the end, Biden’s canny use of the strategic petroleum reserve to stabilise oil prices is also good for the green transition (by not letting it get too low). How Joe Biden 'broke OPEC' and rewrote the rules for oil trading

How Joe Biden 'broke OPEC' and rewrote the rules for oil tradingwww.msnbc.com The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, has had massive influence over American politics for six decades. President Biden’s "incredible" oil market trading has broken this infl...

Today’s ruling does seem to be subtweeting a lot of recent reporting on “gratuities” directed at certain Justices, doesn’t it?

Not that there weren't reasons to run against the court before, but "The justices who have taking a lot of bribes says it's okay to bribe elected officials" seems like the kind of thing that an average voter can both understand and get mad about

Good to see a satirical wire strung across the road being travelled by the OpenAI bullshit brigade: ChatGPT Now Has PhD-Level Intelligence, and the Poor Personal Choices to Prove It https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/chatgpt-now-has-phd-level-intelligence-and-the-poor-personal-choices-to-prove-it

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Spot the joint sets!

⚒️ #want

What are these Hadean-like temperatures!? Summer you said? Not a fan. Although I would quite like a fan. Anyways, here is my Hadean travel poster :D

Spot the joint sets!

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tectonics and life — "Mammal species richness and turnover exhibit stronger responses to rates of change in landscape properties ... with peaks in diversity coinciding with high tectonic strain rates and large changes in elevation across spatial scales." ⚒️🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Tectonic extension and paleoelevation influence mammalian diversity dynamics in the Basin and Range Province of western North Americawww.science.org Landscape dynamics exert a first-order control on mammal diversity dynamics over a 30-Ma history of tectonic extension.

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Reply to

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈

Biden's second term would almost certainly make his the most consequential presidency for climate change in American history. Trump's second term would also almost certainly make his the most consequential presidency for climate change in American history. For very, very different reasons.

Truth. I want boring and dependable - car reviewers sneer at boring and dependable.

A bad thing about car reviews is they're written by people who love cars and know a lot about them. I need car reviews by people who hate cars and know nothing about them.

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I figured this was a suitably science nerdy joke (if quite niche) t-shirt for doing science career outreach at 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 pride this year 🌈😆 ⚒️ #QueerInSTEM #TransInSTEM #LGBTQ

This is a good read, although not clear Wall Street really considers this a dilemma beyond “why are people knocking our exclusive focus on short-term gains?” (also, is it really “investment” where you’ve barely parted with your money before you’re demanding returns? That’s a bet, not an investment)

Climate risk in the financial sector. 🎁 Dilemma on Wall Street: Short-Term Gain or Climate Benefit?

Dilemma on Wall Street: Short-Term Gain or Climate Benefit?www.nytimes.com Portfolio managers have conflicting incentives as the economic and financial risks from climate change become more apparent but remain imprecise.

Encouraging news from the clean energy transition. "last year or this we will **hit peak fossil fuel demand on this planet**... sun and wind are now growing faster than any other energy sources in history, and they are coming online faster that anyone had predicted"