Tom Gernon

Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas Sediments from Scotland hint that ocean-atmosphere interactions continued more than 600 million years ago despite widespread ice.

Our planet’s average temperature plummeted between 717 and 658 million years ago, causing a worldwide ice age dubbed Snowball Earth.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/snowball-earth-dynamic-open-seas

Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas Sediments from Scotland hint that ocean-atmosphere interactions continued more than 600 million years ago despite widespread ice.

"Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas": a nice article about our new study led by the amazing @cgrifgeo.bsky.social, just published in @scinews.bsky.social

www.sciencenews.org/article/snow...

@unisouthampton.bsky.social

The quote "it's not even a real fish" is my lasting memory of that whole fiasco 😄

Interannual to multidecadal climate oscillations occurred during Cryogenian glaciation During the two Cryogenian snowball Earth glaciations, the Sturtian (ca. 717–658 Ma) and Marinoan (ca. 639–635 Ma), ice persisted in the tropics for mi…

Slightly late to the party, but here's a link to access our new open access paper reporting "Interannual to multidecadal climate oscillations occurred during Cryogenian glaciation" led by the amazing @cgrifgeo.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

He *does* like cracks in sea ice that let dust, ash, cryoconite etc flow into the ocean!

A screen grab of a paper by Paul Hoffman arguing against a slushball earth

From my understanding, Paul thinks of slushball scenarios as a tall order. Here's an extract from his 2017 Science Advances paper (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...)

The Earth is covered in cracked ice, creating a textured, white surface. Set against a dark space background with subtle stars and a stretch of the Milky Way galaxy visible on the right side.

A coastal landscape in Scotland with rugged cliffs and grassy hillsides jutting into calm blue waters under a partly cloudy sky.

Hundreds of millions of years ago our planet was frozen, in a state called Snowball Earth. Researchers here at Southampton have examined how the climate would have fluctuated.

Read more: https://tr.pulse.ly/si1ggtin1u

@gernon.bsky.social | @cgrifgeo.bsky.social | @sotonoceanearth.bsky.social

Model simulation of the #MPWP glacial-deglacial switching (more than 5 deep retreats to #EllsworthMountains province) is breathtaking in this animation by ARHalberstadt : youtu.be/uu2vlzrP2vk

Professor John Marshall, in outdoor attire, operates a power drill on a rocky, barren mountainside. He wears a dark hat, glasses, and has a gray beard. The terrain is steep with loose dirt and stones.

Two people in bright orange survival suits and life jackets are on a small inflatable boat. They are navigating icy waters, with icebergs visible in the background and a cloudy sky overhead. One person is handling the motor, while the other sits facing forward.

Red and black tents are pitched on a snowy, rocky slope under an overcast sky. The ground is thinly covered with snow, revealing many stones. The background shows a large, snow-dusted hill.

Professor John Marshal with glasses and a hat smiles at the camera while sitting beside a rocky outcrop. He is wearing a beige vest and blue sleeves. In front of him are geological tools including a hammer, measuring tape, and a notepad with notes.

Congratulations to Professor John Marshall on his Polar Medal, recognising his decades of research in the harsh polar regions.

Awarded by His Majesty King Charles III to those who have made outstanding achievements in polar research.

Find out more: www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2026/01...

Trump Administration Aims to Dismantle Key Climate Research Hub The US plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a key climate-science hub in Boulder, Colorado, which the Trump administration says strayed from its mission decades ago by taki...

“To shutter this facility is, frankly, a national security risk,” Kim Cobb told @bloomberg.com about NCAR, given its cutting-edge work on extreme weather and across fields including machine learning and AI.

Story w/ @eroston.bsky.social @willwwade.bsky.social: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Bronze plaque saying "A Letter to the Future. Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it. August 2019. 415ppm CO2"

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".

Generation of EM under the continents.

Continental rifting erodes mantle roots, transporting enriched material into oceans and driving oceanic volcanism. A study in Nature Geoscience shows that continental break-up reorganizes shallow mantle dynamics, affecting the geosphere and carbon cycle.
go.nature.com/3XjAk4G ⚒️ 🧪

Do you know if the adult female survived the Goshawk incursion?

⚒️ Article: Convective erosion and lateral transport of metasomatized continental keels may generate enriched mantle geochemical domains

@gernon.bsky.social @unisouthampton.bsky.social @ukiodp.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

YouTube video by Scottish Geology Trust Help us build a Deep Time Trail at Siccar Point

Siccar Point is one of the most important geoheritage sites in the world; we think visitors deserve to hear why.

Help us install a Deep Time Trail - donate to the Crowdfunder now. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/siccar-point

youtu.be/OeHsVJiO9gE

Congratulations Gavin 👏🏻

This is a brilliant read!

Finally: AI cannot do your job, but an AI salesman can 100% convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job, and when the bubble bursts, the money-hemorrhaging "foundation models" will be shut off and we'll lose the AI that can't do your job, and you will be long gone, retrained or retired or "discouraged" and out of the labor market, and no one will do your job. AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations:

This whole section really.

Out yesterday in @nature.com our study led by @gidden.bsky.social on how much carbon we can store in sedimentary basins. Key takeaways, (1) this is a limited resource, (2) most optimistically will limit global warming by 0.7°, (3) so let’s not waist it, but use it wisely.

New ideas published in @geosociety.bsky.social Geology that the Northern Appalachian anomaly beneath the Eastern US is a migrating small-scale convection cell originating from past rifting of the Labrador Sea @gernon.bsky.social @sasbrune.bsky.social
pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...

Frontiers | Melt generation and evolution in the Adda’do rift segment of the Afar rift from trace elements and petrography Along-rift variations in the stage of continental separation are observed in the northern East African Rift System (EARS), from magma-assisted continental ri...

Congrats to Rhiannon Rees on publication of her trace element study from Ayelu, Abida and Gabilema volcanoes in the Ethiopian rift
www.frontiersin.org/journals/ear... @sorcerinsar.bsky.social @gernon.bsky.social @wattsvolcanology.bsky.social

NERC: We need to open up environmental science! Why is it not diverse?

Also NERC: We're scrapping Independent Research Fellowships, New Investigator Grants, Small Grants, are limiting applications from institutions based on past success rates and will only allow you to submit your proposal once.

Fabulous falcons go live! 2025 Hobby nest cam now live

At last we are delighted to share with you this year's LIVE Hobby nest camera from a site within the Forestry England South Forest District. To view the live stream visit our website blog and click on the image. Enjoy! drsg.co.uk/f/fabulous-f... @dorsetbirdclub.bsky.social @harbourbirds.bsky.social

Thank you ☺️

Mantle upwelling at Afar triple junction shaped by overriding plate dynamics - Nature Geoscience The mantle upwelling beneath the Afar rift may be influenced by tectonic processes in the overriding lithospheric plates that shape the distribution of both the compositional heterogeneities and abundance of melt, according to a geochemical and statistical study of volcanic samples.

The mantle upwelling beneath the Afar rift may be influenced by tectonic processes in the overriding lithospheric plates that shape the distribution of both compositional heterogeneties and abundance of melt, according to a paper in Nature Geoscience. 🧪

Are you running the Hobby Falcon live camera this year @dorsetraptors.bsky.social ?

Magma "heartbeat" is tearing continent apart, geologists discover "The plume is pulsing," said Earth Science professor Tom Gernon of the University of Southampton.

www.newsweek.com/geology-plat...

A vivid scene of molten lava flowing from a volcanic eruption.

Rocky, arid Ethiopian landscape with scattered shrubs stretches towards distant rolling hills under a clear blue sky.

A person wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a backpack is kneeling on sandy ground, using a smartphone to take a close-up photo of a sedimentary rock formation.

Our scientists have discovered deep Earth pulses beneath Africa that are slowly, over millions of years, tearing the continent apart and forming a new ocean 🌊

Read more 👉‬ https://tr.ee/Rj8ooV

Schematic illustrations of the spatially heterogeneous nature of the mantle upwelling beneath Afar

⚒️ Article: Mantle upwelling beneath the Afar rift may be influenced by tectonic processes in the overriding lithospheric plates

@wattsvolcanology.bsky.social @derekkeir.bsky.social ‬ @gernon.bsky.social @unisouthampton.bsky.social @swanseavolctephra.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@wattsvolcanology.bsky.social