Jackie Caplan-Auerbach

Big week for webcams getting wiped out by volcanoes.

So glad you're okay and that you got such excellent care! Sending lots of good healing thoughts!

Super cool--the role of (even very small) earthquakes in subsurface microbiology!

Brave act #3: grabbing a shark
Brave act #2: holding it while removing the hook

Brave act #1: willingly standing in the waters of the Ala Wai Canal

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Cuttlefish
Emperor penguin
Moose
Orca
Cirroteuthis

No federal badge authorizes the unlawful arrest of or use of excessive force on American citizens.

When ICE crosses that line, they’re committing crimes under state law. Local law enforcement has a duty to intervene and protect the public, not rogue agents.

Join me and my wonderful colleagues at WWU!

Text art saying "shine so bright that it burns their fucking eyes" in the trans flag colors.

Trans Day of Remembrance. Pour one out for our trans siblings lost and keep *living* in their honor.

Simple but excellent thread on why the CDC's new phrasing around vaccines and autism is just bad science.

The USGS has a new post explaining that the electrical problem that caused this gross misinterpretation was icing over of an antenna.

www.facebook.com/share/p/1Lbe...

That makes sense to me!

Long story short, pay attention to the source of the information you get. If you want information about Cascades volcanoes, go to the people who are charged with monitoring them: the Cascades Volcano Observatory (volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatorie...) and the Pacific NW Seismic Network (pnsn.org).

They go on to say that the alert level has not been raised at Rainier because no other warning signs have emerged. No. The alert level has not been raised because the cause of all of their angst is a broken instrument. Jeez. 16/n

Did the Daily Mail ask a single seismologist about these data? Did they interview a volcanologist? Did they talk with anyone who studies this volcano for a living?

No. Here's their data source: "volcano watchers on social media". 15/n

Since the alleged shaking isn't visible at this other Rainier station we can be very confident it isn't a sign that the mountain is about to blow. 13/n

This allows us to rule out volcanic tremor as a source of the activity recorded by STAR. And again, it doesn't look like tremor, much as the sound of a car horn doesn't sound like a slipping fan belt. 12/n

Let's compare the last day at station STAR to another nearby station (RCS). STAR is maxed out, whereas RCS shows lots of tiny little blips--these are likely creaks and pops from within Rainier's zillions of glaciers. 11/n

And there's more! If we see a signal that we don't understand, we check to see if it was recorded by other instruments. A real signal that actually took place at Rainier will be detected by many seismometers. If something appears on only one station, it's probably not real or not volcanic. 10/n

The good news is that seismologists are familiar with this. We know this is noise, not signal. You know how a car mechanic can say "oh I know that noise--your fan belt is slipping"? That's what seismologists do with wiggles. We have looked at them a LOT and we can easily recognize issues. 9/n

Seismic data from station STAR on Mount Rainier show an instrument not working well.

Seismic data from station STAR on Mount Rainier show an instrument not working at all.

Faulty instruments often generate wonky electrical signals. That's what is currently going on with station STAR on Mount Rainier. 8/n

But sometimes you get other electrical signals interfering with the transmission. And sometimes stations break (particularly in the challenging conditions one finds at stations like this one, which is over 10,000 ft up Mount Rainier. ) 7/n

This electrical signal can be sent over transmission lines to organizations such as the PNSN, who convert it back into what it really is: a representation of ground-shaking. 6/n

In a seismometer, you just throw a wire around that bouncing mass and surround it by a magnetic field. This generates a current within the wire that changes direction and amplitude as the mass bounces. Quaking therefore creates an oscillating current. 5/n

A quick lesson on seismometers, of which there are many on Mount Rainier. In its most simple form, a seismometer is just a mass on a spring. When the ground shakes, the spring bounces. 4/n

By citing the PNSN, the article makes the reader think the scientists there made, or were at least asked about this discovery. But no, they were not. Anyone at the PNSN would have immediately explained that the signals in question were not volcanic in nature. 5/n

The Daily Mail explains that this activity was "detected by the Pacific NW Seismic Network".

This is sort of true. The signals in question were, in fact detected by a seismometer operated by the PNSN. However, the signals are not from the volcano. The instrument is faulty. 3/n

The article alleges that Mount Rainier, Washington, is experiencing an "unprecedented" phase of unrest, "stoking fears that an eruption could come soon." It later says that the volcano "has been experiencing constant vibrations beneath the surface."

None of this is true. 2/n

An article in the Daily Mail entitled "America's deadliest volcano enters unprecedented 72-hour tremor phase as eruption threat looms over millions". This is incorrect.

Speaking of bad science in media (and I am using the term "media" pretty loosely here), allow me to use The Daily Mail as evidence of why you should get your science information from reputable agencies rather than crap websites. I'm not going to link the article, but it looks like this:

1/n

It's clearly just a typo (likely 33.7 degrees latitude) but indicative of a lack of (a) baseline scientific knowledge, and (b) high quality editing at Fox News.

Fox News has interpreted Amelia Earhart's final transmission as her being "near 157 degrees east longitude and 337 degrees south latitude."

Join me, friends, at 337 degrees south where we will party with the Loch Ness monster, Sasquatch, and a variety of other things that do not exist.