Pim Kaskes

For those with enough energy left after a full #2025SVP meeting 😁: come check out my talk today at 16h00 in Hall 4! I will show a new geochemical method in studying #bonebeds, i.e. blasting #dinosaurs in Brussels 🦖🦕🔬. @amgc-vub.bsky.social @anneschulp.bsky.social @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social

🚨 New job! Last week was my first week as a Marie Curie Postdoc @nhm-london.bsky.social 🇬🇧. Thanks to @tweetisaurus.bsky.social for the terrific start! I’m now diving into my #MSCA 'MORBID' project, where I’ll be using cutting-edge #geochemistry to explore how Mesozoic bonebeds formed, more soon 🦕😀!

📣 🦖Come check out our K-Pg boundary session T152 this afternoon (13h30-17h30 in room 304C) at @geosociety.bsky.social #GSAConnects2025 conference in San Antonio! Full schedule here: gsameetings.secure-platform.com/connects25/s.... @paleosoc.bsky.social

🦕 Did you know that #dinosaurs were ecosystem engineers? When they were wiped out from Earth's surface by the #Chicxulub impact, the river landscapes of North America dramatically changed as well! Happy to see this paper out in which I played a small part, brilliantly led by Luke Weaver @umich.edu 👇

😀 Started as an #XRF method project in my PhD and now wrapped up in my postdoc at @amgc-vub.bsky.social, thrilled with the outcome!
🙏 Huge thanks to my co-authors, @vubrussel.bsky.social @brukercorporation.bsky.social, @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social, Barringer Family Fund & @belspo.be for the support 🙌.

👨‍🔬 These results show that high-resolution chemical imaging can uncover the fine-scale dynamics of catastrophic events — not just what happened, but when and how.
🌍 This is perfect for decoding #meteorite #impact #stratigraphy, but also to study other rapid events on Earth in modern and deep time.

⏰ Instead of the classic “dual-layer” #ejecta model, we found 3 distinct sublayers:
1️⃣ Impact melt #spherules — c. 15 min after #Chicxulub impact
2️⃣ Basement mineral grains — <1 hr after impact
3️⃣ Fine dust rich in Zr (from #Yucatán granites) & Cr, Ni (from the #asteroid) — settled in <20 years.

🔬 We applied micro–X-ray fluorescence (#μXRF) mapping at 25 μm resolution + scanning electron microscopy to a K–Pg boundary slab from Colorado (Raton Basin) 🇺🇸.
☄️This non-destructive workflow reveals #ejecta products layer-by-layer — resolving events from minutes to decades after #Chicxulub.

💥🦖66 million years ago, an #asteroid hit Earth, ending the age of #dinosaurs.
⏳But what happened in the minutes, hours, and years after impact?
🚨Our new @agu.org G-Cubed study uses ultra-high-res #geochemistry to find out. Check it out here: 🧵👇
🔗 doi.org/10.1029/2024...
@amgc-vub.bsky.social

🚨Last call for abstracts for #GSAConnects2025 in San Antonio; deadline August 5th!
🦖Check our @geosociety.bsky.social session T152 and our 408 pre-excursion on the K-Pg boundary. Submit here: connects.geosociety.org.
🙏Thanks to @paleosoc.bsky.social @PlanetaryGSA @GSAgeochron @GSA_SGD @GSA_Geobio

Congratulations Marie with passing your PhD 👍! @tweetisaurus.bsky.social and I have just been checking out these days at NHM some of the Hypsilophodon samples for a new project and your work is super useful for this 🙏!

Thank you @eageo.bsky.social for travel funding to go to the @geosociety.bsky.social meeting in Anaheim last year 🙏! It was a pleasure being an Early Career Science Ambassador and convening a #K-Pg session to show the strength of geochemistry in unravelling mass extinctions. Read my blog below 😊👇.

Het is stupide dat de VU aardwetenschappen opheft.

Kitty Jong in het Parool:

Thanks @sampvolcano.bsky.social 🙏! The premiere was great last week and we hope for more screenings in the following months 😁. Good question regarding the online availability, we will ask around what is possible 👌!

Docu showcases adventurous and high-tech vub research into the demise of the dinosaurs Exact scientist and Indiana Jones in one

🎬🦖☄️🤠 Check out the interview by Cem Berk Senel and me with some more background on our @docville.bsky.social documentary 'de dag dat het zonlicht niet meer scheen', that will be released tonight! @vubrussel.bsky.social @amgc-vub.bsky.social @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social ➡️ www.vub.be/en/news/docu...

📅 Date & Location: Premiere is on Thursday 27 March 2025 at 20h at Kinepolis Leuven @kinepolisfrance.bsky.social.
🎟️ Update: the @docville.bsky.social premiere is already sold out, but on Wednesday 2nd April (19h30) there will be a 2nd screening. Ticket details are here: docville.be/film?id=1440... 😊

How a catastrophe rewrote the history of Earth: VUB research premieres at Docville Screening of ‘De dag dat het zonlicht niet meer scheen’ during opening night of ScienceVille

ℹ️ ☄️Come see our documentary that shows how one catastrophic day rewrote the course of life on Earth! More information on our documentary and research can be found here: press.vub.ac.be/how-a-catast...

🙏 🔬 We like to thank @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social, @belspo.be and @vubrussel.bsky.social for research funding, and Prof. Johan Vellekoop (@kuleuven.bsky.social and @naturalsciences-be.bsky.social) for joining us in the field and showing his love for microfossils.

🙏 🎥 We are grateful to film makers Maria and Frederik Stuut, the production team at #AssociateDirectors, @docville.bsky.social, @vrtnws.be, @vubrussel.bsky.social
for the nice collaboration. We also like to thank our colleagues @amgc-vub.bsky.social & @orb-ksb.bsky.social for their support.

🌍🤠 Through new geological fieldwork in North America and cutting-edge lab analyses @amgc-vub.bsky.social and computer simulations in Brussels, we reconstruct, minute after minute, how the dinosaurs vanished—and show why their story continues to captivate us.

☄️🦖 This film tells the fascinating yet tragic story of the day an #asteroid the size of #Brussels struck our planet and changed life forever. But what really happened after the #Chicxulub impact 66 million years ago? Follow the journey of the rock sample that we collected that tells this story.

🎬✨ Film Premiere! Our documentary "De dag dat het zonlicht niet meer scheen”, will open #ScienceVille @docville.bsky.social this Thursday! This film is based on the Science Pitch by Cem Berk Senel and me on our @naturegeosci.bsky.social paper on the #dinosaur extinction: 🧵👇 @vubrussel.bsky.social

I am @unimainz.bsky.social this week for the 1st #PaleoIMAGING workshop. Great discussions on high-res techniques like micro-XRF, hyperspectral imaging & uCT on various paleo-archives. Kudos to Igor Obreht and his team for the organisation! Nice to also see familiar faces like @dadevlee.bsky.social

I'm really delighted and looking forward to hosting @pimkaskes.bsky.social - we're going to be using geocgemical techniques to address a range of taphonomic and palaeobiological problems

Thank you also to my PhD supervisors Prof. Philippe Claeys and Prof. Steven Goderis (@amgc-vub.bsky.social) for their continuous support during my career and the opportunity to develop my geochemical skillset. I cannot wait to embark on this new adventure across the Channel later this year 🇬🇧 ! (5)

I will work on developing a new high-res geochemical toolbox for fossil bone and teeth from bonebeds 🦴🦷🦖🦕 to shed more light on the fossilization conditions and the paleobiology of extinct vertebrates together with improving dating techniques for poorly age-constrained fossil-rich rock layers ⏰ (4).

In the “MORBID” project, I will study a large series of Mesozoic bonebeds from a geochemical perspective focusing mostly on the spectacular dinosaur collection housed at the NHM and using the state-of-the-art facilities at the NHM Core Research Laboratories 🥼 🔬👨‍🔬 (3).

The NHM has always been a dream institute for me and this was confirmed when I presented at the “200- years of Dinosaurs” conference. In this #MSCA project, I will go back to one of my first loves: the #dinosaurs 😊. Rather than studying their extinction, I will examine them during their prime (2).

Very excited to announce that I have been granted a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (#MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship to work
@nhm-london.bsky.social on the "MORBID" project on bonebeds 🦖🦕🦴🥼! Thank you to my supervisors Profs.
@tweetisaurus.bsky.social & Richard Herrington, and the NHM for the support 😄 (1).

www.naturalsciences.be/nl/wetenscha...