Suvrat Kher

We are gambling away our health, says Monte Carlo risk modelling.

India Sees Its Grasslands as 'Wastelands.' Ancient Poems Show Otherwise The sprawling grasslands of western India are, in the popular imagination, the remains of woodlands that were leveled under British rule — areas to be reforested, rather than conserved. But a recent analysis of stories, songs, and poems from centuries past reveals that western grasslands predate British colonization.

The grasslands of western India are, in the popular imagination, the remains of woodlands lost under British rule — areas to be reforested, not conserved.

But an analysis of medieval songs and stories reveals the grasslands predate British colonization.

Welcome back to Eruptions So, it has been awhile, right? Over the past few years, there have been a lot of changes to my volcano communication world. Scientists moved from Twitter to Bluesky. People decided they wanted podc…

One last blast for the PM crowd: Eruptions is back! I have resurrected my blog and I will start (mostly) regularly updating with volcano news, research and culture. Check it out: eruptions.site/2026/01/28/w...

A couple of January lesser mohavea wildflowers sneaking in a bloom, Death Valley

haven't in a while. Will let you know when I plan next time.

Not that I know of, but heck, you could study the Aravalli's by a tour of Gurugram.

thanks. I've read several McPhee books. Wonderful writing!

No one ever thought that preservation was because of 'tough bodies'.

It was always about trying to understand the specifics of taphonomy and diagenetic processes.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

paper- pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...

I'm kind of surprised to see that map from USGS. It basically treats each aquifer (or section of the aquifer for the High Plains) like a bathtub and shades the whole thing by calculated volume of depletion. That's not how it works. Mapping it that way is misleading. The fairly severe drawdown

Links to Geology-related Open GIS Data
open.substack.com/pub/ikegami/...

Greenland is rich in natural resources – a geologist explains why Greenland’s rare earth element deposits may be among the world’s largest by volume.

I appreciate this from @us.theconversation.com by Jonathan Paul.

However, I think it’s making a mistake I commonly hear geologists make with regards to current events.

I have a hunch that this mistake is one of the reasons geology programs are struggling 🧵🛠️🪨🧪

theconversation.com/greenland-is...

Anirudh Kanisetti echoing the complaint of pretty much every South Indian who has had to study "Indian history" at a non-state board school.

A slab of rock about the length of a pencil, light gray in color, with orange circular fuzzy bordered fossils, and lots of little orange lines higgledy piggledy all over the slab. Pencil for scale.

Fantastic new slab of eensy little sea urchin fossils from Oregon, courtesy of @smilodonichthys.bsky.social #FossilFriday ⚒️

Folded dark colored metamorphic rocks of the Proterozoic South Delhi Fold Belt. In the upper right, red arrow points to polyphase folding. Two generations of folding seen. Location is Kumbhalgarh fort in Rajasthan.

Folding in Proterozoic South Delhi Fold Belt, Kumbhalgarh Fort, Rajasthan.

Check out the polyphase folding (red arrow).

Pic- Vivek Singh Grewal.

#FridayFold

SEM Backscatter image shows fine needles of pyroxene surrounded by plagioclase. Archean age volcanic rock from the Singbhum craton, eastern India.

Archean Jagannathpur volcanics from Singbhum Craton, India.

SEM BSE image- Pyroxene fibres with plagioclase.

www.geosocindia.org/index.php/jg...

This is the reality we face. It is not physically possible to limit warming to 1.5°C. The required levels of emission cuts are impossibly steep

drilled.media/news/cop30-g...

Thin Section Thursday!
A cross-polarized image of a chondrule from the Allende (CV3) meteorite. The thin blades are crystals formed from the melt at very high cooling rates. FOV ~ 0.7 mm. Contributed by Bill Menarik. Send images & caption to akoziol1 at udayton dot edu. #thinsectionthursday

My top 10 books for 2025

😂

hmm.. maybe that's why Ganga is "germ free". Nuked! 😉

Good company.
@anjanakhatwa.bsky.social @laurapoppick.bsky.social

Polygonal ridges on rock. Field of view of a few inches. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Polygonal ridges on rock. Field of view of a few inches. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Polygonal ridges on a rock in front of the rover. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill

Possible desiccation cracks (mudcracks) in rock found by the Mars Curiosity Rover this week.

flic.kr/p/2rLi9Lh
flic.kr/p/2rLoXm3
flic.kr/p/2rL7ntV

Sparking ancient fires New research helps to show the challenges of documenting ancient firemaking

Documenting ancient firemaking.

A broader perspective from @johnhawks.net on the "earliest evidence of ignition" news reports of firemaking ~400k.

www.johnhawks.net/p/sparking-a...

Our updated 54" x 36" Geology of Plate Tectonics chart reflects recent advances in geological thought over the past 40 years. Grab one below!

English (folded): geosociety.co/3KO5SNe
Spanish (folded): geosociety.co/3ML4Guy

#PlateTectonics #Tectonics #Volcanism #Metamorphism #Seismicity #Geothermal

Thought provoking and well explained by Steven M Stanley.

"Why the punctuational model of evolution is valid".

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

@bsky.app #FossilFriday Arborea arborea, one of many impressive enigmatic Ediacaran fossils from the Flinders Ranges on display at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.

Utilizing traditional literature to triangulate the ecological history of a tropical savanna Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Cool paper documenting ecological insights about Indian tropical savannas in traditional literature between the 13th and 20th century. Grassland-scrubland biomes are often misconceived as deforested and/ or degraded wastelands. So, important paper.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Wasn't aware of this, so new to me!

Origin of the Harappan Ernestites: Geochemical Insights into Provenance and Fabrication - npj Heritage Science npj Heritage Science - Origin of the Harappan Ernestites: Geochemical Insights into Provenance and Fabrication

Manufacture of synthetic Ernestite thr' high temp sintering of sand & laterite raw material.

Wonderful mineralogy and geochem study of origin of cylindrical drill bits used during the Bronze Age Harappan Civilization.

www.nature.com/articles/s40...

@johnhawks.net

Delhi Radioactive!