Erik Gulbranson

Truly, just a giant cancer orb. Straight to jail!

Is that bloating effect from dispersion of the clay particles following dehydration?

And the areas with thin modern soils atop buried soils!

So many E horizons!

“Why don’t you invite us in?” The oft repeated line of vampires.

This is a truly astonishing image. The yellow spot is a planet (WISPIT-2b) orbiting a star (its light blocked by a coronagraph) carving out a 'lane' in the dusty ring-shaped planetary nebula from which it was born. A snapshot of our own solar system, as it probably looked 4.5 billion years ago.

Maps on the ballot? It's about time.

New seminar: “Confirmation bias: you’re right, and you know it”

Trump’s USDA resurrects one climate grant program, kills another Many farmers who spent big on solar are finally getting reimbursed. But another climate program for agriculture is headed for the morgue.

The $3 billion Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was scrapped by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, who called it “the green new scam.” In its place: efforts aligned with Trump’s ‘energy dominance’ agenda.

I’m always saying this…

New in Geoderma: "Cover crops alter soil physicochemical properties: A global meta-analysis" by Fulai Yan & Emmanuel Arthur. doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...
@AarhusUni_int

North Pacific ocean–atmosphere responses to Holocene and future warming drive Southwest US drought - Nature Geoscience Mid-Holocene and the future warming induces a North Pacific response resulting in sustained winter precipitation deficits and drought over the Southwestern United States, according to new palaeoclimat...

⚒️ Article: Mid-Holocene and the future warming induces a North Pacific response resulting in sustained winter precipitation deficits and drought over the Southwestern United States.

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

Strong stuff /s

Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Adjuncts

Energy conversions never cease to amaze

Using 3D observations with high spatio-temporal resolution to calibrate and evaluate a process-focused cellular automaton model of soil erosion by water Abstract. Future global change is likely to give rise to novel combinations of the factors which enhance or inhibit soil erosion by water. Thus, there is a need for erosion models, necessarily process...

📢🌍 Fascinating soil research alert!
This publication is a perfect example of how technology and process-based models can deepen our understanding of soil dynamics.
📖 Worth a read for anyone into erosion modelling or soil mapping: doi.org/10.5194/soil...
#SoilScience #Erosion #OpenScience #EGU-SSS

Climate change outpaces trees: Forests face centuries-long lag in adaptation Ecologists are concerned that forest ecosystems will not keep pace with a rapidly changing climate, failing to remain healthy and productive. Before the rapid climate change of the past century, tree ...

In the interest of celebrating good things, former lab postdoc David Fastovich (and new Assistant Prof at University of Georgia!) has a new paper looking at rates of ecosystem change in response to past climate change: press release: phys.org/news/2025-07...

Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Guilty as charged.

AND MY PALEO PICK!

"at least I owned the libs" - the last words from a man who dies from sepsis during the 90-mile drive to the closest hospital

The results of my 2024-25 academic job market experiment are in, and the numbers should be instructive to anyone considering university employment these days: don't. It's not worth your time, even if you've done all the work to get a PhD, even if it seems like a dream job.

Results breakdown below.

All I’m asking, as an American, is for another set of Americans on a hill to have the moral courage and tenacity to fight for the Republic

At the end of the day, this is the experiment of democracy

In addition to that, and just thinking ahead here, a startling number, if not vast majority, of education degree programs are slated for the chopping block.

Bleak future for the education environment in Indiana.

Hydrology Paper of the Day @christina-hn.bsky.social on determining water uptake depth by stable isotopes: species differences and contributions of water from the subsoil and organic layer; how some trees are more resilient to drought; natural isotopes; and tracer experiments in northern Germany.

Truly.

How to attack every intro to geology prof.

See that orange blob?

That's probably a Saturn-mass planet orbiting its parent star, the light from which has been blocked.

A whole other planet in a system only a few million years old, possibly still undergoing formation and developing its own ring and satellite system.

111 lightyears away.

The Minneapolis Chain of Lakes by bicycle: Glacial history, human modifications, and paleolimnology of an urban natural environment ABSTRACT. The Minneapolis Chain of Lakes is a focal point of natural beauty in the heart of the city. Given the recreational and aesthetic imperative, thes

It’s also a consequence of human engineering of lacustrine and wetland environments, not unlike the recent re-emergence of Tulare Lake in California

pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/books/ed...

A photograph of two people, smiling, at a college graduation. One person is wearing their black graduation robes and ceremonial cords. The other person is wearing a blue blazer and pants.

A photograph of three smiling people reenacting a spiderman meme, standing opposite each other and pointing fingers accusingly at each other with both of their hands. Two of the people are wearing black college graduation robes and the third is wearing a blu blazer and pants.

And Kaisa graduated this year! She’s off to pursue her graduate work at UMass Amherst in the fall. Incredibly proud of her, and so happy that she found a match for grad school in these immensely hard times.

Photograph of two people smiling, both are wearing rain coats and holding soil excavation equipment and field notebooks. The background is a recently excavated soil and sediment profile on the banks of a river. Kaisa Whittaker and Kendall Wiggins enjoying a cumulate soil profile in France with loads of illuviated clay. They earned the right to use a trowel this year!

Photograph of a bridge rail in the foreground, a river, a forested island with a massive dead tree trunk, and views of a small French town and chateau in the background. The vegetation presents lush green hues of a mid-spring day in Central Europe. Our office for the day along the Sarre (aka Saar in Deutschland). Wonderfully thick fluvial terraces, buried soils, soil-formed iron, paleo-channels on the island. Just south of the expansive Sarre terrace system near Keskastel. I was enthralled with the massive tree trunk on that island, amidst the bustling goings on in this charming town.

The news is downright bad, and weird, lately. But my research team arrived back home from an excellent field season in Central Europe. With some surprises: iron accumulations (tech term=plinthite) in buried soils! Usually found in much warmer/humid areas. We’re excited to see what the IRSL ages say!