KSircombe

A most sensational inspirational celebrational Muppetational thread...

(And go watch the Muppet Show special if you haven't already. It. Is. Awesome.)

Joan Wiffen, self-taught palaeontologist known for discovering the first dinosaur fossils in New Zealand, was born #OTD, 1922. wp.me/p3ihHu-4YT #WomeninSTEM 🧪⚒️

Funding opportunities The Geochemistry Group offers a number of funding opportunities for Ph.D students, early career researchers (ECRs), and technical staff to attend meetings. We can also help support scientific meeti…

Technical staff are often overlooked and underrepresented at Scientific meetings...

We hope to address this with our new Technical Staff Meeting Attendance Bursary!

Please visit our website for full details and to apply: geochemistry.group/funding-oppo...

Yes, that seems typical for image creation. And in my experience any attempt to instruct it to make improvements will just make it worse.

Don't say: "There are too many rocks", Say: "Not enough shelves"

Product display showing several pink‑fletched carbon arrows arranged diagonally on a white background. The brand logo ‘ACCMOS’ appears at the top left, with orange Chinese text beside it. Smaller thumbnail images of different arrow styles are shown below, along with the product title ‘Earthquake-resistant 3K pure carbon true feather arrows.’

Didn't realise there was an overlap between 🏹 archery and ⚒️🧪 seismology, but I'll now be looking for earthquake resistance features next time I buy arrows...

A 'cosmic clock' in tiny crystals reveals the rise and fall of Australia's ancient landscapes Australia's iconic red landscapes have been home to Aboriginal culture and recorded in songlines for tens of thousands of years. But further clues to just how ancient this landscape is come from far b...

"By reading cosmic ray fingerprints in zircon, we now have a new geological clock for measuring ancient processes on our planet's surface" ⚒️
phys.org/news/2026-01...

YouTube video by Dave Paton Heard Island 2026

Some amazing footage (no cloud cover!!!!) from Subantarctic Heard Island captured a few days ago by members of the Australian science expedition.
#volcano #Antarctica #HeardIsland 🧪⚒️🌋

A photo of a calendar page hanging on a whiteboard. The top half features a stylized illustration with the title “Witness the birth of Earth’s Moon!” and “only in the HADEAN.” The artwork shows a red, rocky landscape with a hot air balloon floating above, referencing the Hadean Eon when Earth was young and the Moon had just formed. The lower half displays a monthly calendar grid for January, with dates arranged in rows. There are other posters and colorful stickers partially visible around the calendar.

My calendar is ready to go for the year. It is awesome, thank you!

#OreCup #copper is one of only two coloured metals ⚒️🧪

The iconic reddish color is due to a peculiarity in the transition of electrons between the 3d and 4s orbitals causing absorption of blue and green wavelengths and reflecting red/orange wavelengths. Also makes it a great electrical conductor.

Sunlight spills across a vast stretch of black sand, where scattered footprints lead toward the gentle shimmer of waves meeting the shore. To the left, green hills rise steeply against a horizon brushed with wisps of white cloud, while the deep blue sky arches overhead, streaked with light and warmth.

No flashy specimen pictures, just minerals by the billion - voting for #ilmenite in the ⚒️🧪 Ore Cup because it contributes to the awesome black sand beaches of #NewZealand 🇳🇿 . (PSA from personal experience: *always* bring footwear on a hot summer's day...)
buff.ly/ez1xDOJ

Always a big ⚒️🧪 fan of #copper. We use it for vacuum gaskets which we then give away to visiting school groups - they find it fascinating because although copper is everywhere it's rare to actually *see* it. There's probably a kilo or so of copper in your immediate vicinity.

It’s almost time!

We’re excited. You excited?

Monday 00:00 GMT. 24 hours a match. This is going to be FAST

Did dinosaurs sneeze? ⚒️🧪
www.facebook.com/share/p/19ja...

Do you often see minerals attached to the fossils, or it just coincidental?

It's only allowed on the list if everyone promises the Tolkien Family Trust to pronounce it correctly.

Is it a critical mineral or a Tolkien invention? Take the Guardian’s nerdiest quiz yet Do you know your ores from your orcs? Your rare earths versus Middle-earth? Test your knowledge here …

S**t, did we forget to put mithril on the list of ⚒️🧪 critical minerals?!

buff.ly/122Ziq7

Sorry to hear that. Getting standard definitions is hard work. I've seen people almost come to blows over a definition (should it be a trough or a trench?)

I'm currently grappling with definitions of 'technique' compared with 'method' (or 'principle' versus 'procedure' if you follow the VIM...)

A coastal landscape featuring large, round boulders scattered across a gravelly beach. The boulders have smooth, weathered surfaces and vary in size, with some partially embedded in the ground. In the background, rugged hills rise under a clear blue sky, and sparse vegetation grows among the rocks and driftwood.

A rugged coastal scene with a tall, jagged rock formation rising from dark sand near the shoreline. Waves crash against rocky outcrops in the background under a cloudy sky. A person wearing a bright orange jacket stands at the base of the rock, highlighting its scale. Sparse tufts of grass grow on the sand around the formation.

Ward Beach in the northeastern corner of the South Island, New Zealand. A dramatic, rocky, wind-swept coast with concretions, the end of dinosaurs at the K-T boundary and sidling past grumpy fur seals napping amongst the outcrops... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Be...

A photo of a LEGO Ideas set displayed on a white table in a meeting room. In the foreground, six LEGO mineral models are arranged in brown square frames: a purple geode (amethyst), a cluster of blue crystals (fluorite), an amalgamation of several golden cubes (pyrite), red cubes arranged at different angles on a dark base (rhodochrosite), an orange crystal with a small nugget (tangerine coloured quartz), and a tall multicolored crystal (tourmaline). Behind them is the LEGO Ideas box showing images of the same crystal builds. The background includes chairs, tables, and part of a person standing near the box.

A great way to click together ⚒️🧪 #EarthScienceWeek2025 with a Lego speed build competition using the new 'Minerals' set of quartz, amethyst, tourmaline, pyrite, fluorite, and rhodochrosite. Pictures don't do them justice, they are quite spectacular in person. Alas, no #zircon - maybe in Set 2?

The Great ShakeOut Earthquakes happen in Australia! Join the Great ShakeOut on Thursday 16 October and learn how to keep yourself safe during an earthquake.

⚒️🧪 Great ShakeOut! Earthquake safety is not common knowledge in Australia where quakes are infrequent, but still potentially deadly. After a hefty M5.9 quake in 2021 that reached the Melbourne CBD, it was found only 3% knew what to do in a quake. Find out now!
buff.ly/PNGYgTa #EarthScienceWeek2025

I once described a period of low tectonic activity and peneplain development in a regional geological history as 'nothing much happened' to a prominent sedimentologist. I was promptly and permanently corrected.

Yes! I should have inserted a 4th step - a high school geography teacher that leaned strongly in the 'physical geography' of maps, landscapes and volcanoes part of the curriculum. Love a good map!

A rectangular wooden box filled with an assortment of rocks and minerals of various shapes, sizes, and colors. The stones include smooth rounded pebbles, jagged fragments, and polished pieces in shades of gray, brown, white, and green. Some rocks display layered textures or crystalline patterns. The box rests on a stone-paved surface. It wasn't actually this box because, sadly, it never occurred to me to take a picture of the box when it was still around. But it looked very much like this!

For #EarthScienceWeek2025: what 3 steps got you into ⚒️🧪 Earth Science?
1. A wood box full of rocks and crystals that my Dad had collected in his travels
2. David Attenbourgh's 'Life on Earth'
3. Couldn't make up my mind choosing a science major, so I did the (earth) science that does them all!

Map of Australia showing critical mineral deposits across the country. The map uses a satellite-style background with state boundaries labeled, including Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria. Numerous colored squares and circles are scattered across the map, representing different types of critical minerals. High concentrations of markers appear in Western Australia, Queensland, and along the eastern and southern coasts near major cities such as Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. The title above the map reads: “Analysing Australian geology, topography, and critical minerals using online datasets – Classroom inquiry activities.” A caption below states: “Map of Australia marking out critical mineral deposits (Geoscience Australia data portal).”

It's ⚒️🧪 #EarthScienceWeek2025 !

Here's a new product from the awesome Geoscience Australia Education and Outreach team: a Year 8-10 classroom activity exploring critical minerals in Australia and their value through the lens of topographic data and the geology of Australia.

buff.ly/Y8v46nt

And amazingly written. I read it years ago, but there are still parts that randomly float into my awareness from time to time.

Image of a book cover 'Annals of the Former World' by John McPhee showing an antique geological map and cross section in predominately beige colours with copperpoint labelling.

Annals of the Former World by John McPhee is a great read. It brings together descriptions of field trips (and the geologists!) plus local history to weave a story how the geology of North America has shaped its people and history, and how the story of geology itself has grown.

The greatest advance of the 21st century has been inflight WiFi because it has enabled having live geological maps on hand to more thoroughly investigate the ⚒️🧪 geology you are flying over. Window seats forever!

Linocut portrait of Mary Golda Ross looking over her shoulder in a gradient of green (at bottom) to gold (at top) surrounded by vehicles important to her career including P-38 Lighting fighter plane, and Agena rocket, important to Apollo missions in grey.

For #spacetober_challenge day 8 prompt propulsion, my portrait of #mathematician, aeronautical #engineer, philanthropist & Cherokee ‘hidden figure’ of the space race: Mary Golda Ross (1908-2008).⁠ 🧪🐡🧮🔭👩🏻‍🔬 #histsci
⁠
Great-great-granddaughter of Chief John Ross, who was forced to lead his people on the

My sedimentology contrariness would ask 'why is the specimen rounded?' 😀