Kevin Befus

VOLUNTEER ON A DINOSAUR DIG: We run one of the only free dinosaur digs in the USA. We work public land and the fossils go in our public museum, forever. It's hard work, but we find some cool things. If this sounds like you, we're taking applications. Link in comms. #dinosaurs

What is groundwater flooding and why Dorset is seeing 'historic highs' With a Met Office yellow warning for rain in effect people are being warned about the dangers of groundwater flooding.

UK

'What is groundwater flooding...

”When the water table rises and reaches ground level, water starts to seep through to the surface and flooding can happen,” the EA says. That means it may rise up through floors or underground rooms such as cellars and basements.'

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'Govt estimates suggest as much as half of U.S. households have some level of PFAS in their water… But while federal officials have put strict limits on water provided by utilities, those rules don’t apply to the roughly 40 million people in the US who rely on private drinking water wells.'

New postdoc opportunities in my group at Rutgers-New Brunswick, working on sea-level rise projections and/or coastal climate risk assessment & management

How to lead a journal club you won’t be embarrassed by later One of the jobs facing an early-career scientist, and a developing writer, is to learn what their field’s literature looks like. One of the best tools to that end is the journal club. If you’ve nev…

Love this from @stephenbheard.bsky.social on how to prioritize learning and useful discussion over tearing apart papers, and look forward to using some of these question prompts in future lab meetings: scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/2026/01/13/h...

The Paperwork Trick Letting Factory Farms Pollute With Impunity The practice called ‘manifesting’ lets CAFOs make manure pollution legally invisible and evade liability.

On paper, factory farms can make manure pollution legally invisible. This little-known loophole is called "manifesting" and it's part of why 70% of CAFOs in the US don't have discharge permits: @sentientmedia.org sentientmedia.org/trick-lettin...

As Sea Levels Rise, What Will It Take to Protect the Bay Area From Flooding? | KQED We talk about the floods and what it will take to adapt to rising sea levels in the Bay Area.

Worth a listen! Caught part of today's forum with @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social talking with @kzhill.bsky.social, @climatedaddykqed.bsky.social , and others about SLR in the SF Bay Area.

Great #CAwater discussion highlighting how complex planning, mitigation, and adaptation all are.

Study: Air pollution causes 200,000 early deaths each year in the U.S. New MIT study finds vehicle emissions are the biggest contributor to these premature deaths.

When thinking about the news that Trump's EPA no longer views American deaths as a problem, it isn't a few lives here or there. It is hundreds of thousands.

This series, jointly hosted by the EarthScope-operated NSF National Geophysical Facility & CUAHSI aims to highlight the work being done at the intersection of hydrology & geophysics & foster collaboration between geophysicists & hydrologists to broaden CZ scientific communities. lnkd.in/erj5NDtt

Marin County Looked Like ‘a Lagoon’ After King Tides, Heavy Rain | KQED Flooding in Marin County this weekend foreshadows a far wetter future due to human-caused climate change.

🌧️Marin County Looked Like ‘a Lagoon’ After King Tides, Heavy Rain

“We’re seeing stronger storms as we go forward, and the predictions are that we are going to continue to see more intensity in the storms and wilder swings,”

@kqednews.kqed.org @kqedscience.bsky.social

www.kqed.org/news/1206864...

Happy new year!

Women Advancing River Research (WARR) 2026, featuring woman scientists from around the world.

3rd Thursday each month, 11 – 12 noon US ET

Pls spread the word.

Register: psu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

@waterbarnes.bsky.social @agu-h3s.bsky.social @aguwaterquality.bsky.social

📢We are organising an #EGU26 session dedicated to groundwater-dependent ecosystems! 🌱

📅 Abstract deadline: 15 January
🔗 Session: shorturl.at/FtcXO

Please share with colleagues working at the interface of groundwater, ecology, biodiversity, and/or conservation across local to global scales!

King Tides to Flood Bay Area Shorelines This Week. Here's Where and When to Safely See Them | KQED This week’s extra high tide could flood shorelines across the Bay Area, offering a preview of how rising seas could reshape the region.

www.kqed.org/science/1999... #KingTides

King Tides are coming soon Email from California Coastal Commission We need your help to photograph king tides King Tides are Coming Soon! December 4th & 5th, 2025 and January 2nd & 3rd, 2026 Plus: Nov. 6th and Dec. 6th in Sout

California #KingTides are coming soon!
We need your help to photograph the highest projected tides of the year, to create a record of changes to our shoreline while helping us understand what's vulnerable to flooding now and how sea level rise will impact California in the future. conta.cc/3Jb1S8Q

AI reveals vast ‘ghost forests’ along U.S. coast Machine learning method counts nearly 12 million dead trees, many likely killed by rising seas

Summary of recent fieldwork in coastal NC - We ground truthed part of a massive new dataset of ghost forests along the US east coast. First paper of the project, led by Henry Yeung (UVA), should be out soon.
www.science.org/content/arti... #hydrology #remoteSensing #geosky

Assistant Professor of Hydrogeology About Western: Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report. About the Geology Department: The Geology Department has 17 faculty, offering BA, BS and MS programs in Geology, Geophysics, and Science Education, serving approximately 190 majors. The department has strengths in field and lab-based teaching and research in geomorphology, igneous petrology, geophysics, hydrogeology and envionmental/engineering geology, planetary geology, sedimentology, science education, and structure/tectonics. Additional information about our programs can be found at https://geology.wwu.edu/. The Geology Department strives to further Western's identity as an institution that welcomes and embraces diversity and encourages applications from diverse candidates. About the Position: The ideal candidate will support our department's ability to produce workforce-ready geoscientists. We seek individuals who are enthusiastic about teaching and who will establish a productive research program that involves undergraduate and Master's-level students. Broad areas of research interest may include, but | are not limited to, groundwater-surface water interactions, environmental hydrogeology, and groundwater systems (e.g-geothermal, fault zone, coastal, mountain). Teaching responsibilities will in…

The Geology Dept at WWU is hiring an Assistant Prof in Hydrology! Come be my colleague in a great department! More info in the attached flyer, and at hr.wwu.edu/careers-facu...

The dried-out subdivisions of Phoenix - High Country News A groundwater crisis halted the construction of thousands of homes and pitted affordability against environmental concerns.

The past and future of water, primarily groundwater, and housing in the Phoenix metro. I learned some new things - including that it took 39 years (!) for Arizona's 1980 groundwater law to halt any growth. Thorough reporting from Tony Davis @highcountrynews.org www.hcn.org/issues/57-10...

A person taking a photo of splashing waves against a staircase and rocks at the ocean

Hi King Tides Community! We need your help to photograph the upcoming King Tides. Your photos help us understand what's vulnerable to flooding today, plan for future sea level rise, and get us all talking and thinking about the impacts of the climate crisis. What can we do to make a difference?
(🧵)

Recent Advances in Tracer‐Aided Mixing Modeling of Water in the Critical Zone Tracer-aided mixing models are uniquely capable of identifying water flow paths and sources within the Critical Zone Recent advances offer novel tracers and models for deeper and more accurate in...

Excited to share our new review in Reviews of Geophysics! We explored the latest advances in tracer-aided mixing models for studying water in the Critical Zone. We synthesize new tracer methods, models, & key insights. I think it'll be a valuable resource for the community doi.org/10.1029/2024...

Assistant Professor of Geosciences Current University of Arkansas System employees, including student employees and graduate assistants, need to log in to Workday via MyApps.Microsoft.com, then access Find Jobs from the Workday search ...

uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UASYS/...

Come do Earth Surface Processes with us at UA!

Screenshot of an example climateradial.com chart showing high temperatures for a station in Alaska from 1915 to 2025.

Here's a new long-term climate data viz site, climateradial.com, with a data upload option or based on info from meteostat.net. Temperature, precipitation, wind, and more depending on the site. Check it out and ask @climateradial.bsky.social for more sites!

Looks great - @climateradial.bsky.social, climateradial.com, is a similar concept without the 3D (a "flat donut")

A geological cross-section showing layers of folded rocks in green, brown, and blue.

Currently *OBSESSED* by this tunnel-parallel cross-section along the Channel Tunnel between England and France 😍

#geoscience #geology ⚒️

Source: @geolsoc.bsky.social (www.geolsoc.org.uk/science-and-...)

GI - An underground drip water monitoring network to characterize rainfall recharge of groundwater at different geologies, environments, and climates across Australia Abstract. Understanding when and why groundwater recharge occurs is of fundamental importance for the sustainable use of this essential freshwater resource for humans and ecosystems. However, accurately capturing this component of the water balance is widely acknowledged to be a major challenge. Direct physical measurements identifying when groundwater recharge is occurring are possible by utilizing a sensor network of hydrological loggers deployed in underground spaces located in the vadose zone. Through measurements of water percolating into these spaces from above, we can record the potential groundwater recharge process in action. By using automated sensors, it is possible to precisely determine when recharge occurs (which event, month, or season and for which climate condition). Combined with daily rainfall data, it is possible to quantify the “rainfall recharge threshold”, the amount of rainfall needed to generate groundwater recharge, and its temporal and spatial variability. Australia's National Groundwater Recharge Observing System (NGROS) provides the first dedicated sensor network for observing groundwater recharge at an event scale across a wide range of geologies, environments, and climate types representing a wide range of Australian hydroclimates. Utilizing tunnels, mines, caves, and other subsurface spaces located in the vadose zone, the sensors effectively record “deep drainage”, water that can move beyond the shallow subsurface and root zone to generate groundwater recharge. The NGROS has the temporal resolution to capture individual recharge events, with multiple sensors deployed at each site to constrain the heterogeneity of recharge between different flow paths, and to quantify (including uncertainty bounds) rainfall recharge thresholds. Established in 2022, the network is described here together with examples of data being generated.

Groundwater news from day 2 at #IAH2025 in Naarm / Melbourne.

NGROS presentations by Wendy Timms and Akhi Kumar on groundwater recharge.

Find out more on NGROS at gi.copernicus.org/articles/13/...

Why not establish something similar in your country?

#groundwater

Once again a significant drought beginning to develop here in S. NE. Our new groundwater storage deficit analysis shows that 5 out of the last 9 yrs in a drought state. Interestingly switching from record wet to very dry (see 18, 21, 23) and to some extent last spring. @climatechris.bsky.social

Old Mine Cut - Celebrating a Kelce-Swift engagement YouTube video by Kenneth Befus

What is an "Old Mine Cut" and how does it relate to more mainstream diamonds? Check out @kennethbefus.bsky.social on www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGCM... to learn more about the Kelce-Swift engagement diamond

Groundwater: How scientists explore the mysteries of ancient aquifers Beneath Australia's soils lie ancient aquifers which supply 30% of the water consumed across the country. The groundwater they hold can be some of the oldest water on the planet, dating back as far as...

Homo sapiens sapiens in Australia drinks groundwater that can be 2 Myo, stored when Homo habilis and Homo erectus still roamed the earth.

To keep this resource safe from overexploitation and contamination, recharge methods and rates have the predicted accurately.

phys.org/news/2025-08...

Borehole in Salisbury Cathedral

Groundwater level monitoring at Salisbury Cathedral.

Salisbury Cathedral, built in the 13th century, is the highest is the UK reaching up to 123m and is built on wet sand and gravel close to the river Avon.

Aquifer Economics at the Speed of Climate On some High Plains nights, the wind drops to a hush and you can almost hear the aquifer below, a slow memory of Pleistocene storms moving through sand and silt.

"Models only matter if they track the world they describe. Here, the team tuned groundwater behavior against 57 wells across 34 sub-basins." 🌐🧪

Hydrologist This position is located in the River Forecast Center (RFC) with vacancies in each listed location. The RFCs keep watch over the nation's waterways to minimize loss of life and property damage from fl...

After firing hundreds of employees and a months-long hiring freeze, National Weather Service job postings have finally hit California. The weather service is hiring a hydrologist and and a supervisory hydrologist at the California-Nevada River Forecast Center in Sacramento. #CAwx

usajobs.gov