Abi Stone
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abistone.bsky.social
Abi Stone
@abistone.bsky.social
760 followers 640 following 73 posts
Reader Physical #Geography | #Quaternary #Drylands | #Geoarchaeology | #Luminescence | #USeries | #Hydrogeology | #cyclist | #swimmer |🏳️‍🌈 | (she/her)

🌐 https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/abi.stone
PANS & RivER project https://shorturl.at/p2iNi
Posts Replies Media Videos
abistone.bsky.social
Not about the archaeology or the former “green corridors”, but for anyone who is interested in the wonderful #NamibSandSea #desert #drylands heres a short 🎦 for you…

youtu.be/AFSbln9uN-4?...

@uomseed.bsky.social @uomhums.bsky.social
"Dunes, diamonds and dust": An invited lecture for the RGS (Royal Geographical Society)
YouTube video by TheAbiStone
youtu.be
October 1, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Abi Stone
leverhulme.ac.uk
Using luminescence dating, @abistone.bsky.social and her colleagues aim to shine a light on a neglected part of Africa’s archaeological record, out in the remote, hyper-arid landscapes of the Namib Sand Sea. @pans-river-namib.bsky.social
👉 media.leverhulme.ac.uk/feature/astone
Dried lakebed in desert landscape, dunes in the distance, dramatic clouds overhead, shrubs in foreground.
September 30, 2025 at 12:32 PM
abistone.bsky.social
One to line up for the new intake of #WSPM (Water, Science Policy & Management) MSc students ready for the Climate and Catchment modeuke @oxfordgeography.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1029/2025...
Peak Groundwater: Aquifer‐Scale Limits to Groundwater Withdrawals
Peak Groundwater is the maximum groundwater withdrawal rate from an aquifer followed by reduced withdrawal rates caused by depletion effects Peak Groundwater traces dynamic flow pathways across g...
doi.org
September 26, 2025 at 8:29 PM
abistone.bsky.social
Dinosaurs as #ecosystemengineers !

#biogeomorphology

www.newscientist.com/article/2496...
The death of dinosaurs dramatically re-engineered Earth's landscapes
Changes in rock formations from before and after the mass extinction event 66 million years ago may reflect how dinosaurs acted as ecosystem engineers, shaping vegetation and even the meandering of ri...
www.newscientist.com
September 19, 2025 at 8:57 AM
abistone.bsky.social
The day before the #UKLum25 conference @standrewssgsd.bsky.social we had a fabulous day working with a fleet of #portableluminescencereaders
August 21, 2025 at 9:57 AM
abistone.bsky.social
I’m looking forward to the #luminescence community catch-up next week at the conference in St Andrews, and the opportunity talk about the work Shashank is leading on establishing the timing of dune accumulation in the western part of the Thar Desert.

#UKLum2025
@uomseed.bsky.social
August 13, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by Abi Stone
esa.int
🌎 Tonight, we ushered in a new era of weather and climate monitoring.

EUMETSAT's MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite – which hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission – successfully launched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

🔗 www.esa.int/Applications...
August 13, 2025 at 3:03 AM
abistone.bsky.social
A cold dip and mini rainbows in the sky on holiday in Germany…
August 10, 2025 at 8:09 PM
abistone.bsky.social
🚨New paper alert

doi.org/10.1017/dry....
Quaternary dryland dynamics: perspectives and prospects | Cambridge Prisms: Drylands | Cambridge Core
Quaternary dryland dynamics: perspectives and prospects - Volume 2
doi.org
August 10, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Abi Stone
bgs.ac.uk
It's tempting to pick a spot on the beach near cliffs: they provide shade and wind protection.
But take a look at this pic: can you see the potential risks?

Click here to find the answers, and learn more about beach safety: www.resortdorset.com/features/227...
A painting of a beach scene, with lots of risks taken by people on the beach, including fossil spotting under the cliff, standing at the cliff edge and people ignoring coastal warning signs.
August 2, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Abi Stone
pans-river-namib.bsky.social
More #FieldworkFriday
The site of Khommabes in the north of the #NamibSandSea, which contains a palimpsest of ESA, MSA & LSA #archaeology

This view looks northeast from a patch of nebkah dunes. Off to the left of the photo is a calcrete-capped interdune pan that used to hold water
August 1, 2025 at 3:11 PM
abistone.bsky.social
🚨 New paper landing soon.
An invited review for Cambridge Prisms: Drylands (www.cambridge.org/core/journal...) about #Quaternary #dryland dynamics. Some areas of emerging consensus, plus remaining contradictions. A short review (<5,000 words): selective not exhaustive
July 28, 2025 at 4:27 PM
abistone.bsky.social
And in the afternoon in session 28 #SAfA2025 from Selina Amaral, @matzearch.bsky.social, our work from @pans-river-namib.bsky.social & Heinrich Kurt

#archaeology
#openair
#surfacesites
#lithics
#kalahari
#namib
#MSA
#ESA
July 23, 2025 at 8:49 AM
abistone.bsky.social
A fascinating morning so far in session 28 #SAfA2025 hearing about the Kgalagadi District: survey, luminescence dating, duricrust formation & lithics from @khoproject.bsky.social members @isotopesrule.bsky.social @taylorgrandfield.bsky.social Inez Faul & Rowena Winterhalder

#lithics
#archaeology
July 22, 2025 at 11:14 AM
abistone.bsky.social
Really looking forward to heading to my first Society of African Archaeologists conference next week, talking about our group’s research out in the Namib Sand Seaz

#SANDS
#PANS
#archaeology
#safaconference2025
#lithics
#NamibSandSea
#EarlierStoneAge
#MiddleStoneAge
July 18, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Abi Stone
leverhulme.ac.uk
To mark our 100th anniversary, the Trust Board is pleased to announce the Leverhulme Centenary Awards – a £100 million investment to support pioneering research centres, doctoral scholars and rising academic leaders.

Read more here: www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/100mill...
July 7, 2025 at 8:00 AM
abistone.bsky.social
Some excellent news for Monday morning
July 7, 2025 at 8:27 AM
abistone.bsky.social
#dust #Quaternary over the last 30,000 years with millennial pacing

“variability in proportions of Nn vs. Sn hemisphere sourced dust in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific is indicative of large climate-related meridional shifts (>7°) in the average position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone”
July 2, 2025 at 8:46 AM
abistone.bsky.social
The annual fieldclass begins…
@uomseed.bsky.social
April 7, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Abi Stone
pans-river-namib.bsky.social
Abi Stone is a dryland Quaternary scientist & geochronologist interested in long-term landscape & environmental change, based at @uomseed.bsky.social @uniofmanchester.bsky.social
She's worked in the Namib on & off since ~2005, & range of other deserts.

research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/a...
Abi's staff profile picture from her academic page at the University of Manchester, where she is a Reader in Physical Geography https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/abi.stone Abi in the Namib Sand Sea, at the site of Namib IV, sitting on a dune, with the sun setting. She wears a dusty top and is smiling at the camera. A photo taken looking down at Abi in a geotrench, sampling for luminescence dating. There is an opaque tube in the sediment and a hammer in her right hand. She wears a black cap, shorts and t-shirt. Abi is operating a Dormer Engineering hand-operated sand auger on a dune flank at Namib IV. She is twisting the auger with a silly look on her face. She wears walking boots and shorts and t-shirt, with sunglasses. The sky is blue and the sand very orange, with tufts of grass less than a meter tall.
March 21, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Abi Stone
nataliajagielska.bsky.social
Happy International Women's Day! Despite the efforts, while much more women enter scientific fields, due to numerous factors, few manage to remain in the field or secure senior positions. Support your coworkers, call out harmful systemic behaviour. 😘
"Scissor Graph" showing men overtaking women in proportional representation in sciences after doctorate
March 8, 2025 at 12:24 PM
abistone.bsky.social
A Bluesky account for updates in all things #NamibSandSeaArchaeology
as our team project gets started

If you like your African Stone Age archaeology in the landscape on desert pans, follow along!

Will try to remember its there & add some #NamibPandRiver hashtags here too as I go

#Archaeology
pans-river-namib.bsky.social PANS Namib Sand Sea Project @pans-river-namib.bsky.social · Mar 14
Hello! An account for @leverhulme.bsky.social "PANS: Palaeoenvironmental context of Palaeolithic Archaeology in the Namib SandSea" & @rgsibg.bsky.social Thesiger-Oman "RiVER: Routes into Vleis: Environmental Reconstruction of conditions facilitating hominin occupation in the Namib SandSea" projects
March 14, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Abi Stone
elliescerri.bsky.social
Time to learn some more about the West African MSA! They were not only in rainforests 150,000 years ago, they were also in mangrove forests!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Longstanding behavioural stability in West Africa extends to the Middle Pleistocene at Bargny, coastal Senegal - Nature Ecology & Evolution
The late Middle Pleistocene site of Bargny, Senegal, documents stone tool trends seen across contemporary sites in Africa but which, in West Africa, remain uniquely stable into the Holocene. Palaeoenv...
www.nature.com
February 27, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Abi Stone
leverhulme.ac.uk
This year marks 100 years of the Leverhulme Trust. Enabling talented researchers across the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences to undertake blue skies, interdisciplinary, ambitious and risky research. www.leverhulme.ac.uk/what-we-do
February 6, 2025 at 10:31 AM
abistone.bsky.social
Please see this link, owing to a problem with copy & pasting the project-specific link
(Thank you SEED for spotting this)
January 15, 2025 at 1:31 PM