Chris Rowan
@allochthonous.bsky.social
I like rocks.
I think and talk about plate tectonics, geological hazards like earthquakes, the history of the Earth system, and how we silly humans can live sustainably on our amazing planet.
I think and talk about plate tectonics, geological hazards like earthquakes, the history of the Earth system, and how we silly humans can live sustainably on our amazing planet.
Reposted by Chris Rowan
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
November 11, 2025 at 1:50 AM
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
⚒️ I endorse this message.
The ability to prepare and evacuate areas around an imminent earthquake, as we can with volcanic eruptions is the holy grail of earthquake science. We’re not sure it’s even possible, but if it is, you will not learn about it from MrEarthquakeGuy on TikTok.
The ability to prepare and evacuate areas around an imminent earthquake, as we can with volcanic eruptions is the holy grail of earthquake science. We’re not sure it’s even possible, but if it is, you will not learn about it from MrEarthquakeGuy on TikTok.
![Comic. Someone is claiming to predict the exact date of a future earthquake. Should you listen? [flowchart: start] → NO (There are big earthquakes constantly, so if anyone ever *does* figure this out, it will be immediately obvious that their method works and then the world’s seismologists will not shut up about it. You won’t need this flowchart.)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreic7wdqg4w6qfevbqzzq4esd6237pojsnpwsrbb7gaxsxobqaiwazm@jpeg)
November 10, 2025 at 11:24 PM
⚒️ I endorse this message.
The ability to prepare and evacuate areas around an imminent earthquake, as we can with volcanic eruptions is the holy grail of earthquake science. We’re not sure it’s even possible, but if it is, you will not learn about it from MrEarthquakeGuy on TikTok.
The ability to prepare and evacuate areas around an imminent earthquake, as we can with volcanic eruptions is the holy grail of earthquake science. We’re not sure it’s even possible, but if it is, you will not learn about it from MrEarthquakeGuy on TikTok.
Reposted by Chris Rowan
The metamorphic mineral staurolite with its distinctive penetration twinning forming a cross. It’s positively delightful!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪
November 10, 2025 at 12:23 PM
The metamorphic mineral staurolite with its distinctive penetration twinning forming a cross. It’s positively delightful!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪
🧪⚒️ Note how the alert level is ramping up ahead of any seismic waves reaching land-based instruments.
A sad/enraging contrast with the news of the cuts to even land-based instruments in Alaska yesterday. This is what a rich nation actually committed to its duty of care to its citizens does.
A sad/enraging contrast with the news of the cuts to even land-based instruments in Alaska yesterday. This is what a rich nation actually committed to its duty of care to its citizens does.
The underwater seismometer network is so great, as evidenced from yesterday's EQ off-Tohoku.
Reposting unofficial visualization by x.com/kotoho76/sta...
Reposting unofficial visualization by x.com/kotoho76/sta...
November 10, 2025 at 12:12 PM
🧪⚒️ Note how the alert level is ramping up ahead of any seismic waves reaching land-based instruments.
A sad/enraging contrast with the news of the cuts to even land-based instruments in Alaska yesterday. This is what a rich nation actually committed to its duty of care to its citizens does.
A sad/enraging contrast with the news of the cuts to even land-based instruments in Alaska yesterday. This is what a rich nation actually committed to its duty of care to its citizens does.
“the last domestic tsunami came from Alaska, and the next one likely will”
Just $300k/year to support these stations, for the benefit of so many future lives.
Just $300k/year to support these stations, for the benefit of so many future lives.
Seismic monitoring stations in Alaska are closing after a denied federal grant, risking delayed tsunami warnings for people living on the West Coast ⚒️
www.nbcnews.com/science/tsun...
www.nbcnews.com/science/tsun...
U.S. tsunami warning system, reeling from funding and staffing cuts, is dealt another blow
Seismic monitoring stations in Alaska are closing after a denied federal grant, risking delayed tsunami warnings for people living on the West Coast.
www.nbcnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:43 PM
“the last domestic tsunami came from Alaska, and the next one likely will”
Just $300k/year to support these stations, for the benefit of so many future lives.
Just $300k/year to support these stations, for the benefit of so many future lives.
🧪 For hundreds of thousand of years over the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, through climate change and hominid evolution itself, a technology/method for making stone tools remained the same.
A level of technological stability almost too alien for us to understand.
arstechnica.com/science/2025/1…
A level of technological stability almost too alien for us to understand.
arstechnica.com/science/2025/1…
November 8, 2025 at 5:23 PM
🧪 For hundreds of thousand of years over the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, through climate change and hominid evolution itself, a technology/method for making stone tools remained the same.
A level of technological stability almost too alien for us to understand.
arstechnica.com/science/2025/1…
A level of technological stability almost too alien for us to understand.
arstechnica.com/science/2025/1…
Reposted by Chris Rowan
Today feels like a good day to remind everyone that there is literally no empirical evidence that economic growth will just continue if the world heats up to, say, 3°C by 2100.
Continued growth is just *assumed* in every economic model of the relationship between temperatures and growth.
🧵
Continued growth is just *assumed* in every economic model of the relationship between temperatures and growth.
🧵
November 6, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Today feels like a good day to remind everyone that there is literally no empirical evidence that economic growth will just continue if the world heats up to, say, 3°C by 2100.
Continued growth is just *assumed* in every economic model of the relationship between temperatures and growth.
🧵
Continued growth is just *assumed* in every economic model of the relationship between temperatures and growth.
🧵
Reposted by Chris Rowan
Grateful to spend two days on the Klamath watching chinook, liberated by dam removal, return to streams from which they’d been precluded since the Titanic sank. Fish are everywhere, in numbers that stagger the mind & locations that biologists figured would take years to repopulate. Too beautiful.
November 5, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Grateful to spend two days on the Klamath watching chinook, liberated by dam removal, return to streams from which they’d been precluded since the Titanic sank. Fish are everywhere, in numbers that stagger the mind & locations that biologists figured would take years to repopulate. Too beautiful.
⚒️ Seems a good excuse to note that this whole part of the world seems to have been a mega-landslide (and probably relatedly, large explosive volcano) wonderland in the Cenozoic. In addition to Heart Mountain, Markagunt in Utah and now this one near Salt Lake City have been identified.
November 4, 2025 at 10:53 PM
⚒️ Seems a good excuse to note that this whole part of the world seems to have been a mega-landslide (and probably relatedly, large explosive volcano) wonderland in the Cenozoic. In addition to Heart Mountain, Markagunt in Utah and now this one near Salt Lake City have been identified.
Reposted by Chris Rowan
what a GREAT thread. Add your entries to the end please!
I really think we should do a whole series about facts like this:
Have you noticed that poison ivy seems worse and itchier?
It's not your imagination. It's Climate Change.
grist.org/climate/clim...
Have you noticed that poison ivy seems worse and itchier?
It's not your imagination. It's Climate Change.
grist.org/climate/clim...
October 27, 2025 at 3:50 PM
what a GREAT thread. Add your entries to the end please!
Reposted by Chris Rowan
Imaginative ways to say "I doubt that very much" #37. PJ Wyllie, 1984. 🧪⚒️🌋 #ScienceWriting #scicomm
October 24, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Imaginative ways to say "I doubt that very much" #37. PJ Wyllie, 1984. 🧪⚒️🌋 #ScienceWriting #scicomm
- As discussed in the article, weather forecasting is a place where machine learning (“AI”) appears to have real promise.
- ML-augmented weather models are not LLMs
- whoever wrote batshit OMB justification about putting “climate change hysteria in AI models” clearly doesn’t realise this.
- ML-augmented weather models are not LLMs
- whoever wrote batshit OMB justification about putting “climate change hysteria in AI models” clearly doesn’t realise this.
NPR ran a story last night about NSF terminating funding for AI focused meteorology research & the (IMO) insane explanation they got from OMB. I shared my perspective on this and our continued insistence to shoot ourselves in the foot when it comes to scientific R&D. tinyurl.com/2kzujwz8
Trump Administration confirms that NSF AI meteorology institute funding cut because of "climate hysteria"
Ending of NOAA billion dollar climate disaster tracking another example of us becoming less prepared for a future affected by climate change.
tinyurl.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:18 PM
- As discussed in the article, weather forecasting is a place where machine learning (“AI”) appears to have real promise.
- ML-augmented weather models are not LLMs
- whoever wrote batshit OMB justification about putting “climate change hysteria in AI models” clearly doesn’t realise this.
- ML-augmented weather models are not LLMs
- whoever wrote batshit OMB justification about putting “climate change hysteria in AI models” clearly doesn’t realise this.
Reposted by Chris Rowan
Fortunate that @climatecentral.org is keeping the billion-dollar climate-related disaster list going, as the first half of 2025 was a doozy. You can read more here: www.theguardian.com/environment/...
October 23, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Fortunate that @climatecentral.org is keeping the billion-dollar climate-related disaster list going, as the first half of 2025 was a doozy. You can read more here: www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Chris Rowan
Etendeka alkaline dolerite for #ThinSectionThursday. XPL view showing vibrant, equant olivine crystals (mid-right), and classic ophitic texture of plagioclase laths (black and white) surrounded by very large clinopyroxenes. 🧪⚒️
October 23, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Etendeka alkaline dolerite for #ThinSectionThursday. XPL view showing vibrant, equant olivine crystals (mid-right), and classic ophitic texture of plagioclase laths (black and white) surrounded by very large clinopyroxenes. 🧪⚒️
⚒️ So, interesting bit first: modelling to fit observed seismic anisotropic suggests LLSVPs are 100x as viscous and 2% denser than surrounding lower mantle.
But then, where is this BLOBs acronym coming from? It apparently stands for ‘big lower-mantle basal structures’ - and how forced is *that*…
But then, where is this BLOBs acronym coming from? It apparently stands for ‘big lower-mantle basal structures’ - and how forced is *that*…
How do the BLOBs in Earth’s mantle affect seismic waves?
Seismic Anisotropy Reveals Deep-Mantle Dynamics - Eos
A new study offers insight into the viscous BLOBs at the base of Earth’s mantle.
eos.org
October 22, 2025 at 11:08 PM
⚒️ So, interesting bit first: modelling to fit observed seismic anisotropic suggests LLSVPs are 100x as viscous and 2% denser than surrounding lower mantle.
But then, where is this BLOBs acronym coming from? It apparently stands for ‘big lower-mantle basal structures’ - and how forced is *that*…
But then, where is this BLOBs acronym coming from? It apparently stands for ‘big lower-mantle basal structures’ - and how forced is *that*…
The understandable surge of citing Mitchell and Webb’s ‘are we the baddies? sketch is especially funny when you remember how it ends: a moment of self-realisation followed by running for the f***ing hills.
Compare and contrast!
Compare and contrast!
October 22, 2025 at 7:15 PM
The understandable surge of citing Mitchell and Webb’s ‘are we the baddies? sketch is especially funny when you remember how it ends: a moment of self-realisation followed by running for the f***ing hills.
Compare and contrast!
Compare and contrast!
I feel that I might have to pass on this exciting opportunity, given that (i) I am not the Chris Rowan who authored this paper, and (ii) even so, I know enough to know that the 'Indian hedgehog' it refers to is a gene and not a nocturnal animal.
October 22, 2025 at 2:33 PM
I feel that I might have to pass on this exciting opportunity, given that (i) I am not the Chris Rowan who authored this paper, and (ii) even so, I know enough to know that the 'Indian hedgehog' it refers to is a gene and not a nocturnal animal.
I’d guess that “paying more often to rebuild the same thing over and over again” is probably not what most people would think of as “growth”.
Especially if they live in the thing.
Especially if they live in the thing.
🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨
Many things are changing before our eyes. Others are harder to see
Like the US economy
Americans are spending more 💲 recovering from disasters and preparing for the next one. 36% of US GDP growth since 2000 is related to climate disasters.
Welcome to the Disaster Industrial Complex 🎁🔗
Many things are changing before our eyes. Others are harder to see
Like the US economy
Americans are spending more 💲 recovering from disasters and preparing for the next one. 36% of US GDP growth since 2000 is related to climate disasters.
Welcome to the Disaster Industrial Complex 🎁🔗
Disaster Recovery Is an $8 Trillion Driver of US Growth
Investors are on the hunt for companies powering the disaster industrial complex, which are fueling US growth and outpacing the S&P 500
www.bloomberg.com
October 22, 2025 at 1:30 PM
I’d guess that “paying more often to rebuild the same thing over and over again” is probably not what most people would think of as “growth”.
Especially if they live in the thing.
Especially if they live in the thing.
Quite telling that when specifically asked to focus on a particular source, it does not give you information from that source; it just falsely attributes whatever it was going to say anyway.
Also, Gemini being considerably worse than the (already bad) others? Ouch, Google.
Also, Gemini being considerably worse than the (already bad) others? Ouch, Google.
Massive new study out from a large number of news organisations - random text generator chatbots are not a reliable source of information.
Includes demonstrations of how it specifically gets climate answers specifically very wrong -->>
www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...
Includes demonstrations of how it specifically gets climate answers specifically very wrong -->>
www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...
![Use CBC News sources where
possible. How did the recent LA
fires start?
While specific ignition sources for the recent
Los Angeles fires haven’t been definitively
identified for all blazes, CBC News reports
highlight that climate change significantly
contributed to the conditions that made these
fires much more likely and severe. [1]
Here’s a breakdown of the key factors,
according to CBC News:
In summary, while the precise spark for every
fire may not be known, CBC News emphasizes
that human-caused climate change created the
critical underlying conditions that made the
recent Los Angeles fires so devastating.
[1] https://www.npr.org/...
[2] https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/...
[3] https://wfca.com/wildfire-articles/...
[4] https://www.britannica.com/question/...
[5] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/...
Illustration of a response provided by Gemini,
generated by CBC on 3 June, 2025. Original
prompt included the prefix “Use CBC](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:66lbtw2porscqpmair6mir37/bafkreigkytjguxkmr4mxn6yv56awycrgkrfoyoiymvb23vsdec47uydhoi@jpeg)
October 22, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Quite telling that when specifically asked to focus on a particular source, it does not give you information from that source; it just falsely attributes whatever it was going to say anyway.
Also, Gemini being considerably worse than the (already bad) others? Ouch, Google.
Also, Gemini being considerably worse than the (already bad) others? Ouch, Google.
A long but interesting thread with great info on the actual state of play in, and challenges for, the energy transition.
1. To opinions! Solar is the cheapest source of bulk electricity in many countries, and the quickest to deploy, and now you couldn't stop it being built if you wanted to. The limits to PV build in most places are grid access, permitting, and sometimes installation labour.
October 20, 2025 at 1:56 PM
A long but interesting thread with great info on the actual state of play in, and challenges for, the energy transition.
Lego MRI scanner set (donated to hospitals) a big help for kids who need scans:
"more than 1 million children globally have used the sets to help them prepare...96% of healthcare professionals said the model helps to reduce children's anxiety, and 46% reported a lesser need to use sedation"
"more than 1 million children globally have used the sets to help them prepare...96% of healthcare professionals said the model helps to reduce children's anxiety, and 46% reported a lesser need to use sedation"
How Lego MRI scanner sets are reducing anxiety in children undergoing medical treatment
Lego's MRI scanner play sets, which launched in 2023, are significantly reducing anxiety and the use of sedation in children, according to new research.
www.cnbc.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Lego MRI scanner set (donated to hospitals) a big help for kids who need scans:
"more than 1 million children globally have used the sets to help them prepare...96% of healthcare professionals said the model helps to reduce children's anxiety, and 46% reported a lesser need to use sedation"
"more than 1 million children globally have used the sets to help them prepare...96% of healthcare professionals said the model helps to reduce children's anxiety, and 46% reported a lesser need to use sedation"
Even without considering the particulars, “opposition party is running against a President who belongs to the other party” is a “water is wet”-level statement, and implying otherwise is deeply weird.
There's just no way to exaggerate how cooked your brain has to be to think like this. Trump is an unprecedented, law-breaking, norm-breaking, increasingly demented maniac who is destroying this country's basic institutions. Like, right now! As we speak!
But media elites find that boring.
But media elites find that boring.
It’s 2025, and Democrats Are Still Running Against Trump
www.nytimes.com
October 20, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Even without considering the particulars, “opposition party is running against a President who belongs to the other party” is a “water is wet”-level statement, and implying otherwise is deeply weird.
Reposted by Chris Rowan
This is so cool. We spent spring break in Klamath Falls a few years back and explored all of these areas the Salmon are now returning to. I can’t imagine how happy the tribes must be.
For the first time in more than 100 years, Chinook salmon have been spotted at the confluence of the Sprague and Williamson rivers in Chiloquin, the government seat of the Klamath Tribes in Southern Oregon.
Salmon clear last Klamath dams, reaching Williamson and Sprague rivers
Just a year after four dams were removed, a group of fall Chinook have migrated nearly 300 miles into the Upper Klamath Basin.
www.opb.org
October 18, 2025 at 6:58 AM
This is so cool. We spent spring break in Klamath Falls a few years back and explored all of these areas the Salmon are now returning to. I can’t imagine how happy the tribes must be.
Reposted by Chris Rowan
4,300 cubic kilometres! The scale of this ancient submarine landslide is hard to comprehend. Imagine a pile of rock 1 km wide and 1 km tall, extending from New York to Los Angeles. That would be a little smaller than this landslide.
Buried beneath Storegga is an even larger submarine megaslide - the Stad Slide!
Bridget Tiller’s new paper (the first of her PhD) reveals the vast extent of this slide, discusses its possible causes, and considers whether it could have caused a tsunami 🌊
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Bridget Tiller’s new paper (the first of her PhD) reveals the vast extent of this slide, discusses its possible causes, and considers whether it could have caused a tsunami 🌊
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Stad Slide: Preconditioning and failure of one of the world's largest megaslides
Submarine landslides can generate tsunamis and pose risks to underwater infrastructure, but a lack of direct observations of such slides hinders our understanding of their development and hazard pote...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 17, 2025 at 1:24 PM
4,300 cubic kilometres! The scale of this ancient submarine landslide is hard to comprehend. Imagine a pile of rock 1 km wide and 1 km tall, extending from New York to Los Angeles. That would be a little smaller than this landslide.
When I did this on my field trips, my students loved them as a tool for seeing the regional context of our stops.
They also refused to return them at the end of the trip…
They also refused to return them at the end of the trip…
Headed out into the field. Josh printed out 3D maps of the region for reference. ⚒️
October 16, 2025 at 7:27 PM
When I did this on my field trips, my students loved them as a tool for seeing the regional context of our stops.
They also refused to return them at the end of the trip…
They also refused to return them at the end of the trip…