Maria Box
mariabox.bsky.social
Maria Box
@mariabox.bsky.social
PhD student at Northumbria University (UK), currently researching past climate in northern Mongolia. Generally excited by all speleothems great and small
Pinned
Intro post! I'm Maria, a UK-based PhD student interested in continental climates. In my current project I use stalagmites from northern Mongolia to reconstruct past environments and permafrost extent over the past 500 ka. I've also worked in central Aus and the west US! Nice to meet you, bluesky :)
standing outside getting liquid nitrogen in 'feels like -3 weather' makes me miss my cozy warm 1.5 degree caves 🥶
November 19, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
This looks worth reading:
Mara McPartland et al. (2025) Climate of the Past @egu-cl.bsky.social
doi.org/10.5194/cp-2...
@egu.eu
🧪 ⚒️ 👩‍🔬
#PaleoSky
The colors of proxy noise
Abstract. The complex biological and physical processes that preserve paleoclimate information over centuries or longer introduce variations in proxy time series that are unrelated to the true climate...
doi.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Maria Box
Interested in #uranium isotopes and their potential use as #redox proxy in karst systems? Looking for a PhD project or know someone who might? DM me for more details! ☢️ @mariabox.bsky.social @pucicu.de @bgs.ac.uk @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social @olakwiecien3.bsky.social
October 29, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Spot the Northumbria speleo group 😉
Kicking off #S42025 officially.
October 22, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Not quite #overlyhonestmethods territory, but "We conducted a monitoring study to determine how cool these caves are" is my new favourite way to describe cave monitoring
October 12, 2025 at 8:42 AM
In the UK, it's not uncommon to find urban stalactites growing in old tunnels. However, in a 15th century battery running under #carlislecastle, I saw my first ever urban *stalagmites*. Complete with active soda straw drips above! (Larissa for scale)
October 2, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
Afternoon folks. I'm delighted to announce our manuscript "Speleothem evidence for Late Miicene extreme Arctic amplification" was published online today. Happy reading! @speleoseb.bsky.social @thomasopel.bsky.social cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/...
Speleothem evidence for Late Miocene extreme Arctic amplification – an analogue for near-future anthropogenic climate change?
Abstract. The Miocene provides an excellent climatic analogue for near-future runaway anthropogenic warming, with atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global average temperatures similar to those projec...
cp.copernicus.org
September 8, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Not saying I'm too attached to my samples, but today I tucked a stalagmite in
September 9, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week."

--Willa Cather, 1925 and timeless
August 1, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Duddo Five Stones, first stone circle I've ever visited! They're made of soft sandstone and the deep vertical erosion rills betray the >4,000 years they've been standing
August 2, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
Geologic Periods

xkcd.com/3120/
July 28, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
Newcastle central station, photo by Sally Ann Norman.
July 18, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
E-see you all the paleoclimate enthusiasts at our ICCP speleothem lecture series-July episode with @mariabox.bsky.social
Date & Time: 18th July, 16:00 KST
Zoom link: pusan.zoom.us/j/8213003163...
July 17, 2025 at 3:15 PM
I always knew in theory that a speleothem is a sedimentary rock, but I've never seen a cross-bedded stalactite before 😂
July 15, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
WeTransfer just changed their TOS giving themselves permission to train AI on any content you transfer and produce derivative works based on content you transfer that they are allowed to monetize and you are not allowed payment for.

Stop using WeTransfer.
July 14, 2025 at 11:05 PM
this website is wild... I'd say it's like the astrology of climate 'science', but astrology has more coherent terminology 🤦‍♀️ oh lord
July 14, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
Read the latest on how ancient cave deposits warn of future permafrost loss! Kudos to a fantastic international team🦣 💪 @olakwiecien3.bsky.social @thomasopel.bsky.social @mariabox.bsky.social @pucicu.de @katharinehayhoe.com @northumbriauni.bsky.social
Scientists have found evidence that Asia was free of permafrost all the way to the Arctic Ocean when Earth’s average temperature was 4.5˚C warmer than today. The results suggest dominantly permafrost-free conditions across the whole Northern Hemisphere during this time period.
A permafrost-free Arctic region when global temperatures were 4.5˚C higher than today
Taba-Ba’astakh Cliffs, Northern Siberia
www.earth.ox.ac.uk
July 3, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Last year, funds from @quaternaryra.bsky.social helped us reach Khuit agui, a spectactular cave deep within Mongolia's continuous permafrost zone. You can now read about the incredible things we found there in the latest edition of the Quaternary Newsletter: www.qra.org.uk/quaternary-n...
July 2, 2025 at 10:44 AM
A δ-value of isotope geochemists? 🤔
It’s important to know the right collective noun for various people working in research and science
June 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM
@speleoseb.bsky.social turns out there's a great term for what we were talking about this week
Here's and interesting Friday read:
Scientific progress thrives on collaboration & knowledge sharing, yet territorial behaviors in academia, which the authors call the Gollum Effect, threaten this foundation

Open access link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Systemic territoriality in academia: The Gollum effect’s impact on scientific research and careers
Addressing environmental challenges requires scientific collaboration, access to resources, and open knowledge exchange. However, possessive behaviors…
www.sciencedirect.com
May 24, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Spent this gorgeous sunny weekend at an SRT training course in the Yorkshire Dales. SRT is how we access deep caves, such as those in northern Mongolia. Have to say the Yorkshire caves are a bit warmer!
May 14, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
"The risks Arctic fires pose on local ecosystems and the communities that depend on them, as well as the destabilizing effect they can have on the global climate, require a rethinking of how fires will be managed in the future."
Powerful StoryMap from @gwandaii.bsky.social @gridarendal.bsky.social
The Arctic is on Fire
Raven, a young Gwich’in woman and firefighter from Inuvik, remembers preparing the local community center to welcoming fire evacuees from Old Crow, a fly-in community some 150 kilometers West of Inuvi...
storymaps.arcgis.com
May 5, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Used this gorgeous Sunday weather to go fossicking around Whitley Bay
April 27, 2025 at 4:41 PM
found some delightful little stalactites and flowstone (tunnel bacon?) beneath a railway bridge this morning :)
April 10, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Maria Box
Because.. the front fell off! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 @mariabox.bsky.social @olakwiecien3.bsky.social @pucicu.de
March 21, 2025 at 8:10 AM