Robin Lacassin
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rlacassin.bsky.social
Robin Lacassin
@rlacassin.bsky.social
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP - CNRS). Geology, tectonics, earthquakes, hazard epistemology & com. ⚒️ 🧪

Also: @RobinLacassin@qoto.org
https://www.ipgp.fr/~lacassin/RL-TectoniqueIPGP
https://tectoldies.mystrikingly.com/
Pinned
In support of our US scientific colleagues, and to defend #science as a common good, everywhere, actions are currently being organized in France. #standupforscience2025 ⚒️ 🧪

To be informed, follow:
@standupforscifr.bsky.social
@sufs-paris-rp.bsky.social (Paris and IDF)
standupforscience.fr
"Japan officials said there was an increased risk of a M8 or larger #earthquake within next week.
[They said it] was not a prediction and probability of a M8 or larger quake was only about 1%.
[They] hope the advisory will make sure the public is prepared…"
⚒️
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Japan issues megaquake advisory in north after magnitude 7.5 earthquake
Officials said probability of a magnitude 8 or larger quake was only about 1% but they have urged people to be prepared
www.theguardian.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
⚒️ 🧪 Japan just issued a “Subsequent Earthquake Advisory” following a M7.6 earthquake offshore Honshu. What does that mean?

Also: what happened in the earthquake, and why did it trigger a tsunami evacuation, with alerts of waves “up to 3 meters high”?

earthquakeinsights.substack.com/p/m76-earthq...
M7.6 earthquake strikes offshore Honshu, Japan
Japan issues "Subsequent Earthquake Advisory" due to elevated (but still low) risk of triggered megaquake
earthquakeinsights.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
Here is the latest tsunami information for the M7.6 earthquake that just struck offshore northern Japan. The warnings are for waves up to 3 m, but the highest waves measured so far are <0.5 m. It is still possible for larger waves to arrive.

1/2

www.jma.go.jp/bosai/map.ht...

⚒️ 🧪
December 8, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Strong #earthquake of magnitude Mw 7.6 offshore N Honshu island, N Japan.
Mechanism implies rupture on subduction megathrust with hypocenter at 40-50 km depth.
Tsunami alert has been issued, but record at closest tide gauge (Ofunato) suggests it's of small amplitude (few 10s cm). ⚒️
Mw=7.6, NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN (Depth: 45 km), 2025/12/08 14:15:11 UTC - Full details here: http://geoscope.ipgp.fr/scripts/seismes/fiche.php?seis=us6000rtdt
December 8, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
Happy to share this new paper about the 2025 Mandalay earthquake discussing the seismic gap idea. Have a look here: rdcu.be/ePUg4
Seismic gap breached by the 2025 Mw 7.7 Mandalay (Myanmar) earthquake
Nature Geoscience - The 2025 Mw 7.7 Mandalay earthquake in Myanmar breached and propagated beyond a long-quiescent segment owing to a mechanically weak barrier at the segment boundary and distant...
rdcu.be
November 14, 2025 at 5:51 PM
We had a lively discussion at lunch about the many risks #AI poses to learning and all aspects of scientific research. Some were in a theoretical and political position of refusal.
Very respectable. But what to do when almost everyone (students, researchers) already uses such tools? 🧪
1/2
December 5, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Interesting reading here 👇 about #AI, #teaching in Universities, and assessing student's #knowledge building and understanding.
No simple answer. We cannot remain in a position of total rejection (for valuable ethical reasons), nor of uncontrolled acceptance.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
⚒️ 🧪
Why universities need to radically rethink exams in the age of AI
Academia is unprepared for the rise in chatbot use among students — but with the right AI tools, personalized learning could soon become a reality.
www.nature.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:32 PM
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

They write: #AI promises rapid and polite review on papers

BUT also that:

"LLMs can provide feedback in seconds, potentially without conflicts of interest. But there is a big difference between a process that is efficient and one that is valid." ⚒️ 🧪
AI reviewers are here — we are not ready
Artificial intelligence promises rapid and polite feedback on papers — but we must first review the reviewer.
www.nature.com
December 5, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
Great pleasure to inform you that TEKTONIKA #DOAJ is in the #open-access database OpenAlex ! ⚒️

OpenAlex is a free, open alternative to WOS or SCOPUS which are under paywall. It even records more sources, in particular in humanities.

openalex.org/works?filter...
December 1, 2025 at 3:17 PM
To encourage more qualitative than quantitative assessments, and to promote open science, @cnrs.fr is unsubscribing from WOS. ⚒️ 🧪

Read in FR: www.cnrs.fr/fr/actualite...
Le CNRS s’émancipe du Web of Science
À partir du 1er janvier 2026, le CNRS coupera l’accès à l’une des plus importantes bases bibliométriques commerciales : le
www.cnrs.fr
December 1, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
My cartoon for this week's @newscientist.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
Here is a hastily constructed animated gif from different NASA satellites showing the progression of the Hayli Gubbi eruption. Note the tall ash plume spreading NE (right) and a lower, light tan ash flow(?) moving NNW. #eruption #volcano
November 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
An explosive #eruption of Hayli Gubbi #volcano, located SE of Erta'Ale in the Afar Rift (Ethiopia), began at ~08:30 UTC on Nov 23. Eruption onset was fortuitously captured by a @planet.com overpass at 08:31 UTC. Hayli Gubbi has no record of Holocene eruptions. Toulouse VAAC reporting ash to ~15 km.
November 23, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
New! We study the disruptive 2025 earthquake unrest near #Santorini using machine-learning derived seismicity as virtual stress meters at depth. We show the unrest was due to a magma dike intrusion, imaging in detail a complex, rebounding process of dike propagation.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The 2025 Santorini unrest unveiled: Rebounding magmatic dike intrusion with triggered seismicity
Magmatic intrusion in Earth’s crust can lead to hazardous volcanic eruptions, but the physical processes involved remain largely hidden from direct observation. We used machine learning–derived seismi...
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
Some stunning footage of ongoing pyroclastic flow activity at Semeru #volcano (Java, Indonesia). Screen capture shows a lightning strike at ~16:07 UTC. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txgr...
November 19, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
Semeru, Indonesia is erupting. Communities are being evacuated.

Incredible footage of pyroclastic density currents in the news.

youtube.com/watch?v=ducv...
Indonesia's Mount Semeru erupts and covers villages with falling ash
YouTube video by Associated Press
youtube.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
The organisers of the world's biggest planetary science conference are outlawing any DEI-related submissions because their lawyers are afraid they'll lose federal support.

They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.

www.science.org/content/arti...
‘This is censorship.’ Conference requires abstracts to comply with Trump anti-DEI order
NASA-funded planetary science institute previously scrubbed hundreds of records from its archive
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
A very interesting seismology and philosophy of science paper on natural hazard, with seismology side done by @rlacassin.bsky.social
The crisis of a paradigm. A methodological interpretation of Tohoku and Fukushima catastrophe
The 2011 Japanese disaster often presented as a ‘new Chernobyl’ accumulated the effects of earthquake, tsunami and of the subsequent nuclear accident …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
As we are finalising our next editorial to close Tektonika #DOAJ volume 3, we invite you to read or re-read previous ones, starting from 👇

"Tektonika: The Community-Led Diamond Open-Access Journal for Tectonics and Structural Geology" ⚒️

tektonika.online/index.php/ho...
Tektonika: The Community-Led Diamond Open-Access Journal for Tectonics and Structural Geology | τeκτoniκa
tektonika.online
November 20, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
All nations committed under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degC for good reason. Instead many governments are beholden to the fossil fuel lobby and even subsidize fossil fuel use with your money. We’re now at 1.4 degC & emissions are rising not falling.
unfccc.int/process-and-...
November 15, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
Never forget: At breakneck speed we are leaving the stable Holocene climate in which human society developed and thrived. Weather extremes are outside historical experience. Sea-level rise is accelerating. Dangerous tipping points are ahead.
Graph: ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...
November 13, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Excellent editorial 👇 about #human vs #AI generated writing.
"…(human) writing is not only about reporting results; it also provides a tool to uncover new thoughts and ideas."
⚒️ 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Writing is thinking - Nature Reviews Bioengineering
On the value of human-generated scientific writing in the age of large-language models.
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:56 PM
An Op-ed in "Le Monde" by a group of doctoral students in Earth and climate sciences denounces the hypocrisy of international policies that claim to lead the ecological transition but "undermine, decision after decision, the means to achieve it". ⚒️ 🧪

in FR: www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...
COP30 : « A l’heure où les scénarios climatiques s’aggravent, les incohérences de la France et de l’UE ne sont plus tenables »
TRIBUNE. Dans une tribune au « Monde », un collectif de doctorants et de doctorantes en sciences de la Terre et du climat dénonce l’hypocrisie de politiques internationales qui prétendent mener la tra...
www.lemonde.fr
November 12, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Robin Lacassin
NOAA cut funding to the Alaska Earthquake Center, directed by my friend Mike West. As a result, seismic monitoring by nine stations in Alaska tracking tsunami-causing earthquakes will go offline by the end of the month. This endangers people in Alaska, Hawaiʻi, and other parts of the Pacific.
This lab is key for tracking deadly waves. Its sensors are about to go offline.
After NOAA cut funding to the lab that’s been monitoring seismic activity for more than 25 years, nine stations tracking tsunami-causing earthquakes for the agency will go offline by the end of the mo...
www.washingtonpost.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:24 PM