Andy Baker
andy-baker.bsky.social
Andy Baker
@andy-baker.bsky.social
Professor of Earth Science at UNSW Sydney, investigating groundwater, climates, cave science, paleoclimate, geochemistry, organic matter fluorescence, stalagmites. Not all at once, at least not most of the time. Posting more often at @andbaker@aus.social
It's starting to look a lot like fieldwork (Wellington Caves and UNSW Research Station edition).

#fieldwork #academia #caves #groundwater #research
November 9, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Reposted by Andy Baker
My co-authored marine GDGT « cookbook » review paper led by Peter Bijl 👨‍🔬 and @kasiasliwinska.bsky.social 👩‍🔬 is now published in @egubg.bsky.social!
doi.org/10.5194/bg-2...
Again, I am so happy to be the @cerege.bsky.social @climatecerege.bsky.social expert on #GDGTs!
@egu.eu
🧪 ⚒️ 🌊
#PaleoSky
(1/3)
November 6, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Thanks to the Capricorn Caves team for another amazing research visit.
We downloaded cave hydrology loggers and a groundwater level logger, and ACKMA cave climate loggers. Visited the groundwater recharge zone above the cave. Saw lots of bats, and tree roots deep into the cave system.
October 24, 2025 at 12:58 AM
It's starting to feel a lot like fieldwork...

(Capricorn Caves edition)
#caves #fieldwork #academia #science
October 19, 2025 at 6:46 PM
It was 'student night' at IAH NSW in Sydney ( and online everywhere).

Thanks to Akhi Kumar, Danyang Sun, Nane Weber and Yaggesh Sharma for presenting their groundwater research.

I might have photobombed the official photo!
October 14, 2025 at 9:21 AM
I am delighted to have been chosen as a lecturer in the American Geophysical Union Distinguished Lecture Series for 2025-2026.

Would you like to hear about all things climate, groundwater and caves...?

andy-baker.org/2025/10/14/a...
AGU Distinguished Lecture Series: Caves and their stalagmites: linking climate to groundwater recharge
I am delighted to have been chosen as a lecturer in the American Geophysical Union Distinguished Lecture Series for 2025-2026. Would you like to hear about “Caves and their stalagmites: linki…
andy-baker.org
October 14, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Andy Baker
Happy #FossilFriday, the University of Texas is hiring two curators/non-TT professors for our Vertebrate and Non-vertebrate Paleontology Labs: apply.interfolio.com/175702
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
October 10, 2025 at 6:51 PM
MOFs are in the news, thanks to a Nobel Prize for #Chemistry.

MOFs = metal organic frameworks, complex molecules. They can help break down environmental contaminants such as #PFAS, or PAHs such as naphthalene, as published by Ze Li this year:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 8, 2025 at 8:18 PM
MOFs are in the news, thanks to a Nobel Prize for #Chemistry.

MOFs = metal organic frameworks, complex molecules. They can help break down environmental contaminants such as #PFAS, or PAHs such as naphthalene, as published by Ze Li this year:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 8, 2025 at 8:18 PM
It is IAH 'student night' next Tuesday in Sydney CBD, and there are #groundwater presentations from some of my #UNSW group. Open to all! Details are here:
www.linkedin.com/posts/iah-ns...
Hi All, We are under a week away from out October tech talk! This month we will be hosting our annual student night so don't miss out. Four presenters will be giving talks on their research topics… | IAH NSW Committee
Hi All, We are under a week away from out October tech talk! This month we will be hosting our annual student night so don't miss out. Four presenters will be giving talks on their research topics. Please see below for event details. As usual, this talk will be held in person, and online, with details to follow. Topic: Student Night Where: WSP Office Sydney - Level 27 When: Tuesday 14 October 2025 Time: 17:30 for an 18:00 start Event Info: TBC Teams Link: To be provided closer to the event Presenter: Yaggesh Sharma Title: Evaluating pond recharge potential in the Ramganga Basin with data-driven modelling approaches. Presenter: Danyang Sun Title: Classifying drip water responses in karst vadose zone: Insights from Yarrangobilly, Australia. Presenter: Nane Weber Title: Integrating karstification in large-scale hydrological simulations Presenter: Akhilesh Kumar Title: Soil Moisture and Vegetation Are Key Predictors of Precipitation-driven Groundwater Recharge at Australia’s National Groundwater Recharge Observing System (NGROS) Sites
www.linkedin.com
October 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM
If you sneak out a corrected government report before the long weekend, IMO it deserves sharing the week after. #ChatGPT #AI assisted report has fake references and quote.

arstechnica.com/ai/2025/10/d...
Deloitte will refund Australian government for AI hallucination-filled report - Ars Technica
Consulting firm quietly admitted to GPT-4o use after fake citations were found in August.
arstechnica.com
October 7, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Andy Baker
🚨FOUR tenure track positions in my dept @ucalgary.bsky.social @ucalgaryscience.bsky.social in applied & computational geophysics, subsurface geochemistry, sedimentary geology, and sustainable soil science. careers.ucalgary.ca/search/jobs?...

(please reskeet widely!) #academicsky 🧪⚒️🇨🇦
Opportunities matching 'earth'
Search 4 Careers available at University of Calgary.
careers.ucalgary.ca
October 3, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Andy Baker
"80% of staff backed strike action in a ballot with a turnout of 62%..." 😮

I'd missed this article via @ucu.org.uk: www.ucu.org.uk/article/1417.... Another #EarthScience / #Geology department under threat, along with several other academic areas.
University of Leicester staff announce strike action over job cut plans
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the University of Leicester have today announced that they will take 15 days of industrial action in response to the university's plans to slash jo...
www.ucu.org.uk
October 1, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Andy Baker
Made-up citations can indicate the use of generative AI in crafting the paper – but another detail caught his attention as particularly odd: The researchers on the paper, a study on the transformation of the Brazilian coastline, all listed affiliations in India.
Sleuth unearths citation, authorship issues at earth sciences journal
Carlos Conforti Ferreira Guedes, a geology professor at the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil, came across a paper in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences earlier this year with irrele…
retractionwatch.com
September 30, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Andy Baker
An incredibly high resolution paleoclimate record has revealed several major, extended droughts that coincide with the period of Classic Maya collapse.
Major Droughts Coincided with Classic Maya Collapse - Eos
Understanding how individual cities responded to climate stress will help create holistic pictures of how these societies functioned.
eos.org
September 25, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by Andy Baker
New paper alert led by Christina Song & Micha Campbell

Working at Wombeyan Caves, we identified potential recharge events by logging cave drip water in a shallow cave

During our monitoring, an intense fire occurred above the cave. Find out what happened here...

andy-baker.org/2025/09/14/u...
Understanding Groundwater Recharge: Impact of Rainfall and Fires
Groundwater can be replenished by rainfall that percolates from the surface to the water table. The amount of rainfall that is needed to generate this groundwater recharge is hard to measure. We de…
andy-baker.org
September 14, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Reposted by Andy Baker
Hydrology Paper of the Day @andy-baker.bsky.social on how surface fire affects groundwater recharge due to rainfall in a karst cave situated in New South Wales, Australia: drip loggers utilized to quantify recharge and a model of how fractures, ash, vegetation and soil affects water inputs.
New paper alert led by Christina Song & Micha Campbell

Working at Wombeyan Caves, we identified potential recharge events by logging cave drip water in a shallow cave

During our monitoring, an intense fire occurred above the cave. Find out what happened here...

andy-baker.org/2025/09/14/u...
Understanding Groundwater Recharge: Impact of Rainfall and Fires
Groundwater can be replenished by rainfall that percolates from the surface to the water table. The amount of rainfall that is needed to generate this groundwater recharge is hard to measure. We de…
andy-baker.org
September 20, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Reposted by Andy Baker
Mentors matter—especially in challenging times.
The latest #EGU special issue Women in #Hydrology shines a light on women who’ve broken ground in hydrological sciences, & the mentees following their path.

Essential reads on equity, inclusion, & resilience.

Check 👇

blogs.egu.eu/divisions/hs...
Women in Hydrology – The Story of a Special Issue
It was 2021, and we were not feeling good.  COVID-19 was in full force.  Personally we were experiencing lockdown conditions, disruptions to our work, schooling and childcare arrangements.  Our social...
blogs.egu.eu
September 12, 2025 at 7:01 AM
The start of Day 3 of the #IAH2025 international groundwater congress here in Naarm / Melbourne. Keynote speaker Prof Brad Moggridge reflects on yesterday's indigenous groundwater sessions.

The conference logo designed by Uncle Anthony Newcastle.
September 18, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Improving our understanding of the hydrology of the caves and karst in the Macleay karst of Australia.

We have a new preprint, working with the Kempsey Speleological Society (KSS) members, the local experts on the the caves and karst of the region.

Find out more at andy-baker.org/2025/09/17/d...
Decade of Research in Macleay Caves: Key Findings and Future Directions
Around a decade ago, thanks to a government committee that I was a member of, I was encouraged to consider improving our understanding of the caves and karst in the Macleay karst region of Australi…
andy-baker.org
September 17, 2025 at 12:33 PM
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
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.
gi.copernicus.org
September 16, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Andy Baker
🗓️ Attending the #IAH2025 ? Mark this in your agendas! 👇

📉 #Research on 20-year #groundwater level trends. (16 Sep - 10:30)

🗺️ Transboundary Aquifers #map #launch (19 Sep - Poster Board P047)

🔗 un-igrac.org/latest/news/...

#IAHCongress #water #data #datascience #GroundwaterMatters #hydrogeology
New Transboundary Aquifer Map & Groundwater Level Trends: Meet IGRAC at IAH 2025! - IGRAC
The launch of the new Transboundary Aquifers of the World Map and Groundwater Level Trends research. Meet us at IAH 2025 in Melbourne!
un-igrac.org
September 11, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Day one of the #IAH2025 Congress and the fieldtrip led by Wendy Timms at the Walhalla Long Tunnel Heritage Gold Mine.

What has this to do with groundwater? Mines like this are observatories of groundwater recharges in action. And we have had loggers in the mine recording when recharge events occur.
September 15, 2025 at 11:03 AM
New paper alert led by Christina Song & Micha Campbell

Working at Wombeyan Caves, we identified potential recharge events by logging cave drip water in a shallow cave

During our monitoring, an intense fire occurred above the cave. Find out what happened here...

andy-baker.org/2025/09/14/u...
Understanding Groundwater Recharge: Impact of Rainfall and Fires
Groundwater can be replenished by rainfall that percolates from the surface to the water table. The amount of rainfall that is needed to generate this groundwater recharge is hard to measure. We de…
andy-baker.org
September 14, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Last week, I was fortunate to both present some research, and also and co-lead some cave tours with the delegates.

That's not in my usual day job!
You can read more about how it all went here....

andy-baker.org/2025/09/12/a...

#ACKMA #caves #groundwater #science #environment
Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association Conference, Wellington Caves
The ACKMA conference was hosted last week by the amazing team at Wellington Caves in New South Wales, Australia. I had the fortune to present to regional cave and kart experts, mangers and cave gui…
andy-baker.org
September 11, 2025 at 10:01 PM