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dralkatrip.bsky.social
Alka Tripathy-Lang
@dralkatrip.bsky.social
3.8K followers 1.1K following 360 posts
Science Communicator | Writer | Editor | Social Media Manager | Former dater of rocks | Ph.D. in Geology | Exerciser | Food lover | Parent | Partner | she/her
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dralkatrip.bsky.social
pC geology-only fail. Definitely... not what those boundaries look like between Idaho, Oregon and Nevada.
Map of border region of Nevada (South), Idaho and Oregon that's meant to show precambrian geology.
August 29, 2025 at 9:24 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
More #AGU24 FOMO! Temblor's CEO and co-founder Ross Stein received the Paul G. Silver Award in recognition of his outstanding scientific service.
The background says AGU24, What's next for Science -- the theme of the AGU 2024 Fall Meeting. In the foreground, a tall white man, a shorter white man, and a white woman, all three with short-ish hair, stand smiling, looking rather joyful. The man in the middle, Ross Stein, is holding open his certificate.
December 12, 2024 at 5:16 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Temblor map of today's California quake is here! A detailed analysis is in the works, but if you missed what happened, a M7 earthquake struck near the Mendocino Triple Junction. Shaking was felt at quite a distance, including across the San Francisco Bay Area. ⚒️🧪
Map of the U.S. West Coast. The upper left hand corner has Temblor’s blue and green logo. The lower right corner contains the explanation. The top of the explanation has the color bar for shaking forecast, ranging from white (weak) to blue to yellow (strong) to orange to red (violent). The middle section shows minor faults as thin red lines, major faults as thick red lines, and megathrusts as diffuse red zones. The lower section starts with USGS earthquakes color-coded by age in days. Dark red events occurred today, and the events older than 30 days are shown as yellow (red shows events that are 2 days old, and orange shows events that are 7 days old). These circles are scaled by magnitude. Finally, there’s a sentence at the bottom that says that the earthquakes shown on the map were pulled from the USGS at 11:56 AM Pacific time. The rest of the image shows white for ocean, a big blue star for the location of the earthquake, and to the right side, a map of the western coast of the U.S. colored by the Shaking forecast. The important fault systems are labeled: The San Andreas, Cascadia, the Pacific-Juan de Fuca transform, and the Pacific-Juan de Fuca spreading center. Credit: Temblor
December 6, 2024 at 1:35 AM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
I was trying to gauge how far Axial Seamount is from Oregon (b/c seismology etc), so I popped over to google maps. Imagine my surprise to see that it had been reviewed 25 times - 4.4 stars! Curiosity roused, I checked out the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. 364 reviews, and apparently Samantha is very rude. 𓇼 ⚒️
Google reviews of Axial Seamount. The first one, a five star review, says "So many catchy musical sequences and characters down here! Ariel and Sebastian are perfect hosts--practically hand-drawn in every way. I promise I'll return one day!" The second disagrees with one star: "Not very family friendly, I went down as a mother of 4 and I am not a mother of 2. Would not recommend." Dark humor, indeed. Google reviews of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The first gives 2 stars, the second, 4. Both complain of an employee named Samantha (as do many of the 364 total reviews). Spongebob reference?
August 20, 2024 at 7:36 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Happy Holi! 🎉
Indian woman (me) with hair up, face covered in pink and red powder with orange powder on black shirt.
March 24, 2024 at 5:25 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Today was a good day. AND a day to explain to the littles how wind makes waves, and in coastal waters those waves interact with the seafloor and cause seismic waves that are detectable all over the world! 🌊
Tall man with no shirt, white hat, and blue swim shorts with ducks on them flanked by two small kids. On the right is a kid in a blue shirt, and on the left is a kid in orange. Together, they are holding hands, walking out into the ocean. The foreground shows shallow water with rocks. Ever-deepening blues stretch to the horizon.
March 15, 2024 at 12:25 AM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Just finished Draft No. 4 by John McPhee. I’m now exited to write more because the fourth draft IS the fun one! ❤️

Highly recommend for fellow science writers who haven’t yet read (or maybe I’m just very behind on my reading!)
A white hardcover book that says Draft No. 4 John McPhee On the Writing Process
February 13, 2024 at 8:53 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
I know I mostly discuss science-y books but my little one and I just enjoyed @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com’s “What you need to be warm”

It began a convo about everything from baked potatoes to an image of a dragon curled round other animals to the powerful last line “You have the right to be here.” ❤️
Front cover of Neil Gaiman’s children’s book titled “what you need to be warm” in orange caps. The cover is black with a few white starts and a grayscale Earth in the center with two child’s hands framing the bottom of the cover, held like you would put your hands to warm over a fire. My hand and my little’s are on the right side of the image, and there’s a fuzzy fleecy blanket in my lap behind the book.
February 11, 2024 at 2:40 AM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Please join Ross Stein, CEO of Temblor, for a webinar followed by Q&A about the recent magnitude 7.5 Noto-Hanto earthquake in Japan.

Time: 8 am Pacific/11 am Eastern/5 pm CET
Date: Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024
Registration: temblor.net/temblor-webi...
Flyer for Temblor webinar. Text reads: One Month Later: The New Year's Day Magnitude 7.5 Noto-Hanto, Japan Earthquake. Preceded by an intense swarm, the quake caused extreme shaking, coastal uplift, a tsunami, liquefaction and landslides. What does the event foretell about seismic hazard assessment? Presented by Ross Stein, Ph.D., Temblor, Inc. Co-authored by Shinji Toda, Prof., Tohoku University A Temblor webinar with Q&A Wednesday, 31 Jan 2024 8 am PT / 11 am ET 4 pm UK / 5 pm CET Register here to attend: temblor.net/temblor-webinars The lower right shows a map of the Noto Peninsula with aftershocks that have occurred since the mainshock shown as ellipses. Faults are marked as red lines, and reverse faults are marked as blue with teeth on the overriding plate.
January 25, 2024 at 10:01 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Hello sea creatures of Monterey Bay Aquarium @montereyaq.bsky.social
Maybe a sturgeon (?) staring straight at me with other large fish (is that a leopard shark?) cruising by. A bit of green-yellow kelp with some reddish accents waves near the sturgeon while the bottom of the tank had lots of rocks with reddish stuff growing on them. Maybe there’s a sea anemone stuck to one of the rocks. The water is blueish and clear. In this tank, a school of sardines flashes silver while two rays skim by in opposing directions. The water is blue and clear and a bit dark.
December 27, 2023 at 9:03 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
There are at least three baby elephant seals here! 🐘🦭❤️
Sandy beach with elephant seals. There are at least three babies, two cuddled up to older seals. In the background the ocean laps onto the beach, smoothing some of the sand that these seals have churned up with their comings and goings. Cloudy blue sky above.
December 25, 2023 at 12:05 AM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
This male elephant seal dug himself a flipper hole I guess? Maybe we would all be better off with flipper holes and a layer of sand on our backs.
Two male elephant seals snooze in the sand. They both have tossed sand onto their backs, which also results in sand loosely packed around their bodies. The one in the foreground seems to have made a hole for his right flipper. The one in the background has a track leading from ocean to animal, so we can see the path he took along the beach to get to his current resting spot.
December 24, 2023 at 11:57 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
And look at that little face!
Young (or maybe female?) elephant seal taking a moment to look up from the beach. Much of the lack of smoothness in the wet sand comes from other elephant seals wriggling up and down the beach.
December 24, 2023 at 11:53 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Elephant seal beach is mellow today, but that one guy is *chatty*
Brown sandy beach with a few elephant seals lounging, sharp rocks poking out if the surf. In the background sits Piedras Blancas Lighthouse. One elephant seal’s head is thrown back, and he’s making some noise!
December 24, 2023 at 9:00 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Good morning from the Pacific Ocean!
Blue sky, gray clouds and dark blue ocean dotted with surfers.
December 23, 2023 at 5:20 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Snuggly dog, almost as cinnamon-bunned as he can get.
Black and white Great Dane curled up on a white round Costco dog bed.
December 9, 2023 at 7:39 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
First time my kiddos have ever experienced snow falling from the sky! And also, their first snowman ☃️
Three kids (two mine, one not mine) at the end of a snow covered driveway, with the one in the middle pushing the shovel to amass enough snow for a snowman. Pine trees in the background. Snowflakes dotting the image. Three segmented snowman on a snowy sidewalk. Bottom segment has two buttons. Middle segment has one button and two stick arms. Top segment is the head with two eyes, a nose, and a jaunty black hat. Kids’ legs stand behind their creation.
November 25, 2023 at 9:59 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
A beautiful day in the neighborhood, and whoa that blue sky.
Mt Humphries, mostly sans snow, draped in the green of pine trees, against an incredible Blue Sky
November 22, 2023 at 11:00 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Current read/listen is Impact by Greg Brennecka who is a hilarious cosmochemist (though I may be biased because I know him from
grad school). So far, 10/10, filled with dad jokes and some slightly less G-rates anecdotes from the world of meteorite studies. 🧪⚒️
Front cover of the book Impact, by Greg Brennecka. Upper and lower bands of image are orange. The center is black with orange-yellow cartoons of shooting stars streaking from upper left to lower right. Full title is Impact: New rocks from space led to life, culture and Donkey Kong
November 20, 2023 at 4:20 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Found this dude in my freshly picked basil, and the kids are fascinated. The inchworm keeps rearing up, flailing its little legs about, almost like it’s trying to sense where all the leaves went.
Inch worm reared up and back, off a stalk of picked basil. The stalk sits in a green bowl full of water, in a silver sink. The same inchworm has turned to explore the other direction, and is getting ready to turn around and head back down the stalk toward the water. The inchworm has turned!!! And there it goes, inched up like the very hungry caterpillar it is.
October 28, 2023 at 7:10 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Tree throw and shark teeth with @drwendyrocks.bsky.social!
A view of the Bay to the left and the beach to the right. In the mid ground, trees grow tall on a short cliff. Two trees have tipped into the water, with their root balls to the right. Six black sharks teeth in the palm of my hand. Also one stingray tooth (so I’m told!)
October 11, 2023 at 7:51 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
What is this countertop? ⚒️
Me pointing at weird blobby thing on peculiar countertop that may or may not be quartz. Counter with white and beige with rust colored crystals with black specks throughout. Also, shiny things.
October 11, 2023 at 12:37 AM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
A beautiful night for soccer here in phx!
The sky is streaks of orange and yellow and purple with pockets of blue as the sun sets. The foreground is green grass, with a tiny soccer team doing drills with mini pop up goals.
September 22, 2023 at 1:35 AM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
Well it’s hailing in Phoenix and yet there’s some blue sky to be seen!
Pool splashing with hail. Two palm trees in the back ground, and hail in the grass in the foreground. Yes, I need to pick up dog poop. But look at those hailstones blanketing the grass. Sun shining, wreathed in clouds. Blue sky, in the time it took me to take the picture of the sun shining. Wispy clouds of the storm on the right. Sad Mexican fan palms to the left.
September 12, 2023 at 10:38 PM
dralkatrip.bsky.social
The hurricane blew in a lot of wind, a little rain, and raccoons! Pleased to say that we did not go out there with swords to do battle as per @beebrookshire.bsky.social’s advice (see her book, Pests, for details) but instead just sent out good vibes to urge them to stay out of the compost 😂
A family of five raccoons blew in with the hurricane yesterday evening. Here, they are crossing my driveway, heading toward the green grass illuminated by the garage lights.
August 21, 2023 at 4:09 PM