Gareth Fabbro
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fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Gareth Fabbro
@fitzgabbro.bsky.social
1.9K followers 3K following 210 posts
Volcano lover and lecturer in igneous processes at @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social. Lived in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇫🇷 🇸🇬 🇫🇯 🇵🇭 🇧🇪. Studied volcanoes in: 🇮🇹 🇬🇷 🇵🇬 🇵🇭
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fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Here's the map from the USGS of earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 and above for the last 20 years. There's hundreds, some over 4.5 (which has 1,000× the energy of a 2.5).

earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...
A map of the area around Tacoma, showing literally hundreds of earthquakes
November 18, 2025 at 3:45 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Today's harvest
A handful of carrots and parsnips of varying sizes, two red habanero chillies, a thin red cayenne chilli, and two green bell peppers
November 16, 2025 at 2:32 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
People keep saying Black Mirror, but there was an episode exactly about this. She first almost made her robot dead husband jump off a cliff, before locking him in the attic and only letting her daughter see him on special occasions…
Scene from the TV show "Black Mirror". Two people stand on top of chalk cliffs overlooking the sea. A man in a dark green raincoat is facing away from the camera, but facing a women in a blue raincoat. The woman is saying "You're just a few ripples of you, there's no history to you" A continuation of the previous scene. The woman is now saying "You're just a performance of stuff that he performed without thinking, and it's not enough."
November 15, 2025 at 8:45 AM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
I'd heard two theories about the cause of the seismic swarm: either fluids flowing along faults or the intrusion of magma. The fact that these swarms originated quite deep, and were coupled with deflation on Santorini and Kolumbo, does suggest that magma was moving ⚒️🧪🌋
Map of Santorini and the offshore area to the east, where a series of submarine volcanic cones can be seen (the Kolumbo volcanic field). The earthquakes form a line, almost parallel to the Kolumbo cones and displaced to the southeast. This line is interpreted as the opening dyke. Also shown is how surface displacement suggests the deflation centred on Santorini and the largest, westernmost cone of the Kolumbo volcanic field.
October 1, 2025 at 10:15 AM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Interesting new paper on the seismic crisis on Santorini earlier this year (right when we were trying to book our field course), suggesting that it was caused by the intrusion of a dyke.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 1, 2025 at 10:06 AM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Some photos from my recent flight to Greece: my favourite city (Venice), the Corinth Canal, and the volcanic island of Aegina
Venice seen from a plane. A large part of the lagoon can be seen, although it is a very similar blue-green to the surrounding land. Venice is a mass of white buildings with red roofs, and some of the larger canals can be seen (as can the causeway connecting the city to the mainland) The isthmus of Corinth from the plane. The isthmus is fairly flat, but there are mountains in the background. The Corinth Canal can be seen as a long, straight line cutting across the isthmus. The wing of the plane can also be seen, with a blue wingtip and the 'fish' logo of Aegean airlines A closer view of the Corinth Canal (still from the plane). The canal forms a long, straight trench through the dry landscape. A knot of road and railway bridges cross the canal towards the right of the photo. A hazy view from a plane. A small island (a few kilometres across) is seen in the foreground, and the nearest part of the island has some large hills—these are volcanic domes. In the distance, the mountains of mainland Greece can be seen.
September 27, 2025 at 4:42 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Morning.
The sun rises over the pointy island of Anafi in the distance, making the whole scene orange. A small boat is sillohouetted in the foreground.
September 15, 2025 at 5:29 AM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
This view never gets old…
A selfie of a guy in sunglass on a black, pebbly beach. In the background you can see the layered cliffs red, black, and white cliffs of Santorini caldera.
September 14, 2025 at 10:01 AM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
And of course there's a whole museum at the airport, dedicated to just the finds they made at the airport.
Two black pieces of pottery with orange designs. On the left is a small jar with a long neck and a handle, which has a simple design. On the right is a shard of a much larger pot with a man in ancient Greek clothes and a large-brimmed hat. A beaded necklace. The beads are dark blue and glassy, red and earthy, and white. The middle bead is large, and appears to be made of multiple beads stuck together. Sign on a glass window, through which the museum can be seen ΕΚΘΕΣΗ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΚΩΝ ΕΥΡΗΜΑΤΩΝ ΠΕΡΙΟΧΗΣ ΑΕΡΟΔΡΟΜΙΟΥ EXHIBITION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDINGS FROM THE AIRPORT AREA ΥΠΟΥΡΓΕΙΟ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΥ Η ΕΦΟΡΕΙΑ ΠΡΟΪΣΤΟΡΙΚΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΚΛΑΣΙΚΩΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΤΗΤΩΝ Τη ΕΦΟΡΕΙΑ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΤΗΤΩΝ ΥΠΟΥΡΓΕΙΟ ΜΕΤΑΦΟΡΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΠΙΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΩΝ ΔΙΕΘΝΗΣ ΑΕΡΟΛΙΜΕΝΑΣ ΑΘΗΝΩΝ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΟΣ ΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΟΣ MINISTRY OF CULTURE The EPHORATE OF PHEHISTORIC AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITIES EPHORATE OF BYZANTINE ANTIQUITIES MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION ATHENS INTERINA PONALARPORT ELEFTHERIOS VENIZELOG
September 10, 2025 at 4:27 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Crossing the Corinth Canal
September 10, 2025 at 3:25 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
How many train stations do you know that have 3,000 year-old pottery in the underpass?
Assorted dark brown and orange vases, jars, and pots arranged in a museum-style cabinet. Most are fairly plain, but a couple have geometric designs on them. A hot, dry, dusty and empty train station
September 10, 2025 at 12:56 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Along the same theme...
A laptop is balanced on my legs as I sit on a sun lounger beneath an umbrella on the beach. The weather is sunny and the sea is blue.
September 9, 2025 at 7:00 AM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
The Peleponnese looking absolutely stunning. Can anyone spot a normal fault?
Looking down the Gulf of Corinth. Either side, the mountains are silhouetted by the setting sun. Several of the mountain flanks are very flat and dip at about 60° Several mountain ranges can be seen across the water, one behind the other in silhouette, under a red, slightly cloudy sky
September 8, 2025 at 5:09 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Sometimes life is OK
A pizza with olives, peppers, and feta, a carafe of red wine, and a salad on a table. In the distance and out of focus the sun is setting behind mountains across a bay, and a few people are walking along the near shore.
September 8, 2025 at 4:42 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Up far too early to go to Greece for the UEA fieldtrip. Yesterday I had to cycle to the office to pick up some stuff, and it literally started raining the moment I left the house, and stopped the moment I reached the campus. At least I caught the double rainbow all across the sky…
A double rainbow spans across the grey sky above the brutalist architecture of the UEA Campus. A ray of sunshine picks out a tree in the middle of the picture.
September 4, 2025 at 4:34 AM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
A long way to go to watch Wales get knocked out of the world cup. Never mind, toso Viti toso! #rwc2025 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇫🇯
Me wearing a red Wales jersey and my wife in a black Fiji jersey sat in the stand with a rugby pitch behind us
August 30, 2025 at 1:20 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
The sky outside is currently using the 'magma' colour scale from viridis
A long picture showing a thin strip of sky framed by a tiled roof and a flint church tower. The clouds change gradually from a dark purple in the top left to a bright orange in the bottom right.
August 29, 2025 at 6:47 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Today's 🤞 successful project: learning how to can…
Baskets and plastic cups overflowing with cherry tomatoes, alongside two large tomatoes, a purple sweet pepper, and a few green cayenne chillies and a plastic cup half-full of parsnip seeds Three 1-liter jars filled with preserved cherry tomatoes
August 23, 2025 at 8:13 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Went to Berwick-upon-tweed a few weeks ago. Had seen it from the train a couple of times and thought it looked pretty, so spent a day there on the way up to Scotland
Three bridges over the river Tweed. The nearest (and lowest) is an old stone bridge, completed in 1624. Behind it, and slightly taller, is the Royal Tweed bridge, a concrete bridge built in 1924. In the distance is the Royal Border Bridge, a stone railway viaduct designed by Robert Stephenson and completed in 1850. A red and white LNER Azuma train is crossing this bridge. A selfie of me and Engielle stood below medieval town walls, behind which are large stone buildings Engielle standing on the beach in front of the medieval town walls, with the old lifeboat station in the distance The most amazingly picturesque allotments I have ever seen. The town (including a church spire) can be seen in the background
May 3, 2025 at 11:09 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Inside you are two wolves
Two rocks looking over a valley, from Everything Everywhere All At Once. "Just be a rock" is written above them.
April 5, 2025 at 10:34 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Here is the Icelandic Met Office page about the eruption (in English). They confirm the fissure has breached the dyke, and the coastguard will be flying over soon to verify the extent of the eruption. They warn that the fissure could continue to open towards the south 😟

en.vedur.is/about-imo/ne...
A map of the area to the northeast of Grindavík showing that the fissure is 500 m long, in the middle of the previous lava flows, and had just reached the protective barrier.
April 1, 2025 at 10:38 AM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Reminds me of this bridge in Georgia (🇬🇪), albeit yours looks slightly more functional…
A rusty, grafiti-covered railway carriage has been deliberately placed over a fast-running river to form a makeshift bridge between rocky hillslopes. There are trees in the foreground with no leaves, and the weather looks grey and wintery. The inside of the railway carriage from the previous photos. It is very rusty, and a large sectiuon of the floor is missing, revealing the fast-flowing water beneath.
March 19, 2025 at 10:37 AM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Last week went to see the snowdrops in Walshingham. Only just got round to looking at the photos…
A women with a wooly hat with ears has her back to the camera. In the background is a stream in front of a wooded area. All the trees are bare. A path leads through an arch made of bushes. Through the arch is an earthen bank covered in snowdrops. A close-up photo of a bunch of small white flowers (snowdrops) A wood, carpeted in snowdrops.
March 1, 2025 at 8:40 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
Here's the seismicity over the past few days. Nothing particularly unusual, the Agean in a seismically active region. These quakes may well be tectonic, but it is interesting to note that they are occurring under the northern half of the caldera, where we think magma is stored, and to the northeast
A map of Santorini with the locations of recent earthquakes. Six days ago, most of the earthquakes were under the northern half of the caldera. Since then, they've moved to the northeast of Santorini. Data: University of Athens Seismological Laboratory
January 31, 2025 at 8:48 PM
fitzgabbro.bsky.social
No more photos, please
A seal lying on its side, nose in the air, eyes closed, and raising one flipper in front of it
December 31, 2024 at 9:55 PM