Dr Craig O'Neill
@thecraigoneill.bsky.social
Planetary science, geophysics, science writing... and single malts.
Just back from a geochemistry conference in Prague, having visited the Terezin concentration camp on a spare day. Amongst the incarcerated (which included Dvorak’s protege and a heartbreaking number of kids), I found a fellow earth scientist, who somehow survived the killings.
July 16, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Just back from a geochemistry conference in Prague, having visited the Terezin concentration camp on a spare day. Amongst the incarcerated (which included Dvorak’s protege and a heartbreaking number of kids), I found a fellow earth scientist, who somehow survived the killings.
There was a whale on Brisbane river tonight. But, like, 30m above it.
April 29, 2025 at 9:48 AM
There was a whale on Brisbane river tonight. But, like, 30m above it.
I am, possibly, a little late to the game, but really enjoying this book by @moudhy.bsky.social. Sumerians 5000 years ago sound a lot like my neighbours. I get these guys. A lot more than I get some people today. Also, they were fixated with beer.
March 21, 2025 at 7:50 AM
I am, possibly, a little late to the game, but really enjoying this book by @moudhy.bsky.social. Sumerians 5000 years ago sound a lot like my neighbours. I get these guys. A lot more than I get some people today. Also, they were fixated with beer.
For a brief moment last night the skies above Brisbane were showing the love.
March 13, 2025 at 10:31 PM
For a brief moment last night the skies above Brisbane were showing the love.
Himawari low-level water vapour is not messing around #CycloneAlfred ⚒️
March 4, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Himawari low-level water vapour is not messing around #CycloneAlfred ⚒️
⚒ Meanwhile, in Mooloolaba:
March 3, 2025 at 9:20 PM
⚒ Meanwhile, in Mooloolaba:
Fuck, Camus was awfully enpoint on this particular day: “His greatness was his incoherence.” *shudder*
February 28, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Fuck, Camus was awfully enpoint on this particular day: “His greatness was his incoherence.” *shudder*
A Sequoia (Californian redwood) I randomly encountered in the Blue Mountains. It’s still dominated by some nearby red gums, and probably planted in the 1800s. Made me think of the flammable blue gums in California in the recent fires, both results of the first botanical exchange in 55Myr.
February 18, 2025 at 9:42 PM
A Sequoia (Californian redwood) I randomly encountered in the Blue Mountains. It’s still dominated by some nearby red gums, and probably planted in the 1800s. Made me think of the flammable blue gums in California in the recent fires, both results of the first botanical exchange in 55Myr.
In Kosciuszko national park the other week. This little stream next to our campsite is the Murray River - it eventually turns into Australia’s biggest river. Here near the headwaters you can walk across it, and be in Victoria on the other side.
January 3, 2025 at 10:00 AM
In Kosciuszko national park the other week. This little stream next to our campsite is the Murray River - it eventually turns into Australia’s biggest river. Here near the headwaters you can walk across it, and be in Victoria on the other side.
On a serious note these guys will literally die trying to mate with something inanimate, and the study poses a wider question about the unforeseen effects of leaving litter like beer bottles or yellow pelican cases** around the outback.
** Just joking those things are expensive.
** Just joking those things are expensive.
December 13, 2024 at 5:41 AM
On a serious note these guys will literally die trying to mate with something inanimate, and the study poses a wider question about the unforeseen effects of leaving litter like beer bottles or yellow pelican cases** around the outback.
** Just joking those things are expensive.
** Just joking those things are expensive.
A week ago I posted about the violation of our yellow seismic case by giant swarming beetles in the outback. Turns out we have an ID.... Julodimorpha bakewelli, or the Australian Jewel beetle !
Turns out this isn't the first time their bizarre sex antics have been noted. 1/2
Turns out this isn't the first time their bizarre sex antics have been noted. 1/2
December 13, 2024 at 5:34 AM
A week ago I posted about the violation of our yellow seismic case by giant swarming beetles in the outback. Turns out we have an ID.... Julodimorpha bakewelli, or the Australian Jewel beetle !
Turns out this isn't the first time their bizarre sex antics have been noted. 1/2
Turns out this isn't the first time their bizarre sex antics have been noted. 1/2
Extremely randy yellow beetles swarming our yellow seismic case, which must look like an incredibly big booty yellow beetle to compound eyes. And I mean swarm. On the phosphate isles of lake Acraman. ⚒️ Anyone ID?
December 1, 2024 at 6:32 AM
Extremely randy yellow beetles swarming our yellow seismic case, which must look like an incredibly big booty yellow beetle to compound eyes. And I mean swarm. On the phosphate isles of lake Acraman. ⚒️ Anyone ID?
Back from spending the week in the Acraman impact structure. Interesting observations were had. ⚒️
December 1, 2024 at 6:28 AM
Back from spending the week in the Acraman impact structure. Interesting observations were had. ⚒️
I was recently in Thurso, travelling to the Orkneys, and we came across what looks stunningly like a Banksy at the end of the beach. Google tells me it’s been there a while, but as far as I can find, it’s unverified. And largely unknown.
October 28, 2024 at 7:33 AM
I was recently in Thurso, travelling to the Orkneys, and we came across what looks stunningly like a Banksy at the end of the beach. Google tells me it’s been there a while, but as far as I can find, it’s unverified. And largely unknown.
Here's a funny thing. Search interest in plate tectonics shows a clear seasonality, peaking in January and slumping in August. Why should this be? I suppose it could be grant cycles but I would expect hemispheric variations would flatten that out. Teaching semesters perhaps?
September 13, 2024 at 4:42 AM
Here's a funny thing. Search interest in plate tectonics shows a clear seasonality, peaking in January and slumping in August. Why should this be? I suppose it could be grant cycles but I would expect hemispheric variations would flatten that out. Teaching semesters perhaps?
I was sitting on my chair when the earthquake struck. And now it’s broken. These things may not be related. ⛏⚒️
August 23, 2024 at 4:31 AM
I was sitting on my chair when the earthquake struck. And now it’s broken. These things may not be related. ⛏⚒️
It turns out bsky turns gifs into jpeg by default. Who knew. Here's the gif: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hs...
This is depressing enough that someone should write poetry about it. Challenge accepted.
This is depressing enough that someone should write poetry about it. Challenge accepted.
August 12, 2024 at 10:11 AM
It turns out bsky turns gifs into jpeg by default. Who knew. Here's the gif: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hs...
This is depressing enough that someone should write poetry about it. Challenge accepted.
This is depressing enough that someone should write poetry about it. Challenge accepted.
This is a Hubble shot of XZ Tauri (gifified, of course, from 1995-2000). T-Tauri stars are young pre-fusion stars that are still contracting, and in doing so throw out system-wide flares that sterilize anything in the way. The one shown in 130 AU (yes, AU. Over 4 times Neptune's orbit long). Insane.
August 12, 2024 at 10:06 AM
This is a Hubble shot of XZ Tauri (gifified, of course, from 1995-2000). T-Tauri stars are young pre-fusion stars that are still contracting, and in doing so throw out system-wide flares that sterilize anything in the way. The one shown in 130 AU (yes, AU. Over 4 times Neptune's orbit long). Insane.
Had it continued inwards, it would decimated the inner solar system, and destroyed the protoEarth, and no one would be left to write sonnets about it, tragically.
July 26, 2024 at 3:52 AM
Had it continued inwards, it would decimated the inner solar system, and destroyed the protoEarth, and no one would be left to write sonnets about it, tragically.
This is Vesta’s South Pole. 2nd biggest body in the asteroid belt, and a fragment of what should have been a planet according to Titius-Bode’s law. The running explanation is the grand tack model, where Jupiter careered through the zone, before being hauled back by resonance wth Saturn.
July 26, 2024 at 3:14 AM
This is Vesta’s South Pole. 2nd biggest body in the asteroid belt, and a fragment of what should have been a planet according to Titius-Bode’s law. The running explanation is the grand tack model, where Jupiter careered through the zone, before being hauled back by resonance wth Saturn.
And apropos of nothing, the goal of describing an entire teaching curriculum on planetary science in verse continues unabated #scienceinverse #sciencepoetry
July 17, 2024 at 3:51 AM
And apropos of nothing, the goal of describing an entire teaching curriculum on planetary science in verse continues unabated #scienceinverse #sciencepoetry
This is a fantastic chondrule of barred olivine, the original building blocks of rocky planets, which unoriginally are still made largely of olivine. They demonstrate extreme space melting; running theories are from Jupiterian giant shock waves or solar-system wide lightning bolts. Either way, epic.
July 17, 2024 at 3:50 AM
This is a fantastic chondrule of barred olivine, the original building blocks of rocky planets, which unoriginally are still made largely of olivine. They demonstrate extreme space melting; running theories are from Jupiterian giant shock waves or solar-system wide lightning bolts. Either way, epic.
Sol week 3 of #scienceinverse, and onto the ice line and gas giants. Shakespeare of course presaged this in Sonnet 94:
"They that have power to hurt, and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow"
"They that have power to hurt, and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow"
July 9, 2024 at 5:07 PM
Sol week 3 of #scienceinverse, and onto the ice line and gas giants. Shakespeare of course presaged this in Sonnet 94:
"They that have power to hurt, and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow"
"They that have power to hurt, and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow"
Post solstice week 2, and continuing a weird committment to post only verse.
June 30, 2024 at 9:31 AM
Post solstice week 2, and continuing a weird committment to post only verse.