Brian Romans
@clasticdetritus.bsky.social
Virginia Tech Geosciences professor (vtsedsystems.org) ⏐ sedimentology, (paleo)climate, tectonics, sedimentary basins, subsurface geology, geoeducation ⏐ listening and learning
Pinned
Brian Romans
@clasticdetritus.bsky.social
· Oct 23
“I kept asking all these questions like, How do we know that? The other scientists [would respond] - Yeah, how do we know that?”
Virginia Tech sedimentologist Brian Romans knows how scientific ocean drilling can be a particularly good mechanism or vehicle for pivoting in a career – that’s because he has many examples to share a...
archive.storycorps.org
I was recently interviewed by @drlauraguertin.bsky.social as part of her 'Tales from the Deep' series focused on the people involved in scientific ocean drilling ⚒️🧪⛴️ –– lots of great stories from many others there to check out
archive.storycorps.org/interviews/i...
archive.storycorps.org/interviews/i...
imagine being impressed by this and thinking to yourself 'Yes, these are great ideas, this is the world I want' –– my gosh, grow up already and ditch these guys and this whole vibe, what a waste
Everything about this might be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen
November 24, 2025 at 2:18 PM
imagine being impressed by this and thinking to yourself 'Yes, these are great ideas, this is the world I want' –– my gosh, grow up already and ditch these guys and this whole vibe, what a waste
I posted this a year ago and here he is discussing the topic a couple weeks ago –– he's not quite to the stage of formalizing the idea into a 'business' (an entity that rips off governments and their citizens), but seems inevitable –– perhaps his falling-out with the regime has delayed things
November 19, 2025 at 2:48 PM
I posted this a year ago and here he is discussing the topic a couple weeks ago –– he's not quite to the stage of formalizing the idea into a 'business' (an entity that rips off governments and their citizens), but seems inevitable –– perhaps his falling-out with the regime has delayed things
field trip this weekend for my Sedimentary Basins course –– we went from earliest Cambrian rift basin to Cambro-Ordovician passive margin to the three main foreland-basin phases of the rest of the Paleozoic (>240 Myr of history in two days 😅) ⚒️
November 17, 2025 at 1:10 PM
field trip this weekend for my Sedimentary Basins course –– we went from earliest Cambrian rift basin to Cambro-Ordovician passive margin to the three main foreland-basin phases of the rest of the Paleozoic (>240 Myr of history in two days 😅) ⚒️
an undergraduate in our dept asked me yesterday if the cuts in science funding was affecting me and our dept –– I took this opportunity to explain how things have worked and that, yes, this new paradigm negatively impacts us, including ability to hire ugrads for summer research, for example 1/2
November 14, 2025 at 5:09 PM
an undergraduate in our dept asked me yesterday if the cuts in science funding was affecting me and our dept –– I took this opportunity to explain how things have worked and that, yes, this new paradigm negatively impacts us, including ability to hire ugrads for summer research, for example 1/2
my Sedimentary Basins course is transitioning into the Final Project, which has an initial individual phase where each student receives a unique and partial dataset followed by a team phase where each team collectively has the entire dataset 1/2
November 13, 2025 at 5:24 PM
my Sedimentary Basins course is transitioning into the Final Project, which has an initial individual phase where each student receives a unique and partial dataset followed by a team phase where each team collectively has the entire dataset 1/2
let's go Virginia
November 4, 2025 at 1:37 PM
let's go Virginia
My straightforward advice to those who don't want to go to college, think it's a waste of time/money, think it's not worth it, aren't interested in doing the work, could do other things in their life, etc.:
Don't go to college.
Don't go to college.
October 31, 2025 at 1:26 PM
My straightforward advice to those who don't want to go to college, think it's a waste of time/money, think it's not worth it, aren't interested in doing the work, could do other things in their life, etc.:
Don't go to college.
Don't go to college.
spent yesterday scouting locations for an upcoming field trip and I'd like to share this very Appalachian outcrop: small and covered in lichen and moss ⚒️
October 29, 2025 at 11:52 AM
spent yesterday scouting locations for an upcoming field trip and I'd like to share this very Appalachian outcrop: small and covered in lichen and moss ⚒️
most of the labs for my Sedimentary Basins course (9 grad students + 4 ugrads) require R for making calculations, building simple models, data analysis, etc. and I'm trying this 'AI disclosure' statement this time –– we also talk about when these tools are most helpful for improving your code (1/2)
October 24, 2025 at 12:46 PM
most of the labs for my Sedimentary Basins course (9 grad students + 4 ugrads) require R for making calculations, building simple models, data analysis, etc. and I'm trying this 'AI disclosure' statement this time –– we also talk about when these tools are most helpful for improving your code (1/2)
finished my fourth, and final, external letter for P&T (promotion and tenure) evaluation for the year
this was the most I've done in one 'season' for these, I ended up doing 4 out of the 5 I was asked to (I try to say yes to all, but there is a limit)
this was the most I've done in one 'season' for these, I ended up doing 4 out of the 5 I was asked to (I try to say yes to all, but there is a limit)
October 24, 2025 at 12:28 PM
finished my fourth, and final, external letter for P&T (promotion and tenure) evaluation for the year
this was the most I've done in one 'season' for these, I ended up doing 4 out of the 5 I was asked to (I try to say yes to all, but there is a limit)
this was the most I've done in one 'season' for these, I ended up doing 4 out of the 5 I was asked to (I try to say yes to all, but there is a limit)
I was recently interviewed by @drlauraguertin.bsky.social as part of her 'Tales from the Deep' series focused on the people involved in scientific ocean drilling ⚒️🧪⛴️ –– lots of great stories from many others there to check out
archive.storycorps.org/interviews/i...
archive.storycorps.org/interviews/i...
“I kept asking all these questions like, How do we know that? The other scientists [would respond] - Yeah, how do we know that?”
Virginia Tech sedimentologist Brian Romans knows how scientific ocean drilling can be a particularly good mechanism or vehicle for pivoting in a career – that’s because he has many examples to share a...
archive.storycorps.org
October 23, 2025 at 12:43 PM
I was recently interviewed by @drlauraguertin.bsky.social as part of her 'Tales from the Deep' series focused on the people involved in scientific ocean drilling ⚒️🧪⛴️ –– lots of great stories from many others there to check out
archive.storycorps.org/interviews/i...
archive.storycorps.org/interviews/i...
I probably spend too much time on my lecture slides/content, it's a habit I have a difficult time breaking ... sure, maybe my lectures are good (I hope so) but I should be spending more time writing papers and proposals
October 14, 2025 at 8:21 PM
I probably spend too much time on my lecture slides/content, it's a habit I have a difficult time breaking ... sure, maybe my lectures are good (I hope so) but I should be spending more time writing papers and proposals
currently on page 24 of a response-to-reviewers document for a paper with 'minor revisions' ... they are valuable comments/suggestions that will ultimately improve the manuscript (which I'm glad about), but 'minor' they are not IMO
October 9, 2025 at 4:59 PM
currently on page 24 of a response-to-reviewers document for a paper with 'minor revisions' ... they are valuable comments/suggestions that will ultimately improve the manuscript (which I'm glad about), but 'minor' they are not IMO
This better be giant, all-caps type in headlines on every news outlet in the country for days. This is our government literally declaring war on it's own citizens. This isn't nuanced or ambiguous, he is saying it very clearly.
But I have zero confidence in our national media to meet this moment.
But I have zero confidence in our national media to meet this moment.
Trump: "The ones that are run by radical left Democrats -- what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles. They're very unsafe places & we're gonna straighten them out one by one. This is gonna be a major part for some people in this room. That's a war too. It's war from within"
September 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
This better be giant, all-caps type in headlines on every news outlet in the country for days. This is our government literally declaring war on it's own citizens. This isn't nuanced or ambiguous, he is saying it very clearly.
But I have zero confidence in our national media to meet this moment.
But I have zero confidence in our national media to meet this moment.
This summary figure from a 1990 paper by Boulton depicts the local/relative SL change (what I show in blue) as opposite to the global/eustatic change –– that is, a relative rise in SL during maximum ice sheet extent/size at that location when the global condition is lower SL, due to ... 1/3
September 27, 2025 at 3:34 PM
This summary figure from a 1990 paper by Boulton depicts the local/relative SL change (what I show in blue) as opposite to the global/eustatic change –– that is, a relative rise in SL during maximum ice sheet extent/size at that location when the global condition is lower SL, due to ... 1/3
one of the great advantages of ditching most social media platforms and checking the few I'm still on only occasionally (a few times a week) is that I'm blissfully unaware of the discourse about discourse on social media
September 27, 2025 at 2:35 PM
one of the great advantages of ditching most social media platforms and checking the few I'm still on only occasionally (a few times a week) is that I'm blissfully unaware of the discourse about discourse on social media
I've started reading @peterbrannen.bsky.social's "The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything" and I'm going old school by underlining and jotting down notes in the margins
here are a couple of excerpts in the section introducing silicate weathering and the carbon cycle ⚒️📚
here are a couple of excerpts in the section introducing silicate weathering and the carbon cycle ⚒️📚
September 21, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I've started reading @peterbrannen.bsky.social's "The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything" and I'm going old school by underlining and jotting down notes in the margins
here are a couple of excerpts in the section introducing silicate weathering and the carbon cycle ⚒️📚
here are a couple of excerpts in the section introducing silicate weathering and the carbon cycle ⚒️📚
difficult choice between D and G
For the rest of your life, you can only eat food from one of these regions. Which do you choose?
For more maps: brilliantmaps.beehiiv.com/s...
For more maps: brilliantmaps.beehiiv.com/s...
September 20, 2025 at 2:42 PM
difficult choice between D and G
Reposted by Brian Romans
this exists it is called thinking
September 20, 2025 at 12:15 PM
this exists it is called thinking
a fantastic four days at the IODP Exp400 science meeting at GEUS (Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland) in Copenhagen –– didn't have much time to explore and sight-see, hope to come back one day
very excited about all the interesting science already coming out of this expedition, lots to do!
very excited about all the interesting science already coming out of this expedition, lots to do!
September 19, 2025 at 8:13 AM
a fantastic four days at the IODP Exp400 science meeting at GEUS (Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland) in Copenhagen –– didn't have much time to explore and sight-see, hope to come back one day
very excited about all the interesting science already coming out of this expedition, lots to do!
very excited about all the interesting science already coming out of this expedition, lots to do!
in Copenhagen this week for the IODP Exp400 post-cruise science meeting and our hosts at GEUS (Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland) led a day trip to Stevns Klint, a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring a K-Pg boundary section ⚒️🧪
September 16, 2025 at 5:21 AM
in Copenhagen this week for the IODP Exp400 post-cruise science meeting and our hosts at GEUS (Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland) led a day trip to Stevns Klint, a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring a K-Pg boundary section ⚒️🧪
headed to Copenhagen for the IODP Exp 400 post-cruise science meeting –– these meetings a couple of years after an expedition and an opportunity to share results and rekindle collaborative ideas –– this photo from exactly 2 years ago, enjoying my morning coffee on the deck of the JR in Baffin Bay
September 13, 2025 at 1:16 PM
headed to Copenhagen for the IODP Exp 400 post-cruise science meeting –– these meetings a couple of years after an expedition and an opportunity to share results and rekindle collaborative ideas –– this photo from exactly 2 years ago, enjoying my morning coffee on the deck of the JR in Baffin Bay
thread from one of the authors of the Mars study that is making some new
Our paper (led by Joel Hurowitz and with a large team of Mars 2020 scientists) describing potential signatures of past life on Mars was just published: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com
September 10, 2025 at 6:03 PM
thread from one of the authors of the Mars study that is making some new
my gosh, these people need to go for a walk, watch a sunset, stare at a campfire ... something, snap out of this
let's move this hype/bubble along quicker, get it over with
let's move this hype/bubble along quicker, get it over with
What does this even mean
September 9, 2025 at 9:21 PM
my gosh, these people need to go for a walk, watch a sunset, stare at a campfire ... something, snap out of this
let's move this hype/bubble along quicker, get it over with
let's move this hype/bubble along quicker, get it over with
Reposted by Brian Romans
Our 400+ page comment on the DOE climate working group report is now out.
Our conclusion: The merchants of doubt are back, and they're coming for climate science.
Our conclusion: The merchants of doubt are back, and they're coming for climate science.
DOEresponseSite
On July 29, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a report from its Climate Working Group (CWG). This report features prominently in the EPA's reconsideration of its 2009 Endangerment Finding. In response, over 85 scientists have come together to write a comprehensive review, which is
sites.google.com
September 2, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Our 400+ page comment on the DOE climate working group report is now out.
Our conclusion: The merchants of doubt are back, and they're coming for climate science.
Our conclusion: The merchants of doubt are back, and they're coming for climate science.