Andrew Alden
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geology.bsky.social
Andrew Alden
@geology.bsky.social
Geology lifer
Author Deep Oakland: How Geology Shaped a City (Heyday)
Substack "Deeper Oakland"
Blogger at deepoakland.com
aboutgeology on Xitr for now
Webmaster, N. Calif. Geol. Society: norcalgeolsoc.bsky.social
Personal: andrewalden.bsky.social
Always been curious about these events; wonder if they'd be way over my head.
📣Serpentine Days webinar: buff.ly/xqurBKR
📅 Dec 2, 16:00CET Speakers:
- Katrin Steinthorsdottir (Carbfix): “Feasibility of in-situ C mineralization in serpentinite via shallow injection, British Columbia“
- Ikuo Katayama (Hiroshima Uni): “The importance of mantle carbonation in the global C budget“
SerpentineDays Webinar #27 - Serpentine Days
Our December webinar will take place on December 2, 2025, at 16:00 CET, and will focus on carbon in the context of natural and applied carbon fixation. Our speakers will present their research on…
buff.ly
November 24, 2025 at 6:11 PM
New blog post: An odd little outlier is a most charming place.
A bit of Oakland in Richmond
Oakland’s rocks spill over the city boundaries. Previously in this space I’ve presented two examples (1, 2) from down Fremont way. This week I tracked down an odd bit of color on the ge…
oaklandgeology.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Andrew Alden
I whipped up a new post/newsletter extra for the Hayli Gubbi eruption. First time I've had to post an extra edition! #volcano #eruption eruptions.beehiiv.com/p/eruptions-...
Eruptions Newsletter Extra for November 23, 2025
Unexpected eruption from Hayli Gubbi in Ethiopia.
eruptions.beehiiv.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:16 PM
New blog post tomorrow morning
November 24, 2025 at 2:44 AM
This was not on my bingo card
Here is a hastily constructed animated gif from different NASA satellites showing the progression of the Hayli Gubbi eruption. Note the tall ash plume spreading NE (right) and a lower, light tan ash flow(?) moving NNW. #eruption #volcano
November 23, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Andrew Alden
What might be my favourite fossil has been just published by Kiat et al. 2025. Years ago I saw a pic of this Anchiornis specimen in nat geo article and I audibly gasped.preserving not only the feathers but also the original patterns as well. I made this drawing on the spot. Maybe its time to do v2.0
November 21, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Hard as hopscotch
frankly not a given and a big relief nymag.com/intelligence...
November 19, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Today's outing
November 19, 2025 at 4:09 AM
CHROMIITITE occurs in komatiite
so I've been playing around with AI (GPT), asking it how Pt-bearing sulfide layers form in layered intrusions. I asked critical questions, prompted it to think about physics, and after many iterations, it came up with this model. Utter nonsense, violating physics! Be very careful of AI.
November 18, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Andrew Alden
Fly along the San Andreas fault in Southern California in the Coachella Valley near Palm Desert and Indio. 🧪
November 16, 2025 at 8:59 PM
The brightest aurora I’ve seen in NorCal. Photograph made along Dry Creek Rd. in Healdsburg, with the iconic Timber Crest Farms barn. #kentporterphotography @pressdemo.bsky.social #substorm #Auroraborealis #northernlights #CME
November 16, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Seems timely.
📣 New NBER Working Paper out today 📣

"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
November 16, 2025 at 2:40 AM
A deep plunge into the magnetobiogeochronological weeds. I care (and am entertained) because Oakland has a bunch of Campanian-age rocks.
Evidence for multimillion-year diachroneity of the paleomagnetically defined Santonian-Campanian stage boundary between its European stratotypes and Pacific Ocean basin localities | GSA Bulletin | Geo...
The recent and revolutionary decision by the International Union of Geological Sciences to formally define the Santonian-Campanian (Cretaceous) stage
pubs.geoscienceworld.org
November 15, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Was listening to Kraftwerk and missed it
November 13, 2025 at 9:32 PM
If they're banning @heydaybooks.com authors now, can my Deep Oakland be far behind?
November 13, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Even science is tainted
naturally Krauss is in the email dump today, where he decides that because Feynman was a known sexual predator, he could be one too
“I have decided that Feynman would have done what I did.. and I am therefore content.. no matter what..:)“
— Lawrence Krauss

🧪⚛️
November 13, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Bad science takes
JD Vance: "Science as practiced in its best form is that if you disagree with it, then you ought to criticize it and you ought to argue against it."
November 12, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Wide-ranging survey of fiber-optics based seismology uses unusual words for a science paper: incredible, revolutionizing. SRL paper
Fiber‐Optic Sensing for Earthquake Hazards Research, Monitoring, and Early Warning | Seismological Research Letters | GeoScienceWorld
pubs.geoscienceworld.org
November 12, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Interesting: deepduction fertilizes the deep lithosphere (i.e. upper mantle) just as regular subduction fertilizes the shallow lithosphere
⚒️ Article: Convective erosion and lateral transport of metasomatized continental keels may generate enriched mantle geochemical domains

@gernon.bsky.social @unisouthampton.bsky.social @ukiodp.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 12, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Reposted by Andrew Alden
Still think this was one of the best power moves of all time

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 12, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Andrew Alden
I’m pleased to share that a book I’ve coedited, *Landkeeping: Restoring Indigenous Fire Stewardship and Ecological Partnerships* is now available for preorder everywhere books are sold—including at the OSU Press website, where the promo code S26 will extend a 20% discount and free shipping to you.
Landkeeping
With rising temperatures, longer summers, drought, and more wildfires occurring in the United States and Canada, there is growing interest in the impact and efficacy of Indigenous fire and cultural bu...
osupress.oregonstate.edu
November 10, 2025 at 11:50 PM
New blog post on one of Oakland's (actually Piedmont's) more dramatic rock quarries
Life and afterlife of the Dimond Canyon quarry
Park Boulevard sweeps through steep, rocky Dimond Canyon with just one isolated, incongruous building along the way: a big church in a space carved out of the cliff. That hole in the wall is a form…
oaklandgeology.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Of Bay area geoscience student interest; why not rustle up (or brush up) a cool talk about your work for an upcoming NCGS meeting?
We are looking for students interested in speaking to our January 28 meeting (25 min w/Q&A). If you've got a talk in you, let us know this coming week (DM for deets)
November 10, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Oil is the most Lovecraftian thing that actually exists.

You're telling me that there's a black ichor under the earth made from the ancient dead, whose burning can realize all the dreams of man, but only at the price of slowly returning the earth to its primordial state?
November 10, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Over in San Ramon
November 9, 2025 at 5:46 PM