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hlee.bsky.social
Howard Lee
@hlee.bsky.social
3.3K followers 1.4K following 3.4K posts
Geologist and Science Writer: If you want to see what climate change can do to the planet just look at Earth's past!
https://h-lee.com/
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hlee.bsky.social
Howard Lee @hlee.bsky.social · Aug 11
My latest article 👇 gets into how hard it is to date stuff in some of the oldest rocks on the planet, and why it matters ⚒️🧪
arstechnica.com/science/2025...
How old is the earliest trace of life on Earth?
A recent conference sees doubts raised about the age of the oldest signs of life.
arstechnica.com
Reposted by Howard Lee
kyivindependent.com
⚡️Russian oil terminal in Novorossiysk on fire following reported Ukrainian drone strikes.

Ukrainian drones struck the Russian port city of Novorossiysk on Nov. 14, damaging an oil terminal and sparking a large fire, multiple Russian Telegram channels reported.
Russian oil terminal in Novorossiysk on fire following reported Ukrainian drone strikes
Ukrainian drones struck the Russian port city of Novorossiysk on Nov. 14, damaging an oil terminal and sparking a large fire, multiple Russian Telegram channels reported.
kyivindependent.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Reposted by Howard Lee
jamellebouie.net
you could fact check this — there aren’t 30 million illegal immigrants and there is no evidence that the presence of an immigrant in say houston has any impact on housing in madison, wisconsin — or you could note straightforwardly that this is just nazi rhetoric
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h
JD Vance: "A lot of young people are saying housing is way too expensive. Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who were taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens."
November 13, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
josephpolitano.bsky.social
Good statement from the US conference of Catholic Bishops
November 14, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Reposted by Howard Lee
samuel-bagg.bsky.social
Misinformation *is* central to democratic problems today, but the solution is *not* to correct such epistemic failures directly. Instead, we must address them at their roots, in social identity.

Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.

blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
The Problem is Epistemic. The Solution is Not. | Blog of the APA
Doubts about the wisdom of the masses are as old as philosophy itself. Yet interest in democracy’s “epistemic” merits has surged in the last decade—and it is no mystery why. Democracy is collapsing ar...
blog.apaonline.org
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Howard Lee
kirstengillibrand.bsky.social
Entering the Holidays, Trump is:

1. Sending billions to Argentina
2. Refurbishing his WH 🚽
3. Wasting billions on rebrands
4. Ripping food away from children, seniors, and American families

He is feeding his ego, not American families.
November 12, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
marktingay.bsky.social
⚒️🧪 The Wandan mud volcano in southern Taiwan erupted again yesterday (12/11/25)!

The eruption occurred at 3 vents. Sadly one vent was under a house.

This is its 11th eruption in the last ~3 years, most recently in June 2025.

Video courtesy of my friends 陳玉意 and 張寶惠.

Best with sound on.
November 13, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Howard Lee
erikklemetti.bsky.social
The current issue of Nature Geoscience is focussed on the 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia. The lahars from this eruption destroyed a town and killed ~20,000 people only ~50 miles from where my mother grew up and I spent a lot of my childhood.
www.nature.com/collections/...
Volcanic hazards and risk mitigation since the 1985 Armero disaster
The November 1985 eruption of Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz volcano and the resulting Armero disaster marked a turning point in natural hazard and risk research, ...
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
rlacassin.bsky.social
Excellent editorial 👇 about #human vs #AI generated writing.
"…(human) writing is not only about reporting results; it also provides a tool to uncover new thoughts and ideas."
⚒️ 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Writing is thinking - Nature Reviews Bioengineering
On the value of human-generated scientific writing in the age of large-language models.
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
nadwgab.bsky.social
317 of #365Minerals 🧪⚒️

Metavauxite:
- A phosphate mineral
- Forms via the alteration of apatite
- Has the same formula as vauxite, but a different crystal structure
- Named for its similarity to vauxite #minerals
Seven clusters of pale green acicular metavauxite crystals. From Llallagua, Bolivia. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London.
November 13, 2025 at 1:03 PM
hlee.bsky.social
Latest Geology Bites podcast ⚒️👇
 Oliver Strimpel @geologybites.bsky.social · 19h
🧪⚒️Just posted Keith Klepeis on how plutons form. He identified conduits, feeder dikes, and mushroom-shaped sheets that form as magma rises from the base of the crust to the upper crust. A tilted batholith in NZ provided him with a rare continuous exposure of 20 km of crustal section. #geology
Block diagram showing the internal components of the Misty pluton, which is one of the plutons of the Southern Fiordland batholith. A conduit rising through the lithospheric mantle feeds a sheet-like basalt structure, which in turn connects to steep-sided granitic bodies in the middle and upper crust (colored in mauve and pink). Schematic cross section of an active continental margin subduction zone, showing the dehydration of the subducting slab, hydration and melting of a heterogeneous mantle wedge (including enriched sub-continental lithospheric mantle), and crustal underplating of mantle-derived melts. Remelting of the underplate to produce tonalitic magmas and a possible of crustal melting are also shown. As magmas pass through the continental crust they may differentiate further and/or assimilate continental crust. Winter (2001) An Introduction to Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology, Prentice Hall Western coastline exposure of the deepest, lower-crustal level shows steep feeder zones and conduits where mafic, crystal-rich magma was injected into lower-crustal diorites. Most of the rocks in the feeder zone here are hornblendites, which are composed almost entirely of hornblende. The hornblendites are thought to be modified products of mantle-derived melt. Outcrop of fully-fledged dikes and thick pegmatites that occur away from the base of the Misty pluton. The coherent structure of the intrusion suggests the magma was emplaced into a fairly well-crystallized host capable of exhibiting brittle-like breaking. A crystal-rich host results from fractional crystallization and the progressive removal of the remaining melt. The horizontal alignment of the crystals suggests that the host mush has been compacted and enough melt has been removed to enable the crystals to align. At the same time, the undulose margins of the dike and the exchange of the dark hornblende crystals across its margin indicate that, although crystal-rich, the host was not fully crystallized and could still exhibit ductile behavior. This supports the general picture that as the host mush becomes increasingly crystal-rich as melts are gradually extracted, the dikes that move magma through the crystallizing mush become more organized and regular in shape. The dyke here is about 30 cm across.
November 13, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
tomsharperocks.bsky.social
13 November 1806: birth of fossil collector Sir Philip Egerton. A student of William Buckland's at Oxford, he specialised in collecting fossil fish. He was a great friend and supporter of Mary Anning and in 1835 published a paper on ichthyosaur neck bones based on specimens purchased from Anning.
Photograph of Sir Philip Egerton sitting in a chair and wearing a dark jacket waistcoat and shirt with a high collar. His hair is receding but long at the sides and he has long sideburns. He holds piece of paper in his left hand. Extract of a letter from Egerton to Mary Anning: 'Dear Mary Here you have the result of the destruction of all nmy Ichthyosaurus skeletons. I have been like a little boy pulling my toys to pieces ...' Extract from a paper by Egerton about ichthyosaur neck vertebrae: 'In the spring of 1835, I procured from Miss Anning (whose zeal and intelligence are well appreciated in the Geological community) a specimen from the lias of the neighbourhood of Lyme Regis, showing the atlas of a small Ichthyosaurus, apparently anchylosed to the second vertebra of the column. Having directed her attention to this circumstance, she informed me that though she had frequently found similar bones, yet it had never happened to her to see them disunited, even when a dislocation of every other bone of the animal to which they belonged, had taken place. In less than a week I received from her an atlas, seven inches and a half in diameter, corroborative in a remarkable degree of her former observations.'
November 13, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Howard Lee
themountaingoats.bsky.social
It is journalistic malpractice to be within a city block of Vance and not read him this tweet through a bullhorn
toddalcott.bsky.social Todd Alcott @toddalcott.bsky.social · 1d
Well, he's certainly stayed consistent on that point!
November 13, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
volcanojw.bsky.social
Exactly this. Sending strength to all our fellow feds, and to everyone else: please bear with us. Let’s see how this goes.
Part of a woman’s head shows in the lower left corner as she prepares to re-enter the US NSF building for the first time in 43 days
November 13, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
hausfath.bsky.social
The new 2025 Global Carbon Budget finds that fossil fuel emissions will reach a new high in 2025. Total CO2 emissions (including land use) remain flat at 2024 levels.

While the land sink is up from 2024, carbon sinks are weakening: www.carbonbrief.org/...
November 13, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Reposted by Howard Lee
hausfath.bsky.social
After an usually weak land carbon sink in 2023, there were articles about its potential collapse. The truth is more complicated; while there is no impending collapse there is growing evidence of a long-term weakening of both the land and ocean carbon sinks due to human activity.
November 13, 2025 at 3:26 AM
hlee.bsky.social
🎉☀️⚡
jrfhanger.bsky.social John Hanger @jrfhanger.bsky.social · 22h
Good morning with good news: Global solar grew by 498 TWh (+31%) in Q1-Q3 2025, compared to 2024, "the largest increase ever over a nine-month period."

Global solar output in first 3 quarters of 2025 already surpassed total output in all of 2024.

ember-energy.org/latest-insig... #energysky
November 13, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
josiegz.bsky.social
This is profoundly unsettling. More Teens Are Taking Antidepressants. It Could Disrupt Their Sex Lives for Years.

Research on adults who take S.S.R.I.s shows they tamp down sexual desire. Why aren’t we studying what that could mean for adolescents who take them?

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/m...
More Teens Are Taking Antidepressants. It Could Disrupt Their Sex Lives for Years.
www.nytimes.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Howard Lee
glenpeters.bsky.social
The land and ocean CO₂ sink are 25% and 7% smaller, respectively, than they would have been without the effects of climate change and variability, on average for the 2015-2024 period.

Combined, this is equivalent to the total sink (land and ocean) being nearly 20% smaller than otherwise.

/10
November 13, 2025 at 7:07 AM
hlee.bsky.social
"Climate change reduces the efficiency of the sinks, particularly on land, contributing 8.3 ± 1.4 ppm to the atmospheric CO2 increase since 1960" climate + deforestation turn SE Asian & large parts of South American tropical forests from CO2 sinks to sources 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Emerging climate impact on carbon sinks in a consolidated carbon budget - Nature
Nature - Emerging climate impact on carbon sinks in a consolidated carbon budget
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:17 PM
hlee.bsky.social
⚒️
bgs.ac.uk British Geological Survey @bgs.ac.uk · 22h
Cutting edge research has shown the potential for mapping thermal changes in the subsurface using sound waves.

Strong seismic arrivals were visible at all depths, providing an encouraging seismic baseline for future thermal testing.

www.bgs.ac.uk/news/first-d...
Dr Adam Booth inspecting a short section of the kilometres of fibre-optic cable installed throughout the Cheshire Observatory boreholes. © Fleur Loveridge, University of Leeds. BGS © UKRI.
November 13, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
anthropoceneman.bsky.social
Stumbled upon this today…remnants of the #Pleistocene along #Oregon Hwy 218…and their origin is ancient freeze-thaw like most patterned ground…but resulting in great mounds or the “Biscuit Scablands”.

#Geology ⚒️⌛️🌋❄️🏔️ #IceAge

centraloregonian.com/2025/07/25/c...
CENTRAL OREGON HISTORY: The mystery mounds of Shaniko cause travel problems - Central Oregonian
Phenomenon of nature drew speculation on everything from Indian burial grounds to extraterrestrials
centraloregonian.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
nadwgab.bsky.social
316 of #365Minerals 🧪⚒️

Vauxite:
- A phosphate mineral
- Forms via the alteration of apatite
- Has the same formula as metavauxite, but a different crystal structure
- Named after George Vaux Jr. (1863-1927), an American attorney and mineral collector #minerals
Blue rosettes of vauxite with pale green wavellite on whtie quartz. From Llallagua, Bolivia. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London.
November 12, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
space.com
A new #letter from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the Committee on #Science, #Space, and #Technology, demands #NASA stop any closures of the #Goddard #spaceflight Center in #Maryland. The letter references our own Space.com #investigation done by spaceflight #writer @joshdinner.bky
November 11, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
privateeyenews.bsky.social
Art class

From the latest Private Eye, out now.
September 9, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Howard Lee
oliviarudgard.bsky.social
New from me: I spoke to two scientists who originally helped spread the use of carbon capture. They now say it's being misused. Here's why (gift link):
The Scientists Who Popularized Carbon Capture Have a Warning About It
Many countries are relying on it to meet their climate goals, but it might hurt more than help, they say.
www.bloomberg.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:23 AM