Maria Box
@mariabox.bsky.social
PhD student at Northumbria University (UK), currently researching past climate in northern Mongolia. Generally excited by all speleothems great and small
Pinned
Maria Box
@mariabox.bsky.social
· Nov 28
Intro post! I'm Maria, a UK-based PhD student interested in continental climates. In my current project I use stalagmites from northern Mongolia to reconstruct past environments and permafrost extent over the past 500 ka. I've also worked in central Aus and the west US! Nice to meet you, bluesky :)
we can use speleothem growth intervals to reconstruct the timing of continuous permafrost cover, because spelothems can't form under continuous permafrost. this is because the frozen ground stops water infiltration, as demonstrated by a dehumidifier left by the window of my badly insulated UK flat
January 5, 2026 at 12:55 PM
we can use speleothem growth intervals to reconstruct the timing of continuous permafrost cover, because spelothems can't form under continuous permafrost. this is because the frozen ground stops water infiltration, as demonstrated by a dehumidifier left by the window of my badly insulated UK flat
Reposted by Maria Box
2025 Headline of the Year nominee (July)
December 22, 2025 at 11:53 PM
2025 Headline of the Year nominee (July)
still in germany, and today i discovered my new favourite urban speleothem collection: the gradierwerke at bad salzuflen
December 23, 2025 at 2:31 PM
still in germany, and today i discovered my new favourite urban speleothem collection: the gradierwerke at bad salzuflen
Reposted by Maria Box
At #AGU25, tree ring scientist Caroline Leland of LDEO shared her research on dshared research on climate sensitivity of wood from Siberian Pine and Larch in North-central Mongolia to improve or build upon reconstructions of long-term climate. ➡️ Lamont at AGU25: https://lamont.columbia.edu/agu25
Caroline Leland at AGU: Temperature Signals of Siberian Pine and Larch in North-central Mongolia
YouTube video by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
youtube.com
December 20, 2025 at 8:15 PM
At #AGU25, tree ring scientist Caroline Leland of LDEO shared her research on dshared research on climate sensitivity of wood from Siberian Pine and Larch in North-central Mongolia to improve or build upon reconstructions of long-term climate. ➡️ Lamont at AGU25: https://lamont.columbia.edu/agu25
Reposted by Maria Box
Amid the miasma of institutional and Edtech-commercial hectoring on the imperative rapidly to embrace GenAI tools for research and writing, a simple pearl of wisdom to share with students and colleagues in 2026 (or even 2025).
Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 20, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Amid the miasma of institutional and Edtech-commercial hectoring on the imperative rapidly to embrace GenAI tools for research and writing, a simple pearl of wisdom to share with students and colleagues in 2026 (or even 2025).
Reposted by Maria Box
t'was the week before Christmas, and all through southwest Germany... trees are blossoming? 😬
December 15, 2025 at 4:06 PM
t'was the week before Christmas, and all through southwest Germany... trees are blossoming? 😬
Reposted by Maria Box
Cuts to geology programmes, departmental mergers and shrinking university support threaten the long-term health of the discipline. Now, Jan Zalasiewicz examines the developing situation at the University of Leicester: geoscientist.online/sections/vie...
#Geology #Geoscience #HigherEducation
#Geology #Geoscience #HigherEducation
Geology imperilled - GEOSCIENTIST
In recent years, universities across many western nations, including several in the UK, have closed Earth science courses and downsized their geology departments. The University of Leicester is the la...
geoscientist.online
November 26, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Cuts to geology programmes, departmental mergers and shrinking university support threaten the long-term health of the discipline. Now, Jan Zalasiewicz examines the developing situation at the University of Leicester: geoscientist.online/sections/vie...
#Geology #Geoscience #HigherEducation
#Geology #Geoscience #HigherEducation
Bouncing between Mainz and Heidelberg for the next few weeks, with a detour to Frankfurt on the side. Here on work. Of course. Taking a thorough survey of regional Christmas markets is just a side project...
December 4, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Bouncing between Mainz and Heidelberg for the next few weeks, with a detour to Frankfurt on the side. Here on work. Of course. Taking a thorough survey of regional Christmas markets is just a side project...
Reposted by Maria Box
I feel you, ancient Mongolian ceramic hedgehog. I feel you.
November 26, 2025 at 10:17 AM
I feel you, ancient Mongolian ceramic hedgehog. I feel you.
Reposted by Maria Box
New online! Elevation-dependent climate change in mountain environments
Elevation-dependent climate change in mountain environments
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, Published online: 25 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s43017-025-00740-4Environmental changes in mountains often depend on elevation. This Review outlines how past and future temperature, precipitation and snowfall trends vary between mountains and lowlands across various mountain regions and discusses the drivers responsible.
www.nature.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:54 PM
New online! Elevation-dependent climate change in mountain environments
standing outside getting liquid nitrogen in 'feels like -3 weather' makes me miss my cozy warm 1.5 degree caves 🥶
November 19, 2025 at 3:35 PM
standing outside getting liquid nitrogen in 'feels like -3 weather' makes me miss my cozy warm 1.5 degree caves 🥶
Reposted by Maria Box
This looks worth reading:
Mara McPartland et al. (2025) Climate of the Past @egu-cl.bsky.social
doi.org/10.5194/cp-2...
@egu.eu
🧪 ⚒️ 👩🔬
#PaleoSky
Mara McPartland et al. (2025) Climate of the Past @egu-cl.bsky.social
doi.org/10.5194/cp-2...
@egu.eu
🧪 ⚒️ 👩🔬
#PaleoSky
The colors of proxy noise
Abstract. The complex biological and physical processes that preserve paleoclimate information over centuries or longer introduce variations in proxy time series that are unrelated to the true climate...
doi.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:34 AM
This looks worth reading:
Mara McPartland et al. (2025) Climate of the Past @egu-cl.bsky.social
doi.org/10.5194/cp-2...
@egu.eu
🧪 ⚒️ 👩🔬
#PaleoSky
Mara McPartland et al. (2025) Climate of the Past @egu-cl.bsky.social
doi.org/10.5194/cp-2...
@egu.eu
🧪 ⚒️ 👩🔬
#PaleoSky
Reposted by Maria Box
Interested in #uranium isotopes and their potential use as #redox proxy in karst systems? Looking for a PhD project or know someone who might? DM me for more details! ☢️ @mariabox.bsky.social @pucicu.de @bgs.ac.uk @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social @olakwiecien3.bsky.social
October 29, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Interested in #uranium isotopes and their potential use as #redox proxy in karst systems? Looking for a PhD project or know someone who might? DM me for more details! ☢️ @mariabox.bsky.social @pucicu.de @bgs.ac.uk @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social @olakwiecien3.bsky.social
Spot the Northumbria speleo group 😉
October 22, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Spot the Northumbria speleo group 😉
Not quite #overlyhonestmethods territory, but "We conducted a monitoring study to determine how cool these caves are" is my new favourite way to describe cave monitoring
October 12, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Not quite #overlyhonestmethods territory, but "We conducted a monitoring study to determine how cool these caves are" is my new favourite way to describe cave monitoring
In the UK, it's not uncommon to find urban stalactites growing in old tunnels. However, in a 15th century battery running under #carlislecastle, I saw my first ever urban *stalagmites*. Complete with active soda straw drips above! (Larissa for scale)
October 2, 2025 at 9:35 PM
In the UK, it's not uncommon to find urban stalactites growing in old tunnels. However, in a 15th century battery running under #carlislecastle, I saw my first ever urban *stalagmites*. Complete with active soda straw drips above! (Larissa for scale)
Reposted by Maria Box
Afternoon folks. I'm delighted to announce our manuscript "Speleothem evidence for Late Miicene extreme Arctic amplification" was published online today. Happy reading! @speleoseb.bsky.social @thomasopel.bsky.social cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/...
Speleothem evidence for Late Miocene extreme Arctic amplification – an analogue for near-future anthropogenic climate change?
Abstract. The Miocene provides an excellent climatic analogue for near-future runaway anthropogenic warming, with atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global average temperatures similar to those projec...
cp.copernicus.org
September 8, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Afternoon folks. I'm delighted to announce our manuscript "Speleothem evidence for Late Miicene extreme Arctic amplification" was published online today. Happy reading! @speleoseb.bsky.social @thomasopel.bsky.social cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/...
Not saying I'm too attached to my samples, but today I tucked a stalagmite in
September 9, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Not saying I'm too attached to my samples, but today I tucked a stalagmite in
Reposted by Maria Box
"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week."
--Willa Cather, 1925 and timeless
--Willa Cather, 1925 and timeless
August 1, 2025 at 12:17 PM
"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week."
--Willa Cather, 1925 and timeless
--Willa Cather, 1925 and timeless
Duddo Five Stones, first stone circle I've ever visited! They're made of soft sandstone and the deep vertical erosion rills betray the >4,000 years they've been standing
August 2, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Duddo Five Stones, first stone circle I've ever visited! They're made of soft sandstone and the deep vertical erosion rills betray the >4,000 years they've been standing
Reposted by Maria Box
![Comic. [3-column table with headers Period, My Favorite Part, and My Biggest Complaint] [Row 1] P: *Precambrian*, MFP: Life develops, MBC: Snowball Earth episodes [Row 2] P: Cambrian, MFP: Trilobites!, MBC: Evolution could stand to calm down a little [Row 3] P: Ordovician, MFP: Earth might have had rings, MBC: Scary volcanic eruption in North America [Row 4] P: Silurian, MFP: First land animals, MBC: Earth’s newfound mold problem [Row 5] P: Devonian, MFP: Big mountains in Boston, MBC: Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was *armor* [Row 6] P: Carboniferous, MFP: Cool forests, MBC: Bugs too big [Row 7] P: Permian, MFP: Pangea, MBC: Google “The Great Dying” [Row 8] P: Triassic, MFP: Tanystropheus [dinosaur with extremely long neck next to tiny person for scale], MBC: Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan [Row 9] P: Jurassic, MFP: Birds, MBC: Parasitoid wasps [Row 10] P: Cretaceous, MFP: Raptors, MBC: Raptors [Row 11] P: Paleogene, MFP: Pretty horseys!!!, MBC: Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum [Row 12] P: Neogene, MFP: Forests of *Dracaena* Dragonblood Trees, MBC: Zanclean Flood [Row 13] P: Quaternary, MFP: Burrito invented, MBC: Whoever picked this name for the third period of the Cenozoic](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreifyh56h2dhfnxxuarc6hspobseq6jzurt7mnkuo3dkvlkyrw6e76i@jpeg)
July 28, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Reposted by Maria Box
Newcastle central station, photo by Sally Ann Norman.
July 18, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Newcastle central station, photo by Sally Ann Norman.
Reposted by Maria Box
E-see you all the paleoclimate enthusiasts at our ICCP speleothem lecture series-July episode with @mariabox.bsky.social
Date & Time: 18th July, 16:00 KST
Zoom link: pusan.zoom.us/j/8213003163...
Date & Time: 18th July, 16:00 KST
Zoom link: pusan.zoom.us/j/8213003163...
July 17, 2025 at 3:15 PM
E-see you all the paleoclimate enthusiasts at our ICCP speleothem lecture series-July episode with @mariabox.bsky.social
Date & Time: 18th July, 16:00 KST
Zoom link: pusan.zoom.us/j/8213003163...
Date & Time: 18th July, 16:00 KST
Zoom link: pusan.zoom.us/j/8213003163...
I always knew in theory that a speleothem is a sedimentary rock, but I've never seen a cross-bedded stalactite before 😂
July 15, 2025 at 12:40 PM
I always knew in theory that a speleothem is a sedimentary rock, but I've never seen a cross-bedded stalactite before 😂