About to try out this switching instances thing. If you're following me, you should get automatically switched to following me at the new digs: @allochthonous@scicomm.xyz

My headcanon for Star Trek is now that the computer is a distant descendant of the new #Bing / #ChatGPT. It explains the technobabble *and* why the crews always get into so much trouble all the time.

“Computer, plot a course to the nearest Starbase.”
_Course plotted._
“Wait. That takes us through a black hole!”
_You are mistaken. There is no black hole. You are a bad Starfleet person. I am a good computer._

@berndandeweg @allochthonous
I have a class of ~100 first year 'earth and environmental science' students just started. This year, the majority are interested in all aspects of the environment, some rocks and minerals, some natural hazards, and I didn't hear of anyone interested in a career in minerals exploration. Last year it was a handful of students.

"It’s increasingly looking like this may be one of the most hilariously inappropriate applications of AI that we’ve seen yet." I am riveted by the extensive documentation of how ChatGPT-powered Bing is now completely unhinged. @simon has chronicled it beautifully here: https://simonwillison.net/2023/Feb/15/bing/

There’s a tiny waterfall in there somewhere for #WaterfallWednesday. #MadRiver #Warren #Vermont

Quincy or #BlueHills #Porphyry #Granite
An alkaline, nonorogenic granite intruded into #Avalonia in the #Silurian / #Ordovician as it cruised from peri-#Gondwana to #Laurentia, before assembling #Pangea in the #Acadian #Orogeny (#Devonian). It’s coarse, with the #phenocrysts of amphiboles(?) (possibly riebeckite?)…I’m no petrologist. From@the Eaton’s Pond conservation area@at the #Braintree #Quincy border. My photos.
#geology #igneous #Massachusetts #Boston #NewEngland #Fujifilm #photo

But there is clearly a broader problem with geoscience enrolments, and I don’t believe universities can simply blame it on the lack of exposure in high school, or think we can wait it out until the next hiring spree in the fossil fuel industry.

Some thoughts from a previous round of conversation about this:

https://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/2021/10/diversity-or-lack-thereof-in-geoscience-are-we-hyping-up-the-wrong-things/

We might need mining to drive the clean energy transition, but I suspect the fact that the mining industry as a whole remains a terrible environmental actor - and a largely unrepentant one - is a big problem for attracting and retaining new talent.

From: @Andbaker
https://aus.social/@Andbaker/109867521131257799

Geoscience student numbers have decreased, what does that mean for the transition to a green economy?
https://miningmagazine.com.au/geoscience-graduate-numbers-plummet/

#earthscience #highered #highereducation #geology #GreenTransition

@allochthonous 'Corruption kills' https://www.nature.com/articles/469153a

#Earthquake in Turkey exposes gap between seismic knowledge and action:

"any suggestion that a country cannot “be prepared” for an earthquake of the magnitude that hit Turkey and northern Syria is a political statement – that is, it reflects the political choices that were made rather than the science."

https://theconversation.com/earthquake-in-turkey-exposes-gap-between-seismic-knowledge-and-action-but-it-is-possible-to-prepare-199379

Buttermilk Falls in Ludlow, Vermont (July 2015). #WaterfallWednesday #BelieveInFilm #BronicaSQ #NewEngland #Vermont

Kilt Rock, Isle of Skye, Schotland with the Mealt Waterfall. Photo taken summer 2013. #waterfallwednesday #schotland #geology #rocks #waterfall #skye #coast

#WaterfallWednesday
Cheddar Gorge

Belated #WaterfallWednesday submission.

#TangleFalls in #IcefieldsParkway in #Jasper #Alberta area - #frozen in #Winter . It was totally isolated when we stopped here during a filming documentary work #RoadTrip . You can walk on it, when it's frozen over in Winter. It's surreal standing atop them & hearing the rushing water running underneath.

https://www.world-of-waterfalls.com/waterfalls/canada-tangle-falls/

#waterfalls #ice #BelowZero #WorkTrips #FromMyArchive #WorldInMyEyes #MyPerspective #Pitstop #nature #Canada #MyPastWork

This 🥰 🤩 rock from the west coast of Iona contains a long history. The oldest compnents formed maybe 2800 million years ago, but the Lewisian gneiss we see today is the result of multiple later episodes of reheating, deformation and recrystallization. The thin pistachio green veins of epidote are among youngest features in these rocks. Their age is not known with certainty, but may be as young as 420 million years or so.

A geologist's #Valentine 💔 The "Kissing Stones" are huge gritstone (a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone) boulders high upon the remote moorlands of Bleaklow in the Peak District, North England.

📷 by https://peakwalking.me/2012/07/17/kissing-stones/

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast - thanks to being a little large/overfilled, with bonus smoke alarm.

A very excited field geologist (me!) standing on a talus pile of ravelled sandstone below a west-dipping back thrust fault within the Rockcastle Conglomerate Fm, Roane County, Tennessee, off SR001(US70). This is at the transition between the Valley and Ridge and the Cumberland Plateau, near the structural front, or the point of western most deformation of the Alleghanian orogeny, the major collisional event that smashed and crashed and formed Pangea
#geology #fieldgeology #fault #Appalachians

Regular reminder: "bioplastics" are NOT better for the environment, and "biodegradable" plastics don't biodegrade unless they're in an industrial composter. The focus needs to be on reducing unnecessary plastic use, and closing the loop on everything else. Making plastic out of corn/bamboo instead really doesn't help. #Ocean #Pollution #Bioplastics See here for more:
https://hakaimagazine.com/news/dont-overestimate-bioplastics-benefits/?omhide=true&utm_source=Hakai+Magazine+Weekly&utm_campaign=18b87df7a5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_06_COPY_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0fc1967411-18b87df7a5-121628661