Mike Malaska

Planetary scientist, organic chemist, astrobiologist, field scientist. Works at JPL. Champion of Titan exploration. Fascinated by life in Deep Ice. Studies the mysterious labyrinths and dissolution geology (karst) on Titan. Opinions expressed are my own. He/Him.

#PlanetaryScience
#astrobiology
#chemistry
#geomorphology
#geology
#karst
#cryosphere
#OceanWorlds
#DeepIce
#PlanetaryCaves

Mike Malaska boosted:
2025-07-13

Anyway. When you see people hyperventilating that "B-b-but paying farm workers more would make food unaffordable!" please correct them up for me.

They might mean well? They might be trying to make a point about how much we owe the humble farm worker?

But that kind of talk is exactly how you get people believing "Gosh shucks golly. I guess we just need slavery to live."

Cut it out already.

2025-07-13

Muscadine vineyard with a thunderhead in the distance. Orange County, North Carolina.

#SilentSunday

Black and white image looking down parallel rows of a muscadine vineyard with a large thunderhead cloud towering on the distant tree-lined horizon.
2025-07-11

From my upcoming book.

"Fluvial Geomorphology of my Gravel Driveway."

(Just kidding on that one.)

2025-07-11

And here is a closeup image where you can the definite size difference where the overflow stream entered. The area to image above and left of the field notebook was overwashed.

It is subtle. But you can also see a little bit of scour in the area where the overwash occured.

Where did the smaller gravels go? Thats a great question, and its too squishy to poke around and look right now. It could be under a mudpatch now on the driveway, it could be in the lawn or maybe even washed into the woods.

Two toned gravel driveway after a small overwash event. Where the overwash occured, smaller gravel was transported away leaving larger gravels. Note debris, and some amounts of uneven scour.
2025-07-11

Tropical Storm Chantal provided just a terrific opportunity to see #geology in action.

Here is our gravel driveway, sloping from right to left. At image center, an overflowing came onto the driveway from the woods.

Right at the field notebook location, you can see where the smaller gravels in the driveway to the left have been mobilized away by the incoming stream. [1/2]

Two toned gravel driveway after a flood event. To the left of the yellow notebook, smaller gravels were washed away.
Mike Malaska boosted:
2025-07-10

#ANSTO are looking to employ an ongoing climate research scientist. Rare opportunity to join a good group :)

careers.ansto.gov.au/job/Sydne

#FediJobs #FediHired #Climate

Mike Malaska boosted:
2025-07-10
Mike Malaska boosted:
2025-07-09

Where might the climate in your city be headed in an extreme future scenario? Explore at climatecentral.org/graphic/shi

"Summers have been heating up for decades and they’ll only get hotter"

More background on this new project from Climate Central at climatecentral.org/climate-mat

Graphic showing that a summer in NYC may warm as much as 7.6°F by 2100, with a climate in 2060 similar to Columbia, MD and one in 2100 like Columbia, SC.
Mike Malaska boosted:
2025-07-09

3I/ATLAS also seems like it could be somewhat older than 1I and 2I were. It's pretty incredible to think of this new-seen tiny world as wandering our Galaxy for upwards of 8 billion years.

Mike Malaska boosted:
Docteure Gécédocteurgece@piaille.fr
2025-07-08

Masto, tu penses pouvoir faire jouer ta magie ?
Ma fille a oublié son sac à dos avec ses doudous dans le TGV Inoui 6107 Paris-Avignon TGV du 7/7/2025 de 9h38. Un sac à dos bleu marine et rouge avec une tête d'ours. Qui contenait une loutre, un ours et un chat (en doudous).

#ObjetsTrouvés #TGVinoui #SNCF

Le repouet aide les enfants à s'endormir et fait pleuvoir sur vous un torrent de peluches 🙏❤️

Mike Malaska boosted:
2025-07-05

Hello Americans on Mastodon, I know we don't feel like there's much to celebrate this July 4th. It's been a rough several years.

So I want to talk about how we're making history right now.

Mike Malaska boosted:
South Dakota Dep. PropagandaSouthDakota
2025-07-03
2025-07-02

@footsteps
I've used storyMapJS by KnightLab. It is free AND you can download the .json and associated files and keep it for yourself, or use their FREE hosting service and get a link.

It doesn't have a lot of functionality, and few display options. But...it is very intuitive and you can be up and running in just a few minutes.

(It also has a "they will NEVER make me pay for this at some point" vibe to it.)

Check out: storymap.knightlab.com/

(An example I made: uploads.knightlab.com/storymap)

Mike Malaska boosted:
2025-07-01

arstechnica.com/space/2025/07/

Trump administration moves to tighten the noose around NASA science missions

"We would be turning off some fabulous missions that are doing extremely well."

2025-06-29

@Hagukh @Still_Nimmy As a guess, you need fine-grained rocks to hold microkarren structures. So maybe this is an inclusion of limestone, dolomite, chert?, flint?.

Am thinking the mineral structure in that fine grained rock is so tight the lichen just can't break into it.

2025-06-29

@Hagukh @Still_Nimmy OK. These pix helped. Can tell what is NOT the reason.

Can see some little tiny lines running down some of those rocks. Little dissolution runnels. They are cutting across the layering/foliation. They can trap water make little microhabitats. But...the lichen is totally ignoring those structures. So it is not based on surface water from microkarren.

2025-06-29

@Hagukh @Still_Nimmy oh, bummer.

Is there a way you could a macro shot focusing on the surface grains of the rock? Your pix of the lichen were great! But maybe just a little higher resolution would help.

(It looks like the smooth rock was pretty fine grained, maybe flint?)

Any geological clues in area? (The free Rock'd app can tell you what types of rocks you expect here. Its a fun app. Recvomend.)

2025-06-29

For #SlimeMoldSunday, (I just made that up) here is an excellent example of Dog Vomit Slime Mold.

Yellow small circular lumpy patch of dog vomit slime mold on the top of a cut section of an old tree stump. Size of the slime mold patch is maybe 2 cm across.
Mike Malaska boosted:
2025-06-29

On two adjacent rocks I found this Hidden Goldspeck (Candelaria aurella) lichen.
It's interesting how this lichen only spreads out on one of the rocks in straight lines.
It is probably a matter of different layers of rock, of which I unfortunately understand nothing.
Does anyone know anything about this?

#lichen #lichensubscribe #naturephotography #rocks #closeup

Hidden Goldspeck (Candelaria aurella) lichen with hundreds of tiny yellow apothecia in straight lines on a grey rock with white patchesHidden Goldspeck (Candelaria aurella) lichen with hundreds of tiny yellow apothecia in straight lines on a grey rock with white patchesHidden Goldspeck (Candelaria aurella) lichen with hundreds of tiny yellow apothecia on a black rockHidden Goldspeck (Candelaria aurella) lichen with hundreds of tiny yellow apothecia on a black rock
2025-06-29

@Still_Nimmy @Hagukh This is way cool!

Are you able to chip off a small piece of that rock for a detailed look?

My guess is either induration/impermeable zones in rock (lichen can't get a foothold, except in certain foliation zones that are different.

OR

Rock in some zones is super friable. Lichens only get a slight toehold, but then get sloughed off. Except in certain foliation zones.

Getting a fresh surface and then peek for mineral grains/foliations with 10x loupe might give clue.

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