iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

This is the last 10 years of the monthly Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). We're experiencing something new for the last decade. This is the atmospheric signal that El Nino is here in Australia. Data from: www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso... Crossposted with @openvibe.social

Graph of the SOI for last 10 years. Red shade is El Nino like conditions blue is La Nina.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

The second fieldtrip for the #AQUA2026 conference in Sydney visited The Rocks, exploring the Hawkesbury Sandstone and Sydney as 'The Sandstone City'. Thanks to all the delegates for making this geoheritage walking tour so much fun to run. Now for the conference sessions, starting on Monday.

Group photo, oversized furniture, urban park setting

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

And it was perfect weather today at Wombeyan Caves for the AQUA2026 conference fieldtrip

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

We were there during a recharge events and the stalactites were leaking water

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Many thanks to the Yarrangobilly Caves team for another successful research fieldtrip. Cave monitoring first established by Pauline Treble now approaches 20 years. Crossposted with @openvibe.social

Cave chamber, laser scanner in background, scientist in high vis jacket on left

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Thanks to the team at Wombeyan Caves for another successful groundwater research fieldtrip. Loggers were downloaded, water samples collected, sites inspected and impromptu sci-comm occurred with cave tours groups. The loggers recorded only one one recharge events here since October.

Cave archway withe stalactites and stonatolites

Stalagmites, Wollondilly Cave, with drip logger

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Good Friday public holiday started with me giving an 8am local time AGU Distinguished Lecture on Thursday to Kansas State University. The questions I had afterwards were amazing. So glad to have the opportunity to present. The spaniel had to wait for his walk. connect.agu.org/collegeoffel...

Forest scene with stream. Brown water, fallen log over stream. Black spaniel stands on the log

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Good morning from the UNSW Wellington Research Station. @unswbees.bsky.social

Country scene with car and field station buildings

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

And there are very few places where you can see the groundwater table. This is one, at the lowest levels of Cathedral Cave in Wellington, New South Wales. Groundwater levels are low and declining.

Cave scene, looking down, blue groundwater in mid view

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Lots of drip loggers, but no recharge events since the last download last Austral winter.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

It's starting to feel a bit like fieldwork, (Wellington Caves edition). We're into year 17 of our long term cave hydrology monitoring. What will we find in the 2025-2026 data download? Also, wildlife books for Aussie critter ID 😀 Find out more: news.unsw.edu.au/en/what-lies...

A box of field kit, including helmet, cave tackle bag, books, and a duffle bag with bush hat on top.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Groundwater evening in Sydney, thanks to the IAH New South Wales branch. Pizza, beverages, good company and an interesting talk, all at level 27 in the CBD. #groundwater #IAH

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

We took delivery of a new ABB off axis water isotopes analyser today here at UNSW, to replace our 10 year old instrument. It was a good day in lab with spanners and swagelocks. To be continued tomorrow....

Lunchtime, everything unpacked and ready to assemble.

Home time, with the autosampler to assemble tomorrow.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

For Sydneysiders: I walked the GreenWay this week, and recommend it. Great art and interpretation, and easy access from L1 Light Rail stations. Good for walking and cycling - I have to go back on the bike and explore the connecting cycleways.

Map of the GreenWay in Inner West Sydney. GreenWay to the left.

Geology art on the Greenway - local sandstone geology as seen using terracotta and more.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Some New Year's data wrangling with a messy time series with skewed properties, missing and poor quality data at times, different recording techniques, human error, etc. x-axis is time in years, y axis is kilometers. The hashing is #running

A graph showing distance run in km from 2006 to 2026

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Wrapping up fieldwork with some data logger downloads. That's another 6 months of continuous measurement of water flux into Harrie Wood Cave. 6 more potential recharge events identified. Thanks to Pauline Treble, 2026 will be the 20th year of long term monitoring at this site.

A cave with stalagmites, laptop in foreground

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

I presented our latest research on groundwater recharge yesterday to the NSW government water planners for groundwater and coastal syatems. And then led tours to show the team our recharge monitoring sites at Harrie Wood Cave, Yarrangobilly.

Cavers with headlamps standing on steps in a cave with stalagmites and stalactites

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

It's starting to feel a lot like even more fieldwork (Yarrangobilly Caves groundwater recharge edition)

A duffel bag with hat, cavers tackle bag, field laptop, boots, emergency beacon

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Thanks to all our collaborators who made this groundwater hydrology research fieldtrip to the Limestone Coast of South Australia such a success.

Cave chamber with stalactites and stalagmites, caver with headtorch in background

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

It's starting to feel a lot like fieldwork (Limestone Coast of South Australia edition)

Field equipment being packed, including pluvimate rain gauges, caving helmet and tackle bag, ruggedised laptop, red rucksack, hat

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

It's a wrap on our Wellington Caves fieldwork and filming about groundwater recharge. I have some superstar UNSW colleagues, happy to film and be filmed. Looking forward to see how all this looks. Thanks to @marilumelozurita.bsky.social and the @unswbees.bsky.social team

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

It's starting to look a lot like fieldwork (Wellington Caves and UNSW Research Station edition). #fieldwork #academia #caves #groundwater #research

Field gear in a box, duffle bag with hat, pluvimate, provisions in a bag

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Thanks to the Capricorn Caves team for another amazing research visit. We downloaded cave hydrology loggers and a groundwater level logger, and ACKMA cave climate loggers. Visited the groundwater recharge zone above the cave. Saw lots of bats, and tree roots deep into the cave system.

Researchers working under metal sheeting, extracting a groundwater bore logger from the borehole

White limestone hillside with solution features. Trees on the right, person for scale.

A cave chamber, tree roots in background. The roots are far longer than the height of the trees on the surface.

Capricorn Caves sign for www.capricorncaves.com.au

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

It's starting to feel a lot like fieldwork... (Capricorn Caves edition) #caves #fieldwork #academia #science

A black duffle bag, red and blue cavers bag, ruggedised laptop and walking boots

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

It was 'student night' at IAH NSW in Sydney ( and online everywhere). Thanks to Akhi Kumar, Danyang Sun, Nane Weber and Yaggesh Sharma for presenting their groundwater research. I might have photobombed the official photo!

Six people standing in a room, Sydney cityscape behind them

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

The start of Day 3 of the #IAH2025 international groundwater congress here in Naarm / Melbourne. Keynote speaker Prof Brad Moggridge reflects on yesterday's indigenous groundwater sessions. The conference logo designed by Uncle Anthony Newcastle.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Walhalla feayures in this open access paper led by Stacey Priestley with myself, Marilu Melo Zurita, Margaret Shanafield, Wendy Timms and Martin Andersen agupubs.onlinelibrary.… Thanks to the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the infrastructure funding in 2022 that made this possible.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Day one of the #IAH2025 Congress and the fieldtrip led by Wendy Timms at the Walhalla Long Tunnel Heritage Gold Mine. What has this to do with groundwater? Mines like this are observatories of groundwater recharges in action. And we have had loggers in the mine recording when recharge events occur.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Two weeks later, I looked at Reviewer 2, who seems to have also used a LLM model in their review. The hyperlinks seem okay, but behind them are references to different papers that have the same authors. I asked ChatGPT to check for AI use. That's 2 of 3 reviews with fake reference auggestions.

The hyperlinks look okay, but they all point to case studies from one region, and all with the same authors group

I wasn't sure about LLM use, so I asked an LLM if it thought it had helped.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

This week's office... It's been a privilege present our groundwater hydrology research at the ACKMA2025 conference on cave and karat management at Wellington Caves, Australia. Even more to be invited to co-lead conference cave tours with Bec Pedemont. Expert delegates ask the tough questions!

Wellington Caves sign in a country landscape

Group photo at Wellington Caves, with giant wombat

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Don't be this reviewer, who uses #ChatGPT to show the references that I should have cited, and which are of course fake. And don't be the editor who let this through as an allowable review. Calling out publisher IOP and journal Environmental Research Commications. #academia #academicpublishing

Excerpt from a reviewer comments, with a table of 'publications' that had been invented by ChatGPT

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

What a wet #City2Surf! Luckily, I only got soaked in the final 3km, running ankle deep in stormwater. And there are not many 'after' photos on socials as our phones (and everything else) were dripping wet. Anyway, turns out you run faster in the pouring rain 🤔 #running

The 'green' start, crowds of runners, blue sky and clouds

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

It was an honour to present to the Ghana Association of Hydrogeologists and the Ghana Institute of Geoscientists this morning. Thank you for the invite! Hoping for some new collaborations investigating climate and groundwater recharge. This is the amazing flier they designed.

A flier for a talk, with abstract and picture of a cave

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

With all the talk about US tariffs... My bike is from Canada, it's lights are Australian, the riding bag is Chinese

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Thursday's office: a cave that has groundwater flooding. The stalagmites here grow only when the water table is below them. And have to grow through white calcite ctystals left from the floodwater. This is how it looks after the 2023 floods.

White cave surface formed from calcite crystals that had grown the top of the groundwater as 'calcite rafts'. Hole are visible where the calcite has been washed away by drop water. Stalactites in background

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

I'm delighted to share that this is my office for the week. Thanks to Dubbo Regional Council for hosting us again at Wellington Caves, Australia. We'll be underground, continuing our investigation of caves as observatories of groundwater recharge. In the meantime, this is Dippy the diprotodon.

A reconstruction of megafauna wombat outside a building

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Result! When a large part of your eucalyptus tree comes down and misses all power lines and your neighbours parked cars and can moved off the road with some brute force before emergency services arrive. #sydneystorm #weather

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

My final run at #AMOS2025 in Cairns - a sunrise one to the swamp forest boardwalk in the Botanic Gardens. A breezy 20 deg C with scrub fowl and brush turkeys for company. #running

Lake with reflection, turkey in foreground

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

#AMOS2025 Day 3. I've been learning about compound weather events, extreme rainfall, & how climate drivers influences on rainfall. Why? agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... You need top 10% rainfall events for rain to reach the groundwater. Find out more today in the final session.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Another Willi Willi fieldwork is successfully completed, and the caves are as photogenic as ever. This is one of our long term climate and groundwater #hydrology monitoring site, now in its 12th year of data, only possible due to the 'citizen science' of Kempsey Speleo Soc members & support of NPWS.

A cave with daylight coming through a hole in the roof

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Wombeyan Caves fieldwork completed. This is 'Cathedral'. #fieldwork #academia

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Some more fieldwork today at the beautiful Wombeyan Caves. Cave lidar scanning, hydrology logger downloads, pluvimate installation and some post-recharge water sampling today, continues tomorrow... #fieldwork #academia

Path leading to cave entrance door. Kit bag in foreground, lidar scanner in front of the door

Cave, with logger box in foreground, water bottle on top, stalactites in background. Coronation Cave.

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Snowy Mountains fieldwork today: Lidar cave scanning, hydrology logger downloads, pluvimate installation,.. plus snow, windblown dust, roo and a well earned curry. #fieldwork #academia

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

150 mm overnight here on the NSW Central coast, on top of around 120 mm the last few days. Sadly there is major flooding. This weather is only good for rain gauges #hydrology

Pluvimate rain gauges on a wooden deck in pouring rain

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

What do you mean, I shouldn't lick the dew of the pluvimates? #science #spaniels #weather

Wooden deck, black spaniel, three rain gauges on the deck. Misty skies with trees in background

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

IOriginal post: infosec.exchange/@Nonya_Bidni...

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Just me and my new rainfall monitor heading home for the Easter Long Weekend #academia

View inside a train carriage, a round white container on the seat contains a pluvimate. Sydney Central

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Andy Baker @andy-baker.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

It's starting to feel a lot like fieldwork #academicchatter

A box full of field kit: caving helmets, lights, sample bottles, field ruggedized laptop, more lights, first aid kit, more lights, download cables...

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