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Prof Col Macpherson

@colinmacpherson.bsky.social
850 followers 456 following 1.5K posts

Rock ̵e̵t̵ ̵ scientist @durhamearthsci.bsky.social 🧪⚒️🌋 Husband, dad, typographical errer

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 4h
Nick Mohammed reminding everyone that a geophysics degree isn’t just for Christmas. 🧪⚒️ @durhamearthsci.bsky.social www.instagram.com/reel/Dd6AvwT...
instagram.com
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 6h
🚨Postdoc job alert: Come work with my paleontology & evolution group in Edinburgh! Researcher in Cognitive Evolution Over Deep Time. You'll study how brains & neurons have evolved over time, and predict neuron count in extinct species! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTC355/p...
jobs.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time at The University of Edinburgh
Apply for the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Repost with an image of your favourite James Bond (wrong answers only)
Rab C. Nesbit - a dishevelled, unshaven, white man wearing a torn black jacket over a string vest with a dirty headband in greasy hair, pointing at the observer.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Geochemical prospecting for beskar. This was actually the topic of the class paper I set last year for @durhamearthsci.bsky.social second year igneous geochemistry students. ⚒️🌋🧪
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
BlueSky/Twitter
Picture of two men dressed as women characters from television shows. On the left Tubbs Tatsyrup, on the right Mrs Brown.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Geologist here. What a lot of nonsense. Everyone knows Edinburgh is built of Muesleith.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Lucky enough earlier this week to get excellent view of the 2023-25 lava flows around the town of Grindavík (middle on coast), Blue Lagoon Resort and neighbouring geothermal plant (inland, middle-left) on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland. 🌋⚒️🧪
View of Reykjanes Peninsula from aircraft showing the town of Grindavík surrounded by tongues of black lava flows
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Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I’ve reached the point - well actually, I reached it a while ago - where I’m militantly anti-AI. Fine - use it in bioscience labs and radiology where it might help analyse data more effectively. Use it sparingly for systems engineering. Everywhere else, it can fuck off.
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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Our answer is the same as it's ever been in times of methodological crisis: EXPLAIN ROCK, LOOK AT ROCK, LOOK AT MORE ROCKS. Beware of those who claim you've seen enough rocks....
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 07/09/2026
This is one of the objections I have when people talk about how useful LLMs can be for literature searches or for any kind of search, really. Even beyond the biases that inevitably (and, in some cases, intentionally) show up, part of a good literature search is seeing information *in context.*
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Unfortunately stichite in serpentinite is giving me Barney the Dinosaur vibes rather than Hulk #MinCup26
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Top left, picture of white man with caption "I'm moving all lecture recordings to archive. You'll have to individually restore any you want".
Top right, picture of smiling white woman asking "Except those I've embedded in our teaching intranet, right?"
Bottom left, white man saying nothing.
Bottom right, picture of non-smiling white woman asking "Except those I've embedded in our teaching intranet, right?"
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Mark Parrington @mparrington.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The #Krakatau 🌋sulphur dioxide plume in the #CopernicusAtmosphere column integrated volcanic SO2 analysis, assimilating GOME-2, TROPOMI & IASI (+layer height) 🛰️ observations, valid for 6 Sept 00UTC. Data access➡️ ads.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/datasets/cam... @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social @ecmwf.int
Global map, centred on western Indonesia, showing the extent of the plume of column integrated mass density of volcanic SO2 as it extends from the Anak Krakatau volcano out to the Indian Ocean in the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service analysis valid for 00 UTC on 6 September.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Herd of cows. On a beach. In Fife, Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🐄
Cows sitting or standing on a wide, sandy beach under a blue sky.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
'A prolonged fall in the number of international students applying to study in the UK means “the wheels are rapidly falling off” the student loan-funded higher education system in England, sector experts have warned.' The world's 2nd best university system being killed by malign neglect. 1/3
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Mines extracting what? Factories making what?
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
This bad boy hasn’t seen active service in a long time!
Hole punch sitting on an open ring binder containing papers.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
"Now you see it, now you"
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Athena Kugblenu @athenakugblenu.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The Guardian once asked me 'what one change would you make to achieve Black equality in Britain?' and it feels appropriate to share my answer again
Athena Kugblenu: Allow Black people to be mediocre too!
Athena Kugblenu
I would like to replace #blackexcellence with #blackmediocrity. True equality is when our talent:recognition ratio is allowed to be as broad as white people’s. Lewis Hamilton had to win two Formula One titles before he bagged BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2014; Greg Rusedski only had to get battered by Pat Rafter to win his. Kwasi Kwarteng steered the economy towards an iceberg and got sacked. Jeremy Hunt drove the NHS over a cliff, now he’s chancellor. Don’t get me started on how many football clubs get ruined by freshly retired white footballers while very qualified Black managers are overlooked. When the arc of the moral universe bends towards Black people failing upwards as their peers do, we will be in the promised land.
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Durham University @durham.ac.uk · 06/08/2026
Confused about carbon capture and the different ways it can be done? Professor Jon Gluyas @durhamearthsci.bsky.social explains the often-confusing landscape around this and why time is short. www.durham.ac.uk/research/cur...
Fossil fuel power stations with smoke coming out of their chimneys.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
[Department Chair]: Let's talk
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Pallasites are so often shown cut and polished - still beautiful in their raw form though. 😍🧪⚒️
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authodizer @doktrock.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
🚨Job Alert ‼️ 🚨 Hard-rock geologist with expertise in bedrock structure for mapping metamorphic terranes at Connecticut Geological Survey #geology ⚒️ www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/bulpr...
jobapscloud.com
Environmental Analyst 3
We are hiring for Environmental Analyst 3.
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Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University, UK @durhamearthsci.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗶𝘀𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗞𝘆𝘂𝘀𝗵𝘂 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗸𝗲 🌐 After the Magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck the Kumamoto region, Japan, today, Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at 4:27 PM local time, the exposition seismometer displayed at the entrance of the Department received its signal!
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Bill Haneberg @haneberg.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
A year or two ago, an AI-boosting petro-bro—a geologist if memory serves—suggested on a different platform that the entire USGS core facility should be shuttered because anything of value had been digitized and maintaining physical samples was a waste of money. He couldn't have been more wrong! ⚒️
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💙 MaryH 💙 @maryh58.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
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Oliver T Lord @olivertlord.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
We're hiring in the School of Earth Sciences @bristoluni.bsky.social: NERC-funded PDRA in Petrological Controls on Ore Genesis. Arizona fieldwork, synchrotron work at Diamond, and high-pressure experiments on how subduction zones concentrate copper. Closes 5 Aug: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSG652/s...
jobs.ac.uk
Senior Research Associate in Petrological Controls on Ore Genesis at University of Bristol
Discover an exciting academic career path as a Senior Research Associate in Petrological Controls on Ore Genesis at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!
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Durham University @durham.ac.uk · 22/07/2026
Professor @clairehorwell.bsky.social from @durhamearthsci.bsky.social has been part of a NASA Working Group reviewing the health risks of Martian dust for future human explorers. Find out more: www.nasa.gov/general/esta...
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
👀
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 20/07/2026
Fifty-seven years ago today. Happy International Moon Day!
Buzz Aldrin stands beside the United States flag at Tranquility Base, the Apollo 11 landing site.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
RIP Kevin Keegan. Ultimate competitor in everything he did. We never called them "water cooler moments" when I was a kid, but this was most definitely one when he was on Superstars. youtu.be/n4OzPrskdqU?...
youtu.be
Kevin Keegan falls off his bike during BBC Superstars 1976
YouTube video by Southstandred
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Something happening tonight? 🤔 #ENGARG #FIFA #WorldCup
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Happy birthday to brilliant trailblazing US #geologist & prof Florence Bascom (1862-1945) 👩🏼‍🔬🐡🧪⚒️ #histsci who championed women’s education, & used polarizing microscopes for detailed petrographic analysis to show that rocks previously identified as sedimentary were in fact metamorphosed volcanic 🧵
 My linocut portrait of geologist Florence Bascom as a young woman from neck up, in blue, looking at the viewer with her curly hair pulled back wearing a blouse with large lace collar on green vinyl. Behind her are two geological cross-sections with layers carved with different patterns to indicate different rock materials in black. Below on either side are two circular diagrams: these are thin sections of rhyolite printed in pale beige, brown, and black.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
🌊🌋⚒️🧪
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Magnificent rocks. ⚒️🧪
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Fascinating. Shout out to the spirit of Stuart Boyd (with the equal oldest citation from this paper) who was a pioneer investigating nitrogen in high temp rocks and the solid Earth. ⚒️🧪🌋🌍
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Sea floor spreading observed in Indian Ocean. 🧪⚒️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Anatomy of a seafloor spreading event captured by in situ seismogeodesy - Nature
By combining hydroacoustic, direct-path ranging and bottom-pressure measurements, in situ observations of a rifting event at a segment of the Southeast Indian Ridge are reported, providing insight int...
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Congratulations to all @durhamearthsci.bsky.social students who graduated from @durham.ac.uk today at @durhamcathedral.bsky.social, and to one luck soul who received their dogree. ⚒️🧪👨‍🎓👩‍🎓🐕
Queue of people wearing colourful graduates robes in the stone carved corridor of Durham University cloistersDurham University graduates and families in front of Durham CathedralA white dog wearing a mortar board
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Durham University @durham.ac.uk · 07/07/2026
Many congratulations to alumnus Ross Forbes. Ross has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science for his contribution to heritage, culture and community engagement in County Durham.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
This art🤝geology is rather wonderful ⚒️🧪
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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
The only advantage humans have over other living things is their brain power. Outsourcing that now to AI seems like an open door to extinction...
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
As a tennis commentator Andrew Castle is “inferior in every way”. Can’t wait for him to be gone.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
#MusicChallenge #IsmuasMonthOfMusic Day 3 - A Song That Balances Hope And Despair Levellers - One Way youtu.be/u0S8RNkL5Wg?...
youtu.be
Levellers - One Way (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by RHINO
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
'Our Inquiry found that white working class parents are more likely than others to say they want their children to have a better education than they had themselves: 94 per cent say this, compared with 91 per cent of all parents.' 1/3
wonkhe.com
Higher education needs to earn back the trust of white working class families
The independent inquiry into white working class educational outcomes found a lack of trust in higher education, not in aspiration. Anne-Marie Canning explains
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VolcanoDiscovery @volcano.link · 03/07/2026
#Krakatau #volcano (Sunda Strait, Indonesia): new eruptive phase - The volcano entered a new eruptive activity recently. The satellite imagery from 2 July over the area detected a heat anomaly in the crater and ash emissions. Moreover, the local volcano observatory informed about the activity a...
volcanodiscovery.com
Krakatau volcano (Sunda Strait, Indonesia): new eruptive phase
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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Loch Monar geologic folds ⚒️
Alisa pointing to rocks with swirls & foldsQuartz vein foldsQuartz vein folds within folds
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I especially love this diagram.
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
This is one of the dumbest and saddest things I've ever seen. We should not think of universities in this way, and if we do that'll destroy everything that is both useful and good about them. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Find out which university degrees could earn you most across your lifetime
New data suggests which university degrees have the highest and lowest financial returns over a lifetime.
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Durham University @durham.ac.uk · 23/06/2026
New research has found why powerful seabed flows can be so damaging to internet cables on the ocean floor. An international team, including Matthieu Cartigny @geogdurham.bsky.social, offers a framework for better predicting these events and protecting infrastructure. 🔗 Read more: brnw.ch/21x3zhE
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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution @whoi.edu · 19/06/2026
What’s boiling hot, full of minerals, and provides food for the hungry masses? 🤤 👉Find out what’s cooking in the deep sea: go.whoi.edu/think-deep
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