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Alka Tripathy-Lang

@dralkatrip.bsky.social
4.1K followers 1.1K following 408 posts

Science Communicator | Writer | Editor | Social Media Manager | Former dater of rocks | Ph.D. in Geology | Exerciser | Food lover | Parent | Partner | she/her

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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In my latest for @earthscope.org, I dug into how fiber optic cables can help us better understand flash floods in the SW US. DAS may not be ready for flood early warning, but it can help define thresholds for the switch from infiltration to overland flow. ⚒️🧪 ngf.earthscope.org/news/from-ra...
ngf.earthscope.org
From rain to rills, DAS detects prerequisite to southwest U.S. flash floods | National Geophysical Facility
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Kelly Hereid @kellyhereid.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Have seen several versions of this video floating around. Can't find an original source yet, but if this is legit umm... going to need some sedimentologists in the chat 🧪⚒️ via www.reddit.com/r/geography/...
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
By using multiple datasets that peek beneath Antarctic ice, scientists studied basins that V away from the South Pole on the eastern side of East Antarctica. Here, they've found that the land likely stretched and rotated. (1/2) 🧪⚒️ www.earthscope.org/news/pie-sha...
earthscope.org
Pie-shaped piece of Antarctica the size of a small continent reveals rotational extensional tectonics | EarthScope Consortium
V-shaped topographic basins radiating from central Antarctica could be remnants of of the continent's deep geologic history.
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Dr. Drew Brayshaw 🌊🪨 @drewbrayshaw.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
So it sounds like Rodinia had some rad cliffs 🧗🏾‍♂️ pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...
pubs.geoscienceworld.org
Exhumation of Grand Canyon’s basement along the Great Escarpment of Laurentia | Geology | GeoScienceWorld
GeoSapienAI is GeoScienceWorld's AI-powered research assistant.
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Interesting 2025 earthquake sequence in western Turkey discussed in @temblorinc.bsky.social, looking at migrating seismicity and recently published papers about the curious quakes. ⚒️
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Fantastic column by @rdzombak.bsky.social for @sciencenews.bsky.social about the pros and cons of bamboo toilet paper 💩🧪 Becca writes at the end: "On to the next quest: finding the softest 100 percent recycled TP." Please let us know the answer! www.sciencenews.org/article/bamb...
sciencenews.org
Bamboo toilet paper intrigued me. Reality turned out to be messy
What makes a greener wipe? Researchers have more to say about bamboo's ecological risks, given limited carbon footprint data.
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
And while we're on the topic, I had the pleasure of profiling the space biologist/equine therapist of this year's group, Jess Atkin of @tamu.bsky.social. Her story from veteran to therapist to biologist is one of horses, microbes and undaunted grit. eos.org/features/jes...
eos.org
Jess Atkin: Space Biologist Enriches Soil and the Lives of Fellow Veterans - Eos
This biologist—also a rancher and Air Force veteran—finds solace in horses as she studies how to grow plants on the Moon.
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I love this annual issue of Eos! It's a reminder to us all that there's no one way to be a scientist. ❤️ 🧪⚒️
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Cascadia is so weird! Kidding, it's actually fascinating. Diving into what might be happening near and just south of the Mendocino Triple Junction was deeply satisfying for someone who studied Cali's accretionary prisms long ago (that someone is me, btw). Check out my latest, for @earthscope.org! ⚒️🧪
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
The Cotabato Trench, and perhaps the southernmost Mindanao Fault, may be closer to failure as a result of the magnitude 7.8 mainshock in the Philippines, according to Temblor scientists Ross Stein and Shinji Toda. ⚒️
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David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
the lost annals of the martian kings
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Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦 @watershedlab.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
🚨Funding for 2yr postdoc w/me & @geocron.bsky.social on landslide-tsunami-jökulhlaup, but (this is the ridiculous part) I need to select someone NOW or I lose the $. If you're NOT in Canada (can be any nationality) & interested email CV & transcripts by midnight MT, June 12. 🧪⚒️ @igs-egg.bsky.social
icebergs in a glacial lake
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
So fun to write about seismology+Columbia Glacier for @earthscope.org! Bonus: I got to talk to one of my fave glaciologists, Kurt Cuffey @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social! New research from @uafairbanks.bsky.social connects glacial quakes how Columbia loses ice at its terminus. ⚒️❄️
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Can confirm
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Every so often when I'm interviewing a scientist, they explain something to me in such a clear and illuminating way that I have an internal epiphany. When I put on my science writer hat, my goal is to pass those epiphanies on to y'all ❤️
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
My latest, for @eos.org! Yes, its about a way to narrow the search for certain critical mineral deposits. But consider this: The paper uses GPlates, built on paleomagnetic data, geochronology, and geodynamics. The lead author studies petrology and geochemistry. Such work needs all of geology ⚒️🧪
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
This article in @temblorinc.bsky.social talks about how swarms along the Cotabato Trench in the Philippines are reminding us that the trench remains a potentially hazardous plate boundary, even though the quakes may not be a preface to a repeat of a major 1976 event. ⚒️
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Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
80 years ago today, Canadian-born physicist Louis Slotin, 35, received a lethal dose of radiation at Los Alamos Laboratory while performing a very dangerous criticality experiment known as “tickling the dragon’s tail” with a plutonium bomb core. He died from acute radiation syndrome nine days later.
Louis Slotin's official Los Alamos ID badge photograph, showing a man with short, dark hair, a broad nose, and eyeglasses.A black and white photograph of a re-creation of the experimental setup Slotin was using, showing a man from the waist down standing behind a laboratory table holding a beryllium hemisphere above a plutonium core with his left hand (at upper thigh height) and a screwdriver in his right hand (as if preparing to use the screwdriver to raise and lower the beryllium to take measurements).A black and white diagram showing the locations of Slotin and everyone in the room with him, and their distances from the bomb core on the table. The two people closest to the core were Louis Slotin (1.5 feet) and Alvin Graves (3 feet).A color photograph of Louis Slotin's hands, lower arms, and upper torso, taken as he lay in a hospital bed not long after the accident. His left hand looks somewhat swollen and cyanotic and his right fingers appear swollen. There are small, dark marks on two of his fingers, possibly blood blisters.
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
This is fantastic advice for graduate students! The reverse exercise is also often interesting. Start with a recent important paper that's key to your work and go back and back and back!
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Jim Metcalf @thermochronic.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
I was given the excellent advice to read about my dissertation field in chronological order when possible so I have a better understanding of how current thought developed
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AGU Science Policy @aguscipolicy.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
⚠️Earthquake preparedness saves lives⚠️ Thats why AGU joined science partners urging the House to pass NEHRP reauthorization. Learn more and share with others👇 thebridge.agu.org/2026/05/04/a...
thebridge.agu.org
AGU Joins Letter Urging Passage of NEHRP
On 16 April 2026, AGU joined other science societies in a letter to the House urging passage of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) Reauthorization Act of 2025.
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Eos @eos.org · 18/05/2026
Mount St. Helens erupted on this day in 1980, killing 57 people and spreading rocks, ash, and volcanic gas over hundreds of square miles. Follow along with @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social as they recount the eruption👇
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Dr. Wendy Bohon @drwendyrocks.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Do you have kids in your life? Teach them about the eruption of Mt. St. Helens AND help them to get their wiggles out with VOLCANO YOGA! 🌋🧘 youtu.be/qEmOyFsYQsI?...
youtu.be
Volcano Yoga
YouTube video by Dr. Wendy Rocks
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Kelly Hereid @kellyhereid.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
In case you missed it, this AMA is delightful Even if they're wrong: Volcano >>> Dante's Peak
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
slightly increase a band Ten Inch Nails
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Callan Bentley @callanbentley.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Sand from Black Sands Beach in Marin Headlands is .... not black. ⚒️
Brightly colored green, orange, dark brown, light brown, pink and red sand grains as viewed under a microscope
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Science News @sciencenews.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
When a total solar eclipse swept across North America in April 2024, a seismic hush fell over the continent. www.sciencenews.org/article/seismic…
sciencenews.org
Seismic data captured the sound of awe during a solar eclipse
From the hush of people coming to a standstill to the reverberations of fans, seismic data can capture the ebbs and flows of human activity.
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Dr. Erik Klemetti Gonzalez @eruptions.site · 22/04/2026
Hey folks! If you happen to be building seminar/colloquia series and you want someone who can talk volcanoes and magmatic systems, ping me! I have highly technical stuff on zircon geochronology as well as high accessible stuff like how to figure out the most dangerous volcano on the planet.
media.tenor.com
a cartoon of a man wearing glasses and a yellow shirt that says country
ALT: a cartoon of a man wearing glasses and a yellow shirt that says country
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Check out this news segment featuring @temblorinc.bsky.social CEO Ross Stein talking about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake! The photos over which he narrates Jack London's reporting are heartbreaking. ⚒️🧪
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
More good stuff for @earthscope.org! This feature dives into a @geosociety.bsky.social paper about Arizona's San Francisco volcanic field, a sea of monogenetic (single-eruption) vents in the northern part of the state crowned by a curious stratovolcano. 🧪⚒️ www.earthscope.org/news/what-li...
earthscope.org
What lies beneath an Arizona stratovolcano? | EarthScope Consortium
Seismic imaging below the San Francisco Volcanic Field in Northern Arizona provides clues about the history of eruptions there.
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Love the book Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party by Edward Dolnick, in which Dolnick tells the stories of some of the geo-celebs of the 1800s ⚒️
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
I had good fun diving into this @seismosocam.bsky.social paper for @earthscope.org on the topic of how an earthquake in New Jersey drove research into 3D seismic velocity models. Also discussed: What is even a seismic velocity model and why should anyone care? ⚒️🧪 www.earthscope.org/news/new-jer...
earthscope.org
New Jersey earthquake in 2024 helps us prepare for future East Coast quakes | EarthScope Consortium
Knowing how much the ground will shake requires a good model of seismic velocity.
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Dr. Wendy Bohon @drwendyrocks.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Did you hear or feel the sonic boom from the Artemis II reentry? Fill out a “Did You Feel It?” report! It will say earthquake but fill it out for the boom. earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...
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Jeff Berardelli @weatherprof.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
See that planet in the distance? That’s us. ALL of us. Every living being we are aware of lives there. We are completely alone, floating in the great abyss of dark, infinite space. Life like ours is incredibly rare - perhaps even without precedent - in the Universe. All we have is each other… 1/
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Dr. Judith Hubbard @judithgeology.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Did you feel last night’s M4.6 earthquake in the Bay Area? If so, you’re not alone: more than 32,000 people have reported it so far. We explore the geology to try to figure out what fault ruptured, and what to expect. earthquakeinsights.substack.com/p/m46-earthq... ⚒️ 🧪
earthquakeinsights.substack.com
M4.6 earthquake strikes south of Bay Area
More than 32,000 people report shaking
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
As usual, @seismosue.bsky.social brings the best article titles: Only Very Strong Shaking Can Break a Tree. And the figure of the tall tree 😂 ⚒️ pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/tsr/arti...
A sketch of a tall, thin tree with a cloudy puff at the top and two little branches just below. Otherwise, it is mostly a long tree trunk. The height of the tree is labeled L (m) and the diameter is labeled D (m). From Hough, 2026, published in The Seismic Record.
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
When we think about the aftermath of major earthquakes, we often first (and rightly) begin with the population. But another consideration is how such an event's effects might impact the regional and global economy. Take Tokyo, for example, in Lauren Koenig's latest for TEN. ⚒️
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Dr. Jennifer Wade @volcanojw.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
US GEO folks: A few NSF POs are traveling again (!!) & several are hitting the regional GSAs. @drrocks1982.bsky.social + @llautz.bsky.social are headed to the Triple-Joint meeting in Memphis, I'll be in Hartford for the Northeastern. We are hype to see the community! Reach out if you'll be there!
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Coulomb 4.0 is here, via @temblorinc.bsky.social! What's this, you ask? It's the latest version of an open-source Matlab program that can help you visualize how stress is transferred when faults rupture. Find out more in this article by the scientists that developed and refined it! ⚒️
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 24/02/2026
I'm constantly trying (/failing) to get this point across. If you're a trained expert in a field, then it may be worthwhile to question the scientific consensus of your peers. If you're not, the scientific consensus is absolutely the best you can do and it's arbitrary foolishness to disregard it.
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Seismological Society of America @seismosocam.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
What happens when you consider #earthquakes as a social phenomenon? Learn more in this month's SSA At Work with Max Schneider! buff.ly/RCVMm4P ⚒️
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Dr. Wendy Bohon @drwendyrocks.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Let me just make a few little adjustments to that title… “How a scientist with a PhD in Geology and 25 years of experience is helping lead California’s earthquake work” Way to devalue my experience.
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Seismological Society of America @seismosocam.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
📣PRESS RELEASE📣 Rupture into Slow‐Slip Fault Regime During the 2018 Mw 6.9 Island of Hawai‘i Earthquake is Followed by Modest Postseismic Slip #BSSA ⚒️ A M6.9 Hawaii quake may have stalled episodes of periodic slow slip. PRESS RELEASE: buff.ly/OY10yq2 PAPER:https://buff.ly/bNUFl92
buff.ly
2018 Kīlauea Earthquake May Have Stalled Fault’s Slow Slip for Decades | Seismological Society of America
5 February 2026—The magnitude 6.9 earthquake that took place in 2018 on the south flank of Kīlauea on the Island of Hawaiʻi may have stalled episodes of periodic slow slip along a major fault…
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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Ok, positive scientific thing (for a change): We're going to talk about the work of Yale seismologist Maureen Long, because her work is focused on the most direct evidence of mantle flow and convection we can get. Her career essentially defines our direct knowledge of mantle flow.
Maureen Long at a talk hosted last October by Yale's St. Thomas More Chapel on her work, the role of Catholicism in her intellectual life, and coexistence between faith and science. Taken from the St. Thomas More Chapel Instagram account (most recent photo I could find).
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
For @highcountrynews.org's latest issue on Deep Time, I reviewed 3 books that help us explore Earth's past in different ways: Basin and Range by John McPhee, Strata by @laurapoppick.bsky.social, and When the Earth was Green by @restingdinoface.bsky.social 🧪⚒️ www.hcn.org/issues/58-1/...
hcn.org
Three books explore deep time and help us look forward - High Country News
Each of these books can, in its own way, teach readers how to think about Earth's history, and how to apply lessons from the past to our future.
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Ryan J Hollister @phaneritic.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Good morning everyone. My 3D printed lidar-derived volcano tissue box covers are now for sale in my Etsy store. Majority are of Lawetlat'la (St Helens), Tahoma (Rainier), Wy'east (Hood), Kweq' Smanit (Baker), Kohm Yah-mah-nee (Lassen) and even one Salton Sea mud volcano. ⚒️ phaneritic.etsy.com
phaneritic.etsy.com
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
A new Temblor article talks about how Alaska's Connector Fault, which recently ruptured in the M7 earthquake on Dec. 6, was found and included in Alaska's seismic hazard map *before* the earthquake. ⚒️🧪
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Howard Lee @hlee.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
🌋⚒️📹💥
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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
#AGU25 is coming up, and there's lots of neat research that'll be presented. I got to talk to some great scientists about work that pertains to sending people to the Moon and Mars for @eos.org! ⚒️🧪
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Jennifer Tsang @jtsangwrites.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
As a long-time reader of @theopennotebook.bsky.social, I was happy to contribute to this article and be on the "other side" of the interview. Thank you @skylerdware.bsky.social for the opportunity. Lovely to hear how others are diversifying their work.
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