iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My brother has two undergraduate degrees, one in electrical engineering and the other in history, so... my world? 🤷‍♀️

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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

lol I definitely don't write for the pubic

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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Thank you! It helps that DAS is *so* interesting! :)

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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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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I love cooking with cardamom but I have strong feelings about *not* biting into a pod and would definitely be complaining! 😜

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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Recently, I asked one of these LLMs to clean up a citation list and format everything in a way that I prescribed. When the information I provided didn't have the doi, it just hallucinated one. So... maybe that?

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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

Bonus: If you've ever had trouble orienting yourself when thinking about which way is north *when every direction is north*, the continent's stingray shape can help orient you! What is eastern East Antarctica? The side of east Antarctica nearest to Australia, the right side of the stingray. (2/2)

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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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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 · 25/07/2026

This is the first place my brain went 🙌

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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

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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 · 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

Now I'm hungry for unconformi-cake 😂

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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

The lab section seems like it would have been a lot of fun, and an essential component of understanding those Great Experiments!

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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Some of my favorite seminars in grad school were this, where we'd go through the seminal papers for whatever the topic at hand was! I imagine the choice in "seminal" was colored by whomever made the selection, but it was a great place to start.

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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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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Report it to the USGS! Find the list titled DYFI, Past 24 Hours and scroll until you find the right quake. If I had to guess, you felt a M1.8 event that has 95 DFYI responses so far! earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/in...

earthquake.usgs.gov

Did You Feel It?

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, responsible for monitoring, reporting, and researching earthquakes and earthquake hazards

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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

It's fun when you have to think about it for a minute and then you get it and 💀

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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Also excellent. And loosely related to Orange Hot Chili Peppers

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Alka Tripathy-Lang @dralkatrip.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

This is a most excellent slight increase. This would also lead us to Cobalt Maiden, which is 🔥

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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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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

Such a hard question to answer. Arizona geology is spectacular. One place I can't wait to take my kids to is SP crater, mentioned in the article. But also, I do love the ancient dunes, like the Navajo sandstone that you can see in fantastical fashion if you go to Antelope Canyon.

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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

To quote Steve Semken of @seseasu.bsky.social, who led me (and many students) to see some incredible rocks here, "I LOVE ARIZONA GEOLOGY!!!" -best shouted from the outcrop

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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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