iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

My money is on a time traveler trying to save the future.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Four more volcanoes this week were unable to convince me, and other volcanologists over the past 40+ years, that they were actually active in the Holocene. Had to relegate them to Pleistocene status. It's a tephra job, but I enjoy doing it.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

And it would be appreciated.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

We are planning to update this FAQ page next year. An eruption duration graph will probably be included, so I've been working up similar plots. A better (but not perfect) timeframe is since 1960, and use months instead of days. volcano.si.edu/faq/index.cf...

volcano.si.edu

Global Volcanism Program | Has volcanic activity been increasing?

Answers to commonly asked questions about Holocene volcanoes and their eruptions based on data from Volcanoes of the World

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

If official reports from your agency give a range (say 400-600), don't just say 600 to news media. Also, geologists should remember to convert 14C "years before present" numbers to calendar dates, at least for the last 2,000 years. The 1950 baseline is 75 years ago, creating confusion in the press.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

"It was a dark and stormy night. Lightning flashed in the distance as the air rumbled around me." The rest is just editing.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Do you have a good recipe to share?

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Improved satellite imagery compared to 20 years ago clearly shows that those "dark fresh lava flows on glacial moraines" are just more recent rock avalanches on older avalanches. It's actually a 300-500 ka edifice falling apart and with a sulfur-rich hydrothermal system.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Try getting your water in "rocks" beverages.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Considering all the geological research done in Colorado, why hasn't anyone done isotopic dating of the supposed Quaternary volcanics near Dotsero Crater in over 50 years? The one Holocene eruption is based on one 14C date (4,150 BP) from a 1962 MS thesis. Never confirmed by later work. Venting...

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Not pathetic at all. Just real. Hope something breaks your way soon.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

The editor part of me cringed when I read that the study had leaked out from below the lithosphere.

Definitely a common issue. Difficult to resolve when more recent research is not available. About 400 volcanoes thought to be Holocene don't have documented eruptions.

That kinda blows, in multiple ways.

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Flores Island, Indonesia, this time. Though I am skeptical of a few in Alaska.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

I love solving volcano mysteries. Latest case resulted in 3 eruptions from the 1880s reclassified as geo/hydrothermal, one from 2003 discredited due to bad aviation observations (wrong volcano). Finally, no Holocene eruption evidence, so volcano age status changed. ~signed, a US government scientist

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I think leaving remote cabins unlocked is fairly common. People will break in anyway if they are determined. I was canoe guiding in the northern Ontario/Manitoba area, soon after ice-out, when a few of the crew became dangerously hypothermic. Open fly-in fishing cabin was a savior. Left $$ thanks.

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Very little research in the area until some nice 2018 papers. Radiometric dating puts the "bombs" source cones/lava flows at over 80,000 years old, and youngest lavas in the overall at ~50,000. Boom! One less volcano on the Holocene list. 3/3

This was 1961, in a hard to find source. Same guy as a co-author on another paper in 1964 outright stated the last eruption was 1,500 years ago. Then it was repeated by others. Small rounded basalt pieces of uncertain source in a sediment layer suddenly became a Holocene eruption. 2/

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Solved another eruption mystery, untangling some geological "telephone". It started with a volcanic field paper published as an appendix in govt report about bauxite resources. Volcanic "bombs" ~2 inches long were in a coastal deposit. Shells in layers above and below gave a 500 year window. 1/

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Suggest nuts or bananas instead?

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Writers trying to prove their mettle shouldn't meddle with words they don't know 100%. Especially if their editor is equally clueless.

Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Reposted by Ed Venzke

All of this could have been avoided if enough people had just decided to vote for a competent Black Indian woman. Racism...the downfall of America.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

More surface area for when there is a wood wind?

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Ah, the Expectorum Ontomomma spell.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Well of quartz he is! Probably more a sedimentary fan.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

This platform is not approved for official use. Staff focus is on other priorities right now. New content is on the website as usual.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

This platform is not approved for official use. Staff focus is on other priorities right now. New content is on the website as usual.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Pro tip: if you request help with something that could mean hours of effort, don't send a follow-up for at least 2 weeks. That 15 min spent upon receipt of the original email evaluating the level of effort and allocating time the following week? Yea... now that first 15 min is all you get.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Why is it hard to post here when doing other social media?

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Woohoo! I use mine all the time.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Looks like they were hidden away in a box by a volcanologist for decades before being stashed on a top shelf of a collections cabinet for another couple of decades. Barely remembered. Preserved (hopefully) until they could be transformed and loved by someone for their scientific secrets.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Just eat the Oreos for a different reason. Hope you feel better soon.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Not that another term is needed... but these could be combined into an Earthquake Vehemence scale. I like the abbreviation of EV. 😂

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Cemeteries are very popular. I hear that people are just dying to get in.

Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Puck was finally *in* rather than *to* the back of the net.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

"Clear" ly you had a slow week.

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Ed Venzke @gabbroguy.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Gotta love it when an author cites a conference paper completely unavailable online... where in the abstract they relay that a volcano ended activity by a certain time, and in cited text that it started at that same time. Monday.