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Richard Ott

@georichard.bsky.social
289 followers 78 following 26 posts

Assistant Professor for Geomorphology at University of Amsterdam, he/him richardott.weebly.com

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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Hiring a 41-month postdoc at the University of Amsterdam on global mapping of natural and anthrpogenic erosion rates. This position also offers freedom to develop your own idea. Feel free to get in contact with questions and apply :) werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
werkenbij.uva.nl
Vacancy — Postdoc Global mapping of Natural and Anthropogenic Erosion
<p><span>Are you fascinated by how landscapes evolve in response to tectonics, climate, and human activities? Do you enjoy working with large datasets, modelling, and developing innovative ideas? Are you a creative researcher looking to build your profile for future career opportunities? If so, the Landscape Dynamics group is offering a 41-month postdoctoral position focused on quantifying global erosion and its drivers.</span></p>
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Thank you @egu-gm.bsky.social for highlighting how cool carbonate landscapes are!
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
An entire Nature article from 1934, I came across while reviewing literature. Times have changed...
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European Geosciences Union (EGU) @egu.eu · 12/08/2025
Solving million-year problems requires more than just #AI- it needs transparency and solid #science. Could this be the future of trustworthy technology? 🔗Explore more in our latest #GeoLog post: egu.eu/3VEHLX
Image description: warning sign reading "Area Closed with hills in the background. Text reading: "EGU blogs A leap of faith: Should we trust AI with a million-year problem? Read Now."
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CatchmentSci @catchmentsci.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
I’m delighted to share that our latest research has just been published in HESS. We developed an unsupervised workflow to estimate river surface velocities from videos. Testing on 11,000+ videos against 274 gauging measurements showed excellent agreement. hess.copernicus.org/articles/29/...
hess.copernicus.org
Unsupervised image velocimetry for automated computation of river flow velocities
Abstract. Accurate, long-term measurements of river flow are imperative for understanding and predicting a broad range of fluvial processes. Modern technological advances are enabling the development ...
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Great read!
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Science Magazine @science.org · 10/07/2025
In the next few months, Japan will finish work on an instrumented network of seafloor cables and wire it directly into a national early warning system. Learn more: scim.ag/44FXkxI
Since the Tōhoku quake and tsunami struck in 2011, Japan has built three offshore monitoring networks comprising more than 200 instrument stations, connected to the mainland by optical fiber. The networks provide real-time warnings and insights into subduction zones, where one tectonic plate dives under another at a seafloor trench.
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Simeon Schmauß @stim3on.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Last Wednesday the Birchgletscher in the Swiss Alps collapsed, devastating large parts of the village #Blatten and blocking the Lonza river which created a small lake. Thanks to aerial images shared by #swisstopo, I was able to create a 3D model of the area. You can explore it here 👉 skfb.ly/pxHLC
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Greg Tucker @gregtucker.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Investing in basic science more than pays for itself! Cutting NSF and NIH would hurt the US economy. (Now might be a good time to remind your congressional reps about this) www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...
forbes.com
Trump’s NIH And NSF Cuts Estimated To Cost The U.S. Economy $10 Billion Annually
Economists find public R&D drives U.S. productivity growth — and pays for itself
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Luca Malatesta @geoluca.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to study nearshore active faults with bathymetric surveys from an autonomous kayak! The main site will be the Kefalonia Transform Fault Zone 🇬🇷 All the info in the 🔗 below. www.gfz.de/en/career/jo...
gfz.de
Job Offers
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Robin Lacassin @rlacassin.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
A landscape shaped by active tectonics: the Taygetos range with the Sparta fault at its base and our @ipgp.bsky.social master and PhD students in front. The Sparta fault made the 464BCE #earthquake of magnitude 7+, an event that has likely triggered the 3rd Messenian war. ⚒️🧪
Photo of the landscape
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Luca Malatesta @geoluca.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
A good reality check as hydrogen creeps up in the geo-energy discourse. Whether storage or natural hydrogen production.
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Landsat 🛰️ @landsat.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Landsat could use your support. The mission's 50+ year data continuity is at risk. If you believe contacting elected representatives does anything, now would be a good time to apply pressure. 🛰️📡
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Donovan Dennis @donovanpdennis.com · 14/05/2025
It's hard to believe that nearly a decade has passed since @geojane.bsky.social went to B.U.'s administration and detailed her shocking experiences as a grad student under my then-adviser, Dave Marchant. In the years since, we have learned of so, so, so many others who likewise abused their (1/7)
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
This is a really cool postdoc opportunity in a great research group on a beautiful campus!
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Dr. Paula Marques Figueiredo @paleoquake.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Apparently surface rupture during the Myanmar 2025. I'm very surprised by the weak shaking along the rupture. I'm not sure if this is the main rupture (I would say no - nonetheless, VERY COOL). Author unknown, location Thazi (to be confirmed)
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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
This image cannot be shared enough. This is what our country would look like if we stop pumping water out of our polders. And in the meantime, we have closed all but one earth science departments, because it’s a little but more expensive than the average study. What could possibly go wrong.
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Come to my poster and let's chat about rates of natural and human-induced erosion and sediment connectivity of the Northern Andes! @egu.eu @egu-gm.bsky.social
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Kristen Cook @kristencook.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
For geomorphologists going to EGU, here is your one-page overview of all of the GM sessions and activities next week! Looking forward to a week of free and open science, EDI discussions and activities, and plenty of talk about climate change...
Geomorphology session overview, 28 April - 02 May, 2025. Below are tables for each day showing the GM sessions, times, and rooms for EGU25.
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Wolfgang Schwanghart @topotoolbox.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
TopoToolbox 3 has some cool new functions. Here's how to export stream networks to shapefiles (and kml): topotoolbox.wordpress.com/2025/04/09/c... #TopoToolbox #MATLAB #terrainanalysis #geomorphometry #geomorphology
topotoolbox.wordpress.com
Converting stream networks to shapefiles in TT3
What’s new in TopoToolbox 3? Well, we have restructured the toolbox a lot, making distribution and installation easier. However, there are also some new features. One of these features is the…
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Wolfgang Schwanghart @topotoolbox.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Last week, we had a #TopoToolbox Hachathon in Berlin. Read more about it here blogs.egu.eu/divisions/gm...
blogs.egu.eu
The community development of TopoToolbox starts now
Please contact one of the GM blog editors, Emily (eb2043@cam.ac.uk) or Emma (elodes@asu.edu), if you’d like to contribute on the blog!  by Wolfgang Schwanghart (Researcher, University of Potsdam, Germ...
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The Steepest Descent Meeting @steepestdescent.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Exciting news!!!🎉 We are thrilled to announce the Keynote Speakers and the Schedule for the 2025 #SteepestDescentMeeting !!!🌍🏞 We are going to have exciting talks from @aaronbufe.bsky.social, from LMU Munich, and Kimberly Huppert, from City College of New York (CCNY)!🤩 (1/2)
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Wolfgang Schwanghart @topotoolbox.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Landscape Hydrology tenure track position at ZALF @zalf.bsky.social jobs.zalf.de/jobposting/3...
jobs.zalf.de
Tenure Track Scientist (m/f/d) on “Landscape Hydrology”
This Classic Tenure Track Call invites applications of scientists integrating hydrological research from the plot to the landscape scale considering system effects. The position explicitly addresses t...
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Exciting interdisciplinary postdoc opportunity, combining landscape evolution, and the evolution of species. You might also end up collaborating with me, on constraining mountain building in the Northern Andes. jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...
jobs.ethz.ch
Postdoctoral Researcher in Tectono-Geomorphic Processes and Mountain Biodiversity
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Kristen Cook @kristencook.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
For geomorphologists going to EGU - registration is now open for Steepest Descent! This is an awesome 1/2 day meeting on the Sunday before EGU. Completely ECS community organized thanks to Jesse, Caroline, Rocio, Amanda, Jonah, Reha, and Emma! www.steepestdescentmeeting.org/home
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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️
Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.”
	•	The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives.
	•	The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000.

Each point represents a federal agency:
	•	Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs.
	•	Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs.

Key Observations:
	•	Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates.
	•	Notable targeted agencies include:
	•	HHS (Health & Human Services)
	•	EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
	•	NIH (National Institutes of Health)
	•	CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)
	•	Dept. of Education
	•	USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development)
	•	The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies.
	•	A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size.

Takeaway:

The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology.

Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).
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Yaquan Chang @yaquanchang.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
In this mountain biodiversity review, we emphasized roles of habitat creation, disruption, and oscillation in driving biodiversity. Additionally, we developed a set of geomorphic predictors that may influence biodiversity patterns, with the potential for application to other montane systems.
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Just signed the first permanent work contract of my life! 🎉
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
There are two very cool things (to me) about this paper. The first is just the technique (full-waveform inversion) the other is finding remnants of tectonic plates from 100+ Myrs ago in the mantle. 🧪⚒️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Workflow for the correlation of positive wave speed anomalies with reconstructed subduction zones. Top panels (a,b) show continents and plate boundaries in the S2012 and C2020 reconstructions at 120 Ma plotted over the VS wave speed anomaly in REVEAL at 1800 km depth. Middle panels (c,d) show wave speed anomaly at 1800 km sampled at reconstructed subduction zones for both reconstructions. Panels (e,f) show the distribution of sampled wave speed anomaly weighted by the length of each subduction zone segment for both reconstructions.
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Kristen Cook @kristencook.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Our new paper just released in Science last night! ⚒️🧪https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads2659 But instead of getting into the findings right now, some thoughts about doing the science. May or may not be motivated by recent events… 1/n
science.org
The Sikkim flood of October 2023: Drivers, causes and impacts of a multihazard cascade
On 3 October 2023, a multihazard cascade in the Sikkim Himalaya, India, was triggered by 14.7 million m3 of frozen lateral moraine collapsing into South Lhonak Lake, generating an ~20 m tsunami-like i...
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Kristen Cook @kristencook.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Geomorphologists! Just 1 day left to submit your EGU abstract! It's the 20th anniversary of the Geomorphology Division this year, so let's make it our best year yet! Don't miss your chance to join us for a week of fantastic geoscience! www.egu25.eu
egu25.eu
EGU25 - Home
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emmalodes.bsky.social @emmalodes.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Who’s going to EGU this year? Into tectonics and climate? Submit an abstract to our GM session Interactions between tectonics, climate and surface processes by Jan 15! Invited speakers: Loraine Gourbet & Jingtao Lai meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio... @eurogeosciences.bsky.social
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Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦 @watershedlab.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Here’s the @science.org article so that @altmetric.com picks it up :) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
More flow upstream and less flow downstream: The changing form and function of global rivers
We mapped daily streamflow from 1984 to 2018 in approximately 2.9 million rivers to assess recent changes to global river systems. We found that river outlets were dominated by significant decreases i...
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Just another helpful reminder that a human being on a bicycle is the most efficient amongst all animals and machines in terms of energy consumed in moving a certain distance as a function of body weight. Obvs.
Graph showing all the animals and machines in terms of energy efficiency
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Marcus Schiedung @mschiedung.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Happy world soil day! Soil of the year in Germany is the Renzina (Leptosol). Rendzina is a shallow soil and common on carbonate-rich rocks. The name is Polish and describes the sound of a plough hitting the solid rock. Here is my favourite photo I took in the alps.
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Can anybody update me on the state of the art for landslide mapping nowadays? Are people still using Sentinel or did everybody try to switch to Planet data? Are there still folks hand-mapping and/or using image segmentation, or am I a fool if I don't use AI?
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Cosmogenic nuclide denudation rates can be biased by weathering. We show that 10Be rates in Switzerland underestimate denudation by 100%! We also show that paired 10Be+36Cl measurements can be used to determine long-term denudation AND weathering rates! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Bedrock type can strongly influence vegetation, as in this picture from Crete, Greece. Here, thin soil, low nutrient- and water availability in the limestone only allow small shrubs to grow. This effect can even be observed on a global scale! agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
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Katrina Gelwick @gelwick.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Great to see so many people out demonstrating (again!) against the proposed budget cuts that would gut research and education in The Netherlands. nos.nl/l/2545894 @georichard.bsky.social
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Luca Malatesta @geoluca.bsky.social · 03/09/2024
Come join our section!
Picture of a telescope building housing the surface process modeling section at GFZ
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 26/02/2024
Do you want to talk and learn about cosmogenic nuclides? Then join the Cosmo24 conference in Cologne, with workshops and a field trip! geologie.uni-koeln.de/aktuelles/co...
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 23/11/2023
after the Dutch election, the far-right G. Wilders who wants to close all mosques, leave the EU, strongly decrease foreign student numbers, and stop caring about climate, will probably become new PM. As someone supposed to move to the Netherlands in a few months, I'm utterly shocked and feel lost 😥
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Richard Ott @georichard.bsky.social · 13/11/2023
I guess since I'm here now, I should post something. But I'm also on leave, so there's not much happening (in terms of geology...). So here's an old drone image of a crazy high river terrace from Colombia with a chicken farm on it, and two doggos that helped me with its survey 🙃
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