iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 25/09/2026

New office mate! Wouldn't have wanted to have encountered him in the Ordovician ocean, but our meeting today was quite convivial. Buy your own Paleozoic friend here: pri-gift-shop.myshopify.com/collections/...

Box saying 'Giant Eurypterid', as delivered to my office

Me and the giant Eurypterid in my office

Giant Eurypterid on my office chaise longue. No room for me anymore

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 25/09/2026

And they're off! Lecture 1 (of 27) of intro geology in the books!

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 18/09/2026

We're not in Maryland anymore! Today I am hanging out with soil scientists in the high desert (and later giving a talk). It's a rather lovely day.

View of the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve in southern California – a desert oasis

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 17/09/2026

Another week, another NASA facility tour! (I am at the NASA Cryosphere/Geosphere PI meeting in Maryland...)

Sign saying "NASA Goddard Space Flight Center"

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Seismica @weareseismica.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

📣 Join the Seismica Editorial Board! We’re recruiting Handling Editors for a 3-year term beginning January 2027. We especially welcome expertise in statistical seismology, machine learning applications, and hazards communication. Details: seismica.library.mcgill.ca/announcement...

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Dr. Katie I. @hellyeahcorks.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

My thread got a bit broken in my furious typing... here's my $0.02 on today's useless GEO office hour.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 15/09/2026

NSF GEO webinar summary: we have reduced programs from 15 down to 3, we have no deadlines, we have no guidelines on project size, duration or budget, we have no money

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 11/09/2026

My working life is not all about seeing donkeys on my way between my home and my office. Sometimes (yesterday) you get to visit someone else's campus and see what large mammals they have kicking around (JPL, mule deer)!

A concrete sign saying "JPL" (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Three mule deer chowing down on the undergrowth next to a loading bay

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 11/09/2026

Pardon my French, but what the fuck is Julienite? #CampaignForRealMinerals

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 11/09/2026

Fault Taunting xkcd.com/3296/

4-panel comic. (1) [Giant fishing rod-like cat toy positioned above four tectonic plates. Two helicopters that appear tiny due to scale fly above. People next to device are so tiny they cannot be seen.] PERSON 1: The key to exposing new geologic layers is understanding the three forces driving plate movement: slab pull, ridge push, and taunting. (2) PERSON 2: Taunting? What do– PERSON 1: *Initiate thrust fault pattern!* [The dangly end of the toy wiggles.] (3) “Rumble” sound effect from tectonic plates. (4) “Lunge!” sound effect from tectonic plates. [Plates split at a diagonal angling toward toy.]

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 11/09/2026

Heading into work after a couple of Zoom meetings that I took at home, I was so lost in my thoughts that I nearly missed five donkeys seeking shade under a tree (and six more in the street)!

Donkeys under a tree from the other side of the tree

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 05/09/2026

This is all awesome, not least because one of the interviewees is Emily Brodsky (pictured), and the last conversation I had with her was at about 2 am on Monday night, staggering back after the SCEC karaoke, on whether she would sing next year (unlikely) and what (maybe Bob Dylan, still unlikely).

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 31/08/2026

In Palm Springs for the SCEC annual meeting, and once again I am seeing pictures of me on the screen (e.g. from Roland Bürgmann's keynote talk). Apparently I like to stand next to Roger Bilham

Photos of offset curbs, all sites of fault creep. Top left: Berkeley Memorial Stadium, top right: Camelia Drive in Fremont (with Roger Bilham and me for scale), bottom left: Rose St at Prospect St in Hayward, bottom right: I think that is the Calaveras fault in Hollister, CA.

A slide titled "Creepmeters". In the left panel, several people (closest to camera: me, second closest: Roger Bilham) are standing by a hole in the ground – an equipment vault at Gallegos Winery that contains a creepmeter.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 27/08/2026

This gets into the forensic process (identifying changes in Planet Labs optical imagery) used to identify the source of the massive flooding seen in Nepal. Well worth half an hour of your time.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 27/08/2026

Working from home today. The sound of braying from the park across the street was just about audible over the noise of my (overtaxed) air conditioner. (Optical zoom on my new phone seems to work well!)

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Saganism @sagan.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Dr. Anthony Fauci urges Americans not to accept "Normalization of Untruths".

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 03/08/2026

It's that time of year again - the EarthScope ISCE+ course in InSAR processing and analysis is underway! Here (on his short course debut) is Francisco Delgado leading us through a first modeling exercise using InSAR displacements over Okmok Volcano!

View of the OpenScienceLab screen, showing two versions of an interferogram of Okmok Volcano in Alaska. Francisco Delgado (webcam snapshot on the right) is leading the session.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 03/08/2026

We just got in from running errands, and this chap marches up to me as if demanding nose scritches (happily administered) and then settled in to munch on some of the excess grass outside our house.

Donkey standing in the middle of the street, heading straight towards me

Donkey dealing with some excess grass in my front yard

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 01/08/2026

If a good day is a day when I have seen a donkey, today is a day when I saw at least seventeen

At least 17 donkeys, some big, some little, in the park across the street from my house

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Thoughts on the various Trump administration proposals to revamp US science funding - and what they all have in common:

science.org

The Assault On Science Funding Continues

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 22/07/2026

It's that time of year! Please consider submitting to AGU session G024: Transient Deformation and Creep Processes in the Earthquake Cycle! Studies using geodetic, seismic, geologic and/or experimental data are all welcome, as well as numerical and analytical models. agu.confex.com/agu/agu26/pr...

agu.confex.com

Transient Deformation and Creep Processes in the Earthquake Cycle

Transient deformation and aseismic slip processes play a fundamental role in the earthquake cycle, yet their spatiotemporal characteristics and underlying physics remain incompletely understood. Advan...

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 21/07/2026

The data firehose has been turned on! Have fun, InSAR-mavens!

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Axel Periollat @axelper.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Excited to share that our paper with @gfun.earth is now published! We investigate how probabilistic interseismic locking models relate to megathrust earthquake rupture, using the 2025 Mw 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake as a case study. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Linking Interseismic Locking to Coseismic Rupture: The 2025 M<sub>w</sub> 8.8 Kamchatka Earthquake

A probabilistic locking approach identifies persistent asperities that control where large earthquakes nucleate and rupture A fully data-driven method infers locking patterns without prescribing ...

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christhebarker @christhebarker.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I made this because as far as I can see nobody else has?

Skegness is so bracing but I've made him into Count Binface and it says Clacton is SO Binface

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 13/07/2026

Got my comment in today, opposing the proposed rule change that would politicize the award of scientific funding and place many obstructions in the way of scientists for no good reason. It is the last day. If you haven't done it already, please write something: www.regulations.gov/commenton/OM...

regulations.gov

Regulations.gov

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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 19/07/2023

Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 12/07/2026

something something something bear grills

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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

On my way, Clacton.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 08/07/2026

Come on Clacton, you have the chance to do the funniest thing

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 06/07/2026

I can report that Woking town centre was surprisingly lively at 4 in the morning, due to some liberal extension of the normal licensing laws and the explosive decompression following one of the most stressful England victories in my lifetime. Also, it's getting light outside.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 25/06/2026

Composite plot of the two coseismic interferograms (Sentinel-1, from Copernicus) with the USGS epicenters of the two earthquakes and faults from GEM. The shoreline San Sebastián fault lines up with the fringes in the west and is probably the fault responsible.

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Morgan Moschetti @morganmp.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Not plotted here but the epicenter is located near the western limit of InSAR fringe, indicating rupture was predominantly towards the east, including Caracas. So rupture directivity, which is like a seismic Doppler effect, likely contributed to stronger ground-shaking effects and damage.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 25/06/2026

Another interferogram (Sentinel-1, descending track) covering the bulk of the rupture. The fact that you see essentially (the southern) half of the displacement pattern, indicates that the fault was offshore, or close to it. The noisiness is due to the tropical vegetation in-region.

A noisy interferogram of the 2026 Venezuela earthquakes. The fringe gradient is highest by the coast, and dies away to the south.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 25/06/2026

It's taken me a while, but here is my first interferogram of the Venezuela earthquakes from Sentinel-1. It's an ascending track to the west of the epicenter, and the pattern of displacements is consistent with slip on a fault that runs close to and parallel to the coast.

Interferogram of the earthquakes in Venezuela. Shows the western extent of the rupture, and that the earthquake was likely on an E-W striking fault.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 21/06/2026

I am currently in Budapest, where I don't have an earthly about what the talking heads on their World Cup coverage are saying. I don't miss the loudmouthed prat on FOX at all (yeah, you know which one). www.theguardian.com/football/202...

theguardian.com

The French aristocrat and the all-American idiot: Henry v Lalas is the World Cup’s most compelling battle

Fox’s broadcast at the tournament has become a story of two contrasting styles. And there is one clear winner

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 20/06/2026

Went to the salt mines outside of Kraków yesterday and thought I'd model good technique

Me licking the wall of the salt mine. Conclusion: salty

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 16/06/2026

FRINGE 2026, day 2: Still zombified by jetlag, shotgunning coffee to stay conscious. Also, through some kind of black magic, someone has cut the auditorium in half, which is not doing wonders for my grasp on reality! We're starting with ESA future mission concepts this morning...

The auditorium at Jagellonian University, yesterday

The auditorium at Jagellonian University today. It is half the size of yesterday!

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 15/06/2026

Plate Flip xkcd.com/3258/

4-panel comic. (1) PERSON 1 with ponytail: These tectonic plates look pretty eroded. When did you last flip them? PERSON 2: Flip them? (2) PERSON 1: Yeah, to use the underside of the continent. PERSON 2: ...Never? PERSON 1: Wow. Explains the eons of weathering, debris basins, and... is this isostatic depression? PERSON 2: It’s rebounding! (3) PERSON 1: You really should flip it. You’ll get a whole new landscape! PERSON 2: But I like *this* landscape! (4) PERSON 1: Just think how warm and fresh the other side will feel. PERSON 2: A sea of molten rock? PERSON 1: Good for the feet. Helps exfoliate.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 15/06/2026

FRINGE 2026 is go! The premier scientific workshop for InSAR methods, results and science. Apparently they are not sure whether it is the 13th or 14th edition. But I have been coming to them since 2003 (as has Marcus Engdahl who made this slide) and wow I'm old!

Slide showing images and logos for all of the FRINGE workshops since 2003. The interferogram of the Bam earthquake seems to appear on a lot of them.

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 11/06/2026

Saw the first post-Mindanao earthquake Sentinel-1 data were available, and thought fuck it, I'll stay up late and process it. And actually, it's way more coherent than I thought it would be! And there are fringes!

Sentinel-1 interferogram of the 2026 Mindanao earthquake. Pink box shows location of the zoomed in version

Zoomed in interferogram of the 2006 Mindanao earthquake. There are fringes in the center part, east of what is Sarangani Bay, I think

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 09/06/2026

Earthquake response: drop to a crouch for a second, then move to computer and spend three minutes refreshing the USGS webpage until a dot shows up on the map. (M3.4, Reche Canyon, near the San Jacinto fault)

Map of the Riverside-Moreno Valley-Redlands area, with the epicenter of the recent M3.4 earthquake marked on as a red dot

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 08/06/2026

Applications are now open (due July 1st) for the EarthScope ISCE+ course in InSAR processing and analysis! Alongside the usual background, theory and practical applications, we plan to cover some ISCE3 and NISAR content for the first time! www.earthscope.org/event/2026-t...

earthscope.org

2026 Technical Course: InSAR Processing and Analysis (ISCE+) | EarthScope Consortium

This 5-day course covers basic and advanced InSAR theory and hands-on processing of Sentinel-1 and NISAR data using the JPL/Caltech InSAR Scientific Computing Environment (ISCE/ISCE3). Topics include ...

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 05/06/2026

It is important to validate InSAR time series results! And to call it out when people oversell the capabilities of the method! (Ideally before Science magazine airs out your dirty laundry in public...)

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Gareth Funning @gfun.earth · 05/06/2026

First time at the Bowl for 2026! In the cheapest of the cheap seats. Alison Moyet is down there somewhere. (Loved all the Yazoo songs!) Marc Almond and the Human League to follow.

The stage at the Hollywood Bowl with the Hollywood sign behind in the distance

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