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Penny Wieser

@pennywieser.bsky.social
1.1K followers 292 following 252 posts

Assistant Prof studying Volcanoes. ♥️Microanalysis, Python 🐍, Open Science. Laser Radial sailor ⛵, Bike advocate 🚲. Chronically Ill (GI). She/her

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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Stressful morning getting things ready for a week of my volcanology student doing their SEM class projects. Instrument has no comms, not going to vacuum, eventually diagnosed as chiller issue. All worked out in end but was horrified at the prospect of having to do all the scheduling again!
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Reposted by Penny Wieser
European Geosciences Union (EGU) @egu.eu · 18/12/2025
Attend #EGU26 without a registration fee😮? If you have physical or mental #disabilities, are chronically ill or have faced barriers attending a #meeting, you can now participate in our Accessibility and Inclusivity Advisory Group by 23 January 2026. 👉: egu.eu/9PXKSQ 📸: Daniel Hölbling on #imaggeo
Image description: A mountain and lake reflection in the background. Text reads:'' We are giving out 15 registration fee waivers! You identify barriers that you come across during the meeting as a ‘secret shopper’. Fill the form by 23 January 2026! with a QR code.''
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
I love a Sunday emergency vet visit because the dog is stupid enough to have eaten a bee..very fortunate we live 10 mins from an emergency vet because it was swelling fast...
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
I have definitely become california soft. It has been anomalously cold (10-15C) during the day over the last week and I'm miserable. Keeping the house at 20C and yet so much colder than in the UK at 17C wearing the same clothes. Brrr. Do we really adapt to living somewhere warm?
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
I am so done with planned obsolescence. This week our washer Got a repair guy out, looked at it (from a distance) looked the error codes I sent and said 'not worth fixing, that'll be $110 for the call out). No one will even look at our broken dehumidier....
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
I naively thought the police would want to hear my side of a car left hooking me. Victim shaming 100%. Moment I said I was on an e bike the officer said 'thats a car, you have to follow the rules of the road'. Sir, I was left hooked in a bike lane, travelling along. 'we have lots of ebike crashes'..
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Two bike accidents in 2 years, both cycling home from office hours. Can't decide if we should ban cars or ban office hours. Driver left hooked me across a two way cycle lane without even looking in his mirrors. Also second crash where helmet saved my head. #WearAHelmet #Lookinyourgoddamnmirrors
E bike in front of a car on a bike line
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Second open access Mauna Loa paper available! Here we investigate storage depths and degassing systematics using fluid inclusions, and olivine deformation using EBSD in lavas and tephras from 7 eruptions (1852-2022). TLDR: SO2 degasses earlier than expected doi.org/10.1007/s004...
Pictures of fluid inclusions in olivine and pyroxene
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Last week my husband came back with a 'squash' for dinner which turned out to be the hardest, toughest object known to man. Having come back from the store today, I see he fell into the 'these gourds out front must be edible' trap for foreigners, not realizing Americans buy them as decorations.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Way too hot in Berkeley this evening (33C), so headed down to spend a few hours in the amazing microclimate at the marina (21C). Bay area temperature gradients over 3 miles are something else. Caught an awesome sunset too.
Sunset over Berkeley pier
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Excited to share my new open-access paper looking at magma storage depths for these beautiful xenoliths from Mauna Loa Volcano. doi.org/10.1007/s004... 🧵below, TLDR - previous suggestions of ~20 km deep Opx crystallization are inconstant with fluid inclusion depths and thermodynamic modelling.
Whole thin section scans in cross polarized (XPL) and plain polarized (PPL) light. a) 48g comprises two large orthopyroxene oikocrysts; one at the top left showing brown colors close to extinction, and one at the bottom right showing creamy-white colors. b) shows the same scan in PPL. c) 48i comprises a single orthopyroxene oikocryst at extinction. In contrast, olivines show a variety of interference colors. d) Same scan in PPL. e) 79a comprises one major orthopyroxene oikocryst (brown), with two smaller oikocrysts attached (blue). The two insets compare the rounded nature of the olivines inside the xenolith with the more euhedral shapes of those on the outside. These defined crystal faces may have formed during renewed growth in the carrier melt during transport or may have avoided the dissolution reaction. f) in PPL, cleavage can be seen showing a constant direction across large regions of the xenolith.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Rudely awaken by the Hayward fault. Very cool how soon after shaking we got the shake alert. If we'd been more than 1.6 km away from the epicenter would have come first! Seems we always get a feelable quake within a week of me finishing my EQ module. Great for engagement! Biggest I've felt so far.
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Dr. Wendy Bohon @drwendyrocks.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Quick video about the M7.8 earthquake off the coast of Russia, including an animation from @earthscope.org showing the seismic waves detected by seismic stations across North America. 🧪
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
My doctor said today she liked my hiking backpack (my 30L osprey), and was I going for a hike after my appointment? Had to explain it's just my backpack I take to work. Geologist/cyclist problems!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
First cold day of the semester, and the realization that spending a summer learning to wing foil means I have developed an anomalously muscley elbow joint/lower forearm and I now can't bend my arms in all my teaching blazers... 💪
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Undergraduate Isabelle Susman spreading the word about magma storage in American Samoa at today's MPS undergrad research fair. Isabelle is looking for PhDs and will be at GSA where you can all learn more! #ProudAdvisor
Isabelle at her poster with a person watching in a plaid shirt
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
I am always nervous for the first day of class (feels a lot of pressure to set the tone, get them hyped about the course), and i forget how much fun it is to meet 100 keen students who are just starting their uni journey and want to learn about the environment!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Planning my seminar visits for the year and so many hotels seem to be stopping providing microwaves and fridges..this is an absolute nightmare as someone who has to sort my own food. For my NYC trip my host lent me her microwave and I had to wait 2 hrs for the hotel to bring up a fridge..fml.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Now my paper is submitted I have finally had to stop denying I need to teach 150 students in 2 weeks, and have managed to exceed the activation energy to start my course canvas page.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Interested in applying Raman spectroscopy to analyse CO2 geofluids (in melt or fluid inclusions)? Check out our new preprint looking at analytical best practices - how do you get the best accuracy and precision out of your Raman system, and common traps to fall into. eartharxiv.org/repository/v...
eartharxiv.org
Best practices for the analyses of CO2 fluids by Raman Spectroscopy
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
Flying around the bay today (with more crashes than you would want on a commerical flying object)! hydrofoils are truly the most amazing things. Physics is so cool that a 2000 cm2 piece of carbon fiber can lift a soaking wet me and a board into the air.
a girl wingfoiling with a bay and mountains in the background.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
VIBE lab group paddleboard/kayak outing to say goodbye to the wonderful @cljdevitre.bsky.social, the very first member of my lab group, who is starting as an Assistant Professor at UOttowa in Sept after nearly 3 years of fab fluid inclusion postdoc work🎉.
a group of students/postdocs chilling on a semi sunny bay on paddelboards/kayaks with a city skyline in the background. a group of paddleboarders on their knees near a dock with a Kayak in the background
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Spending the day tidying up all my code for a paper so the jupyter notebook for each figure and all its data it calls is in a tidy supplement. Great for FAIR principles, but also great for my sanity when doing revisions, and future Penny who is pretty sure she has already written code for that.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Celebrating resubmitting a paper this morning! The bay area really is the most amazing natural playground - all you need is 3mm of neoprene and the world is your oyster. Finally making some progress with some sustained foil flights, and some accompanying large crashes!
Wingfoiling away from the dock with a turquoise wing on a turquoise board in turquoise water
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
After a frustrating day of realizing our repaired stage wasn't as repaired as we would have liked, most of my wonderful research group took a stroll up the Berkeley fire trails..always so beautiful up there!
A slide that has fallen off the furnace clips during loading into the newly prepared furnace A group of students and postdocs near a big rock with a beige dog sat on top
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Folks at my club ask where I find a seemingly unlimited supply of people who have never sailed before to come racing. The wonderful VIBE Lab undergrads are always keen, and deserve it after a summer (or 3) of hard work in the lab looking at fluid inclusions!
Penny, Raela and Isabelle in a RS venture dinghy tied to a dock, having just got in from racing!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Celebrating my first graduate student passing his qualifying exam! Go @alexbearden.bsky.social. I also didn't know the answer to the hardest question! #ProudSupervisorMoment
Alex holding trader joes sparkling tea!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
If anyone tells you petrology doesn't give you transferable skills, don't listen! I spend my days grinding tiny crystals and setting them in epoxy, and my evenings sanding dings in my foil board and filling them with epoxy! Only difference is the grit of sandpaper (120 vs 10,000) and epoxy volume.
A girl kneeling down near a surfboard sandinf wearing a white mask to protect against dust.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Lifeguard dog watching over me wingfoiling. Lots of high speed crashes today as I got up on the foil. It's a steep learning curve and tough to be bad at a watersport again!
Beige dog in foreground with a red arrow pointing to a wingfoiler in the background Just lifting onto the foil with Emeryville in the background.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
This is why 'Just leave the US' isn't as simple as folks might think. Its not like opportunities aboard are abundant either.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Early morning remote LA-ICP-MS session - Are chalcophile elements the same at Mauna Loa and Kīlauea? @alexbearden.bsky.social is going to find out!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Bred to protect flocks from wolves and bears in the mountains of Anatolia. Likes to fall asleep on his giant elephant stuffie after a hard day of watching me code.
An Anatolian shepherd asleep on a giant stuffed elephant (found on the kerb of Berkeley for free!)
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Reposted by Penny Wieser
Elizabeth V @geolizzy.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
For, um, absolutely no reason at all, let’s do a thread about the biggest scandal in the history of mining and the reason that Canada regulates professional geology and protects investors in mineral projects.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
My car has gained a spoiler! First session on the new wingfoiling kit. Of course, I fell in every time it popped up on the foil, but that's part of the learning curve! Goal for this summer: submit 3 papers, and get sustained flight! #WorkLifeBalance
A ford focus with a wingfoil board on it
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
After a stressful day at work of instruments misbehaving, it was fun to get outside and teach the husband and dog how to fly a wing! Next comes the board!
A dog lying down chewing a bully stick while penny pumps up a wing in the background.Matt flying a wing against a stormy sky with the ocean behind. The tip has just buried in the groundMatt with the wing nice and high
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
This is possibly the best sci viz I've ever seen.
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Reposted by Penny Wieser
Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 31/05/2025
"The Great Wave" of carbon dioxide (CO₂) #ClimateChange #ScienceArt Graphic produced by robbieandrew.github.io
Graph of carbon dioxide designed as the painting of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
It was a good week for 'free stuff left by students'. Scored a $180 pizza oven on Tuesday on a dog walk (heavy to carry home) and today found a pretty clean and new fold up mattress that is perfect for a friend trying to build out a car camping set up!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
What to do on a hot, sunny day over the summer? Work out how bad it really is to put a Raman in a lab without AC. Charlotte and I are baking ourself for the greater good of science (waited for hottest day on forecast, turned off HVAC, took shifts)
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
One of the hardest parts about being an Ass-prof is that during the semesters, I simply dont have the bandwidth with all the multitasking (grant writing, teaching people in lab, teaching, grading, committees) to sit and think deeply about problems. Summer = finally making some progress on math!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
I love my life here in California. Teaching Earth science by (week)day, race coaching at the amazing Cal Sailing Club at the weekend (15 fabulous students and 12 coaches at today's workshop)..I even planted an orange tree this weekend! The California sunshine and wind is just the best.
Girl in a black mask and a wetsuit holding the back of a dinghy with a crowd of sailors behind!Two people standing at a whiteboard in front of a gaggle of sailorsNew orange tree planted along a wooden fence
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
This week we celebrated the graduation of Raela and Saskia, two of our wonderful undergrads from the VIBE lab. Post talk lawn games of petanque with icelollies, both words invoking snickers from the group (apparently not called that in this country!). #ProudPI #TheyGrowUpSoFast #BestPartOfTheJob
Saskia giving her honors presentation at the department seminarRaela giving her honors presentation at the group meeting
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
One of my graduating students gave me this awesome 'awoo' sticker (I explained my dog couldn't come to class because he would be disruptive like this!). It's the little gestures from students like this that make the job worth it!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
This is a really great article to understand post viral syndromes. They are so hard to explain to people because we do often look fine, but the crashes are hidden from view.
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Reposted by Penny Wieser
Henning @geohenning.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
This is truly mind-blowing. At first I only looked at the crack appearing in the foreground in the pavement, then I saw the sudden and fast movement of the earth in the distance and on the right. 🤯🧪⚒️ youtu.be/77ubC4bcgRM?...
youtu.be
First fault rupture ever filmed. M7.9 surface rupture filmed near Thazi, Myanmar
YouTube video by 2025 Sagaing Earthquake Archive
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
I expected my final leg home from NY to SFO to be bananas, but even getting into NY is no mean feat. This is our third attempt at all queing up, at our third gate. This time I'm sitting it out from the sidelines (email says 3.5 hr delay, electronic boards gate closed). @aireuropa.bsky.social
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Ending my week of chill time in Spain with some amazing castles and ruins on the way to Madrid airport. I miss Europe in so many ways.
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Learning to fly!!! This clip makes it look easy, the one underneath was my first go!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Got upgraded to the foil board today! No sustained flight yet, but having a tow-in session tomorrow to get the hang of pumping the foil!
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Penny Wieser @pennywieser.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Going to be really hard to get back into the academic grind at the end of this week...especially as my next talk in a week involves flying out of Newark which is going to be an absolute 💩 show with Newark issues + real ID issues.
On a white board with a pink wing with a grey sea and sky behind.
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