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Pete Rowley

@pyroclasticpete.bsky.social
1.2K followers 449 following 160 posts

Volcanologist at the University of Bristol working on pyroclastic density currents and their deposits, and maritime volcanic risk. Occasional brewer, baker and blacksmith. earth-science.org.uk/teach-earth

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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
There's plenty of outstanding scientists already in Europe and Canada who are struggling for employment and funding.
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 17/09/2026
One of the key problems with AI is that the AI bros and their behemoth companies have absolutely no governance or guardrails. It's not that the AI is conscious or going rogue or whatever. It's that it's run by feckless arseholes. www.ft.com/content/2c34...
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I use it as a prompt to talk about how plume temperature drives buoyancy, with the cloud clearance aroun it. Condensation in the plume head demonstrates the cooling of the plume as it reaches its buoyancy threshold and the water content in it. PDCs demo heterogeneity too
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
It's a visualisation I've used a lot in teaching and outreach talks.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
My wife used this a few years ago to whittle me a copy
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
They're no good for prolonged viewing but fine for a glance every now and again
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Little crescent suns using a tree as a pinhole camera
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Eclipse ready
Me wearing welding helmet
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
There's a post office on the crossroads at commercial road / high street junction. It's busier when the market is on, but yes it is weirdly quiet given the amount of traffic at the shopping centres which basically back onto the high street.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
And to be fair, Shepton's doing relatively ok - multiple independent bakeries, estate agents, solicitors, post office etc. But the barbers and vape shops have definitely started encroaching.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Welcome to somerset
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Cheese and biscuits time
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Speaks of an intricate plan that ignored the practicalities of pouring sand into water. Guessing it will also have the same stagnant stench water problem as the previous made ground projects too.
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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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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
One survived. Lessons were learned 😂
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Did a prehistoric pottery course with my wife a month ago. Today I'm seeing if I can fire it...
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Jenni Barclay @volcanojenni.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
link.springer.com/article/10.1... It’s out! We’ve written a paper about volcanoes 🌋 in the movies 🎥! As well as the usual lava-based faux pas we’ve asked how well they do at recreating eruptive cycles, depicting human responses and what volcanologists can learn from compelling storytelling!
link.springer.com
Mayhem, magic and dangerous myths? Volcanoes on the big screen - Bulletin of Volcanology
We examine the extent to which movies that prominently feature volcanoes and volcanic eruptions reflect the reality of eruptions and eruptive crises. To do this, we develop an interdisciplinary method...
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
"Draw me like one of your French girls"
Cat lying on its back showing all of its belly
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
New paper klaxon: what risk do volcanoes pose to the maritime industry? A review we've put together to frame the scale of the issues and and highlight some steps forward. @smitchellscience.bsky.social @bristolvolcanology.bsky.social www.jvolcanica.org/ojs/index.ph...
jvolcanica.org
Volcanic risk to marine infrastructure and shipping | Volcanica
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Yeah, have done a load of rock mechanics stuff on these things.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I'm happy to step in if you need things before @volcanologist.bsky.social is available.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Introduce yourself with 10 bands/musicians you've seen live! 1. The Levellers 2. Skunk Anansie 3. Heilung 4. Lamb 5. Public Service Broadcasting 6. Ozric tentacles 7. Therapy? 8. Foo Fighters 9. Smashing Pumpkins 10. Green Day
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
You have finished work now human.
Cat sat on laptop
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Well, well, well. Who could possibly have seen this coming...
theregister.com
Dissatisfied: Three-fourths of AI customer service rollouts are a letdown
AI rollback rates hit 81% at firms with mature guardrails, suggesting enterprises are struggling to manage the systems in production, says Sinch
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Holy shit 😂
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
The subsequent 4G modem got us to 4Mbps on a good day with frequent drop-outs and 3 times the price. We've been using starlink for the last 2 years but nazi space internet didn't seem a long term solution. Now they just have to work out how to drill through a 2ft thick stone wall...
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
After what has been a 5 year process of rural fibre contracts closing, reopening, closing again and then restarting a lovely gentleman named Sam is putting a FTTP connection in today. Online lecturing during Covid on a 0.4Mbps exchange line was torture. (1/2)
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
media.tenor.com
a man with a beard is holding a drum stick and says `` more cowbell ! ''
ALT: a man with a beard is holding a drum stick and says `` more cowbell ! ''
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Memories of Dismaland
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
... but no prizes on offer and the coconuts are all nailed to the posts. Then I realised it was actually a play on "Fun".
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Driving into Bristol today I saw signs for the "Funderworld" theme park. I immediately had this image of a load of low-rent coconut-shy type stalls, with NERC and EPSRC labels, where underpayed overworked staff unenthusiastically attend to queues of people...
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Just rescued this little one out of a bucket of water
Peacock butterfly drying it's wings in the sun
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Univ. Bristol Volcanology Group @bristolvolcanology.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
🌋NEW JOB POSTING!🌋 We are advertising a 32-month postdoc in volcanic petrology at @bristoluni.bsky.social . This UKRI NERC-funded position will join a large team working on: ‘Ex-X’ Expecting the Unexpected. Understanding ‘dangerous’ volcanic transitions’. More: www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... "Results show that corporate bullshit receptivity is ... negatively associated with measures of analytic thinking. Importantly, corporate bullshit receptivity is ... a robust negative predictor of work-related decision-making."
sciencedirect.com
The Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale: Development, validation, and associations with workplace outcomes
From boardrooms and brown bags to emails and earnings calls, business culture often seems overrun by “corporate bullshit,” a semantically empty and of…
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Yank upward. Lob to chickens.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
New Masters by Research project available with myself and @jessicairving.bsky.social trying to pick apart what MERMAID hydroacoustic sensors can tell us about submarine volcanoes www.bristol.ac.uk/earthscience...
bristol.ac.uk
Opportunities | School of Earth Sciences | University of Bristol
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
I just discovered it's pancake day. It turns out I rely on you posting Maid Marian gifs to remind me.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Arrived to work in something approaching twilight/daylight for the first time in 3 or 4 months. Also, the starling that lives near us each summer is back, recogniseable because it has a song surprisingly similar to the tune for "I'm a Barbie Girl". It wears thin by about April.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
While on the topic of sexism and the Nobels, let us recall how the rightwing British newspapers reported Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin's 1964 prize. Daily Telegraph: "£18,750 Award to Mother of Three" Daily Mail: Hold my beer - "Oxford Housewife Wins Nobel."
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
40 years since 6 year-old me watched the Challenger disaster live on TV in a classroom in a small UK Fenland town. It is a core memory that subtly but foundationally shifted my perception of how how the wider world works. Watching something so anticipated go so badly wrong so quickly.
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Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
A few months ago I was curious to know how much Anna's Archive was charging AI developers for access to their massive library of pirated works for training - so I emailed them saying I was interested in buying access. Here is their reply. 🧵 1/n
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Saving the world half a can at a time.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Been rewatching the Expanse. It really is a fabulous attempt at capturing the book series. By far the best hard sci-fi that has made it to screen.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
With a sphincter in the middle.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
I was quite attached to the crossover cable; my dad and I used to stretch it across the house and play Total Annihilation against one another 😂
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
I rationalised my cord boxes down to a single box a couple of years ago. I decided that 40-way ribbon cable and all my SCSI and scart cables could finally pass on. I even let my crossover ethernet go.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
My wife (Somerset born and bred) also is firmly of the view that Bristol is North. In her view the M4 broadly follows the border.
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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
This is literally one of the funniest threads I have ever seen. Brilliant.
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Pete Rowley @pyroclasticpete.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
media.tenor.com
a man says give me a ping vasili in a dark room
ALT: a man says give me a ping vasili in a dark room
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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Cosupervising x2 🇬🇧 PhD projects advertising now: 'The effects of climate cooling on evolution of Antarctic Eocene benthic communities' (BAS/Bristol) shorturl.at/MiWqJ 'Testing novel archives of seawater chemistry in biogenic carbonate' (Leeds): share.google/dbojTRZme92R... Deadlines early Jan '26
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