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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Het tweede boek van mijn broer Chris van Hinsbergen’s uitgeverij is nu gepubliceerd. Het tweede deel van Rix Legêne’s Willem de Veroveraar serie! www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/will...

bol.com

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A picture impression of our Sichuan fieldwork in China is now on my website! www.geologist.nl/china-sichua...

geologist.nl

China – Sichuan Basin 2026 – Douwe J.J. van Hinsbergen

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The man in black fled through the desert, and the gunslinger followed him …

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

In this new Geology paper, we reconstructed a previously suspected but undocumented plate between Farallon and North America. We recognized the remains in the geology of California and the Caribbean region, and revived the Franciscan Plate into its former glory! #Geology #PlateTectonics

pubs.geoscienceworld.org

Mesozoic ocean plate stratigraphy reveals a Franciscan plate separating Farallon and North America | Geology | GeoScienceWorld

Ocean plate stratigraphy preserved in the Franciscan Complex records the Mesozoic plate tectonic evolution of the North American Cordillera and eastern

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The Terracotta Army of Xi’an is a mindblowing experience. Totally amazing!

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Lange sectie in de Jura monsteren om paleogeografische reconstructies mee te maken!

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Fieldwork in the Sichuan Basin, China ❤️🌶️

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

In Beijing with old friends! Ready for some fieldwork in the Sichuan Basin

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Fair question. I mean the top provocative. The top novel. The top risky. That may also be the bottom crazy for some. So what’s left is the safe middle ground with incremental more of the same.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I fully agree with this analysis. The current peer review-based funding system is removing daring and innovative science, and awards toothless dragons that promise fire, but produce just recycled smoke.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I wholeheartedly agree with this conclusion! The peer review shaves off the bottom and top 25% and what is left is toothless repetition of the status quo. And it leads to scientific standstill.

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Reposted by Douwe van Hinsbergen

RAS Journals @rasjournals.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Published in #GJI Geophysical Journal International: "Paleo- and Neo-Tethyan subducted slabs beneath the Eastern Mediterranean region", van Hinsbergen et al. This is Fig. 1: please visit academic.oup.com/gji/article/... to read the paper. @royalastrosoc.bsky.social @academic.oup.com

Plate tectonic reconstruction of the Tethyan oceans at 190 Ma, illustrating the transform-bounded plate tectonic segmentation of the oceanic plate system. Based on the Utrecht Paleogeographic model as summarized in D.J.J. van Hinsbergen et al. (2026) with plate tectonic interpretations as in N. Lom & D.J.J. van Hinsbergen (2026). EMO = Eastern Mediterranean Ocean.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

A large 7.7 quake struck Flores, Indonesia. This occurred behind a major northward subduction zone at a ‘back thrust’ fault, where the volcanic islands from Bali to Wetar are pushed northwards, towards the uppet plate of Indonesia. earthquakeinsights.substack.com/p/m77-earthq...

earthquakeinsights.substack.com

M7.7 earthquake strikes Flores, Indonesia

Backthrusting along the Flores Thrust

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Only the second clip of its kind: the rupture of a fault during an earthquake! The fault offsets the lawn in the top left corner, and tilts the houses and lawn upward!

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

A-1510, 44730 Pancrudo, Teruel, Spanje

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Central Iberian Ranges, Pancrudo, Teruel, Spain

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Just in case y’all needed a thrust fault 😘

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Two years ago, we made a clip about the Geology of Alpe d'Huez! Enjoy today's climb!

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

An active push force from the mantle may come from rising plumes, upon their first rise. But although this may change plate’s motion, it’s only a short-lived force that makes one-time events.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Tarduno showed hotspot motion relative to the spin axis, with paleomagnetism. That may just as well be (and likely is) true polar wander: the tilt of the solid Earth relative to the spin axis due to changes in its moment of inertia. See also Gaastra et al 2026.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Ridge push is a minor force and only for plates that are also subducting, caused by the topographic difference between ridge and trench. Many ridges are moving relative to the mantle: they spread also without mantle drag forcing it, just passively accommodating subduction.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

…and there is no evidence for ambient mantle flow, in the upper or lower mantle, below the Pacific. Modelers insist there is, but within parameter uncertainty, anything is possible in the mantle. Observations suggest it’s a boring, passive body of sluggish rock 😄.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

In a paper last year, Wagenaar et al (JGR 2025) made a reference frame assuming the mantle is stagnant, and used mismatches with predictions (e.g. hotspot tracks) to learn where it may not be. Answer: only at the base and the top of the mantle must there be motopn (3/n)

e.to

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

conveyor belt current or not. And is the ambient mantle convecting besides accommodating plate motion, slab sinking, and plume rise? Probably, but I am not aware of observational evidence that it does, so very slowly, and subordinate to plate motion (2/n)

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

My take: you’ll need a viscous mantle to accommodate the sinking of slabs and the motion of plate. Whether that mantle is otherwise stagnant or is indergoing some non-plate induced convective motion is irrelevant. Analogy: the Titanic would have sunk no matter whether the Atlantic Ocean had a (1/n)

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This was my favorite @geotdf.bsky.social clip we made! Cantal Volcano day today!! 🌋

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Well, there's WTF allright...Jonas climed Tourmalet in record time and stayed away from 8 supermen chasing him. That was an amazing performance. And he got dwarfed by Pogi.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The FIFA assigned an American referee to USA-Belgium. Playing time will depend on when the USA has scored more than Belgium. The rule that a ball has to have entered a goal is abandoned. What goal to score in will be decided afterwards by the referee. The VAR got a peace prize. Let’s see who’ll win!

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Massive earthquake in Venezuela, 130 km west of Caracas, on the main Caribbean-South America plate boundary. A double event of 7.2 and 7.5. Fear for major casualties and damage. The quake occurred on a triple junction with yet another major fault. This does not look good 🙁.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Agreed! I want to hear the story of the author, not of some chatbot.

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I climbed the epic Mont Ventoux today, with colleague Niko Wanders. I will not lightly forget the sheer happiness of riding in the barren limestones at the top 6 km of the climb. It was fantastic.

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Reposted by Douwe van Hinsbergen

Bernd Andeweg @berndandeweg.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

#paleontology question: not the first time to find something like this in fossiliferous #Oxfordian (#Jurassic) beds SE Spain (Prebetics) full of #ammonites, #belemnites, #brachiopodes. This part of a sponge, someone? #fossil ⚒️

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Dutch geology text book with examples from Europe. But maybe we should make a popular text book about Europe’s geological evolution too!

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Douwe van Hinsbergen @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

I don’t really know, in our field, we don’t really write books to convey scientific thought, but articles. But these are a bit technical probably (for instance my Gondwana Research 2020 paper on the Mediterranean. I have a powerpoint deck on the Geology of Europe, and we plan a …

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