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Nick Barber 🌋

@volcannick.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.1K following 1.2K posts

Asst Professor, geoscientist, volcanophile magma, metals, and minerals 🌋🪨🛰️Philadelphian 🦅, father, husband. he/him. www.volcannick.com Opinions my own

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Nick Barber 🌋 @volcannick.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Gould wrote these words in the 1980s. While he no date would be horrified at the persistent advance of anti-scientific crusades over the past several decades, I don’t think he’s wrong.
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Nick Barber 🌋 @volcannick.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
“But science can only be harmed in the long run by its self proclaimed separation as a priesthood guarding a sacred rite called the scientific method. Science is accessible to all thinking people because it applies universal tools of intellect to its distinctive material.”
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Nick Barber 🌋 @volcannick.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Regarding the myth that science is something superior and apart from society: “The myth may serve us well in the short and narrow as a rationale for a lobbying strategy - give us funding and leave us alone, for we know what we’re doing and you don’t understand anyway.”
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 03/10/2026
I saw an Instagram video where the guy had a mini laundromat in his own home, two massive washers and two massive dryers, and rather than "what a waste of energy" my first thought was "those are gonna last way longer than mine, their motors will get a chance to rest"
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Nick Barber 🌋 @volcannick.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Start the day w/ Stephen Gould: “But scientists are not robotic inducing machines that infer structures of explanation only from the regularities observed in natural phenomena…Scientists are human beings, immersed in culture, and struggling with all the curious tools of inference the mind permits…”
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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 03/10/2026
🌋 Earth's deep mantle may hide spare water Lab experiments under mantle pressure show two minerals can lock water together into one stable structure, giving subducted ocean crust an extra place to store water deep inside Earth. 🔗 doi.org/10.1029/2026gl124407 #Earth #Geology #Science 🧪
doi.org
In Situ Observation of Pressure‐Enhanced Hydrous–Anhydrous Solid Solution in Lower‐Mantle SiO<sub>2</sub>–AlOOH Phases
SiO2 and AlOOH form extensive CaCl2-type solid solutions under lower mantle conditions Pressure strongly enhances mutual solid solution between SiO2 and AlOOH Water may redistribute from peridot...
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 03/10/2026
I often see people claim that because clean energy sources like solar, wind, or nuclear are manufactured using fossil fuels their emissions are high. But thats absolutely not the case: even accounting for full lifecycle emissions they are vastly better than burning coal or gas:
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Chris Rowan @allochthonous.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
⚒️ Sigh. Apparently we're relitigating the ICS vote to reject establishing the Anthropocene as a formal geological epoch. I'm not sure what is actually going to be achieved here except to keep everyone mad at each other and muddy public understanding. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Battle of the Anthropocene: allegations re-ignite row over proposed geological epoch
Researchers say that a vote to reject the epoch violated procedure and call for transparency.
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
If you are part of an academic society or a professor of any kind, public statements that you do not condone Drexel cutting off the academy of natural sciences from the public of Philadelphia is very important right now. We need your voices. Urgently.
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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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Anthony Edwards @edwardsanthonyb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Breaking news: The Earth is getting rounder agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
INBOX:
Earth’s poles are rising by 0.5 to 1 millimeters per year, slowly un-squashing our planet’s slightly flattened, jelly-donut-like shape, according to a new study. Linking satellite measurements of changing altitude across Earth’s surface from 1997 to 2015 to the planet’s shape, researchers found that the rounding effect also seems to be accelerating over time, with the poles rising an extra 0.4 millimeters per year faster every decade. Though our planet seems solid, the Earth’s interior acts more like an extremely slow-flowing liquid, warping over time under forces like the weight of ice sheets and oceans. Currently, our planet bulges out a little around the equator. But as ice sheets melt and reduce the force acting on the Earth at the poles, the equator is gradually cinching in as the poles push upwards, molding our planet into a more spherical shape. [JGR Solid Earth study]

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026JB034224
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
One literary device is to make one's audience do/feel a thing then make them feel bad for having done/felt it. Examples include: killing the giants in Shadow of the Colussus, laughing at the main character of White Woman's Instagram, and sympathising with Satan in Paradise Lost. I like this trick.
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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Congratulations, Quartz! After a decade of #MinCup, this key rock-forming mineral of optical tricks is the #MinCup26 Champion! Due to intense manipulation attempts in the final hours, the exact winning margin is still being audited. Please join us tomorrow for celebration!
A clear double-terminated quartz crystal with petroleum inclusions. Credit: John Sobolewski
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 02/10/2026
This will never stop blowing my mind. A 12-year sequence of real telescope images of a star 133 lightyears away. And around it, four planets slowly orbiting. Four real exoplanets, each more massive than Jupiter, imaged as they move around their host star.
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Eos @eos.org · 01/10/2026
Quartz was the original inspiration to start #MinCup, and (anecdotally) it's an inspiration for many kids to fall in love with the big beautiful world of minerals. #Quartz has done a lot for us! And so, the least we could do is cast our final vote for this abundant—and abundantly stunning!—mineral.
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INGVvulcani @ingvvulcani.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP IN STROMBOLI | EXCITE 2 🌋 From field to lab: how do we analyze the products and dynamics of volcanic eruptions? From June 7 to 10, 2027, Stromboli Info and program: buff.ly/cwXhmr5 #INGV #EXCITE2 #HPHTLAB #IAVCEI #Stromboli #Volcanology #Geoscience #Microscopy #VolcanoImaging
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Rebecca Williams @volcanologist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Turning knowledge generation into an economic endeavour is the root cause of problems in UK Higher Education. From student loans & tuition fees, through to UKRI 'growth agenda'. Knowledge stopped being valued as intrinsic good for society leading to less* being generated overall.
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Monica @jolemamels.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I’m tired of this grandpa eagles fan well that’s too damn bad Nick sirianni
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🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 28/09/2026
The mayor of Ithaca (my friend and former fellow PhD candidate in Government at Cornell) announces a moratorium on permitting Greek Life activities until Cornell produces new standards of addressing sexual assault.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
There are few things more frustrating than watching a poorly coached football team
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Jimmy Kempski @jimmykempski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Certainly, the Bears are thrilled they punted.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I would humbly suggest that we start covering the wide receivers #GoBirds
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Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Although I can't be with those of you who are out in the rain advocating for your museum today...I thought I might be a good idea to post some Academy of Natural Sciences fossils to keep you warm and dry on the inside. @savetheacademy.bsky.social
An ammonite scultpure outside the side entrance of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
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Nick Barber 🌋 @volcannick.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This whole thread is so helpful to my understanding of water issues in the West and Midwest. Thanks as always @brandontbishop.bsky.social and @moreorloess.bsky.social for the great back and forth.
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Joe Mason @moreorloess.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Another dimension of this whole discussion is that more alfalfa and less row crops would be a good thing in the Midwest and Great Plains from the standpoint of both soil erosion and water quality.
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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
And this bit: "Areas that often have wet soil with high humidity show significant declines in alfalfa productivity. Diseases of the root and crown occur under excessively wet conditions (S. B. Orloff et al., 1997). The arid climate in the western United States is thus ideal for production."
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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
And this is relevant: "In California, alfalfa is a $1B/year crop feeding a $5B/year dairy industry, the largest agricultural sector in the state. California is now the #1 dairy state, while New Mexico (#9), Arizona (#13), Colorado (#15), and Utah (#21) are also key national dairy producers."
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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This report is *fascinating*.
crbagwater.colostate.edu
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Nick Barber 🌋 @volcannick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I had no idea about its role as a nutrient fixer…does that explain why Colorado river-adjacent aquifers have so much water allocated to alfalfa production?
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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Alfalfa's an excellent nitrogen fixer--it does in some sense the *opposite* of nutrient leeching and is a key part of crop rotation. It basically can't go away completely and have viable farming (another reason I don't like this discourse), but monocropping it is also horrible idea.
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Elizabeth V @geolizzy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Eastern water law is gonna have to change too. Climate is getting drier and they continue to use water like it’s infinite. VA DEQ put out a report that the Potomac Aquifer is getting depleted leading to subsidence and salt water intrusion. And many of the withdrawals are unpermitted so big problem
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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Vote for the mineral that literally moves mountains. Vote #Halite. #MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿
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Eos @eos.org · 26/09/2026
See here! We're voting for #quartz in today's #MinCup26 quartz-erfinals. Gaze at this quartz (and bronze, marble, frit and obsidian) @metmuseum.org find from ancient Greece ... www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
Eyes ready to be inset into an over-life-size sculpture in ancient Greece
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Kepler 🍁ΘΔ @andromedaphoenix.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Team art history again with Cuprite's use as a pigment! Also wow what a close vote rn #MinCup26
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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Girl dinner
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Liam U. Taylor @liamtaylor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A Thoreau quote you might not know: "There is no such thing as pure objective observation. Your observation, to be interesting, i.e. to be significant, must be subjective." (May 6, 1854)
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Harold Tobin @haroldtobin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Back from a 5 day backpacking-as-field-work venture into the Olympic mountains interior. We covered 45 miles on the Skyline Ridge trail and back, with 16,000 feet of total vertical in 5 days. All to recon another swath of deeply subducted rocks from the paleo-seismogenic zone. Subduction rocks! ⚒️
Two geologists hiking along steep bare hillside seen from behind, with distant moountain ridge and blue sky.  Close up shot of rock outcrop of severely deformed meta-sedimentary rocks with a block-in-matrix melange fabric. Pencil shown for scale. Geologist standing at dusk against a rocky landscape, brushing their teeth with a headlamp on. Person stands on rocky knob against blue skyline with Mt. Olympus (Washington) in background.
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Better still - use the fact that it gives them access to the Hugoton gas field, one of the world's major helium sources, thus allowing them to keep their party balloons aloft.
Map of western Oklahoma showing the states surrounding the panhandle, plus the extent of the Hugoton Gas Field.
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Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This morning Krugman published a piece on this issue and used this argument when he cited Jared Bernstein. Bernstein makes the point clearly. "refiners will be seeking to replace lost profits from exports, and thus will try to avoid passing through the full savings" Protip: They will avoid
substack.com
Shutting in Domestic Diesel Through Export Controls Won’t Work
If the admin wants to lower energy prices, they need to end the damn war.
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Elizabeth V @geolizzy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I’m voting for the copper ore #chrysocolla today and not the one that can give you hypertension #MinCup26
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Maya Wei-Haas, PhD @mayaweihaas.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
BIG NEWS! I’m writing a book about the amazing processes of the deep Earth that shaped the surface as we know it. We’ll venture from the crust to the core, examining the surprising links that connect us to Earth’s deepest reaches. I’m so excited to dig in! ⚒️🧪🪨🌎🌋
Screenshot of book announcement reads: Science journalist Maya Wei-Haas, PhD's HOW EARTH 
WORKS: THE HIDDEN MACHINE BENEATH OUR FEET, an adventure into the 12 geological processes that have turned this planet from a ball of rock into the most dynamic self-regulating system in the known universe, to Mo Crist at Bloomsbury, at auction, by Becky Sweren at Aevitas Creative Management (NA). Rights also to Sarah Rigby at Elliott & Thompson (UK). Rights:
efiles@aevitascreative.com
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Nick Barber 🌋 @volcannick.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Alright, time to get to work
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Eos @eos.org · 22/09/2026
Another #MinCup26 matchup, another contender that looks like a mineralized version of a marine creature. This time it’s #pyromorphite that gets our vote with an admirable impression of a spiny sea urchin.
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Elizabeth V @geolizzy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It’s certainly not a mining company, that’s for sure. It turns out a legitimate exploration company (Greenland Mines) was bought out by Klotho Neurosciences, Inc back in March. For what reason? I have no idea.
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Jeff Berardelli @weatherprof.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It’s official, the 2026 El Niño has broken a record for the highest ocean anomaly in 170+ years… Incredibly reaching that threshold a full 2 months ahead of 2015’s record of +3.02C set on Nov 18th. See that red line? That’s 2026. Every other bold line are the strongest El Niño’s on record. 1/
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felinecannonball @felinecannon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Couldn't find the graph I wanted at the energy information agency, so I made one. Appears they are scraping the bottom of the barrel with the strategic petroleum reserve and may stop short of drawing down to the statutory minimum reserve due to engineering issues. www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/his...
chart showing reserves and withdrawals from the SPR. Statuatory minimum reserve is 252 million barrels. Practical engineering limit is 250-300 million barrels. Reserves as of 9/11 were 284 million barrels.
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VMSG @vmsg.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
We're excited to announce registration for our 2027 VMSG Annual Meeting in Cambridge is now open! See our webpage here: vmsg.org.uk/events/vmsg2... For this year we also have bursary support available to help attendees, deadline to apply 9th October!
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Louise Dawe @louisedawe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Vote #Pyromorphite for #MinCup26! In their @actacrystb.iucr.org paper Hirano and Okudera explore the lead-phosphate apatite framework shared by pyromorphite, showing how its chloride channel is shaped by the surrounding structure and Pb²⁺ lone-pair e- density. journals.iucr.org/b/issues/202...
journals.iucr.org
Spatial distribution of 6s2 lone electron pair in Pb4Na(PO4)3 and stereochemical activity of the 6s2 electron cloud in lead-bearing apatites
In lacunary apatite structure-type Pb4Na(PO4)3, residual density attributable to the deformed 6s2 electron cloud is found in the vicinity of A2-site Pb2+ on regular A2 triangle normal to c. Systematic...
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Mikki Brock @mikkibrock.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
good lord. this is ridiculous and so demoralizing for faculty and students alike. if you are unwilling or unable to write your own stuff--be it op-eds, articles, or emails--then you should not be working at a university, much less leading one.
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Ross O'Connor @oconnor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Good luck with that. Canada exports more potash to the US than Belarus produces.
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