en route to Loreto for GSA Cordilleran Section meeting

View south from my comfy chair at gate B9 (benign!) through cool polarizing windows toward runways and SF Bay

Harvey Milk Terminal at SFO is so nice everybody here is strolling and gawking and smiling

Am I surprised? Not at all.

Image of a cross section of a different plant species from same site (~409 million years old) taken by Hans Kerp. You can see the packed parenchyma cells and also the presumably mutualistic mycorrhizal fungi (blue ring) that were partners of land plants from the beginning…glass-like preservation.

Who could have foreseen that untrained people using black powder to blow whole blocks of houses to kindling would make the fires worse?

Jack London's report:

The best book on the 1906 quake IMO is Philip Fradkin's The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself. Not a scientific book although Fradkin is very good with the science; he's very good with the human actions and undercurrents that went on at the time.

Good article by Jack Lee.

I awoke this morning at both 5:12 (clock time) and 6:12 (solar time, 1906 not having daylight saving time), and the hour change makes a world of difference when you picture the morning of the great quake.

Echoes of Third Reich geotechnical engineering

Where are the localities?

Pull quote: "The growing emphasis on fully automated pipelines reflects an aspiration toward comprehensive autonomy. In spirit, this resembles attempting to move from no automation to full self‐driving capability in a single leap, bypassing intermediate levels of assistance and validation. Many seismic applications, including earthquake early warning, earthquake forecasting, and explosion monitoring, carry substantial responsibility because their outputs influence scientific, societal, and geopolitical decisions."

SRL paper: Seismology AI needs engineering-style followup; pure research isn't enough. pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/srl/arti...

Conybeare and Buckland were rock stars who filled auditoriums. Lyell toured the United States to big crowds. The French savants didn't do so much public lecturing, but they were heavyweights in intellectual circles.

Fun facts and FAQs about Megalodon, Maryland’s new (and definitely extinct) official state shark This week, Maryland became the first U.S. State to have an official state shark! Otodus megalodon was a really cool shark that is rightfully beloved by many, and Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs are…

This week, my state of Maryland became the first U.S. State to get an official state shark!

I wrote about why Megalodon is awesome, how we know that it's extinct, and what having a state shark means for modern-day shark science and conservation

I'm fine, everything is fine. 🧪🌍🦑🦈

True, slightly exaggerated. Darwin's first best-seller was the geology-heavy Voyage of the Beagle, long before Origin of Species. Lyell's Principles of Geology sold well for decades. You weren't an educated person if you couldn't talk about a destination's geology when you traveled.

Wishing California's Quake Whisperer well . . .

Badger’s Park When you learn the landscape, something as subtle as a dip in the road can yield a story. This view looks east down E. 10th Street, in near-East Oakland. The territory is what I call the Clinton te…

New blog post on an old bit of Oakland.

Apparently true. Fortunately the fate of the state doesn't depend on Swalwell becoming governor. He should probably resign from Congress but may not if he isn't expelled.

What does a raindrop actually look like? Well, here’s an OK approximation I demonstrated today by placing a water droplet into an airstream created by my small portable leaf blower with a 3D printed head to help make laminar flow. Doesn’t look quite like the cartoons, does it?

A stylized map of the United States and its territories, showing ones Callan has been to in someway, shape, or form. It is titled US Level 207.

Level "207"
tenpages.netlify.app/us-level/us....

This is an astonishing fossil find: an Early Triassic (~250 mya) baby Lystrosaurus still in "egg position" with/ 2 other babies, showing these mammal precursors hatched from eggs! Did these burrowers also nest in burrows? Must. Read. Article. Congrats to @jenniferbotha.bsky.social & colleagues! 🧪🪨🥚

Fractured rocks! Not deep-sea mud.

The latest eruption at Kilauea appears to be starting! We should see large lava fountains soon. Tune in live here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXKu...

Full text is in the image. Just as we breed dogs and horses for collectively decided purposes, we need to breed AIs to serve human communities, not just be the most-AI AI.

I'm not at your level so forgive me if I'm dumb: did your resolution setting change? Happens to me all the time in PS Elements.

Google Earth image of the site of Raknehaugen.

An Iron Age burial mound in Norway has been reinterpreted as being a memorial for a catastrophic 6th century quick clay landslide during a period of climatic instability.
eos.org/thelandslide...

Do open the image in a new tab and blow it up.

Fault localities around Fort Ross and the eclogite block at Jenner

The birds at San Luis Natl Wildlife Reserve are awake this morning!
(Video shows radar loop of the past hour and a rapid-onset band of green popping up and expanding like a pond ripple)