Tephra group members @elowilkinsonrowe.bsky.social and @danmclean.bsky.social are analysing some beautiful volcanic ash shards #tephra this week at Royal Holloway University. 🌋
#tephratastic
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Session abstract: Tephrochronology is one of the most effective tools for building precise and independent chronological frameworks that link archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, and geological archives. By relating tephra layers to eruptive events, it establishes isochrons – time-synchronous surfaces that enable stratigraphic sequences to be correlated across regions with exceptional precision. In recent years, the study of cryptotephra – fine-grained (<125 μm) volcanic glass shards preserved in sediments far from their source – has profoundly expanded the potential of this approach. The identification and geochemical fingerprinting of these invisible ash layers now allow long-distance correlations, extending the applicability of tephrochronology to regions and contexts once considered beyond its reach. This session focuses on how the integration of tephra studies into archaeological research is transforming our ability to correlate, date, and interpret the complex relationships between human activity, archaeological cultures, landscape evolution, and volcanic events across space and time. By bringing together examples from different regions and periods—from prehistoric to historical contexts—the session will highlight the diversity of applications and the growing analytical precision that characterise this rapidly evolving field. We welcome contributions demonstrating how both visible tephra and cryptotephra layers have been used to refine archaeological chronologies, synchronise cultural and environmental sequences, or strengthen the chronological control of multiproxy datasets. Methodological and case-study papers are equally encouraged, especially those integrating tephrochronology with geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental methods such as micromorphology, sedimentology, and palaeoecological analyses. Research from regions traditionally considered “tephra-poor”, where cryptotephra discoveries are revealing new temporal anchors, is particularly welcome.
📣 Studying tephra in archaeology?
Then submit an abstract to our #tephratastic session at the European Association for Archaeologists #EAAs in Athens this summer. 🌋🏛️ Session #203 “Advances in Tephrochronology for Archaeological Research”.
👉5th Feb deadline👈
More info: bit.ly/3LCcuyy
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Check out this fantastic #tephratastic session at the EAA Annual Meeting in Athens (26-29 August 2026). 🌋🔍😍
203 – Advances in #Tephrochronology for Archaeological Research
🚨The call for Contributions deadline is 5 February.
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A screenshot of the title of a PhD project: “New insights into the timing and scale of past Mediterranean volcanism and climate change from Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania) Swansea University Crocus DLA”
#Tephratastic PhD alert!!
Study the record of volcanism hidden in the sediments of Lake Ohrid with the brilliant @pgalbert.bsky.social…and even better, you’d live on the Welsh coastline 🏴🌊☀️
Bad news: deadline is Monday 12th Jan!! 🧑💻
More info: bit.ly/4pu3FVu
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We’ve had a very productive few days at Royal Holloway University running trace element analyses for the CAVES Project @elowilkinsonrowe.bsky.social and @danmclean.bsky.social 🌋🔍🔬Excited to start plotting the data! 📈 #tephratastic
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Cambridge Tephra Lab paper hot off the press: read how (2022-23 masters student) @elowilkinsonrowe.bsky.social used tephra layers in lakes to reconstruct Holocene explosive eruptions from the Main Ethiopian Rift. #tephratastic
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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A women stands by a wooden lab desk with a spatula held over a drainpipe filled with sediment.
Close up of a sediment core with a small channel of samples removed (plus a couple of bigger gaps from previous sampling). A labelled drainpipe lies alongside, plus a centrifuge tube rack with labels filled tubes in it.
Last week PhD student @yqnatdeng.bsky.social and @chslane.bsky.social were sampling cores from an Ethiopian lake…in Aberystwyth! Here’s hoping there’s lots of ancient cryptotephra to be found!
#tephratastic
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Visiting a friend from my @oxfordtephra.bsky.social days and here’s the cup my morning coffee came in! #tephratastic
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Our good old friend the Laacher See Tephra in a speleothem! #tephratastic @swinnyy.bsky.social
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@danmclean.bsky.social also visited the #LakeSuigetsu Fukui Varve Museum in November to give a guided #tephratastic tour of the layers. 🌋🇯🇵
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Hello, and happy 2025! 🎉 The Oxford Tephrochronology Group have joined Bluesky 👋 Looking forward to an exciting year of #tephratastic research 🔬 🌋🥼👩🏻🔬👨🏻🔬
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Respect. This may be the first time my interest has been piqued by a cricket fact! This is one #tephratastic trophy 🤩🌋🏏
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Three small glass vials and an old black camera film pot, on a yellow table top, containing black ash from the 15th August eruption of Mt Etna.
Using a kitchen funnel to decant ash from the film pot to a small glass jar. There’s a marker pen and sample bag also on the table.
Mt Etna keeps giving. Thanks to COT24 Catania for the recent ash sample. Prepped for delivery to volcano-keen kids and year 3 projects. #tephratastic
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6 people in outdoor gear stood on ashy ground with a mountain/volcano in the background. It’s cloudy, but clear from shorts and sone bare arms that it is still quite warm.
The same 6 people, this time with a view below into the cones and lava flows on the volcanoes slopes. You can just make out the sea in a bay in the distance.
Documenting this day so we can attribute all the Mt Etna tephra we are about to find in our cryptotephra lab to the correct isochron 🫣🌋🤔🕵🏻♀️
#tephratastic #toomuchtephra
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Great to be here with this #tephratastic crew.
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Looking up to the dome of a monastery from a courtyard/atrium.
Britta Jensen introducing the meeting on a stage in a lecture theatre.
A 35mm film canister containing ash from the most recent eruption of Etna.
Croissant and ice cream on a table
COT24 - Commission on Tephrochronology Catania 2024 is underway. Beautiful setting, great science, ash samples and ice cream. #tephratastic
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The #tephratastic Oxford Tephra Research Group are in Tenerife… looks amazing!
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A four panel picture of SEM images of volcanic glass particles. They all have shapes defined by bubble-relics, bubble walls or lots of small bubbles (“vesicles”) held together by smooth-surfaced, sharp-edged amorphous glass.
Who else could lose themselves for hours looking at volcanic ash on the SEM? 🤩🤩
These tiny glass shards show some of the textures created when gases exsolve from magma of different compositions during explosive eruptions. #tephratastic
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🌋The ultimate #tephratastic conference
Excited to share details of the COT-INTIMATE-THM meeting in Catania, September
🚨More information on the website: cot.iavceivolcano.org/cot-intimate...
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Blue sky viewed between sandstone college buildings.
An electron microprobe, which looks like a large white machine in a metal cage and has lots of large computer monitors next to it.
Welcome blue sky during a brief EPMA break. Has been a busy week on the probe but getting that Friday feeling not all of these #tephratastic samples are going to be run in this batch. Guess I’ll be back again soon…
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