Watch as a mysterious seismic wave sweeps around the world, buzzing seismometers from Greenland to Antarctica in less than an hour!

The signal appeared in Sept 2023, sending scientists on an epic hunt for their cause (🎥 via @seismo_steve, @K_Svennevig, and Alexis Marbeouf) Perplexed researchers gathered on Mattermost, a chat app similar to Slack, to figure out the source. Suggestions ranged from volcanic eruptions to a fjord monster. “It was loosely classed as an unidentified seismic object,” or USO, @seismo_steve told me.

Iceland finally cracked open to unleash torrents of lava. While tourists have flocked to to see past eruptions, officials are warning this new eruption is not “tourist-friendly” and seems to be significantly larger than the Fagradalsfjall in 2021

Here’s what to know🧵

Soon after the eruption began 100-200 cubic meters PER SECOND of lava was gushing from the surface along a fissure some 3km long (0.62 miles), according to local news in Iceland.

grapevine.is/news/2023/12/1…

Today marks the last day for all of National Geographic's staff writers and many of their brilliant editors.

I'm so proud of all the work I've done with these talented people, and know they'll all land on their feet. But it's a sad day for journalism... I'll link everyone here to make them easy to find. There's just a stunning amount of experience and talent lost in these layoffs—send work their way! To kick it off is the inimitable Craig Welch:

https://twitter.com/CraigAWelch/status/1674038159322275841?s=20

PSA to dog owners in the Virginia area: an outbreak of a virus suspected to be canine influenza is spreading across the state. It is highly contagious b/t dogs. When I went in to get my dogs checked out, the vet told me: “This is our version of March 2020” … 🧵 My vet wasn’t messing around when we went in: Before our appointment, they told me to call and wait outside. The pups and I were escorted to a room that opens to the outside. It had no furniture just a plastic chair—a setup easiest to bleach top to bottom after every client…

A swarm of earthquakes has rattled under the town of Pahala, Hawaii, for decades, surging to hundreds of quakes a week in 2019. Now scientists finally pinned down the source & mapped the island's underbelly.

And he data are just WOW.

My latest @natgeo nationalgeographic.com/science/articl… @NatGeo Fascinating work from @zross_ and his crew at @CaltechSeismo! Many thanks to @USGSVolcanoes's Ninfa Bennington, @helenjanisz, @volcano_diana, and Matt Burgess for sharing their thoughts about the new work!

This is a trilobite eye. Every facet—or little nub—of the eye is a single crystal of calcite. But if trilobites' eyes were pure calcite they'd see the world in duplicates. Ever inventive, evolution found a way ... 1/x 2/x ... There's several troubles with having calcite eyes. But one big one is a neat trick of the mineral: It splits light into two, which means if you look at something through a picture of calcite, you'll see the in duplicate ...

Earlier this year, a volcano in the South Pacific erupted so ferociously that it was heard from AK, 6,000 mi away. It unleashed a global tsunami and atmospheric pressure waves that zipped around Earth. But much of what happened has been a mystery. 🧵 The volcano, called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) is largely shrouded by water, leaving many questions about its tumultuous eruption. Now scientists are now finally putting together the pieces—and each bit of new info is breathtaking. My latest @NatGeo
nationalgeographic.com/science/articl…

In February 2021, I got a call from @petergwin asking if I could be in Mexico by March 1. I paused then asked: You realize that's only a week away?

One week later, I was in the mountains of Oaxaca, reporting this story for the June issue of @NatGeoMag nationalgeographic.com/science/articl… @petergwin @NatGeoMag Reporting this story was one of the highlights of my career so far. All I knew going into the trip was that dozens of world-class cavers were pushing themselves to their limits to explore a super deep cave—but there was so much more to learn and tell.

I keep thinking of this mineral I recently learned about and maybe I'm just a geo nerd but it is SO COOL: Viviannite!

The crystals are really pretty, but what's even more awesome is the oddities about their formation. A short 🧵 This mineral is rich in iron and phosphorus. You know what has lots of phosphorus? Bone. Yup, this mineral tends to form around dead bodies, particularly bone. sciencedirect.com/science/articl… 📸 @mineralauctions

For those interested in Utah's M5.7 #utahearthquake, here's a little history of the region —

From Twitter responses this morning, it seems many are surprised at the event. But Utah is no stranger to quakes. Here's why: (Thread) Utah sits in what's known as the Basin and Range Province, which is a swath of the west coast from southern Idaho down to Sonora in Mexico. Here, the land is getting pulled apart and like stretching out play-dough, the crust has thinned and cracked. nps.gov/articles/basin…