Joe Levy
@colddirt.bsky.social
permafrost & planetary geomorphologist, assoc. prof of Earth & Env. Geosciences @colgateuniv, linker of climate change to landscape evolution, ice storyteller
Be cool like a Michigan elementary/middle sticker contest winner! Go vote!
www.michigan.gov/sos/election...
www.michigan.gov/sos/election...
November 4, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Be cool like a Michigan elementary/middle sticker contest winner! Go vote!
www.michigan.gov/sos/election...
www.michigan.gov/sos/election...
Particularly lovely braid bars in the emriver flume this morning for #SedimentSaturday and Family Weekend at @colgate.edu ⚒️🧪
November 1, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Particularly lovely braid bars in the emriver flume this morning for #SedimentSaturday and Family Weekend at @colgate.edu ⚒️🧪
I am irrationally excited about this. 3rd-grade me took a stab at improving the zipper as part of a science fair project. Alternative take: zippers with tape are user-replaceable. Integrated zips might look and feel nice, but are Apple/JD-level user servicble. #design
www.wired.com/story/the-zi...
www.wired.com/story/the-zi...
The Zipper Is Getting Its First Major Upgrade in 100 Years
By stripping away the fabric tape that’s held zippers together for a hundred years, Japanese clothing giant YKK is designing the future of seamless clothing.
www.wired.com
October 19, 2025 at 1:14 PM
I am irrationally excited about this. 3rd-grade me took a stab at improving the zipper as part of a science fair project. Alternative take: zippers with tape are user-replaceable. Integrated zips might look and feel nice, but are Apple/JD-level user servicble. #design
www.wired.com/story/the-zi...
www.wired.com/story/the-zi...
One of my new favorite moments @colgate.edu was getting invited to judge a Fake Rock competition this week in the first year seminar “Fakes: Deception, Illusion, & Misdirection.” The course is all about illusions, art, and what counts as real. ⚒️🧪 🌎🎨
October 1, 2025 at 1:05 PM
One of my new favorite moments @colgate.edu was getting invited to judge a Fake Rock competition this week in the first year seminar “Fakes: Deception, Illusion, & Misdirection.” The course is all about illusions, art, and what counts as real. ⚒️🧪 🌎🎨
Oreos, cookies, and frosting in lab? It must be clay minerals day in Seds. ⚒️🧪
September 4, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Oreos, cookies, and frosting in lab? It must be clay minerals day in Seds. ⚒️🧪
I think I figured out why my dataloggers stopped telemetering. The playa they were on decided to spend some more time as a lake. ⚒️🧪
August 21, 2025 at 2:29 PM
I think I figured out why my dataloggers stopped telemetering. The playa they were on decided to spend some more time as a lake. ⚒️🧪
Fun and games with #drone ortho-images. Here's three weeks or so of #Antarctic water track wetlands expanding during the '24-25 austral summer. The gif runs forwards then backwards to help spot change. You can see which way time's moving by looking at the shrinking snowbanks at right.
July 21, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Fun and games with #drone ortho-images. Here's three weeks or so of #Antarctic water track wetlands expanding during the '24-25 austral summer. The gif runs forwards then backwards to help spot change. You can see which way time's moving by looking at the shrinking snowbanks at right.
Wow, poster putty is a lot stronger in Europe than it is in the US.
July 11, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Wow, poster putty is a lot stronger in Europe than it is in the US.
It’s not “costs” and “savings,” @nytimes.com. It’s “forfeiting the revenue the government needs to its work” and “abandonment of the needy and the future.”
Snuck in there is also expansion of a police state, of course. But it just ain’t “costs” and “savings.”
Snuck in there is also expansion of a police state, of course. But it just ain’t “costs” and “savings.”
June 30, 2025 at 11:56 AM
It’s not “costs” and “savings,” @nytimes.com. It’s “forfeiting the revenue the government needs to its work” and “abandonment of the needy and the future.”
Snuck in there is also expansion of a police state, of course. But it just ain’t “costs” and “savings.”
Snuck in there is also expansion of a police state, of course. But it just ain’t “costs” and “savings.”
Putting together some #drone orthoimages from this past year's #Antarctic fieldwork. I noticed an oblique image in the set (all the mapping shots are nadir). Team dronie! Very RHPC: "And crawling on the planet's face, some insects called the human race. Lost in time and lost in space...and meaning."
June 29, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Putting together some #drone orthoimages from this past year's #Antarctic fieldwork. I noticed an oblique image in the set (all the mapping shots are nadir). Team dronie! Very RHPC: "And crawling on the planet's face, some insects called the human race. Lost in time and lost in space...and meaning."
This is bad for those facing level 11 Awkward Ringlet Index warnings. And, also, for everyone. Be careful in the heat and humidity—it’s the most dangerous weather phenomenon.
wapo.st/4lfEc0x
wapo.st/4lfEc0x
Maps show the cities about to experience extreme humidity and heat
Humidity will soon surge to extreme levels across 40 states. Find out where there will be excessive heat and humidity — and how humidity patterns are changing.
wapo.st
June 17, 2025 at 12:56 PM
This is bad for those facing level 11 Awkward Ringlet Index warnings. And, also, for everyone. Be careful in the heat and humidity—it’s the most dangerous weather phenomenon.
wapo.st/4lfEc0x
wapo.st/4lfEc0x
Um, @nytimes.com, Leo IV, who was born in Rome in the year 790 CE, was probably not the first American pontiff. Numeracy (and Roman numeralcy) matters.
June 12, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Um, @nytimes.com, Leo IV, who was born in Rome in the year 790 CE, was probably not the first American pontiff. Numeracy (and Roman numeralcy) matters.
Optimism is submitting new proposals to the 2025 NSF call for research projects requiring Antarctic fieldwork. Advocacy is reminding my senators’ offices that US scientists can’t be leaders in polar #geoscience without funding. Polar environmental change affects all Americans. #StandUpForScience
June 3, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Optimism is submitting new proposals to the 2025 NSF call for research projects requiring Antarctic fieldwork. Advocacy is reminding my senators’ offices that US scientists can’t be leaders in polar #geoscience without funding. Polar environmental change affects all Americans. #StandUpForScience
Exploring Lava River Cave outside of Flagstaff with first and second year @colgate.edu Earth & Environmental #Geosciences students. It’s a truly amazing lava tube and a great bunch of inquisitive people to geologize with! 🧪⚒️
May 12, 2025 at 3:57 AM
Exploring Lava River Cave outside of Flagstaff with first and second year @colgate.edu Earth & Environmental #Geosciences students. It’s a truly amazing lava tube and a great bunch of inquisitive people to geologize with! 🧪⚒️
Commercial satellite data hosted & distributed by the @polargeospatial.bsky.social has been a mainstay of my #NSFFunded research--letting us see a changing #cryosphere in near real time. The stoppage of NSF renewal funding hurts science, slows discovery, & makes us vulnerable to polar hazards.
May 6, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Commercial satellite data hosted & distributed by the @polargeospatial.bsky.social has been a mainstay of my #NSFFunded research--letting us see a changing #cryosphere in near real time. The stoppage of NSF renewal funding hurts science, slows discovery, & makes us vulnerable to polar hazards.
How do folks feel about this #datavis from @nytimes.com? Dark is high cloud cover; bright is low. I did a double-take when I saw it an was briefly excited to go look up--except I know it's cloudy in central NY where I am. Surely dark = low magnitude when you're mapping. Also dark = night sky?
May 5, 2025 at 11:38 PM
How do folks feel about this #datavis from @nytimes.com? Dark is high cloud cover; bright is low. I did a double-take when I saw it an was briefly excited to go look up--except I know it's cloudy in central NY where I am. Surely dark = low magnitude when you're mapping. Also dark = night sky?
Come find fault with our students! I mean, come find faults *with* our students. Colgate Earth and Environmental Geosciences is seeking a Visiting Assistant Professor in Structural Geology. Review starts May 16.
apply.interfolio.com/167020 NB: No interesting structures in the photo, just seds. 🧪⚒️
apply.interfolio.com/167020 NB: No interesting structures in the photo, just seds. 🧪⚒️
April 25, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Come find fault with our students! I mean, come find faults *with* our students. Colgate Earth and Environmental Geosciences is seeking a Visiting Assistant Professor in Structural Geology. Review starts May 16.
apply.interfolio.com/167020 NB: No interesting structures in the photo, just seds. 🧪⚒️
apply.interfolio.com/167020 NB: No interesting structures in the photo, just seds. 🧪⚒️
In a break from geoscience related content, we've got 6 new chicks scheduled to join our #backyardchicken flock next week. Crowd-sourcing excellently nerdy candidate chicken names. Thoughts?
April 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
In a break from geoscience related content, we've got 6 new chicks scheduled to join our #backyardchicken flock next week. Crowd-sourcing excellently nerdy candidate chicken names. Thoughts?
@colgate.edu student scientists rocked planetary research tonight at the #LPSC2025 poster session. Gully channel head formation initiated, mysteries of RSL unlocked, and Antarctic analogs explained! ⚒️🧪🚀
March 12, 2025 at 3:31 AM
@colgate.edu student scientists rocked planetary research tonight at the #LPSC2025 poster session. Gully channel head formation initiated, mysteries of RSL unlocked, and Antarctic analogs explained! ⚒️🧪🚀
The wall art at my Airbnb is remarkably on point for #LPSC2025. Anyone got any titles or captions for these?
My read on the middle is “March comes in like interstellar dust and goes out like an ignited star”
My read on the middle is “March comes in like interstellar dust and goes out like an ignited star”
March 11, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The wall art at my Airbnb is remarkably on point for #LPSC2025. Anyone got any titles or captions for these?
My read on the middle is “March comes in like interstellar dust and goes out like an ignited star”
My read on the middle is “March comes in like interstellar dust and goes out like an ignited star”
Either my read-rate is declining, or the transmission rate from speakers at #LPSC2025 is way up this year. Moving to 10 minute talks from 12 has really upped the cadence! Take a breath, friends!
March 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Either my read-rate is declining, or the transmission rate from speakers at #LPSC2025 is way up this year. Moving to 10 minute talks from 12 has really upped the cadence! Take a breath, friends!
We had a great pop-up Stand Up for Science rally & letter-writing party at Colgate U. today! I'm thrilled to have 40+ hand-drawn cards supporting science heading out to congresspeople across the US. Our students are worried about their futures, but they give me hope! @standupforscience.bsky.social
March 7, 2025 at 7:26 PM
We had a great pop-up Stand Up for Science rally & letter-writing party at Colgate U. today! I'm thrilled to have 40+ hand-drawn cards supporting science heading out to congresspeople across the US. Our students are worried about their futures, but they give me hope! @standupforscience.bsky.social
Fascinating ice crystals strained out of the sap buckets during today's sugaring in central NY!
March 1, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Fascinating ice crystals strained out of the sap buckets during today's sugaring in central NY!
Be like the hot spring hydrothermal plume in the Alvord Desert: be unstoppable, inexorable, and salty. #Drone ortho-images over three days last summer as part of the HeliHabitable field campaign.
February 12, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Be like the hot spring hydrothermal plume in the Alvord Desert: be unstoppable, inexorable, and salty. #Drone ortho-images over three days last summer as part of the HeliHabitable field campaign.