Author | Lightnews

Gareth Fabbro

@fitzgabbro.bsky.social

1.9K followers 3K following 200 posts

Volcano lover and lecturer in igneous processes at @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social. Lived in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇫🇷 🇸🇬 🇫🇯 🇵🇭 🇧🇪. Studied volcanoes in: 🇮🇹 🇬🇷 🇵🇬 🇵🇭

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Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · 12d

Do you like stripy rocks? Want to study how ore deposits form? Does fieldwork in Norway sound like fun? Come do a PhD with @3oja.bsky.social and me (and a few others) at @ueaenv.bsky.social!

aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...

Magma emplacement and its evolution: deciphering between magmatic and tectonic processes | Aries

Dr Zoja Vukmanovic, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia Dr Gareth Fabbro, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia Dr Will McCarthy, University of St Andrews...

aries-dtp.ac.uk

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Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · 1d

My favourite is the theoretical subatomic particle called the tamaid, and TIL there's also a bach…

www.nature.com/articles/216...

Relationships between the Masses of Subatomic Particles - Nature

Nature - Relationships between the Masses of Subatomic Particles

www.nature.com

Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · 3d

Hi @royalsociety.org, is this the sort of "personal political opinion" that you are happy for your fellows to broadcast? Can you not see how this brings you into disrepute?

Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · 3d

You joke, but the capitol of Wales is Caerdydd (in Welsh), and that's what I initially read it as…

Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · 12d

Yes, it is open to international students. Merci !

Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · 12d

Magma emplacement and its evolution: deciphering between magmatic and tectonic processes | Aries

aries-dtp.ac.uk

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 13d

1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area

2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction

3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it

Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…

4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely

[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over

5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat

[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster

Minister:
I understand your concerns…

6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?

Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters

7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian

[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]

Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love

8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to

[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]

9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR

[woman looks baffled]

10
woman:
I just want a bus service

Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]

[ends]

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Bipedal Meatbag @bipedalmeatbag.bsky.social · 14d

Kīlauea episode 35 has arrived. The double fountain shot is from one of the HVO interns, Christina. All are taken from the public viewing areas.

Two lava fountains at night feeding a flow

A bright orange lava fountain with glowing clouds.

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Ryan J Hollister @phaneritic.bsky.social · 14d

Kilauea is putting on another tremendous show right now. Anyone got a private jet we could borrow after No Kings tomorrow?
www.youtube.com/live/BqmpkUd...

YouTube screen cap of massive double fountain of orange lava shooting away from one another into the black of night. Foreground has a very large lava flow pouring over uneven landscape

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Stuart Swales @taynappe.bsky.social · 15d

It must be #FridayFold ⚒️ time!
Carboniferous Crackington Formation at Hartland Quay, Devon, UK (similar to Millook Haven further south along the coast, but upright here)

Steeply-dipping strata on both limbs of a tight upright antiform on the LHS of the piccie. Dunno about RHS, is there a synform there or is it faulted? Waves crash below onto stony beach.

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 17d

I'm so proud to announce my most ambitious pin to date: a miniature guide to the trees of Britain (and lots of Europe)!

Available now from my Etsy: canopyrobin.etsy.com/listing/4386...

A rectangular enamel pin with two hinges on the left hand side. It looks like a book and has a picture of a tree on the front. The book is titled: Trees, a miniature guidebook. An open version of the pin shows assorted leaf shapes on the pages of the book. The leaves are labelled by species as oak, horse chestnut, sycamore, hawthorn, ash, alder, hazel, holly, lime, beech, and birch

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 16d

A request for weather interested volunteers!

Met Eireann would like to rescue millions of weather observations taken in Ireland over many decades that are still stuck on paper. #WeatherRescue

Anyone can help: www.zooniverse.org/projects/met...

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Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · 19d

I thought it was a slice of mouldy bread on first glance… 😂

Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

LastQuake @lastquake.emsc.eu · 23d

#Earthquake 18 km E of #Manay (#Philippines) 7 min ago (local time 09:43:59). Colored dots represent local shaking & damage level reported by eyeswitnesses. Share your experience via:
📱#appc.eu/#app" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">https://m.emsc.eu/#app
🌐https://m.emsc.eu/?id=1878673

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Melaine Le Roy @subfossilguy.bsky.social · 24d

Ice cave at Zinal Glacier front tonight! 🧊🥰

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Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · 25d

I was interested in applying, until I saw you require 3 reference letters before shortlisting

Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · 28d

Cummingtonite?

www.mindat.org/min-1170.html

Cummingtonite

Cummingtonite-Grunerite Series.

www.mindat.org

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · Oct 2

We have a #MinCup25 champion!!

Congratulations, #Kyanite!
www.mineralcup.org/2025

After eight years of competing, another few hours to verify votes was nothing, right?

Amazing first run, #Tugtupite, and better luck next year.

2025 — Mineral Cup

www.mineralcup.org

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Philippe Smet @pfsmet.bsky.social · Oct 2

And here is the updated color summary for #MinCup25!
Colorless (white-grey-black) minerals were quickly kicked out, unfortunately. Maybe next time, there can be a max color level for participation? Tenebrescent #tugtupite can participate again and take a glorious win after exposure to UV ;-)

Bracket of MinCup25. For each mineral, the typical appearance is shown with a small image. Of course, some minerals have multiple colours, so snippets from the images on the voting posts or the website were taken. Colored lines connect the different rounds.

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · Oct 1

I am so dismayed a the statement today from the President of the @royalsociety.org that I want to publish here the letter I wrote to him yesterday urging him to address the clear concerns of the UK scientific community.

Screenshot of first part of letter (continues in next image). Text reads:

Dear Sir Adrian

I write to request that in its deliberations tomorrow the Council resolves to take a principled stand to defend the scientific values written into its code of conduct.

In its attempts to deal with the actions of Elon Musk FRS, the Royal Society has repeatedly failed to explain how his repudiation of those values is consistent with the code of conduct that all Fellows must adhere to as a condition of their fellowship. As is now well established, these actions include attacking Antony Fauci FRS without good cause; spreading scientific misinformation on X [through his own utterances and by relaxing controls on the platform]; recklessly and unlawfully degrading the research ecosystem of the US as part of DOGE; and bragging publicly about "feeding USAID into the wood chipper", which the Lancet estimates will cause the deaths of 14 million people, many of them children under the age of five, by 2030.

The Society’s inaction extends to the recent brief exchange of correspondence between Prof Sir Paul Nurse and Mr Musk. Although there was some initial contact, when Sir Paul laid out the Society’s specific concerns there was no reply or explanation from Musk. For reasons that I’m afraid I cannot fathom, you chose once again not to enforce your code of conduct.

Screenshot of letter. Text continues:

"You will be aware that the sense of bewildered dismay over this affair is shared by Royal Society Fellows, medallists and journals editors, and many thousands within the scientific community here and abroad. The Royal Society still claims to speak for scientists in the UK, but on this vital issue, its inaction represents an inexplicable rupture with values that our community holds very dear.

In all this my primary concern is has been for the good standing of the Royal Society as the UK’s national academy. As I am sure you understand all too well (given your recent remarks in the wake of Mr Musk’s ill-judged speech at the Tommy Robinson rally), the country, the world at large, and the very practice of science itself face severe challenges from technologies and populist politics that foment division and ignorance. In such troubled times, people look to our established institutions to have the courage to stand by long-held values of truth and decency.

It is my sincere hope the Royal Society will demonstrate tomorrow that it is just such an institution.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen"

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Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · Oct 1

If the racism and fascism on display at the Unite the Kingdom rally, especially from Elon Musk, are not a threat to the "values that allow science to flourish", then what is? Is racism just a "personal political opinion" that you can ignore whenever it's convenient to you, @royalsociety.org?

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · Oct 1

"I am increasingly concerned over threats to the values that allow science to flourish." Read the full statement from the President of the Royal Society Sir Adrian Smith: royalsociety.org/news/2025/10...

A statement from the President of the Royal Society | Royal Society

A statement from the President of the Royal Society regarding threats to the values that allow science to flourish.

royalsociety.org

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Reposted by Gareth Fabbro

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · Oct 1

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

660 8.4K 25K

Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · Oct 1

I really can't decide…

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · Oct 1

#MinCup25 Final: After a month of learning and laughter, we’re at the final match to determine the 2025 Mineral Cup Champion! We have blue blades of #kyanite up against optical magician #tugtupite.

Vote: www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r5...
Results: www.mineralcup.org/2025/results...

Vote in 2025 Final Match — Mineral Cup

Click here to vote in Kyanite vs Tugtupite Photo credits: John Sobolewski and Parent Géry

www.mineralcup.org

Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · Oct 1

In geology it is a type of intrusion, where liquid magma travels up through older rocks as a sheet. Because igneous rocks are usually quite hard, the surrounding rock usually gets eroded first leaving what looks like a wall (or 'dyke', like the walls used to keep the sea out)

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Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · Oct 1

I'd heard two theories about the cause of the seismic swarm: either fluids flowing along faults or the intrusion of magma. The fact that these swarms originated quite deep, and were coupled with deflation on Santorini and Kolumbo, does suggest that magma was moving ⚒️🧪🌋

Map of Santorini and the offshore area to the east, where a series of submarine volcanic cones can be seen (the Kolumbo volcanic field). The earthquakes form a line, almost parallel to the Kolumbo cones and displaced to the southeast. This line is interpreted as the opening dyke. Also shown is how surface displacement suggests the deflation centred on Santorini and the largest, westernmost cone of the Kolumbo volcanic field.

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Gareth Fabbro @fitzgabbro.bsky.social · Oct 1

Interesting new paper on the seismic crisis on Santorini earlier this year (right when we were trying to book our field course), suggesting that it was caused by the intrusion of a dyke.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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