Aaron Putnam
@aaronputnam.bsky.social
Dad. Husband. Associate Professor of Earth Science at the University of Maine. I am interested in glaciers and climate in the past, present, and future.
Not too far from you. My home-away-from home…
February 3, 2026 at 8:55 AM
Not too far from you. My home-away-from home…
Large mountain daisy (Celmisia semicordata, I think) blooming on the south facing slope of a moraine in Kā Tiritiri o te Moana/Southern Alps. I love the tough, silvery leaves of this plant.
January 28, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Large mountain daisy (Celmisia semicordata, I think) blooming on the south facing slope of a moraine in Kā Tiritiri o te Moana/Southern Alps. I love the tough, silvery leaves of this plant.
First day back in the field in Kā Tiritiri o te Moana/Southern Alps.
Photo: UMaine graduate student Katie Westbrook documenting a boulder that dropped off a glacier as it receded rapidly toward a near-modern position from its Ice Age configuration, we think about 17,800 yrs ago.
Photo: UMaine graduate student Katie Westbrook documenting a boulder that dropped off a glacier as it receded rapidly toward a near-modern position from its Ice Age configuration, we think about 17,800 yrs ago.
January 24, 2026 at 7:12 AM
First day back in the field in Kā Tiritiri o te Moana/Southern Alps.
Photo: UMaine graduate student Katie Westbrook documenting a boulder that dropped off a glacier as it receded rapidly toward a near-modern position from its Ice Age configuration, we think about 17,800 yrs ago.
Photo: UMaine graduate student Katie Westbrook documenting a boulder that dropped off a glacier as it receded rapidly toward a near-modern position from its Ice Age configuration, we think about 17,800 yrs ago.
Yup. Right above Mina Kimes.
January 21, 2026 at 2:58 AM
Yup. Right above Mina Kimes.
The pup was not going to let me pack for fieldwork without a good dose of guilt.
January 18, 2026 at 1:17 PM
The pup was not going to let me pack for fieldwork without a good dose of guilt.
Check out Torben’s flashy new kicks…
January 11, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Check out Torben’s flashy new kicks…
Water bug (?) walking over the snowpack…
3/3
3/3
January 10, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Water bug (?) walking over the snowpack…
3/3
3/3
Close view of a springtail trundling over ice crystals…
2/3
2/3
January 10, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Close view of a springtail trundling over ice crystals…
2/3
2/3
Insects on snow…
The warm weather this week brought out the snow fleas (springtails) as well as insects that looked like water bugs (?)… The springtails carpeted the snow surface! 1/3
The warm weather this week brought out the snow fleas (springtails) as well as insects that looked like water bugs (?)… The springtails carpeted the snow surface! 1/3
January 10, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Insects on snow…
The warm weather this week brought out the snow fleas (springtails) as well as insects that looked like water bugs (?)… The springtails carpeted the snow surface! 1/3
The warm weather this week brought out the snow fleas (springtails) as well as insects that looked like water bugs (?)… The springtails carpeted the snow surface! 1/3
Happy Perihelion to all that celebrate!
Today at 12:15 pm EST, Earth achieved its closest approach to the Sun for the year. In about 11,000 years or so, perihelion will be experienced in July, thanks to Earth’s precessional cycle.
January 3rd, 2026: 🌎——🌞
July 6, 2026: 🌞———🌍
Today at 12:15 pm EST, Earth achieved its closest approach to the Sun for the year. In about 11,000 years or so, perihelion will be experienced in July, thanks to Earth’s precessional cycle.
January 3rd, 2026: 🌎——🌞
July 6, 2026: 🌞———🌍
January 3, 2026 at 7:16 PM
Happy Perihelion to all that celebrate!
Today at 12:15 pm EST, Earth achieved its closest approach to the Sun for the year. In about 11,000 years or so, perihelion will be experienced in July, thanks to Earth’s precessional cycle.
January 3rd, 2026: 🌎——🌞
July 6, 2026: 🌞———🌍
Today at 12:15 pm EST, Earth achieved its closest approach to the Sun for the year. In about 11,000 years or so, perihelion will be experienced in July, thanks to Earth’s precessional cycle.
January 3rd, 2026: 🌎——🌞
July 6, 2026: 🌞———🌍
Torben and I had our last run of 2025 earlier today. Good riddance to 2025. We are looking forward to 2026.
January 1, 2026 at 1:04 AM
Torben and I had our last run of 2025 earlier today. Good riddance to 2025. We are looking forward to 2026.
We got out for our first ski of the season this morning.
December 26, 2025 at 5:40 PM
We got out for our first ski of the season this morning.
Santa was just spotted in Augusta, Maine! Already in Quebec. I should get to bed and hope that he is kind enough to swing back our way…
December 25, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Santa was just spotted in Augusta, Maine! Already in Quebec. I should get to bed and hope that he is kind enough to swing back our way…
We are indebted to dearly departed friend, colleague, adventurer, Charlie Porter, who made this possible.
December 23, 2025 at 2:14 AM
We are indebted to dearly departed friend, colleague, adventurer, Charlie Porter, who made this possible.
For this #fieldphotofriday, I share a photograph of Pia fjord, Cordillera Darwin, southern Patagonia, 2012. I was very fortunate to work here with Brenda Hall, Tom Lowell, George Denton, and the late Charlie Porter. Our paper on the chronology of rapid deglaciation is now published. Link follows…1/
December 23, 2025 at 2:14 AM
For this #fieldphotofriday, I share a photograph of Pia fjord, Cordillera Darwin, southern Patagonia, 2012. I was very fortunate to work here with Brenda Hall, Tom Lowell, George Denton, and the late Charlie Porter. Our paper on the chronology of rapid deglaciation is now published. Link follows…1/
Happy winter soltice to my friends in the Northern Hemisphere, and Happy summer solstice to my friends in the Southern Hemisphere.
Looking forward to celebrating Perihelion on January 3rd!
Looking forward to celebrating Perihelion on January 3rd!
December 22, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Happy winter soltice to my friends in the Northern Hemisphere, and Happy summer solstice to my friends in the Southern Hemisphere.
Looking forward to celebrating Perihelion on January 3rd!
Looking forward to celebrating Perihelion on January 3rd!
Some scenes from NOLA/AGU this week… 3/
December 21, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Some scenes from NOLA/AGU this week… 3/
Some scenes from NOLA this week… 2/
December 21, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Some scenes from NOLA this week… 2/
Some scenes from NOLA this week… 1/
December 21, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Some scenes from NOLA this week… 1/
And for fun, 500 mb winds.
December 20, 2025 at 2:24 AM
And for fun, 500 mb winds.
Surface winds right now… The main firehose is now blasting Nova Scotia.
December 20, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Surface winds right now… The main firehose is now blasting Nova Scotia.
The wind transported our grill across part of the deck… First image (vantage south) shows where the grill was early this evening, and second image (vantage southeast) shows where it was earlier in the day.
December 20, 2025 at 1:21 AM
The wind transported our grill across part of the deck… First image (vantage south) shows where the grill was early this evening, and second image (vantage southeast) shows where it was earlier in the day.
Maine is getting blasted by warm, moisture-laden southerly winds transporting heat from near the tropical Atlantic. …not too different from the sou’easters from this time last year. Snowpack has been obliterated. 🧪🌊❄️🥼⚒️
December 20, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Maine is getting blasted by warm, moisture-laden southerly winds transporting heat from near the tropical Atlantic. …not too different from the sou’easters from this time last year. Snowpack has been obliterated. 🧪🌊❄️🥼⚒️
A bit frosty out there.
December 9, 2025 at 1:18 PM
A bit frosty out there.
And darker… As Carl Sagan said (prophetically) in his often-quoted book ‘The Demon-Haunted World’.
![“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
The dumbing down of American[sic] is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance…”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:leewy4zzpqsl72ogi35dd4ar/bafkreibaaw4uc2gifrt23zqjvnwneap7kaccsxi6noqkxa6h42o6pt5veu@jpeg)
December 9, 2025 at 3:11 AM
And darker… As Carl Sagan said (prophetically) in his often-quoted book ‘The Demon-Haunted World’.