Listen: Dangerous volcanoes podcast
Check out the latest In Research Of podcast where I show up to talk about volcanoes.
Category Archives: Spooky Geology
Spooky bits – new book and feature article
New items for the spooky season.
Alien head concretion donated to the public
Preserving an odd specimen for the public good benefits everyone. I was excited to donate my alien head concretion to a good home.
Interview about spooky stuff and belief
Hi everyone! I did a video podcast interview with Eric Mora discussing spooky geology, the paranormal and cryptids. It’s about an hour. Please check it out and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for future topics.
Rapid deep freeze can lead to frost quakes
Frost quakes can occur when water saturated ground undergoes rapid deep freezing. The energy release causes noise and shaking.
The hammer entombed in rock
The London Hammer is an artifact beloved by Creationists because it appears to be a recent object embedded in old rock. While anomalous, it has a normal explanation.
Trapped in Quicksand
Quicksand is a real thing and its creation (and your ability to escape from it) is a lesson in soil dynamics.
Study underway regarding Seneca Lake sounds
Research is underway to examine methane bubbles as an explanation for the Seneca Lake booms.
Spooky seismic lakes – sag ponds and monsters
A series of small lakes (ponds) form along the San Andreas fault in California called “sag ponds”. Some have spooky legends or lore associated with them, specifically, that they hide monsters or are bottomless.
Spooky seismic lakes – Loch Ness and its monster
We can’t fault the fault – why seismic activity is not related to sightings of the Loch Ness Monster.
Eternal Flames
New Spooky Geology content: Areas around the world perpetually burn at the surface as a result of natural gas springs.
UK survey respondents love earth mysteries
New poll results about paranormal belief in the UK show that “earth mysteries” are really popular across the pond. Many complications make it difficult to make sense out of poll numbers reflecting levels of paranormal beliefs over time.
New paper fails to connect Summerville spook light to earthquakes
A new paper by a seismologist suggests a South Carolina spook light legend may be related to seismic activity, but the conclusions fall far short of convincing.
A meteor falls in Pennsylvania, and lands in ice cream
A rock hit a car in a Walmart parking lot in Lehighton, PA in 2023, busting the window and landing in a half gallon of ice cream. A group of open-minded scientists agreed to take the case and identified the rock as a genuine meteorite.
Flat earthers go to Antarctica
What happened when a pastor from Colorado, Will Duffy, takes flat earthers to Antarctica in what is called “The FInal Experiment”?
Idaho Mystery Boom Chasers
Wild ideas are circulating via social media regarding mystery booms reported in Idaho. Thanks to platforms like TikTok, doubtful ideas about skyquakes are raging online.
Earthquake Lights Revisited – More Evidence Emerging
Recent research, mostly from Japan and China, adds evidence to support the idea that earthquake lights are a result of electrical interactions between the lithosphere and the atmosphere.
Purple heart amethyst geode
Geodes are cool natural clusters of crystals inside rock bodies. One example of an amethyst geode from Uruguay formed in a heart shape.
The many degrees of freedom of the griffin
The popular origin of the griffin as inspired by Protoceratops dinosaur fossils is questioned. Can we ever really know for sure if there is a connection?
Listen: In Research Of… San Andreas
Musing on the 1979 episode of In Search Of episode about the San Andreas fault and earthquake movies.