Twitter and What I Found There, Blog Post 2.2

Twitter has become a major platform for social media in the past few years. While Twitter users must limit the messages they post, these quick snippets of information, AKA: "Tweets", have become incredibly popular. Avid followers of famous actors/actresses, scientists, organizations, politicians, etc. can know about news surrounding their interests almost immediately. Because of this, almost every conceivable topic has Twitter feeds that at least pertain to it in some way. Being a Geosciences major, I wanted to see how involved the Geosciences community was on Twitter. Surprisingly, many people, from amateur and self taught Geologists to entire government organizations devoted to Geosciences, have gotten involved in Twitter. In this blog post, I will communicate what I found in detail.

1. What kinds of things do people on Twitter seem to be talking about, debating, arguing about or otherwise engaging in meaningful exhanges of ideas about? Give us a descriptive and clear sense of the kinds of stories you're seeing in these Twitter feeds.

Following the #geology feed on Twitter, one thing that became apparent to me was that people were sharing pictures of minerals that they either found online or actually found out in the wilderness and took pictures of. As well, many people were sharing pictures of interesting landscapes and vistas that were shaped by geologic processes such as erosion (wearing down and breaking apart of rocks) or volcanic activity (volcanic eruptions, lava flows, etc). Geology is very much an illustrative science, so it makes sense that people are sharing pictures of the processes that are studied within the field.

As well, entire organizations dedicated to researching Geosciences have posted stories on Twitter. One story announced to the world a story about how microorganisms found in a lake under a thick ice sheet in Antarctica have been producing oxygen. Other stories were bringing up new data related to plate tectonics; the motion of Earth's crust across the surface of the planet.

2. In your opinion, what are the two most interesting conversations or stories you found in the Twitter feeds? Hyperlink us to the two different Twitter feeds and explain why you found those conversations nteresting. Be specific and honest and be yourself. I don't want you to blah-blah-blah this. I want you to really engage.

Antarctic Microbes Hold Clue to Earth's Oxygen

Tectonic Activity Began 3 Billion Years Ago

The Antarctic Microbes story caught my attention because one of the major controversies surrounding Geosciences is how Earth became the planet that we know today: rich and teeming with life. Finding these microorganisms in a lake under a very thick sheet of ice gives scientists some clues about how oxygen, a very important element for life on Earth, came to be in such large quantities on Earth. The microorganisms are photosynthesizing; they act like plants: taking in sunlight and other chemical compounds and releasing oxygen. As well, these microorganisms live in extreme conditions, buried under a thick layer of ice. The fact that these organisms have survived in such harsh conditions leads scientists to believe that they existed perhaps 2.5 billion years ago, when the Earth was much hotter than it is today and had an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide. If the organisms could live in harsh environments, they could provide the vast quantity of oxygen that fills the atmosphere today.

The Tectonics story was interesting due to the fact that it is, once again, another great controversy in Geosciences. Scientists are debating exacting when plate tectonics, the movement of crust across the surface of Earth, began. They theorized that plate tectonics was indeed going on, but could not really come up with a starting point. The report linked to the story explains that University of Maryland geologists studied the magnesium levels in ancient rocks. They found that rocks that formed to the process of plate tectonics contained lower levels of magnesium than rocks that formed before tectonics began. Comparing the magnesium levels in the rocks to the age of the rocks, they found that plate tectonics may have begun approximately 3 billion years ago. While some controversy will certainly result from this find, it is interesting to me that a theory is being proposed for such a fundamental aspect of Geosciences.

3. Overall, what impression do you get of your discipline based on what you saw happening on Twitter? Were the people in these feeds talking in ways you expected or did not expect, about things you anticipated they'd be talking about or things you had no idea they'd be discussing? Explain in concise specific detail.

For the most part, people talking about Geology on Twitter seemed rather professional. While there were some people simply sharing photos of minerals or rocks that they found, their were actual stories to ground breaking research on the feed as well. I did not anticipate that I would find as much information as I did. I figured that one or two major stories would be featured. However, just about every other feed was related to a story about researchers making an incredible find. Although, I did expect that the experts on Twitter would be sharing stories with a gross amount of scientific data and detail; stories that people outside of Geology might have trouble understanding. Plate Tectonics and Early Earth History are not easy topics to understand or research.

Our World in 250 Million Years?

Yanquen, Edward. Pangea Ultima. September 23, 2007 via Flickr. Attribution license.