Maya Wei-Haas, PhD

@mayaweihaas

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Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· 28d

Sorry, I've been MIA. I've been a little preoccupied :) We're equal parts exhausted and enthralled with a new tiny human. She's full of spice, and I love her more than I knew I could. There will be more from me soon — I have new projects on the horizon that I can't wait to share with you!

Image of three hands holding one another. The smallest is an infant's tiny hand (you can also see the pink sleeve of her sweater). The mom's hand is cupped around the baby's, and the father's hand is cupped around both of the other two.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Mar 18

For anyone with kiddos interested in rocks and nature—I've got an event for you! I'll be at Bards Alley Bookshop in Vienna, VA this Saturday for an event with What a Rock Can Reveal! There will be lots of hands on activities and fun rocks and minerals to play with. I'd love to see you all there!! 🧪⚒️

The image is a poster featuring a picture of the author and her book, What a Rock Can Reveal. Details about the event are as follows: Reading and presentation with children's nonfiction author, Maya Wei-Haas. Saturday March 22, 11 AM, Bards Alley Bookshop, Vienna, VA. Free to attend, no RSVP required.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Mar 10

After a bit of a delay (oops!) here's your answer to the #fossilfriday challenge: Drummmmm roooooolllll — the hidden fossils at the Santiago Municipal theater are ammonites!

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Mar 7

A #Fossilfriday challenge: Can you spot the fossils? (As seen near the stairs at the gorgeous Teatro Municipal de Santiago.) I'll post the answer and a close up tomorrow morning! ⚒️🧪

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Dec 10

Productive birthday day at #AGU24! Today was a day full of cratons, delamination, and rifts — oh my! Now I’m fully saturated with science on the metro home. Off to sleep so I can do it all again tomorrow 😅

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Dec 3

I love that the lost Island is a volcanic plug for 3 reasons: 1) columnar basalt is amazing (below are pics of Iceland volcanic plugs) 2) the "lost island" is supposed to be very old, so goes to reason it's had time to heavily erode, battered by the waves. BUT my favorite reason is that ...

Person in the foreground wears an orange puffy jacket and points up to a tall mound made entirely of columnar basalt. The columns stick out in many directions, and the person is standing in front of a section where you can see the columns ends that are all arranged in a circle.

An image of two volcanic plugs. You can see the basalt columns entirely make up the volcanic plugs. They form in all different directions making the sides of the irregular mounds look like they they almost are hairy. Each plug is fairly steep-sided and irregular. A river runs through the image in front of the two plugs.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Dec 3

THIS is the lost island! UGH I can't find a better pic, but in the theater you can clearly see the island is entirely made of tall columns of basalt. It looks uncannily like a volcanic plug! (ie magmatic plumbing left behind after the volcano's exterior erodes away). Urup island shown for comparison

The sky is a dusky purple-blue and the water is dark blue with streaks of bright turqoise, making it look a bit like it's glowing. On the horizon is the volcanic island. It's two very sharp peaks with steeps sides. The two peaks form a little bridge with a hole that's been eroded out of them.

A small volcanic island shown. The island is basically a bundle of columnar basalts rising from the water. The sides are nearly vertical and taper to a very sharp peak.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Dec 3

But also, c'mon Disney! There coulda been AMAZING scenes w/ black, green, or pink sand! For example, Tuamotu atoll has pink sands from forams! Olivine has made Papakolea, Hawaii's gorgeous green sands. And don't forget black sand (image of NZ)! 📸JYO Shankar's blog, Big island guide, Petrina Darrah

Light pink sands are shown in this birds eye view of the beach. Two people look tiny in the middle of the image walking through the sand toward bright blue water.

Olive green sand fills the horse-shoe shaped beach. The beach is surrounded by steep cliffs made of layered black basalt rock. The water is turquoise.

Beaches full of black sand sit at the base of lumpy hills covered in vegitation. Image is a birds eye view, perhaps taken with a drone showing many miles of coastline. Fluffy clouds fill the sky.

Image from: https://www.petrinadarrah.com/posts/black-sand-beaches-in-new-zealand

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Dec 3

One feature I would've LOVED to see was different colored beach sand. Moana beaches were mostly white sands. I suspect it was a visual choice and OFC isn't strictly wrong. For example, Tahiti has gorgeous white sands from lots of crushed corals and bits of shells. 📸Left Moana, right Tahiti

Sail boats are racing to the white sand beaches of Moana 2. The water is crystal clear blue-green, and 7ou can see behind the beaches dark very sharp cliffs partially covered by green plants. People are gathered on shore to greet Moana's boat upon her arrival

An image of the Vaiava Beach in Tahiti. You can see brilliant blue waters in the background and the white sand beach in the foreground. Greenery frames the image around it's edges. Image from: www.tahititourisme.com

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Dec 3

In the very first scene of Moana 2, she's exploring a nearby island. And we see a cliff that looks very much like columnar basalt! In other places, this becomes a lot more clear. I'm working from whatever screenshots I can find so this is going to be a bit photo-sparse ... 😅

Moana vaults across a crevasse, image shows her in mid-air. On either side of the crevasse, you can see dark rocks that make up the walls. The rocks making up each of the walls looks slightly columnar, as you can see hints to hexagonal columns in the geometric break of the vertical cliffs.

Another view of the cliffs once Moana made it to the other side. This image is almost the same as the last, but more of the cliff can be seen. In the background you can also see more of the blue water and a very pink sky.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Dec 3

Instead, in Moana 2 we're talking only volcanic islands. You are greeted with this concept on Moana's home island, the imagined Motunui. There, they've visualized obvious old lava flows entering the water, shown in the screenshot below. This is from Moana 1, but similar scenes are in Moana 2:

Image of moana with a pink flower tucked behind her ear, paddling a small canoe with her little pig in it. The canoe is skirting in front of a rough edge of dark rock that's supposed to be an old lava flow that entered the sea

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 26

If you're feeling down — just remember there's a mine in New Jersey with technicolor walls of fluorescent rocks. Throwback to visiting a slab from the Sterling Hill mine @natural-history.bsky.social while reporting a few years back! 🧪 ⚒️ (First two images are mine, 3rd is from AMNH/D. Finnin)

A slab of rock under normal light, when it looks "ordinary." It has speckles of grey, red, white, all running in diagonal bands.

This is the same slab from the image before, but under fluorescent light. This light makes the rock look like it's technicolor. What were previously pale bands of grey, white, and red speckles are now neon green, orange, and red. Mixed among these brilliant bands are some specks of black, from the minerals that do not fluoresce.

This is an image at a distance of the full slab under fluorescent light. The slab is quite large, probably about 10 feet wide and 5 feet tall. A person is standing in front of the slab for scale, but because the fluorescent lights are on, all you see is his black outline. His hands are on his hips and back to the camera as he looks at the slab.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 21

The eruption is close to the geothermal power plant, and shortly before 08:00, the lava front also reached the hot water pipeline, the Njarðvík Line. Info is from the Icelandic met office. More can be found here: en.vedur.is/about-imo/ne...

A closeup aerial photo of the eruption at night. The darkness of the ground stands in stark contrast to the glowing red/orange of the lava. The lava is fountaining from the crack in the ground, and the glowing red lava seems to be creeping across the surface. The cloudy sky flows red, reflecting the color of the lava.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 21

Fast facts about Iceland’s eruption: 🌋The fissure is now about 3km (1.86mi) long—see the red line on the map below. 🌋the lava field around 7km^2 (2.7mi^2)—see red area on map below. 🌋 Lava crossed the road to the evacuated town of Grindavik at 4 am UTC Photo: Civil Protection/Björn Oddsson 🧪 ⚒️

Photo shows the Icelandic eruption at night. The sky glows red from the lava, which is blasting from a long crack in the ground. The photo seems to be taken from a plane, which makes the eruption seem small, you san see the puddle of glowing red lava oozing around the fissure.

Map of the affected area, showing the new lava flow. It is about 7 square kometers, and is flowing over much of the same area of Iceland already covered but the eruptions in 2023 and earlier this year. The map shows that the lava is a few kilometers away from the svartengi power plant and crossed the road into Grindavik

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 17

Post a picture you took (no description) to bring some zen to the timeline.

A series of sea stacks stand tall above the turquoise water. Hints of mountains can be seen in the background through the fog.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 16

This is all to say: Imagine all the developments/discoveries we miss out on by excluding people and seeing them as the other. Finding this letter hit me in the gut—it didn't matter he was working and contributing to society. He was Chinese and the US thought there were too many of us here already

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 14

There have been lots of other fun re-makes of the design over time. I'm particularly fond of the ones with full dragons who look like they're creeping down the sides of the jar Spiderman style—8 dragons total, one for each principal compass direction. The image origin is iffy, noted in the alt text.

This is an illustration of the seismoscope. It shows the full dragons on the jar. The precise origin of this image is uncertain, I found it posted on ZME Mag, but has no credit.

Another bronze replica of the seismoscope. This one has the full dragons, not just their heads, and each one has a ball in its mouth. The dragons look like they are crawling down the sides of the jar like spiderman. Image posted to Researchgate by Lasse Amundsen.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 14

Seismic waves cause the pendulum to swing, which forces the dragon to drop the ball into the gaping mouth of a frog below. The ping of the bronze ball signals a quake! The direction of the quake is shown by which dragon drops the ball. Chinese philosopher Chang Heng created the original in 132BCE🧵

This is a schematic of the process described in the tweet. This was from ISAAC Antisismica, but it's not showing up as listed on their website, so i'm not entirely sure the source of the image.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 14

The world's first "seismoscope" (predecessor to the seismograph) looked more like an urn than a scientific instrument. But the key hangs at its center: a pendulum. An arm attaches the pendulum to each dragon, which holds a ball in its mouth The replica below has a cutaway to show mechanics(1/2)🧪⚒️

A metallic urn or pot-like structure has dragons surrounding the design. Each dragon has a ball in its mouth and is poised over a frong with its mouth agape.

A cutaway of the central jar-like structure is shown. It reveals a pendulum hanging at the center with an arm attached to each of the dragon heads.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 14

Going through picture of a recent #iceland trip I guided for #smithsonianjourneys, and my gosh. I’ll never get over the arctic in fall. With fairly stumpy trees, ground cover does all the heavy lifting with colors. Throw in a sunset and the land looks like it glowing.

Sunset across the barren arctic landscape. The lands are mostly rocky with very few trees. The main plants are small shrubs and mosses that are all turning red, yellow, and brown in the fall. Anywhere the sun touches is brilliant rosy red.

Another image of sunset in the arctic. Land here takes on a deep red color. A ridge rises in the background of the image, reflecting the erring sun.

Bright blue water flows through a stream in the foreground. Water cascades in dozens of streams from the rocky wall at the stream edge. The water’s blue/white colors stand in stark contrast to the yellow, red, and brown of the shrubs.

A little shrub (probably an arctic blueberry) with bright orange - red leaves.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 13

One of my favorite spots in Iceland that's a little off the beaten track is Grjótagjá. It just feels ✨magical✨—it's also scientifically awesome. This region sits along the edge the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, which are slowly pulling apart, creating vast tears in the landscape. ⚒️

A rocky cave partially filled with bright blue water that's stunningly clear. It almost looks like there's a blue haze over the bottom half of the cave because you can see all of the rocks and features of the cave floor through the water!

A person in a black puffy jacket walks along a giant crack in the ground. the rocks on either side of the crack are tilted away, and the surface has grooves left from the flow of lava.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 11

A little bright spot in the recent chaos: My book, What a Rock Can Reveal, made it on New York Magazine/The Stradegist's list of best new books for kids! If you have any littles in your life who love rocks and nature, this would make a great gift! :) nymag.com/strategist/a...

A screenshot of the listing for the book in NY Magazine's story on the best new kids' books! The description reads:

‘What a Rock Can Reveal,’ by Maya Wei-Haas, Cost: $18,"

Then it has a short blurb with the following description: My kids are currently in their rocks-and-gems phase, and finding a compelling way to tell the story of how these specimens came to be can be challenging. In What a Rock Can Reveal, with almost tactile-feeling illustrations of gorgeous rocks and minerals by Sonia Pulido, Wei-Haas focuses on telling the story of Earth’s geology. She explains how a rock’s shape, color, and texture can give us clues about its own story. This is a great pick for a young scientist or any kid with an appreciation for nature."

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 11

I posted this on Twitter/X a while back, but it didn’t get much traction. Maybe it’s just me but I thought this wild to see, so I’m trying again here: THIS is a lens from a fish’s eye, entirely made of collagen. Also look REALLY close — everything seen through the lens is flipped upside down!! 🙃

A clear marble-looking ball of collagen sits on the back of a man’s hand. He’s holding it out for everyone to look “through” the lens, you can see an image of the person behind on the lens but it’s perfectly flipped upside down.

A closeup of the lens from the previous image. It shows the image of the man flipped upside down.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 10

Earthquakes in this area are common, though 6.8M is still quite strong. Cuba’s SE coast sits along the edge of the North American plate, which grinds westward against the Caribbean plate ~20 mm each year.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 10

The #USGS’ PAGER system gives info on estimated damage and fatalities from each event. It’s shown below in likely percentage of each situation occurring. The event is currently sitting at Yellow, definitions below.

Chart showing that there will likely be some damage and fatalities from the recent earthquake. There’s a 32% chance there will be 1 to 10 fatalities and a 33% chance there will be between 10-100 fatalities. There’s a 55% chance there will be between 10-100 million dollars of economic losses (less than 1% Cuba’s GDP)

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 10

Other things can affect intensity of shaking, including distance from epicenter and rock type. In this case there was very strong to severe shaking, with the most severe impacts along the southern coast.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 8

For #fossilfriday, take a gander at these 131-million-year-old fossil vertebrae from an ichthyosaur found in Patagonia. In a painstaking months-long effort, Judith Pardo and her colleagues used a fine blast of sand to liberate the vertebrae from their rocky tomb.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 8

Hiya! I've been quiet here, but want to fix that. SO let me re-introduce myself: I'm a freelance writer who revels in the weird and wonderful on our world and beyond! I write about all things geology/Earth science and dabble in early humans. Words at NYT, Science Mag, Natgeo, Smithsonian, & more ⚒️

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Nov 8

It just says there's an invalid identifier or password ... I tried creating a couple different app passwords thinking that was the issue but I get the same message for each.

Maya Wei-Haas, PhD@mayaweihaas· Oct 4

Luck was with us last night searching for northern lights in Iceland! 💚 #smithsonianjourneys #onassignment