Aaron Putnam

@aaronputnam.bsky.social

2540 Followers 2014 Following

Dad. Husband. Earthling. Associate Professor of Earth Science at the University of Maine. I am interested in glaciers and climate in the past, present, and future.

Hexagonal raises bed with three types of garlic laid out.
Child and two labradoodles wading the mouth of the Machias River where it meets the Aroostook River.
View of campsite with tent, Jeep, dog, and Katherine Allen. Daughter is arranging things in the tent. Low-tide shoreline visible in background.
Black labradoodle stressed out from all of the fireworks.
Close-up view of deep-red form of a Venus flytrap leaf.
Reddish pitcher with white blotches of a S. leucophylla hybrid.
Rose pogonia flower. Light pink petals with ruffled tongue.
Sarracenia flava pitcher with red veining just opened.
View of 7-yr old daughter and our black dog sitting on coarse-grained granite bedrock ledge overlooking lakes, forest, and clouds.
UMaine Sea to Sky students with Svínafellsjökull in the background.
Dan Dixon explaining how to make albedo (reflectivity) measurements on Sólheimajökull terminus.
Panoramic view of Gígjökull and downstream valley, with right-lateral moraine ridge.
Closeup of white Dryas octopetala flower (this one actually had nine petals!).
Mercedes van with 45” (I think) tires and a broken axle.
Three butterworts.
View northeastward up the meltwater streams toward the convergence of the Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull (Katla) volcanoes.
View up glacial river alongside cliffs.
Andri Snær Magnason reading from his Bónus poetry!
Lava flow across road.
View looking across the water toward ice-clad volcano in the distance.
View of mossy bedrock ledge littered with glacially transported rocks.
Crew eating fish soup.
Geological, geophysical, glaciological, and hydrological gear on a train of three carts.
Delta 18-O of seawater signal from the Gulf of Maine, showing pulses of lighter water entering through Gulf of Maine after deglaciation ~18 yrs ago, with the largest and most sustained melt signal coincided with terrestrial evidence for deglaciation of eastern Maine no later than 15,300 years ago.
Map of the Gulf of Maine, with key core site plotted from which the foraminiferal Mg/Ca and oxygen isotope record was derived (open orange circle).
Species tulip flower with petals that are purplish-red on the outside and white on the inside.
Email from procurement folks at the University that reads: “Your service request has been updated by Matty Bernard at Fri 5/8/26 2:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time. Update: Changed Status from New to In Process. I have attached a deposit slip in the amount of $0.24. Please download and print off this form and take it, along with cash or a check (made out to the University of Maine), to the Bursar’s Office, located in Wingate Hall to process your payment. (*Note: printing directly from your browser may cause the form to print without a signature and be rejected by the Bursar’s Office.) If you are not on campus, you can mail your check and deposit slip to the below address and the Bursar’s Office will email you a receipt:”
Close view of white bloodroot flower.
Polar bear walking on sea ice.
Photograph of Earth from the Artemis II spacecraft. The atmosphere is visible as a thin envelope around the perimeter of the Earth, with auroras visible in the top right and bottom left.
Photo of UMaine graduate students at the Geological Society of Maine meeting. From left: Zander Roman, Ria Raval, and Katie Westbrook.
Low-angle sunlight glinting off the mottled Carboniferous limestone surface of the Burren, western Ireland, with people walking near an archaeological site in the background.
White crocuses.
Photo, looking downward, of cooked saffron chicken and crispy rice on cutting board.
Large evaporator unit boiling off excess water from the sap. The sap has already gone through a fancy concentrator unit, which is also used aboard ships to turn seawater into drinking water.
Image of circular mountain lily flower with white petals and yellow center.
Photograph of the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The cover features a greyscale portrait of Bob Weir, with the text ‘Bobby Weir 1947-2026’.
Photograph of Aoraki/Mount Cook from above the Tasman River braidplain. Photo taken last week.
Dog with a toy football looking forlorn. Yellow North Face duffel in the background.
Photograph of a black dog on a snowy trail in a forest. The dog is wearing blaze-orange booties on his paws.
An insect that resembles a water bug walking over the surface of a snowpack.
Very close view of an individual springtail walking around on ice crystals of the snow surface.
Video shows a close view of many tiny springtail insects (’snow fleas’) springing around on the surface of a snowpack.
Photograph of the Sun shining through a snowy boreal forest.
Snowy forest with a blanket of fresh snow. Ski tracks trace from bottom right to middle left, with a child and mother Nordic skiing.
Screenshot of NORAD Santa Tracker showing Santa and reindeer flying over the St. Lawrence River.
Profile view of Charlie Porter while on the water in the Beagle Channel.