Mineralogy & petrology
Specimen profiles, reaction textures, phase equilibria explained in language that honors the chemistry without burying the reader in it. Tremolite, diopside, forsterite, and the long tail of silicates in between.
Core beat
About Tremoloid
A field journal for the rocks beneath our feet
Tremoloid is an independent editorial project documenting tremolite, metasomatic reactions, plate-boundary fieldwork, and the quiet truths that only outcrops can tell. We publish long-form essays, specimen profiles, and tectonic deep-dives — peer-reviewed by geologists who still own a Brunton.
The origin story
Notes from the deep crust
It started with a single weathered outcrop in the Bergell Alps — and the realization that the world needed more places to read about rocks that were actually right.
Tremoloid began in 2019 as a private notebook kept by two structural geology graduate students who were tired of glossy mineral magazines that conflated amethyst with authority. The first issue — a 4,200-word piece on reaction rims in dolomitic marble — was emailed to forty-one people. Forty-two opened it.
Today the journal reaches tens of thousands of readers across six continents, from university sedimentology labs to amateur hammer-and-loupe clubs in Vermont. We still don't run sponsored content. We still cite our sources. And every essay is read, in full, by at least one working geologist who has stood on the outcrop in question — or one who wishes they had.
Tremolite-asbestos outcrop, Val Malenco, Italy — the journal's namesake locality.
Mission & scope
What we cover, and how we treat it
Tremoloid exists to bring the same rigor to mineral and tectonic storytelling that peer-reviewed journals bring to their figures. We focus on three intersecting territories — and we try to leave jargon at the trailhead whenever we can.
Structural & tectonic geology
Faults, folds, shear zones, and the slow violence of plate boundaries. We trace structures from thin section to mountain belt, and we keep our cross-sections honest about uncertainty.
Core beatField methods & epistemology
How a rock is actually read in the wild — Brunton calibration, strike-and-dip discipline, sample selection, the politics of outcrop access, and the limits of what a single hand sample can tell you.
Editorial pillar
By the numbers
A small publication with a long memory
We've been quietly at this for six years. Here's what that looks like in concrete — and a few things we're proud of that don't fit in a metric.
312
Essays published
47
Contributing geologists
19
Countries covered
0
Sponsored articles
Editorial process
How a piece makes it into the journal
Every long-form essay at Tremoloid passes through four stages. We are slower than the news cycle, and we intend to be. A typical piece takes between three and eight weeks from submission to publication.
01
Submission
A draft arrives via our open submission form, accompanied by a 150-word field note explaining where the rocks are and what claim the essay is making.
02
Desk review
An editor checks factual scaffolding — locality, mineralogy, citations — and returns a structural pass within seven days. Most pieces are sent back for revision here, and that's fine.
03
Peer review
Two working geoscientists read the piece in full. At least one must have direct field experience with the formation or tectonic setting under discussion. Reviews are signed and published with the article.
04
Copy & publish
A final line edit, fact-check of all coordinates and chemical formulae, plate composition, and a quiet Tuesday release. Corrections, when needed, are appended in a dated note — never silently.
The editorial bench
Four geologists, one copy editor, no algorithm
Tremoloid is run by a rotating bench of editors who answer email. We list every contributor and their institutional affiliations on the masthead — including when those affiliations have changed since publication.
Dr. Elena Mariani
Editor-in-chief · Metamorphic petrology
PhD ETH Zürich. Spent eleven field seasons in the Central Alps studying contact aureoles. Believes reaction rims are an underused narrative device.
Dr. Tomás Okonkwo
Senior editor · Structural geology
PhD University of Cape Town. Works on transpressional shear zones along the West African margin. Has dropped two Brunton compasses into rivers. Both times on purpose.
Sora Kim
Associate editor · Tectonics
PhD candidate at Seoul National University, writing on the geodynamics of the Japan Sea opening. Translates our editorials into Korean on a voluntary basis.
Júlia Rodrigues
Copy & production editor
Former science editor at a São Paulo trade press. Owns the only style guide at Tremoloid that cares about em-dashes, italics of mineral names, and consistent capitalization of Tremolite.
Plus 47 contributing geologists across our editorial pool. View the full masthead and disclosure of any commercial relationships.
Submit your work
Got an outcrop story worth telling?
We accept pitches from working geologists, graduate students, and field-hardened amateurs. Send us a 150-word field note describing the locality, the claim, and the rocks — and we'll get back to you within a week.
Submit a pitch