An acclaimed international collection of earth science articles and book reviews on palaeontology, geology, minerals and more
Dr Neil Clark (UK) The last place most people will associate with amber is Scotland. Yet, it is the place where some of the oldest inclusions (from the Carboniferous) in tree resin have been found. Amber is defined differently by different cultures. Its precise origin is unknown, but is fossilised … Read More
Stephen McLoughlin (Sweden) and Vivi Vajda (Sweden) Among the rolling green hills of Skåne in southern Sweden lies the valley of Fyledalen. The valley lies about 27km north of Ystad – best known as the setting of the Wallander detective novels and television series. Today, most of the valley has … Read More
Ru D A Smith (Malaysia, UK) Aragonite is a common mineral in the skeletons of marine organisms (Cusack & Freer, 2008), but is not typically well preserved in the fossil record due to its tendency to recrystallise as its more stable polymorph calcite. Certain circumstances can however enhance the preservation … Read More
Paul D Taylor (UK) and Consuelo Sendino (UK) Barcelona is an extremely popular tourist destination. For many visitors, the idiosyncratic buildings of Antoni Gaudi represent the principal attraction, but the Catalan capitol has its fair share of art galleries and museums too. Among the latter are several geological museums, including … Read More
John St James Stewart Buckeridge (Australia) It is through observation and categorisation of the living and inanimate objects around us that we develop an acceptable world-view of our environment. But what happens when something we observe does not fit a recognised category? This is less common today perhaps, because we … Read More
Dr Ross Barnett (UK) Could you receive a blood transfusion from a Neanderthal? The question, as strange as it sounds, gets to the crux of our yearning to truly understand extinct species of the past. What did they look like? How did they live? What blood flowed through their veins? … Read More
Denis Bates and Anna Kozłowska (Poland) Graptolites (grapto + lithos = writing in the rocks) are common Palaeozoic fossils – found from the Cambrian to the Carboniferous. Usually, they are preserved as flattened and altered remains in mudrocks, particularly the black shales or slates known as “Graptolitic Shales” (Fig. 1), … Read More
WAJ Rutter (UK) On 2 June 2011, a large slab of faunal tracks was found in Scalby Bay, north of Scarborough (Fig. 1). These footprints were immediately recognised as not being dinosaur footprints due to the size, shape and distribution of the tracks. They were in a fallen block, which … Read More
Gary Paton (UK) There are many types of employment that geology may offer, but one in particular that I would like to describe is the wellsite geologist. I have been employed in this position for approximately four years in the Norwegian Sector of the North Sea. This article aims to … Read More
Jason Sherburn, (UK) Living near the coast is amazing. Or, at least, that’s how I imagine it to be for budding fossil collectors intent on unlocking the mysteries of the ancient world. However, I live about 50 miles from the coast and, while my own area is not topographically dull, … Read More
Deborah Painter (USA) Why is there a reef in a cavern under a hill in south-central Pennsylvania in the USA? My good friends Richard Hedges and David Hawk and I wanted to know the answer. We had seen various websites which describe an amazing commercial cave with one wall composed … Read More
Dick Mol (The Netherlands) The first finds of mammoth fossils and other representatives of the ice age megafauna occurred in 1874. It was assumed then that there must have been a mammoth graveyard offshore of the province of Zeeland in The Netherlands. To date, many thousands of megafaunal remains have … Read More
Vivi Vajda (Sweden) In a valley in the Andes, at 2,500m above sea level, is Bolivia’s third largest city – Cochabamba. The town is beautifully surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks of which the highest is Tunari at 5,088m. For a palaeontologist, the town is an excellent base camp, as it … Read More
Jon Trevelyan (UK) Recently, I spent a few days on my own down at one of my favourite fossil hunting sites – Copt Point and East Wear Bay in Folkestone. As readers probably know, the Gault Clay at Folkestone is a marine sedimentary deposit from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) period, … Read More
Paul Cox (UK) During the 1980s, the secretary of the local branch of my professional association was famous for arranging field trips to places of interest. By and large, these had nothing to do with my profession, but they were nevertheless interesting places. One day, he had arranged a visit … Read More
Elizabeth Devon (UK) ‘I know it’s Monday when a new Earth leaning idea appears’ – quote from a supporter in India. The Earth learning idea was set up for the International Year of Planet Earth with the intention of reaching as many children throughout the world as possible, particularly those … Read More
Mike Viney (USA) Introduction The Front Range of the Colorado Rockies is not a place one would expect to find a residence designed in the style of a European castle. So, for me, it was a delightful surprise to learn about the existence of Cherokee Castle in Sedalia, Colorado (Fig. … Read More
Paul Taylor (UK) A couple of years ago I was approached by the publishing section of the Natural History Museum to ask whether I would be interested in writing a general book on fossils. They had been happy with my previous book – A History of Life in 100 Fossils … Read More
I reviewed Paul Taylor’s book, A History of Life in 1000 Fossils, a while ago and really enjoyed it and its format. And I should note that Paul is a long-time contributor to Deposits, in part due to his ability to write great English to explain palaeontology to amateurs and experts alike.
Heather Wilson (New Zealand) I am involved in a rock and mineral club at Dunedin, which is situated about a third of the way up the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Given the possibility of flying from one end of the country to the other in three hours, … Read More
Chris Broughton (UK) The Black Country is an area located just to the west of Birmingham, right at the heart of the UK. It lies between the towns of Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton, and is noted for its industrial past. It is so named because of the concentration of coal … Read More
Today (14 December 2024), we start a four-part series on the geology and chemistry of Lake Superior agates, by Dr Wayne Sukow (USA), who these days is a retired physicist from the National Science Foundation in the USA. Wayner wrote these articles a while ago for us, and provided some … Read More
