geology – Page 2

Book review: Alderney and La Hague: an Excursion Guide, by Dave Went

04/10/2023

I never realised just how diverse the rocks of this – the smallest of the Channel Islands – is. They are clearly well exposed and easily seen along the coast (and the cliffs are wonderful to look at). The guide also points out that the island’s rocks provide the best opportunity to see intrusive, igneous suites of the Cadomian orogeny (a tectonic event or series of events in the late Neoproterozoic, about 650 to 550 million years ago),and the lower Cambrian fluvial strata associated with post-Cadomian sedimentation. And I know from personal experience that each of the walks will be a delight, as the island is phenomenally beautiful.

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The Geology of Mars: Discoveries by Spirit and Opportunity – Part 1

30/09/2023

Alister Cruickshanks (UK) It is perhaps one of the most exciting explorations in recent years – NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers have changed our views of the red planet and re-written textbooks. In the past, researching and mapping the geology of Mars has seemed something that geologists could only dream of … Read More

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Field trip to the Antwerp Harbour area, Belgium

23/09/2023

Harry Meisner (Germany) The Antwerp harbour area in Belgium is a very interesting spot for finding fossils. In October 2010, the port approved a long-term investment plan, worth €1.6 billion over the next 15 years. As a result, for a while, the whole area became one big fossiliferous outcrop as … Read More

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New carnivorous dinosaur discovered in suburban Laurel, Maryland

16/09/2023

Deborah Painter (USA) Dinosaur fossils in the United States are mainly associated with the Mesozoic era age sedimentary rocks of the western states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. East of the Mississippi River, their fossils are scarcer, although they definitely exist. There is Mesozoic age surficial bedrock … Read More

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Diatoms: the jewels of palaeoclimatology

09/09/2023

Jack Wilkin (UK) My PhD at the University of Exeter focuses on using micropalaeontology and various geochemical methods from Holocene marine sediment cores, to try to find out how the climate of South Georgia has changed over the past 15,000 years. One of the microfossil groups I’m using to achieve … Read More

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Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape in Azerbaijan

02/09/2023

Khursheed Dinshaw (India) Gobustan in Azerbaijan is an interesting site depicting prehistoric rock art. The petroglyphs here vary in age from the Upper Palaeolithic Era to the Middle Ages (Fig. 1). A UNESCO World Heritage Site, more than 6,000 images can be seen here (Figs. 2 to 9). The petroglyphs … Read More

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Book review: The Lewisian: Britain’s oldest rocks, by Graham Park

26/08/2023

Recently, I have finished the Great Silurian Controversy, a magnificent book about the nineteenth century arguments over the age of the lower Palaeozoic greywackes/sediments of Devon, and the creation of the concept of the Devonian. And reading The Lewisian: Britain’s oldest rocks by Graham Park, perhaps it occurs to me that this should perhaps be called, The Great Lewisian Controversy. It shares the same historical and scientific intentions, and the same grand sweep of scientific history from the early twentieth century, namely, the exploration over decades of the geology of the Lewisian of northwest Scotland.

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Geology Museums of Britain: Wells & Mendip Museum, Somerset

26/08/2023

Jon Trevelyan (UK) One rainy afternoon in March, rather than getting wet collecting fossils near Radstock, I abandoned my plans and paid a brief visit to the Wells & Mendip Museum in Somerset. It is not a geology museum, but it does have some great geological exhibitions. The museum (Fig. … Read More

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Book review: Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe, by Trenton W Holliday

23/08/2023

The Cro-Magnons were a population of early modern humans (that is, they were physically indistinguishable from us, today), who lived in Europe between about 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, during the Upper Palaeolithic period. This information comes from Trenton Holliday’s excellent book, which tells the story of these people in the context of recent scientific advances. However, while it does not shy away from complex scientific issues, the book is written with a light, understandable touch.

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Locations on the Isle of Wight – a personal view

19/08/2023

Alison Cruickshanks (UK) In the final part of my article, I will look at locations on the Isle of Wight. Anyone who has visited the Isle of Wight will know that the island is famous for dinosaurs. Indeed, popular visitor attractions include the museums at Dinosaur Isle, Blackgang Chine (which … Read More

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Shetland – an archipelago on the edge

12/08/2023

Allen Fraser (UK) Shetland is a spectacular group of islands with a varied geology, a wonderful landscape and a special flora and fauna, peopled by a culture distinct within the British Isles. Shetland remains one of Britain’s natural treasures.” (J. Laughton Johnston) The islands Shetland sits on the edge of … Read More

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Locations in the Norfolk Area – a personal view

05/08/2023

Alison Cruickshanks (UK) In the first part of this article, I discussed locations in the Suffolk area. Since then, I have visited a few locations in the neighbouring county of Norfolk including West Runton, Weybourne, Overstrand and Hunstanton. Most of the rocks in Norfolk are Cretaceous. However, you also find … Read More

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Kutch Fossil Park in India

29/07/2023

Khursheed Dinshaw (India) Mohansinh Sodha (Fig. 1) is the founder of the Kutch Fossil Park located in Kutch, in the state of Gujarat in India. The park exhibits invertebrates, including ammonites, belemnites, nautilus (Fig. 2), brachiopods, gastropods (Fig. 3), corals (Fig. 4) and echinoderms. Marine fossils, including brachiopods and echinoderms, … Read More

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Geology Museums of Britain: Radstock Museum, Somerset

22/07/2023

Jon Trevelyan(UK) Contained in what was once the Radstock Market Hall (Fig. 1), this is perhaps one of my favourite local museums. Maybe it is because the museum is close to wonderful relics of the Somerset coal industry and to the Upper Carboniferous plant fossils that were a waste product. … Read More

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Locations in the Suffolk Area – a personal view

22/07/2023

Alison Cruickshanks (UK) Fossil collecting was never an interest of mine until I met my fiancé, husband. Alister’s interest in palaeontology is evidenced by the fact that he is production manager of this magazine and, after we first met, he started encouraging me to accompany him on collecting trips. After … Read More

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A foraminiferan adventure

15/07/2023

Michael Hesemann (Germany) Two years ago, I joined an evening course on microfossils. I started by learning the proper use of microscopes and observing 4 to 5cm (that is, rather big) fossil otholiths (that is, the ear stones of fish). Soon ostracods, nummulites, smaller foraminifera and diatoms were given to … Read More

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Conulariids: fossilised jellyfish

01/07/2023

Maria C Sendino and Paul D Taylor (UK) Fossils such as ammonites, trilobites, crinoids and shark’s teeth understandably attract the most attention from fossil enthusiasts. However, other groups can provide equally fascinating insights into the history of life and ought not to be neglected. Among these ‘Cinderella fossils’ are conulariids. … Read More

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Salkhan Fossil Park of India

25/06/2023

Khursheed Dinshaw (India) The Salkhan Fossil Park is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Spread over 25 hectares, it is an important geoheritage site for stromatolites. These stromatolites were identified by Professor RC Misra and Professor S Kumar of the University of Lucknow. Stromatolites are layered sedimentary … Read More

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How does our fossil garden grow?

17/06/2023

Deborah Painter (USA) Plant fossils come in a wider variety than this author used to believe. This article will discuss some of the different ways that plant fossils are preserved. Casts The fossil in Figs. 1 and 2 is a cast of Stigmaria. It is comprised of greyish sandstone. Sandy … Read More

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The geologist’s tool kit

10/06/2023

Dr Neale Monks Of course, you can enjoy a fun and productive geological field trip using nothing more than your eyes to spot interesting specimens and your hands to collect them. At localities like Sheppey, where fossils are constantly being weathered out of soft clay, you can find shark teeth, … Read More

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Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1881 to 1955: a geologist priest in Hastings

03/06/2023

Ken Brooks (UK) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born in the Auvergne region of France on 1 May 1881. His enthusiasm for science developed in his childhood, partly through the influence and encouragement of his father, who was a keen naturalist. In 1899, at the age of 18 and having … Read More

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Geology Museum of Ipoh, Malaysia

27/05/2023

Khursheed Dinshaw (India) The Geology Museum of Ipoh in Malaysia is located inside the premises of the Department of Minerals and Geoscience Malaysia (Fig. 1). The museum is an interesting venue where you canlearn about both the geology and the geosciences of the country. The easy to navigate museum was … Read More

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Sieving out the big picture

20/05/2023

Dr Steven C Sweetman (UK) Ask any palaeontologist, professional or otherwise, to name the first fossil vertebrate or vertebrate group that comes to mind and the chances are that the majority will come up with something like the charismatic dinosaurs, Dimetrodon (Fig. 1), the saber-toothed ‘tiger’ or some other large … Read More

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Celebrating the Ashdon Meteorite

13/05/2023

Michael E Howgate One hundred years ago, a grapefruit-sized lump of rock ended its four and a half billion year long journey through space by crashing into a field in northwest Essex. To be more precise, at 1pm on Friday, 9 March 1923, Frederick Pratt, a thatcher and farm labourer, … Read More

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Geology and fossils of Chatham Island, New Zealand

07/05/2023

Paul D Taylor The Chatham Islands are a far-flung outpost of New Zealand (Fig. 1). This isolated archipelago sits in the Pacific Ocean, some 850km east of Christchurch, and lies very close to the International Date Line, making the Chatham Islands one of the first places in the world to … Read More

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The how and why of Tiger’s eye

29/04/2023

Deborah Painter (USA) Tiger’s eye is definitely an unusual semiprecious gem because of a phenomenon called “chatoyancy” seen in only a few minerals and stones. “Chat” is of course the French word for “cat”. The golden bands of polished specimens remind one of a cat’s eye. Chatoyancy refers to the … Read More

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Book review: Geopedia: A Brief Compendium of Geologic curiosities, by Marcia Bjornerud (with illustrations by Haley Hagerman)

23/04/2023

This is a charming little book, which describes itself as an “admittedly idiosyncratic compendium of [geological] words and phrases chosen because they are portals into larger stories”. It succeeds brilliantly at its professed goal, combining a great deal of information, education, and a gentle sense of fun, brought out very nicely by some attractive and humorous illustrations.

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A splendid falsification: a double story

23/04/2023

Raymond Dedeyne and Rik Dillen (Belgium) This is a story in two parts about two fake mineral specimens of a double salt, written by two authors with the same initials… You can find fake mineral specimens all the time at mineral shows, but also on location. A good example is … Read More

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Belemnites

15/04/2023

Neale Monks (UK) Belemnites are common fossils, and most collectors will have a few of these distinctive, bullet-shaped fossils in their collections. In fact, belemnites have been recognised as something other than mere stones for thousands of years. As a result of their remarkably phallus-like shape, the Ancient Egyptians associated … Read More

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The British Carboniferous Limestone

08/04/2023

Neale Monks (UK) The rocks we know in Britain and Ireland as the Carboniferous Limestone were laid down between 363 and 325 million years ago, during a period when global sea levels were particularly high, a condition that geologists refer to as a transgression. The climate was tropical, and the … Read More