GeologyRocks

Homer's Odyssey: Fossils of Crete

The islands of the Aegean are peaks of underwater mountains that extend out from the mainland. Crete is the last of this range and boasts a diverse beauty from its high mountains of Psiloritis, Lefka Ori, Dikti, to its ocean caressed pink sand beaches.

Much of the island of Crete is Miocene and filled with fossil mollusks, bivalves, gastropods who lived 5 to 23 million years ago in warm, tropical seas. They are easily collected from their pink limestone matrix and are often eroded out, mixing with their modern relatives.
 

Haida Gwaii: Fossil Collecting at the Edge of the World

The Queen Charlotte Islands form part of Wrangellia, an exotic tectonostratiphic terrane, that includes parts of western British Columbia, Vancouver Island and Alaska. I'll be bringing my rock hammer and kayak to the mist-shrouded archipelago of Haida Gwaii next month to collect ammonites from the Middle Albian, Haida Formation.

Exploring the Saanich Peninsula

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Fossil Hunting in the Pentlands

The Pentlands are a series of hills just south of Edinburgh. They consist of volcanic and sedimentary rocks of Devonian and Silurian age. The sediments are both terrestrial and marine, with the oldest being the marine Silurian.  These Silurian rocks are the most interesting feature, forming three inliers or "windows". One of these inliers, the North Esk Inlier, is very interesting both geologically and palaeontologically. 

Field Guide to Robin Hood's Bay

Boggle Hole is halfway between Robin Hood's Bay and can be reached by turning down Bridge Holm Lane from the A171 (Whitby-Scarborough road). There is car park at the end of the road. Start at Boggle Hole car park. Walk down the path to the beach, past the Youth Hostel.

On the hunt for dinosaur footprints

Parts of the North Yorkshire coast are famous for dinosaur footprints, and is also known as the Dinosaur Coast and has been the focus of research for many years. How easy is it to find these footprints now? We went along to this section of coast to find out.

If you find anything; record it, photograph it and sketch it - do not attempt to hammer footprints out of the rocks. The footprints are a valuable scientific asset for research.

Notes on the Semington By-Pass

Semington, just east of Bath in Wiltshire has recently had a new by-pass built. One of our Geologyrocks members, John Willmouth, spent some time near by during the excavation period. Here are some notes and photographs taken during this time.

In the 2004 Bath Geological Society Journal, we had a report from Sue Cowley on her finds on this site. One of her claims was that biggest gypsum crystal found was 6" in length. She was not aware that a few days later I found one a massive 9.5" long! (Figure 1)