On this day 62 years ago, two curious teachers followed their mysterious young pupil into a junkyard, where they would find a police box and an old man with so many secrets...

An ammonite showing the chambers and body chamber in cross section.

A belemnite in cross section showing the phragmocone.

On my way to the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social tonight and in the Grand Arcade shopping centre I noted some lovely fossils in the floor: an ammonite in section showing the chambers and a belemnite in section showing the phragmocone.

#UrbanGeology
#fossils

Sign the Petition Save Geology at the University of Leicester

Geology and palaeobiology at the University of Leicester are under threat, with at least 14 staff expected to be made redundant. Support them, their postdocs, and their students by signing this petition: c.org/SK8Xm8dhqK

Yes, despite how similar its bones are to modern varanids, I love the way he scaled it to show it's not just a big Goanna.

Why would anyone place any credence on anything The Australian does?

Yep

Nice work!

I have read the first one. I got a bit weary of the stargateish bits towards the end of the TV series but if I see the books I'll get them.

I literally just watched the first episode The Expanse again. Such a good show.

I have said for a long time that nothing will happen until heat deaths are common throughout the OECD, and even then only if they are wealthy folk but still got done. Of course by then there will be no stopping it. Given the amount of heat lurking in the oceans already it is beyond stopping now.

Block diagram showing the internal components of the Misty pluton, which is one of the plutons of the Southern Fiordland batholith. A conduit rising through the lithospheric mantle feeds a sheet-like basalt structure, which in turn connects to steep-sided granitic bodies in the middle and upper crust (colored in mauve and pink).

Schematic cross section of an active continental margin subduction zone, showing the dehydration of the subducting slab, hydration and melting of a heterogeneous mantle wedge (including enriched sub-continental lithospheric mantle), and crustal underplating of mantle-derived melts. Remelting of the underplate to produce tonalitic magmas and a possible of crustal melting are also shown. As magmas pass through the continental crust they may differentiate further and/or assimilate continental crust. Winter (2001) An Introduction to Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology, Prentice Hall

Western coastline exposure of the deepest, lower-crustal level shows steep feeder zones and conduits where mafic, crystal-rich magma was injected into lower-crustal diorites. Most of the rocks in the feeder zone here are hornblendites, which are composed almost entirely of hornblende. The hornblendites are thought to be modified products of mantle-derived melt.

Outcrop of fully-fledged dikes and thick pegmatites that occur away from the base of the Misty pluton. The coherent structure of the intrusion suggests the magma was emplaced into a fairly well-crystallized host capable of exhibiting brittle-like breaking. A crystal-rich host results from fractional crystallization and the progressive removal of the remaining melt. The horizontal alignment of the crystals suggests that the host mush has been compacted and enough melt has been removed to enable the crystals to align. At the same time, the undulose margins of the dike and the exchange of the dark hornblende crystals across its margin indicate that, although crystal-rich, the host was not fully crystallized and could still exhibit ductile behavior. This supports the general picture that as the host mush becomes increasingly crystal-rich as melts are gradually extracted, the dikes that move magma through the crystallizing mush become more organized and regular in shape. The dyke here is about 30 cm across.

🧪⚒️Just posted Keith Klepeis on how plutons form. He identified conduits, feeder dikes, and mushroom-shaped sheets that form as magma rises from the base of the crust to the upper crust. A tilted batholith in NZ provided him with a rare continuous exposure of 20 km of crustal section. #geology

I read a great biography about him years ago called Darwin's moon. Amazing man.

Good views here apparently but we slept through it 😓😡

Agreed

What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.

Well reasoned and new information - “Rosalind Franklin has been reduced to the “wronged heroine” of the double helix. She deserves to be remembered not as the victim of the double helix, but as an equal contributor to the solution of the structure.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...

UKSHA, BGS and GSNI radon awareness map.

It’s #RadonAwarenessWeek.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKSHA) recommends that radon levels should be reduced in homes where the annual averages is at or above 200 becquerels per cubic metre.

They were/are a joke but that's the wonderful irony. Could Thylacoleo have filled that leopard-like niche?

In layman's terms they are kind of a cross between a crocodile and a porpoise in skeletal appearance so not a bad guess for the time really.

"Geologists are very pleasant companions, especially for geologists. It’s their art, to stop at every stone, and carry out an investigation at every layer of Earth"

Swiss author Rodolphe Toepffer (1799-1846)

World expert in air quality and COVID wins Australia's top science prize Lidia Morawska, an internationally renowned expert in air quality and its impact on human health, has won Australia's most coveted prize for scientific research.

This is awesome news! Congrats Dr. Morawska!

(Thanks @ziadfazel.bsky.social for the heads-up)

www.abc.net.au/news/science...

#CovidIsAirborne #CleanAir

The only place I have ever made a 'pilgrimage' to!

YouTube video by Scottish Geology Trust Help us build a Deep Time Trail at Siccar Point

Siccar Point is one of the most important geoheritage sites in the world; we think visitors deserve to hear why.

Help us install a Deep Time Trail - donate to the Crowdfunder now. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/siccar-point

youtu.be/OeHsVJiO9gE

Sadly, I have long thought that we are already way past the point of no return. The oceans are storing vast amounts of energy and buffering us but there will come a point when that hidden momentum emerges. Maybe rapid clathrate degassing, with vast amounts of CH4 released will be the end game signal

A small straight nautiloid found in Morrocco.

A nice straight nautiloid given to me by a friend after their trip to Morrocco. #FossilFriday

The death pose is often seen in birds too.

Jurassic fish choking on floating belemnites - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Jurassic fish choking on floating belemnites

Ebert, M., Kölbl-Ebert, M. Jurassic fish choking on floating belemnites. Sci Rep 15, 16095 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Cool. I look forward to your paper in due course 😎 I once came across a lense of sediment in a bone rich sequence that seemed to have a collection bias; duck coracoids. My guess was their hydrodynamic shape generated a 'lift' away from the remains and a concomitant passage to a unique depo site.

I have read the outcomes of the AAPG conference held after WWI, and it is clear they set out to discredit Wegener and maintain the status quo. It worked.

My favourite here would be Meiolania species...

Professor Susanne von Caemmerer and Professor Graham Farquhar are receiving an award.

Plant scientists Professor Graham Farquhar and Professor Susanne von Caemmerer transformed the world's understanding of photosynthesis, and now they have been jointly awarded the Royal Medal (Biological) from The Royal Society, at a ceremony in London.

science.anu.edu.au/news-events/...