⛏ Thomas Hammerich
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⛏ Thomas Hammerich
@thammerich.bsky.social
210 followers 240 following 160 posts
⛏ Geologist
🎓 Lecturer / Speaker
🛳 Expedition Leader & Guide
10+ years of exploring the global geology
guiding expedition voyages on land/@sea.
🌱 Seed & plant collector, 🏃‍♂️🚴‍♂️🖖 ☕lover

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...today's sunset! Will there be more #Aurora 💚 tonight? Let's see...

#Photography
#Sunset
#Nature
#Polarlichter
#Niedersachsen
January 20, 2026 at 4:19 PM
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#Aurora #Polarlichter #Bremen #Niedersachsen
January 19, 2026 at 10:05 PM
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#Aurora #Polarlichter #Bremen #Niedersachsen
Aurora in Northern Germany/ Bremen area /Niedersachsen
January 19, 2026 at 9:30 PM
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Native element #MineralMonday 🌋

📷 Sulphur

🔎 Liquid sulphur (🟠) and solid sulphur (🟡) deposits.

📍Kawah Ijen, East Java, Indonesia 🇮🇩

#geology #geoscience #travel #RockyMonday #volcanism
Mount Ijen in Indonesia shows unique "liquid sulphur" phenomena where volcanic vents (fumaroles) exhaling sulphur-rich gases: first channeled through pipes, then cooling to form molten red-orange sulphur that solidifies into bright yellow sulphur chunks. Local miners manually break and carry the solid sulphur in heavy loads from the crater upwards the crater rim. ©️ Picture: Thomas Hammerich
January 19, 2026 at 2:51 PM
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🌱 Probably the northernmost resident of it's kind at 53°8'N

Xanthorrhoea preissii (Grass tree/balga): endemic to Australia, respond to wildfire by flowering profusely. Grass tree leaves are narrow, linear & stiff.

📷 grown from seeds, germination took 9+months, now ~6 years old, leaves 1,37m/54in.
Picture of Xanthorrhoea preissii pot plant. Inside the pot the soil is covered partly by brown piece of old grass tree leaves. In the middle the long bright green narrow, linear and stiff grass tree leaves are growing upwards giving it the appearance of an upside-down shaving brush. Picture: Thomas Hammerich More about Grass trees: All 66 species are endemic & only found in Australia. They're all perennial, flowering plants. The smallest species grows to about 1 m, others reach 6 m tall. Grass trees are even more interesting below the soil surface! They have a root system, where microbes called mycorrhiza surround the roots in a symbiotic relationship, which helps the plant take up nutrients. Most species are extremely slow growing. Grass trees are often very long-lived; some are estimated to be 350 to 450 years old! Xanthorrhoea are monocots (meaning they only have one cotyledon, which is the leaf attached to the embryo within the seed). Grass trees may take several years to flower. Flowers form on a spear-like spike, which can be up to 4 m long! Flowers are arranged in a spiral up the spike, and produce a great amount of nectar, attracting a wide variety of insects, birds and mammals. Once pollinated, the flowers form a tough, pointed fruit capsule that’s typically matt-black. One flowering stem of some grass tree species can produce up to 10,000 seeds!
January 17, 2026 at 7:06 PM
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⛏ It's #FossilFriday 🦑

📷 Part of a fossil Sea Urchin shell (Echinoderms) on Flint.

My first fossil collected back then during school summer holidays. Probably the beginning why I studied #Geology/ #Palaeontology.

📍 Beach/cliff deposit: Løkken, Jammerbugt, Denmark 🇩🇰

#geoscience #fossil
A grey-blue-blackish flintstone on a wooden plate. On the flint surface there are fossil shell fragments of a Sea Urchin in light beige colour starting on top and going downwards. A red spot is visible on the upper right shell fragments which is likely a lichen. Picture: Thomas Hammerich
January 16, 2026 at 3:20 PM
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⛏ It's #FossilFriday 🦑

📷 Ammonite Paracoroniceras lyra
from Lyme Regis, Dorset, England.

⏳ Age: Lower Jurassic (195 my)

📍 Collection of Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland - UK 🇬🇧

#geology #geoscience #paleontology #fossil
Picture of three Paracoroniceras lyra Ammonites inside a grey rock. The Ammonites have a brownish colour and the size of a big table plate. A left hand as a size reference in the bottom middle of the picture. Picture: Thomas Hammerich
January 9, 2026 at 3:09 PM
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⛏ #MineralMonday 🌊

📷 Wave Rock (Granite)

🔎 Hyden Rock:
15m/49ft high, 110m/360ft long cliff face. Shaped by weathering & water erosion. Orange+black stains are from lichens, mosses and algae.

⏳ Age: ~2.7 billion years

📍Hyden, WA - #Australia 🇦🇺

#geology #geoscience #travel #RockyMonday
Wave Rock on the left picture side during sunset with blue sky. The Wave Rock is a massive 15-meter-high granite cliff in Western Australia that resembles a colossal ocean wave about to crash. A tree on the right picture side gives reference for size. Picture taken by Thomas Hammerich
January 5, 2026 at 5:26 PM
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⛏ May the New Year be as solid as bedrock, as inspiring as mountain ranges, and as full of discovery as the layers of Earth’s history. ⚒

🍀 Happy New Year 2026 bsky! 🍀

🍀 #FrohesNeues 🍀
#HappyNewYear2026 #NewYear2026
#Welcome2026 #art
Framed portrait postcard in vintage style with geological topic: top part is a landscape with a cliff+waterfall on the upper right, a snow topped volcano in the upper middle and an erupting volcano on the upper left. In the middle the number 2026 is build up by different geological rocks, a crystal filled void, layered rocks and a partly rolled ammonite representing number 6. Lower part of the postcard is showing the greetings on banners like "A geological" on top and "Happy New Year" below. On the bottom part a trilobite and a crystal void with several other rocks and pebbles can be see.
January 1, 2026 at 12:42 PM
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⚒ #MineralMonday

📷 ~ Amber ~
is fossilized tree resin.

🔎 Fun fact: a "rock" that burns!
The term 'electricity' comes from 'elektron', which is the Greek word for amber.

📍 Beach deposit: Løkken, Jammerbugt, Denmark 🇩🇰

#RockyMonday #geology #geoscience #Denmark #gemstone
Many small brownish to amber to honey coloured amber pebbel of various sizes. One Amber pepple in detail: glowing strongly in light to dark orange colours.
December 29, 2025 at 4:43 PM
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...another day sunset in color.

#Photography
#Sunset
#Nature
December 29, 2025 at 3:44 PM
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...A quiet sunset where the day gently fades into night...

#Photography
#Sunset
#Nature
Photography after sunset. The right upper corner is already black. A few groups of trees can be seen on the lower right side, in the lower middle and on the left picture side. There is an orange afterglow on the horizon above some rooftops with streaky pinkish couds above it in the sky.
December 25, 2025 at 4:47 PM
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🎄 Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄

⚒ Rock solid wishes for the holidays!

#Christmas2025 #MerryChristmas #FroheWeihnachten
A Christmas card in retro Biedermeier style showing a winter landscape with two men (geologists with equipment) in the front investigating rocks and taking notes.
December 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
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Get ready for #Xmas2025 !

Santa has started from #Greenland

...he's coming to town! 🎄🎅☃️

#Weihnachten
#Flightrader24 #MerryChristmas
December 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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⚒ #MineralMonday

📷 Main Dolomite [CaMg(CO3)2] Grey coarse limestone - often sugar crystal like surface.

⛏ If crushed, you can easily recognize typical smell of crude oil.

⏳ Late Triassic (Norian: 220 My)

📍Hochvogel, Allgäu Alps, Tyrol, Austria 🇦🇹

#RockyMonday #geology #geoscience #minerals
Picture shows light grey rock sample of Main Dolomite. You can easily recognize the typical rugged Dolomite weathering of creating sharp edges on the left side of the sample. The surface is rough: many "sugar crystal" like structures cover the entire sample. High content of incorporated organic matter - it smells like crude-oil when crushed. Rock sample was collected at 2000m / 6561ft elevation at the Hochvogel mountain, Allgäuer Alps. During field work these sharp edges will "eat up" your hiking boot soles 🥾⛰ in the field very soon. In the bigger scale these sharp edges create the characteristic impressive peak formations of the #Alpes & #Dolomites.
December 22, 2025 at 3:40 PM
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⚒ #FossilFriday 🦑

📷 Ventriculites radiatus Mantell, 1822. Fossilized silica sponge (marine suspension feeder) inside chalk.

⏳ Age range: Cretaceous [112 Ma to 66 Ma].

📏 Size: 21x3.5cm / 8.2x1.4in

📍 Collected at Lägerdorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany 🇩🇪

#geology #geoscience #palaeontology #fossil
An elongated rock sample of white chalk (porous sedimentary rock, a type of limestone made primarily from calcite [calcium carbonate] that forms from the accumulation of tiny marine organism shells [coccoliths] on the seafloor, often containing fossils). On the upper top chalk surface is an elongated blackish (sausage like) fossil of the Cretaceous sponge Ventriculites radiatus Mantell, 1822. The surface of the silica sponge has round small pores. Detail of previous picture: blackish elongated Cretaceous sponge Ventriculites radiatus Mantell, 1822, oriented from left to right side of picture on white chalk sediment underneath. On its surface the small elongated pore holes are visible.
December 19, 2025 at 3:50 PM
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⚒ #MineralMonday

📷 Pele's Hair
Thin glass fibers known as Pele's hair, named after Hawaiian volcanic deity Pele 🌋

🔎 Bubbles of gas burst near the surface of a lava flow, it stretches the skin of molten lava into long threads.

📍 Volcán Masaya, Nicaragua 🇳🇮

#geology #geoscience #minerals #volcano
A silver metal lid rests on a wooden board. Inside the lid are numerous thin, shiny black "hair-like" threads of volcanic glass. Diameter of metal lid: 10.5cm / 4.13in Enlargement of the previous image: a clump of Pele's hair can be seen in detail. Even enlarged detail of Pele's Hair: several thin "hair or needle like" glossy black of volcanic glass. Some contain "drop like" parts in between or are roundly bend or twisted.
December 15, 2025 at 2:41 PM
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⚒ #FossilFriday 🦑

📷 Nummulites
Type of fossil foraminifera, lived in the warm shallow seas of the Tertiary (~52my).

📍 Rock face of Piz d'Artgas (Elev.: 2600m/8530ft) , Grisons, Switzerland 🇨🇭

#geology #paleontology #fossil
Picture of rock face of Mount Piz d'Artgas (Elevation: 2600m / 8530ft) showing dark brown rock matrix with abundant light brown flat elongated Nummulite fossils in various orientations. A humans left hand on the left part of the picture for size reference. Trivia: The ancient Egyptians used nummulite shells as coins, pyramid limestones contain nummulites.
December 12, 2025 at 3:20 PM
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📚 #VellumVerseWednesday

I stumbled upon a piece of history in the book from last Wednesday – a newspaper article fragment from @nytimes.com

Used the NYT archive & found it: Dec. 30th, 1947.

🗞️ Ink that travels through time!

#NYTimes #NYC #Geology #HiddenTreasures
#ScienceHistory #VintageBook
Picture shows yellowed fragment of an old New York Times newspaper. The headline of the article is: "Great Waterfall Site Found in Connecticut". Picture shows yellowed fragment of an old New York Times newspaper. It's the backside of the previous picture showing partly left side of an advertisement of the "First Avenue Wine &...." shop on "1158 1st Avenue, New York".
December 10, 2025 at 3:39 PM
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⛏ #MineralMonday 🖖

📷 Volcanic bomb with beautiful glassy texture.

📍 Yasur Volcano, Tanna - Vanuatu 🇻🇺

Sample taken shortly after being erupted out of the southern crater. 🌋

📏 Size: 13 x 7cm / 5.1 x 2.8in

⚒

#RockyMonday #geology #geoscience #minerals #Vanuatu #volcano #volcanism
Picture of a volcanic bomb: glassy texture with metallic shine and glossy black to bluish colour. Lots of circular to elongated voids/bubbles and flow like textures are clearly visible from center to left side of the rock sample.
December 8, 2025 at 2:16 PM
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Will be interesting to compare this site to other cold seeps from active continental margins: e.g. bacterial communities (ANME, SRB?), seep biota etc. & if cold seep carbonates (below the seep inside the sediment?) are also present?

Looking forward to read more!
December 6, 2025 at 4:49 PM
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⚒ #FossilFriday 🦑

🐚 Faxe quarry's Danian reef

📷 Fossil cold-water coral mound ecosystem:
e.g. scleractinian corals, over 120 species of small gastropods, echinoderms, bryozoans

⏳ Danian (66-61.6my)
🔎 Paleodepth 100-300m /328-984ft

📍 Faxe, Denmark 🇩🇰

#geology #geoscience #paleontology #fossil
Beige colour carbonate rock sample, part of a fossil cold-water coral mound from Faxe/Denmark. Sample width is 17cm / 6.7in. The Faxe Danian fossil reef mounds are renowned for its exceptional preservation and high diversity of marine fossils, with over 500 species identified. The most prominent and common fossils include corals, brachiopods, gastropods, bivalves, crabs, sea urchins, crinoids, and shark teeth. Detail of previous photography. Many reef fossils can be spotted. Another detail of the first (overview) picture. Scale of 10mm / ~⅜in. Carbonate rock sample is built up by a framework of reef fossils.
December 5, 2025 at 6:35 PM
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⛏ Happy #BarbaraDay ⚒

Since the 12th century, "St. Barbara's Day" has been celebrated on December 4th.

💐 Barbara: Patron Saint of Miners and Geologists 💐

⚒ Miners and ⛏ geologists commemorate Saint Barbara on this day. 🎶 🎉 🍻

⛏ Glück Auf! ⚒

#BarbaraTag #Geology #geoscience #minerals #history
Saint Barbara found shelter in a rock crevice and thus became the patron saint of miners and geologists. Stained glass window, Catholic parish church of St. John the Baptist, Sankt Johann, Germany Picture: Wikimedia Commons/ GFreihalter
December 4, 2025 at 2:51 PM
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📚 #VellumVerseWednesday

There's something special about old scientific books that takes you on a journey through time & discovery.

📖 1877

🕯📖 👀 Perfect for December winter days!

#Geology #geoscience #Naturalsciences
#ScienceHistory #poem #VintageBooks #LeatherBound #KnowledgeIsTimeless #books
Book cover with title: "Steeles Series in the Natural Sciences" Opened book: left page with drawing and text below "A Swiss Lake Village of the Bronze Epoche". Right page: "The Story of the Rocks Fourteen Weeks un Popular Geology" By J. Dorman Steele, Ph.D. Fellow of the Geological Society, London, and author of the Fourteen-Weeks Series in Natural Science. Revised Edition A.S. Barnes & Company New York, Chicago, and New Orleans". Book page with several poems
December 3, 2025 at 3:44 PM
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⛏ #MineralMonday ⚒

📷 The copper minerals include chalcocite, bornite, chalcopyrite, with associated malachite, azurite and cuprite.

🔎 Discovered in 1899, five mines operated from 1911- 1938.

📍 Kennecott Mines / Alaska

#RockyMonday #geology #geoscience #minerals #Alaska
First Copper mineral sample from Kennekott/Alaska: Blue copper minerals (e.g. Azurite) with several greenish areas of copper minerals like Malachite. Second rock sample from Kennekott/Alaska: mostly greenish Copper minerals (e.g. Malachite) with small Copper mineral veins of blue Azurite and brownish-beige host rock covering parts of the right upper sample side.
December 1, 2025 at 3:19 PM