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galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
Galway Geological Assoc (GGA)
@galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
44 followers 41 following 28 posts
Galway/W. Ireland based; informal connections to Earth & Ocean Sciences, Uni. of Galway & cognate associations on island of Ireland. Images: Connemara marble; Phanerotinus cristatus (from Tuam)
GGA is passionate about the natural environment & esp. geology
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galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
2026 calendar by @corkgeological.bsky.social. Spendid photographs of geological structures, fossils, etc. from #Ireland & further afield. Several photos featuring memorable CGA/GGA trip to #Árainn (#InisMór), #AranIslands, led by @johnjfwalsh.bsky.social. @geolsurvie.bsky.social
Scan of front cover, CGA geology calendar 2026 showing participants on Carboniferous rock platform on western shore, near Poll na bPéist, Inis Mór, 28 May, 2025 Scan of back cover, CGA geology calendar 2026 showing participants climbing towards Dún Aonghasa (large Bronze Age fort) on cliff location, Inis Mór; in background Galway Bay and Connemara. 28 May, 2025
November 25, 2025 at 7:59 PM
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tuatha.ie
The past is always present on the beautiful island of Inis Oírr. This is just one of the wonderful wealth of monuments that are featured on our itinerary, available now for Tuatha Members.

Not a member yet? Start your Irish archaeological adventure today!
www.tuatha.ie/join/
A promotional image for our Inis Oírr Itinerary featuring two of the featured sites and part of the illustrated map
November 25, 2025 at 6:57 PM
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historyofgeology.bsky.social
November 22, 1842, contemporary sources describe clouds of ash "rolling up in great masses, wreathing as smoke from a pipe does, but on an enormous scale" over Washington and Oregon - one of the early documented eruptive episodes of St. Helens (who repeated this spectacle 138 years later)🌋
November 22, 2025 at 12:58 PM
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tomsharperocks.bsky.social
You responsible for wielding the sledgehammer, @nigelmonaghan-nh.bsky.social?
extinctmonsters.bsky.social Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 16d
The Ward Scientific Company sold these Rhomaleosaurus casts to various museums starting in 1866 (for $150). The original at the National Museum of Ireland was broken up with sledgehammers during a move in the 1920s. #FossilFriday
Relief skeleton of a medium-necked plesiosaur, surrounded by ornate wood trim. Nearly identical plesiosaur cast, in a crowded case with other relief skeletons of marine reptiles, green text banners, and illustrations. Illustration of the same skeleton with a guy pointing a stick at it. Text says Plesiosaurus cramptoni No. 228.
November 21, 2025 at 2:19 PM
galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
Nice to see Emain Macha / Loughnashade highlighted. A fine place to visit at any time of year. Photos taken on a fine June day 2015 during a visit to the Centre & this impresssive site. All the more memorable on account of the expert guidance by Prof Jim Mallory of @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social
The impressive earth works that surround the artificial mound on the hilltop at Emain Macha / Navan Fort; photo: 2015-06-13, Michael O'Connell Empressive earthworks at Emain Macha / Navan Fort; photo: 2015-06-13, Michael O'Connell Fine ash tree (one of many) and lush countryside at Emain Macha / Navan Fort; photo: 2015-06-13, Michael O'Connell
November 22, 2025 at 1:44 PM
galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
#GGA lecture this evening at 7 pm: The Ethics of Mineral Extraction by Dr Nick O'Neill. The subject matter has seldom been more topical 😳
galway-geol-ass.bsky.social Galway Geological Assoc (GGA) @galway-geol-ass.bsky.social · Nov 4
Tuesday, 11 Nov, 19:00 h, #GGA Zoom lecture: The Ethics of Mineral Extraction by Dr Nick O'Neill, #TCD. Earthrise (Dec 24 1968), by Bill Anders (NASA, Apollo 8), shows earth as a fragile blue marble in blackness of space. It inspired the 1st Earth Day 1970 & this lecture. www.galwaygeology.net
Photo by NASA/Bill Anders - http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a410/AS8-14-2383HR.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=306267
November 11, 2025 at 5:42 PM
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pavementgeology.bsky.social
Panels of Irish ‘Marble’ in the foyer of what is now the Department of Justice in Dublin. Stunning example of #urbangeology
The entrance hall of this building is decorated with a series of numbered panels displaying marbles and decorative stones quarried in Ireland. The entrance hall of this building is decorated with a series of numbered panels displaying marbles and decorative stones quarried in Ireland. An example of a black ‘marble’ from Galway figured with a white fossil coral A panel of green Connemara marble.
November 7, 2025 at 5:46 PM
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moconnell007.bsky.social
Climbed to the crater of #Vesuvius yesterday. Amazing to see gases emerging & smell S. Unfortunately, no explanations of the complex stratigraphy. Vegetation struggling to gain a foothold on the Volcanic deposits. Panoramic views of the Bay of Naples
Gases emerging inside Vesuvius crater Complex stratigraphy inside Vesuvius crater Volcanic ash & large boulder beside path to crater Bay of Naples from near top of Vesuvius
November 7, 2025 at 6:27 PM
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cianoceallaigh.bsky.social
Farming side by side with nature in an upland region of Teneriffe, although this type of farming is clearly on the decline.
Curaíocht traidisiúnta i sléibhte Teneriffe. Cuireann sé i gcuimhne dhom sléibhte Conamara beagán, tá fiú raithneach ag fás sna áiteanna nach bhfuil curtha níos mó...
November 3, 2025 at 5:34 PM
galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
Tuesday, 11 Nov, 19:00 h, #GGA Zoom lecture: The Ethics of Mineral Extraction by Dr Nick O'Neill, #TCD. Earthrise (Dec 24 1968), by Bill Anders (NASA, Apollo 8), shows earth as a fragile blue marble in blackness of space. It inspired the 1st Earth Day 1970 & this lecture. www.galwaygeology.net
Photo by NASA/Bill Anders - http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a410/AS8-14-2383HR.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=306267
November 4, 2025 at 11:47 AM
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tuatha.ie
In today's edition of our free #MonumentMonday newsletter, we take a trip to Boa Island on Lough Erne to visit two of the most enigmatic characters in Irish archaeology.
Two stone idols, both depicting a bearded man, set in a cemetery on Boa Island in County Fermanagh.
November 3, 2025 at 6:10 PM
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tomsharperocks.bsky.social
Although I can't be at today's @geolassoc.bsky.social event, my biography of Mary Anning, 'The Fossil Woman A Life of Mary Anning' which was published by The Dovecote Press five years ago today, will be there, available from the @hoggroup.bsky.social stand.
Book cover of The Fossil Woman A Life of Mary Anning by Tom Sharpe, with a representation of a plesiosaur skeleton and of the figure of Mary Anning set on bands of colour representing layers of rock.
November 1, 2025 at 12:04 PM
galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
Not to be missed: public lecture on lives of the last Neanderthals by Prof Clive Finlayson, internationally renowed expert on Neanderthals & their role in human evolution - THIS EVENING 18:00h @uniofgalway.bsky.social
moconnell007.bsky.social Michael O'Connell @moconnell007.bsky.social · Oct 22
Reminder: 7th William King Lecture 6pm, TODAY in Ó hEocha Theatre, Arts Millennium Building, S. Campus, University of Galway BY Prof Clive Finlayson, Director #GibraltarMuseum & Gorham’s Cave Complex UNESCO World Heritage Site. Introduction by Prof David Burn, President, @uniofgalway.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 12:10 PM
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tuatha.ie
There are few places to match Glendalough in October 🍂

What a beautiful day at one of my favourite places!
The tall round tower of Glendalough surrounded by autumn foliage
October 21, 2025 at 9:53 PM
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naolimit.bsky.social
A welcome reprieve from politics and sleep deprivation.
October 22, 2025 at 4:27 AM
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allochthonous.bsky.social
Reading William Whewell's 1832 review of Lyell's Principles of Geology, Vol 2, in which he coined "uniformitarianism", and I just love this passage summarizing what in many modern geological textbooks would describe as the principle of uniformitarianism.

babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hv...
Screenshot of part of a scanned page from a 19th century scientific journal. Text reads: "Now it appears that, in the present order of things, certain changes do go on, both in the position of portions of the earth, and in the forms of certain organised beings. The volcano and the earthquake are seldom long idle; the ocean is an unremitting assailant of the solid earth; the countless host of streams and showers second his attack, on the other side, by efforts formidable from their multitude and perseverance. The coast yields; the crest of the mountain descends; large tracts of the earth tremble and change their elevation: the volcanic island lifts its head above the waves. Here, at least, are some elements of mutations in the form of the earth and of the bed of the sea. The more we examine such causes, the more constant the more extensive, the more powerful, does their operation appear. In the course of progressive ages, what effects may they not produce? And what limit are were to place to the time during which their work has proceeded? We know that this past period must be long; we know not how long. Who shall prove to use that the forces which we ourselves witness are too weak, or unfit, to produce all the facts of position which the earth's crust exhibits? Such is the reasoning of the advocate of the geological adequacy of the existing dynamical laws of the world."
October 15, 2025 at 4:29 PM
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bgs.ac.uk
BGS' GeoIndex viewer has been given a major upgrade and is available as a beta release.

It includes core geological data layers, such as 625K- and 50K-scale digital geological mapping and borehole datasets, to allow for focused user testing.

Visit the app: geoindex.bgs.ac.uk?_ga=2.224738...
October 16, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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moconnell007.bsky.social
Reminder: this evening’s (Wed, 15 October at 7pm) GGA @galway-geol-ass.bsky.social Zoom lecture: Coastal boulder deposits on the #AranIslands BY Professor Rónadh Cox (Williams College, MA, USA). For Z link email: galwaygeology@gmail.com 😉🌊 @wildatlanticway.bsky.social
moconnell007.bsky.social Michael O'Connell @moconnell007.bsky.social · Oct 7
Greatly looking forward to this lecture by Prof Rónagh Cox on this highly topical subject - given the increased frequency of severe storms on the NW Atlantic coasts and especially western Ireland
galway-geol-ass.bsky.social Galway Geological Assoc (GGA) @galway-geol-ass.bsky.social · Oct 7
GGA Zoom lecture (Wed, 15 October 2025 at 19:00 h): Coastal boulder deposits on the #AranIslands record at least 2000 years of extreme wave events
BY Professor Rónadh Cox (WilliamsCollege Williams College, MA, USA). For Z link email: galwaygeology@gmail.com
October 15, 2025 at 9:59 AM
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tomsharperocks.bsky.social
#AdaLovelaceDay: that Ada's contemporary, Mary Anning, was much more than a fossil dealer is clear from her letters with her observations on coprolites, the orientation of Pentacrinites and their association with fossil wood, and her dissection of living marine molluscs to understand fossil sepia.
Mary Anning's account of dissecting a modern animal: '... the second one I disected at Miss Philpots it first had a shell this shape [sketch] very like a smooth pectin only more concave, also a sack or ink bag exactly resembling the fossil one you borrowed from Miss Philpot...' Mary Anning's observations on coprolites: 'I have no doubt myself but that they were dropped quietly where we now find them and that Ichthyosauruses fed on scaly fish'. Mary Anning's observations on Pentacrinites: 'the pentacrinite lies with the head downwards invariably with the footstalk uppermost on which lies the lignite...'
October 14, 2025 at 11:15 AM
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geolassoc.bsky.social
A fascinating article by BBC News about the Dewars Farm Quarry dinosaur trackway excavation by scientists from across the UK and Oxford University Museum of Natural History, including some fabulous computer generated animation. Great stuff!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...
In the footsteps of giants - BBC News
One of the longest sets of dinosaur footprints in the world has been discovered in a limestone quary near Bicester, in Oxfordshire, England.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 14, 2025 at 7:45 AM
galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
#GGA #geology fieldtrip to Birr/Ferbane, #Offaly on Saturday started at a golf course & ended in a church. The strongly undulating landscape at #Birr golf course has its origins in the melting glaciers of c. 19k years ago. A fine esker (Riada), steep-sided & wood covered, forms the western boundary
Dune-like landscape that is Birr golf course. The course serves to preserve the glacial landscape and show it off at its best Mature beech on the steep sides of the esker that forms the western boundary of the golf course. Also the occasional yew tree present Honey fungus (Armillaria) mushrooms at the base of the trees on the esker Clusters of honey fungus (Armillaria) mushrooms
October 13, 2025 at 10:06 PM
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tuatha.ie
We could all use do with a little well-being these days, so in today's edition of our #MonumentMonday newsletter we take a trip to County Kerry to visit Tober na Molt (also known as Wether's Well).

This lovely holy well has associations with the famous St Brendan the Navigator, St Ita and St Erc.
Tober na Molt Holy Well. A pool of water, lined with drystone walling with a small flight of steps. It has a small stone building with a slate roof alongside it.
October 13, 2025 at 4:19 PM
galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
GGA Zoom lecture (Wed, 15 October 2025 at 19:00 h): Coastal boulder deposits on the #AranIslands record at least 2000 years of extreme wave events
BY Professor Rónadh Cox (WilliamsCollege Williams College, MA, USA). For Z link email: galwaygeology@gmail.com
Megaclasts resting on bedrock near Poll na bPeist; 2025-05-28; GGA/CGA Fieldtrip, Inis Mór (photo: Michael O’Connell)
October 7, 2025 at 1:15 PM
galway-geol-ass.bsky.social
GGA #fieldtrip on Sat 11 October: Exploring Midland #Eskers (leader: Dr John Feehan). Start point Birr, Co Offaly. For further details email: galwaygeology@gmail.com
Knockbarron esker complex; image: lidar and OSI map. Image provided by J Feehan in the context of GGA Fieldtrip Co. Offaly, October 2022
October 7, 2025 at 1:09 PM
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tomsharperocks.bsky.social
#MolluscMonday: James Sowerby's illustration of Ammonites bucklandi from the Lias of the Bath district, in vol.2 of Mineral Conchology (1818), the description brightened by the tale of William Buckland being proclaimed an 'Ammon Knight' by his friends for his mode of carrying a large specimen.
Illustration from Sowerby's Mineral Conchology of the large ammonite he named after William Buckland. It shows a large spiral shell with its inner whorls missing. Extract from Sowerby's published description: 'Found in the Blue Lias of Bath and the neighbourhood, measuring from a foot to 21 inches or more in diameter, and rather remarkable for having frequently lost the inner whorls; which circumstance, by a sort of friendly pun, has given rise to the name given it, in honour of a meritorious and enlightened Geologist, the Rev. W. Buckland, who having found a large specimen, was induced by his ardour to carry it himself, although of considerable weight, and being on horseback it was not the less inconvenient; but the inner whorls being gone so as to allow his head and shoulder to pass through, he placed it as a French horn is sometimes carried, above one shoulder and under the other, and thus rode with his friendly companions, who amused him by dubbing him an Ammon Knight; and thus the specimen was secured, by diverting the tedious toil otherwise hardly to be borne. May his zeal for information always be rewarded: may his abilities continue to meet that attention they have hitherto so deservedly gained: may his horn be exalted with honour.'
October 6, 2025 at 10:34 AM