Heather
@rockspotter.bsky.social
Petrologist, Museum professional, Nature enthusiast. Beauty is everywhere. Science helps us see it.
Or geologists… all those lovely rocks on the path need a quick glance…
May 10, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Or geologists… all those lovely rocks on the path need a quick glance…
Lovely Easter in Yorkshire, although I think I look happiest on the least sunny day 😂
April 26, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Lovely Easter in Yorkshire, although I think I look happiest on the least sunny day 😂
Another reason to love otters #pocketrocks #geology
April 3, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Another reason to love otters #pocketrocks #geology
This crazy #mineral (abhurite) occurs exclusively on tin ingots in shipwrecks!! 😮
It’s formed by the chemical reaction between tin & seawater.
This SEM image from @amgueddfacymru.bsky.social shows tin ingots coated with abhurite from the SS Liverpool, which sank off the coast of Anglesey in 1863.
It’s formed by the chemical reaction between tin & seawater.
This SEM image from @amgueddfacymru.bsky.social shows tin ingots coated with abhurite from the SS Liverpool, which sank off the coast of Anglesey in 1863.
February 15, 2025 at 11:22 AM
This crazy #mineral (abhurite) occurs exclusively on tin ingots in shipwrecks!! 😮
It’s formed by the chemical reaction between tin & seawater.
This SEM image from @amgueddfacymru.bsky.social shows tin ingots coated with abhurite from the SS Liverpool, which sank off the coast of Anglesey in 1863.
It’s formed by the chemical reaction between tin & seawater.
This SEM image from @amgueddfacymru.bsky.social shows tin ingots coated with abhurite from the SS Liverpool, which sank off the coast of Anglesey in 1863.
Still one of my favourite typos: Dean Lomax & team are so immersed in their subject they're even starting to look like fossils…
(From science daily in 2018) #geology
(From science daily in 2018) #geology
February 14, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Still one of my favourite typos: Dean Lomax & team are so immersed in their subject they're even starting to look like fossils…
(From science daily in 2018) #geology
(From science daily in 2018) #geology
Boglands are great!
February 8, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Boglands are great!
Some beautiful Penrhyn slate in the @nhm-london.bsky.social evolution garden - with creatures & the excellent Earth science researcher who helped bring this real-rock timeline to life.
February 7, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Some beautiful Penrhyn slate in the @nhm-london.bsky.social evolution garden - with creatures & the excellent Earth science researcher who helped bring this real-rock timeline to life.
Look the the square window in the natural history #museum #evolution garden and what do you see?
A pterosaur!
As designed in 1875 and sculpted from terracotta to Alfred Waterhouse’s design.
A pterosaur!
As designed in 1875 and sculpted from terracotta to Alfred Waterhouse’s design.
February 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Look the the square window in the natural history #museum #evolution garden and what do you see?
A pterosaur!
As designed in 1875 and sculpted from terracotta to Alfred Waterhouse’s design.
A pterosaur!
As designed in 1875 and sculpted from terracotta to Alfred Waterhouse’s design.
#Tourmaline is probably my favourite #mineral.
It has so many varieties- like the lovely allochromatic Elbaite.
If copper-bearing, crystals can be a beautiful blue / green, like in this pegmatite.
Quintos pegmatite, Parelhas, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. #geology
📷 F. Brederodes (CC licence)
It has so many varieties- like the lovely allochromatic Elbaite.
If copper-bearing, crystals can be a beautiful blue / green, like in this pegmatite.
Quintos pegmatite, Parelhas, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. #geology
📷 F. Brederodes (CC licence)
February 6, 2025 at 11:01 AM
#Tourmaline is probably my favourite #mineral.
It has so many varieties- like the lovely allochromatic Elbaite.
If copper-bearing, crystals can be a beautiful blue / green, like in this pegmatite.
Quintos pegmatite, Parelhas, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. #geology
📷 F. Brederodes (CC licence)
It has so many varieties- like the lovely allochromatic Elbaite.
If copper-bearing, crystals can be a beautiful blue / green, like in this pegmatite.
Quintos pegmatite, Parelhas, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. #geology
📷 F. Brederodes (CC licence)
Pyramidal #witherite #crystals from Pennant Mine, St. Asaph, Clwyd.
Witherite (BaCO3) was first recorded in Wales from St.Asaph in 1810, where it was mined & used ‘for bleaching shoddy cloth’.
It appears in #Minecraft too!
NMW R.J. King Collection 📷 D.I. Green, © National Museum of Wales. #geology
Witherite (BaCO3) was first recorded in Wales from St.Asaph in 1810, where it was mined & used ‘for bleaching shoddy cloth’.
It appears in #Minecraft too!
NMW R.J. King Collection 📷 D.I. Green, © National Museum of Wales. #geology
January 30, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Pyramidal #witherite #crystals from Pennant Mine, St. Asaph, Clwyd.
Witherite (BaCO3) was first recorded in Wales from St.Asaph in 1810, where it was mined & used ‘for bleaching shoddy cloth’.
It appears in #Minecraft too!
NMW R.J. King Collection 📷 D.I. Green, © National Museum of Wales. #geology
Witherite (BaCO3) was first recorded in Wales from St.Asaph in 1810, where it was mined & used ‘for bleaching shoddy cloth’.
It appears in #Minecraft too!
NMW R.J. King Collection 📷 D.I. Green, © National Museum of Wales. #geology
On Friday I gave a talk about our #urbannature project which I’ve led for @amgueddfacymru.bsky.social for the last 3 years. We’ve reached 2400 learners, aged 9 and 14, helping awaken their nature enthusiasm & creating advocates for the planet. #proud
January 28, 2025 at 10:02 PM
On Friday I gave a talk about our #urbannature project which I’ve led for @amgueddfacymru.bsky.social for the last 3 years. We’ve reached 2400 learners, aged 9 and 14, helping awaken their nature enthusiasm & creating advocates for the planet. #proud
Arapuni swing bridge, near Hamilton, NZ
January 26, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Arapuni swing bridge, near Hamilton, NZ
Radioactive daffodil-coloured #crystals anyone?
Weeksite, Arizona.
A Uranium mineral, named for Mary Alice Weeks (1909-1988), #USGS mineralogist and specialist in uranium minerals, who began her doctorate in 1934 when, incredibly, women had to listen to their lectures from the corridors! #geology
Weeksite, Arizona.
A Uranium mineral, named for Mary Alice Weeks (1909-1988), #USGS mineralogist and specialist in uranium minerals, who began her doctorate in 1934 when, incredibly, women had to listen to their lectures from the corridors! #geology
January 25, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Im a bit of a fan of hydrothermal vein #minerals and #Rhodochrosite is a lovely one.
This crystal (on tetrahedrite) is from Sweet Home Mine, Mount Bross, Alma Mining District, Colorado., where it is the State mineral.
📷 Jeff Scovil (CC-SA licence)
This crystal (on tetrahedrite) is from Sweet Home Mine, Mount Bross, Alma Mining District, Colorado., where it is the State mineral.
📷 Jeff Scovil (CC-SA licence)
January 23, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Im a bit of a fan of hydrothermal vein #minerals and #Rhodochrosite is a lovely one.
This crystal (on tetrahedrite) is from Sweet Home Mine, Mount Bross, Alma Mining District, Colorado., where it is the State mineral.
📷 Jeff Scovil (CC-SA licence)
This crystal (on tetrahedrite) is from Sweet Home Mine, Mount Bross, Alma Mining District, Colorado., where it is the State mineral.
📷 Jeff Scovil (CC-SA licence)
The amazing 60 million year old Moeraki Boulders, 🇳🇿.
#Calcite in circulating groundwater formed cement in the mudstone around 🐚. Slowly the #boulders ‘grew’. Cracks formed and were infilled with calcite crystals. Finally the land was uplifted, the mudstone exposed and the boulders eroded. #geology
#Calcite in circulating groundwater formed cement in the mudstone around 🐚. Slowly the #boulders ‘grew’. Cracks formed and were infilled with calcite crystals. Finally the land was uplifted, the mudstone exposed and the boulders eroded. #geology
January 22, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Visited Isengard!
Saruman has been washed away by the impressive Dart river delta near Glenorchy.
This migrating delta front shifts over time, so underneath Glenorchy the fan alluvium has more silt-sized material, deposited in a lake by the rivers when the deltas were further up the valley.
Saruman has been washed away by the impressive Dart river delta near Glenorchy.
This migrating delta front shifts over time, so underneath Glenorchy the fan alluvium has more silt-sized material, deposited in a lake by the rivers when the deltas were further up the valley.
January 14, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Visited Isengard!
Saruman has been washed away by the impressive Dart river delta near Glenorchy.
This migrating delta front shifts over time, so underneath Glenorchy the fan alluvium has more silt-sized material, deposited in a lake by the rivers when the deltas were further up the valley.
Saruman has been washed away by the impressive Dart river delta near Glenorchy.
This migrating delta front shifts over time, so underneath Glenorchy the fan alluvium has more silt-sized material, deposited in a lake by the rivers when the deltas were further up the valley.
I love #Calcite for its coccoliths & kettle fur, forams & brachiopods, eggshells & echinoderms, bryozoa & ‘beef’, oysters, trilobite eyes, dogs tooth & nails head spar, poker chips & angel wings…
Angel Wing Calcite, from Chihuahua, Mexico. On display at @Museum_Cardiff. My photo. #minerals #geology
Angel Wing Calcite, from Chihuahua, Mexico. On display at @Museum_Cardiff. My photo. #minerals #geology
January 10, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Rain on the Mamakau range in New Zealand filters through volcanic #rocks to form an aquifer.
Fifty to 100 years later it emerges as The Blue Spring. The colour is due to its clarity, which allows red light to pass through, reflecting blue.
So beautiful that I got distracted & nearly fell in!
Fifty to 100 years later it emerges as The Blue Spring. The colour is due to its clarity, which allows red light to pass through, reflecting blue.
So beautiful that I got distracted & nearly fell in!
January 9, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Rain on the Mamakau range in New Zealand filters through volcanic #rocks to form an aquifer.
Fifty to 100 years later it emerges as The Blue Spring. The colour is due to its clarity, which allows red light to pass through, reflecting blue.
So beautiful that I got distracted & nearly fell in!
Fifty to 100 years later it emerges as The Blue Spring. The colour is due to its clarity, which allows red light to pass through, reflecting blue.
So beautiful that I got distracted & nearly fell in!
What does it take to make a fully decked out Xmas tree ?
Minerals of course! Plus loads of other natural resources
Infographic from IMSC group
Minerals of course! Plus loads of other natural resources
Infographic from IMSC group
December 25, 2024 at 10:28 AM
What does it take to make a fully decked out Xmas tree ?
Minerals of course! Plus loads of other natural resources
Infographic from IMSC group
Minerals of course! Plus loads of other natural resources
Infographic from IMSC group
Came across the lovely Hinuera ignimbrite (Hinuera building stone) today in New Zealand 🇳🇿.
Á yellow-cream ignimbrite with fragments of pumice in a fine-grained ash matrix, it’s popular as cladding in North Island.
Á yellow-cream ignimbrite with fragments of pumice in a fine-grained ash matrix, it’s popular as cladding in North Island.
December 10, 2024 at 5:21 PM
Came across the lovely Hinuera ignimbrite (Hinuera building stone) today in New Zealand 🇳🇿.
Á yellow-cream ignimbrite with fragments of pumice in a fine-grained ash matrix, it’s popular as cladding in North Island.
Á yellow-cream ignimbrite with fragments of pumice in a fine-grained ash matrix, it’s popular as cladding in North Island.
Lovely walk in Nedd Fechan gorge. From the base of the Coal Measures, (known as ‘farewell rock’ as no coal lies beneath) up the gorge and down through dipped layers to reach the lovely #waterfall with a Carb limestone ledge. From there you can watch the water plummet! #geology
December 1, 2024 at 10:50 AM
Lovely walk in Nedd Fechan gorge. From the base of the Coal Measures, (known as ‘farewell rock’ as no coal lies beneath) up the gorge and down through dipped layers to reach the lovely #waterfall with a Carb limestone ledge. From there you can watch the water plummet! #geology
“What’s that? Don’t know but it looks vicious, let’s give it red eyes..” #taxidermy #museums
November 30, 2024 at 11:54 AM
“What’s that? Don’t know but it looks vicious, let’s give it red eyes..” #taxidermy #museums
Visited La Ronde and spotted this fabulous 1802 geo table with Devonshire marbles, Italian marbles, Derbyshire blue John and even the Egyptian ‘Imperial Porphyry’ loved by Roman builders.
October 15, 2023 at 9:29 AM
Visited La Ronde and spotted this fabulous 1802 geo table with Devonshire marbles, Italian marbles, Derbyshire blue John and even the Egyptian ‘Imperial Porphyry’ loved by Roman builders.