Glendonite Star Fossil

Glendonite star fossil

This fossil is not of an animal, but a mineral. When sea water temperature at the seafloor drops below ~4°C/39°F a carbonate mineral called ikaite will start to precipitate and grow forming bizarre shapes. Even though the original mineral will dissolve once it is buried, other diagenetic minerals will replace its form, making a glendonite.

Gledonite/Ikaite and its specific forming conditions allow geologist to approximate climatic conditions for the time period captured by the rocks in which this mineral is found.

Thanks to the flat exposure on the rock platform, we can appreciate this nature’s creativity.

Example from the south coast NSW, Australia.

a psa

Shocked quartz is not actually rainbow, those images are microscopic views of single shocked quartz particles! On a non-microscopic level, this is what it looks like.

A little bit mundane compared to those funky rainbow microscope shots if you’d ask me.

Unearthing Ireland’s deepest fairy secrets and darkest myths

A fairy fort, with corn stooks of four sheaves each, in Loughinisland, Co Down, in 1962. Photograph: Michael J Murphy/duchas.ie

“A worldwide crowdsourcing movement is currently unearthing Ireland’s deepest fairy secrets and darkest myths. A voluntary collective online is working its way through transcribing 700,000 pages of folklore that were collected throughout Ireland between 1937 and 1939. This mass of previously inaccessible material was gathered by more than 100,000 children who were sent to seek out the oldest person in their community just before second World War to root out the darkest, oddest and weirdest traditional beliefs, secrets and customs, which were then logged into 1,128 volumes, titled the Schools’ Manuscripts Collection.

Half a million pages have been digitised by the National Folklore Collection, of which more than 100,000 pages have now been transcribed by volunteers, revealing the fairy situation in every townland, the types of leprechaun and butter churn common to each area, the names of people who tried to steal gold and what happened to them, or who had relationships with mermaids. There is material on local cures, holy wells, strange animals, travelling folk and spirits.”

The Irish Times

OMG. THIS IS AMAZING.

17K notes View Post

rocks-everywhere

6 years ago

There are three breeds of cat:

Chonk

Goblin

Yeah that looks like a cat

306K notes View Post

rocks-everywhere

6 years ago

palaeoart

Finally made it to the legendary Stuttgart Museum of Natural History and it was worth the wait. Many people have described this as the single best paleontology Museum in the world and I can see why. There is so much to see, all beautifully preserved and presented. Over the next few days I’ll share my top picks from the museum but to whet your appetite, here’s an entire wall of giant Ichthyosaurs specimens from Holzmaden including Temnodontosaurus trigonodon and Eurhinosaurus longirostris.

212 notes View Post