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Category Archives: Geodiversity Database CD
December 2010 – Fool’s Gold
For this month’s article we are going to take a look at a commonly occurring mineral having a long history of association with humankind. Fool’s Gold is a common name used to describe a number of different minerals including weathered biotite mica, though most frequently the name [...]
on November 30, 2010 1 Comment
October 2010 – Jarocite
First described in 1853 by August Breithaupt, Jarocite (also Jarosite) is a complex mineral with the chemical formula KFe3+3(OH)6(SO4)2.
on October 1, 2010 Leave a comment
March 2010 – Redcar Submerged Forest
In January and February of 2010, beach deposits at Redcar – in an area roughly extending between the Information Center and Park Hotel – were stripped away by tidal scour revealing some infrequently exposed beds beneath the usual sand and pebbles.
At the base of the steps opposite the Information Center, and extending seaward for over [...]
on March 9, 2010 Leave a comment
February 2010 – Evaporites
Evaporites are non-clastic, or chemical sediments, created through the precipitation of dissolved salts from water. They most frequently occur at the site of a former large water body such as a lake or landlocked sea, on coastal plains (sabkha zones), or where rivers feed very arid desert areas. As the water involved slowly evaporates the [...]
on February 1, 2010 Leave a comment
January 2010 – Siderite
Iron carbonate (FeCO3), or siderite from the Greek sideros meaning iron, is a major source of ore for steel-making being usually low in sulphur and phosphorous, and high in manganese and/or magnesium.
This mineral is able to assume almost any colour but commonly brown, yellowish-brown, or grey specimens can be found. It occurs in Britain’s [...]
on January 6, 2010 Leave a comment
September – Whinstone
Whinstone is a quarryman’s term for a variety of hard, dark-coloured, rocks including basalt and chert. Here, in the Tees Valley and Cleveland, the name refers to a hard rock that is very different from the soft sedimentary strata which make up the majority of the area’s underlying geology.
Around 58 million years ago, as [...]
on September 10, 2009 Leave a comment
June – Alum Shale
Alum Shale occurs within the upper 35 metres or so of the Whitby Mudstone Formation. A suite of rocks that originated as soft sediment accumulating on the floor of an ancient sea (the Tethys) which occupied this area between c.188 million and c.182 million years ago during the late Lower Jurassic phase of Earth’s geological [...]
on June 1, 2009 2 Comments
March – Ironstone
Iron makes up a full 35% of the whole Earth, though most is sequestered within the metallic core, with the crust containing around 6%. It is an important rock commercially, being smelted to make iron and steel. High grade deposits, often comprising more than 70% iron, were laid down in the Precambrian, around 2 billion [...]
on March 8, 2009 Leave a comment
February – Woolly Mammoth Tooth.
Mammoth lived on most of the continents in the Northern Hemisphere during the last big ice age 70-10,000 years ago. Woolly Mammoths were about the same size as Indian elephants are today and covered in a layer of coarse hair. They are a good indicator of a cold climate and tundra or Steppe [...]
on February 3, 2009 Leave a comment