Download the Guide to the Virtual Festival of Geology
Download the full programme Guide for the first ever Virtual Festival of Geology today and start planning your virtual visit ahead of this weekend! Use the Guide to discover the exciting programme of live events and use it to navigate around the first virtual Festival of Geology. The Guide contains details about the live events taking place, the fun you’ll encounter in the Rockwatch Discovery Room, details of Tours and Field...
Walks and Talks at the Virtual Festival of Geology
There was so much to see and do at this year’s first ever Virtual Festival of Geology – you needed a whole weekend to cover it all! We’ve already highlighted some of the activities you can get involved with in the Discovery Room, where you’ll find Rockwatch, but did you know there were some fantastic walks and talks planned too which you can either do virtually or for real. Here’s a quick run-down of the...
Register now for the Festival of Geology Discovery Room Events! – Now Closed!
You’re in for a treat if you join in with the activities taking place in the Rockwatch Discovery Room at this year’s Virtual Festival of Geology! There’s a whole weekend of fun planned for geology lovers and it’s all FREE and can be enjoyed from the comfort of your own home! The live festival may has finished but the fun doesn’t stop there! You can still visit the festival site to explore all the resources. Recordings of...
Lyme Regis Fossil Festival this weekend
Come along to the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival this weekend! The popular Festival had to be cancelled from it’s usual summer spot and is now VIRTUAL. There will be lots to see and do and aimed particularly at children. The site goes live at midnight tonight and all tomorrow there will be films to watch, talks to listen to with live questions to the speaker – you can find out how to become a palaeontologist, ask what’s...
Metamorphic Marble Fudge
By Fureya Nelson Riggott FUREYA NELSON RIGGOTT made a fantastic geological recipe book in a previous Rockstar competition. Here we share three of her recipes to illustrate three different kinds of rock: one sedimentary, one igneous and one metamorphic. This is the third, or more specifically, metamorphic marble fudge. Metamorphic rock is formed when limestone is exposed to high temperatures and pressures. The word ‘marble’ comes from...
Edible Sedimentary Oolitic Limestone
By Fureya Nelson Riggott FUREYA NELSON RIGGOTT made a fantastic geological recipe book in a previous Rockstar competition. Here we share three of her recipes to illustrate three different kinds of rock: one sedimentary, one igneous and one metamorphic. Let’s start with sedimentary, or more specifically, Oolitic limestone. Oolitic limestone was formed in England in the Jurassic Period, and forms the Cotswold Hills, the Isle of...
Pancake Rocks
By Kate Salmon Where were pancakes invented? New Zealand of course! They have the oldest pancakes in the world, 33 million years old that is… Are they still edible? KATE SALMON investigates… On the West Coast of New Zealand South Island, in the small town of Punakaiki, people from all over the world gather to see these rocks. The coastline around the town is made up of what appears to be stacks of giant pancakes. They look like...
Puddingstone Cake
By Susanna van Rose Britain has lots of pebble beaches. What happens to these huge collections of shingle when they turn into rock? SUSANNA VAN ROSE explains by using a fruit and nut cake you can make at home. What is a conglomerate? A real, proper conglomerate should be made of rounded pebbles, some of which touch each other. In between the pebbles is fine-grained material, often sandy in texture, which holds everything together....
Igneous Obsidian Toffee
By Fureya Nelson Riggott FUREYA NELSON RIGGOTT made a fantastic geological recipe book in a previous Rockstar competition. Here we share three of her recipes to illustrate three different kinds of rock: one sedimentary, one igneous and one metamorphic. This is the second, or more specifically, igneous obsidian toffee. Obsidian is a igneous rock type that is a natural glass very rich in silica (around 70%) and low in water. It is...
Nothe Gardens Landslide, then and now
Week 10 is the final in our current Dig Deeper series where Alan Holiday shares a visually dramatic account of a major landslide that took place in the 1980s in Nothe Gardens, in Weymouth. A popular area for residents and holiday makers, Nothe Gardens is located on the southside of Weymouth Harbour along the Jurassic Coastline in Dorset. Alan shows us the huge impact the landslide had on the area, though luckily spared nearby Nothe...
Earth Materials – Geology Topics Found in GCSEs
With September seeing a return to school for most children and young people, week 9 of our Dig Deeper series takes a look at geology-related topics students may encounter in their lessons over the coming months. Rockwatch aims to nurture children and young people’s interest in geology outside of school informally as a hobby, but geology enthusiast, Robert Chandler, shows us it is possible to enjoy learning more of the science behind...
Coastal Protection at West Bay
In week 8 of our Dig Deeper series we return to the topic of coastal defences. This time, Alan Holiday tells us about Coastal Protection at West Bay. Found along Dorset’s impressive Jurassic Coastline just south of Bridport, West Bay is a quaint harbour resort with a fascinating geological history. Alan explains the geology of its East and West cliffs, formed from sand, clay and Forest Marble of the Lower and Middle Jurassic periods...
My friend discovered a dinosaur & now it’s named after him!
Discovering a dinosaur must be every fossil-hunter’s dream, right? It’s a dream that motivates many young geologists to pursue a career in palaeontology, the study of dinosaurs. We’re excited to announce Week 7 of our Dig Deeper series as the first of our planned Geological Tales, capturing the story-telling behind many geological discoveries. In this presentation, fossil expert and Rockwatch supporter, Robert Chandler, charms us with...
Coastal Protection at Swanage
Week 6 of our Dig Deeper series is the third in the series by geology expert, Alan Holiday on the topic of coastal defences, with its focus on Coastal Protection at Swanage. Situated to the East of Purbeck and South of Poole and therefore part of England’s beautiful Jurassic Coastline, Swanage Bay tells its own geological story with its characteristic chalk and limestone rock types along with sandstone and clay. Alan shows how the...
Join this year’s Rockstar Royalty
Join this year’s Rockstar Royalty and you could be crowned one of our Rockstar 2020 winners and be in with a chance of winning some fantastic prizes! And because many schools are having a staggered return this year, we’ve extended the competition deadline to Monday 21st September – giving you more time to enter! Entries can be handmade and hand written projects like this smashing Coronation Crown featuring the Queen’s...
Dig Deeper: Week 5 – Jurassicgirl Journeys from Spyway Barn to Dancing Ledge, Dorset
For week 5 of our Dig Deeper series, we’re delighted to be featuring Jurassicgirl, aka Dr Anjana Khatwa, on one of her popular vlog field trips from Spyway Barn to Dancing Ledge in Dorset. Anjana is an Earth Scientist and Rockwatch fan, known for bringing her love of rocks and fossils to the masses through her many TV and YouTube appearances, on programmes like BBC Two’s Fossil Detectives. Anjana’s accessible and entertaining style...
Dig Deeper: Week 4 – Weymouth Bay Coastal Defences in pictures, past and present
Week four of our Dig Deeper series explores the theme of coastal defences again but this time we’re in Weymouth and the story will be told through photographs. Weymouth geology expert, Alan Holiday returns to present a unique longitudinal insight into coastal erosion in the Weymouth Bay area. Alan chronicles more than a century of geological changes through photographs dating back to the early 1900’s, right up to the present day. In...
Be inspired to become a 2020 Rockstar!
Previous Rockstar Entries and-inside-the-decorated-box Image 1 of 29 Jurassic Box There’s still plenty of time to get creative and send us your entry for this year’s Rockstars and Rockwriter Competition. Have a look at previous entries in the gallery photos above to help get those creative juices flowing and inspire you to become one of this year’s Rockstars! There are different age categories for the Rockstars...
Dig Deeper: Week 3 – Coastal Defences at Lyme Regis
Week three of our Dig Deeper series takes Rockwatchers to a place many consider to be the birthplace of earth sciences – Lyme Regis. Retired teacher and resident expert in geography and geology of Weymouth and its surrounding areas, Alan Holiday explores why Lyme Regis is such a haven for geologists. As a regular Rockwatch magazine contributor and field trip leader, Alan is the perfect person to show us why the underlying geology at...
The Earth’s a Pizza Recipe
Sent in by Rockwatcher, Benedict Douglas One day, when I sliced up a pizza for my dinner, I saw the inner workings of the Earth! Don’t believe me? Make a ‘Pizza Earth’ for yourself – then gobble it up afterwards! Follow these steps carefully – with an adult to help – to make a truly terrific terrestrial treat! See the Ingredients and Method below to find out how… Always make sure you have a responsible adult with you when...
Mercury Meringue Recipe
Sent in by Rockwatcher, Amina Nelson Riggott Mercury is very close to the sun and its surface has plains and mountainous areas like the moon, as well as a lot of impact craters. It was hit by lots of meteors in the ‘late heavy bombardment’ period and as well as craters. This caused lots of volcanic activity. It has a massive crater called the Caloris Basin which is nearly 1600 km wide and nearby is some unusual hilly land called ‘The...
Sun Brulee Recipe
Sent in by Rockwatcher, Amina Nelson Riggott The sun is at the centre of our solar system and it’s a ball of extremely hot gas. It’s the heaviest thing in the solar system and holds all the other planets in place by gravity. It doesn’t have any geological features as it’s a star not a planet, but if you look at its surface through a Hydrogen Alpha telescope you can see that it looks like bubbling grains with marks on (sunspots,...
Bone Cancer Diagnosed in Dinosaur
Rockwatchers interested in the fields of geology and medicine may be intrigued to read a post written by Gretchen Vogel of Science magazine that reports on some fascinating findings recently published in The Lancet Oncology confirming a bone cancer diagnosis in a dinosaur. The dinosaur bone belonged to a Centrosaurus, which was a horned, plant-eating dinosaur. This particular dinosaur, discovered in Alberta in Canada, lived...
Fossil of Hell Ant proves different killer strategy
Rockwatchers may be interested to read a post written by Lucy Hicks of Science magazine who reports on a new-found fossil which proves how an ancient species of ants known as Hell Ants – or Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri – killed their prey differently to modern ants. Lucy writes that the scientists who wrote the paper for Current Biology believe that these ancient extinct species of ants caught and killed prey by moving its...