Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

Imaggeo on Mondays: Red triassic sandstone

Hazel Gibson April 6, 2020

Red triassic sandstone (Orcombe Rocks, East Devon). Credit: Sarah Weick (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

As child growing up on the south coast of Devon in the UK, I never really realised that our beaches were unusual. A glorious, glowing orange-red colour, the cliffs that you can see in this photograph by Sarah Weick produced similarly red sand beaches and warm ochre soils. The bright colour is the result of the sandstone and conglomerates of these rocks, collectively called the New Red Sandstones, ...[Read More]

Imaggeo On Mondays: Psychedelic Foraminifera

Charlotte Beasley March 30, 2020

Psychedelic Foraminifera. Credit: Charlotte Beasley (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

This is a transmitted light microscope image of a thin section – a 50-micron thick sliver of rock. This sample was collected from Jebel Hafit, a mountain which straddles the United Arab Emirates and Oman border. Jebel Hafit is approximately 900 m high and is made up of Eocene to Miocene age carbonate rocks which were mainly deposited in a shallow water, tropical setting. More specifically, this im ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Tertiary Flying Saucers

Bernardo Cesare March 2, 2020

Polarized light photomicrograph of a thin section of a fossiliferous limestone from Lake Garda, Italy: Tertiary Flying Saucers. Credit: Bernardo Cesare (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Besides for the purposes of documenting my research, I like to take photos of rocks under the microscope also because of their aesthetic appeal. It’s an hidden, marvelous world. These flying-saucer-looking objects are in fact the fossil skeletons of a Nummulites (the larger) and a Discocyclina (the one on top left), both belong to the phylum of Foraminifera. These single-celled organisms occupyied ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: The sun rises also in the middle of nowhere

Hazel Gibson February 17, 2020

Credit: Andrea Libertino (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Uluru in Australia is one of the most visibly recognisable geological features in the world. This sandstone formation covers an area of 3.3 kilometres and stands 345 metres above the plains around it. According to geoscientists, the rocks that form Uluru were deposited in an inland sea during the Cambrian Period approximately 500 million years ago. The arkose sandstones were then uplifted and fold ...[Read More]