iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

I'm working in an office in Slough industrial estate watching a gull collect sticks for a nest. I guess windowless data centres are just another form of cliff, their tops safe from predators.

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Lighting like this is necessary to make the features visible, but whenever I see images of Ediacaran fossils my first reaction is to think they are images from a vampire film.

Side-lit black and white image of Dracula. He's clutching a wall that might well have impressions of Eidacaran fossils on.

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Wow. This includes even one of my (quote obscure) scientific papers. Still behind a paywall and copyright the Royal Irish Academy

Screenshot of my obscure geological paper from the Atlantic search tool: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Enjoying the frenzied limestone at Augsburg station, noisy with tropical life. Plenty of fossils and blotchy with bioturbation. Each grain is the product of life and probably passed through the guts of, or been picked over by multiple critters subsequently ⚒️

Beige limestone. White flecks. A cross section of an ammonite in the middle

Similar to the other. A brown broken triangle shape is another fossil

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Samuele Papeschi サムエレパペスキ | Geology is the way ⚒️🧪 @calamitaman.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

1/ Have you ever suspected you had a shear zone hidden in poly-deformed metamorphic rocks but could not prove it? A brief thread showing how you can find clues from #geology, RSCM #thermometry, #metamorphic #petrology, and #zircon dating and an example from the Sanbagawa belt of Japan! ⚒️

blueschist-facies metabasite from our study area with complex, refolded isoclinal folds, consisting of alternating epidote and glaucophane layers.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Definitely go to the museum and buy the geo guidebooks. If you have transport go and see the suevite quarry at Altenburg, the overturned limestones at Gosheim Quarry and if you can get out to Steinheim crater, go there too 1/2

A picture of the guidebooks to the Ries and Steinheim impact craters by Julius Kayasch and the Meteor Crater Museum

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Lucky me is going to Nördlinger Ries soon (where a rock from space smashed into Germany). Just the town, briefly. Apart from the visitors centre and the church made of suevite, any ideas on what should I look out for? ⚒️

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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 03/02/2025

just saw someone in the FT comments section referring to Tesla as the swasticar

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Revelling in the lidar DTM layer in the National library of Scotland website and the varied types of British landscapes it unveils. First we have glacially shaped land in the Vale of Eden looking like the skin of a dinosaur. ⚒️

Smooth scalloped shapes in grey/blue colours.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Next month, I’ll be starting my year’s programme of #urbangeology walks introducing the building stones of London with London Walks. The first date is 8 Feb. Cost, details and reservations at this link www.walks.com/our-walks/ge...

walks.com

Geology and Building Stones in the City of London - London Walks

Thinking about going on the guided Geology and Building Stones in the City of London tour? Have a little read about the sights, hidden spots, your guide and meeting point beforehand!

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Victoria Finlay @victoriafinlay.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

And there’s nothing like visiting a 5800 year old #LongBarrow for putting things in perspective. I also chose the hour where it was lit up by the sun. Do you spot the #Ammonite?

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Cormac MacFhionnlaoich @cormacscoast.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Any ideas on a species for this seed pod/nut? Local or from further afield? Found it washed up on the beach this morning. County Clare, Ireland.

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Samuele Papeschi サムエレパペスキ | Geology is the way ⚒️🧪 @calamitaman.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

#GeologicalRelief for my American friends... Some of the best folds I have seen in my life in schists and metasandstones... second phase folds refolding an earlier foliation parallel to bedding. Paleozoic basement, Bocca di Magra, La Spezia (Italy) #geology #folds #structuralgeology ⚒️🧪

Folded metasandstones surrounded by schists (a type of metamorphic rock) with a pen for scale.

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Cormac MacFhionnlaoich @cormacscoast.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Fossilized Colonial Coral from a Burren stormbeach. It's been over 300 million years since the living coral, that left this imprint, grew on the tropical sea bed that covered this area. County Clare, Ireland.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

The Alpine Foreland exposed in the facade of Santa Maria Novella; pietreforte molasse, Prato serpentinite and marble from the metamorphic Tuscan nappe #Florence #UrbanGeology

The lower part of the facade of the basilica with steps of brown sandstone (molasse), dark green serpentinite and white marble

The basilica of Santa Maria Novella and the piazza in front of it.

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

I'm simultaneously cooking a white sauce and a beetroot curry (separate meals). I'm quivering with delicious horror at the thought of accidentally using the curry spoon to stir the white sauce.

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Explain your username.. I used to be a geologist, but I changed (metamorphosed) into something else (I have a different career). I don't mean meta in the sense of above or beyond, just the geo one of transformation. Needless to say, on here I am very much about the geology

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Andy @fuelledbyoatcakes.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Chalcopyrite & calcite from Ecton mine, Ecton Hill, Staffordshire, England, UK. Specimen ~ 48 mm longest dimension. #MineralMonday #Minerals #Geology #EarthScience #mineralogy

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Jolyon Ralph 🪨 @jolyon.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

So I was given this old trophy that had a rock on it, and turns out it's a piece of "platinum-rich"* ore from the Merensky Reef, South Africa. Some nice visible chromite and sulfides (pentlandite/pyrrhotite?) along with the usual silicate gunk. * Everything is relative.

A piece of merensky reef rock on a trophy dated 1974, "The Johnson Matthey Award"

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

This sea wall is made of shelly limestone blocks. One fossil caught my eye. Any ideas what it might be?

Buff limestone block with white traces of a fossil

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Folded Moine sediments, shores of Loch nan Uamh, Arisaig #Scotland. Note how the feldspar grains (white blebs) are aligned horizontally, parallel with the 'axial plane' of the fold. #FridayFold ⚒️🧪

A sun-kissed rock surface shows folded layers of rock.

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Oceanic tides are pretty, but when this planet was *very* young it was subject to magma tides. Following a BIG collision both Earth and Moon were balls of molten rock, each affected by the gravitational pull of the other.

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Suvrat Kher @rapiduplift.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Spectacular banded metamorphic rocks exposed along the high Sunderdunga ridge. Kumaon Himalaya.

Pic shows the Sunderdunga ridge in the Kumaon Himalaya with spectacular exposures of high grade metamorphic rocks. Distinct white, grey layering is visible along the scarps.

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GHOULology Johnson @geologyjohnson.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

High res photo of a tiny piece of #Jurassic shale coated in tiny bivalves. This was deposited at the start of a catastrophic climate change event. The bivalves are tiny versions of adults that adapted to the low O2 conditions on the seabed. #geology #paleontolgy

photograph of a small piece of mudstone that is covered in tiny mussel shells. A scale at the bottom shows that the rock is approx 2 cm wide, and 4 cm long.

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Wolfgang Büttner @wbuett.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Piece of spectacular anorthosite-chromitite layering, coming from a depth of about 2500 m below surface of the Impala Platinum mine, Bushveld Complex, South Africa.

Size is about 18 x 16 cm.

The origin and forming of these layers is still debated.

The origin and forming of these layers is still debated.

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OUGS Social Media @ougeolsoc.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

A #FridayFold in Old Portsmouth, Hampshire, England where there's loads of naval history. From the "Russian" aka "Crimean" War mid 19th century. Local bedrock in the Åland Islands in the Baltic off the west coast of Finland is Proterozoic granite

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Bob Gooday @bobgooday.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Probably the best individual thin section ever produced. John Faithfull's slice of the olivine cumulate from Unit 5 of the Rùm layered intrusion. #ThinSectionThursday

Thin section microscope image showing a background of black, white, and very pale yellow plagioclase covered in a series of long worm-shaped olivine crystals, all showing bright second order birefringence colours like yellow, purple, and blue. They are all aligned down towards the right.

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Apparently pizza stones made from cordierite is a thing. I know cordierite as a mineral pretends to be quartz and breaks down easily, so this was a surprise. Is this a real thing (the 'stone' is really made of the mineral cordierite) or just marketing. Does anybody know? #UrbanGeology

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Suvrat Kher @rapiduplift.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Kyanite in gneiss and kyanite in quartz veins. Two distinct occurrence in the Greater Himalaya of Sunderdunga valley, Kumaon. #MineralMonday

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Samuele Papeschi サムエレパペスキ | Geology is the way ⚒️🧪 @calamitaman.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

A Sanbagawa eclogite with omphacite (dark green, above) being cannibalized by light blue amphibole (probably winchite). FOV: 3 mm Sanbagawa metamorphic belt, Japan. ⚒️🧪 #geology #thinsection #petrography #eclogite

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Billion year old sandstones, folded like a stack of towels, the layers picked out by some visiting wildlife. 'Moine' rocks, Arisaig peninsula, Scotland. #fridayFold ⚒️

Grey rocky outcrops. Zig-zag folded layers picked out by two children resting on them

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Geoscopy — Geology, explained. @geoscopy.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

This rare phenomenon is called "Baikal Zen". Rocks that have fallen on the ice of Lake Baikal are heated by sunlight and emit infrared rays that melt the ice below. Once the sun is gone, the ice becomes solid again, creating a small support for the rock above. #Geology

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Boulders of red sandstone, scattered by vanished ice. Suilven, the mountain they came from, looks on like a mother hen. There are so many, contrasting with the grey bedrock, that the hill is called Fàire nan Clach Ruadha or 'look-out of the red rocks'. ⚒️ #scotland all-geo.org/metageologis...

Red boulders sitting on a rocky hillside. A tall conical mountain is visible in the distance.

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Achmelvich beach, North of Lochinver, Scotland

White beach sand, blue sky, distant hills

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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

1/6. Here's my favourite ophiolite factoid.🧪⚒️ As @metageologist.bsky.social noted the Troodos Mountains on Crete were fundamental to understanding the development of ophiolites.

Geological map of the Troodos Ophiolite, Cyprus

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

This covers the area that my favourite folded rock comes from (see previous tweets). There are some wonderful diagrams in it.

Black and white 'pen sketch' of Scottish mountains, tracing the contorted lines between different layers of rock.

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

To me, this ornament in my office looks quite like a quartz crystal. Is this deliberate, or simply inevitable once they'd decided the base was a hexagon? Perhaps there are only so many shapes with hexagonal symmetry.

Quartz crystal. Translucent mineral with clear edges and faces

An enclosed glass structure in an office, showing a similar shape to the other picture

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Metamorphism is what turns drab basalt into Christmassy reds and greens. It tells us what goes on inside subduction zones, in mountains and other hidden places. I've written many explainers on the topic. Overview: all-geo.org/metageologis... Or start at the beginning: all-geo.org/metageologis...

Rock sample showing dark green layer surrounded by red and white minerals

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

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James Rae @mudwaterclimate.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Wind generation now at 21.78 GW Record is 21.81 GW sustained over 30 mins last December, so getting close! Can check individual wind farms at excellent GB Renewables map below 💨⚡️🔌🧪⚒️ renewables-map.robinhawkes.com#4.25/54.2/-1...

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

A fold that you can hold. Granite vein within a migmatitic gneiss, Scotland. Heat muddy sediments to c. 700 deg. C and they start to melt. New granite magma fills cracks, leaving behind darker mica/Garnet areas. Hot rocks are squishy - a straight crack becomes wiggly. #fridayFold ⚒️

Cobble sized rock. Darker areas are cut by a line of lighter minerals that has been folded into a sinusoidal shape.

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Bob Gooday @bobgooday.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Dolerite thin section, both plane polarised and crossed polars. From Tobermory, Mull. #ThinSectionThursday

A thin section image showing the minerals that make up the dolerite. The lower left half is brighter with lots of white, pale green, pale brown, and black. The upper right half shows the crossed polars with darker but more saturated colours. Mostly dark grey with some pale grey and bright oranges, blues, and pinks.

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Simon Wellings @metageologist.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

A pair of images from deformed igneous rocks, Currywongaun, Connemara, Ireland. One normal, other with 'crossed polars' Large amphibole grains on left surrounded by smaller sheared-out grains. Mylonitic quartz/opaque fabric on right obscured by later grain growth/annealing. #thinSectionThursday ⚒️

Image down a microscope, shining light through a rock. Large green grains on one side, smaller black and white shapes on the other. Everything looks squeezed - lines of small black bits, large areas are elongated

A pair with the other. Shapes are the same, but colours different. What was green is now purple/orange/many colours. Black and white area are now small black specks, in lines, with large white/black/grey areas.

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Cormac MacFhionnlaoich @cormacscoast.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Fossilized plant material, possibly Calamites (An ancient relative of today's Horsetail plants), eroding out of the stone layers at the base of the Cliffs of Moher. County Clare, Ireland.

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Dakota Smith @weatherdak.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

This place could use a chunky dose of delicious satellite imagery. So here are some of my favorites I've shared over the years. Impossible to not start with the unbeatable, the epic... von Karman vortices

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