Northumbrian Earth

11/06/2024

Beadnell geo-walk tomorrow. There are just a few places left if you would like to join us.
https://www.facebook.com/share/TNcX7Ui5KbwjREuF/

Beautiful beach, west facing harbour, some fascinating rocks and little terns. So much to like!

06/06/2024

Many years ago I was asked by the manager of the Lindisfarne Nature Reserve if I could make some ceramic little terns. This was to help encourage them to nest in locations less likely to get washed-out in spring tides. Enthusiastically I agreed to do this, and then went away to work out how to do it, never having made anything like this before. Sometime later (with some interesting early versions that looked more like crows than terns) the models were made.

This led to further commissions with many more models being made for the Long Nanny near Beadnell (and other) nesting sites.

Since then I have been back every year to visit the little terns to see how they are doing, mixing it in with an exploration of Beadnell's fascinating geology and the relationship between biodiversity and geodiversity.

This year is no exception and will be heading off to Beadnell next week. If you would like to join us, follow the link to tickets in the event https://www.facebook.com/events/763603435918458 or go to the Northumbrian Earth website.

Northumberland Coast National Landscape

24/05/2024

Cocklawburn Beach usually has something new to find every time I visit, with the shape of the beach changing with wind and tide so that new things are uncovered and old discoveries are covered once more. Last visit it was a chunk of bone, probably a rhizodont fish.

There's always something fascinating and beautiful to see. I particularly enjoyed the interplay of light, water and rock on a visit last month.

I'll be running a geo-walk here this coming Tuesday (28th May starting at 10am) and there are a few places left.
https://www.northumbrianearth.co.uk/event/133-fossil-hunting-at-cocklawburn-with-ticket

23/05/2024

Managed to find some time at Creswell in the sunshine before the rain came in again (and in much better weather than last time when I met Iain Robson from the Northumberland Coast National Landscape last month).

Explored the rocks south from Creswell toward Lynemouth and found some fabulous rocks. These included some beautiful weathering textures in the sandstones and a wide variety of concretion. Also found some coal seams and a variety of plant fossils along with some sea-coal permeated with beautiful seams of iron pyrites. Very impressed by an in situ fossil tree trunk - never seen one like this before!

Nice to see the sand martins nesting on dune-sand accumulating over the mine waste too!

I am hoping to run a geo-walk here later in the year and have pencilled in Tuesday 23rd July to do this. There is just so much to see here with the geology and all it connects to.

22/05/2024

The weather outside is frightful and the St Abbs geo-walk got cancelled so I thought some sunny pictures of St Abbs might be a good antidote.

The next geo-walk is to Cocklawburn Beach and the weather forecast is excellent!
https://www.facebook.com/events/366776093053207?ref=newsfeed
The Coastal Custodian - Across Northumberland Coast & Country
Northumberland Coast National Landscape

16/05/2024

The geo-walking season is here again, and we're starting with a walk to St Abbs Head from 11am to 4pm on Wednesday 22nd May.

The walk is longer this year to allow time to explore this rugged landscape more fully. The remnants of this volcanic complex butted against older deep-sea sedimentary rocks make fine cliff scenery. Not only is the geology fascinating and the landscape beautiful but it is rich in wildlife too. Bring your own picnic for a great day out!

To join the walk just email me at [email protected]

More details can be found on the Northumbrian Earth website: northumbrianearth.co.uk

09/05/2024

As if by magic the day when I take out a local primary school to explore Cocklawburn Beach is the day the sun comes out.

Excellent morning with a collection of young enquiring minds so full of enthusiasm. We found crinoid fossils (measured and drew them) then went for a walk to the beginning of time stopping in the Jurassic, Carboniferous and Cambrian periods before heading to the Hadean and the formation of our planet. Finally we went on a fossil hunt and found brachiopods, solitary and compound corals, crinoids and an orthocone (as well as some vein quartz, carnelian and a beautiful agate).

There are so many things to explore on this beach. The pictures were taken on my ramble after the class had left.

23/03/2024

A quick shout out to all of you following Northumbrian Earth particularly recent followers. Posts have been a bit thin on the ground of late as I am busy planning the season of geo-walks, amongst other things. Looking forward to starting this up again in the latter half of April. More detail soon.

In the meantime, here are some beautiful stripy rocks from Spittal. More on this soon, as this is the next bit of coast I have been working on to update the Berwick Coast Rocks! book for its next edition.

23/03/2024

Went to the fabulous grate Newcastle for some cheese and was pleased to find this. Apparently made by Siobhán Ni Ghairbhith at St Tola, a farm on the Burren in Co Clare, an area known for its amazing karst topography formed in Carboniferous limestone.

I love that the beautiful surface markings on the cheese look rather like the beautiful shapes and forms in a karst landscape. More on this later in the year as Northumbrian Earth will be taking a holiday in this area.

I can confirm that this cheese (and the others we bought as well as the excellent sourdough) was delicious.

21/03/2024

It was a fascination in the beauty of geological objects and the epic stories that the science tells which got me into geology and all it connects to. However, in this as with all STEM subjects it is so much more by sharing and inspiring. The Common Room has an important role in this, making this a really worthwhile project to support...

13/02/2024

Really pleased to see that James Hutton has a panel to himself in The Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels. Not surprised though as one of the many extraordinary people from the Scottish Enlightenment.

This proved to be a brilliant day out this weekend just gone. Some beautiful needlework and a fascinating account of Scotland's history.

I doff my cap at the attempt to summarise the whole of Scotland's geological history in only three panels. They are magnificent. I also love the way that Scotland's landscape is threaded through so many of the tapestries.

I am obviously biased, but there could be brilliant panels that celebrate the work of (amongst many others) Peach and Horne, Murchison, Geikie and Lapworth - I love the idea of a graptolite tapestry...and there are so many other epic stories the geology of Scotland has to tell.

29/01/2024

Good to meet up with Iain Robson from the Northumberland Coast National Landscape on his patch at Creswell this morning. A part of the Northumberland Coast new to me and with some great geology.

In our short (and very wet visit) found a range of sandstones, siltstones, shales and coals typical of the Pennine Coal Measures Formation. In amongst these we found Stigmaria (roots of giant lycopods which would have been one of the main ingredients that turned into coal). These were in a seat-earth (what would have been the soil in which the giant lycopods grew), along with other rootlike structures. The sequence is broken up in places by faults one of which displayed some classic fault gouge (if you shunt rock against rock on this scale you end up with some very broken up rock in the join!).

There were thick blocky sandstone beds which were quarried to construct the nearby Pele Tower and Creswell Hall which would have been laid down in an ancient Carboniferous river system. These had some lovely fluvial structures in them including trough cross-bedding and ripple marks (which you can also see in the blocks of stone used in the Pele Tower!). Some of these sandstones along with thinner Siltstone bands contained some fabulous large concretions, formed from precipitating calcium carbonate after the sandstones were laid down.

Good to have a great coffee and an excellent Bakewell slice at the The Drift Cafe after.

There is much more to see here - great examples of coastal erosion and glacial till amongst other - and I am looking forward to visiting again.

I suspect this may well be a good place to run a geo-walk later in the year... watch this space!

17/01/2024

The pyritised ammonites I found at Charmouth went straight in to soak in acetone and have been there since. Now the chemicals for the next stage of treatment have arrived from ZOIC PalaeoTech (who I can highly recommend - knowledgeable, helpful and prompt).

The problem with pyrites is that it has a tendency to decay, the iron and sulphur in the pyrite reacting with water to make iron oxides and sulphuric acid. Not a good combination which can degrades and eventually destroy specimens, turning then to an ashy powder.

The secret is to keep the water away, and acetone is a good way of starting to draw the water out. I will work on the next stage soon and post about how it is going.

23/12/2023

Have had a few days down in the West country and it would have been rude not to spend a bit of time on the Jurassic Coast. Half the age of the Carboniferous rocks on the Northumberland Coast but part of the same Tethys Ocean in which the not-so-far-away Yorkshire Jurassic ammonites swam.

Found a few pretty things and also enjoyed the fascinating trace fossils and the magnificently gloopy and somewhat scary continuous coastal erosion.

07/12/2023

Working my way through the images captured this Summer as part of the work to edit and update the "Berwick Coast Rocks!" book and have reached Burnmouth. What an extraordinary location. The rocks here have been tipped on their side (and beyond) and expose rocks from the very earliest Carboniferous Period known in this area as the Ballagan. These rocks consist of repeated layers of sandstones laid in rivers, siltstones and shales from swamp or lagoon environments and some hard sometimes knobbly cementstones. These latter form near the surface in hot conditions as groundwater is evaporated and calcium carbonate is precipitated.

These early Carboniferous rocks are juxtaposed with Silurian Greywackes which form the cliffs at the back of the bay. These in turn are cut by a series of dolerite d***s some of which are of the same age as the volcanic rocks explored around Eyemouth and St Abbs Head.

The result of all this great geology is a fabulous variety of rocks creating an attractively rugged landscape and some beautiful textures and colours.

17/11/2023

Behold the Biddlestone laccolith (an igneous intrusion much like a massive blister) exposed in Harden Quarry. Used as paving material in Pall Mall and featured in my garden path the bright red of this mica-porphyrite is really distinctive. A latecomer in the early Devonian Cheviot volcanic complex.

Gloriously still day to fly around the Cheviots, wider Northumberland and the Scottish Borders...here's the famous Biddlestone Quarry, supplier of red stone to Buck Palace.

Have a great weekend friends :)

Paul

14/11/2023

A great bunch of people and a good opportunity to meet up with them and see what excellent things they are up to.

Sorry to not to be able to attend this year.

Northumberland Coast AONB Annual Forum – Hindmarsh Hall, Fri 8 Dec 2023

12/11/2023

Whitley Bay has also been rearranged by the recent storms. Lots of sand removed, the beach more stony than sandy now, huge amounts of kelp dumped at the strandline and all sorts of other fascinating boulders and pebbles to puzzle over...

05/11/2023

With the heavy rainfall of the last few weeks, the Millfield Plain in front of the Cheviots near Wooler, is starting to fill up. This used to be a glacial lake some 10, 000 years ago as the ice started to retreat from the last glacial advance. A wall of ice around Crookham blocked the exit for what would become the River Till. Thick layers of sediment accumulated (now quarried for aggregate) leaving the flat plain which is now turning back into a lake!

01/11/2023

The small coal seam beneath the Acre Limestone at Cocklawburn Beach exposed for the first time I have seen it in over 15 years after Storm Babet stripped out the sand.

31/10/2023

A glorious walk on Cocklawburn Beach this morning with a private group. Babet seems to have thoroughly rearranged things, with huge amounts of sand moved from the beach exposing large areas of loose gravel and boulders and layers of strata I've never seen before... and its left behind a lot of foam too!

24/10/2023

My thanks once more to everyone who came out on the Eyemouth walk yesterday. A pleasure to have your company exploring the death of an ancient ocean - Iapetus the antecedent of the Atlantic Ocean.

The yard-stick of time given by the crumpled and convoluted greywackes exposed south of Eyemouth always leave me in awe. Ripple marks from the turbidity currents in which they formed spread across bedding planes jutting up at 80 degrees to the horizontal - testament to their disruption as this huge thickness of deep ocean sediment was progressively accreted onto the Laurentian continent.

This and great views back to the north and the volcanic vents, punched through the greywackes, and the lavas, ash flows which were erupted from them and the lahars that followed. Good to be able to finish the walk exploring some of these volcanic products on the beach at Eyemouth.

A fabulous way to end the season of public walks for this year. Looking forward to planning next years walks and seeing you out there in this fabulous landscape.

18/10/2023

My thanks to everyone who came out on yesterday's geo-walk at Bamburgh and in such glorious weather too! A pleasure to have your company to exploring this most iconic geological formation.

The brilliant exposures here gave a real sense of the Sill's nature including the complexity of its form as well as subsequent tectonic activity and the way that the current landscape has been carved by ice leaving the Whin Sill proud.

Good that the movement of sand gave us good view of the remarkable ropy-lava-in-megavesicles to be found near to Harkess Rocks. A rer and fascination phenomenon. My thanks to everyone who came out on yesterday's geo-walk at Bamburgh and in such glorious weather too! A pleasure to have your company to exploring this most iconic geological formation.

The brilliant exposures here gave a real sense of the Sill's nature including the complexity of its form as well as subsequent tectonic activity and the way that the current landscape has been carved by ice leaving the Whin Sill proud.

Good that the movement of sand gave us good view of the remarkable ropy-lava-in-megavesicles to be found near to Harkess Rocks. A rare and fascination phenomenon.

14/10/2023

Tree stumps!

Had a day out yesterday and headed for the coast between Skateraw and Barns Ness in East Lothian. A beautiful coast in the sunshine and some fascinating Carboniferous sedimentary rocks to see with some fossiliferous limestones and some interestingly exotic cobbles washed out from the glacial till.

I was particularly taken with this though, a layer of white rubbly material with lots of small iron concretions very similar to seat-earths and rootlet beds on the Northumberland coast. But this also had these regular holes which are the (absence of) roots stumps from what would have been a grove of lepidodendron. Immediately above is a very poor coal followed by limestone and can imagine these trees being killed off as they are inundated with the salty water of the sea in which the limestone formed...

12/10/2023

Another little gem from Berwick-upon-Tweed. This is the top of the Upper Bath-House Wood Limestone where there is a collection of these beautiful markings. They are called Zoophycus and were made by worm like creatures munching their way through the lime-mud which eventually formed this limestone.

10/10/2023

Here are a few images of the coast at Berwick, which, sadly, the weather prevented us from seeing last week. It is a fascinating section of Carboniferous sedimentary rocks with some glorious structures in it.

09/10/2023

As the season for geo-walks reaches towards its conclusion for 2023 we're heading out to an old favourite at Bamburgh next week - Tuesday 17th starting at 10am. If you would like to book please email me [email protected]

Bamburgh Castle has a long and impressive history from the early roots of Christianity in the 8th century through to its rebuilding in Victorian times. This, however, is a mere pin prick of time compared with the massive amount required for the epic geological events to create the rock on which the castle stands. The castle rock and the coast northwards to Stag Rock provide some of the best locations to understand how the Whin Sill formed and include some unique, features of international importance. It also happens to be one of the most attractive parts of the coast with views out to the Farne Islands with Bamburgh Castle standing sentinel on the Whin Sill crag.

28/09/2023

Heading back to my home of 10 years, Berwick-upon Tweed next week for another geo-walk, starting at 10am on Thursday 5th October.

The coastline here is both beautiful and fascinating. The distinctly layered Carboniferous sedimentary rocks - including limestones, sandstones, shales and coals contain a wealth of fossils. They are also swirled by folds and faults into some beautiful structures reflecting a change in the underlying tectonic controls.

Berwick itself is a fascinating town, laden with history and a fabulous collection of historic buildings including the Elizabethan Walls, Georgian Barracks and Guildhall, a collection bridges and a fine pier extending to the confluence of the River Tweed and the North Sea. The town's built environment and its very reason for existence are both fundamentally linked to its geology.

Looking forward to relating all of this on Thursday.

To book a place on the walk please email me on [email protected]

Details of this an other walks can be found on the Northumbrian Earth website: https://www.northumbrianearth.co.uk/geo-walks

21/09/2023

Many thanks to the intrepid people who joined me at Siccar Point yesterday, with some brave souls ascending to the foreshore and the dizzying depth of deep time and other more sensible people who stayed at the top and enjoyed the fabulous views.

So much to see at Siccar Point along with the Hutton's Unconformity with its tilted red layers of fluvial breccia and sandstone mantling the rough ground of the eroded Silurian turbidities.

This included taking shelter from the wind in the evocative and appropriately named St Helen's by the Lea to consider James Ussher's calculations of the age of the earth.

We also spent a bit of time considering glacial channels, graptolites, coral and trilobites to explore the age of the various elements which contribute to this magnificent landscape.

Great to spend time in the company with the word of James Hutton, John Playfair in the sunshine at this glorious location.

19/09/2023

The forecast for tomorrow's walk to Siccar Point is looking great... a relief after rain stopped play for the Lindisfarne walk last week.

Siccar Point is one of the most famous locations in the world and I remember vividly my first visit there. Having set my expectations low thinking there would have been much hype about it I found the location astonishing and strangely moving. It is also a beautiful place to be regardless of the spectacular geology, with beautiful views up and down the coast.

Accessing the shore is challenging though, with a very steep path down albeit with a rope to help. Some of the joy of this location can also be appreciated without risking the climb.