Dr Katie StrangScotland has some of the oldest rocks in the world! Here’s a gorgeous piece of ~3 billion year old gneiss from near Loch Duich 🏴🖤 #Geology #ScottishGeology #AyeItsVeryGneiss
Dreadnought Holiday@palaeokatie My mad keen rock fan daughter has inherited various polished stones from her grandmother. Is there any useful field guide type thing that'll help her with out what she has? I'm guessing most are quartz and jaspers, but don't want to just fob her off with that guess.
@DreadShips do you think they’re from Scotland? There’s some good pebble ID guides, or you can send me pics if you want 😀
@palaeokatie They're mostly just the usual polished eggs you see around in gift shops, tbf, but with Christmas coming up I figured a book might make a nice stocking filler. She's a proper rock goblin - a few years ago in the Lakes she pointed out we were nearly back at the same height we started as the rocks had changed back to slate - and I'd like to feed that. Always aware that the generic Collins guides etc aren't always the most useful, hence bothering you!
BashStKid(Feel free to suggest alternatives, there's no royal road in geology!)
Could use a gemstones/ pebbles/ popular minerals guide for IDing what you've got - some of them are linked with nice youtube videos. (also you can touch and taste and scratch your rocks)
then if you can find a hi-res geological map, or a field guide to an area, that will throw up plenty of context & interesting things to look for.
As always, ymmv.
@BashStKid @palaeokatie Ah, now a geological map might be a good idea...
Maps can often be tricky for learners to get to grips with (not many maps are an uneven 2D slice through a complex 3D thing) but they almost always have one or two vertical cross-sections on the bottom to help visualise what’s going on beneath the surface.
A good field guide will help with that, although you need a bit of experience to get the most out of them.
Any alternative thoughts on that, Katie?