Shenstone Photography

"Civilisation exists by geological consent.... subject to change without notice."

American Historian Will Durant (1885–1981)

Well that's what it means for us all, and if you take the time to consider volcano's, Tsunami's, earthquakes, landslides, mudslides and more you wil no doubt agree. However geology has been for me personlaly, an interest, a passion, a career and now it is is just a hobby that means taht I travel to intersting places to see it

It is one of the sciences that I always would advise for study whether youong or old it has features that none of the other sciences can bring when studied alone. You need to learn something of physics, chemistry, biology and more, and then you need to consider how they operate over times almost unimaginable and then you realise it is something that you can enjoy whereever you are from viewing landscapes, building stones, fossils or living creatures that have evolved from them.

The range and beauty of intricate creatures and environments that existed in the past never ceases to entertain and amaze, and to learn how the past shaped the present gives a unique understanding of everything around us.

As mentioned, geology has the almost unique aspect of being a science you can enjoy anywhere from the stunning coasts and mountains to the intricacies of the building stones on every building around us and often the very floors we are standing on

Within these pages you will see rocks, fossils and minerals and I will endeavour to explain what they are and why I'm looking at them

Edmontosaurus Fossils are my passion, from Dinosaurs to microfossils, there is beauty in all of their forms, and the stories that the remains that are left can tell us are incredible. From fragmentary evidence we can build up whole life (and death) stories, and even work out how an anumal or plant decomposed after death and the effect that this had on the area around it.

The traces of living creatures also inform us and you can see some of these on the footprints page and a detailed description of why they are so interesting

If you are interested in learning some more about the topic, some of the principles and subjects are explained here

Geologists Study the following topics to enable them to understand the earth and its history

Rocks - These are aggregates of minerals that are solid and for which an origin can be determined
- Igneous - A rock formed from once molten rock material that has crystalized out as it cooled
- Sedimentary - A rock formed from weathered particles or fossil debris at the earths surface and / or under the sea
- Metamorphic - A rock that has been altered by heat and pressure from it’s initial state, it could have been sedimentary, igneous or even a previosuly metamorphosed rock
Fossils - These are remnants of former living organisms or traces of their presence such as footprints
Minerals - These are crystals of a fixed chemical composition laid down either organically or inorganically. Being the building blocks of everything else they are often very small and specialists use microscopes to study them and their forms, however this is not always the case as the now world famous Naica Mine shows
Stratigraphy - the layers of rocks and their sequence. Through use of fossils, simple observation of evidence of sequence and way up, and also more recently through absolute (radiometric) dating we can determine a sequence of events and deposition that can allow us to put the other evidence into a sequence. it also allows evidence from rocks in distant places to be related in time because the same fossils are found in them and hence an understanding of palaeogeographies
Structures - This is where rocks have been folded or faulted the directions of former pressure are retained and can assist in understanding former earth movements
- Folds - curved or angular structures caused by rocks being pressured and deforming in a plastic manner. These usually form deep undergrouind as the rocks need heat and pressure to make them deform in a plastic manner
- Faults - Fractures where beds of rock have been displaced horixontally or vertically by extreme pressure or tension. These can be deep underground or near the surface as we are able to see in places like the San Andreas fault in the US and in events such as the Japanese earthquake of 2011
Landforms - These are the result of many factors, old and new give us our landscape. Each aspect for the landscape has a form that comes from it's composition and the way it has been treated both as a subsurface rock and now as a surface features. This can be things like limestone eroding in acidic waters, Granites rotting in rich humic waters or valleys carved by ice. Through understanding the forms we can infer the history
Ongoing Processes - This is the study of active landscape events such as glaciers, volcanoes, landslips, tsunamis etc to see the features they leave behind so we can look for those in the fossil record
Surface Processes - This is the study of weathering in soil, weathering above the soil etc. Much for the same reasons as above
Mountain Building - This is the study of volcanoes or deep rooted events that are happening either suddenly in the case of earthquakes or through gradual movements not visible to the eye, but recordable and demonatratable in the historical as well as geological record.
Evolution - This is the study of how animals and plants change to make best use of their environment. This is a process that happens over generations through a process called natural selection a process identified by Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin
Taxonomy and Taphonomy - This is the study of how things were related and how they died and were preserved. Though understanding both of these aspects we can build up familiy trees and our understanding of how the once living created functioned and decayed. Both of which can bring us to a much greater understanding of the environments of the past

All of this allows us to determine such things as

Stratigraphy and Chronology - the sequence and ages of rocks and fossils so that you can determine what came when and in what order and at what time in earths history
Palaeoenvironments - What was the environment in a specific place at a specific time. This allows us to compare types of environments in the past with those we have at present and gain further understanding, it also llows us to see what creatures were living in an enviornment so when we find those fossils again we can understand the environment
Palaeogeography - The continents have changed shape and position through continental drift and plate tectonics. by reconstructing the past we can work out what the shape of the continents would have been at a specific time in the past
Rock & Mineral Resources - For us all to use. Almost everything we have today starts out as a geological item. Even things made out of plants and animals would not be the way they were if the geology did not provide the grasslands forests and oil deposits for us to use. Mountains cause rain and the rivers carry nutrients to low lying areas (admittedly sometimes catastrophically in floods)

Within these pages you will see examples of many of these features, and in other sections (such as landscape and travel) you will see others

One of the reasons that geology is such an enjoyable interest is that it can be practised almost anywhere from beautiful landscapes to building stones

All of my pictures are taken with my Olympus camera equipment