Geology in a Jiffy

Niagara shop stalactites!

The shop at Niagara Falls is part-built underground, carved out of the Silurian Lockport Limestone that the Niagara River cascade’s over.

A great location to study how stalactites and stalagmites form, especially when fed by the groundwater that has just been increased due to the massive thunderstorm above us!

A mammoth!

This massive woolly mammoth skeleton, at the National Museum Cardiff, is actually a life-sized, 3D-printed replica.

The skeleton is 3m high and 5m long.

Staff affectionately call it ‘Tom Bones’ (after the famous Welsh singer Tom
Jones).

What a courtyard!

This courtyard, in Mayfair, London, is lined by:
The Linnaean Society of London
The Royal Astronomical Society
The Society of Antiquaries of London
The Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Society of Chemistry
….and…..
The Geological Society!

What an amazing collection of prestigious societies and bodies!






Geolsoc

Flying in to Toronto Pearson International Airport.

On Air Canada flight AC641.

Potholes at Lepreau Falls

At this series of beautiful cascading waterfalls, the Lepreau River flows over alternating mudstones and sandstones of the Early Carboniferous (325 to 315 million years old) Mabou Group, these gently tilted to the NW.

As the water flows over the strata, sediment is carried downstream, as evidenced by the wide variety of rock types that form the sediments, these ranging from mud to boulder in size.

As the river carries the sediment along, the currents change and become turbulent as the water flows across the alternating softer and harder sedimentary layers. This causes the sediments to gouge out the river bed, doing so in a circular-type motion, forming a pothole, these ranging from a few centimetres to a metre in diameter, and some over 1m deep!

The potholes here are quite amazing, in fact absolutely classic examples! 👍🏻

Meteorite-impacted pebbles!

The range of rock types that make up the pebbles at St Martin’s Sea Caves is remarkable!

The cliffs themselves are Triassic in age, but the pebbles within them are much older, possible Precambrian!

The pebbles in the upper (younger) sections of the cliff are composed of quartzite, these all very rounded after being deposited in river conditions. But - all of the pebbles show signs of being rapidly hit/compacted together, they all slightly indented where contact with a neighbouring pebble was made, these often with radial fractures emanating from the impact site. This can be modelled with a boiled egg that has been tapped with a spoon - the indentation on the egg from the spoon is exactly what we see on the quartzite pebbles.

The origin of the indentations and radial fractures has been proposed that they were suddenly and rapidly smashed together due to a meteorite hitting the Earth 51 million years ago!!

The actual site of the meteorite impact is the Montagnais impact structure, lying about 112 miles southwest of Halifax. It is roughly 28 to 31 miles across, but nothing about it appears at the ocean surface. The crater was buried by younger sediment as the Atlantic margin continued to evolve.

Now that is amazing!

Beautiful!

St Martins Sea Caves, NB, in NE Canada, at low tide on a hot and sunny summers day.

The Bay of Fundy has some of the largest tidal ranges in the world. If I stood here 6 hours earlier/later, my feet would have been 8m below sea level!

Wow!

Storm devastation!

Filmed in May 2026, the seaside village of Torcross, in SW England, was devastated by storms in early February 2026.
Although already protected by concreted-in large boulders, these seaside of a reinforced concrete sea wall, the waves didn’t just crash over the sea wall, they also carried much of the shingle beach with them
This resulted in the adjacent buildings suffering quite severe damage, lots of which has still to be rectified.

An easy way to remember the names of the first 4 alkanes, these being:
Methane
Ethane
Propane
Butane

Perfect for both teaching and revision!

Geology in a Jiffy!