Have suddenly become extraordinarily jealous of anyone who has made plans to be in Totality 2026. I was lucky enough to experience Totality 2017 and it was truly epic. My soul does something weird when I think about it. I remember a mystical feeling so deeply. I hope 2026 folk feel it too.

Going for the cute rocks. Here's a dinky wee boudinaged bit of dike in some deformed marble. All cut off from his boudin buddies who've been stretched far away. All alone, but hugged by the equally stressed Durness Limestone. Both survivors of the Tertiary Beinn an Dubhaic granite intrusion aureole.

Check out this wee chappie. A tiny but perfectly formed chrinoid star. Found in the Lower Jurassic at Boggle Hole, locally these are known as St Cuthbert's Beads. Up the coast in Northumberland, in Medieval Times, chrinoid stem fossils were strung together to make rosaries.

Here we have a rock with a social history story. A stalactite formed in the inside of a canal tunnel. The white layers formed before steam powered boats, when the canal boats were pulled by horses. From the late 1800s the boats were powered by coal and the sooty smoke coloured the layers black.

Next up, this lovely pahoehoe surface texture in some lavas. The amazing thing is, this is on a beach on Skye, Scotland and the lavas are around 60 million years old!

I just searched 'rock' in my photo album on my phone and will post what comes up. First up, meet this little cutie Rhomb Porphyry cobble used as part of a 20th Century repair to the Roman Walls around York. Almost certainly from Norway, brought here as glacial till.

Shock horror! Women came to the meetings! "...to assemble -ladies and gentlemen with equal zeal- to do honour to science" Much to the umbrage of some of the Men of Science of the time. Here is Buckland throwing some serious shade on the Royal Institution (Albermarle-dilettanti meeting).

Found this gem in a second hand bookshop in York today. Published in 1931, it's a 100 year history of the British Association for the Advancement of Science - what is now the British Science Association. Both York and Geology were central to the establishment of the BSA.

Big change today as I start as Professor of Volcanology at @lborouniversity.bsky.social !

Enjoying reading Tempest Anderson's book in Tempest Anderson's back garden on this sunny day in York.

Anyway. Coming this Sunday, a fun walking tour and public lecture about Volcanoes, the city of York and an eye doctor-cum-volcanologist. Coming soon, hopefully a self-guided walking tour. Coming next year, maybe a paper, maybe a book, maybe a blog. 🤔 All with the brilliant @fossiliam.bsky.social

Today was the last time I'll teach volcanology at the University of Hull! So we ended the module in style.

Had a lovely day in York tracing footsteps of Tempest Anderson, ophthalmic surgeon and adventuring volcanologist. Hunting for volcanic rocks in the city with @fossiliam.bsky.social

Fangirling an autonomous underwater vehicle with @drnatashadowey.bsky.social at @noc.ac.uk hosted @vmsg.bsky.social Annual Meeting!

On my way to a Volcanology conference, so of course there are adverse weather conditions. 🥶🫣 #IYKYK #VMSG26 @vmsg.bsky.social 🌋

I didn't until yesterday when I was lucky enough to visit the Yorkshire Museum archives with curator Sarah King, @toriherridge.bsky.social & @tomsharperocks.bsky.social to see this wonderful sketch (of a sketch) of an Icthyosaur skull by Anne Wickham. Can't wait for its story to be published!

Inspired by Skara Brae www.orkney.com/listings/ska...

Learned so much about the Stone Age last night with mini-volcanologist at this great event with @gregjenner.bsky.social and Prof Nicky Milner. I know nothing about our local Starr Carr Mesolithic site. So cool.

Introducing the kids to Terry Pratchett in the same way I discovered Terry Pratchett.

After staring at this post-it note all day, I finally managed to register for @vmsg.bsky.social Annual Meeting at @noc.ac.uk this January! Volcano science for the win #VMSG26 🌋🌍🪨🧪

A final photo of the Petrifying Well to end the thread. It's a lovely location on the banks of the River Nidd. Mother Shipton's Cave is just off to the right. /End

What's not clear in the accounts that I've read is whether Mother Shipton had anything to do with the petrifying well itself, though both were widely known. But over time, their stories have definitely become interwoven. The cave and well are worth a visit for both it's social history and geology.

She warned that "Cardinall Wolsey should never come to Yorke with the King". And if you know Tudor history, you'll know that Cardinal Wolsey had a falling out with Henry VIII. He set off to York for his first ever visit but was recalled to London for treason. He died on the way.

Mother Shipton was famous for her prophecies, mentioned by Samuel Pepys and referred to as "the witch of Yorke" by King Henry VIII. She is credited with prophecies of the Spanish Armada, the Great Fire of London and the 1665 Plague.

The story of Mother Shipton is itself fascinating. She was born Ursula Southeil in 1488 to a destitute teenage mother and they lived in a cave near the well. They were outcast as witches, and Mother Shipton grew into a woman sought out as a herbalist but also vilified.

People have been leaving items since at least the Victorian times. Bumps in the tufa slope are a top hat and bonnet from 1853. Here is Queen Mary's shoe from 1923. The owners hang teddy bears you can buy and other items as curiosities.

The Petrifying Well at Mother Shiptons Cave, Knaresborough was recorded by the King's antiquary in 1538 and is the oldest tourist attraction in England, having opened in 1630. People leave items in the dripping waters to be 'turned into stone', taking about 3 months to petrify small objects.

Did you know that England's oldest fee paying attraction is geological? It starts at this unassuming spring, rich in sulphate and carbonate which precipitates tufa. The spring disappears into the ground and then reappears in a waterfall that turns things to stone. ⚒️🧪🪨🌍🧵

The oil is found in the Carboniferous Millstone Grit, and trapped in an anticline centred under Eakring. The area is also well known for its coal measures. Source rocks are present in Late Dinantian Shales and Limestones.

The info in this thread mostly comes from an info board in the wood, and a lovely wee book called Oil Under Sherwood Forest by Janet Roberts.