Deposits Magazine - International rock and fossil, glossy 52 page publication

The geology and terrestrial life of the Carboniferous

The Carboniferous Period is a fascinating time in earth history. It spanned 60myrs (359.2 to 299.0mya), towards the end of the Palaeozoic era, falling between the Devonian and Permian. During the Carboniferous, the supercontinent Pangaea was assembling and the oceans were home to invertebrates such as corals, bryozoa, ammonoids, echinoderms, trilobites and crustaceans. Fish were also well represented (especially sharks), which were rapidly diversifying at the time. The continents were no barren wasteland either – they were host to some of the first widespread terrestrial forest and swamp ecosystems. In these lived both invertebrates, which had crawled onto land by the Silurian period (at least 423mya) and vertebrates, which were relative newcomers to this realm...

Another day at the office:
Working as a wellsite geologist in the North Sea: a short summary

There are many types of employment that geology may offer, but one in particular that I would like to describe is the wellsite geologist. I have been employed in this position for approximately four years in the Norwegian Sector of the North Sea. This article aims to describe briefly what is involved in working as such a geologist. Needless to say, the wellsite geologist works at a wellsite in that he or she is involved in the drilling of a well. To summarise, his main priority is to identify the various formations that are drilled. To enable such a task, it is required to identify particular rock types from such data as rock cuttings and logging measurements made during drilling...

Palaeozoic fossils from Central Europe: a geological expedition in the Southern Alps of Austria

Unlike the British Isles, which contain large swathes of Palaeozoic rocks, Central Europe only features sporadic rock types belonging to this early geological era. Among the most salient geological terrains entirely or partially from the Palaeozoic are the Bohemian Massif, the Central Plateau in France, the Ardennes in Belgium and the Black Forrest in Germany. Within the alpine mountain belt, the frequency of Palaeozoic rock formations is even less, with such rock deposits being limited to the Greywacke Zone in the Central Alps, the Palaeozoic lithologies exposed around the city of Graz, the Gurktal nappe and the Carnic region/Karawanken in the Southern Alps. In this article, I will discuss some important Palaeozoic...

An ammonite pendant from Highland New Guinea

In recent years, a number of ammonite pendants, similar to the one in Fig. 1, have been offered by tribal art dealers. As scientific objects, they offer the interest all fossils – a chance to study the tangible remains of ancient life. Being among the more abundant of fossil types, ammonites normally wouldn’t excite major paleontological interest. However, the relatively unexplored locality from which these ammonites come, and the unfamiliar use to which they are put, call for a closer look. They are reportedly from the Dani - a people from the central highlands of Irian Jaya (the western, Indonesian half of New Guinea) - and the methods and materials used in their construction support this attribution. Surrounded by steep mountains on all sides, these highlands were largely isolated from...

Plus...

A field guide to Barbados (Part 6):
Central Barbados

Broken Hill - Australia’s silver city

Dinocochlea: a possible solution to the mysterious spiral of Hastings

A post nodular agate formation phenomenon: copper infused agates from the Wolverine #2 Mine

And much more...