Writing a book is a journey - and mostly a roller-coaster one. During the long period that I was working on Sand, I learned to be discerning and discreet about who I chose to mention it to. I was often...
The Montjuic sandstones (March 5 post) that built, and rebuilt, Roman and medieval Barcelona went on to play a starring role in the wonderful, eccentric, stunning, creations of Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí i Cornet. Barcelona and Gaudi are inextricably linked,...
Apologies to Chris Clarke at Faultline/Coyote Crossing - through senility, distractions, or any number of other excuses, I completely forgot to post a link to his latest Carnival of the Arid. There's a great diversity of items of interest there...
Two hills form the backdrop to the great city of Barcelona. To the southwest, overlooking the Mediterranean and the port, is Montjuic (the name ends in a "tch" sound in Catalan), a landscape that has played a role throughout the...
I know that much has been written on this elsewhere over the last few days, but this blog is about the stories that sand can tell us - how could I possibly omit this one? The image above is indistinguishable...
Anyone who builds a sandcastle, or doodles on the beach, feels the impermanence of such creations. It's one of sand's many qualities - for a material that lends itself to sculpture, writing, and drawing, and for all the toughness of...
Tafoni - the decorations on a festive cake? An ancient grave-robbing cult? The cosmetically enhanced follicles on the head of the Italian Prime Minister? Nope, pits, holes and convoluted caverns in weathered rock. The origin of the term is perhaps...
The picture on the left is of our oldest earthly possessions. They are sand grains, but special ones, each an individual crystal of zircon, the silicate of the element zirconium. Zircon may be the December birthstone, but these crystals were...
The photo on the left is typical of those used by tourist boards to lure visitors to sun-drenched beaches, to escape to tranquility and commune with nature, feel the warm sand between the toes - "book now, before anyone else...
The posts this week have been celebrating Charles Darwin as a geologist and have therefore been a slight excursion from the underlying theme of this blog. But, inevitably, Darwin draws me back to my topic. Of course, in the course...
Darwin and Lyell Today is the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. It may have been Sedgwick who gave Darwin his crash course in geology, but it was Charles Lyell who was to become Darwin's close geological companion, mentor, and champion,...
Darwin and Sedgwick It's well-known that, in 1831, Adam Sedgwick, Professor of Geology at Cambridge, President of the Geological Society and one of the great figures of "the heroic age of geology," took Charles Darwin on a short, but highly...
William Darwin Fox was Charles Darwin's second cousin, a keen entomologist (he was particularly fond of beetles) with whom Charles had a close relationship throughout his life. From the many letters Charles wrote to Fox while on the Beagle voyage...
This, as can have escaped hardly anyone's awareness, is the week of celebrating the birth of Charles Darwin, 200 years ago. I do not pretend to be any kind of Darwinian expert, and there is much being written elsewhere during...
I try to make a point of watching all movies that feature sand in a significant role (probably the subject of a future post), and my 88-year-old father-in-law who lives in Philadelphia recently told me of one that I'd missed...
You're standing by the side of the road when a dump truck hauls into view, one of the big ones, filled with sand. It's closely followed by another, and another, an endless procession. If you stay by the road until...
Pondering the Future of the Earth For the second current carnival, go to Brian's Clastic Detritus for various perspectives on what the future holds - not necessarily for us.
Carnival of the Arid Chris Clarke at Coyote Crossing is hosting the first Carnival of the Arid, a wide-ranging look at blog artistry coming from, or inspired by, the world’s arid regions. There's a wonderful diversity of writing there, so...
This is the year of the great Darwinfest and, inevitably, sand makes its contribution. The immediate reference would be to the "sand walk" at Down House in the Kent countryside, Darwin's "thinking path" that he walked every day. A visit...
The Urban Stratum is the provocative stratigraphic name that Jan Zalasiewicz gives to our remains in The Earth After Us - What legacy will humans leave in the rocks? Perhaps reflecting the current global issues that cause us to contemplate...
