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Open Hertitage Day tour – Wolverhampton Art Gallery
The Heritage Open Day tour of Wolverhampton Art Gallery was given in three parts, the first part was led by the Collections Manager, Rachel Lambert-Jones. Rachel took us down to the Resource Centre where they hold some of their stored collections of approximately 1800 objects including fine art, sculpture and their weird and wonderful items [...]
Posted in Activities and Events, Collectors, Fossils, General, Guest Blogs, Local Geology
Tagged Activities, Art Gallery, Black Country, collections, Collectors, Dr Fossil, Dudley, Fossils, Geology, Igneous rocks, Minerals, Museums, Talks, The Dudley Bug, Trilobites, Wrens Nest
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Libyan Desert Silica Glass
This mysterious material was ‘rediscovered’ in December 1932 by Patrick Clayton whilst leading an expedition for the Egyptian ‘Desert Surveys Department’ across the Great Sand Sea of the western desert, near the Libyan border. It was found lying around in some quantity in the open ‘streets’ between ranks of high longitudinal dunes and has since [...]
Posted in General, Guest Blogs, Minerals
Tagged BCGS, Desert, Earth history, Geology, Glass, Lybia, Minerals, Silica
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Birth of the Black Country
Why does geology matter to the Black Country? In this blog we investigate the historical importance of the area in relation to the mineral wealth below the ground, and the early pioneers who began the industrial development. The Black Country is an area located just to the northwest of Birmingham right at the heart of [...]
Posted in General, Local Geology
Tagged Abraham Darby, BCGS, Black Country, Canals, Dud Dudley, Dudley, Geology, Limestone, Minerals, mines, Mining, Places, Rocks, Seven Sisters, Step Shaft, Wrens Nest
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A way with words
This short but amusing extract entitled ‘Geobabble’ was taken from the newsletter of the Black Country Geological Society number 160, August 2003. A favourite word of mine however, is PENECONTEMPORANEOUSLY. Perhaps not a Technical term, but an adverb that I have only see used in a geological context. Indeed, I have only seen it used in [...]
Posted in General, Guest Blogs, Local Geology, Rocks and Minerals
Tagged BCGS, Black Country, Geology, Minerals, Rocks, Terminology, Words
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Digging for decorations
Excitement is building for the big day, you wake up every morning thinking its time to rush down and open presents. Letters are flooding to the North Pole, advent calendars are opened every morning and Christmas songs are sang when you think nobody is listening (and that’s just the adults!). At this time of year, [...]
Posted in General
Tagged Christmas, Environment, Geology, Human Impact, metals, Minerals, Natural Resources, ores
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Rock with laughter
This short but amusing extract entitled ‘Geobabble’ was taken from the newsletter of the Black Country Geological Society number 187, December 2007. It reveals that even minerals can have a sense of humour at this festive time of year. Petrology deals with the origin, composition, structure, and alteration of rocks. To do this geologists slice up perfectly good [...]
Posted in General, Guest Blogs, Minerals, Rocks, Rocks and Minerals
Tagged BCGS, Geology, Igneous rocks, Microscopes, Minerals, Petrology, Rocks, Thin Sections, volcano, volcanoes
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Ore inspiring
This is an extract from ‘The Dudley Bug’ section in the Black Country Geological Society newsletter 209: October 2011. Today we use metal for practically everything, over the last 50 years uses and demand for metals has increased due to their properties. The most common metals we use in today’s modern society include copper, aluminium, [...]
Posted in General, Minerals, Rocks, Rocks and Minerals
Tagged BCGS, deposits, Geology, Igneous rocks, metals, Minerals, ores
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Only a geologist would buy a thing like this…
My first rock ‘n’ gem show for three years promised to be an expensive day, so I bulked up my wallet and headed down to Cheltenham Racecourse last month to expand my collection. As I entered the show hall I had that un-natural geological excitement at the sight of “pretty rocks”. The traders had to [...]
Posted in Activities and Events, Collectors, Collectors and Collecting, Fossils, General, Guest Blogs, Rocks and Minerals
Tagged Collectors, Earth history, Fossils, Geology, Minerals, Rocks
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Protecting your pyrite collection
Graham Worton the current curator and Keeper of Geology at Dudley Museum & Art Gallery tells us about how ‘pyrite cancer’ can destroy the pyrite specimens within collections unless the correct methods are used to preserve them.
Posted in Collecting, Minerals
Tagged Collecting, Collections care, Fossils, Minerals, Pyrites, Video
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What are the differences between rocks and minerals?
The differences between rocks and minerals are that a mineral is a single constituent with a particular colour, atomic and crystalline structure. A rock however is an aggregate of different minerals which does not have a set composition or structure. So without minerals you wouldn’t get rocks. Minerals are often single crystals with a particular [...]
