Book the next Rockwatch Field Trip to West Sussex on 10 September 2022
We have another double whammy for you! Join us on the next Rockwatch field trip to West Sussex for a spot of Building Stones Geodetective work at Earnley Church, followed by a fossil hunt on Bracklesham beach. The field trip is from 1.30pm til 5.30pm on Saturday 10 September. The trip with be led by Rockwatch Ambassador David Bone. Check out the details and complete the booking form today! Book...
Rockwatch to Join in International Geodiversity Day Celebrations
Rockwatch is delighted to announce that it will be joining in with this year’s International Geodiversity Day on Thursday 6th October 2022. Geodiversity Day, which was announced at the UNESCO at the 41st General Conference in 2021, will be a worldwide celebration to promote all the many aspects of geodiversity and will take the place of this year’s GA Festival of Geology which usually runs in November every year. The Day...
Issue 91 of the Rockwatch Magazine: published August 2022
Issue 91 Contents List: published August 2022 Pulhamite Image 1 of 6 THIS ROCK IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS THIS ‘ROCK’ IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS Strange find in a country park THE GREAT GREYWACKE DEBATE Spotlight on a historic discovery OBSERVING OBELISKS Spectacular stone monuments FLINT What is it? FLINT How was it formed? TAKING A SHINE TO PLATINUM Facts about this ‘difficult’ metal FACETIME SHOCK IN A ROCK Lump of bog...
Beat the Summer Holiday Boredom and Become and Rockstar!
If you’re looking for ways to ease the holiday boredom then our summer competition might cheer you up, and you could end up being a Rockstar! Every year, Rockwatchers from around the UK enjoy putting together geology projects on topics that inspire them, and submit them to our Rockstar Young Geologists’ Competition. Children and young people from ages 4-18 take part, whether they’re newbies discovering geology for...
Come Fossil Hunting at Kings Dyke Nature Reserve, Peterborough
Join us for the next Rockwatch field trip on Saturday 2 July 2022 to Kings Dyke Nature Reserve near Peterborough. The area is historically famous for brick making thanks to the abundant clay pits but it is also extremely rich in Jurassic-age fossils. Many of the original pits have been made into nature reserves and it’s one of these we’ll be visiting. With the help of Rockwatch Guides, Rockwatchers are very likely to find...
Enjoy the Summer Science Exhibition 2022
The Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition 2022 which takes place from 6-10 July will appeal to many Rockwatchers, whether you are able to visit in person or online. There will be a mix of fascinating talks and hands-on interactive sessions on a wide range of science topics. including how scientists are using everyday items from waste to replace oil and discover more about the first meteorite fall in the UK for 30 years....
Join us in Whitby this weekend for our next Field Trip
Join us on the next Rockwatch field trip this weekend as we explore North East England’s Jurassic Dinosaur Coast in Whitby on Saturday 18th June. We’ll be looking at depositional environments and fossil indicators and hope to find lots of fossils to add to your collections. The fieldtrip is being led by local geology experts Mick Oates and Paul Hildreth. And if you like, you can bring fossils you’ve already found for...
Visit Mary Anning Exhibition
Rockwatchers may be interested to visit the new exhibition about fossil pioneer Mary Anning at the Lyme Regis Museum this summer. As well as visiting the newly unveiled Mary Anning statue on the sea front, visitors to the museum will be able to see a rare portrait of the paleontologist with her dog, Tray, on the beach at Lyme alongside one of her rare ichthyosaurs she discovered in 1832. Both of these special items are on loan to the...
Next Rockwatch Field Trip – Hunt for Pebbles at Thorndon Country Park
Did you know that every pebble tells a story? Do you want to know how to identify 80 million year old pebbles? Would you like to know how pebbles tell us about past global climate changes? Join us and other Rockwatchers on our next field trip to find out! We’ll spend the afternoon of Saturday 11 June from 2pm in the beautiful Essex countryside at Thorndon Country Park learning all about pebbles. It’s a vast and...
Rockstar Young Geologists’ Competition 2022 Details Announced
It’s that time of year again when we announce details of our annual geologists’ competition called Rockstars! Once a year we challenge young people to express their creativity and knowledge of geology, using their choice of media. Anyone under the age of 18 can enter and you have all summer to put your masterpieces together! You can find out more about the competition including key dates and top tips on what and how to...
Anne Bronte Was a Rock Collector
Rockwatchers may be interested to know that new research shows that Anne Bronte – the youngest of the famous Bronte sisters who wrote Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – was also a keen geologist. The research has been done by PhD Student Sally Jaspers at the University of Aberdeen and with the help of Goescientist Stephen Bowden, they have discovered that Anne was very skilled and knowledgeable about her rock...
Rockwatch Field Trip Update
The Hastings field trip is now FULL but don’t worry – there are still some spaces on our other planned field trips including – Saturday, 11 June 2022 14:00 – 16:00 Pebble Hunt at Thorndon Country Park Thorndon Country Park, Brentwood Essex Saturday, 18 June 2022 All Day Yorkshire Jurassic Coast trip to Whitby Saturday, 2 July 2022 All Day Kings Dyke Nature Reserve, Peterborough Saturday, 16 July 2022 –...
Fond Farewell to Rockwatch’s Geraldine
After more than 20 years of Rockwatch adventures, our amazing Geraldine is hanging up her hard hat to enjoy a new challenge. Many of our Rockwatchers will know Geraldine, who has managed the memberships and events for Rockwatch over the years. She’s also played a big part on our field trips and helped the Geologists’ Association in this capacity too. We know she won’t be far away and will keep in touch (and hopefully...
South Wales Annual Weekend Field Trip Details and Tickets Now Available
Rockwatch Welsh Weekend Field Trip 16 – 17 July 2022 We’re excited to share more details about the forthcoming Rockwatch Weekend Field Trip to South Wales and you can now book to come! It promises to be a weekend full of coastal geology around the Cardiff area. All this for just £2.50 per person. What are you waiting for? Find out more and Book...
A Fossily Good Time at Lowewood Museum
Thank you to everyone who joined us for a day of fossil fun on Friday. lowewood-museum-filling-plaster-fossils Image 1 of 14 Filling the plaster cast - making dinosaur fossils Rockwatchers had a fantastic day with the Lowewood Museum and Rockwatch team on Friday 8 April. It was so good to meet you face to face again during the Easter holidays. Inspired by some real fossils from the collection at the Museum, the children had fun...
Summer Events Programme Announced
The Rockwatch Summer Events Programme is now live and we’re taking bookings! We’re so excited to be putting the wellies, hi-viz jackets and hard hats on this summer and meeting up with our Rockwatch families once again. We have an evolving programme of trips coming up and hope many of our loyal Rockwatchers will return and that our newer families will join us at events for the first time. Over the coming months we’ll...
Issue 90 of the Rockwatch Magazine: published April 2022
Issue 90 Contents List: published April 2022 the-beginning Image 1 of 7 THE BIG BANG AND ONWARDS LOST, BUT NOT WITHOUT TRACE! The trails left by plants and animals GOOEY SURPRISE AT THE SEASIDE Natural asphalt drips onto beach SEARCHING FOR LIFE BEYOND EARTH What’s on our red planet neighbour NANOCLAY WEAVES CROP MAGIC Clay works a miracle in the desert THE BEGINNING…OF THE BEGINNING…OF THE BEGINNING The big bang and...
Field Trips are Back!
BIG NEWS – Rockwatch field trips are back this summer! After what seems like a massive geologic period of time during the covid pandemic, we’re excited to be dusting off our hard hats and hi-vis jackets for a summer of geology field trips. The full events programme will be published in your next magazine that’s due out in April and also be added to the events section of the website, but we couldn’t wait to tell...
Join Rockwatch and Lowewood Museum for some Fossil Fun!
Please come along and join Rockwatch and Lowewood Museum for a day of Fossil Fun on Friday 8 April 2022 from 10.30am-4.00pm. There’s no need to book in advance and entry is FREE! Fossil fun activities include – Making a Jurassic landscape Creating your own plaster cast fossils Dino hunt around the museum Bring your fossils to have them identified and see other fossils on display Admission is FREE but donations are welcome....
Join the Rockwatch Team – Admin Assistant Part Time Role Available
We are looking for a Part Time Administrative Assistant to join our team. The role offers an exciting opportunity be part of the Geologists’ Association and Rockwatch, where you would play an important role in helping us to achieve our charitable objective of actively promoting the study of geology to all who are interested in the past, present, and future of the natural world. Founded in 1858 and based in Central London the...
Harrow and Hillingdon’s Rock Show Returns
The Harrow and Hillingdon Geological Society Rock Show online is back! This is a fantastic site for Earth Science students and teachers at Key Stage 2 which provides helpful insights into rocks and fossils. New for 2022 is Holiday Geology, which features top geological sites in England and Wales and beyond for you to seek out when you are on your holidays. Helpfully produced as a series of Guides, Holiday Geology offers you a great...
Issue 89 of the Rockwatch Magazine: published December 2021
Issue 89 Contents List: published December 2021 highland fling - Earth's oldest rocks Image 1 of 8 highland fling - A chance to stand on Earth’s oldest rocks HIGHLAND FLING A chance to stand on Earth’s oldest rocks GROOVES REVEAL THEIR ICY ORIGINS Sandstone gives up its secrets KABOOM – THE MOON! How we got our moon – read all about it A HOLE LOT OF GEOLOGY The holes beneath our feet THE STORY OF SICCAR POINT...
Rockstars 2021 Winners and Entrants Announced
Rockwatch is delighted to launch a showcase of this year’s Rockstars 2021 Competition Winners and Entries in a short movie. The range and standard of entries was incredibly high, giving judges a difficult job in choosing this year’s winners. As Rockwatch Chair, Susan Brown comments, “The Rockwatch competition continues to inspire many young geologists to produce a diverse range of projects, hopefully igniting a...
Live Talks, Workshops and Discussions at vFestival of Geology 2021
This year’s live talks, workshops and break out discussion rooms at the Virtual Festival of Geology 2021 are a fascinating mix of topics to appeal to any young geology enthusiast. The events are all taking place live on Saturday 6th November 2021 so make sure you put the day aside to immerse yourself in the full programme of events. Live Talks The lectures all feature a live Q & A with the speaker afterwards...