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What's new in geology at the Warwickshire Museum
William Smith and his pound-stones
William Smith, the 'father of English' geology, was born in the village of Churchill, Oxfordshire, close to the Warwickshire border, in 1769. As a boy, he was aware of 'pound-stones' - the fossilised shells of Jurassic sand-dollars collected from local quarries and used to weigh out quantities of food. Smith went on to become a canal and drainage engineer and produced the first ever geological map of England and Wales. Our new display features a reprint of Smith's famous 1815 map, and some Warwickshire 'pound-stones'. | A 'pound-stone' from Cross Hands Quarry, Warwickshire. A sand-dollar that lived in Warwickshire's Jurassic sea,
170 million years ago
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Red rocks in Warwickshire - Carboniferous sandstone at Corley Rocks, north of Coventry | Warwickshire's Martian past?
Many of us have seen the latest pictures of the Martian surface, transmitted back to Earth from NASA’s landers. Mars is often known as the red planet, due to its weathered cover of rusty rocks and sand, and swirling storms of red dust. Interestingly, there are hints of arid, rusty, Mars-like landscapes here in Warwickshire, in the distant geological past.
Records and specimens held within the Warwickshire Museum show that Warwickshire endured a hot, dry climate between about 300 and 200 million years ago. Deposits of red sandstone, water-worn pebbles and shattered rock fragments underlie parts of the Kenilworth, Coventry and Nuneaton areas. They provide glimpses of an arid landscape of shimmering valleys, dusty red plains and pebble-strewn flats. A selection of Warwickshire's 'Martian' rocks is currently on display in Warwickshire Museum's geology gallery. |
The geology gallery at Warwickshire Museum includes a display of local rocks and fossils. For more information contact the Keeper of Geology:
Telephone 01926 412481
Email museum@warwickshire.gov.uk
Click here for the Warwickshire geology home page
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