Just a couple of days before the Covid-19 lockdown, I was with friends at Tidmoor Point collecting wonderful pyrite ammonites from the Oxford Clay with this excellent guide to the South Dorset Coast. The South Dorset Coast runs from the West Fleet (of Chesil Beach fame) to and including the Isle of Portland.
Increasingly nowadays, the London Clay Formation is becoming a favourite hunting ground for fossils and several good books have been written about it. This guide, written by eminent plant palaeobotanist, Margaret Collinson was the first published by PalAss in its library of guides to (usually) UK fossils for professionals and amateurs.
Dorling Kindersley is well-known for producing popular reference media for beginners and enthusiasts. Its Eyewitness Guides to fossils and rocks and minerals, for example, along with their later addition, the Eyewitness Handbook of fossils, certainly makes a useful starting point for anyone new to geology or palaeontology.
The Pentland Hills in Scotland yield a large number of Silurian marine fossils. Although theys are only found within a small area of the Pentland Hills, the formations are extremely rich in fossils.
Notwithstanding the somewhat daunting use of the word “geophysics” in the title, this is another great book in Dunedin’s Introducing Earth and Environmental Sciences series of guides. In fact, that term may well discourage all but the most enthusiastic Earth Scientist.
For a long time, Watchet has been known as a superb location for those interested in both fossils and geology, but, surprisingly, the location has had little in the way of media attention. However, within the last couple of years, this area has begun to attract a lot of interest and this little book will further increase its growing popularity.
I recently reviewed another of the guides in Crowood Press’s excellent “Landscape and Geology” guides, which was undoubtedly a great read. And this one is equally good, with great, full colour pictures, maps and diagrams, and easy to read text, with descriptions of interesting walks and what can be seen on them.That is, there are easy-to-understand explanations of how the rocks formed and how the geology affects the landscape, and there is also an n exploration of the long human story of the landscapes.
This is another guide in the excellent “Landscape and Geology” series of local geological guides published by The Crowood Press. And this is as good as the others. Admittedly, it has a wonderful subject matter, because the Isle of Wight is a geological gem with its 110km long coastline displaying a range of rocks dating from Lower Cretaceous to Oligocene age. I know from personal experience that many of its sands and clays contain collectable fossil bivalves and gastropods, and its famous dinosaur footprints attract attention from both geologists and tourists, with always the possibility of finding a bone or two.
This newly published guide is another near-perfect fossil book from Siri Scientific Press, who are rapidly becoming my favourite publisher of esoteric palaeontology. This one is perhaps less arcane, as it deals with an area of Britain that has been extensively covered by various authors with varying degrees of success.
Geologists’ Association Guide No 2 Compiled by Frank Moseley The Lake District is obviously a prime UK holiday hotspot and, each year, thousands of people visit to enjoy the walking and scenery. Equally obvious is the fact that these activities are possible as a direct…
This book has something of an aspirational, rather than practical, feel to it. However, there is no doubt – in my mind anyway – that it is the best book on the geology of the Himalaya I have read. It is written with a nice light touch, with some humour. And it covers far more than just geology – where appropriate, it includes history, especially about the exploration of the subcontinent, and Asian culture.
