Calling all geoscientists!

One of our most beautiful Paesina Stone images has made it onto the front cover Geoscientist, the magazine of the UK’s Geological Society, with a selection of other images featured inside and introduced as follows: ‘Most geologists will remember the first timethey gazed down a microscope at a thin section and marvelled at nature’s hidden display of colour and texture. However, three years of undergraduate petrology, with its classification schemes and examinations, is bound to install a certain level of professional detachment towards the more aesthetic aspects of rocks and minerals.

The fact that rocks are studied for practical reasons, not just because they are nice to look at close-up, means that most people outside the profession have absolutely no idea of their hidden beauty. It sometimes takes someone from outside one’s own discipline to point out the obvious - seen close-up rocks and minerals, even those common ones like quartz and tourmaline that working geologist often take for granted, can be shockingly beautiful.’ Indeed they are, and I’m looking forward to seeing what delights await in two more batches from The Netherlands and another from my favourite US site, ‘Great Slabs’.