Detective work
Photograph A: Banded galena, sphalerite, strontian barite and calcite encrusted with pyrite. Chipping Sodbury, UK.
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Sample: Banded galena, sphalerite, strontian barite and calcite encrusted with pyrite
Locality: Hampstead Farm Quarry, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, UK Mineralisation Style: Mississippi Valley-Type lead-zinc mineralisation |
To be a geologist is to be a detective. The rocks geologists study will change from project to project, but the same mystery always needs to be solved: what is the geological story?
Solving a case
The Museum’s Dr Chris Stanley worked on ‘the case’ of the sample shown in photograph A. Based on its wider geological setting and the minerals and textures present within the suite from which this sample was taken, Dr Stanley discovered a geological history that encompassed: (1) a warm, shallow, tropical sea (2) tectonic uplift (3) cave formation (4) mineral deposition and (5) earthquakes (Stanley et. al., 1996). A detailed account of Dr Stanley’s detective work can be read here (Stanley et. al., 1996).
The Museum’s Dr Chris Stanley worked on ‘the case’ of the sample shown in photograph A. Based on its wider geological setting and the minerals and textures present within the suite from which this sample was taken, Dr Stanley discovered a geological history that encompassed: (1) a warm, shallow, tropical sea (2) tectonic uplift (3) cave formation (4) mineral deposition and (5) earthquakes (Stanley et. al., 1996). A detailed account of Dr Stanley’s detective work can be read here (Stanley et. al., 1996).
Visit the Museum
The complete geological story of mineralization at Chipping Sodbury can be explored in the Museum’s Restless Surface gallery where a sample from Hampstead Farm Quarry (Photograph B) is on display. Visit window eighteen and window twenty one to read of other samples from the ore collection that are helping scientists with their detective work. References
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Photograph B: Chipping Sodbury sample on display in the Museum's 'Restless Surface' Gallery.
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