history - Through the sandglass

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The sandfish - "like a man diving into water"

My aspiration for the book and this blog, beyond the hope that they would be read at all, has always been that readers would be surprised. This arose simply bec...

July 1, 2009 6 min read

art books environment geology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Thinking like a pile of sand

It sometimes seems to me that managing my thoughts (and memories) resembles trying to control a pile of sand grains as they sift through my fingers. Now, new ne...

July 1, 2009 4 min read

art books coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography sand science travel wildlife

July 2009

Musings and news on the extraordinary stories sand has to tell of our planet and daily lives

July 1, 2009 5 min read

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Writing in sand - sedimentary structures

Just as literature students develop the craft of analyzing the structure of a story, so do geologists analyze the structures of sediments and the stories that t...

July 1, 2009 2 min read

art geology history photography sand travel

All that glitters ...

At the end of my last post on granular segregation and placer mineral deposits, I included a photo of a sand sample from Yosemite that is reputed to contain fla...

June 1, 2009 2 min read

art climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Granular segregation and the Gold Rush

Anyone walking on the beach or through the dunes will often notice areas of dark gray smeared across the surface, often outlining ripples, as if an artist had h...

June 1, 2009 15 min read

art climate_change environment geomorphology history photography sand

On the road in California 3 - tafoni yet again

I’ve done a couple of posts on tafoni, the exotic and wonderful natural sculpturing of, commonly, sandstones. As I was putting together the piece on the ways in...

June 1, 2009 2 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Streams of grains - some more amazing granular research

As I’m sure I’ve said before, to watch the sands of an hourglass in action is to observe all kinds of natural phenomena at work - and all kinds of questions to...

June 1, 2009 6 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

June 2009

Musings and news on the extraordinary stories sand has to tell of our planet and daily lives

June 1, 2009 6 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Beach Nourishment and Sediment Budgets

I’m in the US at the moment (outside Philadelphia to be more precise), visiting family and preparing to give a talk in a couple of weeks time at the aquarium in...

May 1, 2009 6 min read

art books coastal education history photography sand travel

Dr Who and the Sands of Time

For those non-UK readers who are saying to themselves, “Dr Who?” and suspecting that this might be a version of the “who’s on first?” routine, I’m referring to...

May 1, 2009 4 min read

art books environment geology history photography sand science travel wildlife

Kitchen physics continued

Some further observations, and hints for readers who wish to try this at home (or in the classroom). I was, as you could probably tell, flushed with the success...

April 1, 2009 7 min read