Tuesday 26 February 2019

Paddling in February

With two pair of socks and with wellies, it is possible to go paddling and rock pooling.  With the warmest February days on record, bright sun and blue skies, we went on a little adventure.  The first day trip since we have moved to Somerset to the Jurassic Coast......

No fossils were taken home...only admired in the rock pools.




Wonderful purple colours of the seaweed


And speculation of what type of fossil had created the stone that looked like swiss cheese with holes, I had picked up pebbles with similar holes in Northumberland...



In one of the pools a fossil hunter was digging up a fossil before the tide turned...despite his looking like a mud skipper, I approached him to ask about the holes...he was a friendly man and took a few minutes from his work to explain that they were being made at present by small bivalves and this was a form of bio erosion of the rocks.  I brought a small speciment home to add to my collection.  I have also found a very good explanation on how Piddocks create them.

The fossil shop and Charmouth Visitors' Centre was well worth a visit.

2 comments:

  1. That was interesting - strong enough to drill thru rock, but not to survive the waves.

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    1. Whilst they within their holes the piddocks are safe. As soon as the rocks have a certain density of holes, they become weaker are therefore more easily eroded by the action of the waves and small stones that are carried in the fast advancing tides. I'm amazed at nature and now with the internet the possibility of finding out about the things we see around us.

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