Rocks, fossils and minerals
What is geology?
Geology
is the science of volcanoes and dinosaurs, gold and diamonds, oil and earthquakes, mountains and caves – even Moon rocks and meteorites. Geology can be defined as the study of the origin, composition, history, structure and processes of the Earth.
The geology of Northern Ireland is more varied than any other similarly-sized region of the British Isles. Its bedrock geology includes examples from almost every period of geological time during the last billion years of Earth history. The whole area is blanketed with relics of the last Ice Age, left behind when the glaciers finally retreated just a few thousand years ago. These relics continue to control the present-day patterns of drainage, human settlement and agriculture.
Geology is all around us, not just beneath our feet but in buildings, roads and most types of manufactured product. Geology affects almost every aspect of our lives, from where we live to the fossil fuels we use to run our cars, heat our homes, or generate power. The very shape of the landscape is determined by geological processes.
Picture above: Well-preserved Jurassic ammonites from the Dorset coast.
Collections
The geology collections consist of approximately 30,000 fossils, 11,000 minerals and 4,000 rocks. Major strengths are fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks which fringe the Antrim Plateau, fossils from the Carboniferous Limestone of Ireland, and Ice Age faunas (animal life).
There are important historical and heritage collections, such as Geological Survey of Ireland material collected in the nineteenth century. There is also an outstanding gem collection of around 1,000 items, and a small but growing collection of meteorites.
Most recently, a large collection of rocks, minerals and fossils was transferred from Queen's University Belfast, following the closure of the university's geology department in 2001.
Rocks
A great variety of rocks form the foundations of the landscape of Northern Ireland, moulded to its present form by the action of rivers, sea and ice. The Ulster Museum collections contain thousands of rock samples found in Ireland and beyond.
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Meteorites and Tektites
Meteorites are pieces of stone or metal that fall to Earth from outer space. Most come from the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, but a few are from the Moon or Mars. The Ulster Museum has a representative collection of meteorite types, including a 113kg iron meteorite, a spe...
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Minerals
Minerals are elements or chemical compounds that are normally crystalline and that have been formed through geological processes. Several thousand different minerals are known, but most are formed through combinations of just a handful of elements. The Ulster Museum has a good collection of miner...
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Fossils
Fossils are the remains or traces of living things preserved in the rocks. In Northern Ireland, fossils have been found in sedimentary rocks ranging in age from 500 million years old to a few thousand years old. The Ulster Museum collections contain tens of thousands of fossils, ranging from smal...
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Books, images and archives
The Ulster Museum has a valuable archive of geology-related printed material. This includes some of the earliest geological maps, notably those of William Smith and Richard Griffith, and a complete holding of the Geological Survey of Ireland’s maps and Memoirs from both the 19th and 2...
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curator by following this link and
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