ESP Staff Visit National History Museum

Some of our ESP staff members recently visited the National History Museum in London and we wanted to share with you some of the amazing things that they saw during their visit.

On the left is Ammonites which were owned by geologist William Smith. He used them to prove for the first time that the rocks beneath our feet are layered through time. 

On the right is a very rare specimen, carbonaceous chondrite, a meteorite sample from a blazing meteor trail which occurred in February 2021. This sample was recovered in Britain. 

These crystals grow in warm, mineral-rich water circulating in open spaces underground. The stages in the crystal’s growth is visible because another mineral settled on the crystal faces during a pause in its growth.

This stunning rock preserves 2.5 billion years of our planet’s history. The pink and white bands on the surface of the rock shows how the rock was exposed to extreme heat and pressure, causing it to melt and fold. 

Sunday Stone – a calendar in rock. During the 1800’s, this rock formed in a Tyneside coal mine. A white, mineral, barium sulphate, settled out in a water trough and during work shifts it was blackened by coal dust.