Every stone hides a light

Under ultraviolet light, plain rock gives itself away. Calcite burns red, willemite turns electric green, and fossils surface from stone that has kept them for 400 million years.

Sweep the lamp across the cliff. Our field courses teach you to read what every glow is telling you, and where to find it yourself.

Read the ground, one layer down

• Sandstone (190 million years): Wind-laid dunes turned to stone, carved into slot canyons by flash floods.
• Limestone (400 million years): The floor of a vanished sea, built from shells and packed with ammonites.
• Selenite (500,000 years): Gypsum crystals eleven metres long, grown in hot, still water.
• Magma (Still moving): Molten rock that will one day cool into the next layer.

Turn them. Then switch on the lamp.

• Amethyst geode SiO₂ · Green rind · Artigas, Uruguay
• Ammonite CaCO₃ · Warm orange · Dorset, England
• Fluorite CaF₂ · Deep violet-blue · Durham, England
• Dogtooth calcite CaCO₃ · Pink-red · Missouri, USA

Go where the ground is open

• Jurassic Coast, England · 4 days: Ammonites and the cliffs that drop them
• Slot canyons, Arizona · 5 days: Sandstone, flash floods and light
• Crystal caves, Chihuahua · 3 days: Selenite and the chemistry of patience
• Lava fields, Iceland · 6 days: New ground, still warm

The ground is waiting

Bring a lamp. We will bring the cliffs, the caves and twenty years of knowing where to look.