Geology: fossils and rocks

Used the search, couldn't find a fossil thread.

These are from a beach in Spittal, Northumberland.

The mermaid tail is a mystery.

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A passion of mine - great photo's - got a bag full of trilobites at home !

I have a rock collection back in Australia. My old man was into geology and half my family are in mining jobs or hobby prospecting (I'm still trying to find my Hand of Faith / Welcome Stranger). I think my favourite thing over this side of the world is the Giant's Causeway.

I have a rock collection back in Australia

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My 4 yr old is obsessed with dinosaurs and the like, including ammonites.

Went to Charnmouth earlier in the year and managed to find a partial ammonite and a bivalve imprint in our first ever fossil hunt. Found a few more bits in Bracklesham bay also a couple of weeks ago, mostly Turritella.

Last year on Arran, we found a well known Chirotherium footprint

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Pretty sure your mermaids tail is fossilised wood. The structures in the boulders could be too.
I had a great collection of fossils from my childhood. Now lost in a house-move. That stings.😞

Now that I wouldn't like to claim ownership of.

I've never even been to Uluru (or as I was taught Ayers Rock). Actually never been to NT for that matter.

On topic, I took these pics on Spirit of Girona. I thought it was a Fool's Gold of some sort when it was on the ground but on closer inspection it was very silvery and kinda sheets and flakey rather than cubes so something else entirely.

Thought maybe something like gypsum but it was very silvery where I thought gypsum was whiter.

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Mica, possibly?

Ah, I knew there was another similar thing. I couldn't remember its name. I've not really been invested in geology for 30 years so most of my former (tiny) knowledge has gone.

It's almost certainly mica and I've almost certainly got a bigger example of it back in Oz :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mica

Agree re the mermaids tail.
The structures in the boulder are fossilised coral.

After several attempts I finally found sharks teeth at Bracklesham bay on my birthday. A local spotted my attempts and showed me what to look for. They move in the sand as the waves retreat.

Mica schist - it's a metamorphic rock - gorgeous.

Been there a few times and found only Turritella shells.
Altogether, fossil collecting as an adult has been a pretty miserable affair for me. I haven’t found a single thing worth keeping in the last 20 years. Scanning the coast of North Yorkshire as a child was heaven. Kettleness was was the best overall but my prize find was a fantastic ammonite nodule in Osmotherly, on the other side of the North York Moors. Folkestone Warren was my last good search back in the 90’s. Since then everywhere has been picked clean before my arrival. There is a lot more people at it now.
Moving towards collecting minerals now - although this is nowhere near my main hobby and is usually added in as a few brief minutes scrabbling around in mine waste heaps during a walk on the coast . There is a massive variety to be found here in West Cornwall, by all accounts.

Another day at the beach. North of Berwick Upon Tweed.

Strata of sandstone and shale. Sea then mud.

And some shell fossils

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Not gorgeous enough for me to carry it the next 500km. Probably a good thing - I might've tried to eat it at some point.

Concretions of iron compounds crystallising around dead plant matter and worm burrows

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^using this guidebook

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