#The Weald Basin

[thesanamposts]

The Weald Basin is a geological basin located in southern England, stretching across parts of Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Surrey and Berkshire. It is bounded by the North Downs to the north, the South Downs to the south, and the chalk escarpments of the Greensand Ridge to the east and west.

[dyrewrites]

Weald and Wen - disguises are necessary

Thicker than the fog, and the sweet flames of his sitting room, the spice choking the monster’s workshop gagged in Faerai’s throat. It hid horrors worse than the walls, horrors that puffed in small gasps through the perfumes and incense that soaked them. But still she hopped the final step, onto the hard stone of the floor, ignoring the frown on Delgrij’s face as he dropped his offered arms. She would not allow the monster to witness further weakness.

The monster however, rifling as he was through too many high, impossible shelves, witnessed nothing. Despite his lascivious stares mere breaths before, he ignored all of them then, allowing them to gape and wonder at the contents of his magnificent workshop…until he had collected all he needed.

Then he bellowed, “Although my Dreadmire offers precious few glimpses of it, the Lady’s light does burn its canopy.” And, arms flush with boxes, jars, brushes and a bundle of antlers too warm in color to be of the Weald, he eyed Faerai. Holding her gaze, he placed all he carried, with ginger care, on the surface of a massive rotwood table. Then he pulled a tall, stuffed top stool from beneath it, set it before him and patted its cushion.

Faerai shivered and shook her head, “monster’s hands not touch our fur.”

 Sucking his teeth, Parnamyr tried an amicable tone, “If you are to reach the Rim, without losing any of your meat, you must appear as an Auru.”

“Not. Touch. Our. Fur,” she repeated, a growl raking beneath her words.

He grinned and cooed, “Oh, but you have no choice, little heart.”

Eyes shaking, Faerai checked for her shadow but found it absent, hidden again by the foul lights of the tower, and she whimpered.

“Yes, she has,” Delgrij assured, sliding protectively beside the sprout, “My branches may not be as deft as your needles, but they know their way around brush and dye.”

And, though his clanking sigh set Delgrij’s teeth on edge, the monster stepped back and offered the supplies with a grand gesture of his many arms. 

Faerai hopped onto the stool, with a bright smile and whispered thanks, adding a giggle at Parnamyr’s swiping hands as Mitra backed him further away. But, when Delgrij strained for something on the towering table, fear smothered her giggles.

Something dark and dingy waited in the jar he presented her. Like an orange-lit everglow through a thin blanket it burned, yet it shimmered as well, with a red seen only in old ichor. Sad and sick that color and, as Delgrij worked the sticky liquid into her fur–sucking sharp breaths as his branches tangled in the length–it smothered her own. It tainted her scent and itched on her skin, spreading an awkward chill through fur and flesh until all that made her Fyrni, made her Faerai faded to the same sick, sad color.

Yet the changes continued, as the monster directed Delgrij from Faerai’s fur to a wide basin of sparkling purple waters…he remained behind her.

“Monster’s hands,” She growled.

“‘Not touch our fur’,” Parnamyr finished, “my hearing is intact, youngling, and I have no intention of touching you…with my hands.” He chuckled at her gasp and raised his needles to his sister’s glare, “threads, I meant my threads. You need more than color to pass as a fawn and anything less than real antlers would fail to convince.”

“Parni,” Mitra tested as her brother’s lips twitched and his eyes burned, “snatch yous face ifs one flecks,”

“Be mindful of whose tower you languish in, sister,” Parnamyr cut as he took a pair of small, tawny antlers from his table. The youngling wriggled on her seat and he smiled, “I promise you, little Reaper, I will disturb not a hair and you will feel none of my needles.”

Faerai remained on the stool, paws firm on its cushion, stiff and fearful but the monster kept his word. No cold needles chilled her skin or disturbed her drying fur as he wove his threads through antler and flesh.

All that touched her was warm, sparking…Breath.

Her gasp drew another chuckle from the monster’s cavernous throat but his words slithered not through the air, but her thoughts, She may attend to your Song, Fyrni, but the Lady is not yours alone...

And Faerai bit another gasp, another growl, as confused tears bubbled near to bursting.

[mysticelf]

Aeonian

“Do not let them reach the Heart!”

“Push back!”

Cries of war never changed...yet these were different.

Despite having seen countless battles and ruination, there was a certain sense of devastation and dread that overtook the druid when she suddenly found herself in the middle of an onslaught against a place she’d only seen in visions and dreams.

Clashes of death magic and metal echoed in resolution throughout the trees, fallen foes and allies alike marking a path to what needed protection the most. Despite the efforts of herself and others--It was for naught. 

The Sigil was lost.

Hope often continued to blossom in even the darkest days and especially under the moonless night of the Weald...

...

..

.

Scents of fresh herbs, savory meats and ripened fruit pulled Azura from the far off gaze her midnight hues had cast across a small grove. The perch upon a large root was hopped down, padding over to join a small patrol group and other allies for much needed respite.

How long had it been?

Surely she had only stayed within Ardenweald for a few days...a week, perhaps. A gnawing at the back of her mind urged caution, that perhaps this wasn’t her place to be and she should just return.

Greetings and wishful wellbeing indicated at her presence by the others said differently.

The souls which rested peacefully under the diligent care of Sylvar and Fae alike created a harmony throughout the anima-rich areas of the Weald. Soft ambience of starfall, mists that crept along the roots and hills to reveal more and more of the mysteriously calm realm was a sight that slowly began to become familiar amidst the awe inspiring visage.

This was the Cycle.

This was what needed to be protected, alongside the other realms of rest in the lands of shadow.

For the first time in a long time...Azura felt purpose.

Holding ground against Mawsworn, Drust remnants, and any who dared to try and defile such sacred groves was one thing....But being able to nurture, heal, connect, and truly experience Ardenweald while doing so garnered a certain touch of pride and respect within the druid.

She was wanted and needed. 

Mortals who wouldn’t normally traverse soft patches of grass and starlit moss so freely were now revered in their aid to keeping the balance and saving souls. A task that Azura was more than happy and willing to take on for the sake of those garnering the true rest they deserved.

New skills of healing, resource gathering, and even spiritual understanding to the deeper connections of the groves and the spirits that resided in them created a space that Azura found herself jubilantly enjoying through the strife and tribulations.

A gentle hand upon her shoulder pulled Azura from her thoughts.

The gesture was made by Lirwyn—a Sylvar with her hair tucked in a side braid and ever lasting smile. Though it might not have been much time, or perhaps longer than she thought, Azura and Lirwyn had become steadfast friends in lieu of companions on the field of defense.

“Does something trouble you? You are quiet.”

Reflection often left the druid to get lost in her thoughts and subsequently stay quiet. A sheepish smile tilted her lips in response. Whatever might have been fleeting was quickly taken into focus as she began to remember the reasons she had stayed.

A vision not her own echoed in the back of her mind alongside an ethereal, yet familiar voice. A crown of brambles, flashes of Ardenweald yet nonspecific landmarks and sense of direction. Hazy....

‘Soon. My crown shall make itself known.... Seek this-- and place it upon your head when the moment is right.’

Azura hummed, popping a few berries in her mouth with a light smile to Lirwyn.

“Ah, I apologize. My mind likes to wander...and it is hard not to admire or continue to marvel over, well...the Weald in its entirety. Truly an honor.”

Lirwyn had a knowing gaze, no doubt hearing much the same from other allies that passed through the trees and Heart of the Forest.

“Ardenweald is always a sight to behold and experience, even for the oldest of Sylvar. Where have you traveled in thought, if I might ask?”

Would Lirwyn know about the Dreamer’s crown if Azura posed the question? There was a definite connection between the Wild God and Ardenweald, the Shadowlands in general, really.

“A place...I do not yet know. Something calls to me, that I must seek out so that I might return with greater understanding. Yet...I do not know where.”

Lirwyn listened carefully as Azura went on to explain her vision, where the crown might be and her other purpose for helping defend the Weald. It wasn’t exploitation by any means--Rather, searching for something hidden away long ago.

“I do not believe I am familiar with that particular area...but I’d be more than willing to help search, if you would like. I’m sure we could ask the Fae as well and passing spirits if they have seen it too.”

A hand reached to gently squeeze against Lirwyn’s one still upon Azura’s shoulder with a sense of gratitude and relief.

“Thank you, Lirwyn.”

It would be longer still that she might not return home...a twinge of guilt and pain gripped at Azura’s being and threatened in a brief moment to wash over. It was pushed down.

Soon.

.

.

.

Time was a construct to measure the days and nights...On the mortal plane. For the realm beyond the veil where the starlight and bioluminescent flora illuminated forest paths, there seemed to be no time.

Many hours, perhaps ‘nights’ in the sense, were spent simply wandering along and letting the forest lead Azura wherever it might when it was not under siege.

A few Fae folk and Sylvar were always near to perhaps guide or show a favorite personal spot. Glittering falls that provided cool waters were drunk from, reflections peered back in the gleam. Small meadow patches where verdant fox kits ran about with moths swirling from flower to flower were observed and napped in from time to time.

Every once in a while, the druid found herself on patrols with the Wild Hunt. Other allies hailing from different Covenants and mortals would join as well to ensure that Ardenweald would stay safe. She quickly found herself observing Wildseed caretakers and nurtures often in the quiet times off, or helping to ‘prune’ back defiant flower creatures and mischievous boggarts.

Other times, she was left to do what she did best...Find a quiet spot and let the moths rest upon her shoulders while gazing into the depths of the groves.

In those quiet moments, meditation came easier than ever.

Her search for what the Dreamer spoke of continued on, but as journeys often went...There was more to be revealed.

.

.

.

Something wasn’t quite right--Tugging to be found.

A tug that felt all too familiar and even in the present moment of purpose...Azura wasn’t sure she had the strength to answer the call.

Each time she felt it, the rippling star fall along waters of the basin she sat by mirrored the tears that ran down her cheeks. Silent curses were murmured for not heeding what was clearly searching.

 A deep, instinctual aspect of her soul cried out to go further, delve deeper into the groves and find what was beckoning. Flickers of soul shapes came to the corners of her eyes often, yet she never brought herself to directly gaze at them.

It was not yet time.

The soft glow of three small gems upon her left ring finger never ceased to pull her out of the somber speculation that threatened to overtake more often than not.

The two rings that intertwined upon that finger would be gazed at longingly. A reminder of why she needed to return...to those who were still with her, and those that surely needed her as much as she did them.

.

.

.

‘...In the darkest hours we might meet and in the brightest days we might have…’

.

.

‘...I love you, starlight…’

.

Vows that often ran through her mind in the rare, loneliest of moments began to surface and bring along warm tears to gloss over her midnight hues. A hand gently reached to touch the surface of the waters she sat just above, caressing them in a forlorn manner.

For a time, the emotions were allowed to flow. Perhaps it was an aspect of nature that surrounded Azura, but she found herself oddly more comforted by letting it out and allowing her tears to meld into the ripples of water below.

The necklace upon her collarbone blossomed blue and grey flowers slowly, shifting ever so slightly alongside the vines braided into silver locks of hair. Even the pale stone that had found a home within a pouch of Azura’s belt began to vibrate softly.

At times, she could have sworn a hand rested on her shoulder...yet nothing was there.

.

.

The distant sound of a horn bellowing to indicate the next patrol saw Azura’s thoughts and emotions hidden away behind a more than natural mask of duty and focus.

 A few stray tears were tucked away by the back of a hand and her nearby pole arm was taken up in a firm grip of affirmation.

There was still work to do.

.

..

...

Aeonian - eternal; everlasting

[mellifera38]

Mel’s Big Fantasy Place-Name Reference

So I’ve been doing lots of D&D world-building lately and I’ve kind of been putting together lists of words to help inspire new fantasy place names. I figured I’d share. These are helpful for naming towns, regions, landforms, roads, shops, and they’re also probably useful for coming up with surnames. This is LONG. There’s plenty more under the cut including a huge list of “fantasy sounding” word-parts. Enjoy!

Towns & Kingdoms

town, borough, city, hamlet, parish, township, village, villa, domain

kingdom, empire, nation, country, county, city-state, state, province, dominion

Town Name End Words (English flavored)

-ton, -ston, -caster, -dale, -den, -field, -gate, -glen, -ham, -holm, -hurst, -bar, -boro, -by, -cross, -kirk, -meade, -moore, -ville, -wich, -bee, -burg, -cester, -don, -lea, -mer, -rose, -wall, -worth, -berg, -burgh, -chase, -ly, -lin, -mor, -mere, -pool. -port, -stead, -stow, -strath, -side, -way, -berry, -bury, -chester, -haven, -mar, -mont, -ton, -wick, -meet, -heim, -hold, -hall, -point

Buildings & Places

castle, fort, palace, fortress, garrison, lodge, estate, hold, stronghold, tower, watchtower, palace, spire, citadel, bastion, court, manor, house

altar, chapel, abbey, shrine, temple, monastery, cathedral, sanctum, crypt, catacomb, tomb

orchard, arbor, vineyard, farm, farmstead, shire, garden, ranch

plaza, district, quarter, market, courtyard, inn, stables, tavern, blacksmith, forge, mine, mill, quarry, gallows, apothecary, college, bakery, clothier, library, guild house, bath house, pleasure house, brothel, jail, prison, dungeon, cellar, basement, attic, sewer, cistern

lookout, post, tradepost, camp, outpost, hovel, hideaway, lair, nook, watch, roost, respite, retreat, hostel, holdout, redoubt, perch, refuge, haven, alcove, haunt, knell, enclave, station, caravan, exchange, conclave

port, bridge, ferry, harbor, landing, jetty, wharf, berth, footbridge, dam, beacon, lighthouse, marina, dockyard, shipyard

road, street, way, row, lane, trail, corner, crossing, gate, junction, waygate, end, wall, crossroads,  barrier, bulwark, blockade, pavilion, avenue, promenade, alley, fork, route

Time & Direction

North, South, East, West, up, down, side, rise, fall, over, under

Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, solstice, equanox, vernal, ever, never

dusk, dawn, dawnrise, morning, night, nightfall, evening, sundown, sunbreak, sunset

lunar, solar, sun, moon, star, eclipse

Geographical Terms

Cave, cavern, cenote, precipice, crevasse, crater, maar, chasm, ravine, trench, rift, pit

Cliff, bluff, crag, scarp, outcrop, stack, tor, falls, run, eyrie, aerie

Hill, mountain, volcano, knoll, hillock, downs, barrow, plateau, mesa, butte, pike, peak, mount, summit, horn, knob, pass, ridge, terrace, gap, point, rise, rim, range, view, vista, canyon, hogback, ledge, stair, descent

Valley, gulch, gully, vale, dale, dell, glen, hollow, grotto, gorge, bottoms, basin, knoll, combe

Meadow, grassland, field, pasture, steppe, veld, sward, lea, mead, fell, moor, moorland, heath, croft, paddock, boondock, prairie, acre, strath, heights, mount, belt

Woodlands, woods, forest, bush, bower, arbor, grove, weald, timberland, thicket, bosk, copse, coppice, underbrush, hinterland, park, jungle, rainforest, wilds, frontier, outskirts

Desert, dunes, playa, arroyo, chaparral, karst, salt flats, salt pan, oasis, spring, seep, tar pit, hot springs, fissure, steam vent, geyser, waste, wasteland, badland, brushland, dustbowl, scrubland

Ocean, sea, lake, pond, spring, tarn, mere, sluice, pool, coast, gulf, bay

Lagoon, cay, key, reef, atoll, shoal, tideland, tide flat, swale, cove, sandspit, strand, beach

Snowdrift, snowbank, permafrost, floe, hoar, rime, tundra, fjord, glacier, iceberg

River, stream, creek, brook, tributary, watersmeet, headwater, ford, levee, delta, estuary, firth, strait, narrows, channel, eddy, inlet, rapids, mouth, falls

Wetland, marsh, bog, fen, moor, bayou, glade, swamp, banks, span, wash, march, shallows, mire, morass, quag, quagmire, everglade, slough, lowland, sump, reach

Island, isle, peninsula, isthmus, bight, headland, promontory, cape, pointe, cape

More under the cut including: Color words, Animal/Monster related words, Rocks/Metals/Gems list, Foliage, People groups/types, Weather/Environment/ Elemental words, Man-made Items, Body Parts, Mechanical sounding words, a huge list of both pleasant and unpleasant Atmospheric Descriptors, and a huge list of Fantasy Word-parts.

Color Descriptions

Warm: red, scarlet, crimson, rusty, cerise, carmine, cinnabar, orange, vermillion, ochre, peach, salmon, saffron, yellow, gold, lemon, amber, pink, magenta, maroon, brown, sepia, burgundy, beige, tan, fuchsia, taupe

Cool: green, beryl, jade, evergreen, chartreuse, olive, viridian, celadon, blue, azure, navy, cerulean, turquoise, teal, cyan, cobalt, periwinkle, beryl, purple, violet, indigo, mauve, plum

Neutral: gray, silver, ashy, charcoal, slate, white, pearly, alabaster, ivory, black, ebony, jet

dark, dusky, pale, bleached, blotchy, bold, dappled, lustrous, faded, drab, milky, mottled, opaque, pastel, stained, subtle, ruddy, waxen, tinted, tinged, painted

Animal / Monster-Related Words

Bear, eagle, wolf, serpent, hawk, horse, goat, sheep, bull, raven, crow, dog, stag, rat, boar, lion, hare, owl, crane, goose, swan, otter, frog, toad, moth, bee, wasp, beetle, spider, slug, snail, leech, dragonfly, fish, trout, salmon, bass, crab, shell, dolphin, whale, eel, cod, haddock

Dragon, goblin, giant, wyvern, ghast, siren, lich, hag, ogre, wyrm, kraken

Talon, scale, tusk, hoof, mane, horn, fur, feather, fang, wing, whisker, bristle, paw, tail, beak, claw, web, quill, paw, maw, pelt, haunch, gill, fin,

Hive, honey, nest, burrow, den, hole, wallow

Rocks / Metals / Minerals

Gold, silver, brass, bronze, copper, platinum, iron, steel, tin, mithril, electrum, adamantite, quicksilver, fool’s gold, titanium

Diamond, ruby, emerald, sapphire, topaz, opal, pearl, jade, jasper, onyx, citrine, aquamarine, turquoise, lapiz lazuli, amethyst, quartz, crystal, amber, jewel

Granite, shale, marble, limestone, sandstone, slate, diorite, basalt, rhyolite, obsidian, glass

Earth, stone, clay, sand, silt, salt, mote, lode, vein, ore, ingot, coal, boulder, bedrock, crust, rubble, pebble, gravel, cobble, dust, clod, peat, muck mud, slip, loam, dirt, grit, scree, shard, flint, stalactite/mite

Trees / Plants / Flowers

Tree, ash, aspen, pine, birch, alder, willow, dogwood, oak, maple, walnut,  chestnut, cedar, mahogany, palm, beech, hickory, hemlock, cottonwood, hawthorn, sycamore, poplar, cypress, mangrove, elm, fir, spruce, yew

Branch, bough, bramble, gnarl, burr, tangle, thistle, briar, thorn, moss, bark, shrub, undergrowth, overgrowth, root, vine, bracken, reed, driftwood, coral, fern, berry, bamboo, nectar, petal, leaf, seed, clover, grass, grain, trunk, twig, canopy, cactus, weed, mushroom, fungus

Apple, olive, apricot, elderberry, coconut, sugar, rice, wheat, cotton, flax, barley, hops, onion, carrot, turnip, cabbage, squash, pumpkin, pepper

Flower, rose, lavender, lilac, jasmine, jonquil, marigold, carnelian, carnation, goldenrod, sage, wisteria, dahlia, nightshade, lily, daisy, daffodil, columbine, amaranth, crocus, buttercup, foxglove, iris, holly, hydrangea, orchid, snowdrop, hyacinth, tulip, yarrow, magnolia, honeysuckle, belladonna, lily pad, magnolia

People

Settler, Pilgrim, Pioneer, Merchant, Prospector, Maker, Surveyor, Mason, Overseer, Apprentice, Widow, Sailor, Miner, Blacksmith, Butcher, Baker, Brewer, Barkeep, Ferryman, Hangman, Gambler, Fisherman, Adventurer, Hero, Seeker, Hiker, Traveler, Crone

Mage, Magician, Summoner, Sorcerer, Wizard, Conjurer, Necromancer, 

King, Queen, Lord, Count, Baron, Guard, Soldier, Knight, Vindicator, Merchant, Crusader, Imperator, Syndicate, Vanguard, Champion, Warden, Victor, Legionnaire, Master, Archer, Footman, Gladiator, Barbarian, Captain, Commodore, 

Beggar, Hunter, Ranger, Deadman, Smuggler, Robber, Swindler, Rebel, Bootlegger, Outlaw, Pirate, Brigand, Ruffian, Highwayman, Cutpurse, Thief, Assassin

God, Goddess, Exarch, Angel, Devil, Demon, Cultist, Prophet, Hermit, Seer

council, clergy, guild, militia, choir 

Climate, Environment, & The Elements

Cold, cool, brisk, frosty, chilly, icy, freezing, frozen, frigid, glacial, bitter, biting, bleak, arctic, polar, boreal, wintry, snowy, snow, blizzarding, blizzard, sleeting, sleet, chill, frost, ice, icebound, ice cap, floe, snowblind, frostbite, coldsnap, avalanche, snowflake

Hot, sunny, humid, sweltering, steaming, boiling, sizzling, blistering, scalding, smoking, caldescent, dry, parched, arid, fallow, thirsty, melting, molten, fiery, blazing, burning, charring, glowing, searing, scorching, blasted, sun, fire, heat, flame, wildfire, bonfire, inferno, coal, ash, cinder, ember, flare, pyre, tinder, kindling, aflame, alight, ablaze, lava, magma, slag,

Wet, damp, dank, soggy, sodden, soaked, drenched, dripping, sopping, briny, murky, rain, storm, hail, drizzle, sprinkle, downpour, deluge, squall, water, cloud, fog, mist, dew, puddle, pool, current, whirlpool, deep, depths, tide, waves, whitewater, waterfall, tidal wave, flow, flood, leak, drain

Wind, breeze, gust, billow, gail, draft, waft, zephyr, still, airy, clear, smokey, tempest, tempestuous, windswept, aerial, lofty, torrid, turbulent, nebulous, tradewind, thunder, lightning, spark, cyclone, tornado, whirlwind, hurricane, typhoon

Man-made Item Words

Furnace, forge, anvil, vault, strap, strip, whetstone, brick, sword, blade, axe, dagger, shield, buckler, morningstar, bow, quiver, arrow, polearm, flail, staff, stave, sheath, hilt, hammer, knife, helm, mantle, banner, pauldron, chainmail, mace, dart, cutlass, canon, needle, cowl, belt,  buckle, bandana, goggles, hood, boot, heel, spindle, spool, thread, sweater, skirt, bonnet, apron, leather, hide, plate, tunic, vest, satin, silk, wool, velvet, lace, corset, stocking, binding

Plow, scythe, (wheel) barrow, saddle, harrow, brand, collar, whip, leash, lead, bridle, stirrup, wheel, straw, stall, barn, hay, bale, pitchfork, well, log, saw, lumber, sod, thatch, mortar, brick, cement, concrete, pitch, pillar, window, fountain, door, cage, spoke, pole, table, bench, plank, board

Candle, torch, cradle, broom, lamp, lantern, clock, bell, lock, hook, trunk, looking glass, spyglass, bottle, vase, locket, locker, key, handle, rope, knot, sack, pocket, pouch, manacle, chain, stake, coffin, fan. cauldron, kettle, pot, bowl, pestle, oven, ladle, spoon, font, wand, potion, elixir, draught, portal, book, tome, scroll, word, manuscript, letter, message, grimoire, map, ink, quill, pen, cards, dice

Coin, coronet, crown, circlet, scepter, treasure, riches, scales, pie, tart, loaf, biscuit, custard, caramel, pudding, porridge, stew, bread, tea, gravy, gristle, spice, lute, lyre, harp, drum, rouge, powder, perfume, brush

bilge, stern, pier, sail, anchor, mast, dock, deck, flag, ship, boat, canoe, barge, wagon, sled, carriage, buggy, cart

Wine, brandy, whiskey, ale, moonshine, gin, cider, rum, grog, beer, brew, goblet, flagon, flask, cask, tankard, stein, mug, barrel, stock, wort, malt

Body Parts

Head, throat, finger, foot, hand, neck, shoulder, rib, jaw, eye, lips, bosom

Skull, spine, bone, tooth, heart, blood, tears, gut, beard

Mechanical-Sounding Words

cog, fuse, sprocket, wrench, screw, nail, bolt, lever, pulley, spanner, gear, spring, shaft, switch, button, cast, pipe, plug, dial, meter, nozzle, cord, brake, gauge, coil, oil, signal, wire, fluke, staple, clamp, bolt, nut, bulb, patch, pump, cable, socket

torque, force, sonic, spark, fizzle, thermal, beam, laser, steam, buzz, mega, mecha, electro, telsa, power, flicker, charge, current, flow, tinker

Atmospheric Words

Unpleasant, Dangerous, Threatening

(nouns) death, fury, battle, scar, shadow, razor, nightmare, wrath, bone, splinter, peril, war, riptide, strife, reckoning, sorrow, terror, deadwood, nether, venom, grime, rage, void, conquest, pain, folly, revenge, horrid, mirk, shear, fathom, frenzy, corpselight/marshlight, reaper, gloom, doom, torment, torture, spite, grizzled, sludge, refuse, spore, carrion, fear, pyre, funeral, shade, beast, witch, grip, legion, downfall, ruin, plague, woe, bane, horde, acid, fell, grief, corpse, mildew, mold, miter, dirge

(adjectives) dead, jagged, decrepit, fallen, darkened, blackened, dire, grim, feral, wild, broken, desolate, mad, lost, under, stagnant, blistered, derelict, forlorn, unbound, sunken, fallow, shriveled, wayward, bleak, low, weathered, fungal, last, brittle, sleepy, -strewn, dusky, deserted, empty, barren, vacant, forsaken, bare, bereft, stranded, solitary, abandoned, discarded, forgotten, deep, abysmal, bottomless, buried, fathomless,unfathomable, diseased, plagued, virulent, noxious, venomous, toxic, fetid, revolting, putrid, rancid, foul, squalid, sullied, vile, blighted, vicious, ferocious, dangerous, savage, cavernous, vast, yawning, chasmal, echoing, dim, dingy, gloomy, inky, lurid, shaded, shadowy, somber, sunless, tenebrous, unlit, veiled, hellish, accursed, sulfurous, damned, infernal, condemned, doomed, wicked, sinister, dread, unending, spectral, ghostly, haunted, eldritch, unknown, weary, silent, hungry, cloven, acidic

(verb/adverbs): wither (withering / withered), skulk (skulking), whisper, skitter, chitter, sting, slither, writhe, gape, screech, scream, howl, lurk, roil, twist, shift, swarm, spawn, fester, bleed, howl, shudder, shrivel, devour, swirl, maul, trip, smother, weep, shatter, ruin, curse, ravage, hush, rot, drown, sunder, blister, warp, fracture, die, shroud, fall, surge, shiver, roar, thunder, smolder, break, silt, slide, lash, mourn, crush, wail, decay, crumble, erode, decline, reek, lament, taint, corrupt, defile, poison, infect, shun, sigh, sever, crawl, starve, grind, cut, wound, bruise, maim, stab, bludgeon, rust, mutilate, tremble, stumble, fumble, clank, clang

Pleasant, Safe, Neutral

(nouns) spirit, luck, soul, oracle, song, sky, smile, rune, obelisk, cloud, timber, valor, triumph, rest, dream, thrall, might, valiance, glory, mirror, life, hope, oath, serenity, sojourn, god, hearth, crown, throne, crest, guard, rise, ascent, circle, ring, twin, vigil, breath, new, whistle, grasp, snap, fringe, threshold, arch, cleft, bend, home, fruit, wilds, echo, moonlight, sunlight, starlight, splendor, vigilance, honor, memory, fortune, aurora, paradise, caress

(adjectives) gentle, pleasant, prosperous, peaceful, sweet, good, great, mild, grand, topic, lush, wild, abundant, verdant, sylvan, vital, florid, bosky, callow, verdurous, lucious, fertile, spellbound, captivating, mystical, hidden, arcane, clandestine, esoteric, covert, cryptic, runic, otherworldly, touched, still, fair, deep, quiet, bright, sheer, tranquil, ancient, light, far, -wrought, tidal, royal, shaded, swift, true, free, high, vibrant, pure, argent, hibernal, ascendant, halcyon, silken, bountiful, gilded, colossal, massive, stout, elder, -bourne, furrowed, happy, merry, -bound, loud, lit, silk, quiet, bright, luminous, shining, burnished, glossy, brilliant, lambent, lucent, lustrous, radiant, resplendent, vivid, vibrant, illuminated, silvery, limpid, sunlit, divine, sacred, holy, eternal, celestial, spiritual, almighty, anointed, consecrated, exalted, hallowed, sanctified, ambrosial, beatific, blissful, demure, naked, bare, ample, coy,  deific, godly, omnipotent, omnipresent, rapturous, sacramental, sacrosanct, blessed, majestic, iridescent, glowing, overgrown, dense, hard, timeless, sly, scatter, everlasting, full, half, first, last

(verb/adverbs) arch (arching / arched), wink (winking), sing, nestle, graze, stroll, roll, flourish, bloom, bud, burgeon, live, dawn, hide, dawn, run, pray, wake, laugh, wake, glimmer, glitter, drift, sleep, tumble, bind, arch, blush, grin, glister, beam, meander, wind, widen, charm, bewitch, enthrall, entrance, enchant, allure, beguile, glitter, shimmer, sparkle twinkle, crest, quiver, slumber, herald, shelter, leap, click, climb, scuttle, dig, barter, chant, hum, chime, kiss, flirt, tempt, tease, play, seduce

Generic “Fantasy-Sounding” Word Parts

A - D

aaz, ada, adaer, adal, adar, adbar, adir, ae, ael, aer, aern, aeron, aeryeon, agar, agis, aglar, agron, ahar, akan, akyl, al, alam, alan, alaor, ald, alea, ali, alir, allyn, alm, alon, alor, altar, altum, aluar, alys, amar, amaz, ame, ammen, amir, amol, amn, amus, anar, andor, ang, ankh, ar, ara, aram, arc, arg, arian, arkh, arla, arlith, arn, arond, arthus, arum, arvien, ary, asha, ashyr, ask, assur, aster, astra, ath, athor, athra, athryn, atol, au, auga, aum, auroch, aven, az, azar, baal, bae, bael, bak, bal, balor, ban, bar, bara, barr, batol, batar, basir, basha, batyr, bel, belph, belu, ben, beo, bere, berren, berun, besil, bezan, bhaer, bhal, blask, blis, blod, bor, boraz, bos, bran, brath, braun, breon, bri, bry, bul, bur, byl, caer, cal, calan, cara, cassa, cath, cela, cen, cenar, cerul, chalar, cham, chion, cimar, clo, coram, corel, corman, crim, crom, daar, dach, dae, dago, dagol, dahar, dala, dalar, dalin, dam, danas, daneth, dannar, dar, darian,  darath, darm, darma, darro, das, dasa, dasha, dath, del, delia, delimm, dellyn, delmar, delo, den, dess, dever, dhaer, dhas, dhaz, dhed, dhin, din, dine, diar, dien, div, djer, dlyn, dol, dolan, doon, dora, doril, doun, dral, dranor, drasil, dren, drian, drien, drin, drov, druar, drud, duald, duatha, duir, dul, dulth, dun, durth, dyra, dyver,

E - H

ea, eber, eden, edluk, egan, eiel, eilean, ejen, elath, eld, eldor, eldra, elith emar, ellesar, eltar, eltaran, elth, eltur, elyth, emen, empra, emril, emvor, ena, endra, enthor, erad, erai, ere, eriel, erith, erl, eron, erre, eryn, esk, esmel, espar, estria, eta, ethel, eval, ezro, ezan, ezune, ezil, fael, faelar, faern, falk, falak, farak, faril, farla, fel, fen, fenris, fer, fet, fin, finar, forel, folgun, ful, fulk, fur, fyra, fallon, gael, gach, gabir, gadath, gal, galar, gana, gar, garth, garon, garok, garne, gath, geir, gelden, geren,  geron, ghal, ghallar, ghast, ghel, ghom, ghon, gith, glae, glander, glar, glym, gol, goll, gollo, goloth, gorot, gost, goth, graeve, gran, grimm, grist, grom, grosh, grun, grym, gual, guil, guir, gulth, gulur, gur, gurnth, gwaer, haa, hael, haer, hadar, hadel, hakla, hala, hald, halana, halid, hallar, halon, halrua, halus, halvan, hamar, hanar, hanyl, haor, hara, haren, haresk, harmun, harrokh, harrow, haspur, haza, hazuth, heber,  hela, helve, hem, hen, herath, hesper, heth, hethar, hind, hisari, hjaa, hlath, hlond, hluth, hoarth, holtar, horo, hotun, hrag, hrakh, hroth, hull, hyak, hyrza

I - M

iibra, ilth, ilus, ilira, iman, imar, imas, imb, imir, immer, immil, imne, impil, ingdal, innar, ir, iriae, iril, irith, irk, irul, isha, istis, isil, itala, ith, ithal, itka, jada, jae, jaeda, jahaka, jala, jarra, jaro, jath, jenda, jhaamm, jhothm, jinn, jinth, jyn, kado, kah, kal, kalif, kam, kana, kara, karg, kars, karth, kasp, katla, kaul, kazar, kazr, kela, kelem, kerym, keth, keva, kez, kezan, khaer, khal, khama, khaz, khara, khed, khel, khol, khur, kil, kor, korvan, koll, kos, kir, kra, kul, kulda, kund, kyne, lae, laen, lag, lan, lann, lanar, lantar, lapal, lar, laran, lareth, lark, lath, lauth, lav, lavur, lazar, leih, leshyr, leth, lhaza, lhuven, liad, liam, liard, lim, lin, lirn, lisk, listra, lith, liya, llair, llor, lok, lolth, loran, lorkh, lorn, loth, lothen, luen, luir, luk, lund, lur, luth, lyndus, lyra, lyth, maal, madrasm maera, maer, maerim, maes, mag, magra, mahand, mal, malar, mald, maldo, mar, mara, mark, marl, maru, maruk, meir, melish, memnon, mer, metar, methi, mhil, mina, mir, miram, mirk, mista, mith, moander, mok, modir, modan, mon, monn, mor, more, morel, moril, morn, moro, morrow, morth, mort, morum, morven, muar, mul, mydra, myr, myra, myst

N - S

naar, nadyra, naedyr, naga, najar, nal, naal, nalir, nar, naruk, narbond, narlith, narzul, nasaq, nashkel, natar, nath, natha, neir, neth, nether, nhall, nikh, nil, nilith, noan, nolvurm nonthal, norda, noro, novul, nul, nur, nus, nyan, nyth, ober, odra, oghr, okoth, olleth, olodel, omgar, ondath, onthril, ordul, orish, oroch, orgra, orlim, ormath, ornar, orntath, oroch, orth, orva, oryn, orzo, ostel, ostor, ostrav, othea, ovar, ozod, ozul, palan, palad, pae, peldan, pern, perris, perim, pele, pen, phail, phanda, phara, phen, phendra, pila, pinn, pora, puril, pur, pyra, qadim, quar, quel, ques, quil, raah, rael, ran, ranna, rassil, rak, rald, rassa, reddan, reith, relur, ren, rendril, resil, reska, reth, reven, revar, rhy, rhynn, ria, rian, rin, ris, rissian, rona, roch, rorn, rora, rotha, rual, ruar, ruhal, ruil, ruk, runn, rusk, ryn, saa, saar, saal, sabal, samar, samrin, sankh, sar, sarg, sarguth, sarin, sarlan, sel, seld, sember, semkh, sen, sendrin, septa, senta, seros, shaar, shad, shadra, shae, shaen, shaera, shak, shalan, sham, shamath, shan, shana, sharan, shayl, shemar, shere, shor, shul, shyll, shyr, sidur, sil, silvan, sim, sintar, sirem, skar, skell, skur, skyr, sokol, solan, sola, somra, sor, ssin, stel, strill, suldan, sulk, sunda, sur, surkh, suth, syl, sylph, sylune, syndra, syth

T - Z

taak, taar, taer, tah, tak, tala, talag, talar, talas, talath, tammar, tanar, tanil, tar, tara, taran, tarl, tarn, tasha, tath, tavil, telar, teld, telf, telos, tempe, tethy, tezir, thaar, thaer, thal, thalag, thalas, thalan, thalar, thamor, thander, thangol, thar, thay, thazal, theer, theim, thelon, thera, thendi, theril, thiir, thil, thild, thimir, thommar, thon, thoon, thor, thran, thrann, threl, thril, thrul, thryn, thuk, thultan, thume, thun, thy, thyn, thyr, tir, tiras, tirum, tohre, tol, tolar, tolir,  tolzrin, tor, tormel, tormir, traal, triel, trith, tsath, tsur, tul, tur, turiver, turth, tymor, tyr, uder, udar, ugoth, uhr, ukh, ukir, uker, usten, ulgarth, ulgoth, ultir, ulur, umar, umath, umber, unara, undro, undu, untha, upir, ur, ursa, ursol, uron, uth, uthen, uz, van, vaar, vaelan, vaer, vaern, val valan, valash, vali, valt, vandan, vanede, vanrak, var, varyth, vassa, vastar, vaunt, vay, vel, velar, velen, velius, vell, velta, ven, veren, vern, vesper, vilar, vilhon, vintor, vir, vira, virdin, volo, volun, von, voon, vor, voro, vos, vosir, vosal, vund, war, wara, whel, wol, wynn, wyr, wyrm, xer, xul, xen, xian, yad, yag, yal, yar, yath, yeon, yhal, yir, yirar, yuir, yul, yur, zail, zala, zalhar, zan, zanda, zar, zalar, zarach, zaru, zash, zashu, zemur, zhent, zim, ziram, zindala, zindar, zoun, zul, zurr, zuth, zuu, zym

A lot of places are named after historical events, battles, and people, so keep that in mind. God/Goddess names tied to your world also work well. Places are also often named after things that the area is known for, like Georgia being known for its peaches.

My brain was fried by the end of this so feel free to add more!

I hope you find this reference helpful and good luck world-building!

-Mel

[thatonebirbnerd]

The Guild Wars 2 Screenshot Master Post

Originally wrote this (the location list specifically) as a beefy Reddit comment cause I was bored. Bringing it to Tumblr for the benefit of the community here, with some bonus tips on how to take better screenshots! I am writing this as I spend two weeks away from my PC/GW2, so I could be missing things.

Taking Screenshots

If your PC can handle it, GW2 Hook/ReShade is always a boon, but it's by no means required. I use a preset called "oh shiny" that makes blacks darker, whites pop out more, edges sharper, and colors generally more vibrant. It's like GW2 Remastered - highly recommend it, but you might get addicted.

Shaders or not, lighting is a pretty crucial thing. Use the natural light, usually sunlight, to show off all the details of the outfit or armor. An inky mass or blinding glowy orb is not always that appealing. But I'll save the rant about Permafrost and Shadow Abyss, which only make the problem worse, for later. Night in GW2 is pretty lackluster in most places for screenshots, unless you are showing off things that glow in the dark, in which case IMO you're much more limited as to the places that will look best. For instance, the Grove and parts of Maguuma typically look nice at night.

Camera positioning tips:

You usually want to keep your FoV on the low side. Vary your pics between full-body, waist-up, etc.

Play around with vertical and horizontal position, as well as FoV, between pictures to add variety. These sliders can also help you capture skill animations and VFX that might be difficult to handle otherwise.

You can take close-up screenshots/headshots of your character by positioning them in front of a wall or other path-blocking object, then spinning the camera around so you can see your character's face. You want your FoV slider to be all the way down, and depending on race and pose of choice (emotes like /crossarms are fun) you will probably need to adjust vertical position (near). Back up from the obstruction as necessary if there is any clipping.

A Few Epic-Looking Skills to Start With

Elementalist - Tempest overloads, most Weaver dual attunement skills

Mesmer - Most autoattack chains

Necromancer - Reaper greatsword 2

Engineer - Holosmith skills and Photon Forge

Ranger - Longbow autoattack; snap a pic when the bow string and arrow are drawn back. Druid staff skills. Soulbeast merge stuff.

Thief - Dagger/dagger 3, pistol/pistol 3, staff and rifle skills

Guardian - Greatsword 2, DH longbow and F2, most Firebrand skills (including axe)

Revenant - Most skills look awesome

Warrior - Axe 5, most Berserker and Spellbreaker skills

My Favorite Places (and who I brought there)

(Feel free to contribute more!)

Kryta

Greatheart Weald, Queensdale - beautiful enchanted-looking autumnal forest. Make sure the corrupted oakheart is dead. (Meli)

Phinney Ridge, Queensdale - Just some nice sky lighting and open space. (Meli)

Forests in Lake Doric are generally really pretty. (Meli)

Divinity's Reach has a lot of good spots for slice-of-life pics. (Meli, Aloysia, Geanais)

Wynchona Woods, Harathi Hinterlands - nice trees. (Meli)

Mountainroot Lair, Harathi Hinterlands - splashes of pink and some really fun cave flora. (Meli)

Ascalon

Many spots around the Black Citadel are excellent for legionnaires. I've taken great pics of some of my charr all over the city, and I even brought my little mechanic asura to the molten scrapyard for a photo shoot. (Andromache, Medeia, Sarri)

Much of Fireheart Rise, especially the area around the Citadel of Flame - Even if your look isn't molten, sometimes you can use the scorched ground as an accent to go with skill VFX. (Andromache)

Open spots on the Plains of Ashford have really nice lighting. (Old iteration of Andromache; I also took some open space pics of her as a Rev that I did not keep.)

Hellion Forest, Iron Marches (Meli)

Anya's Strawberry Patch, Diessa Plateau

Shiverpeaks

Open ice areas in Wayfarer Foothills and Frostgorge Sound have good lighting for lighter-colored looks. (Eirwen, Geanais)

Drakkar Lake, Frostgorge Sound (Eirwen)

Dimotiki Waters, Frostgorge Sound - The prettiest underwater area in the game, short of perhaps Bitterfrost.

Naui Waters, Timberline Falls - It looks like Tahoe! (Meli)

Blizzard Basin/Hailstone Floe, Bitterfrost Frontier - amazing lighting on the ice that works best on lighter looks. (Eirwen)

Griffon Old Growth, Bitterfrost Frontier - uniquely pinkish light. (Geanais)

Tarnished Coast

Caledon Forest is always a great place to take a sylvari - loads of good spots including Astorea, the Verdence, Morgan's Spiral (as long as Risen aren't attacking), Briarthorn, and Hamlet of Annwen (as long as hylek aren't occupying). There's also the tengu wall as a backdrop for South or East Asian-inspired looks. (Jaya, Caerridwen, Elainyn, Siofra)

The Grove, just, all of it, especially at night. There are a couple spots where there are swarms of fireflies, and there's also the hidden Garden of Dawn which is a bit overused - but that's 'cause it's good! (Elainyn, Geanais)

Rata Sum has cute spots for asura slice-of-life pics. There are balconies on the lowest level with some nice sky views for both day and night. I haven't liked Metrica as much, though. (Ryxxi, Nexxa, Silaane)

Orr

(I haven't done a lot of pics here. Sorry.)

All six temples of the gods have some nice spots, if I recall correctly. Orr in general is just pretty nice for the right kind of look.

Pyrite Peninsula, Malchor's Leap - A gold-plated bright spot in the middle of zombie hell, and a place I don't see often enough in others' screenshots. (Eirwen)

Artesian Waters, Cursed Shore - The whole thing isn't accessible outside of a single story chapter and reforging Caladbolg; there are some nice spots in there though. (Caerridwen)

Maguuma

The oasis in Dry Top (Caerridwen)

Bongo's Bungalow, Verdant Brink - Lots of fun jungle props to play around with. (Ligeia)

On top of airship wreckages in Verdant Brink - the higher up the better; great sunlight. Best for the crash survivors. (Sarri)

Tarir and Exalted pylons, Auric Basin - Golden shinieeesssss. (Jaya, Lyri)

Morwood Wilds, Auric Basin - Extra wild and jungley. Cool green lighting. (Jaya; I coulda sworn I took pics of Lyri here but I may have replaced them.)

Burnished Quarry, Auric Basin - It's just pretty, ok?

Dragon's Stand north lane has some nice nooks and crannies; the whole area has cool ominous lighting. (Jaya, Eirwen)

Chak tunnels in both Tangled Depths and Dragon's Stand can look nice.

Rata Novus, Tangled Depths - cyber things for sci-fi looks. (Silaane)

Elona

A lot of the desert (including LS4 areas) just looks really good. Even the Desolation has great pic spots. Open sand in Crystal Desert looks especially good, as well as all the cities/towns/temples. I kinda have a weakness for the architecture... (Kyveli, Aanisa, Farhana, Tyra)

Sandstrewn Shrine, The Desolation - Ethereal white-blossomed trees and a very "clean" landscape. (Tyra)

Garden of Seborhin, Domain of Vabbi (Aanisa, Farhana, Tyra)

City of Lights above Desert Highlands - if you can get to this place at night, so worth.

Miscellaneous

Draconis Mons has really nice orange lighting and a natural setting. (Caerridwen)

Ember Bay has a pretty sweet lens flare. It's also orange but better for fiery looks.

Lion's Arch Aerodrome has interesting lighting and the area works well for steampunky looks. (Sarri)

The back side of the trading post in LA (blue tile wall), and the golden wall right inside the Black Lion Vaults, are amazing backdrops if you've got some camera position skills. (Aurea, older outfit for Tyra)

Other Game Modes

Edge of the Mists has some nice spots (temple ruins etc.) but beware of roamers. (Ryxxi)

The middle of Desert Borderlands is a Tarir-esque ruined temple. (Jaya, Lyri?)

The fractal lobby is pretty cool. Bonus points if you get action shots in the blue portal's VFX. (Ryxxi, Silaane)

Cleared raid instances are your friend, too! I have only really taken some nature-y pics in Salvation Pass, but if you wanted to take pics of a White Mantle cosplay there are ample spots for that in multiple wings. Mythwright Gambit is also downright gorgeous as a whole. (Ligeia - so far)

[vintage-london-images]

Soho Square seen here in June 1960 with people sitting around chatting, no doubt enjoying the gardens and the tranquil atmosphere. A scene little changed today.

Soho Square was originally laid out in the 1670s, during the reign of Charles II, and was originally called King Square in his honour.

Situated in Soho Square is a statue of Charles II (seen left of centre) which was once the centre piece of the garden when it was first laid out. At that time it stood atop a high pedestal in the basin of a fountain.

By 1875 the garden had become unloved and it was re-laid out and restored. The fountain with its statue had become damaged, so it was removed and replaced by a mock Tudor folly.

The food magnate Thomas Blackwell (of Crosse & Blackwell fame) whose office overlooked the square, bought the unwanted statue of Charles as a gift to Frederick Goodall, his neighbour in Harrow Weald (now part of north-west London) and he exhibited it in his garden.

There it remained until February 1938, when it was returned to the square and installed in its current position.

[ukge]

The date is 24 May 2014 and I am browsing across East Lane Beach at Bawdsey in southeast Suffolk. A brown lump of sandstone with a white fossil shell impression catches my eye. A boxstone. This is the first one I have ever found with a fossil in it. Looking closely, I see that the sea has abraded the shell’s outlines, although the margins have survived better than the rest, so it should be possible to identify the specimen (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Boxstone, found 24 May 2014.

Boxstones are fragments of a vanished world. They are all that remains of a lost geological stratum in Suffolk called the ‘Trimley Sands’ (Balson, 1990), although deposits of similar age are still present across the sea in Belgium and other parts of Europe. Boxstones are lumps or concretions of brown sandstone, which may contain shell fossils and – if you are extremely lucky – bones and teeth. They are beach-rolled and rounded, and typically measure between 5 and 15cm in diameter. The sand is mostly quartzose, with a rich assemblage of secondary minerals, and is cemented with carbonate-fluorapatite (a phosphate mineral) and calcite (Mathers and Smith, 2002). Boxstones can be found scattered sparsely across the shingle beaches at Bawdsey and Felixstowe Ferry (Fig. 2), and in situ as a common component of the basement beds (nodule beds) at the base of the Coralline Crag and Red Crag formations of southeast Suffolk (Fig. 3). They are eroding out of the cliffs and probably also from some offshore location. In former times, they could also be found in the small phosphorite quarries that dotted that local landscape:

“With one exception all the masses of sandstone I have seen thus picked out from the diggings have been spherical, oblong or irregular masses about the size of the fist, or an average, or sometimes of an elongated cylindrical form. The exception was in a pit at Trimley, near Ipswich, where I found four blocks of a flagstone shape about a foot and a half square, which contained casts of shells, and seemed to be identical in origin with the box-stones” (Mathers and Smith, 2002).

Fig. 2. Felixstowe Ferry beach, looking across the Deben Estuary to Bawdsey beach – both likely places to find boxstones.

Boxstones are an enigma that has attracted the attention of geologists and palaeontologists since the nineteenth century; and molluscan fossils have played a key role in unravelling the mystery. Unfortunately, preservation of the fossils is not good, because those with aragonite shells have dissolved away, leaving only mould and cast impressions (Fig. 4), while those with calcite shells (a far fewer proportion) show only patchy preservation (Fig. 5). The cavities may then be infilled with quartz (Fig. 8), iron oxide or calcium carbonate (Mathers and Smith, 2002). Writing in 1870, Prof ER Lankester was able to identify a fauna of some 25 molluscan genera. Over the years, the list grew. Frederick Harmer (1902) listed 17 species and, by 1917, Alfred Bell had recorded over 100 (Bell, 1917; Figs. 6 and 7). The fossils are not easy to reach because the sandstone matrix is so tough – luckily my own specimen was exposed due to marine action. Also, not all boxstones contain fossils. There are varying estimates of the proportion of the stones that do: the Rev H Canham suggested 75%, but Prof PGH Boswell believed that it was less than 10% (Boswell, 1928). However, in my experience, Boswell’s figure is the more correct. Very occasionally, other types of fossil are found, for example, wood, crustaceans (crabs and lobsters), coronulids (whale barnacles) and sharks’ teeth (Fig. 9), with a notable example of the latter being Carcharocles megalodon, figured by Reid (1890, figure 1). The exterior of boxstones may be encrusted with epifauna, most commonly barnacles (Fig. 10). These are evidence of submarine exposure before burial, most likely during the Pliocene.

Fig. 3. The Red Crag basement bed at East Lane Beach, Bawdsey, showing phosphatic mudstone (coprolite) pebbles and a boxstone (centre).

Dating the boxstones

Lankester was able to use his molluscan fossils to correlate the boxstone fauna with a better-preserved geological sequence in Belgium. He suggested it was of Diestian age (Lankester, 1870) in the Pliocene – an interval now attributed to the Tortonian to Messinian stages of the late Miocene (Laga et al, 2001). More recently, Peter Balson has correlated the fauna with the Syltian/Messinian stages of northwest Europe (Balson, ibid). Thus, it seems likely that the boxstone fauna is of late Miocene age, somewhere between 5.4 and 7 million years old (Laursen, 1999; Table 1).

Epoch Million yrs BP Stages Suffolk Belgium Netherlands 2 Gelasian Red Crag Formation 3 Piacenzian Pliocene 4 Zanclean Coralline Crag Fm Lillo Formation 5 Zanclean Kattendijk Formation Breda Formation Miocene 6 Messinian Trimley Sands? Diest Formation Breda Formation 7 Messinian Trimley Sands? Diest Formation Breda Formation 8 Tortonian Diest Formation Breda Formation 9 Tortonian Diest Formation Breda Formation 10 Tortonian Diest Formation Breda Formation

Table 1. A simplified local late Neogene chronostratigraphy.

Let us therefore imagine the history of the boxstones. The ‘Trimley Sands’ and their shelly remains were deposited in the late Miocene, then eroded during the following Pliocene and some of their fossiliferous debris ended up in the basement bed of the Coralline Crag (perhaps 4.4 million years ago). The Trimley Sands continued to be eroded during the Pliocene and further debris (plus that derived from the Coralline Crag) was incorporated into the basement bed of the Red Crag (perhaps 2.8 million years ago). Today, both beds are being eroded with the clasts ending up on the beach (Fig. 11).

Fig. 4. Internal cast and mould void of a clam, probably Glycymeris obovata, clearly showing dentition. (Image courtesy of Colchester and Ipswich Museums IPSMG: R1933-119C2(3).)

[pms-restrict]

Fig. 7. Internal cast of a gaper shell, probably either Panopea menardi or Lutraria elliptica. (Image courtesy of Colchester and Ipswich Museums IPSMG: R1933-119A.29.)

As an aside, it is important not to confuse boxstones with ‘coprolites’, which are also hard, brown stones found in the Crag basement beds and on local beaches. Unlike the sandy-looking boxstones, the ‘coprolites’ are much smoother and more fine-grained: their exterior has a polished look (Figs. 11 and 12). They are not true coprolites, but a kind of highly phosphatic mudstone (phosphorite) concretion, rolled and smoothed by marine action in the past. A wide variety of phosphatised fossils has also been found in these beds, including Mesozoic brachiopods and ammonites, Eocene sharks’ teeth and seed pods from the London Clay, along with Pliocene mammals, such as rhinoceros, deer, dolphin, whale and mastodon (Reid, 1890). The coprolite-rich ‘nodule beds’ were quarried locally in the nineteenth century to make mineral fertiliser: the Fison company started this way, excavating the nodules from the Crag basement beds and then crushing them and treating them with acid to make superphosphate (‘Fisons’ – online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisons).

Miocene Suffolk

The battered boxstone in my hand is a portkey for researching and imagining what Suffolk was like in late Miocene times. In fact, as Mathers and Smith (2002) say: “Strata of Miocene age are very rare in Britain and none are preserved in the district“. Resurrecting this period will be like piecing together a jigsaw picture where almost all of the pieces are missing.

Fig. 5. A calcite fossil of the cockle, Cardium woolnoughi. (Image courtesy of Colchester and Ipswich Museums IPSMG: R1933-119C1(2).)

A few Miocene deposits have survived in pockets and cavities. Sands and clays have been found at the bottom of karstic sink holes at Brassington in the Peak District of Derbyshire (Pound et al, 2012). Blocks of fossiliferous sandstone have been found in solution pipes in Chalk bedrock at Lenham in Kent (Balson, 1999). Further afield, fossil-rich deposits in hollows in limestone at Hollymount in Ireland have been tentatively dated to the Miocene or early Pliocene (Coxon and Coxon, 1987). So little has survived because this period was one of crustal uplift in Britain, and erosion was active, while the North Sea was a subsiding basin area (Mathers et al, 2007). Parts of southern England are thought to have remained above sea level; some ancient duricrusted land surfaces may have persisted here from as far back as the Eocene (Jones, 1999). (Duricrust is a hard layer on or near the surface of soil.) The Straits of Dover did not exist then – instead, there were chalk hills stretching between the Weald and the Artois region of France, while the early rivers, Thames and Rhine, drained northwards into a wide southern North Sea Bight. Much of Suffolk is thought to have lain beneath the waves (Tertiary Rivers: Neogene (Miocene and Pliocene) – online at https://www.qpg.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/tertiaryrivers/neog.html, accessed October 2017)

Fig. 6. Internal cast of a bonnet snail, Cassis saburon, or a fig snail of the family Ficidae. (Image courtesy of Colchester and Ipswich Museums IPSMG: R1953-119C-15(5).)

Given its gritty sandstone matrix, my boxstone mollusc’s habitat was evidently a sandy one. Some of this sand must have been washed into the sea from rivers streaming off the English landmass, although mineral studies suggest that some of the sediment may have come from metamorphic rocks in the Ardennes region of Belgium (Boswell, 1928) or from reworked earlier strata containing this mineral suite. The sandstone then became solidified beneath the seabed, along with its enclosed fossil. Deposits of a slightly earlier age have survived at Deurne near Antwerp in Belgium, where sediments of the Diest Formation lie close to the surface. They include sands rich in the grey-green mineral glauconite and containing fossil shells, sharks and Plesiocetus whale bones (Bosselaers et al, 2004; Figs. 13 and 14). (Glauconite is an iron-potassium silicate mineral related to mica formed in low-oxygen, shelf sea environments. Presumably oxidised glauconite has contributed to the brown colour of the boxstones.) Similar deposits have survived in Holland, where there is a thicker, more continuous Miocene sequence. This is because it was closer to the depositional centre of the North Sea basin, where downwarping and subsidence allowed a greater quantity of sediment to accumulate.

Fig. 8. A cavity infilled with quartz crystals. These must have developed some time in the last seven million years. (Image courtesy Colchester and Ipswich Museums IPSMG: HSM.2017.161.)

The Dutch equivalent of the Diest Formation is represented by the Breda Formation, which has a total thickness of over 700m (The Breda Formation – online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_Formation, accessed November 2017). Glauconitic sandstones with shell fragments and phosphorite pebbles have been found at depth in the Colijnsplaat Borehole, with fossil mollusca and foraminifera indicating water depths of about 50m and warm temperate to sub-tropical climatic conditions (Slupik et al, 2007). These continental formations give us a glimpse into the late Miocene of the southern North Sea Bight. We may assume that Suffolk seas were similar, perhaps a little shallower, and that they would have shared the marine fauna, including toothed whales, baleen whales and seals (Post and Reumer, 2016). Lankester considered that a phosphatised partial skull of Choneziphius (a small toothed whale), from a crag pit near Felixstowe, was an indigenous member of the boxstone fauna (Lankester, 1870). Other marine mammal fossils from boxstones include the extinct sea cow, Miosiren canhami, the beaked whale, Mesoplodon, and the sperm whales, Hoplocetus and Scaldicetus (Spencer, 1970).

Fig. 9. Tooth of a sand shark, Odontaspis sp. (Image courtesy Colchester and Ipswich Museums IPSMG: R1933-119B.46.)

What was life like onshore in late Miocene times? The Brassington deposits contain an assemblage of plant fossils that can be used to reconstruct the climate and flora. They suggest that the mean annual temperature was about 16ºC; by way of comparison, Suffolk today has a mean of 10ºC, while Madrid has 15ºC. So, we are talking about a period of warmer climate, before the general cooling trend that took place after two million years ago, which ushered in the successive ice ages of the Pleistocene. The list of species seems to have more in common with an Asian forest garden than English woodland. Exotic taxa include Cedrus (cedar), Tsuga (hemlock), Liquidambar (sweetgum; Fig. 15), Sciadopitys (Japanese umbrella-pine), Symplocos (sweetleaf) and Cryptomeria (Japanese cedar). The forests of Derbyshire must have been richly aromatic places. There are also more familiar British trees such as Alnus (alder), Picea (spruce) and Corylus (hazel). The ground flora includes mosses, ferns, herbs and grasses. The salt-tolerant herbs, Armeria (sea thrift) and Limonium (sea lavender), suggest the sea may not have been far away. Given that the Brassington site is now some 330m above sea level, this indicates how much crustal uplift has taken place there over the last five million years.

Fig. 10. Fossil barnacles encrusting a rolled boxstone from the Red Crag basement bed at Bawdsey.

The boxstones provide meagre evidence for life onshore in Suffolk. Only a handful of terrestrial fossils have been found, originating from remains washed out to sea. These include the elephant-like Mastodon (Fig. 16), the ancestral pig, Sus palaeochoerus, and Pannonictis, a mustelid carnivore related to mink, otter and wolverine (Spencer, 1970).

Fig. 11. Detritus from the Red Crag basement bed – a very rolled and abraded lump of unidentifiable fossil bone from Felixstowe Ferry. It looks similar to the boxstones, so may be as old as the Miocene.

Other Miocene taxa have recorded from the Red Crag basement bed, for example, the panda (Ailurus), tapir Tapirus, three-toed horse (Hipparion), bear (Agriotherium) and hornless rhino (Aceratherium). However, some fossils could theoretically have been derived from the ‘Trimley Sands’ (see discussion in Spencer, 1970. The ‘nodule bed’ taxa are listed in Newton, 1891).

Fig. 12A and 12B. Phosphorite (‘coprolite’) nodules. Note their fine-grained matrix compared with the boxstones.

If we want to expand this evidence, we can turn to the fascinating Dorn-Dürkheim site in Germany, dating from about eight million years ago (Franzen et al, 2013). Fossils have been recovered from mud in an abandoned meander of the early Rhine. A wealth of over 80 mammal species have been identified and, looking through the list of them, I have a sense of a modern zoo fauna seen through the distorting mirror of time and change (Fig. 17). Aceratherium (a rhinoceros) and Hippotherium (a horse) roamed the forest, along with the mastodon, Anancus, dirk-toothed cat, Machairodus, bear, Ursavus, and deer, Procapreolus. These are all extinct genera, but some Miocene mammal types have survived pretty much unchanged to the present day. I even have one of them visiting my garden, the muntjac deer, Muntjacus, which has same the long canine teeth and prong-like horns of its relations from Dorn-Dürkheim. It is a native of Asia, which has been introduced here and has unwittingly recovered its ancestral ground in Europe.

Fig. 13A and 13B. The head, shoulder girdle and thoracic area of a late Miocene Plesiocetus whale skeleton, excavated in 2004 at a hospital construction site in Antwerp, Belgium, clearly showing the glauconitic sediment of the Deurne Sand Member, Diest Formation (Bosselaers et al, 2004). (Photos courtesy of Dieter Wuyts.)

Other Miocene descendants are living today in warmer parts of the world, where they found refuge during the cold phases of the Pleistocene or remained living in secure habitats. An example is the white rhinoceros, Cerathotherium simum, from Africa, closely related to the Miocene species C. neumayri, from subtropical Greece (Agusti and Anton, 2002). Other examples are the raccoon dog, Nyctereutes (a native of the Far East) and the tapir Tapirus (southeast Asia and South America). These animals remind me of the currents of evolution that flow through our present-day wildlife, and which have their sources in the exotic, warmer world of the late Neogene period of Earth history. As for us, are we not the descendants of Miocene apes? The recent discovery of a hominin-like tooth dated at about 9.7 million years old from Eppelsheim in the Rhine valley has refreshed public interest in primate evolution in late Miocene Europe (ResearchGate Blog, 20-10-2017, online at https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/9-7-million-year-old-teeth-fossils-raise-questions-about-human-origin).

Some concluding remarks

As for the identification of my humble boxstone fossil, I think it is an example of either the extinct cockle, Laevicardium decorticatum or more likely the extinct clam, Glycymeris obovata ringelei. It lived and died on the seabed of the North Sea, in a moment of time well beyond human memory, even before the dawn of human awareness. Perhaps, we may treat the Miocene as a metaphor for the mythical Eden-like world before the Fall of Man. If so, the present Anthropocene epoch is a bitter confirmation of that Fall, as human beings para-consciously consume and abuse ever more of the world’s resources.

Fig. 14. Leaves of Liquidambar styraciflua, a native of eastern North America. The genus Liquidambar is a relict member of the Arcto-Tertiary flora, grouping once more widely distributed in the northern hemisphere before being fragmented by Pleistocene glaciations.

Exploring this fossil and discovering its world has put me in touch with the evolving stream of living things from the Miocene to the present. It has reminded me of the biodiverse richness of the tropical parts of our planet, now threatened as never before; also of the tides of continuity and change operating on million-year timescales, transforming species and environments. It has also reminded me of the fragile nature of my own animal awareness and genetic identity which is present – for a moment in time – on the surface of the Earth, and yet part of an ancient continuum of being. In this, I am no different from a mollusc that was alive seven million years ago – or one living today.

Fig. 15. A rolled mastodon tooth (possibly of M. borsoni) from the Red Crag basement bed (location not given), figured by EH Lankester (1870). The valleys between the cusps are infilled with a boxstone-type sandstone matrix. (Image courtesy of Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 1870.)

Acknowledgements

Mark Bosselaers – molluscan identification and help with contacts.

David Fenwick – Glycymeris photo.

Kathryn Riddington / Colchester & Ipswich Museums – help with photographing boxstones.

Dr Sinje Weber – help with sourcing artwork.

Wolfgang Weber – Dorn-Dürkheim artwork.

David Whatley – collecting and splitting boxstones.

Dieter Wuyts – whale photos.

Fig. 16. A late Miocene scene at Dorn-Dürkheim, Germany. (Image courtesy of Wolfgang Weber.) A small tributary of the early Rhine meanders through a gently undulating landscape of woodland and savannah. In the foreground, a beaver dam has created a pond where Deinotherium proavum are bathing. Three Procapreolus are crossing a meadow in the foreground. Two chalicotheres (Anisodon) are browsing on leaves and fruits in a nearby wood, with a small herd of Hippotherium galloping past. In the background are three mastodons (Anancus arvernensis), with a dwarf tapir (Tapirus pannonicus) approaching the river and (top right) sabre-tooths (Machairodus aphanistus) feeding on a carcass.

Places to visit

The best public display of boxstones is in the geology gallery at Ipswich Museum (two cabinets visible in 2017) – The High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 3QH; tel. 01473-433-551.

The best places to find boxstones are the following coastal sites, paying due regard to tides, weather and unstable cliffs:

East Lane Beach, Bawdsey, Suffolk – OS grid ref TM355394.

The beach and spit, Bawdsey, Suffolk – TM332375.

The beach, Felixstowe Ferry, Suffolk – TM328372.

Fig. 17. The dog cockle, Glycymeris glycymeris – a living example of the genus. (Photo courtesy of http://www.aphotomarine.com.)

Identifying Miocene fossils

The following online resources may be useful for identifying boxstone mollusca:

European Caenozoic Contact Group – http://users.telenet.be/cr42644/Caenozoic_fossils/index/index.html.

Natural History Museum Rotterdam online molluscan database – http://www.nmr-pics.nl/.

If you find interesting specimens please share information about your finds with the scientific community:

Tertiary Research Group – http://www.trg.org/.

About the author

I am fortunate enough to have done geology at ‘O’, ‘A’ and university levels. I am active in geoconservation in East Anglia: a member of the Geological Society of Norfolk (President, 2015); a founder member of the GeoSuffolk Group; former Co-ordinator of Geo-East; interested in the links between past environments, wildlife and early humans, and in communicating them.

References

Agusti, J & Anton, M (2002): Mammoths, Sabertooths and Hominids – 65 million years of mammalian evolution in Europe. Columbia University Press.

Balson (1990: The ‘Trimley Sands’: a former marine Neogene deposit from eastern England. Tertiary Research, vol.11, 2-4, pp.145-158.

Balson, P (1999): The Lenham Beds. In: Daley, B & Balson, P (eds): British Tertiary Stratigraphy. Geological Conservation Review Series no.15, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough.

Bell, A (1917): The Fossils of the East-Anglian Sub-Crag Boxstones. Geological Magazine, pp.407-422.

Bosselaers, M et al (2004): Geology & Palaeontology of a temporary exposure of the late Miocene Deurne Sand Member in Antwerpen (N. Belgium). Geologica Belgica, vol 7.

Boswell, PGH (1928): The Geology of the Country around Woodbridge, Felixstowe and Orford. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, HMSO.

Coxon, P & Coxon, C (1987): A pre-Pliocene or Pliocene land surface in County Galway, Ireland. In: Widdowson, M (ed): Palaeosurfaces: Recognition, Reconstruction and Palaeoenvironmental Interpretation. Geological Society Special Publication no. 120, London.

‘Fisons’ – online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisons [accessed Oct 2017]

Franzen, JL et al (2013): Palaeobiodiversity, palaeoecology, palaeobiogeography and biochronology of Dorn-Dürkheim 1—a summary; Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, Vol.93, no.2.

Harmer, FW (1902): A sketch of the later Tertiary History of East Anglia. Part 1 – the Pliocene Period. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, vol. 17, parts 9 & 10.

Jones, DKC (1999): Evolving models of the Tertiary evolutionary geomorphology of southern England, with special reference to the Chalklands. In: Smith, BJ, Whalley,WB & Warke, PA (eds). Uplift, Erosion and Stability: Perspectives on Long-Term Landscape Development. Geological Society, London, Special Publications no.162, 1999.

Laga, P., Louwye, S. & Geets, S (2001): Paleogene and Neogene Lithostratigraphic Units (Belgium). Geologica Belgica 4, 1/2, 2001, pp.135-152.

Lankester, ER (1870): Contributions to a Knowledge of the Newer Tertiaries of Suffolk and their Fauna. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society vol.26, pp.493-514.

Laursen, GV (1999): Detailed Foraminiferal Biostratigraphy of Miocene Formations in Denmark. Contributions to Tertiary and Quaternary Geology, vol.36, pp.73-107.

Mathers, SJ et al (2007): Geology of the Ipswich District. A brief explanation of the geological map Sheet 207 Ipswich. British Geological Survey, Keyworth.

Mathers, SJ & Smith, NJP (2002): Geology of the Woodbridge and Felixstowe District – a brief explanation of the geological map Sheets 208 and 225 Woodbridge and Felixstowe. British Geological Survey, Keyworth.

Newton (1891). The Vertebrata of the Pliocene deposits of Britain. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom.

Post, K & Reumer JWF (2016). History and future of paleontological surveys in the Westerschelde Estuary (Province of Zeeland, the Netherlands). Deinsea, vol.16.

Pound, MJ et al (2012): The palynostratigraphy of the Brassington Formation (Upper Miocene) of the southern Pennines, Central England. Palynology 36.1.

Reid, C (1890): The Pliocene Deposits of Britain. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom.

ResearchGate Blog, 20-10-2017: 9.7 million-year-old teeth found in Germany resemble those of human ancestors in Africa, online at https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/9-7-million-year-old-teeth-fossils-raise-questions-about-human-origin [accessed Oct 2017].

Slupik, AA et al (2007). The stratigraphy of the Neogene-Quaternary succession in the southwest Netherlands from the Schelphoek borehole (42G4-11/42G0022) – a sequence-stratigraphic approach. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, vol. 86.4, pp.317-332.

Spencer, HEP (1970): The Early Pleistocene. The Crag Epochs and their Mammals. Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society, vol.15, pt.4.

[/pms-restrict]

Tim Holt-Wilson (UK)

♦ Buy Fossils, Crystals, Tools ♦ Subscribe to Deposits ♦ Join Fossil Hunts ♦ UK Fossil Locations

Boxstones – in search of Miocene Suffolk The date is 24 May 2014 and I am browsing across East Lane Beach at Bawdsey in southeast Suffolk.

[earthstory]

The Geology of the Channel Coasts

I found this geologic map while randomly searching files the other day and I was impressed at how much of the geologic history of this area, home to two of Europe’s major cities, is displayed right here.

The rocks to the far northwest are heavily faulted, folded, and metamorphosed. These rocks are the last remnant of Pangaea; the continent that is today Europe collided with the continent that is today North America, thrusting up a number of great mountain ranges, including the Variscan mountains represented by these rocks.

When those plates pulled apart, this are switched from an active range that was building mountains to a passive margin at the edge of the ocean. Basins opened, bounded by normal faults, allowing waters of the ocean to pour in. Shallow ocean sediments were deposited throughout the area from the Triassic through the Cretaceous. These sediments make up some of the famous outcrops on the shores of the English Channel, such as the high cliffs in Normandy and the fossil bearing rocks on the Jurassic coast. The thickness of these sediments varies through the Channel area because each fault-bounded basin subsided by a distinct amount.

After the Cretaceous, far away the continent of Europe collided with the continent of Africa. Far to the south, that led to the growth of mountains, but here in this area some of the old normal faults were reactivated as thrust faults. One of these faults pushed up the sedimentary rocks into a fold, seen here as the Weald-Artois anticline. At the heart of that anticline, the older Cretaceous and Jurassic rocks are thrust upwards, exposing the chalk in the White Cliffs of Dover. Away from this anticline, sediments continued accumulating in the London and Paris basins.

Finally, about 450,000 years ago, ice sheets covered areas to the north of here. Rivers continued draining into what is today the North Sea, but the thick ice sheets blocked that water from escaping to the ocean. Eventually, the water poured over the top of the hill created by the Weald-Artois anticline, creating a waterfall that carved the modern English Channel path.

-JBB

Image credit: http://bit.ly/2Dmhbsl

References: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jqs.744/full http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/162/1/25.short https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06018 https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fncomms15101_ _

[materialsworld]

Fracking hell

Week in Brief (14–18 August)

Credit: ProgressOhio

The geology of the UK doesn’t support fracking according to Professor John Underhill, Chief Scientist at Heriot-Watt University, UK.

Hydraulic fracturing – the controversial method of energy production – involves pumping a fluid into rocks containing energy deposits, whereby the water pressure forces fractures to appear in the rocks allowing gas or oil to be released and captured.

However, while previous arguments against fracking has centered on its environmental and safety impacts, Underhill’s research claims the main issue is a more practical one.

Underhill commented, ‘Both sides of the hydraulic fracturing debate assume that the geology is a “slam dunk” and it will work if exploration drilling goes ahead. Public support for fracking is at an all-time low of 17% based, in the main, on environmental concerns but the science shows that our country's geology is simply unsuitable for shale oil and gas production [...] For hydraulic fracturing to be successful, a number of geological criteria must be met. The source rock should have a high organic content, a good thickness, be sufficiently porous, and have the right mineralogy. The organic matter must have been buried to a sufficient depth and heated to the degree that the source rock produces substantial amounts of gas or oil.’

Underhill claims the UK’s geology, with uplift and a faulted geological structure in some potential fracking sites, means the potential for energy recovery is slim. Pointing to three potential fracking sites – the Bowland Shale in Lancashire, the West Lothian Oil Shale in Scotland and the Weald basin in southern England –Underhill explains how deformation could be an issue to gas extraction.

Underhill commented, ‘There is a need to factor this considerable and fundamental geological uncertainty into the economic equation. It would be extremely unwise to rely on shale gas to ride to the rescue of the UK's gas needs only to discover that we’re 55 million years too late.’

To find out more visit, bit.ly/2wfTaiC

In other news:

- Augmented reality to be used in UK construction industry  

- Queen Mary University of London and Cambridge University researchers have developed a polymer electrode that could improve supercapacitors’ performance

- The EPA is to ditch an Obama-era rule limiting water pollution from coal-fired power plants

To find out more on materials science, packaging and engineering news, visit our website IOM3 at or follow us on Twitter @MaterialsWorld for regular news updates.

[thesanamposts]

The Weald Basin is a geological basin located in southern England, stretching across parts of Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Surrey and Berkshire. It is bounded by the North Downs to the north, the South Downs to the south, and the chalk escarpments of the Greensand Ridge to the east and west.

[dyrewrites]

Weald and Wen - forever and never

Infae bumped a shelf and lost himself to anxious chirps as a stuffed toy thudded beside him. He searched then, with twitching fingers and tiny clicks, for where it landed but only knocked more from the shelves. Ozma, rippling and spiking, stretched to retrieve and return each item to its rightful place, but Faerai retrieved the stuffed toy.

Not a toy, but a doll, stitched of soft cloth and stuffed with fur. It had been woven in her da’s image, with bits of himself weaved in…along with memories her papa held of their time together. And the sight of it added fresh waves to the sorrow crashing inside her.

Da, she thought, holding it too easily in her broad paws and Ozma rippled and blinked toward her. It nuzzled her hip and she smiled, then sniffled and helped Infae grasp the small doll.

“Safer in Infae’s paws,” she told him and his trills brushed her lips with another smile before she left him to cuddle his gift—with Ozma alert for more falling toys.

Faerai leaned against the carved wood, collected furs and stuffed blankets of her bed and sighed, so many latelights here, papa. So many turns, cycles…ages. All quiet now. All gone.

Above the bed her eyes caught, joined by another sniffle, as she spied the painting that hung there. One of her and of Naunni, with a scrap of spare canvas stuck beside it, a scrap which bore a simple scribble.

A misshapen thing of blues near to black, its tented ears, wide head and massive paws yet told of its intended form. If not them, then the eyes, painted in so bright a yellow they appeared to burn. Faerai had few references of her da before, as Naunni kept those paintings close and hidden, but he had offered guidance as she painted. And, despite its messiness, despite her mistakes, he adored it and Ozma had even rippled with delight when she finished. It earned its place on the wall, to complete the painting of their family…

Sniffling again, Faerai scrambled across the bed and plucked the scribble. After storing it in her rucksack, she tore the frame apart and carefully rolled the painting up to stuff it in as well.

Ozma rippled then, at the look she gave him, at the shakiness of her eyes but kept near Infae as the doll slipped again from his awkward paws. It tucked the doll back in the clumsy beast’s fingers and spiked as Faerai’s sniffles drew its eyes.

“Papa say leave, we leave,” Faerai reminded herself, turning her eyes from her shadow, tears too near to wonder if he waited somewhere for her…and far too near for the answer. “But we prepare first...p, papa would want us to prepare.”

Sniffling again, she stood straight and walked to her wardrobe. There she yanked open a shallow wooden drawer and tossed a number of small vials onto the bed. Then, with slow, deliberate care she filled each vial from the oil basin beside it and placed them in the inner pockets of her rucksack. The leather and fur inside it, filthy as it was, reminded her of the nuru’s fur and she eyed his corner.

Infae chirped and wriggled as the pup approached him. The scent of the sticky liquid on her paws sang too strange, too thick, and he fled from the room to clean what he could off his fur. But he was too late, the warmth of it spread too full already. With a lilting melody it smoothed his stinging wounds and stitched what still bled. And, as its scent faded, so did that melody and Infae shivered with the loss until gentle paws found his fur and guided him back into the room…to the comfort of his corner. There they pressed the soft doll into his shaking fingers and the pup’s growling purr eased the prickles from his skin and amplified the sleep weighing his muscles.

Faerai returned to her wardrobe and from short cupboards she grabbed a small carved box, a bolt of skittersilk, scraps of leather and a skein of colorful, downy yarn and dropped them all on her bed. But her eyes flitted to other things, useless things yet pulsing with memories of happier lights.

“Orn tell us memories eternal, not matter if held by firm paws or misty thoughts,” Faerai told those things, and herself, but still she maneuvered around Infae. Still she plucked a worn leather journal from the shelf behind him, and ran a thick claw along the crudely carved symbols of its face, before returning to stuff it in the front pocket of her rucksack. “One memory not weigh us too heavy.”

Then she tucked the more useful items into the soft leathers of her bag, clasped it tight…and froze.

Sound, a voice sang into her thoughts, popping her ears high and eyes wide.

Air puffing from her lips, Faerai worked to settle her thoughts and though she did not know the voice, did not recognize its tone or timbre, hope sang in her response, hear us, Fyrni?

Sound...Breath, the voice sang back, distant and weak.

We will, she promised, we will sound! Then she met her shadow’s eyes, bright and searching, and squeaked, “Fyrni breathe, da!” Infae squeaked back and began to chirrup, driving Faerai’s paws to soothe him with gentle pets as she repeated, in a quieter voice, “Fyrni breath.”

Then she led the drowsy nuru out of the room, towards the only place in her burrows where Fyrni could sound the Breath—towards the oratory.

[scottishdreams]

Glasgow > | How does fracking work and why is it considered controversial?

...Midland Valley stretching across Scotland and including Glasgow and Edinburgh.There is an estimated 4.4 billion barrels of shale oil in the Weald Basin in southern England.But it is not known how... https://ift.tt/31B0wZ3

[jamieclawhorn]

Investors are taking a gamble on Sirius Minerals and the UKOG share price

Finally, the verdict is in. Investment platform Interactive Investor has named the UK’s top five favourite stocks during the recent ISA season and two of them are a real surprise.

You expect to find the usual FTSE 100 stalwarts in the top five buys. This year it’s Lloyds Banking Group at number one, Vodafone in second place and another big boy, oil major BP at number four.

Fertile ground

However, the third most popular trade is a company that doesn’t generate any revenues, and may not do so for years. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Sirius Minerals (LSE: SXX). The Yorkshire-based polyhalite fertiliser miner has entranced investors but also tested their nerves and patience. Today’s share price of around 22p is roughly half its 52-week high of almost 40p.

Sirius is all about the future. Its £3.2bn mining project would make it a leading global producer of unique multi-nutrient fertiliser polyhalite, but means boring a 23-mile tunnel system to handling and export facilities at Teesside, now one of the UK’s biggest engineering projects.

Boring, boring

If all goes to plan, exports will total £2.5bn a year and single-handedly reduce the UK’s trade deficit by a whopping 7%. It has struck supply agreements all over the world, including a 10-year deal with BayWa Agri Supply and Trade just a few days ago, and has just launched its first tunnel boring machine.

The £1bn FTSE 250 group tempts investors with the prospect of “low operating costs, healthy margins and a very long asset life”. It should add ‘short-term anguish as management scrabbles around how to raise the necessary funds’. The deadline is tight, too. As Rupert Hargreaves has pointed out, Sirius has until the end of June.

I’m itching to hear more about last month’s news of a conditional proposal from a major global financial institution in respect of the £3.5bn Stage 2 financing. If that comes through, expect the share price to fly. If it doesn’t, then it’s squeaky bum time. The nation’s investors await. I’m one of them

Real Weald deal?

The UK’s fifth most popular stock last year was an even bigger surprise, AIM-listed UK Oil & Gas (LSE: UKOG) of ‘Gatwick Gusher’ fame, which has a market cap of just £71m. This is another stock with great potential, but one with even greater funding concerns than Sirius.

Its prime focus is on oil and gas assets in the Weald Basin, where it is building up interests in “a portfolio of dynamic and innovative oil and gas exploration and production assets”, but has yet to deliver on them.

Risk on

This article by GA Chester is a must-read as he warns the group has pursued multiple dilutive share placings in its quest to raise the necessary funds, tapping private shareholders amid a lack of institutional interest. He also warns that it has pursued new acquisitions before monetising existing ones.

The nation’s investors are taking a real punt here. If UK Oil & Gas lives up to its ambitions, you could make a small fortune. But my the risks! Risk is fine as long as you only invest a small corner of your portfolio, money you are willing to lose. That’s what I’ve done with Sirius Minerals. I’m not brave enough to repeat the trick UK Oil & Gas, though. 

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More reading

Why I think 2019 could be make-or-break for the UKOG share price

Is the UKOG share price now a bargain?

Why I believe the Sirius Minerals share price could soon return to 40p

The Sirius Minerals share price is rising: is it time to buy?

The UKOG share price: What’s next?

Harvey Jones owns shares of Sirius Minerals. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Lloyds Banking Group. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

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UK Oil &

UK Oil & Gas PLC (LON:UKOG) Stephen Sanderson, Chief Executive Interview UK Oil & Gas PLC (London AIM: UKOG), the largest onshore licence acreage holder in Weald Basin, is pleased to announce that, following the successful production testing and declaration ofRead More... http://amp.gs/9GLi

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Test lifts hope for southern England field

Angus Energy PLC, London, said a 7-day flow test of its Balcombe-2z horizontal well indicates commercial production is possible from Balcombe oil field on PEDL 244 in southern England (OGJ Online, Jan. 25, 2018).

After cleaning and priming with coiled tubing and nitrogen, the well flowed naturally at 853 b/d of oil, not including 22.5% water.

During a second flow period, the well flowed naturally at 1,587 b/d of oil, not including 6.6% water.

Production was from a single micrite layer in the Jurassic Kimmeridge formation of the Weald basin well, which was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,200 ft with a horizontal section of 1,714 ft. During the initial flow period, the well slugged at up to 3,000 b/d, which exceeded separator capacity.

The produced water was unexpected. Angus believes the horizontal section cut a high-pressure water zone that can be isolated.

A production logging string was run to identify the water zone, but the coiled tubing equipment on which it was run failed, Angus said.

Oil produced during the test was about 34° gravity, although light hydrocarbons might have been removed by the nitrogen used in the test.

Angus said it believes oil quality might be similar to that of oil produced from Kimmeridge at its Lidsey field on the edge of the Weald basin, where the lowest quality crude is 38.5° gravity (OGJ Online, July 3, 2018).

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Angus operates the Balcombe license in partnership with Cuadrilla Balcombe Ltd. and Lucas Bolney Ltd.

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Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) Plc - Planning Update for Holmwood Well in the Weald Basin

http://dlvr.it/QcZ2Sy