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The Schiehallion
Experiment
250 years ago, astronomers and surveyors from the Royal Society measured changes in gravitational pull on Schiehallion. They used a very special astronomical clock and maths to calculate the relative mass of the Earth.
They calculated Earth as 4700 kg/m^3 , within 20% of the currently accepted figure of 5513 kg/m^3 (which equates to a mass of 5.972 x 10^24kg).
Read more here
Schiehallion, Perthshire - photo National Museums Scotland Portsoy rocks
helping to unlock understanding of the moon
Click here for information about research.
Portsoy Rocks - image by Prof John Parnell Mull lava field
New research identifies eruption vent-proximal deposits in Calgary Bay: pahoehoe and a'ā lavas and lava tubes.
Basaltic fissure eruptions of the Mull lava field, British Paleogene Igneous Province
Calgary Bay, Mull: Pugsley et al. (2025) Microbially mediated carbonates in the Mesoproterozoic Stoer Group of NW Scotland; earliest evidence of life in Britain?
A new interpretation of carbonate structures in Stoer Group rocks suggests a biological origin. These sediments would be the oldest microbial stromatolites in the British Isles.
Click here for a pdf of the article.
Figure:
Gutteridge, P. (2025) Microbially mediated carbonates in the Mesoproterozoic Stoer Group of NW Scotland; earliest evidence of life in Britain? Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. 182, 2025, jgs2024-269
How great is the Great Glen Fault?
New research using sedimentological, geochemical, and zircon dating suggests 250 - 300km of displacement and reveals three new pre-strike-slip relationships.
Torridon rocks and Mars
A one-billion-year-old Scottish meteorite impact
"The Stoer Group in northwest Scotland is one of the oldest well-preserved sedimentary successions in Europe and includes the Stac Fada Member, an impact ejecta deposit. ...Our new age constrains the Stoer Group to the early Tonian and suggests a new Neoproterozoic plate tectonic context for these rocks. These data revise the age of some of the oldest known nonmarine microfossils in the UK and their role for timing the eukaryotic colonization of land."
13-23 June 2025
Step into science at Hugh Miller’s Birthplace
Join the team at Hugh Miller’s Birthplace Cottage and Museum for a thrilling experience filled with family-friendly science activities.
https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/summer-of-science
Fossil discovery