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Writer's picturePolkadot Explorer

My Favorite Geoscience Fact

This is my first delve into the world of vlogging, so please to bear with me! But BBC Earth is running a competition this summer which has motivated me to give video making a go. The competition asked for a video (60 seconds or less) explaining your favorite science or nature fact. I thought it would be the perfect excuse to grab my blowtorch and finally try out setting the rocks at South Queensferry on fire!

Geologizing in the sun at South Queensferry.

The beach at South Queensferry has some brilliant outcropping Carboniferous sands and shales: including oil shales. These fine-grained rocks were once buried deeply enough to generate oil. Now at the surface, they contain enough oil that they should burn. Or so I have been told. It was not until today that I finally got to try this experiment myself. I grabbed my geological hammer and my blowtorch and headed down to search for the perfect oil shale sample to test.

Oil shale on fire!

After some searching, I found a great bed of oil shales near Port Neuk, to the north of the Forth Rail Bridge, and to my sheer delight, the experiment worked a treat! So much so that I had to edit out my giggles of joy from the final recording!


So without further ado, enjoy my video below...


-- Happy Exploring! --

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