A Christmas Rock: Fossiliferous Coal

Merry Christmas & Happy Newtonmas, Everyone!

To celebrate, here are some beautiful pictures of coal taken from the interwebs. I'll take coal rocks like these in my stocking any Christmas!

Fossil ferns in coal from Morocco. Image from Wikipedia Commons.

What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas- Part II

My What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas post has been attracting some serious (well, for my little blog anyway) traffic over the past few days. Apparently, many people find my blog post by googleing phrases such as "geology christmas gifts," "geology gifts," and "what to buy a geologist." I guess many people are doing their Christmas shopping for their geologist friends and family!

Over the past few days, I've thought up another ten items that I think a geologist would like for Christmas. Again, please feel free to post your own suggestions for geological Christmas gifts in the comments!

Gift #1: Trilobite Jewelry from Surlyramics

Image from Surlyramics Etsy shop.

What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas

Zayna (my cat) in my Newtonmas tree.

Christmas is just over three weeks away. If you're like me, you've recently put up your tree and a few decorations and are contemplating what to buy your friends and relatives. My family isn't religious, so we celebrate Newtonmas instead of Christmas. We call the holiday Newtonmas because Issac Newton, the famous mathematician and scientist, was born on Christmas Day. We celebrate Newtonmas on the same day as Christmas.

My family is very festive about Newtonmas. My mom often throws a science-themed Newtonmas Party, and we have all kinds of Newtonmas decorations, including a Newtonmas tree. The best thing about a Newtonmas tree is that you don't have to use an angel or a star as a tree topper (unless you want to). Rather, you can use anything you want! When we lived in Europe for a couple of years, we bought a little Napoleon doll and this has become our traditional tree-topper. Since I've moved out of the house and started putting up my own tree, I've used various stuffed animals and toys as tree-toppers. This year I'm using the little blue dragon from the "How to Train Your Dragon" movie. Because dragons are cute and are as real as angels, to me anyway. In honor of Newton, my family exchanges gifts and eats delicious food and even plays Christmas music. Because music is pretty, whatever your religious beliefs (or lack thereof).

Many of you may be wondering what to buy a geologist for Christmas/Newtomas. Below I've listed a few suggestions of gifts I think a geologist would like. Feel free to post your own suggestions for gifts in the comments!

And Merry Christmas/Chanukah/Newtonmas!

Gift #1: Geology Cake T-Shirt

Image from Threadless.com

This T-shirt is sold by Threadless.com here. Unfortunately, this t-shirt is currently sold out. Everyone should help request a reprint! A quick note is that geoblogger Callan Bentley pointed out in his NOVA blog that the angular unconformity cake/geology layer is highly improbable. Despite that, this is a fun t-shirt!

Cost: $18 (cheaper if it's on sale!).