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Introduction to Blue Anchor

Blue Anchor Fossils and Fossil Collecting
Your Somerset Geological Guide and Geology Info

A change from the Jurassic, try Blue Anchor. The Triassic cliffs here contain a bone bed from the Rhaetian Penarth series. This bed is full of reptile, and fish remains. Similar to Aust. There is plenty of blocks to split even though the bed is thin.

Blue Anchor - Somerset
Last updated: [24/04/2005]  last visited 2002
Jurassic
Triassic
Written by Alister and Alison Cruickshanks
(View of Blueanchor (Warren Bay)
(Blue Anchor) - 2002

Location Information

Blue Anchor is very productive but you have to work for your finds. You will need good hammers and chisels as the bone bed is very hard. Search the foreshore for bone bed rocks and split these finely.

(Not Suitable)

Because the rocks are very hard and fossils within the bone bed will require heavy hammers, this location is not suitable for children or families.

Access to the beach at Blue Anchor is easy, park along the seafront and walk down to the bach.

Foreshore

Blue Anchor is a foreshore location, fossils are found within the rocks containing the bone bed . The vast majority of fossils are found when splitting these rocks.

ACCESS
RIGHTS
There are 'NO' restrictions to this location

Please follow our national fossil collecting code

A UK Fossils & Discovering Fossils initiative (c) 2006

Other locations similar to Blue Anchor

If you are interested in the Rhaetic Beds similar to that of Blue Anchor, you can also try Aust in Avon. Other good locations include Hock Cliff which is along along the River Severn, this time in Gloucestershire. Another famous location is Lavernock or Penarth both in South Wales. The Lilstock Formation at Lilstock also yields remains similar to Aust, also part of the Rhaetian.

! IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTES !

Common sense when collecting at all locations should be taken and knowledge of tide times should always be noted. You can easily be cut off by the tide at Blue Anchor, the sea reaches at cliff, specially round the first head of Blue Anchor at quite a height. A walk to Watchet can be made, however ensure you can return or reach the opposite end before one hour after high tide.

Care must be taken when splitting, hitting and breaking these rocks, as rock splinters can penetrate the body. When using Chisel's, such power is required to break these rocks that care must be taken not to miss and hit ones hands, gloves and guarding are highly recommended.

Stone Tumblers (Lapidary)


Stone Tumblers are used for tumbling and polishing rough rock, stones and pebbles including those found on the beach and glass.

Whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed, you could collect rocks, stones and glass from the beach and tumble then at home.

These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. The tumblers can be used with a variety of grits, most commonly Silicon Carbide Grit and Cerium Oxide. We have a wide range of rough rocks for sale too.

Microfossils are much easier to collect because they are so small that the vast majority of collections only concentrate on large finds. These small finds can simply be found by taking small samples of sands, crags, clays and soft rocks and examining them under a microscope.

We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, both for the study of fossils, but also educational and professional for use in the laboratory. We have Stereo microscopes, Compound Microscopes, Polarising Microscopes and Monocular Microscopes.


We have thousands of Test Sieves for Particle Analysis.

Endecotts Sieves: For accurate dependable results you can't buy a better test sieve than Endecotts. At every stage of manufacture each test sieve is individually inspected.

High Precision Tecan manufactures precision apertures as small as 3 microns for a wide array of applications such as filtering, sieving and nozzles. Its high-performance, ASTM/ISO compliant test sieves satisfy the most demanding fine particle grading requirements.

Metal Detectors


We have a wide range of metal detectors and motion detectors.

Our metal detectors are of a very high quality and are british made by the Viking Company.

Why not take a metal detector when your fossil hunting! you never know what you may find.


We sell a wide range of compasses to both explorers, students to boat owners.

Some field compasses have build in clinometers so you can calculate the height of cliffs.

Our compasses are high quality. They are an essential part of the explorers kit.


All of our fossils are genuine and have been checked carefully, we only buy from reputable sources.

We have a wide range of fossils from low cost budget fossils to expensive stunning display pieces.

Our fossils are of a very high standard and they come from all over the world.



Images, Graphics & Content - (C)opyright 1998-2005 Alister Cruickshanks.
UK Fossils Management - Alister Cruickshanks & Roy Bullard
UK Fossils Curator - Ian Cruickshanks
UK Fossils is a division of CWA Design and run in conjunction with UKGE. Whilst we try to ensure that all content is accurate and up to date we cannot guarantee this. UK Fossils takes no responsibility in the accuracy of this content, nor takes any liabilities for any trips, events or exchanges between visitors using either the discussion board or the UK Fossils planner. Any posted trips and events by UK Fossils are personal and not arranged by UK Fossils, therefore visitors should seek their own personal insurance cover. Please remember to always check the tide times.
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