A rock story: for humanity

From fire, rocks are formed and to fire rocks return. Rocks are on a journey, and when they meet water on their travels, they help make earth our home. They produce fertile soil to support ecosystems, remove CO2 from the atmosphere as they dissolve, and provide the building blocks to support marine life. We’ll journey together from beneath the earth’s surface and back again – across lands and rivers and down to the ocean’s depths. Along the way, we’ll hear perspectives from a geologist on how rocks shape her life now and how rocks can shape our future by playing a role in alleviating the climate crisis.

There will be a presentation with time for creative reflections, as well as interactive demonstrations simulating different parts of a rock’s journey.

Amy McBride

Amy McBride is a geologist, but her love for geology was an accident – she’d taken it at school as a whim. Then she grew fascinated at how by simply looking at rock, you could say something about the history of that rock, in that very place. She discovered that people measure how fast rocks dissolve, despite being told at school that they didn’t dissolve like salt does in water or sugar does in tea, and decided she wanted to try and do that herself. She now has six years of experience studying enhanced weathering. This is a technology which accelerates the natural dissolution of certain rocks to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It’s hoped that enhanced weathering will play a part in alleviating climate change.

This event is part of the live programme for life-bestowing cadaverous soooooooooooooooooooot a research exhibition collated by Rae-Yen Song 宋瑞渊.