The Turret: To expose the varied and intricate textures of geological beds, particularly sandstone when weathered in Scotland’s coastal environment. As a geologist, my eye was drawn into each layer, as I have been trained to do so when sketching on geological field trips. 

Gruinard Bay: Situated here for my geological mapping project, I wanted to show the unique diversity of this landscape, situated on Lewisian Gneiss bedrock, that has a complex geological history dating back over 3 billion years. I highlighted ‘foliation’ appearing like wavy lines in the rock, which resulted from intense melting and burial of the rock over time, causing recrystallisation into these ‘wavy’ patterns. 

Northern Lights (1 and/or 2): I wanted to show the beauty of the northern lights which we sometimes see here in the North East of Scotland. 

Aberdeen beach sand under the microscope: I wanted to show how intricate each grain of sand really is when viewed under the scanning electron microscope (SEM). This analysis revealed broken shells and foraminifera – forms of algae living in calcareous tests, which appear like ‘snail-like shells’. Normally, these would never be visible to the naked eye.