The Great London:
Geology

Scientists studying the Chicxulub crater have shown how large asteroid impacts deform rocks in a way that may produce habitats for early life.

Around 65 million years ago a massive asteroid crashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing an impact so huge that the blast and subsequent knock-on effects wiped out around 75 per cent of all life on Earth, including most of the dinosaurs. This is known as the Chicxulub impact.

In April and May 2016, an international team of scientists undertook an offshore expedition and drilled into part of the Chicxulub impact crater. Their mission was to retrieve samples from the rocky inner ridges of the crater -- known as the 'peak ring' -- drilling 506 to 1335 metres below the modern day sea floor to understand more about the ancient cataclysmic event.

Now, the researchers have carried out the first analysis of the core samples. They found that the impact millions of years ago deformed the peak ring rocks in such a way that it made them more porous, and less dense, than any models had previously predicted.

Porous rocks provide niches for simple organisms to take hold, and there would also be nutrients available in the pores, from circulating water that would have been heated inside the Earth's crust. Early Earth was constantly bombarded by asteroids, and the team have inferred that this bombardment must have also created other rocks with similar physical properties. This may partly explain how life took hold on Earth.

The study, which is published today in the >journal Science, also confirmed a model for how peak rings were formed in the Chicxulub crater, and how peak rings may be formed in craters on other planetary bodies.

The team's new work has confirmed that the asteroid, which created the Chicxulub crater, hit the Earth's surface with such a force that it pushed rocks, which at that time were ten kilometres beneath the surface, farther downwards and then outwards. These rocks then moved inwards again towards the impact zone and then up to the surface, before collapsing downwards and outwards again to form the peak ring. In total they moved an approximate total distance of 30 kilometres in a matter of a few minutes.

Professor Joanna Morgan, lead author of the study from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: "It is hard to believe that the same forces that destroyed the dinosaurs may have also played a part, much earlier on in Earth's history, in providing the first refuges for early life on the planet. We are hoping that further analyses of the core samples will provide more insights into how life can exist in these subterranean environments."

The next steps will see the team acquiring a suite of detailed measurements from the recovered core samples to refine their numerical simulations. Ultimately, the team are looking for evidence of modern and ancient life in the peak-ring rocks. They also want to learn more about the first sediments that were deposited on top of the peak ring, which could tell the researchers if they were deposited by a giant tsunami, and provide them with insights into how life recovered, and when life actually returned to this sterilised zone after the impact.

Source: Imperial College London [November 17, 2016]

Geologists have for the first time seen and documented the Banda Detachment fault in eastern Indonesia and worked out how it formed.

Lead researcher Dr Jonathan Pownall from The Australian National University (ANU) said the find will help researchers assess dangers of future tsunamis in the area, which is part of the Ring of Fire -- an area around the Pacific Ocean basin known for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

"The abyss has been known for 90 years but until now no one has been able to explain how it got so deep," Dr Pownall said.

"Our research found that a 7 km-deep abyss beneath the Banda Sea off eastern Indonesia was formed by extension along what might be Earth's largest-identified exposed fault plane."

By analysing high-resolution maps of the Banda Sea floor, geologists from ANU and Royal Holloway University of London found the rocks flooring the seas are cut by hundreds of straight parallel scars.

These wounds show that a piece of crust bigger than Belgium or Tasmania must have been ripped apart by 120 km of extension along a low-angle crack, or detachment fault, to form the present-day ocean-floor depression.

Dr Pownall said this fault, the Banda Detachment, represents a rip in the ocean floor exposed over 60,000 square kilometres.

"The discovery will help explain how one of Earth's deepest sea areas became so deep," he said.

Professor Gordon Lister also from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences said this was the first time the fault has been seen and documented by researchers.

"We had made a good argument for the existence of this fault we named the Banda Detachment based on the bathymetry data and on knowledge of the regional geology," said Professor Lister.

Dr Pownall said he was on a boat journey in eastern Indonesia in July when he noticed the prominent landforms consistent with surface extensions of the fault line.

"I was stunned to see the hypothesised fault plane, this time not on a computer screen, but poking above the waves," said Dr Pownall.

He said rocks immediately below the fault include those brought up from the mantle.

"This demonstrates the extreme amount of extension that must have taken place as the oceanic crust was thinned, in some places to zero," he said.

Dr Pownall also said the discovery of the Banda Detachment fault would help assesses dangers of future tsunamis and earthquakes.

"In a region of extreme tsunami risk, knowledge of major faults such as the Banda Detachment, which could make big earthquakes when they slip, is fundamental to being able to properly assess tectonic hazards," he said.

The research has been published in the journal >Geology.

Source: Australian National University [November 28, 2016]

An international research team is formalizing plans to drill nearly 5,000 feet below the seabed to take core samples from the crater of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

The group met last week in Merida, Mexico, a city within the nearly 125-mile-wide impact site, to explain the research plans and put out a call for scientists to join the expedition planned for spring 2016. The roughly $10 million in funding for the expedition has been approved and scheduled by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) — part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) — and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP).

Dinosaurs and other reptiles ruled the planet for 135 million years. That all changed 65.5 million years ago when a 9-mile-wide asteroid slammed into the Earth, triggering a series of apocalyptic events that killed most large animals and plants, and wiped out the dinosaurs and large marine reptiles. The event set the stage for mammals — and eventually humans — to take over. Yet, we have few geologic samples of the now buried impact crater.

Sean Gulick, a researcher at The University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), and a team of scientists from the U.K. and Mexico are working to change that. The team is planning to take the first offshore core samples from near the center of the impact crater, which is called Chicxulub after the seaside village on the Yucatán Peninsula near the crater’s center.

The team, led by Gulick and Joanna Morgan of Imperial College London, will be sampling the crater’s “peak ring” — an enigmatic ring of topographically elevated rocks that surrounds the crater’s center, rises above its floor and has been buried during the past 65.5 million years by sediments.

A peak ring is a feature that is present in all craters caused by large impacts on rocky planetoids. By sampling the Chicxulub peak ring and analyzing its key features, researchers hope to uncover the impact details that set in motion one of the planet’s most profound extinctions, while also shedding light on the mechanisms of large impacts on Earth and on other rocky planets.

“What are the peaks made of? And what can they tell us about the fundamental processes of impacts, which is this dominant planetary resurfacing phenomena?” said Gulick, who is also a research associate professor at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. UTIG is a research unit of the Jackson School.

The researchers are also interested in examining traces of life that may have lived inside the peak ring’s rocks. Density readings of the rocks indicate that they probably are heavily broken and porous — features that may have served as protected microenvironments for exotic life that could have thrived in the hot, chemically enriched environment of the crater site after impact. Additionally, the earliest recovery of marine life should be recorded within the sediments that filled in the crater in the millions of years after the impact.

“The sediments that filled in the [crater] should have the record for organisms living on the sea floor and in the water that were there for the first recovery after the mass extinction event,” Gulick said. “The hope is we can watch life come back.”

The expedition will last for two months and involve penetrating nearly 5,000 feet beneath the seabed from an offshore platform. The core will be the first complete sample of the rock layers from near the crater’s center.

Once extracted, the core will be shipped to Germany and split in two. Half will be immediately analyzed by an international team of scientists from the U.S., U.K., Mexico and other nations, and half will be saved at a core repository at Texas A&M University for future research needs by the international community.

The team also includes researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY). Scientists interested in joining the mission must apply by May 8, 2015. For more information on the mission and the application process, see the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling’s call for applications.

Source: University of Texas at Austin [April 06, 2015]

A new study presents evidence that the rise of atmospheric oxygenation did indeed occur 2.4-2.1 billion years ago. It also shows that biological usage of copper became prominent after the so called 'Great Oxidation Event.' An international team of researchers has recently published the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Our findings make it possible to reconstruct nutrient content in early marine settings and demonstrate that the iron-rich content of the early oceans must have severely restricted the availability of nutrients important for life", says Dr Ernest Chi Fru of Stockholm University, who has led the research group.

The study suggests a gradual shift in mainly negative copper isotopic composition of marine carbon-rich sediments, beginning at 2.4 billion years ago (Ga), to permanently positive values after 2.3 Ga. The authors argue that the change reflects the drawn-out nature of the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), when atmospheric oxygen content went from virtually nothing, starting at 2.4 Ga, to peak at near present day levels by 2.3 Ga.

Fundamentally, the high iron content of the early oceans are suggested to have played a critical role in determining trace metal availability, whereby copper levels increased when decreasing marine iron content fell by about 1 000 times after the GOE. The research has been made by examining carbon-rich rocks deposited at the bottom of ancient oceans 2.66-2.1 billion years ago.

"The appearance of oxygen in the atmosphere is one of the most important changes in Earth's geological history that enabled the evolution of oxygen based life. Understanding the chemistry of the very early oceans and how nutrients were made available, guide our steps towards understanding the processes that govern our own evolution", says Dr Ernest Chi Fru of Stockholm University.

The study provides a tool for tracking how oxygen levels have fluctuated through Earth's history and the evolutionary changes that accompanied these fluctuations.

"Our study is highlighting how the isotopic ratios of copper can unlock the evolution of Earth's early oceans from being oxygen-poor to more like they are today. We now hope to apply this technique to understanding other major geological events in the Earth's history", says Professor Dominik Weiss, co-author from Imperial College London.

Source: Stockholm University [April 18, 2016]

Magnetic nanovortices in magnetite minerals are reliable witnesses of the earth's history, as revealed by the first high-resolution studies of these structures undertaken by scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom. The magnetic structures are built during the cooling of molten rock and reflect the earth's magnetic field at the time of their formation. The vortices are unexpectedly resilient to temperature fluctuations, as electron holographic experiments in Julich have verified. These results are an important step in improving our understanding of the history of the earth's magnetic field, its core and plate tectonics.

The earth's magnetic field performs important functions: it protects us, for example, from charged particles from space and enables migratory birds, bees, and other animals to navigate. However, it is not stable, and constantly changes its intensity and state. Several times in the past it has even reversed its polarity -- the north and south poles have changed places.

Scientists in the area of paleomagnetism use magnetic minerals to investigate the history of the earth's magnetic field and its formation from molten metal flowing within the earth's core, the so-called geodynamo. Furthermore, the movement of continental plates can be monitored with the aid of such rocks.

In the course of millions of years, these minerals could often have been exposed to immense temperature fluctuations, due to extreme climate change or volcanic activity, for instance. How well do the magnetic structures survive such temperature fluctuations and how reliable is the information gained from them?

An international research team has now studied this question for the first time at ultra-high resolution on samples of magnetite, the mineral dominating the magnetic properties in the earth's crust.

"It is only in a small part of naturally occurring magnetite that magnetic structures known for being very stable with respect to temperature fluctuations are found," explains Dr. Trevor Almeida of Imperial College London. "Far more common are tiny magnetic vortices. Their stability could not be demonstrated until now."

Together with colleagues from Forschungszentrum Julich, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Nottingham, Almeida has studied the magnetic vortices in magnetite nanocrystals. As the structures are so tiny -- each grain is only about the size of a virus -- there is only one method with which the nanovortices can directly be observed while they are heated up and cooled down: "A special high-resolution electron microscope at the Ernst Ruska-Centre (ER-C) in Julich is capable of making magnetic fields on the nanoscale holographically visible," explains Almeida. "In this way, images of field lines are produced almost like using iron filings around a bar magnet to make its magnetic field visible, but with a resolution in the nanometre range."

The experiments in Julich showed that although the magnetic vortices alter in strength and direction when heated up, they go back to their original state as they cool down. "Therefore magnetite rocks, which carry signs of temperature fluctuations, are indeed a reliable source of information about the history of the earth," enthuses Almeida.

"Electron holography has made it possible for us to gain a completely new insight into the magnetic behaviour of magnetite," emphasized Prof. Rafal Dunin-Borkowski, Director at the ER-C and at the Peter Grunberg Institute in Julich.

As an expert in electron holography, he works with his Julich team on further improving the resolution of this technique and in providing German and international scientists the necessary infrastructure to perform this type of study.

"Weak magnetic fields in nanocrystals don't just play a role in paleomagnetism. In information technology, for instance, electron holograms can also be of use to help to push back the physical limits of data storage and processing."

The study has been published in Science Advances.

Source: Forschungszentrum Juelich [April 18, 2016]

Scientists working off west Africa in the Cape Verde Islands have found evidence that the sudden collapse of a volcano there tens of thousands of years ago generated an ocean tsunami that dwarfed anything ever seen by humans. The researchers say an 800-foot wave engulfed an island more than 30 miles away. The study could revive a simmering controversy over whether sudden giant collapses present a realistic hazard today around volcanic islands, or even along more distant continental coasts. The study appears today in the journal Science Advances.

"Our point is that flank collapses can happen extremely fast and catastrophically, and therefore are capable of triggering giant tsunamis," said lead author Ricardo Ramalho, who did the research as a postdoctoral associate at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where he is now an adjunct scientist. "They probably don't happen very often. But we need to take this into account when we think about the hazard potential of these kinds of volcanic features."

The apparent collapse occurred some 73,000 years ago at the Fogo volcano, one of the world's largest and most active island volcanoes. Nowadays, it towers 2,829 meters (9,300 feet) above sea level, and erupts about every 20 years, most recently last fall. Santiago Island, where the wave apparently hit, is now home to some 250,000 people.

There is no dispute that volcanic flanks present a hazard; at least eight smaller collapses have occurred in Alaska, Japan and elsewhere in the last several hundred years, and some have generated deadly tsunamis. But many scientists doubt whether big volcanoes can collapse with the suddenness that the new study suggests. Rather, they envision landslides coming in gradual stages, generating multiple, smaller tsunamis. A 2011 French study also looked at the Fogo collapse, suggesting that it took place somewhere between 124,000-65,000 years ago; but that study says it involved more than one landslide. The French researchers estimate that the resulting multiple waves would have reached only 45 feet--even at that, enough to do plenty of harm today.

A handful of previous other studies have proposed much larger prehistoric collapses and resulting megatsunamis, in the Hawaiian islands, at Italy's Mt. Etna, and the Indian Ocean's Reunion Island. But critics have said these examples are too few and the evidence too thin. The new study adds a new possible example; it says the estimated 160 cubic kilometers (40 cubic miles) of rock that Fogo lost during the collapse was dropped all at once, resulting in the 800-foot wave. By comparison, the biggest known recent tsunamis, which devastated the Indian Ocean's coasts in 2004 and eastern Japan in 2011, reached only about 100 feet. (Like most other well documented tsunamis, these were generated by movements of undersea earthquake faults--not volcanic collapses.)

Santiago Island lies 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Fogo. Several years ago, Ramalho and colleagues were working on Santiago when they spotted unusual boulders lying as far as 2,000 feet inland and nearly 650 feet above sea level. Some are as big as delivery vans, and they are utterly unlike the young volcanic terrain on which they lie. Rather, they match marine-type rocks that ring the island's shoreline: limestones, conglomerates and submarine basalts. Some weigh up to 770 tons. The only realistic explanation the scientists could come up with: A gigantic wave must have ripped them from the shoreline and lofted them up. They derived the size of the wave by calculating the energy it would have taken to accomplish this feat.

To date the event, in the lab Ramalho and Lamont-Doherty geochemist Gisela Winckler measured isotopes of the element helium embedded near the boulders' surfaces. Such isotopes change depending on how long a rock has been lying in the open, exposed to cosmic rays. The analyses centered around 73,000 years--well within the earlier French estimate of a smaller event. The analysis "provides the link between the collapse and impact, which you can make only if you have both dates," said Winckler.

Tsunami expert Bill McGuire, a professor emeritus at University College London who was not involved in the research, said the study "provides robust evidence of megatsunami formation [and] confirms that when volcanoes collapse, they can do so extremely rapidly." Based on his own work, McGuire s says that such megatsunamis probably come only once every 10,000 years. "Nonetheless," he said, "the scale of such events, as the Fogo study testifies, and their potentially devastating impact, makes them a clear and serious hazard in ocean basins that host active volcanoes."

Ramalho cautions that the study should not be taken as a red flag that another big collapse is imminent here or elsewhere. "It doesn't mean every collapse happens catastrophically," he said. "But it's maybe not as rare as we thought."

In the early 2000s, other researchers started publishing evidence that the Cape Verdes could generate large tsunamis. Others have argued that Spain's Canary Islands have already done so. Simon Day, a senior researcher at University College London has sparked repeated controversy by warning that any future eruption of the Canary Islands' active Cumbre Vieja volcano could set off a flank collapse that might form an initial wave 3,000 feet high. This, he says, could erase more than nearby islands. Such a wave might still be 300 feet high when it reached west Africa an hour or so later he says, and would still be 150 feet high along the coasts of North and South America. So far, such studies have raised mainly tsunamis of publicity, and vigorous objections from other scientists that such events are improbable. A 2013 study of deep-sea sediments by the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre suggests that the Canaries have probably mostly seen gradual collapses.

Part of the controversy hangs not only on the physics of the collapses themselves, but on how efficiently resulting waves could travel. In 1792, part of Japan's Mount Unzen collapsed, hitting a series of nearby bays with waves as high as 300 feet, and killing some 15,000 people. On July 9, 1958, an earthquake shook 90 million tons of rock into Alaska's isolated Lituya Bay; this created an astounding 1,724-foot-high wave, the largest ever recorded. Two fishermen who happened to be in their boat that day were carried clear over a nearby forest; miraculously, they survived.

These events, however, occurred in confined spaces. In the open ocean, waves created by landslides are generally thought to lose energy quickly, and thus to pose mainly a regional hazard. However, this is based largely on modeling, not real-world experience, so no one really knows how fast a killer wave might decay into a harmless ripple. In any case, most scientists are more concerned with tsunamis generated by undersea earthquakes, which are more common. When seabed faults slip, as they did in 2004 and 2011, they shove massive amounts of water upward. In deep water, this shows up as a mere swell at the surface; but when the swell reaches shallower coastal areas, its energy concentrates into in a smaller volume of water, and it rears up dramatically. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami killed 230,000 people in 14 countries; the 2011 Tohoku event killed nearly 20,000 in Japan, and has caused a long-term nuclear disaster.

James Hunt, a tsunami expert at the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre who was not involved in the study, said the research makes it clear that "even modest landslides could produce high-amplitude anomalous tsunami waves on opposing island coastlines." The question, he said, "is whether these translate into hazardous events in the far field, which is debatable."

When Fogo erupted last year, Ramalho and other geologists rushed in to observe. Lava flows (since calmed down) displaced some 1,200 people, and destroyed buildings including a new volcano visitors' center. "Right now, people in Cape Verde have a lot more to worry about, like rebuilding their livelihoods after the last eruption," said Ramalho. "But Fogo may collapse again one day, so we need to be vigilant."

Source: The Earth Institute at Columbia University [October 02, 2015]

Planetary scientists have discovered pieces of opal in a meteorite found in Antarctica, a result that demonstrates that meteorites delivered water ice to asteroids early in the history of the solar system. Led by Professor Hilary Downes of Birkbeck College London, the team announce their results at the National Astronomy Meeting in Nottingham on Monday 27 June.

Opal, familiar on Earth as a precious stone used in jewellery, is made up of silica (the major component of sand) with up to 30% water in its structure, and has not yet been identified on the surface of any asteroid. Before the new work, opal had only once been found in a meteorite, as a handful of tiny crystals in a meteorite from Mars.

Downes and her team studied the meteorite, named EET 83309, an object made up of thousands and broken pieces of rock and minerals, meaning that it originally came from the broken up surface, or regolith, of an asteroid. Results from other teams show that while the meteorite was still part of the asteroid, it was exposed to radiation from the Sun, the so-called solar wind, and from other cosmic sources. Asteroids lack the protection of an atmosphere, so radiation hits their surfaces all the time.

EET 83309 has fragments of many other kinds of meteorite embedded in it, showing that there were many impacts on the surface of the parent asteroid, bringing pieces of rock from elsewhere in the solar system. Downes believes one of these impacts brought water ice to the surface of the asteroid, allowing the opal to form.

She comments: "The pieces of opal we have found are either broken fragments or they are replacing other minerals. Our evidence shows that the opal formed before the meteorite was blasted off from the surface of the parent asteroid and sent into space, eventually to land on Earth in Antarctica."

"This is more evidence that meteorites and asteroids can carry large amounts of water ice. Although we rightly worry about the consequences of the impact of large asteroid, billions of years ago they may have brought the water to the Earth and helped it become the world teeming with life that we live in today."

The team used different techniques to analyse the opal and check its composition. They see convincing evidence that it is extra-terrestrial in origin, and did not form while the meteorite was sitting in the Antarctic ice. For example, using the NanoSims instrument at the Open University, they can see that although the opal has interacted to some extent with water in the Antarctic, the isotopes (different forms of the same element) match the other minerals in the original meteorite.

Source: Royal Astronomical Society [June 28, 2016]

Throughout the Renaissance, the demand for antiques among the aristocracy burgeoned, with the trend soaring by the late 17th century as members of the upper classes began scouring Europe in search of bronzes, sculptures, prints, lamps and vases. With disposable income then rising among the aspiring middle classes in the latter part of the 19th century, the bourgeoisie took to investing in their homes and in the finer things as well. As antiques went mainstream, the market boomed in the hubs of London and Paris.

However, despite this generally rising appetite, antiques have a tendency to go in and out of fashion, as evidenced by the lulls in between the booms of the 1950s and 1980s. At present, the market is experiencing yet another lull; new tastes and values have sent demand and prices for antiques crashing, leaving armoires, bejewelled knick-knacks and Regency dining chairs unwanted and unsold, and causing many industry players to close down or change course entirely. Yet, in the midst of all the doom and gloom for antiques aficionados, there is some cause for optimism in a few niche areas, especially when it comes to fossils and minerals.

Out with the old

With so many more people living in smaller abodes these days – urban dwellers in particular – there is very little space for antique desks and looming tapestries. Nor, in fact, do such items match contemporary tastes, as interior design trends have changed considerably over the past decade or two. Sleek and modern pieces, airy spaces and overall functionality are the style du jour; cluttered rooms and bulky furniture seem to have little place in 21st century life.

“In general, young people have lost interest, and it is mostly older people who are buying – and obviously this area of the population is one that declines”, said Errol Fuller, a curator at Summers Place Auctions, and a leading expert on fossils and extinct species. “Not all areas of antique collecting are in retreat; it is the more drab brown furniture and traditional items that young people have little interest in. They look old-hat and boring.”

Given the niche knowledge and training required to even begin delving into the subject, Baby Boomers and Millennials are largely uninterested in antiques. Adding further to this growing indifference is the reputation antiques have for popularity among the older generations – a status consolidated by television programmes, such as the US and UK versions of Antiques Roadshow, that depict the field as a hobby for pensioners. The downsizing of former antiques hubs, such as London’s Fulham Road and New York’s Kentshire Gardens, reflects this shift further still, indicating the market in general has indeed reached a precarious state.

In with the even older

Over the past year or so, one big trend that is offering hope to those in the trade is the growing popularity of fossils and minerals.

“Decorative items, or things with intrinsic interest, still have appeal, and fossils and minerals have much of this quality. As do antique stuffed animals and birds. And it is these kind of things that are appealing to the young”, Fuller said. “The general public is becoming increasingly interested in the natural world – perhaps because we realise that much of it is vanishing at an alarming rate. We are becoming more conscious of anything to do with nature and to call a piece of natural history your own and to look after it for a few more years and save it for generations to come, is quite special.”

This interest in the natural can be seen across numerous sectors and industries: food, make-up and alternative therapies, to name but a few. It would seem, as these trends indicate, that people are done with the artificial and are tired of fakery; they yearn for something with authenticity. Items such as fossils and minerals offer a window into the natural world within one’s own home.

“Some are incredibly rare as well. But I think the main point is that most people are in sheer awe when they look at something that was created millions of years ago and which is still appealing to us”, said Fuller. “To imagine that this fossilised dinosaur or crab used to live on this planet such a long time ago, and is now one of the prized possessions in your collection is quite mind-blowing. Antiques and the amazing craftsmanship used to create them will always attract us, but I think it is the fact that fossils are not man-made that makes us look at them in wonder.”

Crucial to this trend is the fact that fossils and minerals complement almost any type of interior design. They offer contrast to a modern room with soft furnishings, yet not in the garish way that a cumbersome 17th century dining table might. Given the variety of sizes, colours and types available, there is something for everyone and every budget. “Fossils are also still reasonably priced, so are more accessible to the general public and not restricted to those with millions in their bank accounts”, Fuller said.

Their backgrounds make talking points like no other; it’s impossible not to be interested in their age, formation and aesthetic value.

“They are not man-made and, in terms of antiquity, they are much older. And, of course, they almost always have a story”, Fuller said. “People tend to buy antiques because they are interested in their history and they look great in their homes. Fossils and minerals tick all those boxes, but as our homes are getting more contemporary, fossils actually fit in better. They look better in a minimalist home than most antiques, while still being quirky enough to be a real focal point.”

When asked if he sees this trend continuing in the coming years, Fuller’s response was clear: “Absolutely, and especially because it is an area in which young people are becoming particularly interested, for all the above reasons. Summers Place Auctions established specific natural history sales with our first Evolution sale in 2013, but we have since gone from one specialist auction a year to including natural history items in all our sales – four in total. There is always a huge interest, but our last sale, which included the natural history collection of the Emmen Zoo, was the best yet – every single lot sold. We offered items at prices as low as £30, up to over £100,000.”

Cyclical nature

As shown throughout history, the trend for antiques in the home comes in waves. Wider phenomena, it would seem, have a large role to play; something may occur in popular culture that can ignite a craze, and a shift within an economy can spur a new trend. Take the hit show Mad Men; watched by millions and considered by many to be one of the greatest dramas of all time, the programme, which depicted life in a New York advertising agency in the 1960s, had a direct impact on the antique market. As the show’s popularity grew, so did that of sleek mid-century furniture, with sales of pieces by Charles and Ray Eames, and Jean-Michel Frank soaring during the show’s run. However, sales of such items have begun to slow once more since the show ended in 2015, demonstrating the fickle nature of tastes and trends when it comes to interior design, popular culture and what’s ‘in’.

The growing demand for Chinese antiquities offers another important lesson for the antiques world. Given the exponential growth in the Chinese economy over the past three decades, a huge social shift has taken place in the country, with a sizeable middle class now present for the first time in the country’s history. This expansion and growth in disposable income has allowed considerably more people in China to own their own homes and, consequently, to invest in them and in objects of aesthetic value. Interestingly, this shift has taken place at the same time as a significant cultural transition within the country, whereby symbols of the past, which were once neglected and even rejected, have regained their prominence. Until recently, all reminders of the China’s imperial past were overlooked by the ruling regime and, as a result, the public. However, a renewed zeal for Chinese history has seen citizens reach out for objects of cultural significance. This trend has led Chinese buyers to scour the globe in search of rare pieces.

The western trend for fossils and minerals may be in line with contemporary tastes, yet this too is likely to pass at some point – it may take several years, but it will pass. Evidently, the appetite for antiques, and for the various individual categories themselves, comes and goes. They are a reflection of society, the state of the economy, and of what was valued at any one time. At present, we are at a stage where the natural is lovingly embraced, which is clearly reflected in what we eat and how we style our homes. But the future may look very different. Perhaps period decor will come back into fashion, perhaps the dining room will have a revival, and maybe even large brown furniture will have its day once more.

Ultimately, the antiques market has a life of its own. It has its own ebb and flow, and is certainly an interesting reflection of society. Although the antique market is shrinking in general, all is not lost for those invested in it; who knows what we’ll once again value in the future?

Author: Elizabeth Matsangou | Source: European CEO [July 19, 2016]