Join geologist Rich Blundell in a hands-on exploration of our Woods Hole land and seascape. 

Have you ever picked up a rock on the beach and wondered what it is? Where it came from? What its story is? Every pebble you find on a familiar beach has been on an extraordinary journey.

Cape Cod contains the evidence of half a billion years of geological events: mysterious archipelagos, continental collisions, extinct oceans, Himalayan-scale mountain ranges, vanished volcanoes, and the glaciers that finally piled it all into the place we call home. Using rocks from his personal collection, including Precambrian granite, banded iron formation, stromatolites, and a tektite, Dr. Blundell traces the 500-million-year arc of how this landscape came to be and what every pebble underfoot is actually telling us. You'll gain a new way of seeing any beach, anywhere.

Dr. Rich Blundell holds a PhD in transformative natural history learning from Macquarie University’s Big History Institute. He has conducted ecological fieldwork across all of Earth’s major habitats over four decades and holds a USCG 100-ton Master’s license with sail endorsement. He founded Beautiful Futures Lab, a teacher training program, and the Origin School, an immersive place-based curriculum. His work has received support from the National Science Foundation for public communication of science, multiple awards for innovation in education and media, and ongoing funding from Rockefeller Philanthropic Advisors since 2017. He currently serves as Natural Historian for the Maria Mitchell Association on Nantucket.

We will meet at 50 Buzzards Bay Avenue at 11am and then walk down to the beach. There is no cost, but there is a maximum of 20 participants.

Please RSVP to info@woodsholeinstitute.org if you plan to attend.