Thread by @MiningNS

Re-watching some shows while #socialdistancing for #MarchBreak? We're chatting this week about some of our favourites that have great #geology or interesting stories behind their #filminglocations.
#nspoli #cbpoli #NovaScotia #CapeBreton #COVIDCanada #covid19 #COVID19NS

#GameofThrones used #Iceland's #Thingvellir Park as the #BloodyGate. Its landscape is caused by the Eurasian and #NorthAmerican tectonic plates meeting there and pulling apart at a rate of 2 cms per year. This made a rift valley: low land between 2 separating continents.
#nspoli

#MagheramorneQuarry, #NorthernIreland, is the set for #CastleBlack and #TheWall in #GameofThrones. The quarry wall is used as a backdrop and effects make it look huge.
The site's limestone was used to make cement. #NS has a limestone quarry and cement plant in Brookfield.
#nspoli

In #GameofThrones Renly Baratheon's camp near #StormsEnd is actually #Larrybane quarry in #NorthernIreland. It's a chalk quarry that was first mined in the 1800s. Chalk is used in foods, paint, paper, glass, cement and rubber. It also raises pH in soils with high acidity.
#nspoli

In #GameofThrones #Dragonstone is really Itzurun Beach, Spain. It's known for its flysch: rock formed from layers of ocean silt and sandstone compressed and tilted by tectonic plates colliding, leaving this great layered look. Much of southern #NS is flysch, ie the Ovens.
#nspoli

#GameofThrones calls it dragonglass but it's really obsidian. It often forms when lava instantly cools from coming into contact with water. It's been used for thousands of years in jewelry, weapons and tools. It's still used in knives because it's much sharper than steel.
#nspoli

#NorthernIreland's #DunluceCastle is where many #PykeCastle scenes were shot for #GameofThrones It was built in the 1500s on a #basalt cliff. Basalt is cooled lava and it's the most common rock in #earth's crust. It contains a lot of #iron - fitting for the #IronIslands.
#nspoli

The #DothrakiGrasslands are #SlemishMountain in N. Ireland. It's a 60 mill year old volcanic plug: magma that doesn't reach surface and hardens in place. In time the softer rock around it erodes leaving just the hill/column.
Slemish was also #StPatrick's first Irish home.
#nspoli

Former #mines/#quarries are sometimes used as film sets. For example, #HelmsDeep in #LordoftheRings was shot in the #DryCreek aggregate #quarry in #NewZealand.
#NovaScotia needs 10-15 million tons of new #aggregate each year to build and maintain our #infrastructure.
#nspoli #NS

This Thai island is often called #JamesBond Island because it was in #TheManWithTheGoldenGun and #TomorrowNeverDies. It's a #limestone tower karst, meaning it and the other islands were all part of 1 landmass but erosion created gaps, leaving separate islands.
#nspoli #NovaScotia

#Reclamation usually means returning a former mine to nature but not always. Atlanta is using an old quarry as a water reservoir to increase their reserve from 3 days to up to 3 months! They are building a park at the quarry and a 5-mile tunnel to move the water.
#nspoli #cbpoli

You might recognize #BellwoodQuarry, Atlanta's new water reservoir and park. It has been used as a set for various shows, such as #TheWalkingDead, #StrangerThings and #TheHungerGames.
Bellwood was a granite quarry for a century.
#nspoli #cbpoli #COVIDCanada #covid19ns #novascotia

#LukeSkywalker's island getaway is #Ireland's #SkelligMichael. The huts are real, built by monks who lived there during the 6th-12th centuries. They were built with local rocks using dry stone construction which uses no #cement yet creates a watertight structure.
#nspoli #cbpoli

The #stones are laid horizontally, each one placed over the previous one so it overhangs on the inner face. In this way the interior space reduces as it rises up to form a dome. The stones slope outward so rain runs off and stays outside.
#nspoli #NovaScotia #COVIDCanada #cbpoli