All facets of nature are fascinating. Each has its own unique qualities, beauty and mysteries, some of which have been explored by men and some have been exploited. Today we will review a website that focuses on rocks, minerals, soils, earth, etc. Today’s site OneGeology Kids offers interesting content, trivia and infographics, beautiful pictures and illustrations.

For those who don’t know, geology is the study of Earth’s origin, structure, composition and history, (including the development of life) and the nature of the processes which have given rise to Earth as we know it today.

The site OneGeology Kids is focussed on children under 10 years of age and all young budding geologists out there. The homepage is where you find all the main components of earth such as energy, water, volcano, earthquake, rocks, minerals, maps, fossils and dinosaurs, etc., and interestingly, all of these are disguised as cute characters. Clicking on them will take the visitor to their main page, with amazing pictures, illustrations and brief but important information mostly in ‘box layout’.

The main character Ranger, gives basic information about geology and then one can progress through other characters or their respective pages. Visitors get to read and see the circle of earth’s life starting from the centre, the spiral goes from the present day to back in time, with each period’s geological name and the different creatures that lived during that time.

Also, the pages in various categories have Google maps with geology layers from the OneGeology Portal that arrive from all over the world. To switch the geology on and off, click the ‘Toggle geology’ link.

One of the good things about the site is that a visitor can locate the minerals or rocks found in various regions of the earth on maps. Of course, it takes time for the map to load, but it’s worth the wait.

Apart from that, you can download the posters of the cute characters and print them.

OneGeology is an international initiative of geological surveys of the world. This ground-breaking project was launched in 2007 and contributed to the ‘International Year of Planet Earth’, becoming one of their flagship projects.

Investigate what geology is all about at http://www.onegeology.org/extra/kids/home.htmln

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 30th, 2015