The Humble Stone

Have you ever wondered about stones, pebbles or rocks?
I have. What I wondered is 'How old are stones?'
I'm not talking about special stones, just normal ones, the kind that you might idly kick along the road. I had already guessed that they might be fairly old. It takes a long time to make a stone. I've also thought that although fossils are amazing, everyone focuses on the imprint in the rock and not the rock itself, unless you're a geologist I suppose. Having had this question knocking about in my head for too long I decided to seek some professional advice and emailed the 'British Geological Survey'. The answer I got back was quite surprising.

"Many of the pebbles picked up from the ground will have been chipped off from it’s parent rock, often somewhere far away, eroded and weathered as it travelled down rivers and streams. It can often be very difficult to know the source of the pebble as they can often travel very far.

We are very lucky here in the UK as our country is composed of a wide range of rock types dating from over 500 million years ago!"

So there you go. They've been around a lot longer than you and will survive you by maybe as long too.
Respect to the humble stone.