As a layman I’m wondering if this is just “WOW GEE WIZZARY” that the feeble minded journalists lapup or if it can provide genuine reliable data and benchmarks.
It’s certainly interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20575250

You used to be able to see fossil raindrops in the Windsor quarry, but they’re all messed up now.

PWM: Fossil raindrops are not common, but are not extremely rare either. The logic seems OK to me.

Windsor quarry? By the highway there where the road divides? Were they preserved in Triassic, Jurassic or earlier rocks?

Michael V said:

PWM: Fossil raindrops are not common, but are not extremely rare either. The logic seems OK to me.

Windsor quarry? By the highway there where the road divides? Were they preserved in Triassic, Jurassic or earlier rocks?

At the bottom of the Brisbane Tuff, Mr V. Not raindrop dimples, but blobs that were, when fresh, a mixture of volcanic ash and water. The eruption must have set off a massive rainstorm, as there was quite a layer of the stuff. then the ignimbrite started falling and covered and baked them. There’s all sorts of crap covering the exposure now, but it was once on the list of first year Geol excursions.

Need to get hold of a copy of this

http://www.ga.gov.au/oracle/library/catalogue_details.php?id=anb90986981

Ah, I see. Accretionary lapilli. Quite common in ashy sequences.

Rain storms usually accompany all but the most effusive of eruptions. Stuff to do with heat, evolved volcanic water, temperature differentials and so forth.

Interestingly, accretionary lapilli are relatively common just above the base of tonsteins in many coal sequences – indicating that tonsteins are air-fall tuffs.