GeoscientistThe Fellowship magazine of The Geological Society of London | www.geolsoc.org.uk | Volume 21 No 3 | April 2011 READER SPECIAL OFFER!] [ See page 19

LINO BEAUTY Art and science combine SLIMEBALL EARTH Oldest complex life sees light once more

BHUTAN CONTACT Fieldwork on the roof of the world

CONTENTS GEOSCIENTIST

IN THIS ISSUE APRIL 2011

FEATURES 18 LINO BEAUTY Ted Nield talks to linocut artist and geologist Jean Slee-Smith REGULARS 05 WELCOME Give a focus to the Jurassic Coast, says Ted Nield 06 SOAPBOX David White points the finger of blame for Deepwater Horizon 07 GEONEWS What’s new in the world of geoscientific research 10 SOCIETY NEWS What your Society is doing at home and abroad, in London and the regions 20 BOOK & ARTS Two reviews, by David Nowell and Sarah Day 12 COVER FEATURE: BHUTAN CONTACT 22 LETTERS We welcome your thoughts Tom Argles (Open University) treks to the 24 PEOPLE Geoscientists in the news and on the move top of the world on a Society fieldwork grant 26 OBITUARY Two distinguished Fellows remembered 27 CALENDAR Society activities this month 29 CROSSWORD Win a special publication of your choice ONLINE SPECIALS n REVIEW Thomas Hardy and the Jurassic Coast, by Ted Nield

n ESSAY Literature and Geology, by Rebecca Welshman

n FEATURE Rock and ice: Ejafjällajökull and climate change, by Fabian Wadsworth

07 18 n FEATURE Tectonic crossroads, by Sarah Beijat

APRIL 2011 03

~ EDITOR’S COMMENT GEOSCIENTIST RAY OF LIGHT FALLING UPON PARO DZONG, BHUTAN Front cover photo: Shutterstock ~

OLYMPIC DREAM orset has two big things going for it: Geoscientist is the E enquiries@centuryone Fellowship magazine of publishing.ltd.uk its geology, especially as displayed the Geological Society W www.centuryone along the Jurassic Coast, which is of London publishing.ltd.uk mostly within the County – and its Contact CHIEF EXECUTIVE literature. I review the most recent The Geological Society, Nick Simpson example of how tourism is Burlington House, Piccadilly, T 01727 893 894 London W1J 0BG E nick@centuryone increasingly becoming integrated T +44 (0)20 7434 9944 publishing.ltd.uk with the UNESCO World Heritage Site concept in F +44 (0)20 7439 8975 D E [email protected] ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE Geoscientist Online, where this month you can find W www.geolsoc.org.uk Jonathan Knight an additional review and associated article about T 01727 739 193 Publishing House E jonathan@centuryone the Thomas Hardy Society’s latest publication – The Geological Society publishing.ltd.uk Thomas Hardy and the Jurassic Coast. Publishing House, Unit 7, Brassmill Enterprise Centre, ART EDITOR But if you come to visit the Jurassic Coast, where Brassmill Lane, Bath Heena Gudka is its front door – its shop window – its point of BA1 3JN departure? Where could you go to learn about it, T 01225 445046 DESIGN & PRODUCTION F 01225 442836 Sarah Astington get enthused, see exhibitions or pick up maps and Tanya Kant leaflets? Where is its one-stop-shop? Library T +44 (0)20 7432 0999 PRINTED BY You might cite the charming Victorian Dorset F +44 (0)20 7439 3470 Century One Publishing Ltd. County Museum, in busy and congested E [email protected] Copyright Dorchester. Then, in congested and almost car-free EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The Geological Society of Lyme Regis, you can visit the charming and quaint Professor Tony Harris FGS London is a Registered Charity, Philpot Museum. Indeed, no visit to Dorset is number 210161. EDITOR ISSN (print) 0961-5628 complete without both. But neither could claim to Dr Ted Nield NUJ FGS ISSN (online) 2045-1784 be an adequate focal point for a tourist-attracting EDITORIAL BOARD The Geological Society of London natural wonder of global standing. The short Dr Sue Bowler FGS accepts no responsibility for the answer is – there is no focal point for the Dr Robin Cocks FGS views expressed in any article in this Dr Martin Degg FGS publication. All views expressed, Jurassic Coast. except where explicitly stated Dr Joe McCall FGS otherwise, represent those of the However, amazingly, slap bang in the middle of Dr Jonathan Turner FGS author, and not The Geological the Coast, lies a large brownfield site – a huge area Dr Jan Zalasiewicz FGS Society of London. All rights reserved. No paragraph of this publication may of deprivation, industrial dereliction and Trustees of the Geological be reproduced, copied or transmitted depopulation, begging to be “re-purposed”, as Society of London save with written permission. Users registered with Copyright Clearance planning jargon has it, and waiting expectantly Dr J P B Lovell OBE Center: the Journal is registered with (President); Professor P A CCC, 27 Congress Street, Salem, MA below some relatively low-hanging cash from Allen (Secretary, Science); 01970, USA. 0961- Miss S Brough; Mr M 5628/02/$15.00. Every effort has regional and European development grants. Not Brown; Professor R Butler; been made to trace copyright holders only that - the area is about to become the focus of Dr M Daly; Professor A J of material in this publication. If any Fleet (Treasurer); Dr S A rights have been omitted, the the 2012 Olympics sailing competition and needs Gibson; Dr R Herrington; publishers offer their apologies. sprucing up. If you wanted convincing of the Dr R A Hughes; Dr A Law; No responsibility is assumed by the power of the Olympics to regenerate large areas in Professor A R Lord Publisher for any injury and/or (Secretary, Foreign & damage to persons or property as a short order, go to the Lea Valley, where the Olympic External Affairs); Professor matter of products liability, velodrome has just been completed – a mere five J Ludden; Mr P Maliphant; negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, years after the bid was won. Professor D A C Manning products, instructions or ideas (Secretary, Professional contained in the material herein. This place, of course, is the Isle of Portland, where Matters); Professor S Although all advertising material is Marriott (Vice President); expected to conform to ethical many old quarries, prison areas and docklands Professor S Monro OBE; Dr (medical) standards, inclusion in this would only be improved by the addition of a state- C P Summerhayes (Vice publication does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of the of-the art interpretation centre, complete with walk- President); Professor J H quality or value of such product or of Tellam; Dr G W Tuckwell the claims made by its manufacturer. through aquaria, alive with real sharks and (Vice President); Dr J P swimming animatronic ammonites, and surrounded Turner (Secretary, Subscriptions: All correspondence Publications); Professor D relating to non-member subscriptions by ample car parking. A real museum, showing J Vaughan; Mr N R G should be addresses to the Journals some of the NHM’s Jurassic and Cretaceous Walton. Subscription Department, Geological Society Publishing House, Unit 7 collections, currently hidden away in storage, could Brassmill Enterprise Centre, Brassmill Published on behalf of the Lane, Bath, BA1 3JN, UK. Tel: 01225 help fulfil that institution’s remit to place its riches Geological Society of 445046. Fax: 01225 442836. Email: London by [email protected]. The before the public. The local economy would be Century One Publishing subscription price for Volume 21, boosted permanently – providing an all-important Alban Row, 27–31 Verulam 2011 (11 issues) to institutions and non-members is £108 (UK) or £124 / legacy that the local Council could buy into. Road, St Albans, Herts, US$247 (Rest of World). AL3 4DG The time is right – action should be taken now. T 01727 893 894 © 2011 The Geological Society of F 01727 893 895 London DR TED NIELD EDITOR

APRIL 2011 05 GEOSCIENTIST SOAPBOX

Finger of blame? BY DAVID WHITE Want to know where to point the finger of blame for the Deepwater Horizon disaster? You can start by pointing to yourself, says oil-spill response specialist David White*

SOAPBOX The Deepwater Horizon blow-out in the well blowout; but how many readers are Gulf of Mexico brought safety and oil spills aware of a blowout in 2009 off Western to the forefront of the global media, and Australia that received much less Soapbox is open to pretty soon coverage turned to the question international media attention? Not to contributions from all Fellows. of where to point “the finger of blame”. As a mention other smaller incidents that occur You can always write a letter to geologist with experience in exploration and every year in the North Sea, West Africa, the Editor, of course: but production who has been working in the oil- Gulf of Mexico - in fact, all the smaller perhaps you feel you need spill response industry for a number of years incidents that happen everywhere. more space? (including Deepwater) I wonder if, when all Wherever oil is handled there is an inherent is said and done, we should not all look risk of spillage despite all our preventative If you can write it entertainingly in towards ourselves for blame: yes – that’s measures. The problem now facing us 500 words, the Editor would like you, me, everyone. comes from a combination of existing to hear from you. Our insatiable thirst for oil has resulted in production infrastructure in those older, relatively easy-to-exploit reservoirs easier-to-extract fields approaching the end Email your piece, and a self- becoming drier, and new finds rarer. of their life cycle, and higher-risk frontier portrait, to ted.nield@geolsoc. Exploration has been pushed by our areas being newly explored. Hardly org.uk. Copy can only be demand into frontier regions of world, surprising, then, that collectively, the risk accepted electrinically. No where extremely challenging situations for of oil-spill incidents rises. diagrams, tables or other exploration, production, transportation and illustrations please. spill-response present themselves. Such DUTY OF CARE new frontiers may lie in deeper water, more You may think this spill risk is unacceptable, Pictures should be of print remote and sensitive locations, and/or in but it is we who have pushed demand up. quality – as a rule of thumb, extreme environments. Industry has a duty of care, and makes huge anything over a few hundred investment in new drilling and production kilobytes should do. SOURCE CHANGE technologies that can cope with frontier The Deepwater Horizon incident areas – as does the response industry, so as Precedence will always be given

highlighted a number of issues, from to ensure a suitable level of global to more topical contributions. prevention to response and restoration. One preparedness should preventative measures Any one contributor may not

aspect that has not been widely reported is fail. But how often do we ask where the appear more often than once per the change being seen in the source of oil hydrocarbons for our cars, for our holiday volume (once every 12 months). spills. Historically, spills were mostly flights, our plastic consumer products, (the ~ associated with shipping – now, according to list is never ending), actually come from? global statistics on a clear downward trend. We have the right to demand that the While this is of course good news, what is original crude came from a well run, non- RATHER worrying is the emerging opposite trend in polluting field; that it was shipped in the exploration and production sector. modern double-hull tankers and refined at THAN ASKING We all know Deepwater Horizon was a facilities with strict environmental WHERE IT COMES management systems. Unfortunately, FROM, PERHAPS Photo: Anonymous Chevron worker traceability to exact source for any particular hydrocarbon product is virtually impossible, YOU HAD BETTER and such standards cannot be guaranteed. ASK YOURSELF So, rather than asking where it comes WHETHER YOU from, perhaps you had better ask yourself whether you actually need that ACTUALLY hydrocarbon product at all. NEED THAT HYDROCARBON * David White is Senior Consultant Response Specialist with Oil Spill Response Limited, Southampton, UK. PRODUCT AT ALL E: [email protected] David White Tackling Deepwater Horizon ~ W: www.oilspillresponse.com

06 APRIL 2011 NEWS GEOSCIENTIST Stay young and cuticle Remains of original chitin-protein complex - structural materials containing protein and polysaccharide - are abundant in Palaeozoic arthropod fossils, writes Ted Nield

PALAEONTOLOGY The discovery of chitin-protein complex molecules in Silurian fossils extends the fossil record of these molecules by almost 400 million years. Previously, the oldest molecular signature of this type had been seen in Cenozoic fossils a mere 25 million years old, though remnants of structural protein had also been discovered in rare 80 million year-old Mesozoic fossils. RELICT COMPLEX Professor George Cody (Carnegie Institution for Science) and an international team of scientists including Professor Andrew C Scott (Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London) discovered the relict protein-chitin complex in a 310- Read GeoNews first in Photo: Yale University million year-old (Carboniferous) Geoscientist Online scorpion cuticle from northern ] Illinois and a 417 million year-old [www.geolsoc.org.uk/ (Silurian) eurypterid - an extinct geoscientist scorpion-like arthropod, possibly related to horseshoe crabs—from Ontario, Canada (picture, courtesy, be found in fossils of even bacterial decay. However, Cody

Yale University). The findings could moderate age, let alone in fossils Above: Eurypterus believes that the vestigial protein- remipes

have major implications for our from the early Palaeozoic. chitin complex may have played a understanding of the organic fossil critical role in preserving the record, Scott~ told Geoscientist. HIGH RESOLUTION organic material by providing a Using a sophisticated analytical substrate that was protected from instrument called a XANES (X-ray total degradation by a coating of THIS RESEARCH Absorption Near Edge Structure) waxy substances that in life WILL AID OUR spectroscope at the Advanced protected the arthropods from Light Source facility (USA), the team desiccation. UNDERSTANDING OF THE measured low-energy X-ray Scott told Geoscientist: FOSSILISATION PROCESS, absorption spectra of carbon, “This research will aid our nitrogen, and oxygen atoms in the understanding of the fossilisation AND THIS NEW TECHNIQUE fossil material at a resolution of process, and this new technique ALLOWS US TO REVEAL THE around 25 nanometers. This high- allows us to reveal the chemical CHEMICAL NATURE OF A resolution microscopy revealed the nature of a fossil without total complex laminar variation destruction”. FOSSIL WITHOUT TOTAL characteristic of arthropod cuticle. DESTRUCTION The researchers found, to their Andrew C Scott surprise, that most of the carbon, REFERENCE ~ nitrogen and oxygen found in these The outer portion of arthropod fossils – as much as 59% in the in 1 G D Cody, N S Gupta, D E G exoskeletons - the cuticle - is a the scorpion and 53% in the Briggs, A L D Kilcoyne, R E composite material consisting of eurypterid - derived from protein- Summons, F Kenig, R E chitin fibres embedded in a protein chitin complex. Plotnick, A C Scott. Molecular signature of chitin-protein complex matrix. Both chitin and structural Not surprisingly, the material was in Paleozoic arthropods Geology protein decay easily, and it has long somewhat degraded, either by (2011; DOI: 10 1130/G31648 1). been thought that they would never chemical processes or partial

APRIL 2011 07 GEOSCIENTIST GEONEWS Slimeball Earth regained Scientists have recorded the discovery of a new formation of fossils which could represent the oldest example of macroscopic and morphologically complex life forms. Sarah Day reports

of oxygenation, which they exploited. Photo: Zhe Chen. PALAEONTOLOGY When conditions became anoxic again, The Lantian biota, thought to be around they were killed and preserved in the 600 million years old, evolved only a few shale rocks, which are known to be millions of years after the Snowball Earth excellent preservers of fossils. event ended, in waters thought to have “The bedding surfaces where these been incapable of supporting oxygen- fossils were found represent moments based life. The discovery from the Anhui of geological time during which free Province of South China, reported in oxygen was available and conditions Nature, raises the “intriguing possibility” were favourable”, says Xiao. “They are that the widespread glaciations of very brief moments to a geologist, but Snowball Earth drove the evolution of long enough for the oxygen-demanding complex life, researchers say. organisms to colonise the Lantian basin The discovery could put back and capture the rare opportunities”. estimates about the origins of complex Some 3000 fossils have been found, eukaryotes – organisms with a complex representing about 15 different species cell structure - by millions of years. including seaweeds and worm-like Current record holder, the Avalon biota, animals. This makes them not only is estimated to be around 579 – 565 older, but taphonomically different from million years old, its diversification the Avalon biota, while nearly matching triggered by the oxygenation of deep the latter in terms of diversity. “These oceans. The new assemblage, rocks were formed shortly after the named after the village near which it largest ice age ever, when much of the was found, is buried in between beds global ocean was frozen”, says Xiao. of black shale. “By 635 million years ago, the Snowball “In most cases, dead organisms were Earth event ended and oceans were washed in and preserved in black clear of ice. Perhaps that prepared the shales”, says Shuhai Xiao, Professor of ground for the evolution of complex Above: Part and REFERENCE counterpart of a ~600 Geobiology in the College of Science, eukaryotes”. million year-old fossil Virginia Tech, co-author of the paper. The research was supported by the from the Lantian 1 Xunlai Yuan, Zhe Chen, Shuhai “But in this case, we discovered fossils Chinese Academy of Sciences, Formation in Xiao, Chuanming Zhou & Hong southern Anhui, Hua An early Ediacaran that were preserved in pristine condition National Natural Science Foundation of South China, showing assemblage of macroscopic and where they had lived – some seaweeds China, Chinese Ministry of Science and morphological differentiation into a morphologically differentiated still rooted”. Technology, National Science holdfast for securing eukaryotes Nature, Vol. 470, The authors suggest that the Foundation, NASA Exobiology and to the sediments, a No. 7334, 17 February 2011, pp. presence of organisms living in anoxic Evolutionary Biology Programme, and a stalk or stem, and a 390 - 393. crown waters can be explained by brief periods Guggenheim fellowship (Shuhai Xiao).

08 APRIL 2011 GEONEWS GEOSCIENTIST

Earthlearningidea IN BRIEF n GUILTY VERDICT In March this year Earthlearningidea published its 100th freely UK consultants Cotswold downloadable activity on the www.earthlearningidea.com website Geotechnical Holdings has been found guilty of corporate manslaughter at Winchester Crown Court in the first ever conviction under the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007. The jury took 90 minutes to find the company guilty on 15 February of failing to ensure the safety of Alexander James Wright FGS.

The company was fined £385,000, which the judge, Mr Justice Field, said it could pay over 10 years. Charges against Director Peter Eaton CGeol, 61, were dropped due to his terminal cancer – which has prevented him from appearing in court. Eaton was severely criticised in the Judge’s summation. Wright was working alone in a 3.8m-deep unsupported trench in Brimscombe Lane, Stroud, when it fell on him in September early activities were aimed at EDUCATION Above: 2008. The firm denied the classrooms with minimal resources, EarthLearningIdea charge. More information online. ELI activities, published one per requiring only readily available brings Earth science to schools in 160 fortnight, are being downloaded at materials; many of the later activities countries n AGI GOES GLOBAL an average of more than 20,000 (designated ELI +) require apparatus The American Geological per month, and have been available in a normal school lab or Institute (AGI), of which the accessed in 162 countries across more abstract ideas. The Society was the first non-US the globe. All are available in Earthlearningidea website and member, is to further links English, most in Spanish, Italian translations are all developed on outside the United States, and Norwegian, some in Chinese a voluntary basis, so please reports Dawne Riddle. AGI has (Mandarin) and one in Tamil; ‘volunteer’ to tell your friends initiated three new programmes translations into Portuguese and and spread the Earthlearningidea to further relationships with Earth German are being prepared. The news! Chris King science organisations outside the USA, building on the strong funny old partnership already enjoyed with [WORLD ] the Society. A new category for International Associates allows groups with “A geologist has devised the said the 52 year-old German UNCONSIDERED few if any US members to share TRIFLES, BY ‘SNAPPER’ perfect lovers’ rock for professor. Fans say it’s ideal information with the federation. Valentines Day – the real life for making sweet music with AGI’s first International Associate sound of the Earth moving. Monitor: Sheila a loved on February 14. “It’s is the Young Earth-Scientists Frank Scherbaum has created not often you can say the Meredith. All ambient rhythms from the Earth moved and know just contributions gratefully (YES) Network. BGS and the sound of rock falls, volcanoes what it sounds like too”, received. Please write Geological Society of America and earthquakes… to allow revealed one.” to the Editor at (GSA) have recently joined forces the human hear to hear the Burlington House, or to create the Global Geoscience planet’s tectonic plates Metro, Thursday 10 Initiative (www.agiweb.org). AGI moving. “It’s very majestic” February 2011 email ted.nield @geolsoc.org.uk also supported teacher training marking your sessions held in London submission “snapper”. (August 2010).

APRIL 2011 09 GEOSCIENTIST SOCIETY NEWS SOCIETYNEWS HONORARY FELLOWS President’s Day - 8th June! Following a proposal from the Awards Committee, Council recommends two candidates for election to Honorary Fellowship at a future Ordinary General Meeting. Fellows may nominate candidates for Honorary Fellowship at any time. To find out how to do this, please go to www.geolsoc.org.uk/ honoraryfellowship.

n PROFESSOR MARIA BEATRIZ AGUIRRE-URRETA Earlier in the year, the Society announced the winners of its medals and funds 2011: Professor Aguirre-Urreta is a leading Argentine Robert Stephen John Sparks (Wollaston Medal); Christopher Paola (Lyell Medal); specialist on Charles Darwin’s geological researches in Bruce Watson (Murchison Medal); Robert Stuart Haszeldine (William Smith Medal); Argentina. She has collaborated in research for over Jon Paul Davidson (Coke Medal); Christopher Stringer (Coke Medal); Rebecca Lunn 25 years with Professor Rawson FGS both in (Aberconway Medal); Alexander Densmore (Bigsby Medal); Peter Kennett (R H Argentina and the UK, and particularly in relation to Worth Prize); Heiko Pälike (Wollaston Fund); Daniel Le Heron (William Smith Fund); fundamental studies of the Neuquén Basin, Argentina. Emily Jane Rayfield (Lyell Fund); Sarah Sherlock (Murchison Fund); Gerald Joseph This was significantly supported by two major Home McCall (Distinguished Service Medal). To these cam now be added the research grants from The British Council. Professor recipients of two President’s Awards, namely: Michele Paulatto and John Rudge. Aguirre-Urreta spent six months at University College London in 1988, and has made frequent return visits The Awards will be presented at President’s Day, to be held this year on 8 June to the UK. She has published in the Geological 2011. On that day (full details in the May issue), as well as the Presidential Address, Society’s Special Publication 252 (on the Neuquén there will be research talks by the four senior medallists. All titles have yet to be Basin) and served as a guest editor of Special Issue confirmed, but Christopher Paola (University of Minnesota) will be speaking on 42 of Geological Journal, and is an active contributor “Small worlds: what laboratory-scale experiments can tell us about sedimentary to several working groups of the International basins and the stratigraphic record” and Bruce Watson (Rensselaer Polytechnic Subcommission on Cretaceous Stratigraphy and Institute, New York) on "The Pros and Cons of Equilibrium". was a voting member of the Subcommission for All Fellows are welcome to attend the events of President’s Day; though Lunch nine years. with the Award Winners will incur a charge. Full details of charges and instructions n as to how to register will be published in the May Issue, which will be distributed with PROFESSOR SADRACK FÉLIX TOTEU the Annual Report 2010. Professor Toteu is the Director of the UNESCO office in Nairobi. He served as the Vice President (2001- 2004) and President (2004-2008) of the Geological Society of Africa. He is Deputy Secretary General for The Geological Society Club Africa of the Commission of the Geological Map of the World and was a Member of the Board of the The Geological Society Club, the successor to the body that gave birth to the International Year of Planet Earth. He is also a Society in 1807, meets monthly (except over the field season!) at 18.30 for 19.00 in Member of the Nominating Committee of the the Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall. Once a year there is also a special dinner at International Union of Geological Sciences. Professor Burlington House. New diners are always welcome, especially from Toteu is an experienced international scientist and an among younger Fellows. Dinner costs £45 for a four-course meal, accomplished scientific diplomat on behalf of African including coffee and port. Earth Science. He has made substantial contributions (The Founders' Dinner, in November, has its own price structure.) to knowledge of the chronostratigraphy of the Pan- There is a cash bar for the purchase of aperitifs and wine. African Belt, both within and beyond Cameroon, ore Please note – you should keep checking dates here as they may be deposits in Central Africa and is a leading scientist on subject to change without notice. the Tectonic Map of Africa. 2011: 13 April 2011 (Burlington House - prov.); 18 May

FUTURE MEETINGS Any Fellow of the Society wishing to dine should contact Dr Andy Fleet, n Council/OGMs: 13 April 2010; 22 June; 28 Secretary to the Geological Society Dining Club, Department of Mineralogy, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD. September; 30 November Email: a.fleet@ nhm.ac.uk - from whom further details may be obtained. DR

10 APRIL 2011 SOCIETY NEWS GEOSCIENTIST

FROM THE LIBRARY [lectures The library is open to visitors ] Monday-Friday 0930-1730. For a list of new acquisitions click Shell London the appropriate link from Lecture Series http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/info Rare book of the month! not only in Poole but also in London indicates the part such pictures played in luring tourists from the capital. Mostly, though, the drawings show the rocks of the Dorset coast in all their gnarled and knobbly glory, and include brief details of the geological strata to satisfy the scientific interests of the time. And there are two among the eight that illustrate the working man in the Purbeck quarry, Swanage, one guiding The Anthropocene: living in a new age his horse in the mill, another raising his 20 April 2011 pick-axe in the glow of a candle lamp. Illustrations of the geologic scenery The Library operates a sponsorship scheme Until recently, our extraordinary human odyssey has of Purbeck by Philip Brannon (date to help preserve and restore its rare books. taken place upon a stable planetary foundation. unknown) For more information, contact Michael Civilization has grown around stable shorelines and Philip Brannon (1817-1890) was an McKimm in the library, or see the Sponsor climate, and exploited the diverse biosphere of an Irish artist who produced a number of A Book page on the Society’s website: interglacial phase – the latest of many - that geologists engravings and watercolours of the www.geolsoc.org.uk/sponsorabook call the Holocene Epoch. This underlying stability Dorset and Hampshire coasts during the seems to be ending – and hence the suggestion that 1850s. This collection of eight postcard- we are now living through the beginning of the sized illustrations, ‘Engraved on steel […] “Anthropocene” - an interval of geological time after careful examination and accurate dominated by human influence. drawings made on the spot’, are intricate Jan Zalasiewicz, author of several acclaimed popular and beautiful depictions of various science books, is Senior Lecturer in Geology at the vantage points in the Purbeck area, from University of Leicester. A field geologist, the Upper Chalk at Old Harry Rocks palaeontologist and stratigrapher, he teaches geology down to the Forest Marbles of Radipole and Earth history to undergraduate and postgraduate near Weymouth. students, and researches fossil ecosystems and There is in all the engravings a human environments across over half a billion years of presence that marks the Victorian geological time. interest in the picturesque: cane-toting gentlemen pointing at the distance, n Programme – Afternoon talk: 1430pm Tea & ladies in bonnets being helped into Coffee: 1500 Lecture begins: 1600 Event ends. caves, sailing-boats circling Pinnacle n Programme – Evening talk: 1730 Tea & Coffee: Rock. That the booklet was published 1800 Lecture begins: 1900 Reception/Book launch. FURTHER INFORMATION Please visit www.geolsoc.org.uk/ shelllondonlectures11. Entry to each lecture is by n JOURNAL in the Library Collections section of ticket only. To obtain a ticket please contact Leila Taleb CANCELLATION REVIEW our website and we welcome your around four weeks before the talk. Due to the Reduction in the Library budget views on its contents. popularity of this lecture series, tickets are allocated in a means that some journals will have Sheila Meredith monthly ballot and cannot be guaranteed. to be cancelled over the next few years. Usage forms have been n OLDER E-JOURNAL Contact: Leila Taleb, Event Manager, The Geological placed with those titles which are ISSUES AVAILABLE Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG, being considered. To help with the Offsite access to 35 of our Elsevier T: +44 (0) 20 7432 0981 E: [email protected] selection process, when visiting the e-journals now extends back to Library please initial and date the 1995. See the Virtual Library for usage forms for the relevant journals. details of all 80+ e-journals. A list of these journals can be found Sheila Meredith

APRIL 2011 11 GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

hutan, a country slightly models of how the Himalaya were smaller than Switzerland but made and how the mountains no less mountainous, is continue to evolve. rightly famed for its wildlife. The landscape of the CONTINENTAL COLLISION northern reaches of the Not surprisingly for such a striking Bkingdom is also pretty wild, making example of a young continental geological fieldwork challenging at best. collision zone, the Himalaya has In May 2010, Clare Warren and I proved a hotbed of theories for trekked into the mountains of northern mountain-building processes for over Bhutan on the trail of some of the a century (see box text). A popular youngest crystalline rocks in the recent model attributes the highly- Himalaya. Oblivious (more or less) to deformed, high grade gneisses of the the bears, tigers and various species of Himalayan core to ‘channel flow’, leopard reputedly roaming the region, where rocks at a certain depth in the we explored high valleys hardly visited middle crust partially melt, triggering by geologists since the pioneering work ductile flow of these rocks back of Augusto Gansser in the 1960s. In towards the mountain front, where between teasing out the secrets of the they are then exhumed by rapid high-grade gneisses and leucogranites, erosion. This process has been we even found time for some filming likened to squeezing toothpaste (see Postscript). out of a tube. My main research aim was to However, evidence is emerging in investigate the zone where two Bhutan that motion on major shear groups of high-grade gneisses were zones, which dragged the high-grade juxtaposed. Could structural studies rocks up from the middle crust, was explain why these two groups of rock not restricted to a single, simple had recently yielded different episode of channel flow, but switched radiometric dates1? I also wanted to both southwards and northwards, verify some geological and structural exhuming different bodies of rock at features on Augusto Gansser’s original different times. This may reflect map2, in particular his report of layered doming and re-organization of the metasedimentary units in the upper mid-crustal channel3, or the Rodophu valley. Metamorphosed dynamic response of a large-scale sediments in this position – deep in the orogenic wedge, for instance by heart of the mountain belt – could out-of-sequence thrusting in provide valuable samples for northern Bhutan. determining the Pressure-Temperature By trekking to the area around (P-T) conditions under which they Laya village, we hoped to locate and formed. P-T and time information on map one of these major fault contacts, such rocks is critical for helping confirm how gneisses above and

geoscientists evaluate competing below the fault had been displaced ▼ GEOLOGY ON THE WORLD’S ROOF Tom Argles*, supported by the Society’s Mike Coward Fund, joined Clare Warren on an ambitious trek into the heart of the Himalaya Ray of light falling upon Paro Dzong, Bhutan GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

▼ by the fault, and collect samples for further analysis – to find out how hot and deep the rocks were when they were deformed. Analysis of thin sections of the rocks should tell us the P-T conditions in the footwall and hanging wall of the shear zone, as well as the conditions during actual shearing. Combining these data with existing dates on the gneisses juxtaposed across the shear zone will provide us with a crucial piece of the Himalayan puzzle in Bhutan. WORST CAMPSITE We lost a day, early in the trip, as our cook succumbed to an indeterminate fever; but trekked up to Laya village (3800m) via Koina – “the worst campsite in the Himalaya” according to Lonely Planet. We located a major, thrust-sense shear zone on our very first day working west from Laya. This ductile structure separates sillimanite gneisses in the footwall formed at c. 21-17Ma Looking north from slightly younger (c. 14Ma) granitic up the Mo Chu valley towards gneisses in the hanging wall. Laya from the Significantly, we observed undeformed trekking path leucogranites cross-cutting gneisses in both the footwall and hanging wall of this shear zone, whereas all the leucogranites we found within the shear zone were deformed into the shear fabric. Dating of these granites will therefore help constrain the timing of thrust motion here, which must post- date the main episode of channel flow in the Himalaya (c. 21-15Ma). On the third day after this discovery, another setback. Our crew informed us that our supply of bottled gas was running low, and we would have to cut the scheduled trek short! We debated trying to save a day by climbing over a Highly deformed high pass from our camp at Tashimaka leucogranite veins in to Rodophu valley, while the horses migmatitic trekked the long way round – but gneiss, Laya caution prevailed. We had already shear zone mislaid a couple of horses; in fact, we were to end the trek with only seven of the original 11 still present. (These loyal souls were rewarded with the tender ministrations of leeches in the torrential rain that greeted us on the return to Gasa.) We left Tashimaka with only one full day’s observations (the other highlight being a rare find indeed – the scat of a Snow Leopard), and headed for Rodophu valley. Our horseman, Layered rocks at the head of Sangay, inspects a Rodophu valley – Gansser’s cross-cutting metasediments – proved to be mainly leucogranite vein on the banded granitic gneisses with north flank of

leucogranites; however, we confirmed ▼ Rodophu valley

14 APRIL 2011 FEATURE GEOSCIENTIST

HIMALAYA: HOW TO MAKE A MOUNTAIN BELT

The Himalaya (and the Tibetan plateau to the north) were born around 50 million years ago in the collision between India and Asia. The elevated topography of this vast region is a surface expression of thickened crust in this continental ‘crumple zone’. Geoscientists working on the collision zone over a decade ago relegated the spectacular mountain range to a relatively minor role – as merely the fretted edge of a plateau (Tibet) that was collapsing under its own weight after losing its supporting lithospheric mantle root4.

Several geophysical studies supported this model, showing that the plateau was apparently spreading outwards in all directions. This marginal spreading is a major cause of recent earthquakes in the area, including those in Kashmir (October 2005) and Sichuan (May 2008). A recent refinement of the collapse model (the popular channel- flow hypothesis5) was founded on two major premises: that a drastic viscosity decrease occurs in mid-crustal rocks that develop small proportions of melt, allowing them to flow in a ‘channel’ at depth, and that second, intense erosion focused in a narrow zone will act to exhume one end of such a channel rapidly to the surface5.

Many geological predictions of this model (in various permutations) chimed with what field geologists had observed in the Himalaya. Foremost among these Map of route taken by Clare was the observation that the intensely- Warren, Tom deformed, high-grade core of the Argles, their mountain belt (the Greater Himalayan trekking crew and dwindling Series) had been rapidly exhumed by packhorse train coeval motion on a basal thrust and an overlying low-angle normal fault at around 23 to 17Ma.

Opposing models picture the Himalaya as a wedge of crustal material constantly deforming internally to maintain a critical ‘angle of taper’ – i.e. a shape that represents dynamic equilibrium between all the forces acting on the collision zone. This group of models emphasises the role of major Sketch cross- thrust faults propagating through the section through the Himalaya, orogenic wedge, in effect ‘shuffling’ showing how thrust sheets to adjust the overall cross- channel flow sectional shape of the mountain belt. could account for surface geology

APRIL 2011 15 GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE To apply for a Society grant [www.geolsoc.org.uk/grants]

▼ the distribution of sillimanite gneisses be a metamorphic transition. (to the south) and more granitic My research will continue to focus on gneisses (to the north). An additional the eastern Himalaya, including curiosity was the discovery of a body of synthesising field and thin-section data strange, granular potassic rock, arising from this trip. The Himalayan- deformed and metamorphosed at the Tibet research group at the Open margins, within the high-grade University (www.open.ac.uk/himalaya- gneisses. This was unlike the small tibet) is thriving, with two PhD projects mafic granulite boudins we saw in Sikkim and Bhutan currently in full frequently in the float throughout the swing. We plan to collate recent data on area, which date from the a revised GIS-based map of the Bhutan- Palaeoproterozoic. This was just one Sikkim region, and use the results of our Snow picks out more intriguing piece of the structural, metamorphic and weak layering dipping south Proterozoic puzzle to further geochemical studies to resolve some (right) in complicate the ancient history of rocks remaining puzzles on how the eastern gneisses, head from the Himalayan core. Himalaya were made. of Rodophu valley On our reluctant return trek, we at I will also be working with Clare least had the opportunity to boast of Warren again, investigating how the Snow Leopard poo and vulture geochemistry of hot springs in Bhutan is sightings to Steve Backshall and a influenced by major faults or carbonate heavily-laden BBC crew, heading up for units – in particular their role in CO2 some high-altitude filming round Laya. fluxes and silicate weathering. n Our early return also gave us time for a couple of detailed road sections near * Dr Tom Argles is Senior Lecturer in the the capital Thimpu – in this case Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, detailed transects across the purported Open University. tectonic contact between the Greater Himalayan Series and the underlying, lower grade ‘Paro metasediments’. We ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS recorded a gradual transition down- I am grateful to the Geological Society for the section from sillimanite gneisses with opportunity to pursue this research, and to my minor leucosomes to garnet companions (Clare, Sonam, Bhim, Leto, micaschists, with no structural evidence Chimmi, and Ugyen) for smoothing the for a significant tectonic fault or shear troubled path of fieldwork in the northern zone – contrary to just about every reaches of Bhutan, where such basics as fuel, other geological map of this section. oxygen, and time itself are all at a premium! Our horses tuck into breakfast FUTURE RESEARCH at Rodophu Our structural fieldwork confirms that camp. Inset: aftermath of the Laya shear zone is an out-of- night grazing sequence thrust that emplaced and leeches, younger gneisses southwards over Gasa older gneisses. This discovery does not rule out channel flow in the Himalaya, but it does imply a more episodic tectonic history - perhaps switching between channel flow and dynamic wedge processes at different times. Our fieldwork also calls into question large-scale fold structures mapped by Gansser south of Laya2, as well as his identification of layered metasediments in the upper Rodophu valley, and the tectonic ‘contact’ between Paro metasediments and overlying Greater Himalayan Series Layered gneisses – which appears to gneisses dipping north (left) into Tibet Warren and Argles looking relatively fresh – at the base of just before the start of the trek! Masang Kang (7165 m) 16 APRIL 2011 FEATURE GEOSCIENTIST

REFERENCES

1 Warren, C.J., Grujic, D., Kellett, D.A., Cottle, J., Jamieson R.A., and Ghalley, K.S. Probing the depths of the India-Asia collision: U-Th-Pb monazite chronology of granulites from NW Bhutan, Tectonics, in review. 2 Gansser, A. 1983. Geology of the Bhutan Himalaya, 181 pp., Birkäuser Verlag, Basel. 3 Kellett, D. A., Grujic, D. & Erdmann, S. 2009. Miocene structural reorganization of the South Tibetan detachment, eastern Himalaya: Implications for continental collision. Lithosphere 1(5), 259-281. 4 England, P. C. & Houseman, G. A. 1989. Extension during continental convergence, with application to the Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Geophysical Research 94, 17561-79. 5 Beaumont, C., Jamieson, R. A., Nguyen, M. H. & Lee, B. 2001. Himalayan tectonics explained by extrusion of a low-viscosity channel coupled to focused surface denudation. Nature 414, 738-742.

POSTSCRIPT

n FURTHER VIEWING Prompted by the Broadcast Unit at the Open University, Clare Warren and I shot a variety of footage of this field season with a hand-held HD camcorder. The aim was to evaluate how feasible it was to operate a battery-driven camera in a remote region (no recharging!), and assess the quality of filming possible when research fieldwork took priority. We are editing a series of short films on different aspects of our fieldwork for YouTube and other platforms. These will serve a variety of purposes: some were deliberately filmed as teaching tools for the Open University’s distance-learning students, some will serve as promotional material for potential PhD and undergraduate students, and others will showcase the research done by the Himalaya-Tibet Research Group at the Open University (www.open.ac.uk/ himalaya-tibet).

You can see one of the short films on YouTube here: www.youtube. com/ watch? v=qFfxu MH8emA

APRIL 2011 17 GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

LINO BEAUTY Jean Slee-Smith, geologist and linocut artist, talks to Ted Nield about her work and the interplay of art and science FEATURE GEOSCIENTIST

caught up with the artist Jean Left (clockwise Slee-Smith late last year at an from top): Black ice, Hoffellsjokull exhibition of her work at the SE Iceland. Alpine Club, East London. Successive layers Almost straight away she told of black ash and ice give interesting me that she “should have patterns as the Ibeen a scientist” – an unusual ice melts and the observation – certainly much less ash insulates the ice below common than the opposite observation from many Flint, Middleton on Sea. A groyne, professional scientists. So why defence against didn’t she become a scientist first, longshore drift. and an artist second? Flint nodules are newly eroded from “I had an idyllic childhood in chalk on the shore, South Cumbria during and after the black the War. At school I found I was cryptocrystalline silica becomes good at art, maths and physics; but visible as it chips having chosen the option of doing in storms art in my small grammar school, I Hutton's could not then select either biology Unconformity, or chemistry. And while I was Siccar Point - a key place in the good at it, unfortunately the maths understanding of was not interesting to me. sedimentary “Later, I went to the Royal processes and the time they take College of Art. There, we had the to happen immense privilege to receive a Gneiss and snow - series of lectures from the Alpes Maritimes, mathematician, author, poet, France inventor and polymath Dr Jacob oceanography and matter in the So, did she make her art partly Right: Hallival, Bronowski (1908-1974). He’s Rhum, Scotland. universe (chemistry in a vacuum in the hope of conveying perhaps best remembered today Layered cumulates and nuclear physics).” something about geology? Did for his 1973 BBC documentary from a Tertiary Jean’s lino cuts have a rugged she feel somewhere a desire to magma chamber series The Ascent of Man but for me yet sensuous quality, well suited to explain about rocks or Earth it was his lectures on such things as Below: Jean mountainous landscapes such as processes? Modestly, she Slee-Smith at her relativity and the theory of exhibition, October those of Westmorland where she admitted: “The two disciplines of numbers - in everything from art 2010, Alpine now lives. I asked Jean about her art and geology are useful to each and music to living organisms. I Club, London. connection with her native other. Geology makes my work Photo: Ted Nield was enthralled! landscape and found her different from that of other “Then I married. We had three connection with it was more than landscape artists; and my ability to children, the eldest of whom was purely artistic. observe and draw is, conversely, severely mentally handicapped. “When I moved back north, I useful in the natural sciences. In After he died there was still no joined the Westmorland Geological linocut especially, textures and provision for mental health in three Society and became southern co- form become clearer, and detailed local towns in Hertfordshire and I ordinator on Cumbria RIGS, for drawing can reveal something of became involved for a while in whom I produced several field the rock's history, its formation securing the provision of hospital guides” she told me. “I have and the way it has weathered. I beds and a community service. recently become interested in hope something of that comes During this time, to keep my mind lichens and have an exhibition in across. My interests determine active in other ways, I went to the local library of lichens in the what I choose to portray and the enrol in a night-school class; but parish churchyard.” picture evolves from the separate finding it full found myself Lino cutting is a pretty arduous selections of different colours often instead in a geology group, technique – from wielding the knife surprising me in the process. ” run by a petrologist (with a to making the prints by hand. I I think readers will agree that good rock collection!) who also asked whether she had explored more than something does conducted excellent field trips. other media, and what made lino indeed come across in these The first lesson was about clay cutting her particular medium compelling images. and how it transforms of choice. under heat and pressure. “I prefer to paint and draw in Reader offer: Jean Slee-Smith is Later I studied for a wild places with interesting pleased to offer her linocut prints to degree in Earth geology. In cutting lino I have to readers of Geoscientist at a discount of sciences with the select and simplify. This gives a 10% off the marked price. To purchase, OU - with unity to the rock, brings out the please visit her website at fascinating forays various features that are www.jeansleesmith.co.uk and mention into evolution, impossible in watercolour or oils.” “Geoscientist” when making purchases.

APRIL 2011 19 GEOSCIENTIST BOOKS & ARTS

Gordale Scar, by James Ward Alexis Drahos* analyses one of the iconic North Country images from the early 19th Century

ART HISTORY Commons Image © Wikimedia Gordale Scar, about a mile northeast of Read more,longer Malham in North Yorkshire, England, was ] a locality much loved by Romantic [reviews online! painters of the early 19th Century, and James Ward (1769-1859) – though best known as an animal painter - is a case in point. This large and imaginative canvas, 332cm x 421cm, exhibited today at Tate Britain, London, was created between 1811 and 1815 and was recognised as one of the most astounding depictions of cliffs in British landscape painting at that time. It remains one of the most striking. Ward was particularly interested in depictions of rural life, and chiefly painted farm animals, under the clear influence of the Dutch painters of the 17th Century. Ward’s artistic education, and the early canvases he painted in the late 1790s could hardly have prepared his audience for this, now famously full-blown Romantic representation of wild nature. At that time, many believed that it was very difficult – if not impossible - to tackle this kind of geological site from a pictorial point of view. In the art-historical bedding from left to right hand sides of ‘meaning’. Above: Gordale literature, this painting has been more the scar is fairly accurate. Scar (1811-1815) This gorge, from which the misfit rarely linked to the emerging science of In the lower part of the cliff on the left- by James Ward. stream Gordale Beck now emerges, was geology than to the Theory of the hand side, Ward de-emphasizes Tate Britain cut by glacial meltwaters at the end of Sublime, which at that time was bedding. Here the Mountain Limestone the Pleistocene Period. It sits on the widespread throughout Europe and seems more massive; vertical elements northern edge of the Craven Fault, an informed much of European landscape dominate here, whereas bedding on the ancient synsedimentary fault with huge painting. The presence of ominous right-hand side is emphasized because (over 900 metre) throws. It is one of the clouds certainly appear to corroborate it is indeed more visible there. However, principal geological lineaments defining this idea, recalling landscapes by the joint-bed intersections on the left are not, the Pennines and Yorkshire Dales – and 17th Century Italian master Salvatore of course, as ‘geologically meaningful’ as even gains a mention in Charles Darwin’s Rosa, who is generally regarded as the would be suggested by the way they On the Origin of Species (1859). The trailblazer of Romantic painting. have been depicted. The artist's eye breathtakingly high character of the cliffs Nevertheless, the overawing presence of emphasizes the way blocks are breaking (they are actually about 80 metres tall) as the limestone cliffs clearly evokes the off at these bedding-joint intersections. represented by Ward, evoke the geological world - and to me seems One might expect an experienced immensity of geological time, providing inseparable from the scientific context of geologist, sketching this view in a field an early example of the same sort of the time. notebook, to do it rather differently. visual metaphor for Deep Time seen in The ‘Scar’ - meaning crag or cliff - is a Indeed, the artist draws the outcrop in much later paintings – such as those of well-known spot in the Yorkshire Dales similar to the way debutant geology William Dyce (1850s). National Park. It consists of students might draw before having The bull at the foot of the cliff serves as Carboniferous Limestone (Dinantian, c. gained very much experience in making a comparative measure between the 340Ma), formed when northern England geological sketches grounded in a puny, ephemeral animal world and the lay under a shallow, clear tropical sea knowledge of geological theory. Non- infinitely greater geological one, towering abounding in shells and corals. The geologists, when drawing natural rock above and stretching away into an rocks are ‘realistically’ depicted; the artist faces, will tend to emphasize shadows unfathomable past. carefully representing the stratification and erosional irregularities on outcrops, near the top of the cliff, where bedding whereas trained geologists tend to * Dr Alexis Drahos is an art historian indeed stands out because of contrasts emphasize cross-cutting structural specialising in the relationship between painting in resistance to weathering in adjacent relationships that they know are and the emergence of geology in the late 18th beds. Also, the correlation of the possessed of greater geological and 19th Centuries. He lives in Paris.

20 APRIL 2011 BOOKS & ARTS GEOSCIENTIST

energy and mineral resources, including in erecting flood defences. (limited) geothermal potential, ground I was pleased to see history included; conditions, a wide range of potential several visitors seemed surprised to find hazards and water supply. climate was being studied long before it Though this publication is most became so publicly controversial. And the welcome, a clearer font would help the exhibits never forget to include people in reader as the text is much harder to read the story – not just scientists, but those than with the 1:50,000 sheet explanations. affected by changing climates. New editions to this series are expanding The gallery opened a few months ago, to the point where they are becoming and has already fallen victim to that unwieldy, and in future it would be wise frustrating inevitability of interactive Northern England to consider dividing some regions - galleries – the mysterious red button that This is the latest edition in the long- unless they can follow the example set by doesn’t do anything. It probably did do running British Regional Geology Series, other BGS publications rather than trying something once; but now it sits there, originally designed to complement the to make up for the loss of detailed inviting visitors to push it, and wonder regional displays in the newly opened 1:50,000 sheet memoirs. what that something was. Other than that, Museum of Practical Geology in South the technology was impressive – Kensington, London. These regions have Reviewed by David Nowell, particularly a ‘flip book’ which virtually remained largely unchanged since the New Barnet, Hertfordshire displays the reasons why various oft- 1930s, apart from a recent unified memoir quoted culprits are not causing the present for Wales. INTRODUCTION TO NUMERICAL GEODYNAMIC warming – volcanoes, the sun, changes in This large 255x180mm book covers MODELLING the Earth’s orbit, etc. P STONE, D MILLWARD, B YOUNG, J W MERRITT, S M Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, almost CLARKE, M MCCORMAC & D J D LAWRENCE, Published I did feel that some of the all of Durham and Cumbria and the by: The British Geological Survey; 2010; ISBN: 978- “interactivity” stole the limelight from northern half of Cleveland, plus the Isle 085272652-5, 304pp List price: £18.00 (25% ‘real’ exhibits – an ice core was relegated of Man. Folded in the back is a 1:625,000 academic discount), www.bgs.ac.uk to a corner, while a core sample was bedrock geology map, revised to show credited with ‘telling us’ about the history the remapped Jurassic outlier just west of of the Earth’s climate, without much Carlisle. The introduction places this Exhibition: Atmosphere – explanation of how. But this is more than region in tectonic context with made up for by the wealth of information palaeogeographical reconstructions, and exploring climate science on display in such a variety of formats, like the rest of the text is illustrated with ‘Atmosphere’ is an important addition to bringing climate science to life in an superb photographs and diagrams. the Science Museum, not just because impressive and, at times, beautiful way. Detailed chapters start with the early climate science is such a hot topic. It Ordovician outcrops of the Lake District demonstrates a science which is still Reviewed by Sarah Day and Isle of Man. Then there is an ongoing – instead of engines, computers impressive summary of volcanism and and space shuttles, products of a science EXHIBITION: ATMOSPHERE – EXPLORING CLIMATE related plutons intruded during Caradoc which has been ‘cracked’, visitors get a SCIENCE times to give the Borrowdale Volcanics. sense of a field which does not yet have Science Museum, London, Timing: Permanent Admission: Free, www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visit The remaining Lower Palaeozoic all the answers. museum/galleries/atmosphere.aspx sequence is then described, followed by a Of course, these benefits are also chapter on Acadian deformation and problems. So much of what climate magmatism. The significance of scientists do is invisible -represented by REVIEWS: COPIES AVALABLE Carboniferous limestones, millstone grit data sets and models. Without the and coal measures is reflected in the 46 gadgets and gizmos, how do you Interested parties should contact the pages devoted to the cyclical deposition demonstrate the subject in a meaningful Reviews Editor, Dr. Martin Degg 01244 of these intricate sequences. Variscan way? On the whole, ‘Atmosphere’ has 513173; [email protected], only. mountain building is then described, risen to this challenge, packing a Reviewers are invited to keep texts. including the intrusion of the Whin Sill. surprising amount into what at first looks Review titles are not available to order Permian and Triassic sediments, and their like a fairly small gallery. from the Geological Society Publishing marine transition into the Jurassic, are The first thing you can’t help but House unless otherwise stated. then detailed, as is mineralisation. notice is that it’s blue. Very, very blue. In The Quaternary is at last covered keeping with the rest of the Wellcome properly given that superficial deposits Wing, this gives it a soothing (if slightly n 4 Es: Ethics, Engineering, Economics cover extensive areas, and in view of its surreal) ambience. What’s particularly and Environment (2nd Edition) Buckeridge, wider influence on the landscape and its impressive is how much information is J StJ S (2011), The Federation Press. relevance to understanding global included (though not too overt and n Principles of Environmental Science: warming. Real rather than radiocarbon intimidating) on touch-screens, to dig Inquiry and applications (6th Edition) time is mainly used in this account of the into as much as you want. Despite this Cunningham, W P & Cunningham, M A massive climate fluctuations associated wealth of detail, the gallery remains (2011), McGraw Hill. with the end of the last ice age, neatly accessible to children, with some illustrated by ice core data from brilliantly conceived games n Geomaterials Under the Microscope: Greenland. The final “geology and man” demonstrating key concepts - from A colour guide Ingham, J P (2011), Manson. chapter provides a useful review of local greenhouse gases to the choices involved

APRIL 2011 21 Geoscientist welcomes readers’ letters. These are published as promptly as possible in Geoscientist Online and a selection READERS’ printed each month. Please submit your letter (300 words or fewer, by email only please) to [email protected]. LETTERS Letters will be edited. For references cited in these letters, please see the full versions at www.geolsoc.org.uk/letters THE EYES HAVE IT CLIMATE CHANGE Sir, I loved your definition of "climate change denyer", though I believe it completely misses the point. Climate change is a fact of life and our contribution incontrovertible, with myriad historical precedents, as we geologists all know. It's the "climate change" label that's wrong. "Population squeezing" would be better. What upsets sceptics about the new politically charged environmental science, with its preference for models and consensus rather than truth, is the Cassandra syndrome: "We're all doomed". Poppycock! See Sarah Day's excellent report on “Reptile Recovery” for some truth. We need birth control in our water supplies far more than we need carbon taxes. No Sir, I just wanted to drop a quick email to you politician or religious leader can admit and the team at Geoscientist to congratulate this, so we are misled. you all on the great new look and format of A re-focusing of the argument by the magazine. Lots more colour and images responsible geological leaders towards support the interesting articles- a really population control might change engaging publication. Look forward to the politics in time to stop us wiping next issue. ourselves out. April Lloyd Richard Clarke

Sir, I don't like it! I don't like it at all! The HORNER CORNER pages look cluttered and busy, with their Sir, I was pleased to read about prominent bands of colour, unnecessary Leonard Horner (Geoscientist 21.1, inset pictures, bold coloured headings and p08). The Edinburgh Academy was Sir, I very much like the sub-headings. The appearance is more that founded in 1824 by Horner, Henry new-look Geoscientist. I miss the photograph of a sales brochure (dare I say 'junk mail'?), Cockburn (Lord Cockburn) and John of the Editor, obviously, but the layout of the with every page competing to grab my Russell, following an early discussion rest is very easy on the eye. The subheads attention. Please, please, consider reverting between Horner and Cockburn while grab attention and it is much more 'newsy' to the former, more restrained, style. walking on the Pentland Hills in while retaining articles of significance. The Mike Ridd April 1822. paper seems better quality too. All-in-all a “....One day on the top of the professional job. Well done to all involved. Sir, Nice new look! Well done. Pentlands - emblematic of the solidity Tony Bazley Peter Styles of our foundation and of the extent of our prospects - we two resolved to set Sir, I can immediately see the greatly improved Sir, You and your team have done a really about the establishment of a new legibility of the typescript in the newly formatted good job with the revamping of Geoscientist. school.” (Cockburn's Memorials, Geoscientist and write to thank you for this The content is as impressive as always and p. 235). change, in particular. the new layout has a very lively feel. Well done. Magnus Magnusson's book The David C Almond Ron Williams Clacken and the Slate - The Story of The Edinburgh Academy 1824-1974, is well worth perusal, and refers to WRONG BUCHAN Horner's incredible energies directed towards educational Sir, In the standfirst for the obituary of Stuart Hardy Buchan reform. As both an (Geoscientist 21.2, p26) he is described as having been a Academical and former Assistant Director of BGS. As the main text of the geologist myself, I obituary points out, it was not he who worked for the have always been Geological Survey but his father, Stevenson Buchan. I hope you pleased that one of will be able to put a correction in the next issue of Geoscientist the school's to prevent any confusion. founders had a Andrew L Morrison, Archivist, British Geological Survey keen interest Editor writes: We have also been informed that Stevenson Buchan’s in geology! correct title would have been “Deputy” and not “Assistant” Director. Andrew McMillan

22 APRIL 2011

GEOSCIENTIST PEOPLE

Geoscientists in the news and on the move in the UK, PEOPLE Europe and worldwide CAROUSEL All fellows of the Society are Lord Cadman honoured entitled to entires in this column. Please email ted.nield @geolsoc.org.uk, quoting your Lord Cadman the third receives a memorial plate and a portrait Fellowship number. of his illustrious grandfather by local schoolchildren of Silverdale, in a recent celebration at his birthplace n NEIL FOSTER Neil Foster has Image © Shirley Torrens recently moved to lead WSP Environmental’s business in Perth, Western Australia. A former regulator, and formerly WSP’s regional manager in Romania, Neil will be heading the provision of energy and environmental consultancy services to Australia’s mineral and resource sectors. n TREVOR JONES Trevor Jones has left Nuvia and set up AdvanSci Limited, which provides strategic and technical consultancy services in nuclear decommissioning, radioactive and hazardous waste management, permitting of radioactive waste treatment and disposal facilities, and the assessment and management of radioactively and chemically contaminated land. Contact [email protected].

n ROGER MOORE Roger Moore has been appointed A memorial plaque to Lord members of the family – was to the UK's first Cadman of Silverdale FGS held on 5 December 2010. Chair in Applied (1877-1941) has been John Cadman came from a Geomorphology. unveiled at St Luke’s family of mining engineers, He will hold his Silverdale - the parish and became an authority on new University of Sussex post where this remarkable man petroleum in World War 1, alongside his long-standing role was born and is buried and advised the British as Director (Geotechnics & writes Hugh Torrens. Government. In 1921 he was Engineering Geomorphology) Cadman’s grave has also appointed Technical Adviser for Halcrow Group. Professor been restored and a to the Anglo-Persian Oil Moore will oversee the dedication service, in the Company (later to development of a new presence of 14 “Cadmen” - become part of BP). Masters programme. Lord Cadman of Silverdale FGS (1877-1941)

24 APRIL 2011 PEOPLE GEOSCIENTIST

HELP YOUR OBITUARIST The Society operates a scheme for Fellows to deposit biographical material. The object is to assist obituarists by providing contacts, dates and other information, and thus ensure that Fellows’ lives are accorded appropriate and accurate commemoration. Please send your CV and a photograph to Ted Nield at the Society.

Unearthing his Savage past IN MEMORIAM WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/OBITUARIES Charles Bacon colleagues of his from the THE SOCIETY NOTES WITH SADNESS THE PASSING OF: writes: I would Geological Survey of Malaya. Baadsgaard, Peter * Mange, Maria (Maria like to put a However, I recently discovered Coleman, John Arthur R * Anna Mange-Rajetzky) note in the that Herbert spent the World Craig, James * Mann, Paul Dunstan * forthcoming War II years working in Zomba, Harwood, H J * McArthur, Alastair* Henney, Paul Morley, William Geoscientist Nyasaland (now Malawi) with * * Hepworth, Barrie * Richardson, Alfred James * regarding a Frank Dixey and others. I would John, Thomas Urias * Roberts, David Ivor * relative of mine, Herbert E F like to find out if any readers have Jones, James Peter * Shi, Yafeng * Savage. I am compiling a any recollections of geological Locke, Matthew * Wilson, Henry Hugh * biography of him and would like to work with Herbert in Nyasaland In the interests of recording its Fellows' work for posterity, the Society see if any readers of Geoscientist at this time that could help me publishes obituaries online, and in Geoscientist. The most recent additions to can help. Herbert was a self with my research. I gather that the list are shown in bold. Fellows for whom no obituarist has yet been taught geologist who became much of the work was related to commissioned are marked with an asterisk (*). Director of the Malayan Geological groundwater exploration. If you would like to contribute an obituary, please email Survey in 1946, and published the [email protected] to be commissioned. You can read the guidance for authors at . To save yourself first Geological Memoir of Malaya. Contact: Charles Bacon FGS, www.geolsoc.org.uk/obituaries unnecessary work, please do not write anything until you have received a A Fellow of the Geological Society School of Earth Sciences, Wills commissioning letter. until his death in 1981, he sadly Memorial Building, Queen's Road Deceased Fellows for whom no obituary is forthcoming have their names and did not receive an obituary. I have Bristol BS8 1RJ dates recorded in a Roll of Honour at www.geolsoc.org.uk/obituaries. managed to contact some former E: [email protected] DISTANT THUNDER Pennies from heaven Chicken Little was convinced that the sky was falling. But it was really space-rocks, writes Nina Morgan

Meteorites But unfortunately not everyone Alabama. The strike have been a subjected to a close encounter left her badly source of has been so lucky. On Christmas bruised – and wonder since Eve in 1965 when the bonnet of set off an ancient times, Percy England’s car was struck unfortunate but it wasn’t by a fragment of the Barwell chain of events Acknowledgment: These - and until the last (Leicestershire) meteorite – the that changed her other - tales of meteor strikes century that largest meteorite fall ever life forever. Firstly, she appear in the newly published they have recorded in the UK – he first discovered that under US law, book: Incoming: or why we conferred much in the way of attributed the damage to which assigns ownership of should stop worrying and learn financial benefit on their finders. vandals. Mr England was less meteorites to the owner of the to love the meteorite, by Ted Even common meteorites can than elated to discover that the land on which it falls, her landlord Nield (ISBN 9781847082411), confer great riches. For example, real culprit was a meteorite. was deemed the legal owner of published by Granta in 2011, Michelle Knapp, a teenager from Vandalism was covered by his the meteorite. After losing a £20.00. Peekskill, Westchester County, insurance – meteorite damage lengthy legal battle, she and her New York earned big bucks after was an act of God, and not. husband decided to buy the If the past is the key to your a 12.4 kg chunk of the very well (Sadly for this tale, the meteorite meteorite for $500, hoping to present interests, why not join documented Peekskill meteorite in question was not a car- cash in. But by the time the deal the History of Geology Group landed on the nearside rear bonnet-ite.) was done, interest had (HOGG)? For more information corner of her 12 year-old Chevy For Ann Hodges, the evaporated. The disappointment and to read the latest HOGG Malibu sedan at around 8 PM on consequences were more led to the break-up of her newsletter, visit the website at the 9th of October 1992. serious. On 30 November 1954 marriage. Mrs Hodges became www.geolsoc.org.uk/hogg Meteorite and car were bought she was struck by a meteorite an invalid and died at 52. In her by collectors for a whopping weighing almost four kilograms case, being singled out by the * Nina Morgan is a geologist $78,000. The car has since when it crashed through the roof heavens did not - alas - lead to and science writer based been exhibited around the world. of her rented house in Sylacauga, worldly fortune. near Oxford

APRIL 2011 25 GEOSCIENTIST OBITUARY

OBITUARY‘

RHYS GLYN DAVIES 1923-2010 Welsh geologist and “Bevin-boy” who went on to gain extensive mapping experience in Africa and Middle East

hys Davies was and researched in 1947-48 for Aberystwyth in 1952 to economic mineral studies born in an MSc in chemistry, which obtain a PhD, but also (he was also a Fellow of the Penygraig in the was awarded~ in 1949. spending some time at Institute of Mining & Rhondda, South Imperial College. He Metallurgy (FIMM)), and Wales in 1923, studied the geochemistry of counterpart training Reducated at Bridgend the Cader Idris granophyre, projects in Iran. This was THE TEAM FLED Grammar school and gaining his degree in 1955, followed by three years in University College OVER THE MOUNTAINS, the year he became FGS. London from which he Aberystwyth, from where BUT RHYS REMAINED made advisory visits for the he graduated in chemistry COOL AMID THE SENIOR GEOLOGIST MOD to numerous Middle before being conscripted Rhys then joined Huntings East countries before, in briefly into the coalmines MOUNTING TURMOIL Technical Services and soon 1977-79, becoming Chief as a ‘Bevin Boy’ in 1944. HE WAS ALWAYS became Senior Geologist Mapping Geologist with He was released to join the THE PERFECT and Expedition Manager. Geophysical International, Royal Army Service Corps He worked in the central mapping part of SE Iran. in which he rose to be a GENTLEMAN Saharan Ahagger Massif in Lieutenant, serving mainly ~ southern Algeria, the COOL AS CUCUMBER in India and Egypt. He In 1948 Rhys entered the Ardrar des Iforas region to Unfortunately the project was demobbed in 1947, chemical industry as a the west in Mali, the was abruptly ended by the re-entered research chemist in Leigh, western Rift area of Iranian revolution and the Aberystwyth Lancashire while Tanganyika, Calabria in team had to flee over the also being an southern Italy and on mountains but Rhys was evening lecturer laboratory projects. From reported to have ‘remained at Wigan 1961-68 he was the as cool as a cucumber amid Mining & Leverhulme Professor and the mounting turmoil’. He Technical Head of the Geology was always the perfect College. In Department in the gentleman. His final 1951-52 he University of the Punjab, contracts were with the studied Lahore, Pakistan. The British Antarctic Survey positive- Department was founded in (1979-80) and in 1980-2 in hole 1957 under UNESCO Saudi Arabia on a joint catalysts for because in 1947, when West Royal School of Mines R. Graesser Pakistan separated from Project. From 1983 he Ltd. before India, there was not one worked as a valued returning to geology department in the volunteer in the Haslemere whole of West Pakistan. By Museum and from 1994-97 1968 Rhys had improved as a most meticulous the facilities and trained Treasurer of the Geologists’ enough indigenous staff Association. that a Pakistani Head could He leaves a wife Pamela, be appointed. sons Caradoc and Richard Rhys then entered the and grand-daughters Adele Overseas Division of and Celine. A much fuller the Institute of account of his life will Geological Sciences appear in the Proceedings (now BGS) as of the Geologists’ Principal Scientific Association. Officer, supervising two three-year By Bernard Elgey Leake with geological mapping, grateful thanks to the family

26 APRIL 2011 CALENDAR GEOSCIENTIST

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DIARY OF MEETINGS MARCH 2011

CAN’T FIND YOUR MEETING? VISIT WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK – FULL, ACCURATE, UP-TO-DATE

Meeting Date Venue and details

EGU General Assembly 2011 3-8 April Vienna. The EGU General Assembly 2011 will bring together geoscientists from all over the (European Geosciences Union) world into one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. Contact: E: [email protected] W: http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2011

Teleconnections: Far-field Links in 3-8 April Vienna. The session will encourage an examination of the teleconnections in the integrated Sedimentary Source-to-sink Systems sediment routing systems connecting source and sink, particularly when perturbed by climatic and tectonic mechanisms. Contact: Philip Allen E: [email protected]

Sedimentary and Early Diagenetic 3-8 April Vienna. Contact: Stephen Lokier E: [email protected] Processes in modern and ancient carbonate systems

Geological Collectors and Collecting 4-5 April Burlington House. Covers collecting of geological maps and books in addition to fossils, Conference (History of Geology rocks and minerals. Includes workshops, posters and behind-the-scenes tours as well as Group) talks from invited speakers. Contact: Nina Morgan E: [email protected]

Skittles Social (South Wales Regional) 6 April The Halfway 247 Cathedral Road, CF11 9PP. Time: 1800. £5 per person, includes buffet. Contact: Tim Wilkinson E: [email protected]

New Zealand Slope Stability & 7 April Venue TBC Jonathan Cahm (Opus International) Time: 1830 Contact: Chris Berryman Highway Failures (North West Regional) T: 01925 291111 E: [email protected]

The Status and Future of the World's 11-14 April Austria Centre, Vienna. Aims to provide a global forum for a wide-ranging discussion of Large Rivers (BOKU - University of key issues related to research on large rivers and to their effective and sustainable Natural Resources and Applied Life management. Contact: BOKU E: [email protected] Sciences) W: http://worldslargerivers.boku.ac.at/wlr/

Field Trip to Lilstock (South West 17 April Lilstock ST 16849 45528. Time: 10.00 A field trip to the north Somerset coast led by Regional) Gordon Neighbour in a classic area for Triassic-Jurassic geology and palaeontology. Contact: Cathy Smith E: [email protected]

Young Geologists Competition 19 April Jacobs offices, Winnersh Triangle. Tea/ coffee 1830. Talk 1900. Speakers TBC. (Thames Valley Regional) Contact: Philip Charles E: [email protected]

Engineering Geology Aspects of 19 April Burlington House. Time & speaker TBC. Contact: Malcom Whitworth Sub-surface Gas Storage Options E: [email protected]

The Anthropocene: Living in a New Age 20 April Burlington House. A Shell London Lecture. Times: 1500 and 1700. See this issue, p11

Lyme Regis Fossil Festival: Marine 29 April - 1 May Lyme Regis. ‘Marine Parade’ will explore the undersea world on our doorstep, looking at Parade (Lyme Regis Fossil Festival) the marine reptile fossils as well as the amazing diversity of creatures in our seas today. Contact: T: +44 (0)1297 444042 E: [email protected] W: www.fossilfestival.com

APRIL 2011 27 GEOSCIENTIST OBITUARY

OBITUARY‘

RICHARD WELCH MURPHY 1929-2010 A petroleum geologist of the old school who eschewed a career in management to indulge his love of science

ick Murphy died various Alpine basins. He built links with Chelsea geologists benefited from his on 8 September moved to SE Asia in 1962 College (later Royal encyclopaedic knowledge. 2010, aged 81. which began his love affair Holloway) and helped Dick Murphy will also be Born in St Louis, with the region, and in 1965, establish the oil-industry remembered for his deep Missouri, on 3 after three years’ fieldwork in Consortium for Geological knowledge of history and DSeptember 1929 he grew up the Philippines, Dick joined Research in Southeast Asia. the arts, as an accomplished in Washington D.C. and Esso’s Far East Study Group This spawned an industry writer, and poet. Although went to Princeton with a (Singapore). Fieldwork in short course, ‘Petroleum immensely attached to Fulbright Scholarship in Sabah (1965) commenced as Geology of Southeast Asia’, Britain he remained an European History. Periods usual with an ascent of the which Dick gave all over the American (and never lost his spent in Vienna fuelled his region’s highest mountain, in world until 2010. During accent!). He is survived by affection for Europe, and this case Mount Kinabalu, but those 25+ years, some son Troy from his first classical music. he also discovered the 'Hash 1400 young marriage, by his second House Harriers' there - and wife Kate, their KOREA TO MT. FUJI running became another daughters Rachael After graduating (1951) passion. and Sarah, six Dick joined the US Army, grandchildren, serving in Korea and rising HOUSTON TRANSFER and by his to Lieutenant. An R&R trip Living in Singapore he met partner of to Japan (November 1954) his second wife Kate several years, allowed him to climb a (m.1969). Fieldwork in Christine snow-covered Mt Fuji, Japan and Taiwan brought Oxborrow. which engendered a their adventures, and By Michael passion for mountain- invitations to explore in F Ridd climbing. In 1955, funded Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, by a US Army West Malaysia, Cambodia demobilisation grant, and beyond were investigated began a Master’s degree in and recommendations telexed geology at the University to New York. Dick became of Wyoming, graduating President of the Geological 1958. His fieldwork earned Society of Malaysia, and in Dick a reputation as an 1973 co-founded the SE Asia adventurous type, and his Petroleum Exploration mountaineering skills were Society. When Esso’s employed helping to Singapore office closed (1977), recover bodies from the Dick and his family October 1957 air crash on reluctantly accepted a transfer Medicine Bow Peak, then to Houston, and (1980) to America’s worst ever Esso’s Europe/Africa aviation disaster. Division in London. He Dick worked in the retired from Esso in Rockies for Casper Oil 1983 but travelled Company and then widely as a consultant Standard Oil in the late 50s for the World Bank before joining Esso’s élite and for 'Rover Boys'. carrying out governments of reconnaissance surveys developing around the world, countries. including the Sahara, Settled in Nigeria, Argentina and Surrey, Dick

28 APRIL 2011 CROSSWORD GEOSCIENTIST

CROSSWORD NO. 145 SET BY PLATYPUS WIN A SPECIAL PUBLICATION

The winner of the February Crossword puzzle prize draw was Colin Morey of Flitton.

All correct solutions will be placed in the draw, and the winner’s name printed in the June issue. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Closing date - April 25.

The competition is open to all Fellows, Candidate Fellows and Friends of the Geological Society who are not current Society employees, officers or trustees. This exclusion does not apply to officers of joint associations, specialist or regional groups.

Please return your completed crossword to Burlington House, marking your envelope “Crossword”. Do not enclose any other matter with your solution. Overseas Fellows are encouraged to scan the signed form and email it as a PDF to [email protected]

Name ...... ACROSS DOWN Membership number ...... Address for correspondence ...... 1 Peat mound above an ice lens in 1 The numbering of leaves (10) permafrost (5) ...... 2 Major tributary of the Thames in 4 Persian prophet and philosopher London (3) ...... who famously thus spake, 3 Derivatives of ammonia containing a basic according to Nietzsche (9) nitrogen with a lone pair (6) ...... 9 Any granitic rock (9) 4 Motile asexual spore with a flagellum, ...... 10 Get stuffed, on Cheddar, produced by some algae, bacteria and possibly? (5) fungi (9) ...... 11 Any protein structurally associated 5 Wireless transmission (5) ...... with a nucleic acid (14) 6 Ynys Môn (8) ...... 14 Elongated, continuously growing 7 King, specifically, of the Cretaceous front tooth (4) menagerie (11) ...... 15 Well to-do (10) 8 Bioherm - or a hazard to shipping (4) Postcode ...... 18 Soft hydrocarbon secretions of 12 White Monks (11) certain plants (10) 13 Evaluation (10) 19 Region of Imperial Russia where SOLUTIONS FEBRUARY Jews were allowed to settle 16 Association of clinically recognisable features (9) permanently (4) ACROSS: 21 Rectangular square-tiled areas 17 More windy - or possibly cheerful (8) 1 Rural 4 Tightwads 9 Diapirism 10 Ester with alternating colours - a bit 20 Bicentennial (2007) President (6) 11 Onomatopoetic 14 Ants 15 Nightshade like this one in fact (13) 18 Intermarry 19 Abut 21 Nomenclatural 22 Calcareous mid Ordovician shale from the Hindu term for ascetic or yogi (5) 24 Edict 25 Annuities 27 Logistics 28 Shear 24 Appalachian Basin, first described by 25 Never-changing (9) Ebenezer Emmons in 1842 (4) DOWN: 27 They who came down like a wolf 23 Currently the world's largest continent (4) 1 Radiolaria 2 Ria 3 Laical 4 Trilobita 5 Gumbo on the fold (9) 26 Reptilian (though occasionally feathery) 6 Treatise 7 Antechamber 8 Sark 28 Fermenting fungus (5) constrictor (3) 12 Outstanding 13 Fertiliser 16 Hirelings 17 Eremites 20 Stoics 22 NAAFI 23 Zeal 26 Ice

APRIL 2011 29 Marine resource geologist Southampton

RECRUITMENT Hanson is one of the UK’s largest suppliers of construction materials and part of the HeidelbergCement Group. Our products include aggregates, asphalt, ready- mixed and precast concrete, bricks, blocks and cement. Our marine aggregates division operates a fleet of aggregate dredgers in UK and European waters. We are seeking a marine resource geologist based at our Southampton office. Working in the resource department you will provide geological and resource management advice for planning and assessment work and licence compliance through to dredge voyage scheduling and liaison with customers. Qualified to graduate or post graduate level in a marine science or with experience in mineral development, you will also have experience of GIS techniques and tools. To apply, please send your CV and covering letter to: Dr Nigel Griffiths, Principal Resources Manager, Hanson UK, Burnley Wharf, Marine Parade, Southampton SO14 5JF, or e-mail: [email protected] Closing date for applications: April 15, 2011 For more information about Hanson, or to apply on line, visit www.hanson.com/uk. We are an equal opportunities employer. Please ensure you are legally able to work in the UK before applying for this role.

30 APRIL 2011 Frontiers Meeting 2011

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