Open University Geological Society Journal Volume 29 Number 2 Symposium Edition 2008 Editor: Dr David M. Jones e-mail: [email protected] The Open University Geological Society (OUGS) and its Journal Editor accept no responsibility for breach of copyright. Copyright for the work remains with the authors, but copyright for the published articles is that of the OUGS. ISSN 0143-9472 © Copyright reserved OUGS Journal 29 (2) Symposium Edition 2008, printed by Hobbs the Printers Ltd, Totton, Hampshire Open University Geological Society Journal Symposium Edition 2008 Contents page iii Editorial iv Editor’s notes to contributors 1 William Buckland and the foundation of English geology Dr Allan Chapman 9 James Parkinson: medicine, the founding of the Geological Society and a little light treason [abstract] Dr Cherry Lewis 10 World wars: a catalyst for British geological innovation Dr Edward P. F. Rose 18 The role women have played in developing the science of geology 1797 to 1918–19 in Britain Prof. Cynthia Burek 26 Marie Stopes — palaeobotanist Prof. Bill Chaloner 31 Fear, reverence, entrapment and enlightenment: selected aspects of the story of meteoritics up to 1864 Alan J. Bowden 40 Ian Gass — our founding father Jane Randle 48 Geologists versus engineers — 19th-century conflicts over the supply of water to London Prof. John Mather 52 ‘God’s great plough’ — Louis Agassiz and the Ice Age Dr Chris Duffin 66 Nineteenth-century battles over bones and ice: Geikie versus Dawkins Dr Anne O’Connor 70 Making the invisible visible: early data display in the geological sciences Prof. Richard J. Howarth 81 An introduction to the history of geological conservation in the United Kingdom Prof. B. A. Thomas 88 Slavery, sugar, and the Survey Tom Sharpe 95 Geochronological hits and misses: various attempts to determine the age of the Earth Dr Patrick N. Wyse Jackson 98 Summary remarks OUGS President Dr Sandy Smith 100 Committee of the Open University Geological Society 2008 Book reviews are on pages 17, 25, 69 and 97 Map reviews are on page 65 It is the responsibility of authors to obtain the necessary permission to reproduce any copyright material they wish to use in their article. The views expressed in the OUGS Journal are those of the individual authors and do not represent those of the Open University Geological Society. In the opinion of the author the description of venues are accurate at the time of going to press; the Open University Geological Society does not accept responsibility for access, safety considerations or adverse conditions encountered by those visit- ing the sites described in these articles. Cover illustrations: Thin sections of several different habits of barite (photographs by Jane Clarke). botryoidal barite acicular barite poikilotopic barite mag. 538×; ppl mag. 549×; xpl mag. 530×; xpl bladed barite (white) botryoidal barite spherulitic barite mag. 580×; ppl mag. 538×; xpl mag. 584×; xpl fasicular-optic barite banded barite banded barite mag. 549×; xpl mag. 538×; xpl mag. 538×; ppl Editorial Dr Sandy Smith of the Open University Earth Sciences Department, current OUGS President and Dear OUGS Members, herself a former colleague of Professor Gass, summed Symposium papers take a great deal of time to tran- up the series of lectures, including a few anecdotes of scribe or collect from the speakers/authors, indeed her own (see Smith, this volume, page 98). for the authors themselves to write, and then for the Many people put in many months of work to organ- Journal Editor to edit, compile and lay out the papers ise this symposium and it is only fitting that we for publication. should thank them again in print. Sue Vernon was Thank you for your patience. Chair of the Symposium Committee, and the commit- We held a successful and very interesting OUGS tee members were Sally Munnings, Maureen Lewis, Symposium on the History of Geology at the Royal Jo Lakeland, Eddie Yeadon, Nicole Gay and Jenny Holloway, Egham, beginning with a keynote lecture Parry. by Dr Allan Chapman about one of the founders of We have the ever dynamic Di Smith to thank for British geology, William Buckland, and finishing pursuading and organising the line-up of speakers. with what seems an appropriate, and basic, topic to As is OUGS current practice, the Symposium lec- earth science studies — geochronology — by Patrick tures were recorded on cassettes and, if the speakers Wyse Jackson. Between these two we were treated to wished, we transcribe these recordings for them to a splendid array of topics and developments in the help them write and prepare their papers for publi- earth sciences, from the foundation of the Geological cation in the OUGS Journal. The papers written by Society of London, through ‘military’ geology, the the speakers are here presented with their selections crucial role of women in the development of British of illustrations to accompany them. Unfortunately, geology, early palaeobotany, a taste of extraterres- one speaker was unable to complete a paper, but we trial geology in the study of meteorites, early here publish an abstract, which contains the salient advances in the understanding of hydrology, under- points of the lecture. standing the formation and structure of glaciers, As OUGS Journal Editor I would like to thank per- conflict over the nature of the Ice Age in Britain, the sonally the five people who worked hard to tran- development of data display in the geological sci- scribe the taped recordings of the talks for me: Tracy ences, the development of geological conservation in Atkinson, Sandy Colville-Stewart, Anne Forrest, the UK, the establishment of the British Geological Anne Morton and Sally Munnings. Survey, and in the midst of these, a summary of the Lastly, let us thank the speakers and authors of career of our OUGS founder, the late Professor Ian these papers. It is with great pleasure that I wish you Gass, Head of the Open University Earth Sciences ‘good reading’. Department. — David M. Jones, OUGS Journal Editor Erratum OUGS Journal 29 (1), ‘Langkasuka ...’, by Carol Hagan, page 28: The paragraph following the stratigraphy table lists loca- tions on the map (Fig. 1, on the same page) as (1), (2), (3), and (4). These should have been A, B, C, D, respectively. The Editor would like to apologise to the author and to readers for this error. iii Editor’s notes to contributors Editor’s notes to contributors • Please be sure that we have permission to publish any illus- Following are guidelines for the submission of articles to the trations that are not yours: Also, please give me the appropri- OUGS Journal. The principal theme encompassed within these ate information to cite in acknowledgement in the figure caption; guidelines is ‘please keep it simple’. Let your editor do his job and please tell me in writing or in an e-mail message that you and please do not try to simulate, emulate or reproduce the page have obtained the permission necessary for each illustration in layout of the Journal. I have dedicated page-layout software your article that is not yours. (QuarkXPress) to do this and any special formatting, special characters and embedded illustrations that you include in a word- As the author, this resposibility is yours. processing document can be lost (at best) or seriously confuse and crash (at worst) my iMac or the QuarkXPress software when • Please do not embed your illustrations in Word picture I import it into the layout. boxes within the text: All that is necessary is to indicate, by a If your article contains special characters (such as mathemati- reference within ( ) or within [ ] in your text, where the illustra- cal symbols), please draw these to my attention (I will probably tion should go. spot them anyway) so that I can import them properly with the glyphs menu in QuarkXPress. • You can submit the material as attachments to e-mails to me Here are the basic guidelines. I will contact you about any or send it to me on a CD: I am on BT Broadband, so I can queries that arise when I read your article. I will send you an edit- receive large files. It is usually best to attach only a few illustra- ed version, showing you any changes that I have made and rais- tion files each to several e-mails. This applies especially to large ing any queries or requesting any missing information. files of photographs, charts and graphs. Guidelines for OUGS Journal articles • Where appropriate, cite your sources, or make it clear that a As OUGS Journal Editor I do not want the publication of your statement is a supposition, or solely your own view or opinion. paper to be more work than is necessary for you (or for me!). We use Harvard style citations in the text: (author date, pages), Your paper need not be more than about 1,500 to 4,000 words in e.g. (Jones 2004, 51–3); and your sources or references should be general, but I leave the length up to you to suit the material. listed in alphabetical order by author and date at the end of your Regarding papers from the presenters of lectures at the OUGS article. You need to list the author, date of publication (or of Symposium, all OUGS members are grateful to you for present- access to a web site), full title, periodical volume and number, or ing a talk at the OUGS Annual Symposium, and for agreeing to place of publication and publisher, and page numbers. submit a version of your talk for publication in the Journal. The If you miss out anything, I will ask you for it.