THE MAGAZINE OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON

SPRING 2021

AN ENIGMATIC GIANT GEOSCIENCE DIPLOMACY IN NORTH KOREA

TAKING THE BLACK IN DECOLONISING ALL THAT NEXT STEP GEOSCIENCE COLLECTIONS GLITTERS The pros and cons of Initiatives to Historical links Tales of fortunes post-doctoral research confront invisibility assessed made and lost

SPRING 2021 Editor’s welcome

elcome to the linked to our science first edition features. The magazine of the Geological Society of London W of the We appreciate that new-look, quarterly some readers are The Geological Society Trustees of the Geological Geoscientist magazine. disappointed to lose the Burlington House Society of London We’ve had great fun monthly print issues and Piccadilly 2020-2021 putting the issue question whether they’ll London W1J 0BG Dr Michael Daly (President) together, working engage as much digitally T +44 (0)20 7434 9944 Mrs Joanna Alexander with our new publishers, James (p. 19). This was a difficult decision [email protected] Mr Thomas Backhouse Pembroke Media, and we hope you for us to make and was, of course, (Not for Editorial – Please Mr Andrew Bloodworth find it stimulating and entertaining. partly motivated by the need to contact the Editor) Mr John Booth (Vice This issue takes us from volcanic make financial savings. Likewise, President) peaks in enigmatic North Korea tough choices have had to be Publishing House Dr Jennie Gilbert (p. 22), to the Californian and made across the Society as we The Geological Society Dr Joel Gill (Secretary, Australian gold rushes of the 19th face a period of considerable Publishing House Foreign & External Affairs) Century (p. 40). It also touches uncertainty (p. 6). Unit 7 Mr Graham Goffey (Treasurer) on the critical issues of diversity, But there are also positive motives Brassmill Enterprise Centre Dr Kathryn Goodenough equality and inclusion, with reports behind the change. Many of you Brassmill Lane Prof James Griffiths and opinion pieces that highlight have written to us with questions Bath BA1 3JN (Secretary, Professional the immense and persistent about the sustainability of print, and T +44 (0)1225 445046 Matters) barriers faced by many, including some have chosen to opt out of print E [email protected] Dr Michael Kehinde Black (p. 30) and LBGTQ+ (p. 16) entirely, in favour of a digital offering. Prof Chris King geoscientists, as well as outlining We want to communicate afresh Library Mr Andrew Moore the actions we can all take to help in print and digitally and, in doing T +44 (0)20 7432 0999 Prof Bryne Ngwenya remove these barriers and make so, retire our outdated and poorly E [email protected] Dr John Perry our community more inclusive. functioning website, which was Mr Nicholas Reynolds (Vice unloved and rarely used. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: President) At a time when both Fellowship Prof. Andy Fleet Mrs Sarah Scott and geoscience student numbers DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Ms Gemma Sherwood Geoscientist are in decline, it is essential to widen Mr David Shilston Miss Jessica Smith magazine will our reach, and we truly believe EDITORS: (Vice President) continue to serve that by focusing our efforts on Dr Amy Whitchurch Dr Helen Smyth as a welcoming and both print and digital, we can place Ms Sarah Day Prof Robin Strachan Geoscientist magazine – a showcase E [email protected] (Secretary, Publications) inclusive forum for the activities of the Society and Dr Alexander Whittaker of geoscientists – into more hands. EDITORIAL ADVISORY (Secretary, Science) Those readers may be people who PANEL Mrs Lucy Williams It is no secret that diversity is an have not found us before, those Mrs Natalyn Ala Dr Keith Myers (co-opted issue both within the geoscience who perceive the Society as elitist Mr Steve Branch – Treasurer designate) community and in our Society. and outdated, or those who view the Dr Robin Cocks Change is slow, but the Society field of geoscience as simply dirty Dr Howard Falcon-Lang The Geological Society is taking steps to rectify this. For and polluting, rather than a key part Dr Hazel Gibson of London is a Registered example, Council recently asked of the journey towards net zero. Prof. Tony Harris Charity, number 210161. for an evaluation of the Society’s We hope that by providing a range Mr Edmund Nickless ISSN (print) 0961-5628 historical links to slavery and of options for accessing content, we Dr Alan Roberts ISSN (online) 2045-1784 colonialism, and our Archivist, will reach a more diverse audience, Prof. Peter Styles Caroline Lam, reports the findings and that Geoscientist magazine will Dr Colin Summerhayes Subscriptions: for non- on page 36. The research will be continue to serve as a welcoming Prof. Frances Wall member subscriptions, please used to determine Society policies and inclusive forum for both long- Dr Jan Zalasiewicz contact the Publishing House. and we will ensure that updates are term and new readers. provided in the future. Our new print and online offerings Cover image: Chonji (Heaven Lake) on the summit of Mount Paektu All of the articles in this issue are works in progress, and we would are available online, via our newly love to hear your thoughts and Geoscientist is published four times per year on behalf of launched and mobile-device suggestions – you can get in touch The Geological Society of London by friendly website www.Geoscientist. with us at [email protected]. www.jamespembrokemedia.co.uk Online. The site features additional uk or via Twitter @geoscientistmag. content, including more in-depth © 2021 The Geological Society of London reports and letters, as well as videos AMY WHITCHURCH, EDITOR

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 3

CONTENTS VOL. 31 | NO. 01 | SPRING 2021

UNEARTHED 12 30 3 EDITOR’S WELCOME 42 LIFE AFTER PHD 6 The pros and cons of NEWS post-doctoral research Updates from the Society and the community 40 16 VIEWPOINT Safe and inclusive fieldwork, Reverse the decline, Black underrepresentation in the minerals industry, Quarterly 36 dismay and more…

FEATURES 22 WHERE SCIENCE AND DIPLOMACY MEET A unique collaboration provides 45 insights into Mount Paektu BOOKS & ARTS Latest recommendations from Fellows 30 WHERE ARE THE BLACK GEOSCIENTISTS? 48 Grassroots initiatives to OBITUARIES confront invisibility Norman John Snelling Peter George Fookes 36 DECOLONISING THE 50 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY’S COUNCIL ELECTIONS COLLECTIONS All the information you need Assessing the Geological for the upcoming elections Society’s historical links to slavery and colonialism 54 FIVE MINUTES WITH…. 40 Kathryn Goodenough, ALL THAT GLITTERS Principal Geologist with the Tales of fortunes made and lost BGS and Chief Editor of ES3

The Geological Society of London accepts no responsibility for the Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material All advertising material is expected to conform to ethical views expressed in any article in this publication. All views expressed, in this publication. If any rights have been omitted, the publisher and trading standards, and reasonable care is taken to ensure except where explicitly stated otherwise, represent those of the offers their apologies. that advertisers are reputable and reliable. However, inclusion author, and not the Geological Society of London. All rights reserved. in this publication or as an insert does not constitute a guarantee No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher for any injury or endorsement of the quality or value of such products or No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products services, or of the claims made by its manufacturer. Geoscientist transmitted save with written permission. Users registered with liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation and the Geological Society of London can give no assurance Copyright Clearance Center: the Journal is registered with CCC, of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained that an advertiser will fulfil its obligation under 27 Congress Street, Salem, MA 01970, USA. in the material herein. all circumstances.

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 5 NEWS SOCIETY AND COMMUNITY UPDATES

Society’s Burlington House tenure remains uncertain Steeply rising rent threatens our tenure at Burlington House. Two initiatives are underway to ensure a long, sustainable and relevant future for our Society, writes Richard Hughes, Executive Secretary

IN LATE JANUARY 2021 the President, concessionary rent (as granted to Mike Daly, updated the Fellowship the Royal Academy of Arts > 150 years on behalf of Council on the situation ago); and regarding the Society’s future occupancy • The acquisition by the Society of of Burlington House. Fellows will be a long lease or virtual freehold aware that since then a public awareness arrangement either through purchase and political engagement campaign has or on the basis of a government grant The root cause been underway in an e ort to persuade refl ecting the considerable societal of the uncertainty Government to reconsider its position. In value of the LS. surrounding the Society’s parallel, a project has also begun to look at Communications with the landlord (the future occupancy of potential alternative options for the Society, Ministry of Housing, Communities and should it have to relocate. Local Government, MHCLG) continue. Burlington House A summary of the background to the However, an a ordable solution that would is una ordability situation is provided below. Further details allow the Society to remain at Burlington due to steeply are available at www.geolsoc.org.uk/ House for the long-term remains out of rising rents burlingtonhouse. reach. Discussions have led only to the The root cause of the uncertainty o er of a lease on the same terms as the surrounding the Society’s future occupancy current one, with a rate of rent increase of Burlington House is una ordability due fi xed at 8% per annum for the fi rst fi ve years rights to sub-let would be in the region to steeply rising rents. The Burlington of the term. To illustrate the e ects of an of £17.6m. The landlord also ruled out House Learned Societies (the LS: the 8% annual rent increase, Burlington House- payment ‘in kind’, that is through transfer Geological Society, Royal Society of related costs in 2020 (excluding Covid title of collections. Chemistry, Royal Astronomical Society, impacts) total £570k, of which £217k is The Geological Society is self-fi nancing Linnean Society, and the Society of rent. Total costs are forecast to increase to and a fi nancially neutral outcome is Antiquaries) entered an arbitration process £710k in 2025 and £900k in 2030, the rent forecast for 2021. An 8% or greater with the landlord in 2014-15, and since components of which are £320k in 2025 escalation of our already signifi cant annual then several avenues have been pursued to and £470k in 2030. rent will turn neutrality into an escalating secure our future at Burlington House on The enquiry into the purchase of a annual loss over the coming years. Despite an a ordable long-term basis. The avenues long lease was rebu ed by the landlord, the current rent being approximately 1/3 of pursued by the LS include: who saw ‘no scope’ for entering the landlord’s targeted market rent levels, • Renegotiation of the current such discussions. It should the large footprint (almost 14,000 sq. unsatisfactory lease and rent escalation be noted that on the basis If you have a ft.) and substantial other facilities- formula; of recent valuations the query relating related costs mean that our to the lease, • The pursuit of a political solution that cost of a long lease for the please email occupation accounts for almost might provide for a long lease with Society’s premises with no burlingtonhouse@ 10% of the Society’s annual geolsoc.org.uk

6 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 NEWS

RENEWALS REMINDER RICHARD HUGHES, Executive Secretary, writes: I would like to remind Fellows who have not yet done so to renew their Fellowship for the current year. Non-renewal may result in the discontinuation of your Fellowship with the subsequent inconvenience of having to then re-apply. Moreover, late payments result in additional costs and administration for the Society. To continue your support, please renew your Fellowship today, preferably online via the website. Note that you now have the option of a monthly or quarterly

Costly rent and falling revenues direct debit to spread your have put the Geological Society’s payments. If you wish to discuss future at Burlington House in doubt any aspect of your renewal, please call the Fellowship Department. income. In addition, the Society forecasts campaign to gain Government support falling revenues in the medium term due to to remain at Burlington House. Should MORE ONLINE a substantial Open Access-driven reduction Government be unwilling to re-consider Keep up-to-date with in publishing income. Falling Fellowship their stance we would seek their the latest news and discussion, and view numbers of between 1-3% per annum since assistance in supporting a move. additional geoscience-related 2017 are expected to continue, given the Council has directed the commencement reports, videos and more at reduction in the national oil industry and of two initiatives. Firstly, a public awareness www.Geoscientist.Online falling numbers of students choosing to and political engagement campaign, study Earth sciences. These challenges managed by www.april6.com. The primary have forced the Society, for the first time, objective of this campaign is to influence to reduce its staffing levels, in part through Her Majesty’s Government to achieve President’s a redundancy programme, to achieve a an equitable outcome that extends the Day Awards neutral out-turn in 2021. Society’s future at Burlington House on The Awards will be With no further realistic options available affordable rent terms and under a new presented on President’s for negotiation with the landlord, Council lease that gives the Society freedom to Day on 25 June 2021. discussed the situation in August 2020. pursue its strategic and business objectives. It is likely that some Three conclusions were forthcoming from Secondly, a project to examine the restrictions will be in the discussion: Society’s options for relocation from place in June, so we are 1. The escalating rents are an Burlington House began in January, chaired planning a virtual event. unsustainable burden on the Society’s by past-President David Shilston. Further updates on finances, and continued residence While many Fellows have a strong President’s Day will follow at Burlington House threatens its attachment to the building where the Society in newsletters and on the future existence. has enjoyed continuous occupation since website, so please keep 2. The time has come to face up to the 1874, a large number of Fellows feel little or an eye out. On the day, long-standing lease issue, with us no attachment to it. Whatever the outcome, talks will be given by some since 2005, and consider seriously the the Fellowship can be assured that Council of the senior medallists, options for alternative premises and is committed to seeking the best possible which Fellows will be able to attend virtually. our relocation. solution to guarantee a long, sustainable and 3. The Society should launch a final relevant future for our Society.

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 7 NEWS

TURN Fellowship categories TO PAGE 50 Read the supporting and benefits review project statements from the An in-depth review of the current fellowship categories, fee structure, and nominees to be new Geological Society Council members membership benefits is underway, writes Richard Hughes, Executive Secretary

not to adversely impact the Society’s overall The Society aims to attract and retain more members financial position, and its important policy, outreach, education, communications and advocacy work on behalf of the profession. Any new proposed fellowship categories, fees, and membership benefits will need the approval of the Society’s Professional & Chartership and Finance & Planning Committees before being considered by our governing Council in April 2021. Under the Society’s bye-laws, any proposals to change COUNCIL OUR CURRENT, largely age-based structure fees must also be approved at our Annual MEETINGS, is complex compared to other learned General Meeting, scheduled for late June OGMS AND societies/professional bodies, and seen 2021. Any changes will therefore not come by some as divisive and discriminatory. into effect until the 2022 renewal cycle, which AGM 2021 The Society needs a simpler, more will start in the autumn of 2021. The dates for appealing structure that enables it to more Fellows’ views were sought in an online meetings of Council successfully attract and retain members survey published in December 2020, and I and Ordinary General from all parts of our community, especially am very grateful to those who took the time Meetings are: underrepresented groups. Any new structure to respond. Further information will be made 7 April, 23 June, 22 September and will need to be broadly cost-neutral so as available before the Annual General Meeting. 24 November. The Annual General Meeting will be held Society Awards virtually on Friday The Society is delighted to announce the names of the winners of its medals 25 June, 11am – and funds and offers all its wholehearted congratulations. 12.30pm. The agenda and further details NAME AFFILIATION AWARD Prof David Pollard Stanford University Wollaston Medal of the arrangements Prof Nicholas White University of Cambridge Lyell Medal will be communicated Prof Graham Pearson University of Alberta Murchison Medal via our newsletters, Dr Phil Christie Schlumberger Cambridge Research William Smith Medal website and in the Prof Sanjeev Gupta Imperial College London Prestwich Medal summer issue of Prof Kenneth McCaffrey University of Durham Dewey Medal Geoscientist. Prof Chris Jackson Imperial College London Coke Medal For details on the Dr Helen Reeves Jacobs Coke Medal elections to Council, Dr Sheila Peacock Blacknest (AWE) Distinguished Service Award the list of continuing Dr Anjana Khatwa Wessex Museums, UK R H Worth Medal and retiring Council Prof Marie Edmonds University of Cambridge Bigsby Medal members, as well Dr Caroline Gill Shell U.K. Limited Aberconway Medal as the supporting Dr Emma Liu University College London Wollaston Fund statements for the Dr Luke Parry University of Oxford Lyell Fund President Designate Dr Andrew Thomson University College London Murchison Fund and Council nominees, Dr Fabian Wadworth University of Durham William Smith Fund please see story, facing Dr Finnigan Illsley-Kemp Victoria University of Wellington President’s Award page, and page 50. Dr Scarlett Jazmin President’s Award

8 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 NEWS

PLEASE NOTE ONLY FELLOWS OF THE SOCIETY ARE ELIGIBLE ELECTIONS TO VOTE TO COUNCIL 2021 2022

GEOSCIENTIST’S OCTOBER issue and subsequent email newsletters invited Fellows to nominate new members of Council to succeed those who will be retiring at the Annual General Meeting on 25 June 2021. One nomination was received for the post of President Designate and a further 14 nominations for the seven remaining vacancies. The process for the election of members of Council is set out at section 6 of the Bye-laws and the process for the election of President is set out at section 7. The preliminary ballot is in progress, the results of which will ballot pack. If you have not heard from It is important that Council is determine the list for the formal CES via email or post, or would prefer representative of the views and vote at this year’s Annual General to receive a postal ballot pack, or have diversity of all the Fellowship, so Meeting on Friday 25 June 2021. any other di culties casting your Fellows are urged to participate As in past years, Civica Election vote, please contact Christina Marron in the preliminary ballot, which Services (CES) is administering this ([email protected]) at will determine the list for the year’s Council ballot on behalf of the Society. formal vote at the Annual General the Society. CES is the UK’s leading The Council elections are your Meeting. The closing date for independent ballot services provider opportunity to choose who should voting, online or postal, is 23.59 on and has an extensive experience of serve on Council to best represent the Wednesday 31 March 2021. Postal overseeing ballots for a wide range interests of all Fellows and to shape the ballot forms must be sent to CES (not of organisations. future of the Society. Fellows may wish to the Society) and must arrive by In February, Fellows should have to make their choices having regard to Wednesday 31 March. received an email from CES with the area of expertise of the continuing Graham Go ey, Treasurer, is retiring instructions for how to vote online. and retiring members of Council that are from Council and Keith Myers was If you have not heard to date, please shown on the tables on page 53. Their co-opted by Council in April 2020 as check your spam emails before biographies are at www.geolsoc.org. Treasurer-designate. His nomination contacting the Society. Fellows uk/biographies. Council is particularly for election is endorsed by Council. for whom we do not have an email keen to strengthen representation from See page 50 for supporting statements address will have received a postal experienced academics. of the Council nominees.

Queen’s New Year Honours List 2021 Dr Malcolm Butler, Chair of the UK Onshore Geophysical Library, was awarded an OBE for services to education, research and development, and Dr Alison Monaghan, Principal Geologist at the British Geological Survey was awarded an MBE for services to geology. The Society o ers both our sincere congratulations.

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 9 A Special NEWS Publication celebrates female geologists

The journal will engage early career researchers

Special Publications launched The Geological Society’s Publishing House is happy to announce the publication of two new books in early 2021 Launch of Earth Science, Celebrating 100 Years of Female Fellowship of the Geological Society: Systems and Society journal Discovering Forgotten Histories In January, the Geological Society officially launched its first fully Due to be published in March 2021, this Special Publication celebrates the gold open access journal, Earth Science, Systems and Society centenary of the first female Fellows 3 (ES ), writes David Boyt, Head of Editorial Development elected to the Society – 112 years after its formation. It presents the often- ES3 COVERS the spectrum of Earth will be used to support a programme untold stories of pioneering women science, with a particular focus of discounts and waivers aimed at geoscientists from across the world who on interfacing, cross-disciplinary increasing access for those without navigated male-dominated academia research related to sustainability in funding. Standard APC discounts and learned societies, and it uncovers society. In addition to publishing are available for Fellows of the important female role models in the high-calibre research, the journal Geological Society and authors from history of science. aims to encourage inclusivity and developing countries. Available online at https:// diversity in publishing, engage As the Society’s first fully OA journal, sp.lyellcollection.org/online-first/506 directly with early career researchers, ES3 builds on the hybrid open-access and via the Special Publications series and embody principles of openness options available via the Society’s at www.geolsoc.org.uk/sp506. and transparency in science. existing journals and Special Publications The journal’s Chief Editor, Dr to provide authors with a dedicated Geoethics: Status and Future Kathryn Goodenough (British route to open-access publication, Perspectives Geological Survey; see ‘Five which aims to be compliant with This book is a significant step forward in minutes with…’, page 54), heads mandates from the key funders and the development of geoethical thinking, an international Editorial Board institutions, both now and in the future. its theoretical foundations and practical of researchers and professionals ES3 is owned and published by the applications. Geoethics is now ready to representing a broad range of subject Geological Society, using the systems be introduced outside the geoscience knowledge and experience. and services of Frontiers Media. community as a platform for global Under the journal’s open access • ES3 is live online and welcomes ethics, addressing anthropogenic (OA) publishing model, all accepted submissions at www.EScubed.org changes and the responsible interaction articles will be subject to an article • Authors can also choose to submit between humans and the Earth system. processing charge (APC), which work to one of the journal’s three live Available online at https:// supports the costs associated Special Issues, which include ‘Earth sp.lyellcollection.org/online-first/508 with publication. The Society has Sciences and the Race to Net Zero’. and via the Special Publications series established ES3 as a not-for-profit • For any queries, please contact: from April. publishing endeavour. Any surplus [email protected]

10 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 NEWS

2020 statement on climate change in the geological record The Geological Society has published an updated scientifi c statement, writes Alicia Newton, Director of Science & Communications

jointly convened a panel of climate assessments. They also The paper reviews the evidence of climate change experts to review the Geological received questions raised by in the geological record Society’s existing statements Fellows following the Society’s and to create a revised version Annual General Meeting in that refl ects the current state of 2019. This information was scientifi c research. The resulting distilled into a comprehensive paper is published in the Journal publication that documents four of the Geological Society (Lear billion years of Earth history, and et al. (2020) J. Geol. Soc. 178(1): explores how previous episodes jgs2020-239; https://doi. of greenhouse gas-induced org/10.1144/jgs2020-239). warming can inform our As part of their process, understanding of Earth’s future. THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY addendum in 2013. Because the expert panel reviewed A related conference will be published its fi rst statement on this is a fast-moving fi eld of nearly 200 peer-reviewed held 26-27 May. Visit www. the geological record of climate science, in 2018 the Society and publications, as well as white geolsoc.org.uk/05-GSL-Climate- change in 2010, followed by an the UK Paleoclimate Society papers and international Change for more information

Image credit: Natashia Mattocks

Fossil enthusiast Evie Swire sparked Mary Anning the campaign when she asked her mother, ‘Why isn’t there a statue to Rocks campaign Mary, Mummy?’ The Geological Society honours Mary Anning by supporting statue campaign

THE GEOLOGICAL Society renowned throughout the has become an o cial scientifi c world in the early supporter of the campaign 19th century. Mary’s work to acknowledge the life and was groundbreaking within work of Mary Anning (1799 palaeontology, however - 1847) through a statue to because Mary was a woman be erected in her honour on and from a working-class The Mary Anning Rocks with-author-tom-sharpe- the Jurassic Coast. Aiming background, she didn’t receive campaign coordinator says, “We tickets-139642324953 to commemorate Mary’s the recognition she deserved see the statue as an inspirational Visit our online exhibition: contribution and inspire during her life. Regrettably, presence in the landscape www.geolsoc.org.uk/Library- future fossil-hunters with her Mary was never able to where she worked.” and-Information-Services/ unique story, this support is join the Society because To fi nd out more about Exhibitions/Women-and- in line with the Society’s goal women were not considered the campaign, visit www. Geology/Mary-Anning to promote Earth science for Fellowship until 1919. maryanningrocks.co.uk/ Download our KS3 factsheet: education and awareness. However, the foundations Join the Library on 9 March www.geolsoc.org.uk/~/ Mary Anning was a fossil to our science were laid by for an online talk by Tom media/shared/documents/ hunter and collector, who countless dedicated and Sharpe ‘Mary Anning and education%20and%20careers/ made many incredible passionate geologists, just the men of learning’. www. Resources/FactSheets/ discoveries in her home town like Mary, who deserve to be eventbrite.co.uk/e/gsl-library- Mary%20Anning%20factsheet. of Lyme Regis, becoming remembered and celebrated. event-mary-anning-talk- pdf?la=en

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 11 NEWS

The Discussion Group aspires to attract a diverse audience and attendance is open to all – Fellows and guests

PARTNERSHIP WITH THE JP MORGAN FORCE FOR GOOD PROGRAMME Building a community platform to connect geoscience educators and practitioners

We recently announced that the Geological Society is launching the Geoscience Education and Outreach Network (GEON), an online platform for sharing Geological Society education initiatives and discussion across the geoscience community. Discussion Group 2021 We are thrilled to have been chosen as a recipient of the THE DISCUSSION GROUP fosters Meetings are open to all – Fellows, prestigious JP Morgan Force wide-ranging scientifi c discussion in a their guests and non-Fellows. To make for Good programme. Through social setting on a variety of geoscience a reservation, contact Becky.Goddard@ the programme, JP Morgan will topics. It has roots in the Geological geolsoc.org.uk provide pro bono technical support Society Dining Club, which dates back The programme for 2021, including to develop the online platform. to 1824, becoming a formal part of the talks related to the Society’s ‘Year of GEON will represent a Society as one of the Specialist Groups Space’ theme, includes: signifi cant opportunity to increase in 2016. Since 2018, a summary of the • 14 Apr. Stac Fada impact deposit. collaboration and best practice meetings has been available on the Dr Ken Amor, University of Oxford across the geoscience community. Society’s website, with topics ranging • 9 Jun. The Mars 2020 Mission. The ultimate aim will be to inspire from masonry repairs, the critically Prof Caroline Smith, Natural a skilled and diverse community of stressed Earth, deep continental History Museum future geoscientists. subduction, and how life began on • 14 Jul. Summer outing. Gilbert White To find out more and register Earth, to the future of the Society itself. Museum, Selborne your interest, please get in touch: Traditionally, meetings take place Fellows are invited to join the [email protected] in the evening at a range of venues in Discussion Group as part of the annual London, when a topical subject is raised membership renewal process. by an invited speaker and debated over For more information, please contact dinner. However, events in 2020 have John Bennett (Honorary Secretary) JOIN THE DEBATE been held with equal success by Zoom, via the website: www.geolsoc. Has a news item got you thinking? We welcome readers’ letters and without travelling and with a convivial org.uk/Groups-and-Networks/ feedback. Share your views by glass of wine to hand from the comfort Specialist-Groups/Geological-Society- emailing [email protected] of your own home! Discussion-Group/

12 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021

NEWS

Energy Transition Theme

Geological knowledge informs We are excited to announce the energy projects such as Krafla launch of the Geological Society’s Geothermal Power Plant, Iceland Energy Transition Theme, write Image credit: Ásgeir Eggertsson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dr Nick Gardiner (University of between academia, business, government in caverns meeting’. For more information St Andrews and Lead, Energy and public communities, and aim to inspire visit: www.geolsoc.org.uk/Hydrogen- Transition Theme) and Dr Alex a new generation of geoscientists. Storage-in-Caverns Whittaker (Imperial College London and Chair, Science Committee) Energy Transition Theme events Energy Transition Discussion Meeting and activities (April 2022) A number of events and activities are A multi-day conference in Burlington THE SHIFT to a low/neutral carbon economy, planned for 2021-22, to support and align House, London, in April 2022 will bring which is essential to tackle climate change, is with the Energy Transition Theme. together geoscientists, the energy transition now a pressing international effort. November communities, and policymakers, with an aim 2021 marks the UK-co-hosted United 2021 Webinar Series: of assessing the on-going directions and Nations Climate Change summit (COP26), • 13 April (13.00-16.30) Geosciences priority roles for the geosciences in the energy which is expected to drive new international and the Energy Transition: How can transition, following the COP26 meeting. agreements for decarbonisation. the Geosciences contribute to the Geosciences will play a pivotal role in Energy Transition? Decarbonisation Working Group enabling the increasingly urgent energy • 7-8 June (13.00-16.30) Geosciences and The Decarbonisation Working Group, chaired transition. Earth resource stewardship the Energy Transition: Energy Transfer, by Prof. Mike Stephenson, continues to work will also be critical to the development of Injection and Storage on key issues at the interface of geoscience circular economies, reducing waste and • 6-7 September (provisional) Geosciences and public policy, developing resources and environmental impact, driving innovation, and and the Energy Transition: Mineral initiatives to highlight and communicate key supporting business. Geological solutions Supplies on a Finite Planet enabling decarbonisation technologies to will underpin responsible resource and waste These seminars are being coordinated policymakers and the wider public. More management, new innovative technologies by Prof. Jon Gluyas (Durham University), information about their work can be found for both storage (H and He) and capture (CO2, Prof. Stuart Haszeldine OBE (University at www.geolsoc.org.uk/Policy-and-Media/ radioactive waste), and geothermal energy of Edinburgh), Prof. Rob Knipe (University issues/decarbonisation/working-group production. Geological knowledge will allow of Leeds), Dr David Reiner (University of the sourcing of essential raw materials, in Cambridge), Prof. Frances Wall (University Special issue of ES3: Earth Sciences particular critical metal resources, to support of Exeter), Jo Coleman OBE (Shell), Dr and the Race to Net Zero new technologies in energy storage and Nick Gardiner (University of St Andrews and The Geological Society’s new OA journal, transmission, transportation, construction, Theme Leader), Dr Jen Roberts (University Earth Science, Systems and Society (ES3, and engineering. of Strathclyde) and Prof. Mike Stephenson see page 10) will publish a special issue on Geoscientists are therefore uniquely (British Geological Survey). the theme of Earth Sciences and the Race placed to support policy makers, to Net Zero. Submissions are welcomed on stakeholders and industry in the Hydrogen Storage in Caverns Meeting all aspects of this topic: www.escubed.org/ management of Earth resources that are (12 April 2021, virtual event) research-topics/2/earth-sciences-and- fundamental to the energy transition. The This meeting is being organised in the-race-to-net-zero Society’s Energy Transition Theme will collaboration with Energy Research champion this goal, support communication Accelerator. If you would like to contribute, In addition, a number of outreach events participate or help shape how the event will be planned throughout 2021 and 2022 might proceed, please email Seamus. aligned with the theme. Further information [email protected] or mhste@bgs. can be found at www.geolsoc.org.uk/ET ac.uk with the title ‘About Hydrogen storage and www.geolsoc.org.uk/events

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 15 VIEWPOINT SEND YOUR LETTERS TO GEOSCIENTIST GEOLSOC.ORG.UK AND TWEET US AT GEOSCIENTISTMAG. FOR GUIDANCE ON SUBMITTING A COLUMN, SEE GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE

COLUMN Field courses are vital, “Some but they must be safe barriers are invisible” Fieldwork is important, but we must recognise the manifest risk it poses to LGBTQ+ people, argues Prof. Chris Jackson Want to join the debate? Email s the old saying goes, Why might sexual orientation stress felt by geoscientist students who run into A “the best geologist has be a barrier to fi eldwork? Queer LGBTQ+ people @geolsoc.org.uk trouble overseas. Such seen the most rocks!” This people are as able to deal with in these locations restrictions highlight the statement superfi cially makes cold weather and boulder-strewn is not conducive to fact that many institutions sense; if you’ve seen many slopes as non-queer people, teaching and learning, do not have fi eld-course risk rocks, you can draw on those aren’t they? I’m not questioning presenting further barriers. assessments explicitly covering experiences to... erm... identify this, but rather highlighting that Holding fi eld courses in LGBTQ+-specifi c risks; even and interpret more rocks. But there are still about 70 countries such countries presents an where such assessments and geoscientists rely on numerous where being gay, lesbian, unnecessary risk. In most cases, related evacuation policies are skills to determine the structure, bisexual, and/or transgender other suitable fi eld locations in place, they remain untested. composition, and evolution of is illegal, and many more with exist that support attainment Like many geoscientists, Earth and other planets – skills minimal protections against of the learning objectives. We I do not see a future where that span a bewildering range discrimination towards LGBTQ+ must select such alternatives to fi eldwork is not a core element of disciplines and scales. people. This is nothing to do with promote an inclusive learning of the geoscience toolkit. Fieldwork is undoubtedly having sex; this discrimination environment, to the benefi t of an However, we must be aware important and is a core element exists simply for being (or individual course and the wider of and work to remove the of many Earth science courses. perceived as being) a member community that our graduates barriers to fi eldwork placed There are, however, numerous of the LGBTQ+ community. will join. Deciding not to hold a in front of all members of the barriers to fi eldwork. Some are For example, in 2014 a British fi eld course in a location that is geoscience community. obvious, such as those related to tourist was arrested in Morocco unsafe for LGBTQ+ geoscientists coping with the sheer physicality after authorities searched his is not a political or value of fi eldwork. Many more are less phone and found images used statement on a country or its obvious, such as the requirement to prosecute him, while the citizens. We have a duty of care for safe conditions under which arrest, torture, exile to Canada, to our colleagues and students. to change sanitary protection. and eventual suicide in 2020 Additionally, universities And some barriers are perhaps of activist Sarah Hegazi was or sta in the fi eld may not PROF. CHRIS JACKSON invisible, such as sexual triggered by her waving a be able to immediately assist Chair in Sustainable Geoscience, orientation and gender identity. rainbow fl ag in Egypt. The or repatriate employees or University of Manchester

16 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 VIEWPOINT

old-fashioned perceptions of what geology is and what geologists do, as you rightly point out, especially around geology’s association with the extractive industries. This complex problem is not one the Society can fi x alone. We are therefore partnering with a number Geologists are forensic detectives, of other organisations and gathering data on location stakeholders to widen the appeal of geology. Two LETTER in the media, and little or notable organisations are: no specifi c mention of the ∞ University Geoscience UK, Reverse the decline term geology in schools, is the subject association of it any wonder that many are geoscience departments based DEAR EDITORS, concerned that these will unaware of the tremendous within British universities. We Geology’s popularity is in largely become point-and-see opportunity geology o ers co-organised the June 2020 decline for many reasons. exercises that do not instil for employment, intellectual student enrolment summit, A big one is that, as a sound recording techniques challenge and personal which led to the development community, we have allowed or stimulate the kind of mind fulfi lment, as well as its key of a strategy and a plan of it to become widely regarded that seeks out answers. role in locating essential action is currently being as just the study of some Safety and inclusivity in the resources and helping pursued to increase interest. dusty old rocks. Geologists fi eld are vital, but di cult Earth’s environment? ∞ Diversity in Geoscience UK, know it is far more than that issues. Thankfully many A hard task lies ahead, a recently established charity – it is Earth Science. Another classic localities already have but we must hurry to fully looking at ways to improve reason is the name change to suitable access and it wouldn’t convince the public that diversity and inclusion for Earth sciences or geoscience take much work to improve fi rst-class geologists are, and all within the community. – this only creates confusion many more fi eld locations. always will be, absolutely vital. They are currently assessing and dilutes our message. Some sites even o er for hire potential projects and The Geological Society o -road mobility scooters. RICHARD ARTHUR fundraising opportunities, urgently needs to be more Would the Geological Society and we can work together proactive in encouraging be interested in helping to set George Jameson, with them to improve access extra mural courses and up a database of such places Diversity and Inclusion Project to fi eld locations throughout spreading the word. and help raise funding to Lead, Geological Society of the country. Clearly, we must embrace improve matters? London, writes in response: Our goals may not be diversity and inclusivity, True geologists are The Society is acutely aware of realised overnight, but they while eliminating racism, like forensic detectives. the decline in the popularity of will go some way to dusting but we cannot give in They must think across geology over recent years. This o the perception of geology to those clamouring to disciplines to understand is most noticeable in the drop as just the study of old rocks. remove traditional fi eldwork the complexities of Earth’s in student numbers applying Given the gravity of the requirements. It should natural processes and its for and studying geology situation, it is essential for the be crystal clear why it is many human-made problems. at undergraduate level, community to address this ridiculous to think the The combination of a less something we are genuinely task together and we welcome personal experience gained outdoorsy generation and concerned by. additional support. through fi eldwork is not geology’s toxic association Ideally, we want every absolutely essential, and it with destructive and polluting person to be familiar with worries me that anyone could extractive industries are major geology as an area of think they can become a real barriers to be overcome if study and aware of the To anyone who wishes to ‘geologist’ without it. geology’s popularity is to applications of geology to our continue this conversation, Virtual fi eld trips are great be improved. With so little everyday lives. However, this please get in touch by emailing for inclusivity, but I am coverage of accurate geology ideal is nuanced. There are [email protected]

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 17 VIEWPOINT

COLUMN still ingrained, and where Black underrepresentation is not seen “We have accepted lack as an issue. It is time for us to do more of diversity as normal” than speak up. We must go beyond wearing t-shirts, using Why are Black geoscientists underrepresentated in the hashtags and glossy Corporate minerals industry, asks Dr Andrew P.G. Abraham Social Responsibility reports. We need to take action to create truly diverse and welcoming eology (and all its Even though most of us, Silence is a workplaces in academia and G incredible subfi elds) is who are white, have rarely met form of complicity, the minerals industry. This will an amazing science to learn. Black geoscience students, and the minerals not happen overnight, but we The integral importance of professors, geoscientists and can make a start through open geoscience and the minerals corporate leaders, we have industry gives the dialogue on inclusivity, equity, industry to global economies rarely voiced concern, and impression that it and breaking down barriers. should make it a strong choice mostly accepted the lack of does not care We need to create intern for developing future careers. diversity as something normal. programmes, more scholarships So, why does it not attract more It should not have taken the and bursaries, and mentorship Black students and why are horrifi c murder of George Floyd boardrooms are an echo and outreach programmes there so few Black geoscientists to create the unprecedented chamber insulating them from to attract Black high-school and corporate leaders? global change in corporate reality. This should shame us all. students into geoscience. We The scarcity of Black attitudes. But the minerals The industry’s Black need to encourage them to geoscientists is not a function industry, to a large extent, underrepresentation starts continue in academic research of Black students fi nding has stood silent. Silence is a with the education system and work in the minerals geoscience and careers form of complicity, and the that has not yet stepped up industry. How can we do this? in the minerals industry minerals industry gives the to changing its predominantly By creating a paradigm shift in uninteresting, it is a function impression that it does not white complexion. This is a culture and attitude, celebrating of over 40 years of white care. Why? Because it does not major global issue, especially in Black role models, recognising geoscientists and corporate understand nor feel connected primarily white countries where Black student’s abilities and leaders happily content with to the Black community colonial attitudes and systemic achievements, encouraging them the status quo. and its predominantly white racism are to become leaders, accepting them for who they are, and nurturing their desires to succeed. Visit Geoscientist. • This opinion piece links to Online to read the latest the feature ‘Waiting for a discussions paradigm shift: in full Black underrepresentation in geoscience and the minerals Industry’, available at www.Geoscientist.Online • See also feature, page 30.

DR ANDREW P.G. ABRAHAM An independent consultant who serves as volunteer Director External Engagement for the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences

18 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 VIEWPOINT

the danger in that? The power Society activities, Geoscientist of print is that ‘it comes to you’, has to be a ordable, so you read it. Online letters, particularly in these di cult as now, hide in plain sight, free times, and sta were tasked for all the world to read if they with fi nding ways to become can be bothered – and cynically more sustainable. The editorial put there in the full knowledge team drew up a variety of that nobody will. They will go options for the production of as unread in future as they do Geoscientist. These detailed now, and for the same reason options were assessed by – one that no amount of web the Finance and Planning design can ever overcome. Committee and agreed by Council, which decided on PROF. EMER. PETER enhanced online presence STYLES, DR TED NIELD and quarterly publication. This decision refl ected both DEAR EDITORS, costs and the best use of the I am saddened to hear the time of the editors and others society is reducing the number producing Geoscientist. LETTER of magazine issues per year. Peter and Ted forcefully From my perspective, all argue that having letters Quarterly dismay this will mean is that I engage initially and immediately less with the magazine and online will “hide [objections DEAR EDITORS, loathing that characterised the Society, as I already and dissent] in plain sight”. We write, as a former President, ‘reunifi cation’, members of receive a torrent of digital This may be true for some Professional Secretary, the Institution (practising communications and cohorts of Fellows, but others Editor-in-Chief and Editor of geoscientists) were not willing o erings – getting the print will doubtless be far more at Geoscientist, to express our for academics, who then magazine cuts through this home fi nding or expressing sadness and dismay that this dominated, with steely resolve, and means I actually read it. views online. We hope that fi ne magazine is to become a the Old Lady of Piccadilly, A move towards digital putting more resources into quarterly, with promises of an to hold any editorial sway. It provision will result in less of timely online news and debate enhanced online presence. seems hardly coincidental that my attention, I’m afraid. will serve a broad range of the You attempt to put a brave this present measure is being Fellowship and help attract a face on it, but beyond that taken just as the worst fears of CHRIS JACK new Fellows. – and some questionable our own times are coming true. Geoscientist continues to greenwash – we detect two We are sure that the new Prof. Andy Fleet, be ‘by and for the Fellows’ real motives: saving money, quarterly will be a thing Editor-in-Chief; David and, as ever, we encourage and stifl ing dissent. In the of beauty; but quarterlies Shilston, Deputy Editor-in- our community to voice any right circumstances in these cannot be topical. High Chief; Dr Amy Whitchurch, concerns and share their straitened times, we approve of production values and long Editor; Sarah Day, Editor, opinions – email your letters the former, but never the latter! intervals lead to blandness Geoscientist magazine, to [email protected]. Geoscientist is unique among and inconsequentiality. One write in response: In making uk. Indeed, our problems learned body magazines in that knows there will never be changes to Geoscientist, we are usually that we do not it belongs to the Fellowship anything piquant in these are trying to provide the best hear from all sides of a and not ‘the Society’ (whatever organs – even in Letters, service to the full spectrum of debate, especially those who THAT is). It owes this ‘Fourth assuming there are any. Fellows that we can, given the agree rather than dissent, Estate’ status to its history – So where will Fellows, in resources available to us, and and in hearing a variety of being formed from the merger the last resort, go to voice improve how we provide news views rather than the same of the Society’s anaemic any objections to the way and debate in exciting, varied argument repeated. newsletter and the Institution Trustees and sta or others are and timely ways. Dare we end by saying of Geologists’ far superior misconducting the Society’s As Peter and Ted highlight, that we have published British Geologist. In the business? They will go online, money was a key factor in a fuller response on climate of suspicion, fear and we are told. Result! For where is making the changes. Like all Geoscientist Online?

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 19 VIEWPOINT

We should be doing more LETTER to ensure that geology is taught in schools Inspirational geoparks need investment

DEAR EDITORS, Would education help I read Melvyn Giles’ article increase public awareness and about The Scottish Geology thereby funding of geoparks? Trust (Geoscientist 30(10), 28- In pre-university science, 29, 2020) with great sympathy geology is incorporated as a for the cause – that public minor component, though interest in dramatic Scottish perhaps too fl eetingly to landscapes is not matched by impress young minds. We investment in our geoparks. should instead exploit the There is a perception that the geography curriculum, but public is unwilling to engage here the window might be with lengthy explanations. TV closing – even geomorphology LETTER documentaries often open may be fi ghting a rear-guard with sequences on plate action to preserve its long- tectonics, fl oods or icecaps, standing space as relative Capturing young before rapidly giving way to newcomers such as climate the urge to feed public interest change and environmental imaginations in animal behaviour. Many despoliation crowd out the fi lm directors seem to believe time available. DEAR EDITORS, issues like climate change the physical world is merely a I am most concerned by and geohazards. The setting for the organisms that PROF. EMERITUS, recent articles citing the profession has always inhabit it. IAN REID decline in the teaching changed as it moved of geology, its adverse forward, not only for the The dramatic landscapes of Scotland impact on the profession few, but for the many. can inspire interest in geology which, in my view, is to the Indeed, the comment detriment of society. from the Editor’s desk in A geological degree the October issue that gives one a wonderful “Geology has a way of start to a career. In my capturing the imagination, school, geology was not whatever level of detailed taught, but it seemed an understanding you reach” obvious degree choice, should be exploited to its given it combined the full potential. subjects I studied at A The profession must Level: physics, chemistry, reach out beyond the botany and zoology. I known world of geology went on to enjoy a career and be more proactive. in civil engineering, not Perhaps the slogan for in geotechnics, but as a universities should be maritime civil engineer. ‘Kick Start your Career Geology as a subject has with a Geology Degree’, developed and continues reinforcing the view that to do so. It has much to geology is a broad church. contribute to our future, including tackling major DR ROGER MADDRELL

20 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 VIEWPOINT

David wearing one of the face Follow us @geoscientistmag coverings @Volcanologist: It’s ‘crewed’ not ‘manned’. (E.g. see here ourplnt.com/please-use-crewed -not-manned/#axzz6gtiTOMfr)

YOUR TWEETS @geoscientistmag: Thank you for fl agging this. We’re disappointed we didn’t pick this up during our editing process and will endeavour to be more thorough in the future.

LETTER @Volcanologist: Excited to see the latest @geoscientistmag on Mars with a great interview with Divya Persaud. Mini-volcanologist is a bit obsessed FEATURE Geo with the Mars Rovers, she’s going to love fl icking Decolonising through the pics in this mag: geolsoc.org.uk/ geosicence Geoscientist/December-2020 The harrowing deaths of George face Floyd and Breonna Taylor in the United States, and the subsequent rise @NEURISA: Who doesn’t want to read about of the Black Lives Matter movement coverings #Megalodon and #DataEthics? Looks like a great issue profoundly a ected much of society @geoscientistmag! last summer. One of the most notable outcomes has been organisations, DEAR EDITORS, such as our own, investigating the To my delight the Société @Leannes_space: Great article in @geoscientistmag Géologique de France sent me about geological data gathering for the Normandy landings, I wonder if ‘auger-gate’ would have meant their geologically themed face requisitioning any of these @BritGeoSurvey augers to coverings (€5 each or €15 for cover their tracks? all four, and around €3 postage to the UK). Designed for non- @alpeacegeo: why are you cancelling ‘Sticks & Stones’ NEW ONLINE HOME medical use they can be worn from Geoscientist? This is literally the only thing I read If you enjoy reading Geoscientist for four hours and are machine consistently in the whole magazine! magazine, why not visit www.Geoscientist.Online to washable at 60° C. @geoscientistmag: We miss it too! After access even more debate, Designs include a pair of nearly 20 years our cartoonist decided to lay down his pen. You can follow the news and science? Our newly cream on black illustrations adventures of Dalston and friends at launched website features an of the ammonite laevigatus www.stonechatproductions.co.uk array of additional content, (James Sowerby) from including geoscience-related southern England. @fktodd: Starting young in this reports, videos and more. The household #GeoKid #GeologyRocks site is mobile-device-friendly, DAVID NOWELL so you can read on the go.

LETTER What makes a geologist?

DEAR EDITORS, was 1/4 of the fi rst year, The chemistry, physics Being able to With respect to your 2/3 of the second year, and maths that took up communicate is a rare editorial piece in October’s and full time only in the the rest of the teaching skill too, something that issue (Geoscientist 30(9), last year (this adds up to a time have been very useful my English master at October 2020), what is a little less than two years). in a commercial career school stressed. geologist anyway? You’ve But my last year contained as a hydrogeologist, So I’d recommend a met the requirements to be no palaeontology before broadening out broad fi rst degree – you a Fellow of our Society, so I whatsoever (my choice) and into the contaminated don’t know at that stage think you are. I did my fi rst I concluded correctly that land aspects of nuclear where your career might degree at Cambridge, in I could avoid answering decommissioning, and even take you. Natural Sciences, which is any exam questions some of the fi ner points of also modular. Earth science about sandstone. reactor dismantling. JOHN HEATHCOTE

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 21 INTERNATIONAL

22 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 INTERNATIONAL | NORTH KOREA

SCIENCE SNAPSHOTS Our science features are distilled into bitesize videos at Geoscientist.Online

A dormant volcano, Mount Paektu, marks the frontier between North Korea and China. James Hammond, Amy Donovan and Clive Oppenheimer discuss how a unique collaboration is providing insights into this enigmatic, restless giant

The tranquil waters of Chonji (Heaven Lake) on the summit of Mount Paektu

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 23 INTERNATIONAL

1

OUNT PAEKTU (known as Changbaishan in China) was responsible for one of the largest eruptions in Mhistory, known as the Millennium Eruption. This cataclysm, dated through a combination of radiocarbon and ice core evidence to late 946 CE, likely formed the 5-km-wide caldera that truncates the summit of the volcano. Enclosed below this rampart lie the tranquil waters of Chonji (Tianchi in Chinese), or ‘Heaven Lake’. This landscape is not only testament to Figure 1: Location of Mount Paektu (large red triangle) and other volcanoes dramatic volcanic events, it is, for Koreans, a place of great mythological signifi cance. And, particularly for those living north Science and diplomacy the region beyond Mount Paektu. To of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, it is Our key scientifi c aims are to understand facilitate management of this survey and the ‘sacred mountain of the revolution’. the origins, geological history and build a platform for wider geoscience Visitors to Pyongyang will see it depicted underlying structure of the volcano. The and environmental research in the DPRK, in giant murals in the subway, at grand particular situation demands an approach we have established the Mount Paektu monuments, and as the background that combines science and diplomacy in Research Centre (MPRC) at Birkbeck, behind TV newsreaders. order to navigate the complexities and University of London. Through this, we An episode of volcanic unrest between constraints of the regional and international hope to use our networks and experience 2002 and 2005 (see box, ‘Vocanic Unrest’) geopolitics. Our collaboration has led to to assist other teams interested in initiating reignited scientifi c interest in the volcano, several achievements: the deployment of research with DPRK scientists. not to mention the attention of government the fi rst array of broadband seismometers administrations, on both sides of the in the DPRK; the fi rst cross-border Mount Paektu international border, concerned with the geophysical study; and secure dating of Mount Paektu is an intraplate volcano whose possibility of renewed activity. Additionally, the Millennium Eruption, whose age was origins are enigmatic. The volcano is situated Mount Paektu defi es our conventional ideas previously only known imprecisely. These around 1,000 km north-west of the Japan that explain where volcanoes exist – it lies achievements demonstrate that geoscience Trench, and it belongs to a wider collection more than a thousand kilometres from collaboration can be successful and durable of volcanic centres on the Korean Peninsula the Pacifi c Plate boundary. Geoscientists even under circumstances and impositions and north-east China (Fig.1). from the Democratic People’s Republic of severe political strain. These volcanoes are most commonly of Korea (DPRK) have largely worked in Our work continues, with new projects associated with the subducted Pacifi c Plate isolation from the international community, including a Covid-19-delayed installation that has stalled at the base of the upper but thanks in part to Mount Paektu’s of a larger seismic network in the DPRK mantle. The so-called ‘big mantle wedge’ emblematic cultural, scientifi c and political to complement China-led deployments model proposes that water released at status, we have been able to initiate and across the border. An aim of this study is these depths drives mantle circulation and build a unique collaboration involving to understand the origins of the volcano, subsequent generation of partial melt. geologists and seismologists from the UK, but the project is also an opportunity However, lower mantle upwellings or US, China and the DPRK. to investigate the volcanic history of shallow processes have also been proposed

24 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 INTERNATIONAL | NORTH KOREA

to explain volcanism in this part of northeast A remarkable feature of the landscape Asia. What is clear is that the region has a of Mount Paektu on the DPRK-side of VOLCANIC UNREST relatively long history of volcanism, with the border is its tundra-like appearance. In 2002, the volcano observatories in Mount Paektu representing the latest of a Above the treeline, there are expanses DPRK and China recorded increased series of volcanoes constructed over the of pumice that accumulated during the seismicity, along with ground deformation last 20 million years. Early volcanism in the Millennium Eruption. Subfossil larch and and changes in volcanic gas emissions region is linked to the opening of the East/ pine trees, killed by the paroxysm in 946 (Fig. 3). Earthquake event rates increased by two orders of magnitude with Japan Sea, with extensive basalt eruptions CE, poke out of the pyroclastic deposits hypocentres located in the shallow across the region. crust. Modelling of ground deformation Following the cessation of rifting 2 suggested a source of inflation at 2-6 km around 15 Ma, alkali basalt volcanism depth beneath the summit. Increases intensified and focused into the wider in helium and hydrogen abundances in hydrothermal discharge rose sharply Paektu/Changbaishan region. Since 4.5 in 2003 and remained elevated. These Ma, volcanism at Paektu/Changbaishan were accompanied by an increase in has largely gone through three stages, the proportion of primordial helium, from basaltic eruptions forming a shield- interpreted as a signature of magmatic like plateau to more silicic magmas (with contribution. In China, the alert level was raised and there was considerable public some intermediate products) forming large anxiety. Despite a return to baseline volcanic centres with the most recent activity in 2005, operational surveillance stage being dominated by explosive silicic Figure 2: Left, Clive Oppenheimer and James of Mount Paektu continues and it remains eruptions, but with some small basaltic Hammond examining the Millennium Eruption a focus of volcanic risk assessment and eruptions continuing throughout. (946 CE) pumice deposits. Right, Tree killed and management in both China and DPRK. buried by the 946 CE eruption

3

Figure 3: Seismic activity of Changbaishan volcano from 1999 to 2011. (a) Monthly number of earthquakes. (b) A time series of the monthly maximum magnitude and cumulative seismic moment. (c) Earthquake swarms detected by mobile seismic campaign during the summers of 2002 and 2003. (d) Relocated earthquake hypocenter distribution at depths around 5 km. The shaded area in 2a and 2b represents the ‘active period’. (Republished with permission from Xu et al., (2012) Geophys. Res. Lett. 39(16); doi: 10.1029/2012GL052600)

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 25 INTERNATIONAL

either side of the road leading up to the Natural Environment Research Council’s cease. However, through discussions summit, which is a site of pilgrimage for Geophysical Equipment Facility. with the Foreign, Commonwealth and North Koreans (Fig. 2). Historical texts and Since 2011, the Korean Peninsula has Development O ce in London, we reports have been interpreted to indicate experienced considerable geopolitical fl ux. obtained exemptions from the United that the volcano erupted subsequently, There have been changes in leadership of Nations, which allowed our project to in 1668, 1702 and 1903 CE, but these almost all countries in the region, multiple continue. This emphasises a critical suggested episodes have not been clearly nuclear and missile tests, an increase in dimension to our practice of science corroborated by the geological record. Republic of Korea–US military exercises diplomacy – the necessity to test and and numerous summit meetings between proactively respond to evolving regulatory International collaboration leaders of the DPRK, the US, Republic frameworks in the service of scientifi c In the summer of 2011, DPRK scientists of Korea and China, among others. knowledge production. extended an invitation (via a journalist This dynamic situation has been We believe our approach and multi- with the American Association for the accompanied by policy shifts and actor engagement, with its cornerstone Advancement of Science (AAAS) and tightening of international sanctions of a jointly agreed scientifi c agenda, an NGO, the Environmental Education imposed on the DPRK. underpins the durability and success of Media Project, both based in Beijing), for our collaboration. The DPRK continues to volcanologists to visit DPRK to discuss A joined-up approach encourage international collaboration in monitoring of Mount Paektu. Two of us Working with the Royal Society of London environmental and other matters; a key (CO and JH) responded, and travelled and the AAAS provided channels to aim of the MPRC is to share our experience to Pyongyang in September 2011. We communicate our aims and objectives to with others who may be interested in were told that we were the fi rst western relevant departments in the UK and US scientifi c engagement with the country. scientists to visit the volcano observatories. government administrations. Additionally, Our hosts gave us an overview of their partnering with the Environmental monitoring e orts, as well as a digest of Education Media Project in Beijing and the We continue past observations and the results of many Pyongyang International Information New summer fi eld campaigns. We also enjoyed Technology and Economy Centre based in to negotiate geological excursions on and around the DPRK capital enabled communication changing sanctions Mount Paektu that gave us a feel for the with colleagues in the Korean Earthquake scale of the Millennium Eruption and Bureau, the State Academy of Sciences, frameworks, the stratigraphy of its deposits. From this and universities in Pyongyang. After a year encounter, a day of presentations and many and a half of discussion and negotiation, and even to intense discussions emerged a set of critical we obtained the export licenses necessary infl uence policy questions concerning Mount Paektu (see to bring the seismic equipment into the box, ‘Mount Paektu: Critical Questions). DPRK and to conduct fi eld campaigns. With the enthusiasm of our new These took place in the consecutive Lessons learnt colleagues from Pyongyang to summers of 2013, 2014 and 2015. On the The fi eld campaigns from 2013 to 2015 connect with the wider volcanological last of these missions, we decommissioned allowed us to collect two years of digital community, and the immense cultural the seismic array and arranged for the return seismograms (now publicly available on signifi cance of the volcano, we came to of the seismometers to the UK. We also the Incorporated Research Institutions recognise an extraordinary opportunity brought the renowned fi lm director Werner for Seismology database; www.iris.edu) for engagement with the DPRK in the Herzog along with a fi lm crew into the and more than 100 geological samples domain of geoscience. A cornerstone country for production of the 2016 Netfl ix of Millennium Eruption tephra, as well as of our approach would be dialogue fi lm Into The Inferno. older pyroclastic rocks and lavas. and joint elaboration of the scientifi c With new projects underway, we The seismic survey was designed to research agenda. Accordingly, we sought continue to negotiate changing sanctions image the magmatic system beneath and obtained the support of the AAAS, frameworks, and even to infl uence policy. the volcano. Initially, we performed this the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, and For example, in 2016, new sanctions using the DPRK data alone – work led the Royal Society of London. All three were imposed by the United Nations that by Ri Kyong-Song from the Earthquake organisations take an interest in science stated ‘all Member States shall suspend Administration in Pyongyang during diplomacy. We also secured the loan scientifi c cooperation involving persons or research visits to the UK. However, we of a set of broadband seismometers groups o cially sponsored by the DPRK’. recognised our interpretations were by SEIS-UK, one of three nodes of the This implied that our research should susceptible to spatial bias

26 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 INTERNATIONAL | NORTH KOREA

Photo of Mount Paektu/Changbaishan taken from the International Space Station Image credit: NASA/JSC

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 27 INTERNATIONAL

– the international border cuts right across test and refi ne a conceptual model of the the summit caldera of Mount Paektu and magmatic system (Fig. 4). MOUNT PAEKTU: thus we only had observations from one CRITICAL QUESTIONS segment of the volcano. More recently, Dating the Millennium Eruption • What is the origin of the volcano? thanks to a data-sharing agreement A further highlight of the project has • What were the timings and nature between MPRC and the China Earthquake been to date the Millennium Eruption of past eruptions? Administration, we have carried out a precisely. Previously, many groups had • What triggered past eruptions wider survey. This yielded evidence for an used radiocarbon and varve dating to and episodes of unrest? • What is the current state of the extensive trans-crustal magmatic system calculate the age of this colossal event. magmatic system beneath the volcano? with di erent storage regions throughout These estimates spanned at least the 10th • What hazards and associated risks the crust that extends some 20 km laterally century (Fig. 5), with the most precise does the volcano present? from the volcano. dates pointing to eruption sometime Analysis of the geological samples has between the 920s and 950s CE. These led to new work on the volatile budget were based on ‘wiggle matching’, where had collected a larch tree stem that of the Millennium Eruption and on the 14C measurements made for multiple was 264 years old when it was killed by pre-eruptive storage conditions of the rings from an individual sample are pyroclastic fl ows during the Millennium magma. This indicates that the comenditic matched to an international calibration Eruption. We realised it likely was alive at magma was relatively shallow and cool, curve (that is largely anchored in time by the time of the 774 event, and that annual- and that its eruption may have been dendrochronology). resolution radiocarbon measurements of triggered by an injection of trachytic melt However, the discovery that an intense the rings should indicate an anomaly due from depth. Petrological work in progress burst of cosmic radiation occurred in 774 to the excess production of 14C in the further suggests a critical role played by CE (probably a solar proton event, whose atmosphere during the cosmic ray burst. a more mafi c melt in the eruption, and is magnitude would wreak havoc as ‘space We struck lucky and, by counting rings to illuminating the magma mixing processes weather’ today), suggested a means to the bark, determined the tree was killed after that occurred. Combined, the seismic and date the eruption to the year. Colleagues the end of the growing season in 946 CE, but petrological data are allowing us to develop, at the China Earthquake Administration before the growing season of the following year. Inspection of a Greenland ice core record of sulfur and chlorine deposition Figure 4: Conceptual model for the transcrustal magma plumbing system beneath Mount Paektu (taken from enabled us to refi ne the dating. Miniscule Hammond, J.O.S, et al. (2020) Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 21(1), p.e2019GC008461) ash particles from the Millennium Eruption 4 had already been identifi ed in the core along with the associated sulfate aerosol fallout. The timing of this anomaly in relation to the seasonal pattern of sea-salt deposition recorded in the ice narrowed the eruption window down to the last months of 946 CE. With this information to hand, two historical texts now stood out, corroborating the date. The fi rst is from the Koryŏsa (history of the Koryŏ dynasty), and relates to the year 946 CE:

“That year the sky rumbled and cried out, there was an amnesty.”

This was clearly a remarkable and unusual event to have been recorded and is suggestive of the explosive detonations associated with the eruption that were likely audible over a range of 1,000 km or more. The second text is from the Heungboksa

28 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 INTERNATIONAL | NORTH KOREA

Temple History (Nara, Japan) and is 5 particularly interesting as it may exactly pinpoint the date of the eruption:

“White ash fell gently like snow.” [on 3 November, 946 CE]

Millennium Eruption ash has been identified in cores taken from the bed of Lake Suigetsu, not far from Nara, which is not so close to the active volcanoes of Japan. Nor are any eruptions of Japanese volcanoes recorded at this time. It is entirely conceivable that this simple entry records the fallout from the Millennium Eruption – allowing for around 24 hours for the ash cloud to be Figure 5: Left, radiocarbon (blue) and varve-based (yellow) age estimates for the Millennium Eruption. Red transported above Nara, the eruption may line indicates 946 CE. Right, Cross-section of sampled trunk showing selected ring numbers. Ring 172 contains have taken place on 2 November, 946 CE. evidence of the solar proton event dating Ring 1 to 946 CE. (Figure modified from Oppenheimer et al. (2017) Quat. Sci. Rev. 158, 164-171; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.12.024. Published under CC-BY licence) Geoscience and diplomacy The MPRC provides a foundation to expand our collaborations, develop new projects scientists from the DPRK, China, Republic of The urgency of understanding and help others interested in scientific Korea, UK, US and the EU. In 2021 we intend geohazards and risks presents opportunities collaboration with the DPRK. For example, to run workshops on disaster risk reduction for engagement in the face of severe our new cross-border deployment of 55 to develop understanding of the risks intergovernmental strain, as well as a seismometers around the volcano promises associated with geological hazards in DPRK. chance to build trust and understanding, to lead to a better understanding of the Geological hazards do not suddenly and to test local and international origin of volcanism in the region and the dissipate at international borders. While regulations so that future, more sensitive relationship of Mount Paektu with nearby this presents numerous challenges for projects can benefit and serve populations volcanic centres. It presents the first chance operational monitoring, hazard and risk – even in some of the most politically of a cross-border study of the 20-million- assessment and fundamental research, our sensitive corners of the Earth. year history of volcanism in the region, with project demonstrates that international geological field campaigns that will involve dimensions to geohazard assessments, project partners from both sides of the and in this case geo-heritage, create a new border. The research centre also provides space for collaboration. Robust evaluations DR. JAMES O. S. a platform to bring DPRK and international of geohazards and effective management HAMMOND Department of Earth and scientists together to explore the latest of their associated risks is in everyone’s Planetary Science, Birkbeck, research on volcanology. For example, interest – this requires a joined-up and University of London we have organised and hosted workshops interdisciplinary approach that pools [email protected] in Pyongyang, London and Beijing with scientific resources between countries. @joshammond

FURTHER READING DR. AMY DONOVAN A full list of further reading is available at geoscientist.online Department of Geography, • Donovan, A. & Oppenheimer, C. (2019) Geotherm. Res. 343, 45-59. University of Cambridge Bull. Volcanol. 81(5), 31. • Royal Society (2010) New frontiers in science [email protected] • Hammond, J.O.S. (2016) Science & diplomacy: navigating the changing balance @dramydonovan Diplomacy 5(1). of power. RS Policy document. 01/10. • Hammond, J.O. et al. (2020) Geochem. • S tone, R. (2011) Science 334, 584-588. Geophys. Geosyst. 21(1), p.e2019GC008461 • S tone, R. (2013) Science 341, 1060-1061. • Iacovino, K. et al. (2016) Sci. Adv. 2(11), • T ao, K. et al. (2018) Geochem. Geophys. PROF. CLIVE OPPENHEIMER p.e1600913. Geosyst. 19(8), 2732-2763. Department of Geography, • Oppenheimer , C. et al. (2017) Quat. Sci. • X u, J. et al. (2012) Geophys. Res. Lett 39(16). University of Cambridge Rev. 158, 164-171. • Zhao, D. et al. (2009) Phys. Earth Planet. [email protected] • Pan, B. et al. (2017) J. Volcanol. Inter. 173(3-4), 197-206. @ultraplinian

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 29 WORKFORCE

WHERE ARE THE BLACK GEOSCIENTISTS? Black geoscientists exist in the UK – the first We, Black geoscientists, want this #BlackInGeoscienceWeek campaign showed it. Munira Raji trend to change. To increase visibility and showcase the expertise of and Hendratta Ali ask why Black geoscientists are less visible Black geoscientists, we organised a in the geoscience community and workforce, and discuss grassroots initiative on social media, grassroots initiatives that aim to confront this invisibility #BlackInGeoscienceWeek, to connect and celebrate Black geoscientists across UBLISHED DATA that either unemployed or working at jobs the globe. Organised in Summer 2020, document the exact number unrelated to their geoscience training and this event was inspired by the #BlackInX of Black geoscientists in the professional credentials. Weeks online initiative that started after UK geoscience workforce are the #BlackBirdersWeek, which highlighted scarce. We therefore have to Access to the profession Black nature enthusiasts following the Prely on our own personal experiences, Low employment numbers begin Central Park bird-watching incident in communications and interactions to with and are exacerbated by limited New York City. During this incident, a educate and address the di culties that recruitment into the pipeline and a confrontation between a Black man and Black geoscientists encounter. lack of opportunity for trained Black white woman walking an unleashed dog The high visibility of a few might wrongly (and other minoritised) geoscientists. led to the woman telling the police an give the impression that numerous Exposure in secondary schools is low, African American man was threatening Black geoscientists are employed in retention at university level is poor, her life. the discipline. Our experiences suggest and access to resources during post- Later, during the otherwise. Of more than 50 UK-based graduate research is limited. Highly #BlackInGeoscienceWeek we Black geoscience graduates in one skilled Black geoscientists are also attracted close to seven million Twitter network, less than 10% of them are under-employed in the workforce, engagements, with participation from currently employed as geoscientists, two leading to involuntary attrition. As a Antarctica to Oceania. During this event, of whom are the only Black geoscience consequence, many Black students and Black geoscientists, including many professors in the entire UK. Instead, scholars do not see the geosciences as a from the UK, sought to amplify their many UK-trained Black geoscientists are viable career pathway. voices, showcase their work, and create

30 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 WORKFORCE | DIVERSITY

Some of the Black geoscientists involved in leading the #BlackInGeoscienceWeek:

Top row, from left: DR. CRAIG POKU, atmospheric and climate scientist, University of Leeds, UK

DR. KUWANNA DYER PIETRAS, sedimentologist with a PhD in Geology from Binghamton University, New York, USA

DR. TIARA MOORE is Postdoctoral Scholar at The Nature Conservancy, Seattle, Washington, USA

Middle row, from left: DR. KIERON PRINCE, Assistant Professor, Broward College, Florida, USA

EMMA JEAN BOUIE has a Master’s in Earth and Geospatial Sciences from North Carolina Central University, USA

KOLISA YANA SINYANYA is a fi nal year PhD student of Oceanography at the University of Cape Town, South Africa

Bottom row, from left: L. MICHÉ AARON is a third year Planetary Science PhD student at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

REBECCA EBE OHEMENG APPIAH is a Geological Engineering graduate of KNUST, Ghana

LEIAKA WELCOME is a sedimentologist working on her PhD to assess the stratigraphic architecture of fl uvial deposits at the Colorado School of Mines, USA

a community network of mentors and Underrepresentation persists, despite their members and fellows, have diversity collaborators. An important aspiration promises from institutions and organisations committees, and publicly comment about was to fi nd and connect with other to implement strategies that improve their commitment to diversity, equality Black geoscientists. recruitment and retention in all sectors, from and inclusion (DEI). This has to translate education to research and employment. to something concrete for Black and Underrepresentation The Black geoscience community has not other marginalised geoscientists, such Recent studies confi rm that the experienced any substantial change, at as improved experiences in the scientifi c representation of Black geoscientists, in least, not for the better. Black geoscientists community. Diversity data and public communities outside the continent of are still under-employed in academia, declarations of commitment to DEI are a Africa, is low. For example, Bernard and industry and other geoscience organisations. good start; however, by themselves, they do Cooperdock (2018) show that over the past They constantly face harassment and not solve the underlying problems that lead 40 years, there has been little change in the discrimination – microaggressions, bullying to underrepresentation in geoscience. Being ethnic and racial diversity of people earning and racism – and their professional research one of the most exclusive communities geoscience doctorates in the US. and technical expertise are often undervalued suggests a fundamental fl aw in our Similarly, a lack of representation exists in or dismissed. Many of these harrowing approach to diversity. In addition to public the UK. Dowey and colleagues (2020) report experiences are documented with the statements, organisations and institutions that over the past fi ve years only 1.4% of #BlackInTheIvory hashtag on Twitter. These must actively ensure that their plans are postgraduate geology researchers were Black negative experiences lead to attrition and implemented by a leadership and workforce people, compared to 3.8% of 18-to-24-year further increase underrepresentation. Our that is truly diverse. We must shift our olds in the general population. Dowey and geoscience community must pivot in focus from performing diversity to enacting colleagues also report poor retention rates of the right direction toward equity and inclusive change. Black geoscientists in postgraduate studies. inclusion for all. Black and other marginalised They indicate that the enrolment of Black, geoscientists are as passionate about their Asian, Mixed or other Ethnicities (BAME) in The power of inclusion discipline as any other group. They too, undergraduate and postgraduate geology If inclusion is resolved, diversity will want to inspire and encourage the next was 10.1% and 10.4%, respectively, for the increase. Many geoscience institutions generation of geoscientists and create a 2018 to 2019 academic year. and organisations monitor the diversity of vibrant community that is representative.

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People in marginalised communities box, below left), from simple actions to bear the brunt of environmental more elaborate plans. To be e ective, ALLIES, SPONSORS catastrophes, and geoscience expertise self-refl ection, including asking yourself AND ACCOMPLICES is central to resolving many of the uncomfortable questions, is essential. • An ally is someone who uses their problems our planet faces, such as For example, how many minoritised privilege to centre the less-privileged. natural hazards, pollution and climate geoscientists have I interacted with in the • A sponsor is someone who has a platform and access to change, including conversations about last week, month, or term? How many opportunities that they make accessible the nature of research, policies, mitigation are Black geoscientists? Why, or why not? to the less-privileged. plans, best implementation practices, What have I done to make my community • An accomplice is a person who may not kind of regulation and, importantly, inclusive? Where are my biases? How can publicly use their privilege, but privately stakeholder buy-in. I work to minimise them? advocates and facilitates the inclusion of others. To spur action, recent calls such as ‘The Call for a Robust Anti-racism Plan Allies, sponsors and accomplices for the Geosciences’ (Ali et al. 2020; To implement changes that will lead to to their meeting platform for live panels, change.org) and ‘No Time For Silence’ improved DEI in the geosciences, more and the Earth Science Women’s Network (notimeforsilence.org), suggest steps that allies, sponsors and accomplices (ASA, and 500 Women Scientists co-sponsored organisations can enact to combat racism see box, above right) need to step up and the Blackingeoscience.org website. and increase the inclusion of marginalised take action, to work with marginalised Because individuals from Black and communities in the geosciences. Other scientists in order to facilitate access to other minoritised groups do not typically calls outline actions to tackle geoscience- resources such as the hidden curriculum, have the same network reach as their related activities specifi cally, such as the unwritten rules, and fair compensation. peers in the majority group, the work of safety during fi eldwork (e.g., Anadu et al., ASA may, for example, advocate that ASA is essential to introduce and enact 2020) and inclusive anti-racist laboratories minoritised individuals get appropriate and change that can lead to larger networks, (Chaudhary & Berhe, 2020). fair compensation for the time and labour greater safety, equity and inclusion of In addition to these detailed plans, the put into helping institutions or organisations minoritised individuals. Thus, as an ASA, majority of individuals in the geoscience achieve their diversity quota, or demand you can support minoritised individuals by community can take personal steps to that Black and other minoritised people are being an active bystander, an advocate for facilitate inclusion in their spaces (see allowed the same access to resources and equity, and/or a sponsor of opportunities. opportunities as their peers from the over- TIPS FOR ENGAGING represented group. Whatever the challenge, A virtual community there is always something an ASA can do. Visibility matters. Social media has provided WITH BLACK For example, the reach of many marginalised individuals, including GEOSCIENTISTS AND #BlackInGeoscienceWeek was amplifi ed Black geoscientists, who are otherwise OTHER MARGINALISED by the support and collaboration of isolated in their physical communities, the COMMUNITIES individuals and groups of ASA from both the opportunity to reach a larger network of • Empathise more. over-represented community and other peers. Finding an online community means • Do your homework to research marginalised groups. Some examples are there is less gatekeeping – when used frequently asked questions about DEI. the Geolatinas, the Earth Science Women’s strategically, social media can provide global • Recognise that minoritised individuals Network, 500 Women Scientists, the access to potential mentors, collaborators, have fl aws just like every human. International Association for Geoscience and special interest groups. • Know that Black or minoritised individuals have di erent opinions Diversity, the Association for Women Sometimes, social media is not only and experiences (that is, we are not Geoscientists and Women in Mining, UK. supportive and encouraging, it is vital for a monolith). These groups, as well as other ASA, members of minoritised groups. The Twitter • Engage fi rst with their science – these supported the #BlackInGeoscienceWeek account of @BlkinGeoscience gained minoritised individuals are primarily events in di erent ways. For example, over 8,000 followers within two weeks trained geoscientists, not DEI- professionals. retweeting to their large groups of and is now a frequent tag for geoscience • Acknowledge and understand that Black followers, thereby amplifying tweets academic recruiters seeking to attract or minoritised people get overwhelmed on their platforms, sponsoring and students or sta from minoritised groups. by the same di cult and emotionally coordinating DEI events for greater reach, Virtual communities like Black In challenging questions about DEI (also or using their skills to design and create Geoscience and others demonstrate that known as ‘subjects that directly impact our everyday lives’). event fl iers. For example, the Association intentional actions, such as organising an for Women Geoscientists provided access online event or creating a website, can

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The world can see that Black from whom they can seek general life and career advice. geoscientists exist. Invite them into your Ambassadors can engage in science communication with the general network and communities, and allow them public and schools to help foster a access to the same opportunities sense of inclusion and belonging in the communities, thereby inspiring the next generation of Black geoscientists in the UK. have meaningful and signifi cant results. exist to attract a diverse talent pool into For example, the Blackingeoscience.org the geosciences, and to guide aspiring Looking ahead website now o ers the opportunity geoscientists to attainment. This is salient We want #BlackInGeoscience to o er for Black geoscientists to upload a because geology is not taught in most a meaningful increase in representation professional profi le, o ering easy primary and secondary schools. for aspiring geoscientists. The world access and creating a community. Appointing Black and other minoritised can see that Black geoscientists exist. However, we must acknowledge that geoscientists in leadership and decision- Invite them into your network and all #BlackInGeoscienceWeek organisers making roles can help defi ne more communities, and allow them access to o ered their time and talent for free, to appropriate procedures that are adaptable the same opportunities. make the week successful. Free labour to minoritised communities. This will Institutions insist that diversity and should not be the norm. Minoritised lead to better collaboration between the representation is important and has value. individuals should be compensated broader UK geoscience community and the Yet, the message has not translated into for their time and labour when doing Black or other minoritised communities. actions, opportunities and adequate DEI work. Such collaboration could take the form of compensation for equal work. The #BlackInGeoscienceWeek also geoscience outreach programmes that are Know that Black scientists are highlighted the importance, existence targeted at schools with predominantly capable. Capable of keynotes, seminars, and intersection of geoscientists from Black and other minoritised pupils, then lectures, panel discussions, fi eldwork or other marginalised groups in minoritised incentivise and compensate Black or other research. We can serve on committees, communities, for example, LGBTQ+ and minoritised geoscientists to conduct these councils, and editorial boards. Black disabled communities. outreach programmes. geoscientists demand space to contribute For example, in December 2020, Black their talents to help create a more diverse Role models and mentors in Geoscience also piloted a successful geoscience workforce. Diverse role models and mentors must secondary school outreach event, to introduce students at the Sacred Acknowledgements Heart Catholic School, Camberwell, We thank all the organisers and supporters Further information London to professional and active of #BlackInGeoscienceWeek for making it a success. A sincere thanks to our anonymous @BlkinGeoscience Black geoscientists. This model of Black colleagues for proofreading the article. [email protected] geoscience ambassadors could be www.blackingeoscience.org used to recruit, sponsor and actively promote geoscience in communities with underrepresentation. For many in the Black community, it is important for DR MUNIRA RAJI their professional careers that they have is a Consultant and Visiting visible role models and mentors with Researcher at the University of Portsmouth, UK similar cultural and ethnic backgrounds [email protected] @TheDroneLady FURTHER READING A full list of further reading is available at geoscientist.online. • Ali, H. et.al. (2020) Call for a Robust Nat. Geosci. 11, 292–295. DR HENDRATTA ALI Anti-Racism Plan for the Geosciences; • Chaudhary, V.B. & Berhe, A.A. is Associate Professor of www.change.org (Petition) (2020) PLoS Comput. Biol. 16(10), Geosciences at Fort Hays • Anadu, J. et al. (2020) Eos 101, e1008210. State University, USA (Published on 10 November 2020). • Dowey et al. (2020) Earth Arxiv Preprint. [email protected] • Bernard, R.E. & Cooperdock, E.H.G. (2018) (Published on 17 August 2020) @HendrattaAli

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 35 RESEARCH

In Summer 2020, Council requested an assessment of the Geological Society of London’s historical links to slavery and colonialism. The Society’s Archivist, Caroline Lam, researched those links and reports the findings here Decolonising geoscience

THE HARROWING deaths of George Floyd who created them. The Society’s Society) as a body was not involved in the and Breonna Taylor in the United States, and membership from the fi rst was not organisation or funding of these. However, the subsequent rise of the Black Lives Matter diverse. After decades of campaigning, as experts in the fi eld, the Society was movement profoundly a ected much women were fi nally allowed to join in frequently asked for recommendations of society last summer. One of the most May 1919 but, as was found in the 2020 on geological appointments. Employing notable outcomes has been organisations, Geological Society of London Strategic a geologist would enable exploratory such as our own, investigating the extent of Options project, the science and ergo expeditions to survey areas for mineral links to imperialism, slavery and racism in the membership to this day continues to wealth to be exploited by the imperialist their past. display a lack of diversity. The collections agency’s home nation. The evidence for many of these are a refl ection of this. The Society’s collection of maps and connections is usually found by surveying images are rare records of areas before institutions’ historical collections, and Colonial links they were obscured or destroyed by curators, archivists and librarians are Most of the collections cover the geology of colonial construction and industrialisation, at the forefront of the movement to Britain and Europe, but there is much much of which do not survive elsewhere. ‘decolonise’ the more problematic coverage farther afi eld, including material Traditionally there has been a tendency material. Decolonise is a catch-all term derived as a result of European colonialist to describe these regions as having been to indicate attempts to negate centuries practices of the 19th and 20th centuries. ‘discovered’ by a member of a colonial of colonial or imperialistic origins and Britain was, of course, at the forefront of exploration trip. Of course, the indigenous attitudes that are manifested in historical imperialist expansion and, while Fellows of populace of a country would know all too academic studies and collections. the Society participated in these activities, well of an area’s existence and may have, Although the geographical scope of for instance as surveyors on an expedition in many cases, acted as guides. the Society’s collection is wide, there is a or colonial survey, the Geological Society Artist and colonial surveyor Charles distinct lack of diversity in the individuals (unlike, say, the Royal Geographical Heaphy (1820-1881) arrived in New

36 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 WORKFORCE | DIVERSITY

RESEARCH | COLLECTIONS

Decolonising geoscience

Mount Taranaki, New Zealand. Artists and surveyors of the 1800s depicted the country’s landscapes through a colonial lens (see Fig. 1)

Zealand in August 1839, initially as 1 draughtsman in the employ of the New Zealand Company. This was a commercial enterprise whose remit was to systematically (and socially engineer) the colonisation of New Zealand. Heaphy’s role was to produce idyllic images of the landscape to tempt Europeans to emigrate (Fig. 1). In his exploration of the country, Heaphy is known to have employed Maori guides, two of whom, Kehu and Tau, saved his group from starvation during a trip down the west coast in 1846. Colonial era images frequently depict the land as empty. The invisibility of the

indigenous population and their culture Figure 1: ‘Mount Richmond’, one of a series of watercolour views of the volcanic region around Auckland, to modern eyes seems shocking, but New Zealand, by Charles Heaphy. He wasn’t a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, but was one of a number colonial surveyors who sent the results of their geological research to the Society for publication in it is a stark illustration of the nature our journals. (Archive ref: LDGSL/209; reproduced courtesy of the Geological Society of London) of imperialistic land acquisition that continues to this day.

Slavery Slavery was abolished in Britain in 1807,

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 37 RESEARCH

2 3

Figure 2: Portrait of Sir Henry De La Beche, Figure 3: Geological of Map of Jamaica by Henry De la Beche, 1827 (published in the paper: ‘Remarks on by Henry William Pickersgill, 1847. the Geology of Jamaica. Transactions of the Geological Society of London’ 2(2), 43-192). This is the first (Archive ref: GSL/POR/5; reproduced geological map of Jamaica, hence why De la Beche is sometimes referred to as the ‘Father of Jamaican courtesy of the Geological Society Geology’. The research for it and the accompanying survey was undertaken between 1823 and 1824, when of London) De la Beche was visiting his slave plantations on the island

the same year that the Geological Society 1855; Fig. 2) who later became the first of 1831-1832 was its culmination. This major of London was founded. This significant Director of the British Geological Survey. rebellion and its brutal fall out accelerated milestone is largely credited to the vociferous De la Beche had inherited slave (sugar) the British Government’s decision to abolish campaign led by the Quakers. Three of the plantations in Clarendon, Jamaica, from slavery in the British West Indies in 1833. founders of the Geological Society were his father, but falling revenue due to the The British Government paid compensation, Quakers – the brothers William Phillips (1773- frequent slave revolts in the region led him not to the slaves but to the plantation 1828) and Richard Phillips (1778-1851), whose to travel there between 1823 and 1824. It owners, but by this time De la Beche had father James helped establish the Society for was during this trip that he undertook the mortgaged his properties to the Hibbert the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787, and research for the first geological map of family who received the money instead. the chemist William Allen (1770-1843), who Jamaica (Fig. 3). De la Beche was by no means the devoted much of his later life attempting to In 1825, De la Beche published a only Fellow whose economic situation abolish slavery worldwide. pamphlet, Notes on the Present Condition was bound up with Britain’s nationally Yet, slavery was only outlawed on British of the Negroes, which was issued as sponsored slave trade. Sir Roderick soil. It continued elsewhere in the Empire, part of the pro/anti abolitionist literature Murchison’s (1792-1871) maternal family notably in the colonial outpost of the British and debates that were circulating during had slave holdings in the West Indies, as West Indies. One of the most prominent early this time. Despite being a slave owner, did the father and brother of the physician Geological Society members with holdings De la Beche held anti-slavery views, but his Richard Bright (1789-1858). Even the there was Sir Henry De la Beche (1796- income was entirely reliant on his Jamaican staunch abolitionist Adam Sedgwick (1785- estate. The volume is essentially an account 1873) appears to have benefited financially of his attempt at a compromise, that is to through a bequest from a slave-owning FURTHER READING A full list of further reading institute a more ‘humane’ approach to the neighbour in Dent, Yorkshire. Within the is available at geoscientist.online. treatment of the slaves on his plantations. historical Fellowship lists are likely to be • Centre for the Study of the Legacies of The almost pastoral view of the conditions more, including those with connections to British Slave-ownership database, University College London; www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs of the enslaved populace of Jamaica the East India Company. This organisation • Gould, S.J. (1996) The Mismeasure of Man. depicted in the publication was clearly at was not only involved in the slave trade 2nd ed. Published by W.W. Norton & Co., odds with the reality as unrest on the island in Africa, but with the imperial invasion of London & New York. continued. The ‘Great Jamaican Slave Revolt’ India and the opium trade with China.

38 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 RESEARCH | COLLECTIONS

Racism and prejudice 5 As to be expected with a long-standing organisation such as the Geological Society of London, there will be a number of individuals in their history whose actions, beliefs or writings are viewed as being abhorrent to present sensibilities. Much of this will be because the supremacist attitudes that enabled imperial expansion and slavery to flourish were also embedded into many of the academic studies of the period. For example, in Europe the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz (1807-1873; Fig. 4) is lauded for his influential palaeontological and glacial studies. However, after moving to the US in 1846, he became a leading spokesman for the racist theory Figure 5: Notes on the petrology of coal [c.1935], written by Marie Stopes on the reverse of Annual General of polygeny. Polygeny is the concept that Meeting notices for The Society and Clinic for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress, 1931. Stopes different races are effectively a different set up the Constructive Birth Control (CBC) in 1921. (Archive ref: LDGSL/63; reproduced courtesy of the Geological Society of London) and lesser taxonomical species than the white race. It developed against a background of slavery and the expulsion of the Native Americans from their to have academic merit, but are based on association with the Holocaust in the lands to give academic credence and superficial evidence to provide proof of a Second World War. justification for the inherent prejudices and pre-established opinion. In polygeny’s case, mistreatments of the age. it charted the visual differences between Why now? Polygeny was one of a number of the ‘ideal’ body of the white male scientist All people are products of their time. The prejudicial pseudosciences that developed and those of his inferior subject, based on attitudes and actions developed by those across Europe and the US in the 19th century. concepts of western beauty. Agassiz held growing up in an era when, say, colonialism, Pseudosciences are studies that appear particular racist views on Black people and slavery and racism were embedded into commissioned degrading photographs of society is useful in understanding historic slaves, yet polygeny and its ilk were not events. The issue is that in many cases these 4 only applied to other races, but to women, contextual explanations are never given children, Jewish people, immigrants, the in any great detail, resulting in a tendency poorer classes and disabled people. to project only a white-washed, heroic The advent of female higher education narrative of history because it doesn’t at the end of the 19th century also saw mention the problematic bits. women taking part in prejudicial studies. The decolonising process seeks to add One of our early women members, the more contextual information, but striking palaeobotanist Marie Stopes (1880-1958), a balance between acknowledging the is now viewed as a feminist champion of importance of historical works with an female reproductive rights. However, her openness on the attitudes and actions of motivation for offering contraception was their creators will not be easy or quick, the practice of her firmly held eugenic and missteps are likely in this period of principles (Fig. 5). The aim of eugenics was reflection while curatorial staff are finding to ‘improve the human race’, by removing their feet. its supposed degenerative elements. Stopes’ methodology was to restrict the reproduction of the poorer classes whom CAROLINE LAM Figure 4: Carte de visite portrait of Louis Agassiz she considered ‘unfit’. Eugenics and much Archivist/Records Manager, by unknown photographer [1860s]. (Archive ref: GSL/POR/51/01-2; reproduced courtesy of the of the other prejudicial academia only the Geological Society of London Geological Society of London) fell out of mainstream view due to their @geolsoc

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 39 HISTORY

All that glitters Nina Morgan recounts tales of fortunes made awarded him £10,000 and from 1877 he and lost during the gold rushes of the 1800s received an annual pension of £250. He was also showered with testimonials, and valuable trophies. In 1851, he became a commissioner of crown lands for the gold HEN GOLD was similarities between California and New districts and a justice of the peace. discovered in 1848 South Wales, Hargraves returned to at Sutter’s Mill on the Australia in January 1851 hoping to make One of the unlucky ones American River at his fortune by claiming a government But most who joined the Australian Gold Coloma, over 80,000 reward for the discovery of a payable Rush found gold mining to be hard and Wwould-be miners from all over the word goldfi eld. A few weeks later, in February unprofi table work. Writing from Melbourne descended on northern California in the 1851, while working with John Lister, in 1853 to his brother-in-law in England, hopes of striking it rich. Although a few of Hargraves found specks of gold in Lewis Thomas Spencer Niblock [1820-1853], these ‘49ers’ did make their fortunes, for Ponds Creek in New South Wales. He who travelled to Australia to try his luck in most, gold fever turned out to be a fatal revealed his fi nd in a letter to the Sydney the gold fi elds of Castlemaine and Forest disease. Nevertheless, the ‘infection’ soon Morning Herald, and within two weeks Creek, described the process: spread to other parts of the world. 300 men were at work at what became “Having selected the spot and marked One who did strike lucky was Edmond known as the Ophir goldfi eld, and an the hole – oblong or circular, but generally Hammond Hargraves [1816-1891], who Australian Gold Rush took o . Prospectors circular for a deep hole, and about 4ft travelled to California in 1849 from his also fl ocked to other areas, including diameter, [miners] set to work by turns adopted country, Australia. Although he Castlemaine and Forest Creek in Victoria, with pick and shovel until about 8ft down didn’t fi nd much gold there, he gained to dig for placer, or alluvial, gold. when they can throw up no earth more a valuable knowledge of prospecting. Although Hargraves had exaggerated conveniently. They then erect a crude Recognising that there were geological and falsifi ed his fi nds, the government windlass over the hole and draw up the

40 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 HISTORY | MINING

But he found conditions weren’t much FURTHER READING A full list of further reading is better there. Although his wife had “made available at geoscientist.online. many strenuous efforts to obtain some • ‘Hargraves, Edward Hammond (1816-1891)’, by employment or situation... [these were] in Bruce Mitchell, in The Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 4 vain, for Melbourne is crowded with single • Authors of Their Lives: The Personal females looking for employment.” And Correspondence of British Immigrants to North unable to find a job himself, Niblock was America in the Nineteenth Century, by David A. Gerber, ISBN 978-081473-200-7/ 978-081473- reduced to selling his “long cherished ‘old’ 171-0 books” to put food on the table and a roof • Book of Gold and Gold-Hunters, by Lance over his family’s heads. Salway, ISBN 978-072265-419-4 • The Australian Maritime Museums Council: Hoping to find a means of making a living, maritimemuseumsaustralia.com/profiles/ in May 1853 the family took a passage to blogs/a-monumental-mistake Sydney on the American-built single screw • The Victorian Heritage Database, Australia: vhd. heritage.vic.gov.au/shipwrecks/heritage/473 steamer, Monumental City. On Sunday 15 May 1853, the vessel ran aground in calm weather off Tullaberga Island, Victoria, and earth in a bucket – and do not suppose (like 37 people, including Niblock and his family, I and most new hands) that all this earth is were drowned. gold dust more or less. No such thing – none of it will pay for washing it until the ‘washing- The legacy lives on stuff’ is reached – in some places 3ft, in But the Niblock gold mining legacy lives on. others 90ft below the surface... One hundred and forty years later, his great, “Having reached this washing stuff great, great nephew, Jeremy Burton [b. 1952] and carefully tried a few handfuls of it by having earned a degree in geology, tried his washing it and picked out what nuggets luck in 1993 in a placer mine in California. are visible, the earth is carefully laid by “We had to drill and blast our way into a itself (and the rock well scraped as there mountain to reach a supposedly gold-rich the gold lies) and then well ‘puddled’ with palaeo-channel,” Burton recalls. “But in spite water in a tub and then washed by hand of our state-of-the-art equipment, we were in a large dish exactly the same as a large about as unsuccessful in our search for gold shallow milk pan or in a ‘cradle’ which as Uncle Tom was in his!” Happily, Burton does it much quicker so it is amazing has lived on to succeed in other ways and is what gold is sometimes found in a pail now enjoying a bit of metal detecting in rural of earth, which to an unpractised hand Oxfordshire, where he still hopes to make a would appear valueless. fortune by discovering a large hoard of “As each man has a right to a plot of gold coins! ground 12ft square, when he gets to the bottom he undermines so far – should Acknowledgements the hole prove worth proceeding with; I thank Jeremy Burton for information and and often if it proves rich, one man will references about gold mining, and providing Above, top The American River in trespass and undermine for yards under his me with pictures and a transcript of ‘Uncle Coloma, California, attracted would-be Tom’s’ letter. miners during the state’s gold rush neighbours’ who perhaps have not yet got to the bottom.” Above, bottom Jeremy Burton, the great, great, great nephew of prospector Thomas Niblock, at his own California A sad end gold prospect in 1993 Alas, Niblock never reached pay dirt: “After six weeks steady application the result has been nothing – we have not even made our living and our party has separated and returned to NINA MORGAN Nina is a geologist and science Melbourne one by one.” writer based near Oxford. By April 1853, Niblock too had given up, www.gravestonegeology.uk and rejoined his wife and child in Melbourne.

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 41 CAREERS | MEETINGS | REPORTS

Tips for a rock-solid geoscience post-doc

Post-doctoral research can be What is a post-doc? rewarding, but also short term and often A post-doc refers both to the researcher TIPS WHEN who is working on a research project, APPLYING involve moving locations. Melanie Leng often following completion of their If there is a formal and Joe Emmings advise those weighing PhD (they are called a ‘post-doctoral application process, up whether to sign up to a post-doc researcher’), and the project itself. make sure you read Post-doc positions are almost always the guidance carefully. Tailor your application fi xed-term (usually one to three years) and cover letter to the and o er an opportunity for early career position and research ONGRATULATIONS, researchers to develop their research in question. A generic you just passed your PhD ideas, learn new skills and gain experience application is usually viva! So what’s next? A in an advanced research environment. easy to spot. Do your homework on post-doc is one route Most post-docs are positions in the principal investigator available to you, and is universities and research institutes, and their research team. Ca good option if you’d like to pursue a and occasionally in industry (or Take questions to the career in research. A post-doc gives you sponsored by industrial partners). interview about the the chance to enrich your expertise, There are two distinct styles of post- department or company, and explore all of your boost your CV and experience new doctoral research position: 1) project- questions (in case the research environments, but it’s not right specifi c, where post-docs are typically position isn’t for you). for everyone. Post-docs can be great funded as part of a larger, overarching Once o ered the role opportunities, but as with any job, take research grant and are part of a team of (and before accepting care to consider whether a post-doc is researchers; and 2) thematic, where the it), you will be in the best negotiation position to right for you, think carefully about the post-doc research objectives are less discuss expectations, projects you apply for and the people you constrained, in order to encourage new roles and responsibilities. will be working with. thinking and discovery. In reality most

42 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 UNEARTHED | CAREERS

post-docs are on the spectrum between these two end-members. UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES Post-docs generally have minimal Like any job, the merits of a post-doc are dependants or caring responsibilities and supervision, and they are expected to influenced by the role and environment. The wanting to be more settled. gather and interpret their data, present post-doc might be a fantastic project, but Post-doc salaries vary, some can be lower their research at conferences and it’s important to consider who you will be than those on offer for industry positions. publish peer-reviewed papers in working with. Post-doc positions can also require you to Probably the main downside to post-docs be mobile (e.g., visiting other labs, fieldwork, academic journals. is their fixed-term nature, it is not unusual for conferences); for some the prospect of travel early career researchers to do multiple post- is appealing. Why do a post-doc? docs before attaining a permanent position. Post-docs are an opportunity for you to Post-docs are usually taken up after a Perhaps as a result, a much lower percentage do your research and have fun; your abilities PhD and offer a pathway to a career in of women move from post-docs to academia; will be stretched, you will gain a mass of this might relate to family demands, self- experience through exposure to different academia or industry. Post-docs present confidence, and inability to travel due to environments, and you will make new friends. an opportunity to help establish your independence, develop your critical thinking, leadership, mentoring, and project and people management skills, as How to choose a post-doc academic jobs is jobs.ac.uk, which lists well as expand your technical knowledge. Post-docs are expected to largely know different types of academic jobs both in Unlike a PhD, a post-doc is not ‘defended’ what they are doing (or to find out), so the UK and overseas. Many of our major at the end of the position, but key research think about what a post-doc outside of geoscience publications advertise post- outputs are expected within a timeframe your immediate specialism will involve. docs including New Scientist magazine that is agreed with your supervisor and the Post-docs are almost always required to and Science magazine, and there are wider research group. deliver the outcomes as described in the jobs boards on the websites of the Times A post-doc position is generally associated job advert, the grant or by the funder – be Higher Educational Supplement and the with less supervision and more responsibility, assured you can deliver. Guardian. University websites are also a compared to being a PhD researcher. Post- Think about your supervisor, the principal good source for information. docs are almost always expected to publish investigator. It may be a fantastic project, You can also approach researchers peer-review papers, but innovation, outreach but it’s important to know who you will be directly to enquire about future and public engagement are becoming working with. After securing an interview opportunities. Make use of contacts made increasingly important. or meeting, do some research. Look up through networking. Fellowships are a At the start of your first post-doc after the potential principal investigator(s) useful source of funding for post-doctoral your PhD, many people face a dilemma: to and their laboratory or research group research and there are many, including the double-down on your PhD research and via their websites and online presence. Research Councils, Royal Society, Marie expertise, for example by expanding the Do they appear interesting and are they Curie, Anne McLaren, and institutional types of analysis for rocks you have already doing research that genuinely interests fellowship programmes. characterised, and fostering existing you? Look at how many PhD students and partnerships, or to strike out in a new other post-docs they have in their group, direction, perhaps by embracing entirely and take time to consider the diversity of MELANIE LENG Melanie is Chief Scientist for new techniques, method development the research group. Do they look like a Environmental Change, Adaption and building new collaborations. There dynamic and diverse research group that and Resilience and Director is no right answer to this, and it will often you would want to feel part of? You may of Geochemistry at the British depend on your post-doc objectives and also want to find out if any of your network Geological Survey, UK, and long-term research aspirations. is in the same field. If so, ask if they know Professor in Isotope Geoscience at the University of Nottingham anything about the research group you [email protected] may be joining. You can also @MelJLeng approach researchers How to find a post-doc Most PhD students start thinking about JOE EMMINGS Joe is a post-doctoral research directly to enquire post-docs in their final year. There are associate in Decarbonisation about future many websites and information can be and Geochemistry at the easily found through search engines. In British Geological Survey, UK opportunities the UK, one of the biggest websites for [email protected]

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 43

BE INSPIRED BY OUR FELLOWS’ RECOMMENDATIONS BOOKS & ARTS

management and quality of groundwater Pleistocene. Seaboards are as diverse as INTRODUCING (including pollution and protection), flood, any geological setting on Earth, and of HYDROGEOLOGY drought and subsidence. great importance to humans, with many The book will appeal to Earth scientists people gaining their livelihoods from DETAILS and engineers unfamiliar with the topic, them. Davis and FitzGerald have, in this BY: Nicholas Robins (2020). Dunedin as well as students and non-scientists revised edition of Beaches and Coasts, Academic Press, 115 pp. (pbk and ebook) looking for a basic text on the subject. The risen to the challenge of publishing ISBN: 978-178046-078-9 PRICE: £14.99 book’s emphasis is the underlying measure a concise and informative book that www.dunedinacademicpress.co.uk of the importance of hydrogeology to summarises the nature of Earth’s different society, and this is communicated through coastlines. It also describes the various REVIEWED BY example topics such as climate change processes that formed these coasts, ROB BOWELL impact, water scarcity, nuclear waste and the many factors (climate change, Introducing repositories and oil shale fracking. sea-level rise, urban development) Hydrogeology Nicholas Robins worked for much of his that make maintaining the integrity of is another career as a hydrogeologist with the British coastlines challenging. addition to the Geological Survey, in the UK and overseas, The authors take a novel approach, ‘Introducing Earth and has also been involved with research such that their book’s title belies its full and Environmental Sciences’ series, into radioactive waste disposal. As current scope. Prior to describing shoreline which focuses on providing elementary Editor-in-Chief for the International systems (deltas, estuaries, tidal flats and understanding of the sub-disciplines in Association of Hydrogeologists, he is well so on), they provide an overview of plate the Earth and Environmental Sciences. placed to review contemporary literature tectonics and then classify coastlines Hydrogeology is a critical part of applied in the field. according to their plate tectonic settings. geology and deals with the distribution A definition I was once given of an They group coasts into three categories: and movement of water in Earth’s crust. expert is not how much they can write collision types, trailing edge types and Groundwater transport is an important on a topic, but rather how well they can marginal seas. These differ in part in part of the overall hydrological cycle, in explain that topic in a few words. By this the scale of the rivers draining them, which water is transferred by evaporation definition Nicholas Robins is an expert in collision coasts having short rivers and from the oceans and seas into the hydrogeology and succeeds in providing trailing edge coasts having long ones. atmosphere. This cycles back to the a readable introduction to hydrogeology They differ also in the nature of the ground through precipitation and some in a slim volume. I strongly recommend continental shelves, which are narrow percolates underground to become this book to those interested in pursuing on collision coasts, wide on trailing groundwater. This process imprints hydrogeology as a discipline. edge coasts, and bordered by offshore distinct chemical signatures on the island arcs along marginal seas. Trailing water, dependent on the rock type the edge coasts are subdivided into Neo- water contacts, and migration can occur BEACHES AND COASTS types (geologically <30 million years old) over a period of a few weeks to tens of resulting from continental rifting, Afro- thousands of years. DETAILS types around continents lacking opposing Hydrogeology intersects a variety of BY: Richard A. Davis, Jr., & Duncan M. collision- and trailing-type coastlines, disciplines that do not strictly fall within Fitzgerald (2nd Edition, 2020). John Wiley and Amero-types along passive, Atlantic- geology, including hydrology, climatology & Sons, 536 pp. (hbk and ebook) type margins. and socioeconomics. Therefore, this ISBN: 978-1-119-33448-4 PRICE: £70.00 Superimposed on this classification guide describes the base concepts of www.wiley.com are the effects of modern climates, groundwater flow analysis in simple weather systems such as hurricanes, language and avoids jargon or detailed REVIEWED wave types and their propagation, and analysis of the topic (there is also a BY BRENT WILSON tides. A brief description of sediments and glossary). The book describes all facets The world’s coastlines rocks is presented, but the mineralogical of the science, physical and chemical, are of geologically component is kept to a minimum, together with topical issues, including recent origin, most shoreline sediments containing primarily climate change and our insatiable demand of their geomorphic four mineral types: feldspars, quartz, clay for water. It also covers subjects including features (other than a minerals and carbonates. aquifers, groundwater flow and numerical few relict ones) having arisen since With this background in place, the analysis, boreholes and testing, the the transgression at the end of the authors describe the many shoreline

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 45 BOOKS & ARTS FIND THE LATEST REVIEWS AT WWW.GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE

systems, noting in which plate tectonic the carved ornament of the building, setting they primarily occur. The while descriptions make for a fascinating REVIEWED BY emphasis is on depositional features, geological tour. JEREMY JOSEPH but one chapter is devoted to rocky The book explores the sources of Rivers are drains — coasts. In addition to diagrams the stone and the pivotal role the lines connecting the showing systems’ evolution, museum played. The story of topographic points of photographs from GET INVOLVED the development of Ireland’s lowest potential in a worldwide settings are Want to contribute stone industry is a well- catchment and, thus, a review? Available provided to illustrate them. researched highlight. This along which water flows titles are listed at Boxed case studies add www.Geoscientist. looks at the extraction and to get away. In doing so, they remove the depth; I particularly Online marketing of Ireland’s coloured weathering and erosion products. The enjoyed one describing limestones and serpentinites. basic model, followed by all rivers, has historic car races at Daytona Interesting research is presented three zones where sediments are generated, Beach, Florida. on the evolution of granite quarrying transferred and deposited, respectively. There This book is designed for introductory techniques, transport and roads, which really are no surprises: water flows downhill. students, bibliographic references led to the migration of the Wicklow The difference between large rivers and being kept to a minimum. However, quarrying communities. And, of course, the others is that, because of their relative it has much to offer to those in more no story of Irish stone is complete length and huge drainage areas, they can advanced courses and those working in without the Kilkenny Marble. The function in more modes. The underlying coastal management. challenges in transporting the stone geology is a major controller of mode and how it compared with native and changes. While these basic issues come continental competitors in the Victorian through in the book, the presentation and THE MUSEUM BUILDING OF period is fascinating. development of the deeper detail seem TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN: We meet the builder and carvers confusing. In part that might be because A MODEL OF VICTORIAN responsible for the construction of the large rivers are very diverse and so CRAFTSMANSHIP Museum Building in later chapters. The inherently hard to deal with as a group. theme of Ireland’s natural resources The book is intended to help readers DETAILS follows through into the depiction of new to the field and covers a range of BY: Christine Casey & Patrick Wyse Jackson native Irish plants and animals in the disciplines including geomorphology, (2019). Four Courts Press, 400 pp. (hbk) building’s remarkable carvings. The final hydrology, ecology and the anthropogenic ISBN: 978-1-84682-789-1 PRICE: £50.00 section looks at the current conservation environment. Most chapters end with www.fourcourtspress.ie of the building by considering the questions to help readers reflect on the weathering of the exterior and recent content of the chapter concerned. REVIEWED BY cleaning techniques. Much of the information given is JULIAN INGRAM This is an entertaining book, qualitative rather than quantitative, so it is This book presents representing an inspired and thorough unfortunate that some quantitative errors a series of essays research project. The crucial relationship have got through the editing. The nominal exploring the most between architecture and geology is made capacity of Lake Mead is given numerical influential Victorian clear throughout. This is much more than values that differ by three orders of building in the city a book about a building and will appeal to magnitude — 98 million and billion m3, of Dublin. In the any geologist with an interest in Ireland’s respectively. More concerning is that 1850s, the Museum geology and architecture. the official (notional) capacity is actually Building of Trinity College was built to around 32 billion m3, so the significand showcase the potential of Irish stone itself is wrong. There are similar issues at the start of a golden age of Ireland’s INTRODUCING elsewhere. It is unlikely, for instance, that decorative stone industry. LARGE RIVERS the capacity of a reservoir on the Missouri Those familiar with the building will approaches 29,500 km3, exceeding that of know it is an Irish geology lesson in DETAILS Lake Baikal. The book also needs a glossary, itself. The experience that a visitor would BY: Avijit Gupta (2020). John Wiley & Sons, which should include the ‘local’ names in have translates into the book very well. 288 pp. (pbk and ebook) the text. Not all readers will know that the Colour photos capture the sumptuous ISBN: 978-1-118-45140-3 PRICE: £31.99 Chinese name for the Yangtze transliterates polychromy and present the detail of www.wiley.com as Chang Jiang, for example.

46 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY HERE FOR YOU The Geological Society Library sta are here to support our Fellows, Friends, Corporate Patrons and other researchers. For more information about Library services or if you have any enquiries visit www.geolsoc.org.uk/library, email [email protected] or call us on +44 (0)20 7432 0999.

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www.geolsoc.org.uk/library OBITUARIES

NORMAN SNELLING, who died peacefully on 12 Travel and publications January 2020, was a pioneer in the application In 1965, OGS was absorbed into the Institute of of potassium-argon (K-Ar) geochronology. He Geological Sciences, by which time Norman had graduated from the University of Manchester already conducted projects worldwide, working in 1951 and won a scholarship to the Australian with survey and university geologists and students. National University at Canberra. His PhD, He travelled widely and sent members of his group published in the Quarterly Journal of the to continue detailed studies, and indeed to develop Geological Society in 1960, was on the petrology their own careers. He was widely appreciated for his and mineralogy of the Palaeozoic granites of the role in technology transfer, giving advice and help Murrumbidgee batholith – in his own words, a in setting up autonomous K-Ar dating equipment. “wonderful country, virtually uninhabited, just His joint publications provided primary data for bush, forest and mountains ranges (plus the the geological evolution of countries as diverse usual kangaroos and snakes)”. as Malaysia, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Botswana, British Guiana and Chile. In 1966 and 1984, he co- NORMAN JOHN Isotope analysis authored books reviewing the geochronology of SNELLING In Canberra, John Richards introduced Norman to the African continent. He edited and contributed to 1930 2020 the isotope analysis of gases. Together they built the much-cited Geological Society Memoir No. 10 an early version of the equipment necessary to (1985) “The Chronology of the Geological Record”. date rocks from the radioactive decay of natural potassium to an isotope of argon. This defi ned Retirement An innovative the course of Norman’s subsequent career, In 1988, Norman retired from what had become the geochronologist starting with postdoctoral work on K-Ar dating at British Geological Survey. He was then instrumental whose work the Geological Survey of Canada. in launching the Journal of South American Earth spanned several His role in the emerging science of Sciences where he was co-chief editor for four continents geochronology was recognised in 1959 years, returning as chief editor in 1996 to rescue it when he was recruited to lead a small rock- at a critical stage of management di culties. In the dating unit for the UK Directorate of Overseas meantime, he assisted with a new geochronology Geological Surveys (OGS). This was based at laboratory at Universidad Complutense, Madrid,

BY BOB PANKHURST Oxford University, where Lawrence Wager where in 1991 he was given a full professorship had assembled a team of experts to establish that lasted until his fi nal retirement in 1996. what became an internationally recognised Norman is remembered as kind and generous geochronology laboratory. by his colleagues. Despite his global travelling he The symbiotic relationship lasted until 1969 when was a devoted family man and is greatly missed the survey unit was taken in-house in London. by his second wife, Carmen, two children by his Under Norman’s direction for the next 19 years, it fi rst wife, Anne, three stepchildren, grandchildren grew in size and scope of the methods used. and great grandchildren.

IN MEMORY OF… The Society notes with sadness the passing of: • Naldrett, Anthony James • Allen, John R. L. • Parkes, Matthew • Billing, Ian* • Petrie, Angus* • Copponex, Jean-Pierre* • Ramsay, John Graham • Dickins, Dennis* • Rex, David • Fookes, Peter • Rostron, Brian* • Hawkins, Kevin* • Somerville, Stanley Herbert* • Head, Kenneth Harold* • Sowerbutts, William T.C. • Jackson, David Ian* • Spink, Andrew • Kettle, Clifton* • Symes, Douglas Kean* Pictured, above: Norman is • Lake, Lionel* • Thomas, Michael remembered as a kind and • Lurati, Matthias* • Weeks, Alan* generous colleague, and a • Max, Michael David • Woodland, Bertram George* devoted family man • McKean, James (Bold, recent additions to the list; * Fellows • Mudge, David Charles for whom no obituarist has been commissioned)

48 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 OBITUARIES | CELEBRATING COLLEAGUES

PETER FOOKES began his career in the 1950s for European and American engineers with in chemistry, but soon changed to geology little experience of engineering in hot, dry and, after graduation, entered the world of civil climates. Peter identifi ed inadequacies in the engineering as a young geologist. Under the aggregates used in the concrete, pioneered infl uence of Professor Skempton, Peter studied the concept of salt attack resulting from high for a PhD at Queen Mary College, London, rates of evaporation and was at the forefront which led to a lectureship at Imperial College of developing guidelines for good practice that London in the developing Engineering Geology now embody regional standards. Group. From there he never looked back, using his commercial experience to build up the fi rst MSc programme in Engineering Geology, before Peter’s charisma developing his consultancy in 1971. was huge. He Peter became a pioneer in the application of geology to civil engineering and, using his brought many of chemistry background, in the infl uence of desert his colleagues and PETER GEORGE materials on concrete durability. He has been FOOKES a ectionately called the “father of engineering students into his 19332020 geology”, but he was also a pioneering advocate of the use of geomorphology on engineering extended family, projects. He never lost his links to academia, providing them with continuing to lecture, lead fi eld courses and A pioneer in the initiate ground-breaking research, while playing continuous support application of a leading role in the Engineering Group of the geology to civil Geological Society of London. The person engineering Peter Fookes died in September 2020 after a long Infl uence illness. He is survived by his wife and soulmate Peter was a prolifi c writer, publishing some 200 Edna, fi ve children and 12 grandchildren. Peter papers and 10 books, including many seminal was passionate about steam trains, and was a fan BY JOHN CHARMAN works. His contributions spanned the full range of West Ham United football club, as well as the of geological application and resulted in awards television soap Neighbours – even ending his in many disciplines, including the Glossop fi eld trips in time for the 5.30pm episode. Medal (engineering geology), Honorary Fellow Peter’s charisma was huge. He brought many of the Royal Geographical Society (engineering of his colleagues and students into his extended geomorphology), Fellow of the Royal Academy family, providing them with continuous support. of Engineering (civil engineering), as well as Uncannily, Peter’s theories, which initially Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Concrete seemed far-fetched, often became the key to the Technology (concrete). Peter held several visiting successful progress of a project. It is this knack, professorships, was awarded Doctor of Science the logical way Peter engaged the client and, (Engineering) from Imperial College London and above all, his friendship that I will remember. was a recipient of the William Smith Medal of the He will be sorely missed. Geological Society of London. If anything sums up Peter’s approach to the worlds of geology and engineering it is the Contact ground model, which so logically brings the If you would like to contribute an two disciplines together. His approach was to obituary, please email the editor characterise a site by considering its historical [email protected] development from the original depositional Pictured, above: Peter’s environment, through global tectonic changes to Roll of Honour work was pivotal in Deceased Fellows for whom no obituary establishing good practice the geomorphological processes that have most in engineering standards recently shaped the near-surface landscape. is forthcoming have their names and dates in the Middle East From the 1970s, economic expansion in recorded in a Roll of Honour at (Photo by Mark Lee, 2010) the Middle East provided many opportunities www.geolsoc.org.uk/obituaries

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 49 COUNCIL ELECTIONS

on hydrocarbon industry- and lease law and dealing funded projects across with legal issues under Royal Elections to Eurasia and North Africa Charters. I have promoted (1993-2004). professional geological Council 2021-2022 With this background, opportunities to students I hope to encourage more in the North East and have Find out more about this year’s nominees communication between organised annual Geological different sectors of the Society events in Newcastle. Supporting statement Medal in 2012. I have served on geosciences, and to promote If elected I will: work with for the post of the Editorial Board of Quarterly the subject to prospective the regional groups to deliver President Designate Journal of Engineering students. I have been a Fellow more local events to change Geology & Hydrogeology of the Geological Society since the Society’s perceived RUTH ALLINGTON (QJEGH) and have been a 1993, served as a member of London-centric image; work If elected, I member of Pan-European the Petroleum Group, acted to attract and retain new would work Reserves & Resources as Secretary of the Northern Fellows in a post-COVID energetically Reporting Committee (PERC) Regional Group, and been economy; further develop with Council, for 15 years. on the editorial board of the professional training staff and A member of Council from Petroleum Geoscience. I have and support offered by the all the 2000 until 2005, I served convened several conferences Society to university student Geological as both Vice-President for the Society, and am an societies and postgraduate Society’s communities and and Professional Secretary. active member of its Tectonic students; and further stakeholders to ensure that For more than ten years, Studies Group. It would be a champion the expansion of the study and practice of I represented the Society on privilege to be on Council and the Society’s international geoscience is recognised as the Council of the European serve the Society. geodevelopment partnerships. the essential basis of solutions Federation of Geologists, Proposer: Prof Robert Proposer: Prof Daniel for a sustainable planet. including four years as Holdsworth Clark-Lowes Now semi-retired, I would President. Supporters: Prof Jonathan Supporters: Dr Lesley Dunlop bring to the role 39 years’ Proposer: Prof Iain Stewart Gordon Gluyas Dr John Bennett experience as a consulting Supporters: Dr Sarah Gordon Dr Alex Whittaker engineering geologist in Nic Bilham the minerals industry, as a DR NEIL FREWIN professional mediator and ANDREW DOBRZANSKI I have 27 expert witness, and many Supporting statements I have been years of years of active contribution for Council nominees* a committed industry to the Society and the wider member of experience geoscience community. I am PROF MARK ALLEN the Society as a passionate about promoting I am standing since geoscientist, effective inter-disciplinary for Council studying much of collaboration and high to use my A-Level that time with Shell, but also professional practice standards experience Geology and have previously periods with Hess UK Ltd and within and beyond geoscience; of research, served on the Society’s BG Group. Although igniting these underpin sustainable industry and Information Management my passion as a research solutions and public education Committee. My research geochemist in the Netherlands, confidence. to help the Geological background is in igneous I have spent much of my My vision for the Society Society serve its members petrology, gemmology, career in asset management is that it delivers value and and society. My current role is and ore-deposit geology and new business support for our diverse Professor in Tectonics in the at Liverpool, Durham and development. I am currently Fellowship whilst being Earth Sciences Department Edinburgh universities. leading a regional geology true to its aims to improve at Durham University, where I currently co-manage the team with Shell in London, a knowledge and understanding I have worked since 2005. Royce Institute facilities for role that has a global basin and of the Earth, to promote Active research projects and materials science research play remit. Earth science education and teaching cover a range of at Cambridge University, and I believe that stronger awareness, and to promote subjects, including continental I am particularly interested in collaboration between professional excellence and deformation and magmatism, materials and metal supply professional societies will be ethical standards in the work seismic hazards and climate chains, and the reuse of key to survival and further of Earth scientists, for the change. I interact with the UK’s waste materials. growth. In that regard, I was public good. research councils, including I believe the Society must recently President of the A Fellow for 39 years, I two years as Director of the play a key expert role in Petroleum Exploration Society hold CGeol and EurGeol Natural Environment Research guiding future UK climate, of Great Britain (PESGB) and titles. I joined the Engineering Council (NERC) Iapetus infrastructure and resource have played a substantive role Group in 1981, serving as Hon Doctoral Training Partnership. policy. As Secretary of the in their strategic reshaping. Secretary, Vice-Chair and My previous employment was Royal Chartered Newcastle The role of geoscience in Chair between 1985 and 2000, at the Cambridge Arctic Shelf Mining Institute, I am well society and the use of Earth’s and was awarded the Glossop Programme, working versed in charity, tenancy resources is also changing, and

50 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 COUNCIL ELECTIONS

I co-founded the “Exploring outcrops in Europe and North member of the Engineering mining industry. I feel I can the Energy Transition” America and taught field and Geology Group. I became a contribute to the committee special interest group to classroom courses for students Chartered Geologist in 2017 via with ideas on industry- address these trends. and industry. the 20-year route. I am also a academia collaboration, I have a passion for public I have been a Fellow of European Geologist, Chartered multidisciplinary thinking and outreach and am a Trustee the Society for 35 years and Engineer and a Fellow of public outreach. Thank you for and Company Secretary of have served on the Petroleum the Institute of Materials, considering my application. The Etches Collection – a Group Committee, as a Minerals & Mining (awarded Proposer: Dr Mike Armitage museum in Dorset. Here conference convenor and for my dedication to EDI). Supporters: Martin Pittuck I fulfil specific roles with editor of Geological Society Currently, I am Geological Robert respect to fundraising and Special Publications on Society Scrutineer, journal Goddard digital engagement to support the application of outcrop peer reviewer for QJEGH and the charity. analogues to subsurface International Association for I am a Chartered Geologist problems (SP 387, 436). Engineering Geology and the PETE LOADER and an editorial board I have participated in British Environment (IAEG), STEM I have been member for the journal Sedimentological Research Ambassador and a Ground a geoscience Petroleum Geoscience. Group activities over my Forum Mentor. educator for Proposer: H A Wilson entire career. Proposer: Jackie Skipper over 45 years. Supporters: Philip Thomson Proposer: Dr James Supporters: Chris Jack I became Lucy Williams Maynard Tom Backhouse a Fellow in Supporters: Dr Jonathan 2000, at a Wilson time of great change in the DR TIM GOOD Prof John BEN LEPLEY school geology curriculum, The Earth Underhill My primary which I helped develop as sciences goal of part of my role as the Chief face major being on the Examiner for one of the challenges MARTIN GRIFFIN Council is to awarding bodies. After working related to I am a assist with on the Society’s Plate Tectonic the energy Principal improving the website, I was invited to serve transition Geotechnical perception of as a member of the Education and environmental changes Engineer geology and the geosciences Committee in 2013 and as at a time of declining student with COWI. I in the public eye, particularly Chair from 2016. Through numbers and Geological am dyslexic, with the aim of encouraging the Society’s Geoscience Society membership, as well dyspraxic, more students to study Education Academy and as mixed public perceptions autistic and partially sighted. geoscience subjects. I would the Earth Science Teachers of the resource industries. These are the conditions like to see more active Association, I continue to If elected, I hope these that have shaped me, but public engagement and support science and geography are themes I can help the don’t define who I am. I make geoscience enticing teachers in their delivery of Council address through am a workplace Equality for young environmentally the Earth science elements of strengthening industry- Diversity Inclusion (EDI) Office conscious people. the national curriculum. Whilst academic collaboration and Champion advocating disability I have worked for SRK this remains an important delivery of a high-quality awareness in our sector. I have Consulting as a mineral part of the Society’s business technical programme. 20-plus years’ professional resource geologist for 12 plan, the need to extend I have worked in both experience with consultancies, years, since graduating from this to specifically train the industry and academia. My working on national and Cardiff University. I have been next generation of GCSE and undergraduate training (Hull) international projects. a Fellow since 2008 and A-Level geology teachers was followed by a NERC- I am standing for Council served on the Southern Wales has recently become all too funded sedimentology PhD to advance equality, celebrate Geological Society Committee clear if we are to help reverse (Reading) interpreting clastic diversity and stand up between 2009 and 2011. I the decline in the uptake of depositional systems in the for people who are from gained Chartered Geologist geoscience at all levels. UK and Canadian Arctic. underrepresented groups. If status in 2014. I have also The current economic My industry career with BP elected, I aim to represent given talks and contributed situation necessitates that and ExxonMobil (current perspectives of those who to conferences arranged by the Society’s education work employer) has included are on the periphery of the the Mineral Deposits Studies must be appropriate and exploration, research and geoscience community and Group, along with being part strongly prioritised to take commercial roles and be a positive and proactive of the FutureGeo Group. account of the reduced level of specialist assignments in voice for such people in As part of my role as co- manpower. As a member sedimentology and geological decision-making at the chair of the Public Perception of Council I would be modelling in the UK and Geological Society. of Mining Committee with the honoured to continue overseas. As an academic I graduated from Exeter Critical Minerals Association, contributing to the Society’s at Heriot-Watt University, University in 1995 with a 2:1 I engage with a number of educational impact. I led an industry-funded in Industrial Geology. In 2008, organisations, including school Proposer: David Shilston reservoir characterisation I became an active Fellow of and university education, Supporters: Prof. Chris King research team on large-scale the Geological Society and a academia, exploration and the Prof. Iain Stewart

*One of the candidates is endorsed by Council because they have volunteered to undertake a key task for the Society. GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 51 COUNCIL ELECTIONS

DR DAVID MCNAMARA STUART MILLIS Petroleum Geoscience through would bring an early career I would like I am a to the Energy Transition. Post perspective to these vital to engage Chartered PhD, I have worked in industry, issues and champion the with the Geologist first in a large oil company and importance of attracting the Geological with over subsequently as the founder new Fellows who will ensure Society at 20 years’ and managing director of the Society’s long-term the Council experience as several service companies. success. I am currently a NERC level to a practising I have managed businesses Independent Research Fellow help the Society progress engineering geological of a similar scale to the at the University of Manchester. its efforts in two specific consultant. I am based in Hong Society and I am keen to make I became a Fellow in 2013 and arenas. Firstly, I aim to Kong and have predominantly that experience available I chair the local organising contribute to the Society’s operated throughout the Asia to the Society to ensure it committee of the Volcanic efforts to improve support region during my career. I continues to be financially and Magmatic Studies Group’s for the diverse geoscience have been highly active with robust and makes best use 2022 meeting. In addition to community it represents. This the Geological Society, having of its resources. I have been serving on Council, I am thus includes raising community been the Chair of the Hong a Fellow of the Society since eager to contribute to the awareness of issues diverse Kong Regional Group (HKRG) graduating in 1984 and have Society’s scientific programme geologists face with respect between 2013 and 2016 and contributed papers to many across the UK through the to fieldwork, developing HKRG Secretary from 2005 Society Conferences and Science Committee. international careers, and until 2009 and 2010 until Special Publications. I am also Proposer: Prof Marie progressing academic careers, 2011. During my time as HKRG a member of the Advisory Edmonds and designing best practices Chair, I also sat on both the Council for the Natural Supporters: Dr Kathryn that the geological community Professional Committee and Resource Governance Institute. Goodenough can adopt and enact. I have the Chartership Committee Proposer: Malcolm Brown Prof Ernest Rutter experience with this at national of the Geological Society. Supporters: Prof John levels when I represented early In addition to these roles, I Underhill career researchers on the have also been an Editorial Alyson Harding DR AMANDA OWEN Royal Society of New Zealand’s Board Member of the QJEGH I became a (RSNZ) Council, founded the since 2016, taking up the role Fellow while RSNZ Early Career Researcher of Assistant Scientific Editor DR DAVID NEAVE studying Forum, and chaired the (Geotechnics) since 2019. My Geoscientists in London National University of Ireland long-standing involvement in will play a (2012). I Galway LGBT+ Staff Network. Geological Society activities, central role in hugely Secondly, I am passionate as well as my location outside confronting benefited about helping communicate of the UK, place me in an ideal societal from my membership during the incredible role geology position to represent other challenges this period, including access plays in decarbonising our Fellows located outside of over the to Burlington House, guest energy sector, contributing the UK and give the Council a coming years, whether by lectures and networking to climate change mitigation, more international perspective helping to achieve net zero, opportunities. However, upon and geologists’ unsung role to the way it operates. mitigating the effects of moving to Scotland (2014) in the manufacturing supply Proposer: Kevin Ashley climate change or improving I allowed my membership chain. I contribute to such Styles the sustainability of resource to lapse because I felt that I efforts professionally as an Supporters: Richard Martin extraction. However, public was not benefiting from my Energy Group Committee Samuel Kc Ng perceptions of geoscience membership in the same way. Member, an IGI Energy are mixed, and student I have since become a Fellow Geoscientists Group recruitment remains alarmingly again (2020) because I want committee member, external DR KEITH MYERS, low. Fortunately, the Society’s to see the Geological Society examiner for University of (Endorsed by Council) integration of academic, succeed and flourish. Edinburgh’s GeoEnergy MSc, I would like industrial and government I am an academic at the and publicly as an invited to serve on expertise means that it is University of Glasgow teaching panellist in the 2021 Tectonic the Council well placed to advocate on a variety geoscience Studies Group Plenary “Geology to help the for geoscience, now and programmes and leading in a Changing World”. I would Geological in the future. I believe outreach efforts (e.g. Girls like to work with Council Society that key topics to ensure into Geoscience Scotland). I to develop and encourage through the Society’s continuing believe I have experience that Geological Society supported the challenge that faces relevance and accessibility will allow valuable insights activities that address these geoscience in maintaining in the years ahead will into the current state of geoscience topics. relevance and growing include degree accreditation play of student opinion and Proposer: Prof Stuart its influence in a rapidly reform, improving the recruitment challenges that Haszeldine OBE changing world. My current inclusivity and affordability of universities currently face. I am Supporters: Dr Corinna role is Head of Research for Fellowship, and ensuring the not currently a member of any Abesser BGS Westwood Global Energy openness and sustainability of of the Society’s committees or Prof John Group, responsible for research publishing activities. specialist groups, but believe Wheeler output across the Group from By serving on Council I this puts me in a position to

52 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 COUNCIL ELECTIONS

voice opinions and experiences Suitably Qualified Person. Development Goals and with study some years later and of those who are not closely My career commenced COP26 in Glasgow we must completed a part-time PhD in involved with the Society. I at a structural engineering capitalise on this opportunity palaeontology in 2015. I have am particularly motivated and practice where I undertook to promote our science and been a Fellow of the Geological interested in how the Society site investigation to facilitate inspire the next generation of Society since April 2017. can have a wider reach across brownfield development. geoscientists. I would love to I am currently Technical different demographics, which I loved transforming help deliver these opportunities Partner at a large accountancy will ultimately build upon the disused manufacturing using my collaboration, firm, having spent nearly work to increase the Society’s sites into beneficial use and facilitation and international 30 years in the audit profession. diversity and inclusion policies consolidated my skills in business skills. I have recently become and practices. risk-based remediation. I am Proposer: Dr Paul Nathanail involved in the audit of major Proposer: Dr Gary Nichols now RSK’s Chief Scientist Supporters: Nicola Harries international mining companies, Supporters: Dr Catherine and the Managing Director Prof George including gold, zinc and iron. Isherwood of RSK’s African businesses; a Tuckwell I have spent the last ten Andrew challenging and rewarding role years as Trustee and Treasurer Cunningham that enables me to increase of the Palaeontological diversity in our industry, DR PAUL WINROW Association and am now promote the latest science in Although my looking for a fresh challenge. LUCY THOMAS our operations and engage with professional I would dearly love the I became stakeholders. career has opportunity to bring my a Fellow I am an active member of the been spent professional and personal of the North West Regional subgroup, in audit and experience to the Council for Geological having spoken at career and accountancy, the benefit of the Society as a Society evening events. I was Chair of I have held whole. I believe that I will bring in 1995, whilst the Society of Brownfield Risk a lifelong interest in geology, a different perspective and undertaking Assessment and of the National having studied geology at skillset to the Council, as well as my BSc in Applied Brownfield Land Forum. all levels from O Level to extensive experience operating Environmental Geology at Now is an exciting time PhD. After graduating from at Board/Council level. Portsmouth University. I am for geoscientists. We are Durham in the early 1990s Proposer: Prof Paul Smith a Chartered Geologist, a instrumental to delivery of the and obtaining a Masters from Supporters: Dr John Argent Specialist in Land Condition and United Nations Sustainable Aberystwyth, I returned to Dr Adam Law

CONTINUING MEMBERS OF COUNCIL 2021-2022: NAME EXPERTISE SECTOR Joanna Alexander Geoscience, communications, culture change Industry Dr Michael C Daly Continental Tectonics and Resources Academe/Industry Dr Jennie Gilbert Volcanology Academe Dr Joel Gill Social geology, disaster risk reduction, sustainable development Government Dr Kathryn Goodenough Mineral Resources, igneous petrology, crustal evolution Government Prof James Griffiths Engineering geology Academe Dr Michael Kehinde Hydrogeology Government Andrew Moore Contaminated land Industry Dr John Perry Engineering geology Industry Sarah Scott Hydrogeology Government Gemma Sherwood Engineering geology Industry Jessica Smith Engineering geology Industry Prof Robin Strachan Tectonics, geochronology Academe Dr Alexander Whittaker Tectonics and Landscape Dynamics Academe Lucy Williams Petroleum geology Industry

MEMBERS OF COUNCIL RETIRING AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ON 25 JUNE 2021: NAME EXPERTISE SECTOR Tom Backhouse Risk / environmental & geological hazards Industry Dr Andrew Bloodworth Economic geology Government John Booth Engineering geology Industry Graham Goffey Petroleum geology Industry Prof Chris King Geoscience educator Academe Prof Bryne Ngwenya Microbial geochemistry Academe Nik Reynolds Contaminated land, Geotechnical engineering Industry Dr Helen Smyth Petroleum geology Industry

GEOSCIENTIST.ONLINE | SPRING 2021 53 FIVE MINUTES WITH…

“Getting hands-on experience is vital”

KATHRYN GOODENOUGH is a Principal Geologist with the British Geological Survey (BGS) in Edinburgh. A member of the Geological Society’s What’s your Tell us more about ES3 Council, she is Chief Editor of the favourite thing ES3 is a new Geological Society journal, for which I Society’s new Open Access journal, about your job? am Chief Editor. It’s Gold Open Access, which means Earth Science, Systems and Society (ES3). In the past, it that authors do have to pay an Article Processing has been the Charge (APC), but the APCs are being kept as low opportunity to as possible and the Society is making absolutely travel, to work all no profit. The APCs cover the costs of the editorial over the world system, paper production and online hosting, plus What’s a typical day for you? and work with an other journal costs such as waivers for authors in Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I had no such thing incredibly wide lower income countries. The journal will cover the as a typical day. I might be in a meeting room in range of people. broad range of the Earth sciences, but in particular it Brussels, a conference hall in Vancouver, an office in Even though will be a home for interdisciplinary papers, especially Freetown, or a mine in Zimbabwe – or, occasionally, I can’t travel at the on subjects where Earth science has a role to play at my desk in Edinburgh. The pandemic has changed moment, online in addressing major societal challenges, such as all that, and now a typical day is spent at my laptop communication geohazards and the race to net zero. on the dining table at home, with an excursion out to means that walk, run or cycle in the Pentland Hills most days. I can keep up What one piece of advice would you give My work is still very varied though! My research collaboration to someone hoping to work in your field? focuses on the critical raw materials that are essential with people I am still a great believer in the importance of for low-carbon technology, and although field and worldwide, which building up practical knowledge. For me, that has analytical work aren’t possible right now, we have a lot is pretty amazing. been particularly focused around fieldwork, but of data already collected, so I’m spending plenty of time fieldwork isn’t accessible to everyone, and there are writing science papers and proposals, and preparing plenty of other ways for geoscientists to acquire talks for a range of audiences. We’ve just started a practical knowledge – logging core, working in new NERC-funded project (LiFT: Lithium for Future labs, investigating microscopic features through a Technology) on lithium resources in the crust, and I’m scanning electron microscope, building 3D models… working with the team to get that up and running. Whatever approach you take, getting hands-on Within BGS, I also have a role in developing experience is vital. Collecting and working with your international projects, and working with partners own data will help you to understand the uncertainty in geological surveys around the world. All of this, associated with those data, and how they could have

along with a range of external roles, project and Pictured, above: Kathryn been interpreted differently. Every bit of practical people management, and an enormous number is a great believer experience we gain as Earth scientists helps us to in gaining practical of Zoom meetings and emails, keeps me very knowledge from fieldwork understand the incredible complexity of the Earth busy indeed! system, and, indeed, how it impacts on wider society!

54 GEOSCIENTIST | SPRING 2021 JOIN TODAY!

The Geological Society of London is the to the letters FGS after their name and can apply recognised UK professional body for to become a Chartered Geologist, European geoscientists and the oldest geological society Geologist and/or Chartered Scientist. in the world. The Society o ers geoscientists All Fellows receive our quarterly magazine, continuity and support through every phase Geoscientist, a choice of free access to Society of scientifi c and professional life. Through journals from the Lyell Collection, discounted membership, Fellows support our advocacy on publications and meeting fees, as well as access behalf of the profession. to our world-class geological library. In addition, Membership brings many benefi ts, including all Fellows have access to our online Continuing professional recognition. Fellows are entitled Professional Development scheme. www.geolsoc.org.uk/applyonline

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