VOLUME 15 PART 2 JULY 2000 East Midlands Geological Society Contents President Vice-President Tony Morris Dr Richard Hamblin Mercian News 74 Geobrowser Secretary Treasurer News from BGS Alan Filmer Mrs Christine Moore From the Archives The Record - 2000 Editorial Board Dr Tony Waltham Tony Morris Dr John Carney Mrs Judy Rigby Michael Czajkowski 79 Dr Andy Howard Mrs Judy Small The source of the Woodhall Spa mineral water Council Mrs Jennifer Anderson Dr Andy Howard Mike Rosenbaum 87 John Aram Mrs Sue Miles Nottingham Trent Geohazards Group Colin Bagshaw Dr Ian Sutton professorial lectures Jack Brown Neil Turner Dr Beris Cox Dr Tony Waltham Dr Peter Gutteridge Dr Adrian Watson Graham Lott 97 Geology and building stones Address for Correspondence in the East Midlands The Secretary, E.M.G.S. Rose Cottage, Chapel Lane, Epperstone, Nottingham NG14 6AE Landmark of Geology 123 0115 966 3854 [email protected] The Fauld crater – Tony Waltham The Mercian Geologist is published by the East Midlands Geological Society and printed by Reports 126 Norman Printing Ltd (Nottingham and London) on Trent valley floods – John Carney paper made from wood pulp from renewable forests, Sand towers on Tenerife – Phil and Judy Small where replacement exceeds consumption. Ice wedge at Thornhaugh – Richard Hamblin A very large Bradgatia – Helen Boynton No part of this publication may be reproduced in Stonework of St Pancras – Eric Robinson any printed or electronic medium without the prior Pleistocene Peterborough – Harry Langford written consent of the Society. Registered Charity No. 503617 Lecture Reports Crags of East Anglia – Richard Hamblin 134 © 2001 East Midlands Geological Society Soom Shale fossils – Richard Aldridge ISSN 0025 990X Hayfever in the Palaeozoic – Alan Hemsley Kamchatka volcanoes – Tony Waltham Cover photograph: The quarried and weathered face of Stanage Edge in the Derbyshire Peak District, with incomplete grindstones left below Excursion Reports 143 where they were worked from the massive beds of Birchover sandstones the Namurian Chatsworth Grit [photo: Tony Carsington and Harboro’ Waltham]. Lincolnshire Limestone MERCIAN NEWS MERCIAN NEWS Peterborough Museum It is well known that Peterborough Museum possesses a collection of Jurassic marine fossils Lincolnshire glacial erratics matched only by those at the British Museum of Natural History and the Hunterian Museum in Exotic erratics were carried to Lincolnshire by Glasgow. The collection has been augmented and Pleistocene ice that originated in Northern England, cared for over a period of 18 years by volunteer Scotland and Scandinavia, and some of their more members of Stamford and District Geological distinctive lithologies allow accurate identification of Society, led and inspired by Alan and Pauline Dawn. their sources. Last century the Lincolnshire The conservation laboratory is well established, and Naturalist Union had a Boulder Committee who this year has been augmented by an airbrasive started to make a survey of erratic boulders in machine, purchased with contributions from many Lincolnshire. Since those days, deep ploughing and sources, including a generous grant from the the construction of new buildings and roads has EMGS. brought to light many more boulders than were known at that time. In the new millennium, and An airbrasive machine is an invaluable tool in shortly after the centenary of the foundation of the fossil treatment. It sends a blast of compressed air LNU Boulder Committee, now seems to be an and abrasive powder through a very fine jet that is appropriate time to update this information. directed to remove rock from around the fossil being prepared. Powders of various grades and hardness The Lincolnshire RIGS Group has produced a can be used, according to the hardness and delicacy leaflet, Gifts from the Ice Ages, that encourages of the specimen under treatment. Work with the air residents and visitors to report any stones 'foreign' to jet is slow and tedious, and is sometimes carried out the county. The response has been encouraging and under magnification in a dust cupboard, with an these initial reports are all investigated by the RIGS extractor fan to expel surplus dust. It is more gentle team, to compile an updated record of the county's and controllable than the normal mechanical erratics. For copies of the leaflet, or with reports of methods of fossil preparation. erratics, contact RIGS on 01507 526667 or at Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Banovallum House, Demonstrations of the machine in operation Manor House Street, Horncastle LN9 5HF. can be arranged. Contact the museum at Priestgate, Peterborough PE1 1LF or telephone 01733 343329. Tales from the web site The EMGS web site, constructed and maintained Rockhound Challenge 2000 by Rob Townsend has been operational for a year, hosted by the Natural History Museum, which also Thirteen-year-old Kirsty Pepper from Spalding, hosts other societies and organisations with aims created an imaginative and accurate applique of a similar to those of the Museum itself. The site Jurassic underwater scene to carry off both the 12-16 contains an invitation to join the Society, current Rock Artist Prize and the overall Rockhound programmes of lectures (together with abstracts) Challenge Winner 2000 trophy. Also from the and field trips, details of the Society's publications margins of our region, Sean McMahon from and links to other geological societies (who also have Huntingdon shared the first prize in the 12-16 links back to the EMGS). The site is becoming Rockhound collector competition, with his personal better known and has also prompted new members account of how, since the age of six, he had gathered to join the Society. his impressive fossil collection. Both received their Requests for information are now reaching the prizes in December at Somerset House after a tour secretary through the site. One from the USA was of the Gilbert Collection, with its truly fantastic trying to locate a copy of a Mercian Geologist paper pictures, furniture and items made of beautiful and by CJ Duffin in 1979. This was provided, and the rare, precious stones, gold and silver. author was also located through the web so that the Atlantic is now being crossed by e-mails on the finer details of coprolites from Rhaetic bone-beds. Editorial Another request was from someone, also in the Members may be pleased to note that the front cover USA, researching the life of a child killed in an air of the Mercian Geologist has returned to the East raid in 1943 when leaving the shelter of the Broad Midlands Geological Society. The editor can only Marsh caves. A reply outlined the structures that apologise for the classic typographical error in the existed prior to building the shopping centre (along previous issue. Now that the journal is back in the with a promotion of the EMGS book on the caves). geological world, members are invited to contribute Why not visit our site (at www.emgs.org.uk). The to it with any news items, reports, papers or reviews more people who do so, the better the site will that can bring to life the geology of our home region. become known. The secretary welcomes members' Especially welcome would be a member's suggestions for any material that it should include. photograph for the front cover. 74 MERCIAN GEOLOGIST 2001 15 (2) GEOBROWSER GEOBROWSER fundamental component of plate tectonics that certainly existed in Archaean times: the mid-ocean ridges, and specifically the mineral-rich and gas-rich hydrothermal systems of the black smoker chimneys. Recent geological findings from around the world, Modern ones are hosts to an abundance of primitive selected from the current literature life-forms but it is their structure, consisting of small interlocking compartments with walls of porous, sulphide membranes, that is of particular interest. In Message to the burning Bush identical ancient chimneys, it is suggested, the ingredients for organic synthesis could have diffused The ‘global warming’ debate reported in our last into the compartments, generating simple amino issue has been given a wide review in the Oklahoma- acids in concentrations that would favour the based Oil & Gas Journal (August 28th, 2000; p.58). development of self-replicating peptides, RNA and This even-handed article opined that the DNA. Over billions of years these simple cells could Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change evolve into organisms robust enough to migrate (IPCC) has so far failed to provide ‘compelling’ from the oceanic ridge and colonise the shallower evidence about the extent of human influence on seas, some perhaps being forerunners of the global climate, although a re-assessment is due this Charnia-type species that first appeared at around year. Countries like the UK are nevertheless 580 Ma. The discovery (Geology, 2000; p.731) attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in of organic material in analogous Early Archaean line with their Kyoto targets, although others will be (3235 Ma) black smoker sulphide deposits may allowed increases of up to 27%. New Zealand is therefore be evidence of our own humble meanwhile concerned that sheep are emitting beginnings. methane to the tune of 45% over 1990 levels. The article’s prophecy, that during the first years of the next US administration ‘......the Kyoto target Existential geology: why are we here? will be declared unworkable’, was duly fulfilled by Living organisms have made important incoming President George W. Bush, but the contributions to the stratigraphical record: witness cancellation of the committment was probably down the shell, coral and algal-rich Carboniferous to politics: the growth of US industry is currently limestones of the Peak District, and Cretaceous outstripping the availability of power supplies and Chalk strata constructed of billions of coccoliths. the new President was the governor of oil-rich Humans, on the other hand, stand accused of Texas. The uncompromising nature of the warming the atmosphere and raising sea-levels to the presidential stance may not be universally reflected extent that parts of the landmass will eventually in US commercial circles, however, as indicated by disappear.