SCIENTISTVOLUME 27 NO 8 ◆ SEPTEMBER 2017 ◆ WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST
GEOThe Fellowship Magazine of the Geological Society of London UK / Overseas where sold to individuals: £3.95 [READ GEOLSOC BLOG! GEOLSOC.WORDPRESS.COM ]
Hull’s salty problem Ellen Spencer on the aquifer that feeds the 2017 City of Culture
AMATEUR PASSIONS MINING WOES BGS FINANCES Amateur geologists can still When on Earth did mining Director John Ludden says play a valuable role become a dirty word? the Survey is ‘secure’
GEOSCIENTIST CONTENTS
16 25
10 27
FEATURESFEATURES
16 AMATEUR PASSION IN THIS ISSUE... Liz Withington & Tiffany Slater on Bristol University’s Mike Curtis Collection
REGULARS
05 Welcome Ted Nield reports on the recent Readership Survey
06 Society News What your Society is doing at home and abroad, in London and the regions. 09 Soapbox ‘They hate us’ – Chris Mackenzie asks: why not in your back yard?
20 Letters Coal lives, says Larry Thomas; George Bennison remembers the first ‘student instructional tour’ of 1946
22 Books and arts Six new books reviewed by Ted Nield, David Edwards, David Vaughan, John Milsom, Jonathan Scafidi and Richard Dawe
ON THE COVER: 26 People Geoscientists in the news and on the move 10 CULTURE SHOCK 25 Calendar Society activities this month The chalk aquifer under Hull is suffering 28 Obituary Jon Paul Davidson 1959-2016 from salt intrusion. Ellen Spencer reports 29 Crossword Win a Special Publication of your choice
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 03 Corporate Supporters: Registration Open Cross-border Exploration between UK & Norway – Comparisons, Contrasts and Collaborations Convenors: Gro Haatvedt Aker BP 27-28 November 2017 Ian Wilson Kitty Hall The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London Petroleum Group
Confirmed Speakers from: Aker BP Azinor Catalyst Badley Ashton Can additional high value barrels be discovered through improved Dana Petroleum collaboration between UK and Norway? The objective of the conference Geus is to enhance technical understanding of the status of key plays on Hansa Hydrocarbons each side of the border, to establish points of similarity and difference in Hurricane Energy both activity and success, and to highlight new opportunities. Important Imperial College recent discoveries on either side of the border will be examined and the Maersk Oil conference will seek to establish where new plays in one country have NPD not yet been understood or exploited across the border. Key note presentations will be made by leading OGA figures from both Norway and UK. PGS This two day international conference will bring together explorationists from UK, Norway and other Statoil European countries with the following themes: TNO • Play opening discoveries as yet unexploited cross • Differences in how competence is organised and University Aberdeen border technology adopted University Durham • Examples of specific play knowledge being • Challenges on median line including data exploited cross border continuity and differences in nomenclature • How to build a geology-without-borders view • Issues for service industry • Differences in exploration performance • Danish and Dutch (and other) cross border Event Sponsors: • Impact of regulatory and fiscal frameworks examples
To register: Please visit the conference webpage www.geolsoc.org.uk/PG-Cross-Border For further information please contact: Sarah Woodcock, The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG. Tel: +44 (0)20 7434 9944
At the forefront of petroleum geoscience www.geolsoc.org.uk/petroleum
04 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST
GEOSCIENTIST WELCOME Geoscientist is the ADVERTISING SALES ~ Fellowship magazine of the Jonny Knight Geological Society T 01727 739 193 THE SOCIETY NOW HAS A CLEAR, OBJECTIVE PICTURE of London E jonathan@ centuryonepublishing.uk OF THE FELLOWSHIP MAGAZINE, AFTER ALMOST 20 YEARS The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, ART EDITOR OF GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT London W1J 0BG Heena Gudka T +44 (0)20 7434 9944 F +44 (0)20 7439 8975 DESIGN & PRODUCTION E [email protected] ~ Jonathan Coke (Not for Editorial - Please contact the Editor) PRINTED BY Century One Publishing House Publishing Ltd. The Geological Society Publishing House, Unit 7, Copyright Brassmill Enterprise Centre, The Geological Society of Brassmill Lane, Bath London is a Registered Charity, BA1 3JN number 210161. 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Mr Graham Goffey (Treasurer) Brassmill Enterprise Centre, Brassmill Dr Sarah Gordon (Secretary, Lane, Bath, BA1 3JN, UK. Tel: 01225 (as already reported – Geoscientist 27.6 Not everybody likes everything, Foreign & External Affairs) 445046. Fax: 01225 442836. Email: Mrs Tricia Henton [email protected]. The subscription July) interest in the magazine is extremely of course: we cannot hope to please Ms Naomi Jordan price for Volume 27, 2017 (11 issues) high (compared to comparable magazines everyone all the time. Nevertheless, we to institutions and non-members will Dr Robert Larter be £139 (UK) or £159/$319 (Rest of other membership organizations). In will take on board your constructive Dr Jennifer McKinley of World). Dr Colin North (Secretary, fact, the level of reaction achieved seems comments and do what we can to Publications) © 2017 The Geological Society Dr Sheila Peacock of London to break all records. accommodate them. 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WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 05 GEOSCIENTIST SOCIETY NEWS
What your society is doing SOCIETYNEWS at home and abroad, in London and the regions Society Awards 2018 – nominations
Fellows of the Society are invited www.geolsoc.org.uk/About/ to submit nominations for the Awards-Grants-and-Bursaries. Society’s Awards for 2018 to the Awards Committee, writes ➤ Nominations must be Stephanie Jones. received at the Society no Full details of how to make later than 29 September 2017 nominations are on the website at
Nominating colleagues for awards from LONDON LECTURE SERIES other societies from other societies “Not under my backyard”: are public perceptions of the risk of geological engineering projects well-founded? Speaker: Dr Zoe Shipton, University of Strathclyde Date: 13 September
Programme ◆ Afternoon talk: 1430pm Tea & Coffee: 1500 Lecture begins: 1600 Event ends In order to reward excellence and promote international recognition of Fellows ◆ Evening talk: 1730 Tea & Coffee: of the Society, you are encouraged to nominate colleagues for awards of 1800 Lecture begins: 1900 Reception other societies such as the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the American Geophysical Union, the European Geosciences Union and the Further Information Geological Society of America. There are different requirements and criteria for Please visit www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsllondonlectures17. the awards made by these societies, for example some require the candidate to Entry to each lecture is by ticket only. To obtain a ticket please contact the Society around four weeks be a member. before the talk. Due to the popularity of this lecture series, tickets are allocated in a monthly ballot and Details can be found at the web links shown below. cannot be guaranteed.
◆ www.aapg.org/about/aapg/overview/honors-and-awards ◆ www.honors.agu.org/awards-medals-prizes/ Contact: Sarah Woodcock, The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG, ◆ www.egu.eu/awards-medals/proposal-and-selection-of-candidates/ T: +44 (0) 20 7432 0981 E: [email protected] ◆ www.geosociety.org/awards/aboutAwards.htm
06 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST Society Discussion Group
The Geological Society Discussion Group (GSDG) thousand years. GSDG meetings usually take place over dinner in has just had its summer outing to Denbies London. Vineyard, on the Chalk scarp of the North Constituted as a Specialist Group of the Geological Society from Downs, near Dorking, where member January 2017 the aim of the GSDG is to foster wide ranging scientific Emeritus Professor Dick Selley discussion on topical issues. A speaker introduces a discussion topic entertained the party for 10 minutes, followed by informal discourse around the dinner with a tour and an table. Five meetings have taken place to date with a wide range of account of British speakers and topics. The group is going from strength to strength viticulture over and our forward programme is on the website. Our next meeting is the last many on September 19th at Burlington House.
Programme: 2017 Meetings of the Geological Society Discussion Group (formerly the Geological Society Club) are 18.30 for 1900, when dinner is served. Attendance is open to all members of the Society. For up to date information concerning topics for discussion and speakers, please go to W: http://bit.ly/2qIhMtu
◆ Tuesday 19 September. Burlington House (London W1J 0BG) ◆ Thursday 19 October. Athenaeum (London SW1Y 5ER) ◆ Wednesday 6 December. Athenaeum (London SW1Y 5ER)
➤ Please contact Sarah Woodcock on [email protected] for more information and to make a reservation
FUTURE MEETINGS
Dates for meetings of Council and Ordinary General Meetings until June 2017 will be as follows: u OGMs: u Council: 2017: 20 September, 22 November, 2017: 20 & 21 September (residential) 2018: 7 February, 4 April 22 November, 2018: 7 February, 4 April
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 07 FROM THE LIBRARY
u Online Library catalogue u Postal loans Search the online catalogue of books, journals and maps held in You do not need to live in London to borrow books, maps the Geological Society Library. Fellows and Corporate Affiliate or journals from the Library – we can post them to you ! members can now login to the Library Catalogue to renew loans, For more information, contact [email protected] view loan history, request items and create Favourite lists. or call 020 7432 0999 http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/librarycatalogue u Inter-library loans u E-Journals and e-books If the item you want is not in our collection, we may be Fellows of the Society can access over 100+ e-journals and able to obtain it from another library. To find out more e-books using Athens authentication. There is no charge to Fel- about this service, please email [email protected] lows for this service. or call 020 7432 0999 Visit http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/virtuallibrary to register. u Sponsor a Book u Literature searching Sponsor a book and support the conservation of impor- Not enough time or struggling to find the information you need tant titles from the Geological Society’s collection. ? We can search a wide range of resources on your behalf and To find out more about this project: send you the results directly to your inbox. To find out more http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/sponsorabook about this service, please email [email protected] u Document delivery Not based in London or simply too busy to come to the Library ? We can send you by email or post copies of articles from our ➤ Contact: The Library, The Geological Society, Burlington collection. To find out more about this service, please email House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG, T: +44 (0)20 7432 0999 [email protected] or call 020 7432 0999 E: [email protected]
Latest news from the Publishing House
Jenny Blythe has the latest from the Geological Society Publishing House The geological work of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, New Book! Sedimentology of Paralic Reservoirs 1902 – 04 Paralic reservoirs refl ect a range of depositional environments including By Philip Stone deltas, shoreline–shelf systems and estuaries. They provide the backbone The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition of production in many mature basins and contribute signifi cantly to (1902 – 04) made the fi rst topographical survey global conventional hydrocarbon production. This volume presents new and geological assessment of Laurie Island, one research and developments in established approaches to the exploration of the South Orkney Islands. The expedition’s and production of paralic reservoirs. surgeon and geologist, J. H. H. Pirie, provided competent geological descriptions but these were Available to purchase in print at www.geolsoc.org.uk/sp444 largely overshadowed by his misidentifi cation of Available in the Lyell Collection at http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ an obscure plant fossil as a graptolite. Erroneous content/444/1, as part of the Full Book Collection (for subscribing fellows) confi rmation by eminent British palaeontologists led to Triassic rocks being regarded as Lower Petroleum Geoscience thematic set: Geological storage of CO2, gas and Palaeozoic for fi fty years. The mistake arose from energy (Guest Editors: Isabelle Czernichowski-Lauriol & Philip S Ringrose) the familiarity of all concerned with the geology This thematic set emerged out of the 3rd EAGE Sustainable Earth Science Conference held of the Scottish Southern Uplands: they were led in Celle, Germany, 13–15 October 2015. Inspired by astray by the preconception that, as in Scotland, the research presented there, this set brings together deformed ‘greywacke–shale’ successions would a selection of papers focused on the common ground c o n t a i n L o w e r P a l a e o z o i c f o s s i l s . between long-term geological storage of CO2 and the Continue reading online shorter-term cyclic storage of energy. The resulting https://doi.org/10.1144/sjg2017-005 set of papers capture examples of these topics and illustrates the complementary nature of subsurface studies on the storage of energy and CO2, as well as giving an excellent pointer towards the issues that will occupy the next generation of geoscientists. View the set at http://pg.lyellcollection.org/content/23/3
08 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST GEOSCIENTIST SOAPBOX
They hate us
Why has ‘mining’ become a dirty word? asks Chris Mackenzie*
hey hate us”. The words to fall in line with the mantra of ‘Sustainable were as chilled as the Development’ – an oxymoron of note. Surely, Spring Toronto air. with our environmental awareness it makes SOAPBOX Two Brits catching sense to source metals responsibly, in a “T up after the world’s jurisdiction where mining is well regulated CALLING! pre-eminent mining and exploration and eagerly overseen. The major mining conference, the PDAC 2017 show. The companies are remiss in not raising the subject: the leadership of the Geological public’s awareness of the issues around Soapbox is open to contributions Society, and why our field appears to be mining, the fact that the ever increasing from all Fellows. You can always looked down on by fellow professionals in demand for smartphones and cleaner energy write a letter to the Editor, of our home country. The words were uttered and all trappings of modernity are dependent course: but perhaps you feel you by a successful explorer with at least on increased levels of mining. Somewhere. need more space? one major mine discovery to his name. So - why not in your back yard (see P06)? Someone to be nurtured, someone to be Hence the despair at the wasteland that is If you can write it entertainingly in tapped into as a mentor. the state of mining in the UK in 2017. No 500 words, the Editor would like investment, no encouragement of explorers to to hear from you. Email your piece, Minefinders find mines. Even the BGS (see P26) appears to and a self-portrait, to So how, and why, have we got here? want nothing to do with it. [email protected]. Minefinders are special. For decades the HM Government recently published Copy can only be accepted UK exploration sector has been subject to the Resource Security Action Plan. But no electronically. No diagrams, tables major under-investment compared with monies resulted to cover proper exploration or other illustrations please. just about everywhere else in the world. (read ‘extensive drilling’) in the UK. Likewise Mining is a dirty word. the EU has implemented a programme Pictures should be of print quality – please take photographs CO2-phobia has led to the growth boasting of ‘sustainable exploration’ focused of farms of hundred metre-high wind on Rare Earth Elements. Again, no funding on the largest setting on your turbines, blighting the view and creating for drills to turn sufficiently to find a mine! camera, with a plain background. new, unintended problems. The growth Perhaps this is what ‘sustainable exploration’
of these typifies NIMBY-ism of the first means: fund a hoard of academics to burn Precedence will always be given
order. They export much of the pollution around the world looking at things and to more topical contributions. Any and environmental degradation associated research them to death, but find nothing. one contributor may not appear with power generation to the developing Does IQ really get you there? more often~ than once per volume world, where it is unseen by your average (once every 12 months). subsidy-payer – not many of whom Irony holiday at Bayan Obo. The ultimate irony is that the hugely polluting (to overseas environments) wind farms of the UK EXPLORATION ‘Green’ energy? new ‘green’ UK economy are being sited in SECTOR HAS BEEN The recent focus of areas where strategic natural resources are SUBJECT TO MAJOR the Society’s present - effectively sterilising them. BGS has Mineral no voice whatsoever in the planning process. UNDER-INVESTMENT Deposits At least one very strategic resource has COMPARED WITH JUST Study already been sterilised this way, and others Group will follow. ABOUT EVERYWHERE on High time for mining to be given a voice at ELSE IN THE WORLD. ‘critical Government level, perhaps? MINING IS A DIRTY metals (critical for WORD this new ‘green’ * Chris Mackenzie work in global mineral energy industry) exploration and environmental management for ~ Peak Minerals Ltd, Sheffield. He is based abroad. is interesting. Our CHRIS MCKENZIE Society appears happy E: [email protected]
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 09 UP ‘N’ UNDER
Image: Yerko Espinoza/shutterstock.com
he Yorkshire Chalk aquifer A watery history As Hull, 2017 City provides an essential resource The monks from Meaux Abbey chose for freshwater supply. In the confluence of the River Hull and the of Culture, takes Hull this has been under Humber Estuary as a port for exporting centre-stage, T threat since the industrial wool sometime in the 12th Century. The revolution, as historic abstraction of town, renamed Kingston-Upon-Hull groundwater has caused influx of by Edward I In 1299 has maintained Ellen Spencer* saline water from the Humber Estuary. its special relationship with the sea Research in the late 1980s showed the throughout history, as a trading hub, shines the Hull saline intrusion had probably fishing and whaling centre, military spotlight on saline stabilised - the likely cause being a supply port, and industrial centre. The decline in industrial abstraction, along new Green Port Hull development, intrusion in the with enforced reduction in private home to the Siemens offshore wind- groundwater abstraction in the city. power facilities, aims to put the city at Chalk aquifer Yorkshire water also implemented the forefront of the renewable energy sustainable public water supply (PWS) sector and earlier this year saw a abstraction management. But what is milestone reached when the first turbine the situation 30 years on? Yorkshire components were shipped out. Water, working in collaboration with In recent decades the main problem the Environment Agency (EA), Arup for Hull has been too much water, with and Leeds University, set out to update a number of serious flooding incidents; Above: Salty water is intruding Hull’s aquifer historic research. but throughout history, Hull has
10 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST ~
IN RECENT DECADES THE MAIN PROBLEM FOR HULL HAS BEEN TOO MUCH WATER ~
Top left: Yorkshire Chalk – from Smedley et al (showing extent and buried cliff line)
Top middle: Chadha isochlor map
Top right: shows rising levels of chloride in raw groundwater at two of the Yorkshire water abstraction sites, Springhead and Dunswell, between 1952 and 2016 Cl time series for YWS sites showing rising trend
Bottom left: maps showing monitoring network – approx. location of YWS abstractions, and new BH locations
Bottom right: Investigating a monitoring borehole
also had its fair share of problems with local man, William Warden, challenged Yorkshire Chalk aquifer freshwater supply. the view about groundwater and won a The Yorkshire Chalk north of the The first records of ‘public water competition to improve the spring supplies River Humber underlies an area of supply’ date from 1292, for a spring on the at Springhead. Eventually a 3km-long some 1800 km2. The Chalk consists site of what is now Springhead pumping system of shafts and adits was constructed, of the Ferriby, Hunstanton, Welton, station. This fed water to Ferriby, but with pumping engines starting up in 1864 Burnham, Flamborough and Rowe Chalk the dyke was diverted to supply the to great success. Springhead pumped to formations. It outcrops to the west in a growing settlement of Hull. Residents of treatment works at Stoneferry and many of crescent-shaped belt of hills - the Yorkshire surrounding villages were not happy with the spring ditches were infilled. Over the Wolds - rising up to 240m AOD. These this, and laid siege to Hull and filled in the coming years, further Chalk adit systems are incised by a network of relict steep- dykes. The siege failed (and some of the were developed on the outskirts of Hull, sided, narrow valleys, most of which are attackers were hanged in York!) the biggest of which is still located at perennially dry. Further disputes arose with ‘stinking Cottingham. The Wolds reflect the Chalk outcrop of carrion’ being tipped into the freshwater Hull’s water supply is still dominated an open south-easterly plunging syncline. dykes. This only ended in 1412 with a by abstraction from the Chalk aquifer. The Chalk aquifer is unconfined in the letter from the Pope exhorting peace, Four sites on the peri-urban fringes upland Wolds, where the majority of with threats of doom to those who did of Hull (Springhead, Cottingham, recharge occurs. It becomes semi-confined not comply. Around 1842 the River Hull Keldgate and Dunswell) now feed a large on the lower-lying parts of the dip slope was briefly used for water supply, but modern treatment works producing up where it is covered by thickening low the water quality was poor even after to 90 million litres a day, supplying a permeability Quaternary superficial treatment. population of 258,995 and many large deposits, which quickly fully confine the
After a cholera outbreak in 1849 a businesses. Chalk towards the east and form the low- ▼
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 11 Example geophysics log
2016 isochlors
▼ lying Holderness plain. It is generally believed that during the Ipswichian marine transgression the sea cut a coastline in the Chalk from Bridlington, running inland via Great Driffield and meeting the Humber Estuary east of Hessle. The cliff was buried by glacial deposits and now resides above the present shoreline. Natural groundwater discharge occurs along the edge of the glacial deposits and base of the Chalk escarpment. Most drainage is in an easterly or southern Photo: Hudson Shiraku direction towards lower lying areas, where water discharges as artesian outflows between the buried cliff line and the River Hull. In the north there is direct flow towards the North Sea. Saline intrusion As is clear from the water supply history, artesian conditions were present around Hull in the 19th Century, 2018/1986 resulting in an area of freshwater isochlor discharge via springs and artesian comparison flowing wells. Springs were also recorded along the Humber Estuary, at Hessle Whelps, near the current location of the Humber Bridge. Anecdotal reports of fishermen lowering buckets into the estuary and drinking the water, also suggest springs existed there. Heavy exploitation of the Chalk aquifer during the 19th and 20th Centuries caused a substantial lowering of groundwater levels, and many springs and areas of freshwater discharge in the Humber Estuary stopped flowing. Hydraulic gradients reversed and saline water from the estuary intruded into the Chalk at this time. The problem of saline intrusion in Hull was apparent in the 1880s, when a GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE Photo Credit: Ellen Spencer
▼ public water supply borehole near to understanding of groundwater quality West Park was lost due to poor quality. across Hull. A joint programme of The first comprehensive study of the work was agreed to understand risk origins and dynamics of the saline front to abstraction and to inform future was published by Foster et al. in 1976. management decisions so as to ensure Chloride, commonly used as a salinity that water supply was protected, indicator, would be expected to be abstraction was sustainable and the <20mg/l in fresh Chalk groundwater, Water Framework Directive duly and is typically around 40,000mg/l complied with. in seawater. Chloride concentrations Everyone recognised that - not only in Hull, towards the estuary, were was there a gap in the record of water found to be around 10,000mg/l, quality monitoring up to recent times, with high concentrations intruding but that previous studies had not looked inland. Following the introduction of at the vertical water quality profile in abstraction management schemes, in the Chalk, or attempted to evaluate the 1986 Chadha reviewed additional data influence of different sampling methods, and confirmed that the saline front was differing borehole installations, and in at least stable, if not in retreat towards some cases, seasonal or tidal influences Photo Credit: Ellen Spencer the shore. in the datasets. Working with the EA Historic studies went some way to (under the National Environmental identifying at least two sources of saline Programme) the team set out to build an groundwater in the Yorkshire Chalk, improved sampling network for long- modern and ancient - both related term monitoring of the aquifer. to seawater intrusion. The former was associated with anthropogenic Seek and find – or not groundwater abstraction, while the A desk study and audit of boreholes latter related to at least one interglacial was undertaken, to establish a usable marine transgression where the existing existing monitoring network in and ground surface was submerged below around Hull. Because of the moratorium sea level. on new abstractions, and the saline In Hull there is strong timeline water in the city, few groundwater evidence to suggest that the highly abstraction sites were left to sample. saline water is sourced from This was a problem, as the regional anthropogenic abstraction-induced study would need a good spread intrusion. However, it is still possible of spatial data in order to allow full that there is also ancient saline water, understanding of the issues and Photo Credit: Ellen Spencer as seen in other areas of the Yorkshire comparison with historic results. Chalk, mixing with the modern saline The EA’s only remaining long term water in Hull. Despite continued water quality monitoring borehole restrictions on abstractions in Hull, only in Hull, near Joint Docks, was due a handful of studies has looked at the to be decommissioned. Building a problem since Chadha’s work. relationship with the new site owner was prioritised in order to save the best
Refresh needed long-term monitoring site available to Above, Middle and Lower: The Yorkshire Chalk, seen If saline intrusion had really halted back the team. Other companies and private here at Bempton Cliffs (nr Flamborough Head) in the 1980s, recent concentrations of abstractors in Hull were contacted chloride at Yorkshire Water abstraction in order to try to locate and preserve sites on the outskirts of Hull may have historic boreholes, which might be ~ been expected to have stabilised or developed as monitoring sites. declined; however, such was not found Hull Truck Theatre is one such site to be the case. Although water quality at where co-operation from the owners has the PWS is well within drinking water been crucial. Well known as the home IN HULL THERE IS standards and not considered saline, of John Godber during the 1980s and STRONG TIMELINE EVIDENCE the rising trend raises the question as to 90s, and hit plays like ‘Up n Under’, TO SUGGEST THAT THE HIGHLY whether the saline front is indeed stable. the theatre is now hosting the main Due to the location and sensitivity of drama events of Hull UK City of Culture SALINE WATER IS SOURCED their groundwater abstraction sources, 2017. It is also one of the few remaining FROM ANTHROPOGENIC Yorkshire Water recognised the need licensed abstraction sites in central ABSTRACTION-INDUCED to investigate the current and likely Hull. Groundwater is used here for an future status of saline intrusion. The open-loop geothermal system providing INTRUSION EA also recognised the need to further an energy efficient way of cooling the ~ WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 13 GEOSCIENTIST SOCIETY NEWS
▼ theatre (representing an emergent during drilling. the estuary and the amplitude of tidal new use of groundwater in the UK). There were other complications. variation as measured in the Chalk Infrastructure and building As one of England’s most important aquifer - suggesting that hydraulic schemes across Hull were also ports, during WW2 Hull was the connections are complex. reviewed in our attempt to track down most heavily bombed UK city after any further site investigation wells London. Luftwaffe planes often Results - Isochlor maps still in existence across the city that emptied their bomb bays on the city The first set of water samples from might be incorporated into the saline when returning to the mainland after the new monitoring network were monitoring network. The A63 Castle attacking other targets. Surveys for taken in December 2016 and Chalk Street scheme has provided excellent unexploded ordnance were therefore aquifer chloride results were plotted monitoring data and installations, an essential safety requirement - on an interpretive isochlor map. When which can be adopted for future use. though thankfully drilling went compared with 1986 results, results Yet despite all this, large gaps still without a bang. appear to show stabilisation of salinity existed in the monitoring network. Downhole geophysics and fluid in the southern central area of Hull. logs were taken at the new and The first noticeable difference in Investigation accessible existing boreholes in the isochlors shows the apparent inland Siting new long-term monitoring network. Fluid conductivity profiles migration of saline water to the east boreholes in a built-up urban area provided an indication of salinity of the River Hull. However, taking a is no simple task. With budget for with depth at each location, and of closer look at historic plots one can see just four boreholes, it was essential vertical flow in boreholes. The suite that actually no samples were taken that they were located where they of logs provided a good indication of in this area, and the interpretation would provide the most valuable inflow depths, which can be useful may have been incorrect. The second information. They needed to fill for future investigation and targeted difference is the apparent inland spatial gaps between the existing sampling. migration of the 50mg/l isochlor to the monitoring network and PWS, and Interestingly, despite being north-west of Hull towards the PWS also to target locations where historic some distance from the estuary, abstraction sites. isochlor maps marked significant groundwater levels in the new This is more interesting. With a changes in salinity. The final locations monitoring boreholes demonstrate general decrease in abstraction rates also needed to account for space, tidal variation, thought to be a in Hull, and no known lowering of longevity, access to discharge points pressure response. However, the groundwater levels, why would there for well development, safety, land results to date show there is no clear be further intrusion, when things quality, and nuisance to local residents relationship between distance from appeared to have stabilised in the
The Blade: Made in Hull this rotor blade Eltherington site, Tracking down historic turned 2017 art installation is (at 75 metres) installations the world’s largest, handmade fibreglass component, cast as a single element GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE
1980s? Taken with the apparent lack of potential hydraulic pathways in the Chalk, FURTHER READING increasing salinity in central Hull, the and helping to solve this age-old problem. results might suggest that the abstraction 1. Chadha, D S (1986) Saline intrusion in sites are causing the migration of brackish Protecting a resource the Chalk Aquifer of North Humberside, UK. water that was already intruded from the Despite many outstanding questions, these Yorkshire Water Authority. Humber Estuary in the last century. new data provide the first update in the 2. Elliot, T, Chadha, D S, and Younger, P L (2001) Water quality impacts and It is still early days for the published records since the late 1980s. palaeohydrogeology in the Yorkshire Chalk investigation, and our focus now will The newly established aquifer monitoring aquifer, UK. Quarterly Journal of Engineering be on building and analysing a robust network can now be used to provide Geology and Hydrogeology, 34, 385-398. continuous monitoring dataset, using regular sample sets, taken under controlled 3. Foster, S S D, Parry, E L and Chilton, P J (1976) Groundwater resource development traditional sampling methods along with conditions using consistent methodology. and saline intrusion in the Chalk aquifer of conductivity and level loggers. Having This is a big step forward. Review of North Humberside. British Geological Survey an established network will also enable future results, and further research into Research Report, 76/4. additional testing, such as dating of water wider catchment influences, will provide 4. Gale, I N and Rutter, H K (2006) The Chalk Aquifer of Yorkshire. BGS Research Report - so there is plenty of scope for future a sound scientific basis on which to RR/06/04 research. Other sources of salinity (such make management decisions regarding 5. Smedley, P L, Neumann I and Farrell, R as road salt-spreading, agricultural and sustainable abstraction. (2004) Baseline Report Series 10: The Chalk other catchment influences) will need Collaboration between Yorkshire aquifer of Yorkshire and North Humberside British Geological Survey Commissioned to be explored before jumping to any Water and the EA, along with Arup and Report No. CR/04/128 conclusions about the implications for the Leeds University, has been one of the key PWS. There is a however a clear case for successes of this study. Pooling knowledge the EA to maintain current restrictions on and experience, and working with local abstraction licensing in Hull. companies and Hull City Council to protect Further research and understanding the existing monitoring network, has been - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of the superficial cover, and influences and will continue to be - essential for future The author wishes to thank: Mark Morton, Paul of engineering at the coastal boundary scientific gains. Speight (Yorkshire Water), Hannah Threadgould and within the Humber Estuary, would In a city that has such a celebrated (Environment Agency), Gerd Cachandt (Arup), benefit the study. Tools such as the British bond with water, groundwater Jared West, Simon Bottrell (Leeds University). Geological Survey (BGS) Holderness perhaps doesn’t get the recognition it geological model (Geoscientist, July 2016), deserves. The outcomes of the ongoing could provide a good starting point for investigation will ensure long-term *Ellen Spencer is a Hydrogeologist with Arup, Leeds. refinements, developing understanding of protection of a valuable resource. u E: [email protected]
A63 monitoring BH – the search continues Drilling of new monitoring installations gets under way THE ‘AMATEUR’ LIVES ON Liz Withington* and Tiffany Slater examine the impact of the ‘amateur’ geologist on modern scientific research
n the UK ‘amateur’ geologists north of Bristol, with which Mike was have for centuries made so familiar, Geological Engineering significant contributions to our Ltd. was employed to drill boreholes geological knowledge. Without for the erection of gantries along the I such ‘amateur’ geologists the motorway. As the work was carried UK could not boast of its long-standing out the engineers maintained a log history in the science of geology. of the soil and rock in the boreholes Our highly technical age has for the construction industry. Mike seemingly put these success stories recognised the value of these borehole to rest. The image of the ‘amateur’ cores, which were destined for landfill. geologist, clad in walking boots and Instead, he saw them as a unique carrying only a hand lens and rock opportunity to study more samples hammer, is now associated with a of the Rhaetian bone beds. By careful bygone era. All of today’s findings, liaison with the engineering geologists surely, rely on access to specialist he recovered samples from the cores equipment such as SEM, x-ray before they were disposed of. With diffractometers, mass spectrometers, Sharon’s aid he then meticulously and a multitude of other facilities with labelled the samples, interpreted support technicians, don’t they? the borehole logs, and began acid preparation of the samples. Mike Curtis Mike Curtis, who died in 2008, was Dinosaur feat an amateur geologist born in Dursley, During his lifetime Mike and Sharon Gloucestershire in 1950. He worked as a donated part of their collection to bus driver, publican, quarryman, and in the Bristol City Museum and Art later life as a soil-testing technician for Gallery. Following his untimely Geotechnical Engineering Ltd. death, the remainder of the collection Raised in north Bristol, Mike was bequeathed to the University of established an early interest in geology Bristol. The Mike Curtis Collection as he collected fossils and minerals consists of isolated teeth and from the inspiring sites nearby. As an fragments of bony fish, sharks, and adult, Mike continued to develop his marine reptiles. The collection also knowledge of the local geology and contains highly significant fossils became increasingly focused on the such as remains from the herbivorous Rhaetian Period of the Upper Triassic dinosaur, Thecodontosaurus. This now (208-201Ma). serves as the primary collection of The geological record of the Rhaetian material for the ‘At the Feet of the Period shows tumultuous shoreward Dinosaurs’ research project, led by storms, depositing organic debris across Professor Michael J Benton at the the UK and much of Eastern Europe. University of Bristol. This formed concentrated bone beds that The project offers select were recognised by Mike and his wife undergraduate students with a Sharon to be of geological significance. strong interest in palaeontology In joining Geotechnical Engineering the opportunity to perform Ltd., Mike recognised that their drilling palaeontological research. Each Top, Middleand Below: Salvaged fragments of bore- operations were providing a significant student chooses a site from the holes taken from the Almondsbury interchange, south Gloucestershire number of samples from the Rhaetian extensive Mike Curtis Collection and Left: Mike Curtis bone beds. reviews the many unpublished papers While working as a soil technician written by Curtis. They then study Mike took a keen interest in the work of his meticulously prepared and stored
engineering geologists. In the area to the samples, identify specimens, count ▼
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 17 Photo by: Tiffany Slater.Photo by: Tiffany
Page from Mike Curtis’ notebook
▼ fossil distributions in the samples, the boreholes and her own work; provided Tiffany and many other and write and illustrate a paper to Tiffany was able to make a number of aspiring palaeontologists the unique publication standards. observations: opportunity to carry out collaborative Tiffany Slater, an undergraduate research at a professional level. Biology student, was an intern to the u Significant ecological changes were Following this novel work-experience, project in 2015 and chose the locality occurring during the Rhaetian, as Tiffany and her contemporaries of the Almondsbury interchange. contents from the top of the formation Emma Landon and Valentina Rossi Her role in investigating this unique preserve an ecosystem that is far less are now continuing their studies in collection involved quantifying Mike’s biodiverse than that at the onset of the palaeontology as PhD students. microvertebrate collection, taken from Rhaetian transgressions the boreholes drilled alongside the u Shark and marine reptile teeth ‘Amateur’ awakening motorway. In addition she performed dominate at the base of the Westbury It is easy to think that the age of acid digestion of additional boreholes in Formation, while teeth from bony the ‘amateur’ geologist is over, and the University of Bristol’s Palaeobiology fish are abundant at the top of the that influential research is now the lab, sieving and identifying the Westbury Formation preserve of those fortunate few who specimens that were retrieved. u The sizes of fossils were enjoy access to impressive equipment The boreholes from The significantly different for each bone with flashing lights. However an Almondsbury interchange exhibited bed, indicating that sediments were easier access to knowledge and an two bone beds, one at the base of the deposited in different environments increase in the affordability of tools Westbury Formation, and one at the top u Contents of the basal bone bed and technology has led to a rise of of the Westbury Formation. Although were not equally represented in the the ‘amateur’ in many fields, creating the occurrence of multiple fossiliferous bone bed at the top of the Westbury garage biologists and self-taught horizons in the Westbury Formation Formation photographers. A pair of boots, has previously been reported, events rock hammer, and hand lens was all that led to their precise origins were Tiffany therefore reached the that Mike Curtis needed to pioneer debated. It was previously thought that significant conclusion that the two research on the biodiversity of the the bone beds higher in the stratigraphic bone beds originated from separate Rhaetian seas. sequence were a result of reworking of stratigraphic events, instead of a This should serve as inspiration the basal bone bed. reworking of the basal bone bed as to the next generation of scientists, Using a combination of Mike Curtis’ had previously been thought. who often feel that they must wait for detailed stratigraphic annotations of The Mike Curtis Collection has access to ‘cutting edge equipment’ in
18 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST Photo by: Mike Benton At the Feet of the Dinosaurs’ interns, 2015. L-R: Emma Landon, Emily Hall, Laurence Kinnersley, Valentina Rossi, and Tiffany Slater
Photo by: Hollie Morgan Tiffany Slater analysing contents of the Mike Curtis collection at order for their research to be worthy the University of publication. Perhaps support of of Bristol the unbridled curiosity of ‘amateur’ geologists, amid all our technological developments, will pioneer more research, and offer other aspiring young students the opportunity to begin scientific careers. u
*Liz Withington (corresponding author): Geotechnical Engineering Ltd, Centurion House, Olympus Park, Quedgeley, Gloucester, GL2 4NF E: [email protected]
Photo by: Tiffany Slater Photo by: Tiffany One of the FURTHER READING many boxes containing the Mike Curtis 1 Benton, M. J. (2016) Palaeobiology collection Research Group. Available at: http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/ bristoldinosaur/ (Accessed: 1 January 2017).
2 Slater, T., Duffin, C. J., Hildebrandt, C., Davies, T. G., Benton, M. J. (2016) ‘Microvertebrates from multiple bone beds in the Rhaetian of the M4-M5 motorway junction, South Gloucestershire, U.K.’ Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 127: 464-477
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 19 GEOSCIENTIST CALENDAR Can’t find your meeting? Visit www.geolsoc.org.uk/listings [Full, Accurate, Up-To-Date]
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Early Career Hydrogeology Conference 2017 1-2 September Venue: Strathclyde University. See website for flyer, details, links and Hydrogeological Group registration. Fees and discounts apply. E: [email protected]
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20 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST Corporate Supporters: Call for Abstracts – Deadline: 23 Feb 2018 Eastern Mediterranean – An emerging major petroleum province 29-30 May 2018 The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London
Image courtesy of Chevron Image courtesy of PGS
Convenor: The objective of the conference is to enhance technical understanding of the status of key plays in this geologically complex region Iain Brown PGS In recent years the Eastern Mediterranean region has witnessed growing interest from international energy companies. Substantial gas reserves have been found in Egypt’s Nile Delta Basin and in the Mediterranean coastal areas since 1995, and in more recent times Noble Energy has discovered a series of substantial gas fields off the Israeli coast. Several countries have been announcing licensing rounds in recent years. A key objective of the meeting is to seek a strong set of papers to highlight in greater depth recent discoveries such as those of the prolific Pliocene Nile Delta province and the more recent ENI Zohr supergiant carbonate discovery and the successful clastic plays in the Levant Basin. Results from Totals current drilling campaign in Cyprus Blk 11 will also drive interest in the region. The conference will review exploration activity, as well as challenges to a better understanding of the geology in the eastern Mediterranean, including seismic (and other data) acquisition and imaging. Key geological issues for understanding subsurface risk in the area will be addressed, including but not limited to • Geodynamic Evolution • Pre-salt plays including carbonate build-ups • Source rock distribution and maturity • The importance of regional seismic and refraction data • Sediment provenance studies • Reservoir quality and reservoir characterisation Potential of deeper plays and possibilities for oil. Event Sponsor: • Call for Abstracts: Please submit paper contribution to [email protected] by 23 Feb 2018.
For further information please contact: Sarah Woodcock, The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG. T: 020 7434 9944
At the forefront of petroleum geoscience www.geolsoc.org.uk/petroleum
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 21 FOR A FULL LIST OF TITLES AVAILABLE, GO TO [WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/REVIEWS] BOOKS & ARTS
Darwin’s First Theory tale, engagingly told. the need to provide the Away from tectonics and seismology, burgeoning human - Exploring Darwin’s Wesson occasionally finds himself on population with sustenance, quest to find a theory shaky ground - notably in palaeontology, shelter, healthcare and over-egging the asteroid strike at the end other means of comfort of the Earth of the Cretaceous, which progressive and pleasure. The scale of opinion now views as one factor among these challenges can feel overwhelming. Yet this I have never passed many - no mass extinction ever having a highly readable book, of only up the opportunity single cause - and prime importance in four chapters, provides a worked example of to remind the world that case resting instead with the Deccan how much insight can be obtained by rigorous that Darwin was, Trap eruptions. scrutiny of the interdependencies between just primarily, a geologist, I could have done, too, without all the two Earth resources. nor that he owed his trade-names (I won’t mention them again, Having worked in and around coal and biological insight to the but the repetition of various brands of copper mines for decades, I imagined I would unique world view of outdoor gear and motor vehicle brought learn little from this book. I was very much a geologist, who sees out the Lord Reith in me). Nor did I see mistaken. I soon realised I was learning objects – be they landforms or species the reason behind granting any publicity something important on every other page. - not as perfect objects, but as the end oxygen to those pernicious young-Earthers The first chapter gives an engaging result of historical processes. And lo, on who masquerade as scientists and seek explanation of how and why, among all the very day I write this review of Rob to portray ‘Darwin’s first theory’ as his the world’s mined commodities, copper Wesson’s admirable and hugely enjoyable ‘first big mistake’, for their own fraudulent and coal remain pre-eminent in social and examination of Darwin’s geological purposes. economic importance. The second chapter researches, my colleague Oliver Morton But these blemishes, if such they are, are is essentially geological, summarising the at The Times writes (in a box-text about minor. Others may not even find them principal economic occurrences of copper the great man): “Charles Darwin - A so. Although it can and should be read for and coal deposits. The third chapter provides geologist by training...”.1 pleasure and profit by all, principally this a historical overview of the technology and Clearly, the message is getting through, is a book for Americans - 42% of whom, economics of exploitation of both commodities and this hugely readable book will ensure it seems from a recent survey, prefer – over seven millennia in the case of copper, it is heard more widely – especially believing their Bible over what geologists and over several centuries in the case of coal. perhaps across the Atlantic. Wesson has say about the age and origin of the Earth; The final chapter considers the future of both made it his task to examine Darwin the a lamentable fact that reduces the human commodities, examined quantitatively within geologist, from ‘training’, at the hands of race’s already slim chance of escaping its a framework of holistic sustainability. Adam Sedgwick, to his many significant own imminent extinction even further, The narrative confounds the customary geological contributions, notably on Wesson concludes. over-simplifications which dominate the the uplift of the Andes, the subsidence Reference qualitative literature on sustainability. For of Pacific coral islands, and his less instance, renewable energy technologies use successful brush with glacial theory, 1. Morton, O: ‘Class of 2017 dumber than far more copper than conventional fossil- which eventually trumped his eustatic Victorians’. The Times 72278 July 18, p15 fuel technologies. So to advocate massive explanation for the Parallel Roads of Glen Reviewed by: Ted Nield expansion of renewable energy use is to Roy. demand an expansion and intensification of Wesson, a geophysicist with USGS DARWIN’S FIRST THEORY - EXPLORING DARWIN’S copper mining and refining. who (we gather) was ‘seduced’ by QUEST TO FIND A THEORY OF THE EARTH The lively prose and striking colour mathematical modelling early on and by ROB WESSON 2017 Pegasus Books illustrations make for an enjoyable read. spent much of his life since in front of ISBN 978-1-68177-316-2 457pp (hbk) List Price $29.95 W: www.pegasusbooks.com Quibbles are few and minor. I spotted just a computer, traded all that for some two minor typos (of the ‘to/too’ variety), camping equipment and a trenching and in chapter three, I missed scale-bars tool to get back in the field, retracing on ore specimen photos, and would have Darwin’s extensive footsteps in company liked more thorough labelling. These pale with field geologists. Thus we encounter into insignificance alongside the depth and him - from Cwm Idwal to Glen Roy, Metals, Energy and breadth of this volume. It is essential reading Patagonia to the Isla Santa Maria, where Sustainability - the for anyone interested in the contemporary Darwin and Fitzroy noted the abrupt interface between economic geology and raising of the shoreline following the Story of Doctor Copper sustainability debates. 1835 earthquake which destroyed
Concepcion and Valparaiso during the and King Coal Reviewed by Paul L Younger Beagle voyage. This event, life-changing for Darwin, was paralleled by the 2010 In our era, as global challenges rightly METALS, ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY - THE Chilean earthquake, which thus enables take centre stage, this book is very STORY OF DOCTOR COPPER AND KING COAL the author to compare, contrast and fit timely. The imperative to confront by BARRY GOLDING & SUZANNE D GOLDING, 2017. both events into a modern plate tectonic human-induced degradation of climate, Published by Springer, Cham (CH). framework, excitingly interlacing his dual ISBN (print) 978-3-319-51173-3, soil fertility, ecosystems and freshwater ISBN (electronic) 978-3-319-51175-7. 196pp narratives as he goes. It is a compelling resources must be reconciled with List price: Hbk £44.99. e-book £35.99. W: www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319511733
22 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST Would you like to receive a free book and write a review? Available titles are listed online, of which a small selection is shown below. Contact the editor for further information [email protected]
Crust-Mantle tectonic ‘style’ operating towards the end magnetic field, electrical conductivity of the Archaean. The overall conclusion is and gamma radiation; and the results Interactions the pre-eminence of convergent tectonic can only be described as spectacular, and Granitoid regimes over plume tectonics as the main as demonstrated by the many colourful crustal growth mechanism since the illustrations. Diversification – Eoarchaean. The geochemistry is based on The volume provides an excellent systematic sampling of soils and stream Insights from Archaean overview of the recent interdisciplinary sediments. The list of elements detected Cratons geoscientific developments within and quantified includes not just the this important and evolving field. The likes of gold, silver and lead but dozens contributions are well-written and edited, of others some of which would help on Based upon complemented with appropriate figures, BBC’s ‘Pointless’. The rarer elements contemporary (2011- photographs and data-tables, features can just as easily effect the health of 2015) research from that one has come to expect from the agricultural livestock as the obvious the UNESCO-IGCP GSL Special Publication series. A minor ones like arsenic. project ‘The Changing presentational criticism is that a couple of The book advertises the fact that Early Earth’, this GSL field photographs appear to have colour an enhanced national framework Special Publication ‘bled’ in the print copy obtained by this of environmental information is documents the evidence reviewer, unfortunately distracting from established - and the 30 sections, for fundamental change in the tectonics the feature details described. written by 69 authors, show how the and magmatism on the Archaean Earth. In summary, the editors and data is already being used in spin-off Initial mafic magmas (erupted as oceanic contributors are to be congratulated. An research. Some is pure research, like the crust, island arcs or plateaus) evolved informative and recommended read. study of the Newry Igneous Complex through to the calc-alkaline Tonalite – and that of the Mourne Mountains. Trondhjemite – Granodiorite (TTG) rock Reviewed by Mark Griffin Others suggest new targets for mineral suites of accreting microcontinents, to exploration, while a large number look the diversity of late Archaean granitoids CRUST-MANTLE INTERACTIONS AND at health issues of the environment generated at thick convergent continental GRANITOID DIVERSIFICATION – INSIGHTS FROM ARCHAEAN CRATONS (pollution/wetlands) and people. The margins. by HALLA, J, WHITEHOUSE, M J, AHMAD T AND combination of environmental and An overview paper introduces BAGAI, Z (editors). Geological Society of London medical data is discussed, suggesting the research context, including an Special Publication No 449. 2017. Geological Society links with cancer, renal and other of London. ISBN 978-1-78620-280-2. Hbk. 256pp. essential background section on the ISSN 0305-8719. diseases; and there is a section on specific terminology associated with List Price: £110.00, Fellows’ Price £55.00. in-house radon measurements. The the geochemical (compositional) W: www.geolsoc.org.uk/SP449. discussion of geoforensics, where soil nomenclature and classification, on a suspect’s shoes might lead to an characteristic features, age relations and area where the swag or the body is temporal – spatial patterns of Archaean buried, smacks of Sherlock Holmes. granitoids. The volume contains three Unearthed: Impacts of It is a book that most people will main regionally-based thematic sections not read throughout, but will dip of seven papers: Mesoarchaean Volcanic the Tellus Surveys of into according to their interests. It Supracrustals from Greenland, Mantle- the North of Ireland is well laid out and early on gives derived Alkaline Rocks from Western detailed information about how to Karelia (Fenno-Scandian Shield) and engage potential stakeholders and Mantle to Crustal Melting in the Indian Low-flying (56m) aircraft criss- communicate with the public; critically Shield. A final section of three papers crossing the country, soil augers and important these days. Flick through the presents current insights derived from waders were the pages and you will see from the small associated studies in metamorphic order of the day. maps that ‘a picture paints a thousand petrology. The Tellus project words’. The contributions chronicle the itself is described The cutting-edge methodologies and development of crust-forming in the Foreword statistics point to areas of potential magmatism from minor early Archaean as a ‘land and air interest or problem rather than closely (Eoarchaean) crust-mantle interactions to offensive’. It was 10 identifying them. As such it will long the appearance of extensive multisource years of geophysics continue to stimulate research, be of granitoids, exhibiting crustal recycling and geochemistry practical value and generally fascinate. (via mantle and intra-crustal reworking) costing €15 million that systematically at the end of the Archaean. These covered the land of a nation, and a bit insights significantly expand the debate of its neighbour. Reviewed by: Tony Bazley on the origin of Archaean igneous It is ground mostly covered with the rocks and their role in deciphering thick debris of the last glaciation so, UNEARTHED: IMPACTS OF THE TELLUS Archaean crustal evolution and tectonics, with excellent surface geological maps SURVEYS OF THE NORTH OF IRELAND providing new evidence for increasing the geophysics takes the reader to a edited by MIKE YOUNG, 2016. Published by: Royal Irish Academy 423pp ISBN:978-1-908996-87-9 crust-mantle interactions, granitoid lower level, literally unearthing the List Price: €30 W: www.ria.ie diversification and the changing plate rocks. Measured from the air are the ▼
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 23 FOR A FULL LIST OF TITLES AVAILABLE, GO TO [WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/REVIEWS] BOOKS & ARTS
Asteroids: Astronomical knowledge’ of physics, mathematics, all the intended contributions of chemistry, geology and astronomy…’! the nations announced in the Paris and Geological Bodies Phew, who said the age of the polymath Agreement in 2015’. That is a hefty ask, was dead? particularly as these nations need to For most of the time Overall, this is a book to be deal with a whole range of other (often since the discovery recommended. As a ‘one-stop shop’ on unpredictable) issues as well. And of (1) Ceres in 1801, all matters asteroidal it could hardly be decidedly more difficult to do now that a asteroids, those bettered. Those wanting to know more new inward-looking, unpredictable, US enigmatic lumps about the geology of these bodies will president has refused to reaffirm that 2015 of rock (?) mostly have to look elsewhere, but they can start agreement. condemned to wander with this book’s excellent reference list. The content of this book is focused on a the Solar System minority group: scientists. For me, reading Reviewed by: Trevor F Emmett between the orbits of it was like ploughing through a field of Mars and Jupiter, have been little more glutinous mud, full of sticky formulae than flecks of light on a photographic and arresting acronyms (a loose page re- ASTEROIDS: ASTRONOMICAL AND GEOLOGICAL expanding all those puzzling acronyms plate or CCD detector. How things have BODIES changed! Spurred on by the realisation by T H BURBINE. Cambridge Planetary Science Series would help). Cutting a satisfactorily that asteroids can deal life-extinguishing no. 17. Cambridge University Press 2016 ISBN: straight comprehension furrow is tricky hammer-blows to the Earth, truly 9781107096844. 394 pp (hbk) and tiring. It’s worth the effort in the end, List Price: £49.99 but it’s no more accessible to the general stupefying advances in the technology of W: http://bit.ly/2vDWD6H detectors (including their use in automated public than the man in the moon. discovery and photometric systems) That means we must do more to and (since 1991) the attention of robotic win over the public and their political spacecraft, the nature, diversity and representatives, and lead them to significance of these bodies are now major understand our logical, scientific, point of areas of intense study. Energy Science: view. Just replacing the cover design with Burbine’s book is intended as ‘...a Principles, a copy of Edvard Munch’s dramatic ‘The reference book for anybody wanting to Scream’, is tempting, but simply won’t learn more...’ about the smaller bodies technologies, and do. We need to re-express the essence of of the Solar System (which term now this work in simpler language. The matter includes, controversially at least in the impacts is too important to permit uninformed popular eye, Pluto – or should I say dissent. Perhaps, like Mrs Bucket (sorry, (134340) Pluto?). I believe it succeeds It was not entirely coincidental that ‘Bouquet’), we should sing more at the in this objective. Its best feature is the this book dropped unconverted than with them. Short of comprehensive coverage of the subject through my letterbox creating a scientific meritocracy, that’s all it provides. All the arcana needed to a day after the latest we can do. understand asteroids is here, everything G20 conference Reviewed by: David Edwards from the history of discovery, orbital ended. I was already mechanics, spectroscopy, photometry and in need of a reliable more to the threats these bodies pose to the scientific update on ENERGY SCIENCE: PRINCIPLES, TECHNOLOGIES, Earth’s ecosystems. where we stand on AND IMPACTS The main classes of objects (of which by JOHN ANDREWS & NICK JELLEY (3rd Edn). 2017. global warming. The Oxford University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0199281121 there now seems to be a bewildering situation changes fast, these days. 344pp (sbk). variety) are described and there are also And here I have it, with a cover List Price £39.99. W: http://bit.ly/2xMi9XA competent introductions to the supporting displaying a brick wall (of solar panels) cast of meteorites, comets and related leading up to a bare, mountainous bodies. All of this is commendably up to horizon. An implication of global date, with the initial results of the latest extinction, I assume. Inside, a framework BOOKS FOR REVIEW spacecraft missions (Rosetta/Philae, New of physics, mathematics and financial Horizons) included. The duplication of analysis delivers a heady excess to the Please contact [email protected] if you would many of the more complex illustrations as brain. The book is well laid out, dressed like to supply a review. You will be invited to keep the colour plates is to be commended. with the latest statistics and each chapter review copy. See a full up-to-date list at www.geolsoc.org.uk/reviews However, the desire to cover so much embalmed with a short summary, background material is also, perhaps, recommendations for further reading and ◆ NEW! Proterozoic Origens of India - a critical the book’s one failing. Some of the a set of exercises (answers at the back). window to Gondwana by TRK Chetty. 2017 explanations, for example those of orbital Compared with the 2013 edition, this new Elsevier 405pp, sbk mechanics, are somewhat cryptic and often edition has been comprehensively revised ◆ NEW! New Zealand Landscape - behind the become little more than jargon. Though and is 100 pages (20%) longer. scene by Paul W Williams. Elsevier 2017 470 I consider myself reasonably well-versed The authors’ terminal sentence is pp sbk in some of these subjects, I did find such disturbingly vague. It reads thus: ◆ NEW! Risks, Rewards and regulation of material difficult to follow in places. In ‘Currently, the rise in long term Unconventional Gas - a global perspective Burbine’s defence he does suggest that temperature may be limited to 2.7 by Grafton , Quentin et al (eds)2017 Cambridge University Press494pp, hbk the reader should have a ‘college-level degrees C by 2100, but only by enacting
24 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST Geoscientist welcomes readers’ letters. These are published as promptly as possible in Geoscientist Online and a selection READERS’ printed each month. Please submit your letter (300 words or fewer, by email only please) to [email protected]. LETTERS Letters will be edited. For references cited in these letters, please see the full versions at www.geolsoc.org.uk/letters Hutton owes no debt to Browne Mike Leeder replies:
Sir, Historical myths are hardy perennials, and myths about Hutton continue to be propagated in the media, in blissful or perhaps wilful (chauvinistic?) ignorance of a body of historical research that sets his ideas in their contemporary context. Briefly, the very words of Hutton’s famous “vestige... prospect...” quote show what he himself was open about: that he was an ‘eternalist’ - a position antithetical Sir, Martin Rudwick seems to miss the point of my article, which to modern geology’s developmental model of the history of the Earth simply proposes that Hutton adapted Browne’s beautiful words in (and of the cosmos). the coda to his own opus. Nothing more, nothing less. I made The Browne “but five days” quote shows equally clearly that no novel interpretations, simply stating what each quote might his cosmology was, within the limited time frame of his generation, imply to any intelligent modern reader. The essential part of the a developmental one from start to finish (‘alpha’ to ‘omega’). By longer quotation is: “…but to retire so farre back as to apprehend a Hutton’s time, geologists had adopted Browne’s kind of model, beginning, to give such an infinite start forward, as to conceive an having simply expanded it into a far longer - but still ‘finite’ - time end”. dimension. Hutton’s contemporaries criticised him for his eternalism, I would disagree with Rudwick’s assessments of both Browne not his lengthy time. Modern geology therefore stems far more from and Hutton. The former seems against ‘alpha and omega’; as the them than from him. quote I unearthed emphasises, and as does the rest of Section 11 This conclusion is now obvious to historians of geology, backed of ‘Religio Medici’. I would differ also from his opinion of Hutton’s by a large body of historical research. Among many books that ‘eternalism’: the qualifier ‘...we find’, which precedes his quoted summarise this work, I dare to cite my own ‘Earth’s Deep History’ aphorism, is surely quite enough to negate this view. (Chicago 2014) because it gives a brief bird’s-eye-view all the way It is not enough to show that others misinterpreted Hutton’s from Browne (and Ussher’s 4004BC) to the present, and includes careful delineations of his position as ‘eternalism’. To my mind, a further reading section that gives references to a lot of other modern geology (in its fundamental ‘planetary recycling’ essence) historians’ work. A fuller evaluation of Hutton is in my ‘Bursting the stems far more from Hutton than anyone else among the Limits of Time’ (Chicago 2005), pp. 158-172, with detailed footnoted ‘savantiers’, up until the times of Wegener and Holmes (the great references to primary and secondary sources to back it up. modern ‘savants’ of physical geology).
MARTIN RUDWICK MIKE LEEDER
IN MEMORIAM WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/OBITUARIES
THE SOCIETY NOTES WITH SADNESS THE PASSING OF: Absolom, Sydney Stuart * Evans, Anthony Meredith Leighton, James * Rawcliffe, Eric * Armitage, John * Gardener, Roger * Macchi, Louis Robson, David * Atkinson, Keith * Geddes, James D*§ Marshall, Mr John A * Shingleton, Sam * Ayers-Morgan, Christopher * Ginsburg, Robert Nathan Matthews, Peter Elvor * Whitlow, Roy * Butcher, Norman Edward * Howell, Frank Travis * Merriam, Daniel Francis Young, Paul Ivor * Chillingworth, Patrick Cecil Hamilton * Howells, Malcolm Fletcher Needham, Clive Drysdall, Alan Roy * Jenner-Clarke, Hugh Clifford David * Palmer, Stephen J * Elueze, Anthony Azbuike * Laws, Michael James * Pipes, Kenneth P *
In the interests of recording its Fellows’ work for posterity, the Society publishes obituaries online, and in Geoscientist. The most recent additions to the list are in shown in bold. Fellows for whom no obituarist has yet been commissioned are marked with an asterisk (*). The symbol § indicates that biographical material has been lodged with the Society.
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WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 25 PEOPLE NEWS
(ODA). Some of that money will come to NERC, and find its way to BGS (15% of the NERC core budget – about £8m). So BGS funding ‘secure’ while BGS will no longer have to compete against research-based core funding, less of its money will be spent in the UK. BGS will therefore ‘reassign’ some UK national activities, Ludden said.
Platforms BGS is developing three ODA ‘platforms’ – on East African geoscience, on SE Asian megacities and their hinterlands, and on global geological risk. Ludden believes these will position BGS to compete for additional money in the Global Challenges Research Fund, where most ODA funds reside. BGS will also invest £31m (from the Dept. for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS)) to create ‘world-class subsurface energy-research test centres’ dubbed ‘UK GeoEnergy Observatories’ (UKGEOS). Each site, in different areas of the UK, will consist of a network of deep and shallow boreholes enabling long-term subsurface observation ‘in unprecedented detail’. BGS will in future ‘explicitly map [its] innovation funding to science directorates’ investing that 15% of core budget for the coming three years in support of innovation. Ludden also hopes that, as 5% of BGS funding comes from the EU, the UK will continue to invest in EU infrastructure, ‘especially as some of these facilities are key to UK international competitiveness’. BGS will re-structure its directorates, reassigning staff in Geology and regional Geophysics and the Land, Soils and Coast Directorates elsewhere ‘in key directorates’. BGS will then focus on three challenges, including: decarbonizing power production, heat, transport and industry; adapting to environmental change, and natural In a letter to stakeholders in June, BGS Core budget geological hazards and risk. BGS will focus Director Prof. John Ludden CGeol FGS BGS has agreed with NERC that its core less on ‘rocks and sediments as indicators set out the future for the BGS core budget will be ring-fenced and ‘clearly of past events’ and more on ‘rocks as science programme. directed to national and public good conduits for processes that affect lives and British Geological Survey (BGS) (NPG) activities’. This recognition, Ludden livelihoods’, Ludden said. is about to undertake its ‘biggest believes, will be ‘powerful’ for BGS. To Regional delivery for England will be transformation since joining NERC in 1965’, oversee the spending of this core budget, enhanced to match that already being gaining more independence than it has and BGS activity in general, NERC will delivered from the newly relocated BGS enjoyed in half a century and becoming ‘a create a new, independent BGS Board, to Cardiff and BGS Scotland offices, with new new form of geological survey’, according which members will be appointed in the hubs for S&SE England, Midlands/East to BGS Director, Prof. John Ludden, in his coming months. An advert for its Chair was Anglia, and the North. BGS will continue June letter to stakeholders. However, this posted in June with a closing date of July to put boots on the ground, Ludden says, will not be achieved without significant 21. The Board will sit within UK Research enhancing training and CPD for field reorganisation, he warns, much of which & Innovation (UKRI), the planned new geologists. is already underway; though it will seem government department which is expected ‘more acute this year’. to be up and running from April 2018, Adler deWind He described BGS funding as following Royal Assent to the passage of ‘relatively secure’ though UK government the Higher Education & Research Act 2017. funding was ‘becoming increasingly Research Council funding has been ➤ Read the full Stakeholder letter: targeted’. This will mean suspending increased in the current Comprehensive W: www.bgs.ac.uk/news/docs/2017/ some activities while increasing others, he Spending Review by ‘a significant amount’ Newsletter_John-Ludden_03072017.pdf said. for ‘Official Development Assistance’
26 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST GEOSCIENTIST PEOPLE NEWS
Geoscientists in the news and on the move in the UK, Europe and worldwide
DISTANT THUNDER Early warning
Geologist and science became known as ‘Miss praise ‘... the accuracy of which entitled, Railway excursions writer Nina Morgan Phillips’s conglomerate’. I can bear willing testimony’ from York, Leeds, and Hull, uncovers some This conglomerate, which which included excursions from potential piracy in the Phillips described as “full of And he also had a suggestion: York and Hull, and followed Silurian shells, and pebbles this up in 1854, with Part III, Malvern Hills and fragments of the sienitic, “I have long thought it would Excursions from Leeds which felspatho-quartzose and other be very desirable that you ran to two editions. A third John Phillips’s [1800 – 1874] rock-masses of the Malvern should publish an abridgement edition retitled Excursions in 1848 Geological Survey hills” demonstrated that the to serve as a geological hand Yorkshire by the North Eastern Memoir II The Malvern Hills, igneous rocks that make up the book for visitors to Malvern. Railway, and including all three was revolutionary in many Malvern ridge were intruded This would be more portable parts, appeared in 1855. ways. Not only did it debunk before, rather than after, the and less costly than the large Although he makes no the theory about the formation Silurian sediments had been volume which you have already mention of Strickland in the of the Malvern Hills (put forward laid down. published, & would probably text, it would be nice to think Roderick Murchison [1792 – command a pretty constant if that Phillips was inspired by 1831] – the ‘Mr Silurian’ of the Fan mail not very rapid sale.” Strickland’s comments and day) that the igneous rocks The Memoir was also praised Strickland went on to say considered this book as a that make up the Malvern ridge for the clarity of its writing and that his letter was motivated by memorial to his friend. were intruded after the Silurian the accuracy of its descriptions. the receipt of a “...prospectus, sediments to the west of the In August 1852, the geologist, by which it appears that you are Malverns had been deposited. ornithologist and naturalist, in danger of being pirated by Mr It was also notable for Hugh Strickland [1811 – 1853] E. Lees, who is a good botanist, ➤ Acknowledgement giving full credit to a woman (then William Buckland’s [1784 but who knows little of geology I thank Philip Powell for locating the crucial bit of – 1856] Deputy Reader in & of whom I have no very high for drawing my atten- tion to a letter dated 21 evidence that showed that geology at Oxford University) opinion in other respects. So I August 1852, from Hugh Murchison was wrong. In spent a fortnight in the Malvern thought it best to write to you Strickland to John Phil- the Memoir, Phillips named Hills, and wrote to Phillips to without loss of time, that you lips, which is held in the his sister, Anne [1803 – describe the use he had been may take what steps seem best archives at the Oxford 1862, pictured], as the making of the Memoir and to in the matter.” University Museum of discoverer of what Natural History, and the Tribute archivist Kate Diston Mr Lees does not appear to for permission to quote have published his proposed from it. Other sources Anne Phillips (1803- Malvern guide – and neither include: John Phillips 1862), possibly and the Business of did Phillips. In Phillips’s case, wearing an ‘oiled Victorian Science by silk cape’ of the sort events may have overtaken Jack Morrell, ISBN: requested by brother him. On 14 September, 1853, John to protect him 1840142391; Anne Phil- against the elements while geologising with Phillips lips and the Mystery of in North Wales after the British Association for the Malverns by Nina the Advancement of Science Morgan, Geoscientist, meeting at Hull, Strickland 16/ 7 , pp 6- 7 and 12 – was knocked down and 15; the Wikipedia entry killed by a train near Retford for Hugh Strickland; Ge- while examining a section ological Survey Memoir, Vol. II, The Malvern Hills, exposed in a cutting on the by John Phillips, 1848; Manchester, Sheffield and and Phillips’ Excursions Lincolnshire Railway. Just 15 in Yorkshire by North days after Strickland’s death, Eastern Railway, third Phillips was appointed to edn, 1855 (available as take up Strickland’s Oxford a free ebook on Google position. When Buckland died Books). in 1856 Phillips became the first ‘Professor of Geology’ at * Nina Morgan is a geologist and Oxford, a post he held until his science writer based near Oxford. own death in 1874. Her latest book, The Geology of However, in 1853 Phillips did Oxford Gravestones, is available via publish parts I and II of a book www.gravestonegeology.uk
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 27 GEOSCIENTIST OBITUARY
OBITUARY Jon Paul Davidson 1959-2016
Durham geologist, Coke medallist and former was born in Welwyn membership of a 2014 Research Garden City. Having HoD with a lifelong interest in volcanic and Excellence Framework subpanel excelled while magmatic processes (Unit of Assessment 7), and gaining a first class presidency of the Mineralogical J honours degree Society (2012-13). During in Geology from Durham this period he also further University (Collingwood supported Durham University College) in 1981, Jon undertook as Deputy Head of the Faculty a PhD at Leeds University of Science (2010-2015) and as a (1981-84) on the petrogenesis member of Council (2008-2016). of Lesser Antilles arc magmas, Jon fought a long, hard battle which fuelled a life-long against leukaemia from 2008 interest in volcanology and until it claimed his life on 26 magmatic processes. Jon moved September 2016. Jon never let to the USA where he undertook this disease affect his desire postdoctoral research at to work as is reflected in his Southern Methodist University receiving the Coke Medal of the and at the University of Geological Society of London Michigan, rapidly making a (2011), the VMSG Award (2014), name for himself through his and, in 2016, both Fellowship insightful publications and his of the American Geophysical incisive, common-sense, self- Union, and the Distinguished deprecating contributions to Geologic Career Award from international conferences. the Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Petrology and Volcanology UCLA ~ Division of the Geological In 1988 Jon obtained an Society of America. academic position at the University of California Los Outdoors Angeles (UCLA) where he JON WAS Department revised its entire Jon was an inspirational teacher rapidly progressed to full AN INSPIRATIONAL undergraduate and taught and an outstanding researcher professor. During this time Jon TEACHER AND AN postgraduate curricula, moved who was interested in every demonstrated his prowess in into a newly constructed aspect of geology. He loved all aspects of academic practice. OUTSTANDING building and developed an being in the field, whether His growing body of highly- RESEARCHER WHO entirely new approach to to teach, learn, or simply regarded research publications WAS INTERESTED IN research organisation, the enjoy the outdoors, taking was complemented by benefits of which can be seen every opportunity to visit lead authorship of an EVERY ASPECT OF in the health and vigour of the new locations to broaden his undergraduate textbook GEOLOGY research and teaching cultures experience magmatism and the Exploring the Earth: An at Durham today. rocks it produces. Introduction to Physical Geology ~ Jon will be missed by his which, typical of Jon, used an Volcanology and Chemistry Wide contribution many friends for his wisdom, innovative layout to engage the of the Earth’s Interior (1998). Jon’s wider contribution to honesty and good-humoured reader’s attention. His work In 2001 Jon returned to the Earth sciences community wit. He is survived by his wife at this time was recognised Durham as Chair of Earth includes chairing the Volcanic Donna and their two children, through receipt of UCLA’s Sciences. He served as Head and Magmatic Studies Group Max and Daisy. Luckman Distinguished of Department from 2002 (VMSG; 2006-9), chairing Teaching Award (1994) and to 2005 initiating a period the Committee of Heads the Wager Medal of the of tremendous reform. of University Geoscience ➤ By Colin Macpherson International Association of Under Jon’s leadership the Departments (2007-10),
HELP YOUR OBITUARIST The Society operates a scheme for Fellows to deposit biographical material. The object is to assist obituarists by providing contacts, dates and other information, and thus ensure that Fellows’ lives are accorded appropriate and accurate commemoration. Please send your CV and a photograph to Ted Nield at the Society.
28 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST GEOSCIENTIST CROSSWORD
CROSSWORD NO.218 SET BY PLATYPUS WIN A SPECIAL PUBLICATION!
The winner of the July Crossword puzzle prize draw was Chan Hin Wai of Hong Kong.
All correct solutions will be placed in the draw, and the winner’s name printed in the November 2017 issue. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Closing date - September 13.
The competition is open to all Fellows, Candidate Fellows and Friends of the Geological Society who are not current Society employees, officers or trustees. This exclusion does not apply to officers of joint associations, specialist or regional groups.
Please return your completed crossword to Burlington House, marking your envelope “Crossword”. Do not enclose any other matter with your solution. Overseas Fellows are encouraged to scan the signed form and email it as a PDF to [email protected] ACROSS DOWN Name ...... 7 Void or bubble, containing 1 Home of Johann Sebastian Membership number ...... volcanic gas, for example (7) (1723-50) and the Gewandhaus (7) 8 Potent greenhouse gas emitted 2 Polymer made of any inert, Address for correspondence ...... by belching ruminants (7) synthetic compound made up of ...... 10 Epeirogenic movement repeating siloxane units (8) observed by Darwin in Chile, 3 Roofing rocks (6) ...... for example (6) 4 When one jumps over the other (8) ...... 11 Where rocks break cover (8) 5 Cheat at business or carve ...... 12 Catalan abstract painter (4) rock? (6) 13 Subspherical radial acicular 6 Unthankful person (7) ...... structure in silicic volcanic 9 The head-footers (11) Postcode ...... rock (10) 15 Precipitation that reaches the water 14 A measurement scientist (11) table to replenish groundwater (8) 19 Remediated or modified to 16 Landscape of bare basalt SOLUTIONS JULY look natural (10) and sparse vegetation, scoured 22 Jellylike substance used for and dissected by Across: bacterial substrate (4) glacial floodwater (8) 7 Coquina 8 Faceted 10 Sillar 11 Volatile 12 Lime 13 Yellowcake 23 Dorset isle set in concrete (8) 17 ‘Salt-producing’ element group (7) 14 Astronomers 19 Birmingham 22 Dyad 24 Erode by wind action (6) 18 Sung liturgical piece, much 23 Paraffin 24 System 25 Tremors 26 Decibel 25 ‘Debt slavery’ (7) composed by 1d composer (7) 26 Fern-like side-fracture which 20 Putting an age to (6) Down: intersects the main at an 21 Buoyant rock mass, rising upward 1 Hominid 2 Outliers 3 Energy 4 Ballroom acute angle (7) and causing deformation (6) 5 Celtic 6 Gemlike 9 Avalanching 15 Reniform 16 Rudistid 17 Bizarre 18 Cavemen 20 Miasma 21 Master
WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 29 WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST 30 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | GEOSCIENTIST RECRUITMENT