GeoscientistThe Fellowship magazine of The Geological Society of | www.geolsoc.org.uk | Volume 23 No 4 | May 2013

RUBISLAW QUARRY Europe’s deepest hole finds new purpose ELECTION RESULTS Who’s on the Society’s new Council?

society on facebook] [www.facebook.com/geolsoc LONDON’S WATER Trouble with the capital’s most precious resource

CONTENTS GEOSCIENTIST Image: Ambernectar 13 via Flickr.comImage: Ambernectar

FEATURES 16 RUBISLAW REBORN Ted Nield visits the new owners of Rubislaw granite quarry, Europe’s deepest open pit and asks – why? REGULARS 05 WELCOME Ted Nield on vanishing and redundant IN THIS ISSUE holes in the ground, and how we can preserve them MAY 2013 06 SOCIETY NEWS What your Society is doing at home and abroad, in London and the regions 10 COVER FEATURE: LONDON’S WATER 09 SOAPBOX Peter Styles thinks Edinburgh University has crossed the line Jonathan Paul explores the relationship between London and its most precious resource 21 LETTERS We welcome your thoughts 22 BOOK & ARTS An exhibition and three books reviewed by Sarah Day, Mike Hambrey, Mike Winter and James Powell 24 PEOPLE Geoscientists in the news and on the move 26 OBITUARY Two distinguished Fellows remembered 27 CALENDAR Society activities this month 29 CROSSWORD Win a special publication of your choice ONLINE SPECIALS n TREASURES OF THE ABYSS As the announcement is made that deep-sea nodules are finally to be exploited, 09 16 Geoff Glasby explores a great untapped resource...

MAY 2013 03 04 MAY 2013 ~ EDITOR’S COMMENT GEOSCIENTIST LONDON HAS ALWAYS HAD A STORMY RELATIONSHIP WITH WATER - JONATHAN PAUL Cover image: Getty Images~ NEEDED HOLES ne of the wittiest responses to an Geoscientist is the T 01727 893 894 Fellowship magazine of F 01727 893 895 author, hoping to impress with his the Geological Society E enquiries@centuryone latest volume, was: “Thank you for of London publishing.ltd.uk W www.centuryone your latest book. It fills a much- The Geological Society, publishing.ltd.uk needed void”. Well, I have spent Burlington House, Piccadilly, much of the last year or two trying to London W1J 0BG ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE T +44 (0)20 7434 9944 Jonathan Knight fill a book of my own on the subject of F +44 (0)20 7439 8975 T 01727 739 193 Ovoids – holes in the ground, once so common a E [email protected] E jonathan@centuryone (Not for Editorial) publishing.ltd.uk feature of the British landscape, but now vanishing at an alarming rate. Publishing House ART EDITOR The Geological Society Heena Gudka As geologists, we love these windows on history, Publishing House, Unit 7, laying bare the bones of the landscape. But as Brassmill Enterprise Centre, DESIGN & PRODUCTION Brassmill Lane, Bath Sarah Astington mineral extraction is exported far over the horizon, or BA1 3JN becomes so skilfully designed as to vanish from sight, T 01225 445046 PRINTED BY those opportunities for research, teaching and F 01225 442836 Century One Publishing Ltd. amateur fossicking are vanishing too. We are losing Library Copyright our connection with our past, and the source of all T +44 (0)20 7432 0999 The Geological Society of F +44 (0)20 7439 3470 London is a Registered Charity, the things we cannot grow. E [email protected] number 210161. I have been revisiting many quarries that I knew in ISSN (print) 0961-5628 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ISSN (online) 2045-1784 years gone by, and discovered many different fates. Professor Peter Styles FGS Some are now filled and built over. Others are The Geological Society of London flooded, or eroded beyond use, or invaded by nature EDITOR accepts no responsibility for the Dr Ted Nield NUJ FGS views expressed in any article in and transformed from quarries - into mere places. E [email protected] this publication. All views expressed, except where I encountered one quarry, no longer in use, but explicitly stated otherwise, protected by every form of legislation known EDITORIAL BOARD represent those of the author, and Dr Sue Bowler FGS not The Geological Society of to man, which now lies behind spiked steel palisades Mr Steve Branch FGS London. All rights reserved. No Dr FGS paragraph of this publication may and locked gates; its bedding planes concealed Prof. Tony Harris FGS be reproduced, copied or under canopies - all to protect it from the very public Dr Howard Falcon- transmitted save with written permission. Users registered with for whom it is ultimately being preserved in the Lang FGS Copyright Clearance Center: the Dr Joe McCall FGS Journal is registered with CCC, name of science. Dr Jonathan Turner FGS 27 Congress Street, Salem, MA But there are glimmers of hope. Europe’s deepest Dr Jan Zalasiewicz FGS 01970, USA. 0961- 5628/02/$15.00. pit, Rubislaw Granite Quarry, Aberdeen, into whose Trustees of the Geological Every effort has been made to abyss I first peered – indeed almost fell – about 30 Society of London trace copyright holders of material in this publication. If any years ago, has been bought. Its new owners plan to Mr D T Shilston (President); rights have been omitted, the Mrs N K Ala; Dr M G publishers offer their apologies. give it back to their native city as a conference and Armitage; Miss S Brough; Professor R A Butler; No responsibility is assumed by outdoor activity centre, with historical exhibits telling Professor N A Chapman; the Publisher for any injury and/or the story of Aberdeen’s proud quarrying heritage. damage to persons or property as Mr D J Cragg; Professor J a matter of products liability, Even more exciting perhaps is a plan, taking an Francis (Secretary, Science) negligence or otherwise, or from Professor A J Fraser; any use or operation of any idea first mooted in this column in April 2011, to Dr S A Gibson; Mrs M P methods, products, instructions redevelop derelict quarries in Portland as a visitor Henton (Secretary, or ideas contained in the material Professional Matters); herein. Although all advertising centre for the Jurassic Coast. Mike Hanlon, geologist Dr R A Hughes; Mr D A material is expected to conform to and former science correspondent of the Mail on Jones; Dr A Law (Treasurer), ethical (medical) standards, inclusion in this publication does Sunday, is attempting to create Jurassica. The quarry Professor R J Lisle; not constitute a guarantee or Professor A R Lord endorsement of the quality or has been promised. Shard architect Renzo Piano has (Secretary, Foreign & value of such product or of the External Affairs); Mr P claims made by its manufacturer. provided concept drawings of a signature building. Maliphant (Vice president); Business plans are being prepared, and Dorset Subscriptions: All Dr B R Marker OBE; correspondence relating to non- County Council and many other interested bodies are Professor S B Marriott (Vice member subscriptions should be president); Dr G Nichols; addresses to the Journals being signed up in preparation for a bid for funding Dr C P Summerhayes Subscription Department, from the Heritage Lottery Fund. (Vice president); Professor Geological Society Publishing J H Tellam; Dr J P Turner House, Unit 7 Brassmill Enterprise This magazine will keep readers abreast of Centre, Brassmill Lane, Bath, BA1 (Secretary, Publications) 3JN, UK. Tel: 01225 445046. Fax: developments here – the Jurassic Coast desperately 01225 442836. Email: needs a major, weather-proof visitor centre that can Published on behalf of [email protected]. The the Geological Society subscription price for Volume 22, act as its window on the world. And our subject of London by 2012 (11 issues) to institutions must do what it can to preserve our landscape’s Century One Publishing and non-members is £108 (UK) Alban Row, 27–31 Verulam or £124 / US$247 (Rest of World). remaining, and much-needed voids. Road, St Albans, Herts, © 2013 The Geological Society AL3 4DG of London DR TED NIELD EDITOR

MAY 2013 05 GEOSCIENTIST SOCIETY NEWS SOCIETYNEWS PRESIDENT’S DAY 2013

President’s Day (Burlington House, 5 June) will begin with the Annual General Meeting (11.00) followed by a buffet lunch with the award winners (members with ticket only – £27.50 per head). As in previous years, recipients of the major Photo: Ted Nield medals have been invited to give a short talk on their subject, and the Awards Ceremony will be followed by presentations by Lyell, Murchison, William Prof. Eddie Bromhead presents the Smith and Wollaston medallists (details below). The timetable and AGM agenda Dearman Award to Ricky Terrington are below. To obtain luncheon tickets please send cheques (made payable to the Geological Society) Publications 2013 to Stephanie Jones at Burlington House or email [email protected]. Please also contact Stephanie if you wish to attend the afternoon events, for which there Publications Day, the annual celebration for writers and is no charge. editors of the Society’s publications, was held at Burlington House on 5 March. After delivering a vote of thanks to all present, Publications Secretary Jonathan n TIMETABLE Turner (British Gas) presented the Young Author Award 11.00 Annual General Meeting (members only); 12.30 Lunch with Award winners (JGS) to Nick Schofield. The Society extended special (members with tickets only); 14.00 Awards Ceremony; 15.15 Talks by Lyell, thanks to former Editor of QJEGH, Prof. Mike Winter. Murchison and William Smith medallists; 16.30 Tea; 17.00 Talk by Wollaston Medallist; 17.30 President’s closing remarks; 17.40 - 19.30 Drinks reception For more pictures, see Society Facebook page n AGM AGENDA Apologies; Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 13 June 2012; Appointment of Scrutineers for the ballots for Council and Officers; Ballot for Election results Council; Annual Report and Accounts for 2012; President’s Report; Secretaries’ Reports; Treasurer’s Report; Comments from Fellows; Formal acceptance of the The ballot for Council and President-designate closed Annual Report and Accounts for 2012 and approval of the Budget for 2013; on 31 March. President-designate: A total of 1095 valid Fellowship subscriptions for 2014; Deaths; Report of Scrutineers on the ballot for votes were cast in the electronic and postal consultative Council; Ballot for Officers; Appointment of Auditors; Report of Scrutineers on the ballot for the President-designate and the result was: ballot for Officers; Election of new Fellows; Any other business; Provisional date of n Philip Allen 471 (43.0%) next Annual General Meeting. n David Manning 624 (57.0%) David Manning will go forward to the AGM for election n TALKS BY MEDALLISTS as President-designate. Paula Reimer (Lyell Medal), Director, Centre for Climate, the Environment & Council: A total of 1092 valid votes were cast for the Chronology, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's seven remaining vacancies on Council. There were 16 University Belfast: Calibrating the radiocarbon timescale invalid votes. The results are shown in the table below. Peter Kokelaar (Murchison Medal), George Herdman Professor of Geology, The seven candidates receiving the most votes will go Liverpool University: Understanding Avalanche Mobility forward to the AGM for election as Council members. Martin Jackson (William Smith Medal), Senior Research Scientist, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin: Origin and Evolution of COUNCIL RESULTS Allochthonous Salt Sheets Talk by Wollaston medallist Kurt Lambeck, Professor of Geophysics, The Name Votes Australian National University: Of Ice and Land, Sea and Strand: Sea Level During Glacial Cycles Lucy Slater 731 (66.9%) Marie Edmonds 665 (60.9%) Jane Dottridge 660 (60.4%) Chris Eccles 653 (59.8%) FUTURE MEETING DATES Jim Coppard 649 (59.4%) Michael Young 635 (58.2%) OGMs Council Angela Coe 617 (56.5%) n 2013: 26 June; n 2013: 26 June; 25 September; 27 November 25 September; 27 November Kevin Hiscock 546 (50.0%) n 2014: 5 February (3pm); 9 n 2014: 5 & 6 February Anthony Cohen 460 (42.1%) April 2014 (residential); 9 April Mike Rogerson 431 (39.5%)

06 MAY 2013 SOCIETY NEWS GEOSCIENTIST

FROM THE LIBRARY [lectures The library is open to visitors ] Monday-Friday 0930-1730. For a list of new acquisitions click Shell London the appropriate link from Lecture Series http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/info

Image: anyaivanova / Shutterstock.com Latest Developments in Burlington bookshop Carbon Capture April saw the opening of the postage incurred on our online and Storage Burlington House Bookshop in the bookshop. The new bookshop will main library, writes Emily Milroy be officially opened on President’s Speaker – Paul Burlington House visitors will soon Day, 5 June (see opposite page) by Garnham (CCS Project be able to browse a selection of the David Shilston. Manager, Shell) Society’s recently published and 29 May 2013 bestselling publications, including To sign up for the library e-newsletter, those distributed on behalf of other email [email protected]. For publishers, make a purchase and take n Programme – Afternoon talk: 1430 Tea & Coffee: those unable to make it to Burlington it away on the day - avoiding the www.geolsoc.org.uk/bookshop 1500 Lecture begins: 1600 Event ends. House: n Programme – Evening talk: 1730 Tea & Coffee: 1800 Lecture begins: 1900 Reception. Geoscience Education Academy FURTHER INFORMATION Please visit www.geolsoc.org.uk/ This year’s Geoscience Education curriculum with an emphasis on shelllondonlectures13. Entry to each lecture is by Academy will take place from 25 – practical demonstrations and a hands- ticket only. To obtain a ticket please contact us around 28 July at Burlington House, writes on approach.”. four weeks before the talk. Due to the popularity of this Jo Mears Ian Kenyon, Head of Geology at lecture series, tickets are allocated in a monthly ballot Now in its third year, this course Truro School, Senior WJEC examiner and cannot be guaranteed. continues to attract a wide spectrum and one of the trainers for the event of science and geography teachers, this year says: “The GEA is a Contact: Naomi Newbold, The Geological Society, Burlington NQT’s and PGCE science students. wonderful opportunity for delegates House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG, T: +44 (0) 20 7432 0981 Those who attend can learn how from a range of educational E: [email protected] best to teach Earth science as part of backgrounds to gain valuable teaching their subject. insights. Based at Burlington House, Pete Loader, incoming Chair of home of British Geology, the venue ESTA and one of the two CPD trainers alone should serve to inspire!”. for this year’s event says: “This is a The Society is grateful to BP for fantastic opportunity for science and providing funds to allow this course to geography teachers, both established be offered free to all attendees. n THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY CLUB and new, to learn how to confidently teach their subject in an Earth science For further information on how to The Geological Society Club, successor to the body that context. We will be covering all the participate in this year’s event, email gave birth to the Society in 1807, meets monthly (except Earth science aspects of the national [email protected] over the field season!) at 18.30 for 19.00 in the Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall. Once a year there is also a special dinner at Burlington House. New diners are always welcome, especially from among younger Fellows. Dinner costs £55 for a four- course meal, including coffee and port. (The Founders' Dinner, in November, has its own price structure.) There is a cash bar for the purchase of aperitifs and wine. 2013: 15 May. Fellows of the Society wishing to dine should send cheques, payable to ‘Geological Society Club’, to: Cally Oldershaw, Cally Oldershaw, 14 Waterloo, Truro, Cornwall TR1 1QB. E: [email protected] DR Trainer Ian Kenyon(Head of Geology, Truro School) in action

MAY 2013 07 GEOSCIENTIST SOCIETY NEWS

[Chartership news] Council agrees new SOCIETYNEWS... Chartership route At its February 2014 Lyell meeting proposals meeting Council agreed an JCP welcomes submissions that are additional route ambitious in scope and trans- disciplinary, because these are more to Chartership likely to attract a larger and potentially for Fellows international audience. Topics should with more than appeal to a wide cross-section of the 20 years’ geological and palaeontological professional community. Proposals should have a experience. Bill lead convener, and one or two co- conveners. Submitted proposals will Gaskarth reports be reviewed by JCP and decided by This new route is designed to encourage senior mid-June. geologists to take up the title, promote it in their The Lyell meeting is an annual workplace and within the profession generally. flagship event for UK palaeontology. Information on the procedure and an application The 2014 Lyell meeting will take The meeting is co-ordinated by JCP, form are available on the Society’s website (click place on Wednesday 12 March 2014. which consists of representatives from ‘Chartership and Professional’ then ‘Apply for CGeol’). The call for proposals is now open the Geological Society, Any queries should be directed to me at Anyone wishing to propose a topic Palaeontological Association, [email protected]. and convene this meeting is invited to Palaeontographical Society and submit developed proposals to the The Micropalaeontological Society. On line you can find two more stories from Bill Gaskarth on Joint Committee for Palaeontology Co-ordination of the Lyell Meeting is CGeol eligibility and the accreditation of company training (JCP – E: [email protected]) by 31 open to any member of the four schemes www.geolsoc.org.uk/en/Geoscientist May 2013. constituent societies.

SUBSCRIPTIONS 2014 Annual Subscriptions

Council agreed to the following subscription rates for 2014 at its meeting on 16 Edmund Nickless writes: At its meeting on 16 April April 2013. These will go forward to Fellows to agree at the AGM. Council agreed to recommend to the Fellowship for approval at the AGM the subscription rates for 2014 Subscription type 2013 2014 shown (left). These professional fees can be offset against tax, and a table showing the effective cost after Junior Candidate Fellow 10.00 10.00 tax relief will be posted on the Society’s website shortly. Candidate Fellow 15.00 15.00 The annual increase in CPI at the end of February Candidate Fellow full course fee 40.00 40.00 2013 was 2.8%. It is proposed to increase fees below 27 and under 68.00 69.00 inflation by an average of 1.8% overall. Council believes that it is better to make small annual adjustments, 28-33 125.50 128.00 given that the subscription income lags behind inflation, 34-59 191.00 194.50 rather than risk the possibility of significant future 34-59 (Overseas) 146.50 149.00 subscription increases to meet the costs of providing 60-69 96.00 97.50 Fellowship services. Recognising that they are the future of the Society and 70+ 66.00 67.00 we must attract and retain them, Council further Concessions 68.00 69.00 proposes that there should be no increase to the Junior Full time postgraduate MSc 27.50 28.00 Candidate Fellow and Candidate Fellow fees. Full time postgraduate PhD 40.00 40.50 Chartership validation and annual registration fees no longer cover the full cost of providing those services and Supplement (to payer) for Joint Fellowship 56.00 57.00 Council proposes to raise the validation fee incrementally CGeol supplement payers 29.50 35.00 over a three year period to £85 (2014), £95 (2015) and £100 (2016) and the annual registration fee to £35 CSci supplement payers 24.00 23.50 (2014), £42 (2015) and £48 (2016).

08 MAY 2013 SOAPBOX GEOSCIENTIST

Passport to Penicuik

WRITTEN BY PETER STYLES Peter Styles* Editor-in-Chief and a Northumbrian from north of Hadrian’s Wall, takes issue with what seems to be an excess of devolutionary zeal at the University of Edinburgh

SOAPBOX CALLING! I did believe it would be some time after the pass after doing a little polishing, or in referendum on Scottish Devolution (2014) some rare, sad and emotionally draining Soapbox is open to before I had to present a passport, even circumstances, telling them that it is contributions from all Fellows. though - as a Northumbrian hailing from unlikely ever to pass muster. You can always write a letter to North of the Roman Wall - there may be For this you earn the princely sum of the Editor, of course: but some long-standing grievances about £100 - from which about £40 goes in tax. perhaps you feel you need border raids in both directions. However, a As you may guess you don’t do this for the more space? venerable University in the Scottish capital money, but because it is seen, like much in appears to be jumping the gun. academia, as a mark of academic distinction If you can write it entertainingly in I recently tentatively agreed, as one does and a necessary role (and because others 500 words, the Editor would like in one of those (increasingly frequent) may be required to examine your own to hear from you. absent-minded moments, to act as external PhD students!). examiner for a PhD candidate. The I have done this for over 35 years; Email your piece, and a self- institution then demanded that I bring my examined countless theses and portrait, to ted.nield@geolsoc. passport, and have the Internal Examiner undergraduate degrees, from here to Saudi org.uk. Copy can only be sign a copy of it - to vouch that I was who I Arabia via Cairo and points south, without accepted electronically. No said I was, and that I actually was there in ever needing anyone to sign a copy of my diagrams, tables or other person. This, despite my having been passport. Even Saudi Arabia, while illustrations please. known personally to both examiner and wanting to see my passport for the visa, are supervisor for over 20 years. prepared to accept me as an honest Pictures should be of print individual before I sit down in the quality – as a rule of thumb, LIGHT TOASTING examining chair. anything over a few hundred Examining a PhD means reading a lovingly kilobytes should do. written 75,000-ish word thesis on a topic on FURRINERS which someone has spent about four years, However, as it is not law in the UK even to Precedence will always be given and about which you are considered to be own a passport, and my NI number to more topical contributions.

the closest thing to a world expert in the conveys all the information that any Any one contributor may not

near vicinity. You then travel (as cheaply as employer needs, this seems a little high- appear more often than once per possible - good old Senior Railcard) to the handed on aforesaid University’s part volume (once every 12 months). university, and subject a fairly nervous (who, I may add, not be alone in trying to ~ postgraduate to light toasting before foist this on unsuspecting examiners, even deciding whether they pass first time, will if not furriners!). When I declined to do this in my now I HAVE DONE rather irascible manner, I was told that the THIS FOR OVER 35 UK Border Agency are now insisting on YEARS; EXAMINED this. Really? As this rule is not universal as yet, this seems disingenuous at best and COUNTLESS THESES lily-livered at worst. AND UNDERGRADUATE I am sure Alex Salmond would find this DEGREES, FROM HERE a very heart-warming example of Caledonia making non-Scots feel well put in our place; TO SAUDI ARABIA VIA but I, for one, will be declining to offer up CAIRO AND POINTS Her Britannic Majesty’s cherished SOUTH, WITHOUT document for stamping before I can EVER NEEDING examine a PhD. ANYONE TO SIGN A *Peter Styles, Editor in Chief of Geoscientist, is COPY OF MY Our intrepid E-I-C examines Professor Emeritus at Keele University and a former PASSPORT where others fear to tread President of the Society Peter Styles ~

MAY 2013 09 GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

ater has captured the Aquifer recharge largely occurs where collective imagination the Chalk crops out in the Chilterns to the of London through the north and the North Downs to the south. generations. The The Chalk is a heavily fractured rock mass peculiar geology of the - almost karstic in character, owing to its London Basin has susceptibility to dissolution as acidic Wrecently propelled the troubled rainwater percolates rapidly through the relationship between London and its aquifer to accumulate in large volumes water resources into the national beneath central London. spotlight. London sits on the axis of an The Thames is a striking feature in its approximately E-W trending syncline, own right; a thread running through the formed in the late-Oligocene to mid- city, drawing it together. Wordsworth Miocene. Cretaceous chalk is the major “ne’er felt a calm so deep” while surveying aquifer, approximately 60m below the the river from Bridge; for surface of central London. However, Oscar Wilde, far from being a mere across the London Basin the depth to watercourse, the Thames seemed “holier chalk varies greatly, mainly due to the far than Rome”. Yet its present route only presence of numerous small faults which developed relatively recently. As recently cross-cut the syncline. The resultant as 500,000 years ago, in fact, a much larger horst blocks and dome structures have proto-Thames drained most of the West led to localised areas of high ground Midlands as a tributary of the nascent (, Blackheath), the chalk River Rhine, flowing out across the even being brought to outcrop through present-day southern North Sea. the Lee Valley and around Greenwich During the Anglian Stage advance of ice and Woolwich. 500,000 years ago, the course of the Thames was diverted southwards. Gravel pits trace AQUIFER out the river’s erstwhile course through The aquifer is confined in the Basin by Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk, and have the London Clay Formation: stiff, been extensively worked over the last two homogeneous and highly impermeable hundred years. Contemporaneous with grey-blue clays, deposited in marine the Thames’ deflection, large dome-shaped, conditions during Eocene times. Fluvial artesian pressure-fed ice volcanoes called muds and fine sands of the Lambeth ‘pingos’ formed below ground surface. Group and Thanet Sand Formation are As the ice melted, the subsequent release present in many places between the clay of hydrostatic pressure injected water and chalk, maintaining a hydraulic and Quaternary-aged gravels into the connection with the latter, forming the remaining void, forming a geological main aquifer and sustaining the flow of curiosity of SE England: scour hollows, many rivers across SW London in times which may be up to 500m wide and

of drought. 60m deep. ▼

TROUBLED WATERS Jonathan Paul* explores the tempestuous relationship between London and her most precious natural resource Water in London: from the Thames to the tap GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

▼ SUBTERRANEAN Back in Greater London, however, the role of man in shaping the course of rivers manifests itself starkly. The relentless growth of the city has smothered many smaller streams under thick layers of concrete and brick. Although most are not visible at the surface, the important influence exerted by London’s vast network of subterranean rivers has been immortalised in a series of evocative street Cartoon from and area names. Punch, published Falcon Road, for example, was named during the for the River Falcon in Battersea; height of the Wandsworth after the River Wandle; or “Great Stink”: July 3rd, 1858 even Water Street in Holborn, the area itself appearing in the Domesday Book as ‘Holeburne’, or ‘the brook in the hollow’. The brook to which the ‘burne’ alludes is the River Fleet, which drains southwards through the district. London’s subterranean rivers also played a role in shaping the land. The dip at Ludgate Circus, between St Paul’s Cathedral and Fleet Street, is the remanent Fleet Valley, bisecting a Pleistocene-aged gravel terrace of the Thames, across which ran the first road to connect the Cities of London and Westminster. The flat terrace- Section through top afforded the road (now mostly the London comprising the Strand and Fleet St) a Basin, remarkably straight and direct course. illustrating its asymmetrical However, when engineers were synclinal confronted with erosional (as opposed to structure depositional) features, the opposite occurred. The course of Lane is striking in its irregularity, when set against the rigid grid network of At Ludgate surrounding streets. A relatively historical Circus, the Kempton Park route, it was charted to follow the long- Gravels form a since culverted River . Fleet Lane river terrace follows the valley of the River Fleet in parallel to the Thames, along similarly eccentric fashion. which the Strand Although Londoners have historically and Fleet Street striven to change the flow of and to hide (extending into the distance in inner-city watercourses from view, their the picture) memory persists. It is prudent at this currently run. Here the terrace point to introduce another deleterious is intersected by consequence of London’s population the Fleet River boom upon water resources. Jonathan (flowing right to left), which Swift summarised the River Fleet at Fleet results in a Lane as follows: “Sweepings from Butchers’ minor valley Stalls, Dung, Guts and Blood, / Drown’d Puppies, stinking Sprats, all drench’d in mud, / Dead Cats and Turnip-Tops [which came] tumbling down the Flood.” The Thames contained relatively clean water until the early 1800s. In 1815, household waste was permitted to be dumped in the river, and by the 1840s, this Interior of a practice became mandatory, with the typical collapse of the old cesspit system. Bazalgette sewer: River Virtually all Thames water became Westbourne, contaminated with sewage, leading to Pimlico

12 MAY 2013 FEATURE GEOSCIENTIST

cholera epidemics that raged until 1854. Dr John Snow first articulated the link between a contaminated water supply and outbreaks of the disease in , spurring several popular newspaper campaigns for cleansing London’s water. Indeed, the contemporary atmosphere fostered a public drinking fountain movement, with dedicated groups such as the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association committed to providing free, clean drinking water. GREAT STINK In the meantime, matters came to a head during the improbably hot and dry summer of 1858. The stench of sewage (‘The Great Stink’) became so great that MPs took to stuffing the windows of the Houses of Parliament with lime chloride- impregnated bedsheets. Then-Chancellor, Benjamin Disraeli, described the Thames as “a Stygian pool reeking with ineffable and unbearable horrors”. Emergency plans were formulated to move Parliament upstream to Hampton Court, or even farther to Oxford; and a Commons Select Committee was appointed to seek potential solutions for Metropolitan “merciful abatement of the epidemic that Drinking Fountain ravaged the Metropolis.” Eventually and Cattle Trough Disraeli appropriated £3.5m – a huge sum, advertisement, from Burke's even today – to improve the disposal of Peerage (1879) London’s sewage. The Chief (Municipal) Engineer to the Metropolitan Board of Works, Joseph Bazalgette, rectified the situation by constructing an 82-mile network of subterranean sewers and drains, the foundations of which remain in use today). The system was officially launched in 1865 at Crossness pumping station in SE London, where four great steam engines raised effluent by 10-13m for discharge to the Thames at ebb tide. The site has since been tastefully converted into a museum. Major water leak Getting a degree of purchase on waste causing and rainwater for the first time and disruption at Notting Hill Gate introducing treatment plants at Plumstead (January 2012) and Barking was undoubtedly a major triumph of Victorian engineering. But perhaps more interesting from a geological point of view were the means of construction employed by Bazalgette and his team of engineers, which would revolutionise future ideas of sanitation in the capital and beyond. Although the London clay through which the tunnels were bored is of low permeability, Interior of Bazalgette recognised the pressing need Crossness for a strong and durable lining. Pumping Station, Thamesmead, SE He therefore used Staffordshire Blue bricks,

London extremely hard-wearing, with low water ▼

MAY 2013 13 GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

▼ absorption, made from the Carboniferous- of buried tunnels. Rapid decreases in the aged Etruria Marls. Combined with level of the water table beneath London ‘future-proofing’ - boring tunnels of far gained national recognition following the greater dimensions than were necessary widely publicised settlement of the Bank for the time - Bazalgette’s network is only of England by as much as 0.3 m from now beginning reach capacity. 1865-1931. Groundwater Legislation in the 1960s – and the levels beneath THAMES Trafalgar general decline of heavy industry - led to Square, 1845 – As a result it has become necessary to the recharge of groundwater levels; present, with drive new, deeper tunnels beneath indeed they are now roughly stable, or local borehole geology London, to keep pace with the demands increasing at a rate of up to ~1mm/yr. and pressures of population growth. Increased abstraction is now needed in The Thames Tideway project has seen the some areas, as old tunnels are threatened boring of a 7.2m-diameter tunnel - for the by the slow upward leakage of water most part following the Thames - entering through the impermeable clay layer under into the Chalk east of Tower Bridge. Upon high pressures. This can lead to an completion, an annual 39 million tonnes of increase in porewater pressure, and a loss untreated sewage will be captured and of shear strength and bearing capacity – in thus prevented from overflowing into the other words, flooding in unsealed tunnels Thames. Instead, it will be channelled into - and instability in those that are fully the deep tunnel, which acts as a vast sealed, resulting from high uplift temporary storage tank. pressures. Recent increases in abstraction While the condition of Bazalgette’s (under the so-called General Aquifer sewerage remains excellent, many smaller, Research Development and Investigation more recently installed pipes carrying Team – GARDIT – strategy) have largely potable water are currently needing established a dynamic equilibrium and replacement. In many cases, instability of brought rising groundwater levels older, rigid iron piping can be related to under control. the composition of the surrounding London clay; specifically, high HAZARD Replacement of old, cast iron montmorillonite is known to cause ground The danger of striking a subterranean water pipes with heave (large volume changes in response river or saturated sand stratum when plastic piping in the London Clay, to changes in moisture). This contributes tunnelling is one major hazard brought Southwark to the 665 million litres of water currently into focus by the construction of the early lost daily in the Thames Water catchment cut-and-cover London Underground lines. area – the greatest loss the UK. The top 5-20m of London’s geology consists of unconsolidated, young and TAPWATER highly permeable river terrace gravels and London is a thirsty city: the average alluvial deposits. Engineers treat these annual precipitation of 590mm is lower strata as an ‘upper aquifer,’ perched above than Rome, Dallas, or even Istanbul! the Chalk, recharged locally from Thames Water predicts that by 2035, the precipitation. During construction of the regional supply-demand deficit will have Jubilee line extension in 1996, the water more than doubled relative to current level was found to be just three metres estimates. Construction of the Thames below ground level between Westminster Water Ring Main in the early 1990s greatly and stations. Old St tube improved storage and transmission of Construction of the Victoria Line was station shut due potable water from water treatment works delayed at Green Park when the tunnel to flooding in the across London, but was a process plagued boring machine (TBM) left the London Northern line tunnels (June with groundwater-related difficulties. clay to hit the gravel deposits of the 2011) Two workers were killed during former Tyburn Valley, which collapsed excavation of a pump-out shaft at Stoke and infilled a large section of the tunnel. Newington; operations unexpectedly Stepping back to April 1862, building of struck the fully saturated Thanet Sands, the Metropolitan Line destabilised the strata with an abundance of glauconite, weak alluvial subsoil in Blackfriars to the which oxides on contact with air. extent that the Fleet Sewer burst, The rapid removal of oxygen by the significantly delaying construction. glauconite in such a confined space As the Evening Standard reported: ultimately asphyxiated the two workers. “... the populace screamed at the thought Zealous water abstraction from the of workmen entombed, drowned and Thames Water early 19th Century led to a fall in massacred … the whole bottom of the desalination groundwater, increasing the strength of excavation moved in one mass. plant, Beckton, East London, the London Clay, but also resulting in The crown of the arch of the mighty Fleet opened June settlement of both the ground surface and Sewer had broken.” 2010

14 MAY 2013 FEATURE GEOSCIENTIST

In June 2011, Old Street tube station increasing progressively in the future”. was shut due to flooding. On a stretch of Still, problems and ignorance persist. the Northern line, pyrite (iron sulphide) One most urgent issue is the need to grains in the surrounding strata of the change a public perception that London’s Lambeth Group had been rapidly water is abundant – the mistaken oxidised by the ‘piston effect’ of passing assumption of London’s ‘high trains. Seepages of water from the precipitation’, and a failure to decouple overlying London Clay mixed with the ‘weather’ from ‘climate’. The use of oxidised pyrite to give rise to a sulphuric geology – specifically the chalk aquifer as acid-rich groundwater (so-called a natural filtration system – has also been ‘aggressive water’): sands with pH as low mooted for nearly a century: “Such a as 3 were recorded (c.f. average of pH 8.3 natural [chalk] reservoir does exist, deep under normal conditions). As a result the under the London clay, capacious enough tunnel lining had become corroded to to hold many times our necessary annual such an extent as to allow ingress of water. supply, and provided with a natural In other areas, engineers have striven to system of filtration which arrest or avoid permeable strata. For instance, destroy impurities and transform the dirty Northern line tunnels are subject to a water into a soft water suitable for man violent 90˚ turn and steep upward and beast” (Evening Standard, February gradient entering the southern terminus at 1924). However, management of the Morden: manifestations of evading the aquifer has historically been problematic. water-saturated sands of the Lambeth Saline intrusions and high residency times Group to the west and south. in the syncline beneath central London However, careful monitoring and have rendered groundwater susceptible innovative management can bear fruitful to pollution. results. The use of groundwater as a Water is London’s most precious natural cooling agent is currently under natural resource, closely tied to the Chalk trial at the Royal Festival Hall, Sadler’s aquifer, sculpting the capital’s topography Wells Theatre, and at selected London and directing its economic growth; yet its Underground stations. In the early 1900s, importance and the need to safeguard it the ambient temperature of the Tube was are often understated. London has only around 15-16˚C – roughly that of the just arrived at a tentative mutual surrounding London clay – contemporary understanding with the chalk aquifer and advertisements trumpeting the experience groundwater, predicated upon past as “The Coolest Place in Hot Weather”. lessons learnt from decades of The progressive accumulation of heat over mismanagement. The future lies in the last century has created a pressing sustainability. Only harnessing London’s need to cool trains and stations. At Victoria water in a sensitive manner will protect hot air is extracted and run across cold Bazalgette’s legacy and once again future- water drawn from the subterranean River proof London for the challenges ahead. n Tyburn; a heat exchange takes place before the newly cool air is pumped back into the * Jonathan Paul FGS is a research student at the deep-level Tube station. For a very small Department of Earth Sciences, University of environmental impact, this limited trial Cambridge. E: [email protected] successfully removes around 60kW of heat from the station. FURTHER READING FUTURE So where is the changing relationship 1 Environment Agency, 2010. Management of the London Basin Chalk Aquifer. Bristol: between London and its water resources EA Status Reports. leading? Certainly the twin pressures of 2 Greater London Authority, 2011. Securing sewerage capacity and a potable supply- London’s Water Future: The Mayor’s Water demand deficit have led to many large- Strategy. London: City Hall. scale infrastructure plans, such as the 3 Headworth H., 2004. Recollections of a Golden Thames Tideway tunnels, and the Age: the groundwater schemes of Southern Water 1970 – 1990. Geological Society of London, construction of a huge £250m desalination Special Publications, v. 225, pp. 339 – 362 plant at Beckton, capable of supplying up 4 Paul J.D. and M.J. Blunt, 2012. Wastewater to one million people in times of drought. filtration and re-use: An alternative water source for A decisive shift in policy towards London. Science of the Total Environment, v. 437, sustainability and sensitive water pp. 173-184, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.08.010 management has occurred: in a September 5 Ellison, R.A., Woods, M.A., Allen, D.J., Forster, A., 2012 report, the London Assembly Pharaoh, T.C. and King, C. 2004. Geology of London. Memoir of the British Geological Survey acknowledged that “London must use (Sheets 256, 257, 270, and 271) water more efficiently, starting now and

MAY 2013 15 RUBISLAW REBORN

Two Aberdeen lads have joined forces to put Europe’s deepest open pit back at the heart of Aberdeen’s cultural life, writes Ted Nield* FEATURE GEOSCIENTIST

t was definitely Sandy’s fault” “ said Hugh. I had just asked Sandy Whyte, a semi-retired oil consultant and Hugh Black, now retired from the Iconstruction industry, two Aberdonian lads in their 50s, how they had come to own Europe’s deepest man-made hole, the longest lived quarry in the Granite City, with a bottom below sea level and now, after 40 years of neglect, drowned beneath well over 100 metres of water. It seems that basically, they bought it because it was ‘a bargain’. Aberdeen is built from its native granite, and its walls glistered in the sunshine between showers the day I visited. Granite’s near indestructibility gives Aberdeen a strangely paradoxical look of being at once ancient and yet apparently freshly minted. Gleaming bucket beneath them from any Above: Sandy Marischal College (now leased by Whyte (left) and upwardly mobile projectiles. the University to Aberdeen Hugh Black on the Some six million tonnes of Council) has recently been cleaned, shores of Rubislaw Granite were removed ‘Rubislaw Loch’ enhancing this impression. As we during its two century life, and drive past it, Hugh points out that Right: Marischal you can find it all over the world: while the building interior is of College from the Forth Railway Bridge to Rubislaw, the famous pinnacled Left (clockwise Parliament Terrace, Westminster, façade is of another famous from top): to the former New York Opera Architect’s vision granite, Kemnay, last used to face of proposed House, and the Royal Insurance the Scottish Parliament buildings signature building, Building in Calcutta - making its Image: imagesef / Shutterstock.com at Holyrood. cantilevered out very last public appearance in the over the abyss facings of the NatWest Tower’s CITY PSYCHE View to NE ground floor podium. But since showing oil Extraction lies deep in the city’s company offices closure in 1971 when pumping psyche – granite from the ground, built to within ceased, the quarry has been fish from the ocean, and now metres of the slowly filling with pure, quarry edge offshore oil and gas. But at first, fishless water. Sandy and Hugh had no plan for Survey boat for The land around the site had the old quarry, and bought it 3D sonar imaging already been sold off. “The risky is lowered into purely out of sentiment. In their the quarry bit, the bit with all the water in it, youth, both played in and around was the last to go” says Sandy. Whyte once worked, and At the end of a the dizzyingly deep hole, with its pontoon jetty, a Other buyers had expressed ConocoPhilips) and a few housing near sheer walls. Hugh recalls, small buoy interest, but only Hugh and developments, peep over its rim. with a shudder, how one of his suspends a Sandy’s bid was written (it’s hard Otherwise, nobody would know submersible contemporaries once clambered pump, responsible not to say it) in black and white, Rubislaw Quarry was there, out along one of the steel cables for the drawdown unencumbered by caveats over hidden, silent and still behind its slung across it, and dangled over visible in the planning permission or surveys. wooded banks along affluent quarry wall the chasm. From these steel ropes (light band) “We said, ‘We’ll take it, Queen’s Road. (invented at Kemnay and named whatever’” says Black. “For a One of the new owners’ first ‘Blondins’ after the French couple of Aberdeen guys to own tasks was to install a gate tightrope walker Charles Blondin, such a huge part of the City’s somewhere, to allow access to the 1824-1897), men were lowered and history was just irresistible.” water’s edge. A hole with almost granite raised. When charges were Black and Whyte bought their sheer walls, Rubislaw has just one blown in the quarry floor, workers prize for £60,000; which accessible piece of ‘coastline’, and I would be lifted clear - though to considering it could swallow followed them to it through a remove them entirely would have Edinburgh’s Castle Rock whole, padlocked gate, past the wasted too much time. Instead conveys an amazing sense of dissuasive notices and barbed wire they were hoisted to an assumed value. Oil company offices that now reinforce it, over the

safe height, protected by the steel (including Chevron, where Sandy talon-like roots of the trees binding ▼

MAY 2013 17 GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

▼ the spoil bank, and down the TIDEMARK Below: 3D sonar combining industrial archaeology, other side via scrambling nets Having reached the jetty I noticed image of Rubislaw ecology and geology with Quarry, the deepest pegged to the ground. there was now a grey tidemark all part of which lies commercial activity (business A pontoon jetty jutted out into around the lake, much as you’d below OD. The ledge and conference centre) to make the still, black water, leading to a expect around a reservoir in to the SW, currently it commercially viable, they submerged, will be buoy from which hangs a summer, perhaps four metres exposed by would then look to developing submersible pump. Worried that broad. The trees and bushes in pumping, under the the site further as an outdoor the water seemed to be still rising this zone were eerily festooned proposed new activity centre. scheme inexorably, Sandy and Hugh with skeins of tattered grey algae. Chartered architects and decided to try to pump some of This lowering had been the result planning consultants Halliday its six or seven million cubic of just a few weeks’ pumping, at a Fraser Munro have devised metres away. This was partly modest 15 litres per second – not concept drawings for a striking inspired by caution over possible enough to make any perceptible signature building, jagged as the claims against them; but by this difference to the flow rate in the cleaved granite itself, jutting out time a plan as to what to do with nearby Rubislaw Burn. In fact, over the quarry - its apparent their purchase was beginning to barely one weekend after the depth enhanced by further form in their minds. pump was switched on, Hugh lowering the water to expose the “The quarry’s been ignored and Sandy could hardly believe first ledge, 30 or so metres below, for 40 years and we thought – how far the waters had receded. and measuring about 100 by 40 maybe there is a chance to do To their relief and satisfaction, it metres. This would form the base something here, because if we appeared that recharge to the for diving and climbing and any don’t, there’s another generation quarry was manageably slow. other activities. “We could even gone” says Black. He and Whyte After spending a fun day use the loch as a refugium for the have since been vigorously shooting sonar from a craned-in Arctic Char” says Sandy. Salvelinus interesting local children in their survey boat to establish the alpinus, a highly flavoursome city’s industrial heritage and are present underwater topography relative of the salmon, is one of the convinced, by the (fortunately, Aberdeen is not short rarest fish species in Britain. It is overwhelmingly enthusiastic of such intrepid suppliers), the found naturally in deep, cold lakes response in schools, that there is pair now plan to interest the (mostly) in Scotland, but it is huge potential for a heritage universities, council and local currently at risk from acidification. centre to explain the Aberdeen industry in an ambitious two- There is no end, seemingly, to granite industry to future stage plan to open the site to the the possibilities. generations, as well as providing public. Beginning with an Out of all the schools he has a focus for tourism. education and heritage centre, visited, Sandy recalls one in particular - Kincorth, set amid the last City council estate to be built from local stone. “We could tell the children that they could look out of any window and see - Rubislaw granite. Literally, it brought it home.” So it is that the past brings lessons for the future; the oil business, which rescued Aberdeen in the 1970s as quarrying was dying, need only peer into the depth of Rubislaw’s waters to see what one day will become of it. What will remain are the people of the Granite City, eager to keep faith with the past that made them. n

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Architectural drawings courtesy, Fraser Halliday Munro. 3D modelling courtesy NCS Survey. Thanks also to KD Marine, Seatronics, and James Jack Lifting Services Ltd

*Ted Nield is Editor of Geoscientist. His next book, Forgotten Land - a personal journey through Britain’s vanishing underworld will be published by Granta later in the year

18 MAY 2013 Architect’s realization of the approach to the proposed building

The new centre will provide space for exhibitions and conferences

Visitors will gain a heightened impression of the scale of Rubislaw Quarry once the water level has been lowered

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 POIGNANT PARTNERS

Annie Greenly Edward Greenly

Sir, Adding to Nina Morgan’s account of admitting to thoughts of the other through trains in railway cuttings. She visited him at geological partnerships (Distant Thunder, the intervening years. Married in 1891, he weekends bringing home-made food, often Geoscientist March 2013 p27) could I returned with Annie to his work in the walking five miles from the nearest station. mention that most poignant geological remotest part of Scotland. Aware of her She made him send her ‘quarterly returns’, relationship between Edward Greenly and feeling of isolation he reluctantly left the as he would have in the Survey, giving the his wife Annie. In 1875 Edward had Survey in 1894, but was determined to linear miles of boundaries and the square become a friend of Annie when he was 14; continue with geological mapping at his miles mapped. Annie, aged 75, died at she was 11 years his senior, but with their own (and Annie’s) expense. He settled on home in his arms; Greenly was devastated parents’ blessing they accompanied each Anglesey as it was a self-contained but spent the next 10 years writing a two- other on geological walks in the Bristol area that had never been mapped and volume memoir that is essentially a tribute district over four years. However, when contained a large area of schists, with to Annie. Edward was 18 his mother decided they which he was familiar. should be officially engaged; Edward He attributes much of his ‘outcrop’ style Jack Treagus resisted, at which Annie was deeply hurt of mapping – now universally adopted - to and the couple parted for 11 years. Annie’s advice. Annie was a frequent Jack Treagus’s article on Greenly’s map of Edward joined the Geological Survey in spectator, often sitting on hilltops while he Anglesey was published in Geoscientist 20.04, 1889 and met Annie again in 1890, both mapped and was his look-out for express April 2010, and is available online. Editor With grateful acknowledgements to twitter.com/OHmethodsWith

MAY 2013 21 GEOSCIENTIST BOOKS & ARTS

Extinction: Not the End While the ‘extinctions = bad’ paradigm drain on reserves. Thus, an expedition was is never really challenged, then, the funded under a four-year economic of the World? ‘science is not artistic’ paradigm definitely development plan by Hermann Göring, is. My own highlight was the soundscape and sailed under an experienced polar Geologists are of museum scientists. While mourning merchant navy captain, Alfred Ritscher, in well aware of the Trafalgar Square’s hippos isn’t exactly the the MS Schwabenland. double edged point, it is a poignant reminder of how Part one of the book covers expedition nature of mass fast things can change. We are suffering origin, political background, planning and extinctions – one from ecological amnesia, said one. How management. Part two describes journeys species’ demise is can we realise what we’ve lost, if we don’t from Germany to Antarctica and back. another’s opportunity know what we used to have? An Part three deals with the consequences – but the title of the argument for palaeontology, as well as art. post-1939, especially the effects of World Natural History War II, and how Germany subsequently Museum’s latest Reviewed by Sarah Day emerged as a major contributor to Antarctic exhibition, ‘Extinction: EXTINCTION: NOT THE END OF THE WORLD? science. Part four describes scientific not the end of the world?’ has NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 8 February - 8 September outcomes, with chapters on geographical 2013, 10.00 - 17.50. Adults £9; Children and raised a few eyebrows. Is the Museum concessions £4.50; Family £24; Free to Members, mapping, geoscience, the South Atlantic about to question its own conservation Patrons and children under 4 floor, weather and climate, oceanography message? (including sea ice), and marine life Fear not – though the headline is (especially whales and whaling). controversial, the content is as anti- The expedition landed on the coast of extinction as an exhibition entitled Dronning Maud Land on 19 January 1939 ‘Extinction: It IS the end of the world!’ in a region they named Neuchwabenland, might be. And quite right too – part of the but without establishing a land-base. They museum’s remit is to promote undertook a series of aerial surveys using conservation, and to that end, it is a great two seaplanes, covering an area of success. Footage of extinct animals, 250,000km2 and taking 16,000 photographs. music, voiceovers from scientists They discovered an 800km-long mountain mourning the lost species they study, a range, in addition to an ‘oasis’ area of ‘wishing tree’ on which visitors hang their freshwater ice-free lakes, the now well- hopes for the future of the planet – none known Schirmacher Oasis. of these reflect the question mark in the However, the expedition included just title. Still, I couldn’t help feeling just a one geologist/geographer and one little bit disappointed that the message geophysicist. Ernst Herrmann described wasn’t more challenging. After all, The Third Reich in the geology and landscape as best he hippos in Trafalgar Square in 2013 would Antarctica could, without actually undertaking just be impractical. fieldwork, so most of his evaluation was Some thought-provoking issues are Today, there is unprecedented interest in based on aerial photography. He was raised – is it right to wish some species Antarctica on account of the role the further disappointed that no other member extinct (smallpox, for example) for our own continent plays in global environmental of the expedition was able to sample convenience? Do we only wish to preserve change and the proximity of centenaries of bedrock, but was delighted to find nine that which is beautiful? When resources are the various “Heroic Era” expeditions. It is pebbles of metamorphic and igneous rocks scarce, how do we decide what to keep and therefore welcome that a more recent, in the stomachs of penguins! He also made what to save? In general, though, the ambitious, but little-known German perceptive observations about the ice sheet, message is familiar. Tiger skin coats, expedition is brought to the attention of a and speculated on the origin of the poignant photographs of rare flowers with wider English-speaking audience. freshwater lakes. Unfortunately, the war no remaining habitats, and invasive species Lüdecke (who teaches History of Earth intervened on the expedition’s return, and – literally – in an identity parade. Multiple Science at Hamburg University) and several of the scientists were killed in choice questions with only one realistically Summerhayes (former Director of the action, while many records were destroyed right answer – it’s wrong to use nature to Scientific Committee on Antarctic in bombing raids. our own ends without thinking of the cost. Research) have written a fascinating and The book is a mine of information. It is Of course it is. scholarly book for the bookshelf of extremely well-referenced, and includes Where the exhibition gets really everyone interested in polar history. extensive appendices. The book is well inventive is in its design. The theme of The book is an account of a marine and produced, with excellent illustrations. It is ‘things disappeared’ is everywhere – great, air expedition to Dronning Maud Land in a readable and informative book, which I deliberate blank spaces between exhibits, East Antarctica. The expedition was strongly recommend. animals stencilled in silhouette along the prompted by political imperatives, the aim walls. A combination of specimens of the ruling Nazi Party being to achieve Reviewed by Mike Hambrey presented in living and dead poses, not self-sufficiency for Germany in necessarily corresponding to their current anticipation of war. Specifically, Germany THE THIRD REICH IN ANTARCTICA - THE GERMAN status. Bold, artistic installations – a fish was trying to expand its whaling industry, ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1938-1939 tank containing the now homeless pupfish since whales were a vast resource for CORNELIA LÜDECKE AND COLIN SUMMERHAYES, Published by: Bluntisham Books & Erskine Press, 2012. within a cut-out of a chainsaw; a gigantic anything from engineering-quality oils to ISBN 978 1 85297 103 8, 259pp. List Price £27.50 tuna tin hanging from the ceiling. margarine and buying these abroad was a www.bluntishambooks.co.uk

22 MAY 2013 BOOKS & ARTS GEOSCIENTIST

populations on higher ground well away A major problem occurs halfway from potential inundation. through: many of the macrofossils groups The content of this relatively short text covered in the first half are hardly had a much greater impact on me than its mentioned again, if at all, (e.g., look up length might suggest. I found many ‘trilobite’ or ‘graptolite’ in the index!) This parts of the narrative very moving, raises the question: why were they included illustrating the all-too-human impacts of in the first place, other than for the disaster. The text is also highly completeness? Without them, the book informative - a must-read for anyone would certainly be much slimmer, but a interested in geohazards, particularly deeper coverage of the microfossil groups earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as would have been more relevant to the Strong in the Rain those with an interest in nuclear power. second half. Black-and-white figures feature The authors relate the experiences of six Reviewed by Mike Winter prominently in the volume, taken (with individuals during the Great East Japan permission) from other publications (some Earthquake and the tsunami and STRONG IN THE RAIN: SURVIVING JAPAN’S obviously originally in colour), including a EARTHQUAKE, TSUNAMI, AND FUKUSHIMA Fukushima Nuclear Disaster that NUCLEAR DISASTER staggering >50% from Jones (2006). This followed. This is not a treatise on LUCY BIRMINGHAM AND DAVID MCNEILL, Published by rather gives the book the feeling of a geohazards but this thoroughly engaging Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012. ISBN 978-0-230-34186-9 photocopied training manual in places, (hbk). List price £17.99 www.palgrave.com/books text illustrates the socio-economic impacts which is perhaps what this book is of these tragic events at both the personal intended to be. and community level. It is a well-written and researched A number of issues struck me as being volume, and reflects the author’s broad both important and of more general working experience, which also presents application. The ground upon which some limitations. It should be of interest to some tsunami protection walls were teachers of palaeontology at all levels. It founded dropped in response to the could also prove helpful to students earthquake, presenting particularly seeking a postgraduate qualification in difficult challenges to the designers of micropalaeontology, and to those such structures. Other walls deflected the considering career in biostratigraphy. tsunami away from the communities they Bob Jones shows admirably how protected but towards nearby towns, applications of palaeontology, and compounding the destruction there; micropalaeontology in particular, have though that seems to be an issue that become so diversified in recent years. A ought to be less difficult to accommodate Applications of broadly 50:50 divide between in design. Ponding of the retreating Palaeontology biostratigraphy and palaeobiology in the tsunami behind sea walls, preventing first half demonstrates this point, along residents from escaping, perhaps indicates What, if anything, is applied with the various applications discussed in that the walls were insufficient for the palaeontology? Judging by this new book, the second half (not all of them by any task at hand. This seems to illustrate the it is mostly about industrial applications of means purely stratigraphical, and not all of difficulties inherent in ensuring that both biostratigraphy and palaeobiology, them by any means geological). This bodes lessons from historic events are and mostly applied to petroleum geology, well for the future of the subject. maintained. Memories are short. and mostly about microfossils. I was also struck by the roles of This is the third in a series of books Reviewed by James Powell individuals in the governance process that written by Dr Bob Jones (one the leading dealt with the response to the Fukushima applied micropalaeontologists of his APPLICATIONS OF PALAEONTOLOGY - TECHNIQUES AND CASE STUDIES Nuclear Disaster. Prime Minister Kan generation) - the others being ROBERT WYNN JONES, Published by Cambridge University was seemingly directly responsible for Micropaleontology in Petroleum Exploration Press, 2011 ISBN 978-1-107-00523-5 (hbk) List price: preventing the abandonment of the (1996, OUP) and Applied Palaeontology £80.00 www.cambridge.org/9781107005235 complex, which might well have led to (2006, CUP). This volume is split into 10 the plant’s six reactors and seven nuclear chapters covering: work-flows in applied fuel pools, as the authors put it, spiralling palaeontology; biostratigraphy and allied REVIEWS: COPIES AVAILABLE out of control. disciplines, and stratigraphic time-scales; However, the issue that gave me palaeobiology; sequence stratigraphy; Please contact [email protected] if you would like to supply a review. For a full list go greatest pause for thought was the petroleum geology; mineral exploration to www.geolsoc.org.uk/reviews varying levels of impact (of the tsunami) and exploitation; coal geology and mining; in one community; some lost everything engineering geology; environmental n NEW! Risk & Uncertainty Assessment for while others, separated by just one city science; other applications and case Natural Hazards. Edited by Jonathan Rougier, block, were not affected at all. Perhaps studies. It is a book of two halves: the first Steve Sparks and Lisa Hill. Cambridge unwittingly, the book makes a very concerned with general palaeontological University Press 2013 574pp hbk powerful case for the application of a applications; specific applications with n NEW! Global Optimization Methods in planning-led approach to tsunami risk- case studies fill the second half (with Geophysical Inversion (2nd Ed) by Mrinal K Sen and Paul L Stoffa. Cambridge University management and the location of petroleum geology taking the lion’s share Press 2013 289pp hbk vulnerable buildings, infrastructure and of these).

MAY 2013 23 GEOSCIENTIST PEOPLE

Geoscientists in the news and on the move in the UK, PEOPLE Europe and worldwide CAROUSEL

All fellows of the Society are John Baird Simpson entitled to entires in this column. Please email ted.nield The Library and Archives have received the Lyell Medal awarded to @geolsoc.org.uk, quoting your John Baird Simpson in 1954. Archivist Caroline Lam* reports Fellowship number.

John Baird Simpson (1894- Photo: Wendy Cawthorne n JANE FRANCIS 1960) was born in Glenferness, Nairnshire in Scotland, and studied for a BSc in Agriculture at the University of Aberdeen. On graduation in 1914, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers and was later commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders, but during service in France was wounded and badly gassed. Jane Francis has been Returning to civilian life appointed as the new Director in 1918, Simpson resumed of the British Antarctic Survey his studies at the University, Simpson’s son Dr Morven Simpson and grandchildren Dr Graeme Simpson (BAS). Jane Francis, a geologist finally leaving in 1920 with a and Colin McKenzie made the presentation, fittingly, beside the bust of Sir (l-r: Colin McKenzie, Morven Simpson (seated), Graeme Simpson) by training, is Professor of BSc in Pure Science with Palaeoclimatology at the special distinction in University of Leeds where she is Geology. Later that same effects of glaciation in kindred paths should currently Dean of the Faculty of year he was appointed to the Scotland and became the henceforth be my chosen Environment. She has research field staff of the Geological leading authority on fossil way through life”. interests in ancient climates, Survey in Scotland. He was pollen. He attributed his Simpson received many particularly of the polar regions, promoted Senior Geologist upbringing in rural Scotland honours throughout his and has undertaken numerous in 1932 and then District as first sparking his interest career. In 1932 he was scientific expeditions to the Geologist in 1945. in geology: “As a boy it was elected Fellow of the Royal Arctic and Antarctic, working in my good fortune to have to Society of Edinburgh, the collaboration with research LEWISIAN cycle to and from school following year the teams from many other During his time with the through a mile-long glacial University of Aberdeen countries. In 2002 she was Survey, Simpson was a channel which, even to my awarded him the degree of awarded the Polar Medal in major contributor to the then untutored eye, could DSc and he was awarded recognition of her contribution mapping of the Western hardly be other than an the Clough Medal by the to British Polar Science. Highlands and Islands of ancient watercourse, Edinburgh Geological Scotland, including the although now devoid of Society for the period 1953- n CLAUDIO VITA-FINZI Lewisian of Coll and Tiree, water and lacking an 1954. The Lyell Medal was Claudio Vita-Finzi (Earth the Mesozoic sediments and orthodox head. These very presented to Simpson in Sciences, Natural History Tertiary lavas of Morven and perplexities, however, made 1954 on his retirement from Museum) has been elected a on the Moine Schists of both it my problem, and the Survey, in recognition of Fellow of the British Academy. Morven and Arisaig. wrestling with it gave my his contributions to geology. Additionally, his detailed mind a geological slant and Simpson’s enthusiasm for investigations around stimulated the reading of geology was passed down Ayrshire, Dumfriesshire and geological works. So when to his son Morven and East Lothian provided years later the true nature of grandson Graeme Simpson, invaluable data for the re- this channel was revealed to both of whom followed in appraisal of Scottish me in the crystal-clear his footsteps by becoming coalfield reserves. lectures of Professor Gibb at Fellows of the Society. Outside of his Survey Aberdeen, it seemed natural work, Simpson studied the that glacial channels and *www.geolsoc.org.uk/archives

24 MAY 2013 PEOPLE GEOSCIENTIST

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

Mug mystery solved IN MEMORIAM WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/OBITUARIES

The Society engraved tankard beans on Council’s cunning plan to THE SOCIETY NOTES WITH SADNESS THE PASSING OF: mystery case has been solved, prepare the Fellowship for a full- Bailey, Kenneth * Chapman, W T * Middleton, John * writes Dawne Riddle scale appeal for donations to ease Blackburn, James Kirk * Gray, David A Million, Ronald * Prof. Emer. Alec Kenyon-Smith the situation. Step one, he says, Bowler, Christopher Holroyd, J D * Williams, Colin L * has recognised the mug pictured in was to be a campaign of Michael Lance * Jones, Brian Lloyd * Zwart, Hendrik * the February issue as a relic of the “increasing the Society’s profile”. In the interests of recording its Fellows' work for posterity, the Society publishes 1970s. “The mugs were a small This was to be achieved (partly) by obituaries online, and in Geoscientist. The most recent additions to the list are part of that tumultuous period” he re-desigining the logo. The shown in bold. Fellows for whom no obituarist has yet been commissioned are told Geoscientist. tankards (and the lovely polyester marked with an asterisk (*). The symbol § indicates that biographical material has been lodged with the Society. “In 1970-71, I, then Alec Smith, Fellow’s tie in various shades of became Treasurer - succeeding drab) were both manifestations of If you would like to contribute an obituary, please email [email protected] to be commissioned. You can read the guidance for authors at William Bullerwell, and inheriting the redesign (now long abandoned). www.geolsoc.org.uk/obituaries. To save yourself unnecessary work, please do stewardship of the Society’s “I cannot recall how many mugs not write anything until you have received a commissioning letter. Deceased finances, which were in a parlous were made – we had no spare Fellows for whom no obituary is forthcoming have their names and dates recorded in a Roll of Honour at www.geolsoc.org.uk/obituaries. state.” He goes on to spill the funds” Kenyon-Smith admits. DISTANT THUNDER Trip adviser Geologist and science writer Nina Morgan explores the trials and tribulations 18th C travel

In April 1841, John Phillips, the cannot now tell,” he continued, 11-hour trip to Tenby, where, he dog, even champion trip nephew of William Smith who “most probably I shall; but without writes: “…I will meet you. The adviser Phillips was at a loss. went on to become the first some home to go to; some place landing is rather crowded but not Writing on 30 April he admits: professor of geology at Oxford for my books and instruments I so as to embarrass anybody but “How you will bring poor Cholo University, was working under shall be rather embarrassed.” The Cholo, and most likely I will get a I do not even conjecture. as a field antidote for his homesickness, he man specially to aid your Perhaps they will let him be geologist for the fledgling believed, was for his sister to join disembarkation [sic], and take your with you in the carriage.” Geological Survey of Great Britain. him for the field season. boxes to No 2 Rock Place or If only travel websites had Even though the job kept him Anne must have been quick to whatever else your fairy home on been invented then, Phillips’ away from home and also required agree to this plan because by 28 these cliffs is called.” mind could have been put at ‘foreign’ travel (in Wales!), Phillips April, Phillips was writing to her to Phillips also provided rest. The website viewed it as a potentially good extol the virtues of a house he had instructions for dealing with their www.nationalrail.co.uk advises career opportunity. taken over May and June and to copious luggage, which included that: “Passengers may take “Mr De la Beche has talked to advise her on travel his books, papers and scientific with them, free of charge … me this morning a good deal, and arrangements. His letters instruments as well as household dogs, cats and other small it certainly appears that the demonstrate an encyclopaedic necessities and clothes. “I should animals (maximum two per engagement is likely or at least knowledge of transport options think if you could make up one box passenger) provided they do wished to be permanent and and timetables. of my things, or even two, and two not endanger or inconvenience good.” he wrote from Tenby on 22 The plan was for Anne to travel or at most three for yourself;” he passengers or staff.” One less April 1841 to his sister Anne at to Tenby accompanied by their went on: “(You can pay for the thing to worry about! their much-loved home in York. maid Mary, and much-adored excess, be sure to offer to pay for But, he admitted, the dog, Cholo. The two-day journey the excess, at York, letting the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT accommodation – a single involved a train to Birmingham, office know that you take it and are This vignette is based on 6 room “in the same an omnibus or fly to the aware of its being too heavy), you letters written by John Phillips house as a couple of railway station in may perhaps manage. If not send to his sister Anne between 28 the young Ordnance Gloucester and a coach my boxes to the Institution Bristol April and 1 May 1841, which Surveyors” was to Bristol. After care of Mr Stutchbury by Railroad.” are part of a series of 234 less than ideal. spending the night at [Phillips’s underlining]. letters written by John Phillips “Whether I shall Ivatt’s Gloucester Hotel, Anne, he implies, should travel in to Anne Phillips which are held thoroughly and Hotwells, the party was a first class carriage, while “as is in the archives of the Hope entirely like it [the directed to proceed next usual” Mary, the maid, should Library at the Oxford University job opportunity], I day by Steamer for an travel 2nd class. But as for the Museum of Natural History.

MAY 2013 25 GEOSCIENTIST OBITUARY

OBITUARY‘

GEORGE CHARLES MARTIN FULLER 1926-2012 Oil industry geologist, an expert in the history of geology and the role of the Church of England in its development

ohn Fuller was born Anne Nightingale whom he and Metallurgy for his 1969, to the Amoco Canada at Hastings in Sussex first met while attending contributions. He joined the Petroleum Company Ltd, and attended Kent Chelsea Polytechnic. Amerada Petroleum Calgary as the staff County Grammar Corporation in 1958 spending geologist, where he J school, entering SASKATCHEWAN a total of three years working conducted studies into Queen Mary College in 1945 After completing his PhD John in Saskatchewan, North stratigraphy and petroleum to read botany and chemistry. looked around for gainful Dakota, Montana and Alberta geochemistry before taking He returned to University employment. By chance making a detailed study of up a position as Chief (Chelsea Polytechnic) in 1949 John’s wife, Anne, had heard Williston Basin. Geologist at Amoco Europe after demobilisation to read that the Government of Incorporated’s office in geology, using the last of a Saskatchewan was advertising BIRMINGHAM London (1971-80) and few 15 shilling savings for a geologist at its The lure of academia called Regional Geological certificates to attend classes. department of Mineral again and John returned to Manager for Amoco Europe He was awarded a BSc with Resources in Regina. During England in 1961 to take up a and West Africa Inc. (1980- First Class Honours in 1951. interview at the Agent Research Fellowship with 86). During this time John It was during his General’s Office John was told Fred Shotton at the University also undertook work in undergraduate studies that that they couldn’t give him of Birmingham. It was here Romania and the Danube he became interested in the money for his passage but if that his applied ‘history of Delta (1980-81). petrological aspects of he could report to the geology’ interests were From 1986 John’s stratigraphy through the Administration Building in sparked, while working on a historical interests became influence of W F Fleet. Regina before the end of paper concerning the more prominent, and After toying with the idea of September 1954, he would be Industrial basis of extended into examining the taking up a job with Shell guaranteed employment in the stratigraphy. He gained the role of the Church of John eventually decided to Government’s Petroleum President’s Award of the England in its history. In continue with his academic branch. John arrived in AAPG in 1961 and his 1984 he and John Martin of education. He entered Canada in time and his career address developed into a BP - both highly regarded Emmanuel College, as a petroleum geologist was bicentenary paper on William applied geologists began to Cambridge to undertake PhD underway. He also took out Smith and John Strachey promote the formation of a studies under the supervision Canadian Citizenship. (AAPG 1969). John also Group within the Geological of Percival Allen and Maurice After four years with the developed interests in the Society to raise awareness of Black. His PhD on the Department of Mineral social history of geology, the history of geology and ‘Sedimentary petrology of the resources John left - having which he presented as a its input into the profession. Permo-Triassic of South-west risen to the position of keynote address on ‘The John became one of the Scotland’ was successfully Principal Geologist. In 1956 Geological Attitude’ for the founding members of defended in 1954. It was he was awarded the Barlow AAPG Annual meeting in HOGG (History of Geology during his time at Memorial Medal of the 1971. John had a long Group), which held its Cambridge that he married Canadian Institute of Mining association with the AAPG inaugural meeting in 1994. and was awarded its John was active in Certificate of Merit in 2000. Geological Society affairs Finding academic life having served on Council rather impoverished after his from 1975-78, and became oil industry days, John Vice-President from 1977-78. returned to Amerada after a He also served on the NERC year in England. He became Geological Awards the District Geologist and Committee from 1977-79. Staff Geologist for Calgary, He leaves his wife, Anne exploring for carbonate and (also a Fellow of this Society) Photo: Ted Nield evaporite-related reservoirs in and two sons. the Western Canada Basin. He subsequently moved, in By Alan Bowden

26 MAY 2013 CALENDAR GEOSCIENTIST Can’t find your meeting? VISIT www.geolsoc.org.uk/listings] [full, accurate, up-to-date

ENDORSED TRAINING/CPD

Course Date Venue and details

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DIARY OF MEETINGS MAY 2013

Meeting Date Venue and details

Petroleum Geology TBC Speaker: Dorothy Satterfield. Convener: John Black E: [email protected] East Midlands Regional

Engineering Geology and Geomorphology in the 14 May Venue: S H Reynolds Lecture Theatre (Room G25), Department of Earth Sciences, Design, Operation and Rehabilitation of Quarries University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building. Speaker: Ruth Allington. Time: Refreshments Western Regional Group 1800 for 1830.

A Thermogeological Journey: 150 years on from 14 May Venue: University of Wolverhampton. Speaker: David Banks – Director, Holymoor Kelvin, 100 years on from Zoelly and 50 years Consultancy Ltd and author; “An Introduction to Thermo-geology – Ground Source Cooling from Sumner and Heating”. Time: Refreshments 1800 for 1830. West Midlands Regional

5th Annual Carbon Capture and Storage Summit 15-16 May Venue: Rotterdam. For list of panellists and agenda, see website. Convener: Paul Flynn E: ACI [email protected]

Appalachian-Caledonian Evolution Recorded 22 May Venue: Room 1.25, Earth Sciences, Main Building, Cardiff University. Speaker: Dr David on Anglesey Schofield (British Geological Survey) Time: 1730 for 1800. Southern Wales Regional

A solution for climate, food security and 26-28 May Venue: Iceland. A conference and field trip on soil carbon sequestration. For details see ecosystem services website. Convener Andres Arnalds E: [email protected] Soil Conservation Service of Iceland

Geological Society of America's 125th Anniversary 27 May – The Great British Tertiary Volcanoes: Exploring the Palaeogene centres of Skye and Rum: Scottish Field trips 07 June 27 May – 1 June 2013, and Structure and tectonics of the NW Highlands of Scotland: from GSA, GSL deep crust to hydrocarbon reservoirs. 2 – 7 June 2013. For all details and registration, see website.

CENTURY ONE PUBLISHING To plan your ad campaign in IS THE UK’S BRIGHTEST Geoscienst magazine contact: AWARD-WINNING Jonathan Knight t: 01727 739 193 CONTRACT PUBLISHING e: [email protected] AND ADVERTISING SALES AGENCY. w: www.centuryonepublishing.ltd.uk WE WORK EXCLUSIVELY WITH MEMBERSHIP ORGANISATIONS GENERATING ADVERTISING REVENUES AND MANAGING ALL OR PART OF THE PUBLISHING FUNCTION

MAY 2013 27 GEOSCIENTIST OBITUARY

OBITUARY‘

PETER FRANK BARKER 1939-2012 Marine geophysicist who pioneered studies into the tectonic and environmental history of the Southern Ocean

r Peter Barker, Peter and John arranged time he was Principal for outstanding who died on 25 student expeditions to Iceland Scientist on many research achievement and service to June 2012 aged in 1960 and 1961. Through cruises on RRS Shackleton British polar exploration 73, was a marine one of these, Peter got to and RRS Bransfield, the data and research. He was D geophysicist who know Jenny, whom he collected on those cruises widely respected led pioneering studies to married in 1963. Peter underpinning our present internationally, and was unravel the tectonic and undertook postgraduate understanding of the invited to sail as Co-Chief environmental history of the study at Imperial College, geological structure and Scientist on four DSDP and Southern Ocean over more and became involved in tectonic evolution of the ODP expeditions, making than three decades. marine geophysical work in Scotia Sea region. Many fundamental contributions

Peter was born and the Arabian Sea. early-career scientists took to understanding the

brought up in north their first steps in research tectonic and environmental Staffordshire. At the age of ANTARCTIC under Peter’s guidance history of South Atlantic 11 he won a scholarship to In 1964 Peter moved to at AMG. ~ and Southern oceans. Peter Newcastle Grammar School Birmingham University to became a leading figure in and in 1957 entered Kings join the Antarctic Marine the Antarctic and Southern College London to read Group (AMG), which PETER WAS Ocean geoscience physics, graduating 1960. Professor Donald Griffiths AWARDED THE POLAR community, actively As a teenager he developed had established in the fostering international a passion for outdoor Department of Geological MEDAL IN 1991 FOR cooperation. He continued activities together with his Sciences. A year later, OUTSTANDING working at BAS until life-long friend, geologist Griffiths handed over its ACHIEVEMENT AND retiring in 1999, and John Bradshaw, who later management to Peter, who subsequently as an emigrated to New Zealand. led and developed it over the SERVICE TO BRITISH emeritus scientist for a After they both graduated, next 21 years. During this POLAR EXPLORATION further three years. Peter remained a ‘sea-going AND RESEARCH scientist’ beyond ~ retirement, his last voyage Peter became Head of the being as an invited British Antarctic Survey participant on a cruise to (BAS) Geophysics Division the Scotia Sea aboard a US in 1986, and moved to research vessel in 2008. Cambridge. During his first few years, Peter played an SHROPSHIRE important part in specifying In 2005 Peter and Jenny the scientific facilities on a moved to rural Shropshire, new polar research vessel, enabling them to embrace RRS James Clark Ross, their passion for hill- launched in 1991. BAS still walking. Peter was still operate the ‘JCR’ and, even working on papers in the today, visiting scientists early part of 2012. An remark on what an excellent international symposium platform it is for multi- on Scotia Arc geology will disciplinary marine research be held in Spain in May – a testament to its design 2013 in his honour. He is vision. Peter went on survived by his wife Jenny, to lead several research son Dan and daughter-in- cruises on JCR. law Nicola. Peter was awarded the Polar Medal in 1991 (picture) By Rob Larter

28 MAY 2013 CROSSWORD GEOSCIENTIST

CROSSWORD NO. 169 SET BY PLATYPUS WIN A SPECIAL PUBLICATION

The winner of the March Crossword puzzle prize draw was Dr Michael Golden of Cranleigh.

All correct solutions will be placed in the draw, and the winner’s name printed in the July issue. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Closing date - 20 May.

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

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

Name ...... ACROSS DOWN Membership number ...... Address for correspondence ...... 1 Between slope and continent (5) 1 Pluto's realm (10) ...... 4 Lofoten whirlpool (9) 2 Treelike being incapable of summary (3) 9 Plant scientists (9) 3 Becoming less coarse, sedimentologically ...... speaking (6) 10 Ground engineering ...... professionals' new club 4 Russian-sounding sheet silicate (9) (1,1,1,1,1) ...... 5 Dosing salt, likely to give you runs in the 11 Not following the underlying Derby (5) ...... rocks in structure or age (14) 6 Common-sounding device for removing 14 Effeminate-sounding society for flue gases (8) ...... the preservation of Gavioli and 7 Withdrawals of the sea (11) ...... co. (1,1,1,1) 8 Beach west of Lulworth exposing 15 Anxiously awaiting an ageing ...... Cretaceous rocks from Chalk to Wealden treatment (10) and Purbeck Beds at the eponymous rocks Postcode ...... 18 Containing calcium carbonate (4) (10) 12 The ability of a fluid to flow into a narrow 19 Fossilized plant matter space unaided (11) SOLUTIONS MARCH constituting more than 50% by 13 Teenager (10) weight (4) ACROSS: 16 Engineering ability to withstand stresses (9) 21 Professionals who specialise in 1 Bouma 4 Upanishad 9 Ennobling 10 Orbit putting their subjects to sleep 17 Aids a reaction but does not take part in it (8) 11 Disengagement 14 Reef 15 Descriptor (13) 20 Of the smallest particle of a chemical 18 Saturation 19 Torc 21 Orthodontists 24 Pluvious (5) element that retains its chemical properties 24 Verso 25 Triumviri 27 Limestone 28 Capon (6) 25 Fantastical (9) 22 Portable covered chair (5) DOWN: 27 Central voussoirs (9) 1 Breadcrust 2 Urn 3 Albany 4 Univalent 5 Algae 23 Long journey, classically on foot (4) 28 Convenient refuge in the rock of 6 Isomeric 7 Habitations 8 Data 12 Spectrogram ages (5) 26 Frigid club for builders of infrastructure (1,1,1) 13 Precession 16 Crocodile 17 Grottoes 20 Atomic 22 Outdo 23 Oval 26 Imp

MAY 2013 29 POST DOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE POSITION Deep Subsurface RECRUITMENT Geoscientist Starting salary will be £26,450 per annum.

The British Geological Survey, part of the Natural Environment Research Council, is the UK’s premier geoscience strategic mapping and research organisation. We are offering a 3 year post doctoral research position, working within the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Research Associate Training Programme. BGS staff typically work in teams on a range of projects supporting a broad spectrum of scientific objectives from “blue-skies” research to highly focussed commercial contracts. The varied nature of the work programme, which includes opportunities to undertake personal research and to publish or present at international conferences, is highly valued, as is BGS’s commitment to training and developing its staff. As a Deep subsurface Geoscientist Research Associate, you will undertake training in scientific research methods and will pursue a supervised schedule of personal research. You will incorporate geoscientific reservoir models of the subsurface into the TOUGH2 and ECLipse flow simulators and develop suitable flow simulations for a wide range of injection scenarios. In addition you will also consider the application of these techniques to low and/or fracture porosity media. Other duties include analysing key storage processes occurring in the reservoir on a range of timescales (e.g. dissolution, convection), developing additional software modules to link to TOUGH2 as required and assess current approaches to analytical modelling of fluid flow in porous media and compare these with numerical solutions.

Qualifications and Experience: We are looking for applicants who hold, or expect to hold, a PhD degree in geophysics, physics, mathematics, or related subject. Full details of the skills we are looking for are detailed in the further documentation. A resettlement award will be given at the end of the training contract. A detailed training programme will be agreed. Working hours will be 37 per week excluding lunch breaks. A generous benefits package is also offered, including a company pension scheme, childcare voucher scheme, 30 days annual leave plus 10.5 days public and privilege holidays. Consideration will be given to offering a permanent employment contract at the end of the training contract.

Applications are handled by the RCUK Shared Services Centre; to apply please visit our job board at http://www.topcareer.jobs/ and submit your up-to-date C.V. and covering letter, which clearly outlines why you are applying for this post and how you meet the criteria described in this advertisement. Applicants who would like to receive this advert in an alternative format (e.g. large print, Braille, audio or hard copy), or who are unable to apply online should contact us by telephone on 01793 867003, Please quote reference number IRC88112.

Closing date for receipt of application forms is 17 May 2013.

The Natural Environment Research Council is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. People with disabilities and those from ethnic minorities are currently under- represented and their applications are particularly welcome. The British Geological Survey is an Investors in People organisation. There is a guaranteed Interview Scheme for suitable candidates with disabilities.

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