SCIENTIST GEO VOLUME 24 NO 4 u MAY 2014 u WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST The Fellowship Magazine of the Geological Society of London UK / Overseas where sold to individuals: £3.95

society on facebook] [www.facebook.com/geolsoc

Italian geological maps Why ending systematic surveys is a false economy

ON ON BAGGERS! PRESIDENT’S DAY FIELD MAPPING The military career of a Agenda for the AGM, Awards Is the BGS losing the plot distinguished sedimentologist Ceremony and free lectures over systematic surveying? The best digital mapping app in the world

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Midland Valley, 2 West Regent Street, *Only aavvailable in iOS version †Number of downloads during first six months Glasgow G2 1RW UK +44 (0)141 332 2681 www.mve.com GEOSCIENTIST CONTENTS

06 09

10 16

FEATURES IN THIS ISSUE... 16 On On Baggers! David Griffin on the work of Ralph Bagnold, a pioneering sedimentologist in the military

REGULARS

05 Welcome Ted Nield has seen the future of science and its communication, and it’s called ‘retirement’ 06 Society news What your Society is doing at home and abroad, in London and the regions 09 Soapbox Roger Dunshea urges geoscientists to adopt a broader and more environmental ethical code ON THE COVER: 20 Letters We welcome your thoughts 10 Mappa Mundi? 22 Books and arts Four new books reviewed by Warren David Nowell believes that the example set Hamilton, Mike Benton, Thomas Hoak and Colin Summerhayes by the Italian geological survey should be 24 People Geoscientists in the news and on the move emulated globally 26 Obituary Colin Leslie Williams 1948-2013 27 Calendar Society activities this month ONLINE SPECIALS A Geological Turning Point Colin Campbell explores the consequences of ‘peak oil’ Pompeii a review of the new swords, sandals and 28 Obituary Geoffrey Arthur Kellaway 1914-2013 tsunamis (?) movie, by Sarah Day 29 Crossword Win a special publication of your choice

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 03 The new book fromm TedTTeedd Nield

Out nowno

04 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST

GEOSCIENTIST WELCOME Geoscientist is the ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE ~ Fellowship magazine of Jonathan Knight WITH C. 60% OF A TECTONICALLY ACTIVE the Geological Society T 01727 739 193 of London E jonathan@centuryone COUNTRY YET TO BE MAPPED TO MODERN publishing.ltd.uk The Geological Society, STANDARDS, IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE Burlington House, Piccadilly, ART EDITOR London W1J 0BG Heena Gudka OUTDATED INFORMATION LEADS TO DISASTER T +44 (0)20 7434 9944 Cover image: © Francesco R. Iacomino / Shutterstock.com F +44 (0)20 7439 8975 DESIGN & PRODUCTION ~ E [email protected] Sarah Astington (Not for Editorial - Please contact the Editor) PRINTED BY Century One Publishing House Publishing Ltd. The Geological Society Publishing House, Unit 7, Copyright Brassmill Enterprise Centre, The Geological Society of Brassmill Lane, Bath London is a Registered BA1 3JN Charity, number 210161. T 01225 445046 ISSN (print) 0961-5628 FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK: F 01225 442836 ISSN (online) 2045-1784 Library The Geological Society of London T +44 (0)20 7432 0999 accepts no responsibility for the F +44 (0)20 7439 3470 views expressed in any article in I, Robot E [email protected] this publication. All views expressed, except where explicitly EDITOR-IN-CHIEF stated otherwise, represent those Professor of the author, and not The Geological Society of London. n March, over 120 ‘gibberish’ but the differences between other All rights reserved. No paragraph conference abstracts (published ratings (coherence, usefulness, EDITOR of this publication may be Dr Ted Nield reproduced, copied or transmitted by Springer and the Institution of informativeness, accuracy, E [email protected] save with written permission. Users registered with Copyright Electrical Engineers) were trustworthiness, objectivity) , were EDITORIAL BOARD Clearance Center: the Journal is withdrawn after researcher statistically insignificant (and not registered with CCC, 27 Congress Dr Sue Bowler Street, Salem, MA 01970, USA. I Cyril Labbé (Joseph Fourier always in the human’s favour). Most Mr Steve Branch 0961-5628/02/$15.00. Every Dr Robin Cocks effort has been made to trace University) identified them as students guessed correctly which story Prof. Tony Harris copyright holders of material in computer-generated fakes. was which; but a surprisingly large Dr Howard Falcon-Lang this publication. If any rights have Dr Jonathan Turner been omitted, the publishers offer Labbé was the man to do it, because minority got it wrong. Dr Jan Zalasiewicz their apologies. he created ‘SCIgen’, a web-based science Similar algorithms already exist for No responsibility is assumed by bullshit generator, capable of writing converting scientific papers into news Trustees of the the Publisher for any injury and/or Geological Society damage to persons or property as scientific gobbledegook releases. The results are not great, but of London a matter of products liability, Mr D T Shilston negligence or otherwise, or from indistinguishable (to the non-specialist) they are not the worst examples I have (President); any use or operation of any from the writing of human scientists. ever seen of this highly technical genre methods, products, instructions or Mrs N K Ala; Dr M G ideas contained in the material His motive in creating SCIgen was to (though that isn’t saying very much). Armitage; Prof R A Butler; herein. Although all advertising Prof N A Chapman; material is expected to conform to expose poor peer reviewing; but since So it is not surely too fanciful to Dr A L Coe; Mr J Coppard; ethical (medical) standards, releasing it to the wild, he has had to foresee a time when computer-devised Mr D J Cragg (Vice inclusion in this publication does president); Mrs N J not constitute a guarantee or develop a bloodhound program to sniff experiments can produce results easily endorsement of the quality or Dottridge; Mr C S Eccles; value of such product or of the out its products. assimilable into the formulaic literary Dr M Edmonds; claims made by its manufacturer. Prof A J Fraser Scientists may not fear for their jobs genre of the scientific paper. An equally (Secretary, Science); Subscriptions: All just yet; but spare a thought for formulaic abstract can then be pinged to Mrs M P Henton (Secretary, correspondence relating to non- conference organisers for inclusion. Professional Matters); member subscriptions should be journalists and PROs. After March’s addresses to the Journals ‘gibberish’ scandal a Swedish study Media applications can then generate Mr D A Jones (Vice Subscription Department, president); Dr A Law Geological Society Publishing appeared, revealing that computer- formulaic news releases, hot-linked to (Treasurer); Prof R J House, Unit 7 Brassmill Enterprise Lisle; Prof A R Lord Centre, Brassmill Lane, Bath, BA1 generated news content could offer cost- the original paper, which can be sent (Secretary, Foreign & 3JN, UK. Tel: 01225 445046. Fax: conscious proprietors (that’s all of them) under embargo to accredited robot External Affairs); 01225 442836. Email: Prof D A C Manning [email protected]. The a way to write newspapers without ‘journalists’. These will then write subscription price for Volume 24, (President designate); 2014 (11 issues) to institutions journalists. (It has begun. The LA Times formulaic news stories, complete with Dr B R Marker; and non-members is £125 (UK) or already uses an algorithm called punny headlines and grabby standfirsts Dr G Nichols; Dr L £143 / US$286 (Rest of World). Slater; Dr J P Turner ‘Quakebot’ to report tremors, and on 17 (because by then I shall have patented (Secretary, Publications); © 2014 The Geological Society of London March its first product appeared online an application of my own which I plan Mr M E Young just three minutes after the temblor hit.) to call ‘GROANfactor’). Published on behalf of the Tests conducted by Christer Clerwall Thus, the whole process of science Geological Society of London by (Karlstad University) exposed media and its communication may soon be Century One Publishing studies students to two sports reports - completely outsourced, leaving human Alban Row, 27–31 Verulam Road, St Albans, Herts, one written by computer, one by a beings free to engage in more rewarding AL3 4DG journalist. The anthropogenic story was pursuits - like contemplating the T 01727 893 894 pointlessness of existence and moaning F 01727 893 895 rated higher for ‘readability’, while the E enquiries@centuryone android story was considered ‘boring’; about it to each other on Facebook. publishing.ltd.uk W www.centuryone DR TED NIELD, EDITOR - [email protected] @TedNield @geoscientistmag publishing.ltd.uk

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 05 GEOSCIENTIST SOCIETY NEWS

What your society is doing SOCIETYNEWS at home and abroad, in London and the regions

Millennium Atlas benefits charities Image: Kletr / Shutterstock.com

Yvonne Drummond (Beagle Geoscience/Exploration Geosciences UK) brings glad tidings of the continuing success of the Millennium Atlas. Based on sales of The Millennium Atlas (GIS version) in 2013, we have recently sent a cheque for £5,940 to both WaterAid (www.wateraid.org) and Practical Action (www.practicalaction.org, formerly Intermediate Technology Development Group). This means that these charities have so far received a total of £11,800 as a result of ME sales.

WaterAid benefits from Millennium LONDON LECTURE SERIES Atlas sales Managing Nuclear Power Image: © WaterAid / Layton Thompson on a Dynamic Earth Speaker: Neil Chapman (MCM Consulting, Switzerland and the University of Sheffield, UK) Date: 21 May 2014

We probably worry more about the safety of nuclear power plants than any other major pieces of our technological infrastructure. There are over 500 of them operating or under construction around the world and almost as Election results many planned or proposed, with numerous other facilities that are involved in the management of The ballot for Council closed on 31 March. A total of 812 valid votes were cast the nuclear fuel cycle. Many of them are on the coast for the five vacancies on Council. There were 13 invalid votes. The results are and, in several countries, are in locations where tectonic shown in the table below. hazard is a central concern. The five candidates receiving the most votes will go forward to the AGM for During the extended wine reception following the election as Council members. evening lecture, Granta Books will be launching Ted Nield’s new book ‘Underlands – a journey through COUNCIL RESULTS Britain’s lost landscape’, which is published on May 1. There will be short speeches from publisher and author, Name Votes and an opportunity to purchase a signed copy. Colin North 519 (63.9%) David Norbury 475 (58.5%) Programme David Hopkins 411 (50.6%) u Afternoon talk: 1430 Tea & Coffee: 1500 Lecture Keith Seymour 397 (48.9%) begins: 1600 Event ends. Nigel Cassidy 375 (46.2%) u Evening talk: 1730 Tea & Coffee: 1800 Lecture James Dodds 359 (44.2%) begins: 1900 Reception. Graham Goffey 338 (41.6%) Anthony Cohen 309 (38.1%) Further Information Please visit www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsllondon lectures14. Entry to each lecture is by ticket only. To obtain a ticket please contact the Society around FUTURE MEETINGS four weeks before the talk. Due to the popularity of this The dates for meetings of Council and Ordinary General Meetings until lecture series, tickets are allocated in a monthly ballot June 2015 will be as follows: and cannot be guaranteed. u OGMs: 18 June 2014; 25 September 2014; 26 November 2014; 4 February 2015; 8 April 2015 ➤ Contact: Naomi Newbold, The Geological Society, u Council: 18 June 2014; 25 & 26 September 2014 (residential); Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG, T: +44 26 November 2014; 4 February 2015; 8 April 2015 (0)20 7432 0981 E: [email protected]

06 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST ELECTION – FELLOWS

The following are put forward for election to Fellowship at the OGM on 18 June 2014:

ABESSER Corinna; AJIKOBI Folorunsho

Image: CandyBox Images / Shutterstock.com Idowu; ALEXANDER Joanna; ALMEHMADI Majed; ANDERSON Charlotte; APPS Gillian Margaret; ARNOLD Philip; ASONI Simone Giulio; BAINES Pieter; BAINS Santo; BARNELL Michael Andrew; BARTLE James; BELL Matthew Douglas; BELL Rachael Margaret; BEN BRAHIM Lotfi; BEN-DAVID Ram; BIGGINS Matthew William; BLACKHALL Russell Fairlie; BLACKIE Giles; BOND William Frederick; BONSON Christopher Graham; BRESSLER Alan; BRETT David; BUFTON Peter; BULLIMORE Andrew; BURLEY Leanne; BURT Sarah Elizabeth; BUTTERFIELD Andrew; BYE Katy; CARROLL Zoe; CHAMBERLAIN Sinead; CHUE Wai Chi; CHURCHOUSE Martyn John; CLYFTON-MYERS Marc; COLACE Alessandra; COLLINS James; CONNAUGHTON James; COOK Warren; Join the Award winners COOKE Georgia; COOPER Samantha; for lunch for £27.50 COTTEE Lewis; COUTTS Catherine; CROWE Thomas; DAVIDSON Callum; DAWID Richard; DAY Kevin Alan; DOWNIE Andrew; EASTON Stewart; EDEH Chikodili Paul; ERWIN Patrick Seumas; ESSIEN President’s Day Gordon; FARRELL Natalie Jane; FELLOWS Daniel; FORD David; FORDE James Joseph; FREE James; GAVIGAN Joanne; President’s Day at Burlington House on 4 June Talks by Medallists GOODWIN Stephanie; GROULIER Pierre- will begin with the Annual General Meeting at u Maureen Raymo (Wollaston Medal) Lamont Arthur; GUEDEZ Romulo; HATCHER Guy; 11.00 followed by a buffet lunch with the award HAYES Ian; HELGESON Daniel; HEY Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Sarah; HILL James; HILLIS Stephen; winners (members with ticket only – £27.50 per Observatory, Columbia University: The Pliocene HITCHES Chris; HOGG Matthew Thomas; head). As in previous years, the recipients of the Sea Level Paradox HOLLOW Matthew James; ISRAEL Ramiz; ITON Iton; JAMES Cheryl; JAMESON major medals have been invited to give short u Martin Brasier (Lyell Medal) Professor of Matt; JONES Hywel Madoc; JONES Lewis; talks, and the Awards Ceremony will be followed Palaeobiology, University of Oxford: In search of JONES Rebecca; KEEP Arhur; KERRY Angus; KESSLER Holger; KHAIR Raad; by presentations from Lyell, Murchison, William the earliest life on Earth KIRCHIN Andrew; KIRKPATRICK Gerald Smith and Wollaston medallists (details below). u Julian Pearce (Murchison Medal) Professor Lee; KOZMAN Jess; KUGLER Ralph L; Emeritus, School of Earth & Ocean Sciences, LAKE John; LAMB Kimberley Rebecca Jane; LANE William; LAWRENCE Samuel; Timetable Cardiff University: Geochemical fingerprinting of LLEWHELLIN Matthew David; LOPEZ u 11.00 Annual General Meeting (members only) rocks and minerals Berta; LUCAS John Jesse; MACENTE u u Alice; MAIN Peter; MARTIN Elizabeth; 12.30 Lunch with the Award winners Peter Styles (William Smith Medal) MARTIN Micahel Andrew; MATINI Omeed; (members with tickets only) Professor of Applied and Environmental MCGEE Kevin; MCKAY Elizabeth; u 14.00 Awards Ceremony Geophysics, School of Physical and MERRITT Andrew; MESSENT Barry; MESSER Alisha Clare Elizabeth ; MILLAR u 15.15 Talks by Lyell, Murchison and William Geographical Sciences, Keele University: Lisa Anne; MILLS Jennifer; MISRY Vikesh; Smith medallists A journey with maps. MOLCAN Matej; MUIR Alexander; u MURPHY Margaret; MURPHY Orla; 16.30 Tea MURRAY Thomas; NAZIR Mohib Ali; u 17.00 Talk by Wollaston Medallist NESSIPBEKOV Gani; NISBET David; u NWANEDO Vivian; O'HAGEN David; 17.30 President’s closing remarks ONIONS Sarah; OWEN Robert; OWEN u 17.40-19.30 Drinks reception William; PARKINSON Thomas; PASTORIZA Loraine; PEACE Emma Caroline; PEACE Alexander; PESKETT AGM Agenda Leo; PETRIE Angus; POINTING Matthew; Apologies; Minutes of the Annual General POPE Michelle; PORTER Richard James; PRICE Christopher John; PRIOR Simon Meeting held on 5 June 2013; Appointment of Paul Dominic; QUARLES Stacey; RASHID Scrutineers for the ballots for Council and Fraidoon; RATAJCZAK Hanrneil; Officers; Ballot for Council; Annual Report and RAWDANOWICZ Malgorzata; REYES- MONTES Juan; ROBERTS Katie; Accounts for 2013; President’s Report; Image: Bikeworldtravel / Shutterstock.com ROBERTS William Thomas; ROBEY Secretaries’ Reports; Treasurer’s Report; Matthew James; SAID Fauzi; SAINTILAN Nicolas; SEWARD Linda; SHUKER William; Comments from Fellows; Formal acceptance of SIMPSON Fern; SINGH Anita; SOTIRIOU the Annual Report and Accounts for 2013 and Paul; SQUIRE Oliver; STAUNTON Patrick; approval of the Budget for 2014; Annual STEWART Christopher; TANIMOLA Femi; TAYLOR Tim; TEALE Douglas; Fellowship subscriptions 2015; Deaths; Report of THOMPSON Camilla; TURRINI Claudio; Scrutineers on the ballot for Council; Ballot for VENDEITUAI Daniela; WADE Rachel; WALKER Clare Elizabeth; WALKER Officers; Appointment of Auditors; Report of Stephanie; WAY James; WEEKS David; Scrutineers on the ballot for Officers; Election of WESTGATE Alexander; WHITE Darren; WHITE John Alexander; WILLIAMSON new Fellows; Any other business; Provisional Nicole; WILSON George; WRIGHT Sarah; date of next Annual General Meeting. YAHAYA-JOE Osman; YAN Chin To; YONGE Cyprian.

➤ To obtain luncheon tickets please send cheques (made payable to the Geological Society) to Stephanie Also (stop press): Jones at Burlington House or email [email protected]. Please also contact Stephanie CRAIG Adam Neil; GIGLER Gruffudd; if you wish to attend the afternoon events, for which there is no charge. HORAN Kate; JOBSON Daniel; LESLIE Rory Charles; MULLINS James; MURRAY Emily; NEALE Ross; PESZTRANZKI Karoly; TOWNLEY Andrew; WALKER Gary. GEOSCIENTIST SOCIETY NEWS

SOCIETYNEWS...

The Geological Society Club

The Geological Society Club, port. (The Founders' Dinner, in successor to the body that gave birth November, has its own price structure.) to the Society in 1807, meets There is a cash bar for the purchase of monthly (except over the field aperitifs and wine. season!) at 18.30 for 19.00 in the u 2014: 2 April; 14 May; 24 FROM THE LIBRARY Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, or at September; 15 October. another venue, to be confirmed nearer the date. ➤ Fellows wishing to dine or request- u Library Book and Print Sale Once a year there is also a buffet ing further information about the Visit us in May! Writes Michael McKimm dinner at Burlington House. Geological Society Club, please During the month of May the Library will be holding New diners are always welcome, email Cally Oldershaw (Hon Sec) at its latest sale of second-hand or out-of-scope books, especially from among younger [email protected] journals and maps. Featuring hundreds of items Fellows. Dinner costs £57 for a four- or T: 07796 942361. DR covering geology, palaeontology, archaeology and course meal, including coffee and related subjects, the sale will take place upstairs in the main Library at Burlington House and is open to all. We will also be selling original lithographic prints by Annual Fellowship subscriptions 2015 the Scottish geologist John MacCulloch (pictured above), dating from 1819-1826. These beautiful black At its meeting on 2 April Council agreed to recommend to the Fellowship for and white drawings depict picturesque scenes of approval at the Annual General Meeting the subscription rates for 2015 shown forests and cliffs as well as Scottish landmarks such as below. The annual increase in CPI at the end of February 2014 was 1.7% and Dunkeld Bridge, Perthshire. Visit Burlington House next this is the inflator used for the 2015 subscription rates. Depending on their month for an opportunity to become the proud owner personal circumstances, Fellows may be able to claim tax relief on the cost of of one of these original prints! their Fellowship subscriptions. Recognising that they are the future of the Society and we must attract and Late night shopping retain them, Council further proposes that, as in 2014, there should be no The Library and book sale will remain open until 1900 increase to the Junior Candidate Fellow and Candidate Fellow fees. on the following days during May: Friday 2; Thursday As reported last year, Chartership validation and annual registration fees no 8; Thursday 15; Wednesday 21. longer cover the full cost of providing those services and it was agreed at the Annual General Meeting in 2013 to raise the validation fee incrementally over a u Literature searching three year period to £85 (2014), £95 (2015) and £100 (2016) and the annual Not enough time or struggling to find the information registration fee to £35 (2014), £42 (2015) and £48 (2016). you need ? We can search a wide range of resources on your behalf and send you the results directly to SUBSCRIPTIONS 2015 your inbox. To find out more about this service, please email [email protected]. Council agreed to the following subscription rates for 2015 at its meeting on 2 April 2014. These will go forward to Fellows to agree at the AGM. u Subscription type 2014 2015 New acquisitions If you would like to receive by email or post a list Junior Candidate Fellow 10.00 10.00 of titles recently added to our library catalogue, Candidate Fellow 15.00 15.00 please contact [email protected] or call Candidate Fellow full course fee 40.00 40.00 020 7432 0999. 27 and under 69.00 70.00 28-33 128.00 130.00 u Document delivery 34-59 194.50 198.00 Not based in London or simply too busy to come to the 34-59 (Overseas) 149.00 152.00 library ? We can send you by post or fax photocopies 60-69 97.50 99.00 of articles from our collection. To find out more about 70+ 67.00 68.00 this service, please email [email protected] or Concessions 69.00 70.00 call 020 7432 0999. Full time postgraduate MSc 28.00 28.00 Full time postgraduate PhD 40.50 41.00

Supplement (to payer) for Joint Fellowship 57.00 58.00 ➤ The library is open to visitors Monday-Friday 0930- CGeol supplement payers 35.00 42.00 1730. For a list of new acquisitions click the appropriate CSci supplement payers 23.50 25.00 link from http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/info

08 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST GEOSCIENTIST SOAPBOX

The only way is ethics

Knowledge brings responsibility, and geological knowledge brings responsibility for the environment, says Roger Dunshea* Time for a new professional code of ethics?

e all know geology is the most The average lifespan of Homo sapiens has enjoyable of sciences, bringing been transformed and global numbers have together a differential of maths, increased at an astounding rate. When SOAPBOX a wave of physics, a whiff of Hutton and Playfair sailed along Siccar Point W chemistry and a gene of biology. (1788) the Earth contained about one billion CALLING! We weave these into our learning of people. Today it’s seven billion. crystallography, mineralogy, palaeontology, Geology has played the pre-eminent role seismology, tectonics, stratigraphy and much enabling the mineral exploitation of this Soapbox is open to contributions more. Our science combines analytical planet, and in the resulting impact on its from all Fellows. You can always techniques in the laboratory with equally economy and environment. Our education write a letter to the Editor, of important observation, sampling and has taught us valuable techniques to unravel course: but perhaps you feel you experimentation in the field (including of what goodies (Brent Blend, magnetite, need more space? course regional beers). pitchblende, diamond etc.) the rocks hold We grapple with the fundamental and hide. These techniques are the basis for If you can write it entertainingly in structures of this planet, its minerals and subsequent global economic, scientific and 500 words, the Editor would like history, and the enormous magnitude of time social progress for post-Huttonian Homo to hear from you. Email your it has taken us to get to where we are now. sapiens. But have geologists considered fully piece, and a self-portrait, to As a group of scientists we are in a unique the geo-strategic ethical and economic ted.nield@geolsoc. org.uk. position to appreciate that this planet’s rock- sustainability factors before pointing out Copy can only be accepted based economic resources are essentially where to drill and blast; thus enabling electronically. No diagrams, tables finite and that their replacement is either not massive irretrievable loss of unique or other illustrations please. possible or may take at least mega-millennia. concentrations of chemicals? Has geology facilitated the prodigious burning of Pictures should be of print Frackers hydrocarbons with climate change likely? quality – please take photographs Over the last two centuries (0.0000045% of on the largest setting on your Earth history) geologists have developed Prospects camera, with a plain background. their science to enable miners, quarry- Geologists specialise in different areas of the blasters, drillers and now frackers to exploit science. Some are employed finding new Precedence will always be given

unique deposits of oil, gas, coal, ores and rare sources of hydrocarbons while counter- to more topical contributions. sprinklings of precious stones and metals, on intuitively others are researching climate Any one contributor may not

a commercial basis. These resources have change. Many are researching fascinating appear more often than once per delivered abundant power and materials, tectonic events while others are ensuring volume (once~ every 12 months). resulting in outstanding increases in tunnels and bridges are safe. Geology has agricultural and industrial output, as well as made a major contribution to global society some glinting adornments for the celebs. but do we risk threatening the prospects of future generations due to the current BUT HAVE unsustainable levels of extraction. GEOLOGISTS Should geologists start thinking more CONSIDERED FULLY about helping the long term economic prospects of Homo sapiens? THE GEO-STRATEGIC So while our peers in the medical and ETHICAL AND life sciences are developing new ethical

Image: wandee007 / Shutterstock.com standards to protect the wellbeing of ECONOMIC current and future generations, is it not SUSTAINABILITY now time to start discussing and developing FACTORS BEFORE a set of geological scientific ethics that can support very long-term global POINTING OUT economic sustainability? WHERE TO DRILL

* Roger Dunshea has spent most of his career AND BLAST? in the public sector in managerial and financial Roger Dunshea Cripes. Was that supposed to happen? ~ roles. His main interest is the Moine Supergroup

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 09 ITALIAN GEOLOGICAL MAPS

hile reviewing the BRGM memoirs for French geological David Nowell* on 1:1,100,000 geological map maps at this scale. of Italy (Geoscientist 22.09, While these trifolded sheets, unlike Italian geological October 2012, p.23), BGS maps, lack a main backfold, the W I discovered a wealth of smaller paper size means that, complete maps, and how online material related to the work of the with comprehensive keys and cross- Geological Survey of Italy (Servizio sections, they are still extremely practical ending systematic Geologico d’Italia), on the website of to handle in the field. Though earlier the Institute for Environmental editions in this modern series are less surveying is Protection and Research (ISPRA - attractively presented with tricky Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la folding, they are still meticulously the ultimate Ricerca Ambientale). surveyed and drafted: only Japanese This included a section where many geological maps, with their incredible false economy excellent (sadly unpublished) 1:50,000 wealth of detail, are neater (sometimes geological maps may be previewed in a complete with lightly superimposed copyright-protected and watermarked Bouguer gravity contours). zoomable format, alongside 21st Century The underlying base-map can be sheets produced to a very high standard clearly seen beneath the complex line- (€13 each) with accompanying booklets. work, and varied units are drawn These resemble British Geological Survey together so that you can see both broad- sheet explanations, though thicker (well scale features and very fine localised Above: View to Mt Etna, Sicily. Some illustrated, up to 208pp), but without the detail. Each 1:50,000 sheet covers about Italian geology remains shrouded in mist English abstracts seen in the most recent 22x25km in the northernmost Alps,

10 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST ~ ON A NATIONAL SCALE THE NEW GEOLOGICAL MAP OF ITALY NOW PROVIDES A CLEAR REGIONAL CONTEXT COUPLED WITH SOME LIMITED STRATIGRAPHICALLY-BASED TRANSLATION FOR ENGLISH READERS ~ © Servizio Geologico d'Italia, ISPRA, All rights reserved © Servizio Geologico d'Italia, ISPRA, All rights reserved

Mount Etna, Sicily to Aeolian islands (Isole Eolie o Lipari), with thrusts marked with barbed red lines and offshore bathymetry, extract from 5th edition 1:1,000,000 Geological map of Italy, Carta Geologica d’Italia 2011 Image: lisovsergey / Shutterstock.com Image: ollirg / Shutterstock.com

Region around the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius, extract from 5th edition The Bay 1:1,000,000 Geological map of Italy, Carta Geologica d’Italia 2011 of Naples

widening to 22x30km in southern Sicily, English readers in a carefully structured understanding of variations in local as they span 20′ east-west by 12′ north- bilingual key. The accompanying booklet ground conditions and mineral resources. south on a regular degree- based grid. contains extensive references. Coupled to the added hazards of Map and booklet are presented together earthquakes, mountainous terrain and in a cardboard wallet, including the Closer to home greater risk of flash flooding, this is location and names of the eight Even before the current economic crisis, even more short-sighted in Italy than surrounding sheets on the front, a around three fifths of Italy had yet to be Britain, where major planning decisions numbered index map of Italy on the back, surveyed to modern standards when are often undertaken without any and (if ever completed) a list of all 652 work on the systematic 1:10,000 geological analysis. sheets on the inside flaps. geological mapping programme The phrase ‘unforeseen ground All these maps were either drafted or underpinning these sheets was halted. conditions’ is often used to cover up published before systematic geological This compares to roughly a fifth of expensive mistakes or the failure to mapping ground to a halt around a Britain’s bedrock, which becomes a third undertake cost-benefit analysis of likely decade ago – this, in a tectonically active if you include areas with poorly ground conditions during construction. country which desperately needs much delineated and defined superficial So it is unsurprising that the introduction better planning, with an extraordinary deposits, now that the British Geological to the initial 2009 report setting out the wealth and diversity of historic buildings, Survey has foolishly followed the first phase of the HS2 high speed railway landscapes and archaeological remains Italians’ example. from London to Birmingham and that require safeguarding. Still, on a Basic mapping underpins both Litchfield junction (to be built with a national scale the new geological map of informed research and economic wider and much higher loading gauge Italy now provides a clear regional planning coupled with sustainable 4·7m above the rails, compatible with context coupled with some limited environmental management, requiring HS1 to the Channel Tunnel and the TGV

stratigraphically-based translation for objective geologists with a holistic network, making it possible to operate ▼

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 11 Areas of wet saline rockhead (f 6b Triassic, Lower Keuper Saliferous Beds) below glacial deposits (blue denoting tills and pink for gravels) liable to dissolution and collapse along alternative HS2 route south of Mobberley sketched roughly in green, east of Knutsford, Cheshire, with approximate alignment of Manchester Airport runways (n red) superimposed

▼ double-decker trains) states: “the corridor shown does not consider ground conditions” and “Earthworks outlines are based on typical side slopes” (p.15), though: “Outline comments on the materials and geotechnical issues were made based on the digital information provided by the British Geological Image: Franco Volpato / Shutterstock.com Society” [sic] (p.9)5,6. Missing legislation Thus it is unlikely that HS2 liaised with BGS staff with more detailed knowledge, Earthquake including access to otherwise damage in the village of Onna confidential third-party borehole data. a frazione of This, unless it is released by the rights L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region owner, remains forever confidential of central Italy (thanks to the antediluvian legislation within which BGS operates) as legally, only archaeological remains and borehole records have to be recorded by developers. Once the first preliminary one-inch (1:63,360) survey of an area had been completed, the BGS has no further rights to access, thanks to the way the original 1845 Geological Survey Act of Parliament was drafted, and remains un- amended by subsequent legislation1. The geological survey was envisaged as ‘one- off’ project, and private landowners may refuse access. In a recent geochemical survey of Greater London2 this power to

© Servizio Geologico d'Italia, ISPRA, All rights reserved refuse left blank areas around Heathrow Airport, Ford’s Dagenham plant and a Geological map private residential estate in Bromley on of L’Aquila (1:50,000 sheet resulting maps, for all denied BGS 359) published permission to take soil samples. before the 2009 earthquake However, a later 2012 report outlining showing lighter the different options for the proposed tones indicative route of HS2’s second phase (to of softer ground and widening Manchester and Leeds) included blue lines to comments about geology and geohazards indicate debris based on 1:50,000 BGS datasets, without flows of unconsolidated reference to more detailed geological material mapping. Thankfully, the geological GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

information they did acquire was and if it is wrong, everything that follows probably enough to rule out the option to will probably be wrong’.” the south of Manchester Airport and a Though most seismic swarms, like the

few kilometres east of Knutsford, series of small tremors that preceded the © Servizio Geologico d'Italia, ISPRA, All rights reserved Cheshire, (Stockport 1:63,360 sheet (98) main M6·3 earthquake, simply fade published 1962), since this “route would away after some time, sadly this is not be over an area of mudstone with soluble always the case. Thus the seismologists deposits (risk of subsidence from who were called in to give public dissolution)”. Notwithstanding the fact reassurances a few days before the fateful that this route runs through George quake should have been more Osborne’s Tatton constituency, its circumspect in their soon-to-be selectively exclusion was therefore probably not due misquoted remarks - especially given the to “blatant political interference”, as naturally variable ground conditions assumed by ‘Signal Failures’ (Private Eye, shown on the 1:50,000 L’Aquila sheet 6 September 2013, No. 1348). (359, published 2005) and the likelihood However, because geotechnical issues that some buildings would have poor were downplayed this report could be earthquake resistance. easily misinterpreted - as it was This can hardly be criminally negligent consequently unclear about how such behaviour, though as events have shown, Above: Regional index for Sicily online, allowing considerations were weighed during the it was certainly politically unwise for you to click on completed sheets for an

enlargeable online preview to beyond the final selection. In any case, this option these outsiders to set themselves up as intended 1:50,000 scale was far less attractive: the owners of convenient scapegoats when the need Manchester Airport vetoed tunnelling arose. Unlike councillors, architects and Below: Sheet index for Italian 1:50,000 geological series under the runway and including a station planners all of whom have local political ~ providing direct interchange with the connections, given that many buildings terminal; while the Greater Manchester collapsed with fatal consequences when councils (who have a controlling interest they might have been expected to be in East Midlands Airport) were happy to more robust or to have been retrofitted to THERE IS NO consider tunnelling under that runway enhance their earthquake resistance, the SUBSTITUTE FOR THE along the route of the Leeds spur. seismologists were considered fair game GEOLOGICAL MAP AND Another illustration of how such in what amounted to a witch trial and assessments are only as good as the conviction in 2012. SECTION - ABSOLUTELY quality of the geological mapping on Just to emphasise the significance of NONE. THERE NEVER which they are based, is provided by the local ground conditions; despite the fact WAS AND THERE Environment Agency. It appears to be that many nearby historic buildings perfectly content with its groundwater collapsed and a medieval castle suffered NEVER WILL BE vulnerability (to pollution) maps despite considerable damage, the 20 May the fact that in places these are based on earthquake (M 6.1) in this Parmesan- ~ patchy revisions to Victorian maps, while producing region mainly killed a BGS is developing further products, handful of guards in the warehouses derived from historic data, that fail to used to store the expensive 40kg cheese warn users about vast differences in wheels as they mature. These modern quality/reliability across boundaries with structures had been built, without proper neighbouring areas blessed with 21st foundations, on flatter, softer ground Century coverage. liable to liquefaction. L’Aquila Maps in limbo So in the Italian context it is telling, in the Still, when it comes to geological data light of the highly controversial L’Aquila without the constraints of the Ordnance earthquake on 6 April 2009, that the Survey Crown copyright, the Italians introductory paper to a 2012 special issue (like France’s BRGM) has been able to put of the Italian Journal of Geosciences (131.3) its modern 1:50,000 maps online3, via insists that high-quality geological the heading “Geologic cartography”. fieldwork should always come first when By clicking through to a series of regional planning for seismic hazards and maps (red for published sheets, brown retrofitting strategies to render existing and orange for those that remain buildings safer. Authors Daniela Pantosti unpublished, green for ‘in preparation’ and Paolo Boncio state bluntly: without a live link) you can click on those “it is worth citing, once again, the 1975 sheets that have been completed and everlasting statement by S R Wallace: zoom in, even if earlier, folded editions ‘There is no substitute for the geological (rather than flat copies) were scanned. map and section - absolutely none. But, without a budget to print a There never was and there never will be. significant number of fully drafted

The basic geology still must come first - in-press maps, these remain trapped ▼

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 13 GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

▼ online and can only be worked on by the scale bar slider at the side of the within ‘Sismicità storica’ (dealing with printing a screen dump of the screen; though at certain regional seismicity) another layer has hazard watermarked page, at whatever enlargements switching to the ‘CARG mapping conforming to relatively small enlargement you have selected. This is geologica (1:25,000)’ will reveal the municipalities - so risk levels change at not the same as dealing with a printed numbering of those 1:50,000 sheets, these boundaries! map, as there is often an immense amount which feature on the other site even if Ideally this should be a combination of of detail to absorb and assimilate. some are inaccessible. the largest earthquake likely to occur over For example, the coastal and offshore Whichever layer you select, the other a given return period (let’s say a century), geology in the unpublished sheets key control is via the “Trasparenza” icon deduced from the frequency of smaller covering much of the Bay of Naples in the little box that comes up top right tremors over time plotted logarithmically reveals a great deal about Vesuvius and of the screen, allowing you to adjust the and the likely response of ground eruptions of its neighbouring volcanoes transparency of different layers to reveal conditions either in the epicentre or and former vents, as it is much easier to the aerial photography by toggling a regional proximity of such rare events. image layers produced by major eruptions left-right slider while comparing views. A classic example I was taught was the 5∙4 and related deposits using seismic Though the instructions are in Italian it magnitude earthquake on the Lleyn reflection surveys in these shallow waters. is possible to guess a lot of the keywords Peninsula in North Wales in 1984 However, in 2013 at the regional level and simply fly by the seat of your pants: (roughly a once-in-decade event in listing individual sheets, green dots have unlike some other viewers I have used, Britain), which was not felt much in the appeared next to the interactive map it is no big deal if you crash and need northeast of the Principality, but was alongside many of the activated entries. to start again. more widely felt in areas of softer ground These link to pdf downloads of “note Under the main headings come a alongside the Dee and Mersey estuaries. illustrative”, which are the accompanying number of subheadings you can click booklets with watermarked pages for ‘on’ and ‘off’, including gravity readings False economy those with a good internet connection and anomalies under ‘Geofisica’, while In light of this, with around 60% of a (file sizes can run to tens of Mb when other examples include ‘Geomorfologia’, much more dynamic and tectonically in full colour). illustrating various landforms (apart active country yet to be geologically from ‘Sinkholes’ under a separate surveyed to modern standards, it is only Italy online heading of its own, ‘Sondaggi profondi’, a matter of time before planning relying Including areas without contemporary which shows where deep boreholes are on outdated information results in a 1:50,000 mapping, this is backed up by located, and ‘Idrogeologia’ to access disaster of Aberfan proportions (rather the seamless coverage provided by the hydrological maps at various scales). than mere cost-overruns in construction). national viewer4 by clicking on the But even if there is a layer showing Then, the Italian authorities will 100k ‘geologica’ layer and zooming in via maximum forecast ground accelerations doubtless be tempted to round up some © Servizio Geologico d'Italia, ISPRA, All rights reserved

Northwest corner of unpublished Isola di Procida 1:50,000 Underwater boundary between late Quaternary Breccia Museo lavas sheet (465), showing the location of a former vent about 1 km formed of blocky splatter flow scoria (TGC1) and Fiumicello de Procida across straddling the island and offshore area near Naples volcanic tuffs (TFM) off island of Procida from unpublished booklet to go with Isola di Procida 1:50,000 map (sheet 465) GEOSCIENTIST FEATURE

hapless geologists for another show records. Given this, once coverage for a *David Nowell is a freelance geologist whose trial rather than consider such district has been brought to a higher publications include over 120 geological map possibilities as corruption, laxly enforced standard, for several decades such a and book reviews building codes, and poor zoning of survey will outlast other sheets only new developments. covered by an incoherent patchwork of Still, the 1:50,000 geological maps new observations and (sometimes ACKNOWLEDGEMENT completed before 1:10,000 surveying was conflicting) academic research, within a ➤ Marco Pantaloni of the Servizio Geologico halted show what can be done with digital database which will become d'Italia - ISPRA, V. Brancati 60, 00144 comparatively trivial funding compared increasingly opaque unless all changes are Roma is thanked for making critial to the waste and mismanagement that clearly written up with an endless series comments on an ealier draft, and facitating results from ignoring knowledge of notifications and modification maps pdf copies of ISPRA publications and obtained by artisanal research and tied to a geographically searchable index. prviding copyright clearance for embodied in the staff of any prudent reproducing these extracts. nation’s geological survey. This work Misplaced priorities needs to be published in easily At BGS, systematic geological mapping assimilable printed formats with proven had been going on since 1835 until it was preservation potential over many recently halted. This vital task should be REFERENCES centuries. While there can be quantum considered a national priority, and leaps in manipulating data to produce perhaps would be, were it not for 1 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/8- ever more innovative outputs, electronic progressively outsourced and consultant- 9/63/introduction databases can become corrupted and driven Whitehall departments who are 2 http://www.bgs.ac.uk/gbase/londonearth.html outdated, requiring expensive digital unable to see its significance within what 1 http://sgi.isprambiente.it/geoportal/catalog/ archaeology to retrieve. has become an increasingly research- sgilink/sgilink.page council-led organisation. 4 http://sgi1.isprambiente.it/GeoMapViewer Valid exercise Rather than geographically biased /index.html Furthermore, while a published 50k map research-driven cherry picking, systematic 5 High Speed two limited, December 2009. Route is indeed ‘frozen’ in time, this process geological mapping requires modern engineering study final report: a report for HS2 tries to ensure that the more detailed legislation to provide access and preserve (Arup) on behalf of the Department of Transport mapping and observations across a much more information from temporary 6 HS2 limited, March 2012. Engineering options whole district can become a much more sections and the input of highly skilled report West Midlands to Manchester. (MSG - Mott cohesive interpretation of all available and motivated geologists to sustain this Macdonald Scott Wilson Grimshaw) on behalf of the data, including, in Britain, the influence vital working knowledge for the efficient Department of Transport of otherwise confidential borehole maintenance of our basic infrastructure. u © Servizio Geologico d'Italia, ISPRA, All rights reserved Image: MP cz / Shutterstock.com

Around 60% of this dynamic and tectonically active country is yet to be geologically surveyed to modern standards BAGGERS AND THE LOST RIVERS OF SARRA Ref: BGND E20 Ref: BGND E21 Ref: BGND E 16/4 Ref: CACC, BGND E 16/3 Courtesy www.desertclassics.com Ref: BGND E20 David L Griffin* tells a story of pioneering exploration and a new interpretation by a pioneering military sedimentologist

ust over 80 years ago Ralph in exploration and the Army Bagnold (Brigadier Ralph Alger leading the Bagnold, FRS OBE, 1896-1990) which harried the Italians and Rommel and seven colleagues embarked during WWII. J on a 9600km journey of exploration in the (eastern Sarra Triangle Sahara). The journey took them to the October 15. The party reached the Sarra eastern flanks of the Tibesti into an area well, located on the old caravan route that has been a focus of my own interest north to Kufra. A square well mouth in for the past 16 years. I have argued that flat open sand caps a shaft two metres in Ref: BGND E21 the area records past fluvial activity diameter descending 60m to water. mainly of Messinian age (7.2-5.3Ma), The Senussi dug the well by hand in the when a substantial river system drained late 1800s. from a large lake in the Basin The Sarra Triangle was a westward northwards to the Gulf of Sirt. projecting piece of Sudan that separated These Sahabi rivers were a western Libya and Chad. It had been subject to counterpart to the Nile rivers and both various claims by Italy, France and originated at about the same time Britain. The matter was settled in (late Tortonian). The two river systems 1934, with Libya acquiring the tell us much about the Messinian climate disputed territory. of NE Africa at a time and place when The Bagnold party met with pleasant our own lineage was separating from its surprise at Sarra. Major Lorenzini and an hominoid heritage. Italian contingent were camped at the Here I give a brief account of the 1932 well. The major insisted on Italian Bagnold expedition and those parts of it hospitality and so Italians and Brits Ref: CACC, BGND D171 that traversed this now degraded enjoyed a feast of chicken, spaghetti western drainage system. A quirk of and Chianti on an improvised table boundary drawing (the Sarra Triangle) under the stars. led the explorers to this area, and conflicting priorities led to the origin of Hamada ibn battutah Bagnold’s grumpy but no doubt October 16. The party arrived at a high affectionate nickname (‘On On Baggers’). point on northern Hamada Ibn Battutah. Above top: Bill Shaw ponders the simplicity of the Sarra well Bagnold described the approach to the Above lower: In 1932 the Sarra triangle of Sudan separated Explorers site: "We entered a most dismal region - of Libya (shown as Tripoli) from French Equatorial Africa (present day Chad in this area). Sudan Survey Department September 27, 1932. With Ralph Bagnold coaly black plateau strewn with broken slabs map, 1932. Route of the 1932 Bagnold expedition has been in the lead, Guy Prendergast, Hugh of very hard silicified sandstone … penciled in, probably by Bagnold Boustead, Rupert Harding-Newman, The remains of human occupation in some Left (clockwise from top left): Major Lorenzini opens Vernon Craig, Donald Paterson, Bill past fertile age…only served to emphasize the another bottle of Chianti at Sarra. A bottle of Spumante is Shaw and Kenneth Sandford left in utter barrenness of the present surface."1 waiting for later toasts four Model A Ford cars to explore and The plateau of Campsite 20 passed From left to right Ralph Bagnold (leader, author), Major map the area west from ’Uweinat to abruptly to the west by a big inclined Orlando Lorenzini and Vernon Craig (navigation, food) the Tibesti Mountains and north escarpment 60 to 90m high. Here Donald Paterson (position finding, wireless operator), western Sudan. Bagnold commented: “To the westward a Kenneth Sandford (geologist, archaeologist), Guy The first six were taking a break from sandy depression stretched away from the foot Prendergast, (transport, collector), Bill Shaw (archaeology, Army duties to pursue an interest in of the cliffs as far as we could see, and botany, navigation), Hugh Boustead (collector, hunter) and Rupert Harding-Newman (vehicles, transport) desert exploration using reasonably appeared to be a broad valley draining priced, simple, solid, easily repaired Ford towards the north”.2 Bagnold thus Ford Modal A basics. 1931 cab on 1928 chassis. Flathead (sidevalve) four cylinder engine of 2 or 3.3 litre displacement cars. The travellers financed about half observed the broad palaeovalley of the depending on where made the cost; the Royal Geographical Society Sahabi rivers. and Oriental Institute, University of Ralph Bagnold at the time of the expedition Chicago financed the balance. Lost rivers Kenneth Sandford in front of 1930/31 Ford Model A Ralph Bagnold is best known to October 17. The party descended the geologists today for his work on blown scarp with difficulty, Bagnold losing sand and sediment transport in water. an exhaust pipe in the process.

He had equally distinguished careers The team now partly crossed the valley ▼

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 17 Far left: Index map

Left: The Libyan desert showing the route of the 1932 Bagnold expedition. The party crossed westwards from the Nile valley to the flanks of the Tibesti mountains and then travelled south to the Darfur region of Sudan. The return to Cairo completed a 3,4 ▼ of the late Miocene Sahabi rivers in 9600 km an approximate westerly direction soon journey, including 1600 encountering a formidable barrier km for of sand . refueling. They turned southwest to follow the MrSid Landsat mosaic 1990 dunes for 50km at a distance of about four to five kilometres. In so doing they were cutting across the channels of the Sahabi rivers on the flank of HIB West. orientation was close to the direction of achieved on their 9600km journey. One Evening Campsite 21 was close to the travel. To the north of Erg Idrisi lay a they were not aware of was that they were westernmost point of the expedition. small sand sea with dunes separated by the first scientists/explorers to traverse To the west were the great peaks of areas of sand billows. 320km of a c. five to eight million year-old the Tibesti. In hollows between the dunes were trans-Sahara river system. The Sarra The country just traversed was remote stones of many sizes. There were clear triangle had pointed the way. u and challenging and Bagnold was anxious signs of past human habitation with for the cars. Spokes were bent and broken grinding stones, pestles, innumerable *David L Griffin is a sedimentologist living in and a serious crack developed in a major stone implements and querns. The Victoria, BC, Canada. Email [email protected] engine bracket. Prendergast and Harding- ground of the habitation sites was Newman spent most of the night invariably soft, leading Bagnold to swapping engine brackets. comment: “Thus we were stopped almost ➤ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The following day the team pushed on involuntarily, almost mysteriously, by the Figures prepared for publication by Glyn for a further 40km in rocky country that agency of these folk, who had contaminated Kernick, PageSetter Design, Perth WA. became so difficult that a decision was the sand with their ashes and refuse. Then 1932 photographs © Churchill Archives made to turn southeast. The group had as soon as we had urged the cars on to Centre, Cambridge (CACC), the papers of Brigadier Ralph Bagnold. Reference reached the northern end of the area of firmer sand … Shaw and Sandford number quoted with each photograph. prominent wind eroded grooves that (anthropologist and geologist) would surround the southern end of the Tibesti. wander off looking for the choicest In Bagnold’s colourful words: "The grooves specimens”.5 Thus the term “On On and corrugated sand in them resemble the Baggers” originated as the two collectors REFERENCES hollow of the roof of a dog's mouth. We could had to calm their enthusiasm with not drive along the teeth of the rocks nor along muttered comment.6 1 Bagnold R. A., 1935. Libyan Sands. Travel in a dead world. Hodder and Stoughton, London. the sand in between".2 October 23. On leaving ’Uweinat the The going improved greatly as the party journey was close to the halfway point 2 Bagnold R. A., 1933. A further journey through the moved to the east, Bagnold being grateful after almost a month of arduous Libyan desert. The Geographical Journal 82(2),103- 126. to geologist Sandford for his insight. The driving. The remaining 4800 km gentle downslope 200km to Tekro were enabled the exploration of northwestern 3 Griffin D. L., 2006. The late Neogene Sahabi rivers of the Sahara and their climatic and environmental covered with relative ease. The just Sudan as far south as El Fashir in implications for the Chad Basin. Journal of the completed 320km western arc of the Darfur and included the search for a Geological Society, London 163, 905-921. journey had traversed the Sahabi river rumoured oasis north of Merga as the 4 Griffin D. L., 2011. The late Neogene Sahabi rivers system, the Tibesti Mountains serving to party returned to the Egyptian border. of the Sahara and the hamadas of the eastern Libya- define the course of both rivers and men. The group reached Wadi Halfa on Chad border area. Palaeogeography, Two nights were spent at Tekro, a small the Nile on November 19 (the official Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 309,176-185. oasis south of Sarra. end of the journey) and Cairo, with cars 5 Bagnold R. A., 1933. Into the Libyan Desert III. The intact on November 29 having desert’s lost peoples. Daily Telegraph, London, Sand people traversed the length and breadth of the February 17. October 20. The northeasterly route back Libyan desert - a remarkable feat 6 Kelly S., The Hunt for : the lost oasis and the to ’Uweinat soon crossed the sand filled, indeed. Bagnold and his men would be desert war. John Murray, London. graben-like Erg Idrisi. Happily the aware of the many objectives they had

18 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST Fermor Meeting 2014: Comparative Planetology

19-20 May 2014

The Geological Society, Burlington House

A great deal of new data on the terrestrial planets and moons has been produced recently from numerous planetary orbiters, together with rovers. This meeting is planned to bring together scientists who are studying aspects of planetary science on terrestrial planets in the inner solar system. Presentations will fall under three broad themes: Planetary crusts and interiors, planetary surfaces and surface processes (including volcanism, tectonic activity, sedimentation, and impact cratering), and planetary climates and atmospheres. Links between the three themes will be investigated, to develop ideas of exchange between the interior, exterior and atmosphere of planetary-scale bodies.

Topics for discussion: Further information: • Internal structures • Volcanism • Tectonics Naomi Newbold, Conference Office, • Sedimentation • Cratering • Analogues • Samples • Rovers • Remote sensing The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, Conveners: Speakers include: London W1J 0BG Professor Hilary Downes FGS Dr Ellen Stofan (NASA Chief T: 0207 434 9944 Professor Ian Crawford FRAS Scientist) Venus-Earth-Mars- E: [email protected] Titan: Comparing Surfaces, W: www.geolsoc.org.uk/fermor14 Dr Peter Grindrod FGS, FRAS Comparing Climates Follow this event on Twitter #fermor14 Dr David Catling (University of Registration fees: Washington, Seattle USA) GSL and RAS Fellows £100 Atmospheric evolution on Rocky Planets Non-Fellows £150 Retired £55 Dr Mary Bourke (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) Students £50 Blows and flows on Martian dunes Professor Sanjeev Gupta (Imperial, London, UK) Recent explorations of the Curiosity rover Dr Nick Tosca (St Andrews, UK) Alien surfaces: interpreting the mineralogical record of early Earth and Mars Dr David W Mittlefehldt (JSC Houston) Dawn at Vesta 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

Image: Pressmaster / Shutterstock Tar? No ta Sir, As a jobbing highway engineer, road characteristics researcher and lapsed geologist (who may even have been tutored at one stage by our revered Editor) I must point out to the authors of the feature 'Cracking up in Lincolnshire' (Geoscientist 24.02 p14) that using words like “tarmacadam” in any report to a highway department will produce shudders and shakes. 'Tarmacadam' is a term for a specific grading of granular material bound with...tar. Tar is a coal-tar derivative, packed full of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - a hazardous waste that is exceptionally Affirmative action or positive discrimination? difficult to dispose of (and expensive with it). If you do not know whether a road surface is an asphaltic concrete (not a cement-bound More women needed concrete) or a dense bituminous macadam, or indeed the evil Sir, I decided to boycott the vote for GSL Council members this year, because the slate tarmacadam, just call it a 'bound presented was entirely male. I know that the Executive Secretary has worked hard to find layer'. If you suspect tar, let the women candidates, but the Society must work harder and I believe, if necessary, impose a quota highway team know as soon as on the slate. possible, as a late discovery could BGS has worked hard on its equity policy and recently participated in the pilot run by the have a significant impact on the road Athena Swan programme for research institutes. We were assessed as achieving the equivalent building process: a quick test with a of the bronze award. If this programme continues we will look to work towards silver status in PAKMarker pen or spray with rule it the coming years (www.athenaswan.org.uk). out (hopefully). There still is a lot of Part of our action plan is to ensure that women are represented in our meeting groups, and tar bound up in old roads but it is not when there is an election or a search for applicants every effort is made to ensure that we ubiquitous, so “bound layer” and a encourage applications from qualified women candidates. photo or “asphaltic layer” or JOHN LUDDEN “bituminous layer” will do nicely. JOHN BULLAS Don’t give up on basic science physics, and chemistry. Students who had no better scientific background than geology Sir, Ben Topley is to be congratulated for his and/or geography always found the course a enthusiasm in producing the Soapbox article in struggle. We found that students with only a the March edition, ‘Geology – poor relation?’, but I C-grade GCSE maths qualification, now the can’t agree with his call to upgrade the status of minimum for university entrance, often had A-Level Geology. little experience of algebra or trigonometry Many schools and and knew nothing about colleges do not offer interpreting straight line A-Level geology, so all graphs. It’s difficult to university courses have to make much progress in start at the beginning, science without these making the A-level , if elementary skills. not a waste of time, a When it comes down to it, time that could be there is no science without better spent. maths, physics, and When the water chemistry, and maths is authority, where I always going to be the most Image: Lincolnshire County Council worked, was privatised important. It may be an (1989), I began teaching obsession to concentrate on undergraduates. One of these subjects, but there is no the subjects I taught, better way to enter the study of not surprisingly, was geology than with a solid hydrogeology. In the background of course, there was a basic science. little bit of maths, KEN VINES

20 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST GEOSCIENTIST LETTERS

The Club - poring over the entrails Sir, During the Bicentenary celebrations in 2007, I received a batch Off the rails of documents labelled “Geological Society Club” from the family of Sir, Nina Morgan’s article (Geoscientist the late Professor J F Kirkaldy (1908-1990) (Geoscientist 17.9 p 4). 24.02, p27) accentuates the care that must The papers covered the period from 1924 to 1959 and a hand be taken in assessing anything concerning written note by E E S Brown (1892-1959) revealed that one of them Victorian railway building at face value. had originated with A J Bull (1875-1950). The Oxford and South Stoke Railway was One item had survived from WWII in the form of a handwritten almost certainly a ‘spoiling’ tactic put circular from W J Gordon dated May 12th 1943 expressing the wish together by ‘narrow gauge’ (ie., standard that the Club should resume its activities if adequate catering gauge, in present terminology) interests to arrangements could be made. Unfortunately this could not be done disrupt the hegemony of the Great Western externally, but Gordon noted that as an alternative “the porter at the Railway west of London. George Stephenson’s Society’s apartments is willing to set out sandwiches, and his wife involvement makes this a certainty. The will make tea and coffee”. This was to be tried out on an Stephensons (père et fils) had been engaged in a experimental basis at 12.30 pm on the 19th May at not less than long-running battle with the GWR since about 3/6d (17.5p) per head, with sandwiches from Messrs Lyons. 1835. There was absolutely no love lost between Clearly conditions were far more austere than those described by them and Mr Brunel. The period 1835–50 is Nina Morgan during WWI (Geoscientist 23.10 p 24). characterised by the “Gauge wars” where the The most interesting items, however, are the Annual Reports. interests of passengers took no place at all in the These have been heavily annotated by Brown and give an insight machinations of the railway builders. into the workings of the Club during “close sessions” when new Interestingly, of course, South Stoke is about two miles members were elected. Any vacancies for Honorary Membership NW of Goring and I presume that the projected railway were filled (largely on ‘Buggins’s turn’) and election of Ordinary would have reached Oxford along the Thames Valley via Members then followed with members first ranking applicants in Wallingford. The ultimate intention would have been to carry on order of preference. Voting started with the most preferred northwards to join the London and Birmingham railway (built by candidate and continued until either current vacancies had been Robert Stephenson) in the Rugby area. Passengers and freight filled or candidates failed to meet two further conditions. would have had to change trains at South Stoke due to the Successful candidates were not always those one would expect gauge difference. from their academic standing - other criteria seem to have been at In fact, of course, the GWR built its own line from Didcot to work. For example most of the geologists that played a part in Oxford (initially to a terminus in Hinksey) in 1844, four years after wartime activities were elected, as were all nine members of the the London – Bristol main line had opened. BIOS Mission1 that examined the state of German Academic And ’s involvement? Just a sop to make the Geology in 1946. Brown, Bull and Kirkaldy were of course close whole affair look vaguely credible. Most railways at the time friends and one can only wonder what these eminent gentlemen were promoted and built by local independent companies and talked about in the privacy of their club and what secrets recruited “men of standing” to provide shareholder comfort. were shared... The hope was that a larger concern such as the GWR would DAVE GREENWOOD buy them out later: it would have been this “pseudo- chairmanship” that Stephenson was talking about. Buckland References - 1) DINES, H. G. et al. German Academic Geology. BIOS Final Report No. was certainly not in the running to chair the GWR and he 948. Item No. 21. British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee. London. iii + 10 pp. probably realised what he’d let himself in for – hence the later use of Stephenson’s letter as a folder. ➤ Editor writes: A longer version of this letter is available online HUGH TORRENS

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 21 have no Internet access? CALL THE [Library Bookshop 0207 432 0999 for] BOOKS & ARTS advice and to purchase publications

Experimenting on a on the Cretaceous and early Paleogene, materials from all corners of the when the poles were mild and world, from Argentina to China and Small Planet temperate and deep oceans were warm, Tanzania to Greenland, but importantly and the middle and late Cenozoic, when working thoroughly through the older This thick and well- Antarctic continental ice and a mostly- specimens in museums. The result here illustrated volume is a frozen Arctic Ocean produced strikingly is a magnificent series of 12 initial highly readable tour different regimes because the world’s chapters that review each of the major through the oceans were dominated by polar-chilled Triassic archosaurian clades with multidisciplinary deep water, and the atmosphere by great great thoroughness. science behind Earth’s latitudinal temperature and pressure These chapters incorporate recent oceanographic and gradients, a regime that culminated in analysis and new discoveries, and atmospheric warming the waxing and waning continental ice provide the definitive account of the and cooling on both sheets of the past two million years. systematics and phylogeny of each clade, geologic and Changes due to even ‘present’ with comments on palaeobiology. anthropogenic timescales, by a major atmospheric CO2 levels would continue The remaining 12 chapters are contributor with a phenomenal grasp of to develop for millennia before new ‘contributions to knowledge’ concerning the whole. Here are the diverse topics quasi-equilibria were established. diverse Triassic archosaurian themes, that comprise all the sciences within that Mankind is facing catastrophe as a and might have been better huge field, each given a history and in- rapidly increasing population accommodated in regular journals, so depth treatment with easily understood simultaneously outgrows its resources retaining the integrity of the first half of (but not dumbed-down) explanations of and enters a more hostile global the book as a comprehensive overview of complex causes, effects, and interactions. environment. Triassic Archosauria. Nonetheless, all Many of these topics are neglected in are of high quality. mainline global-warming work, and Reviewed by Warren Hamilton The diversification of archosaurs professionals as well as outsiders will through the Triassic is one of two major find much that is new to them. switches in the relative success of reptiles Hay’s perspective from his long career EXPERIMENTING ON A SMALL PLANET, A and synapsids (= mammals and their SCHOLARLY ENTERTAINMENT provides much insight lacking in the HAY, WILLIAM W Published by: Springer-Verlag, 2013. ancestors). Synapsids were the dominant physics that dominates anthropogenic- XXIV, 963 p., 403 illus.ISBN 978-3-642-28559-2 (hbk). terrstrial tetrapods in the Permian, and warming studies. He emphasises the List price: £22.00. www.springer.com they are today. Reptiles, primarily enormous changes that can follow tipping archosaurs, and among them, dinosaurs, points, such as the recent one that has dominated through the Mesozoic, made inevitable an Arctic Ocean mostly bookended by the Permo-Triassic and the ice-free in summer, and the delays, Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinctions, feedbacks, and complexities that ensure Anatomy, Phylogeny and 252 and 66 million years ago. It is for this continuing long-term mega-changes from reason that understanding the that threshold. Palaeobiology of Early diversification of archosaurs in the The decreasing temperature gradient Archosaurs and their Kin Triassic matters. south from the Arctic has already made In a final chapter, Alan Turner and the northern jet stream slower, more The archosaurs, today Sterling Nesbitt provide a fascinating frequently erratic, and much more likely represented by birds investigation of processes behind this to stall in place with the weather masses and crocodiles, radiation, finding modest evidence for a it controls. Extreme weather is steadily originated in the driven trend in body size increase, increasing as a result, and more and earliest Triassic from contrary to another recent study (Sookias worse would be coming even if Late Permian et al., Proc. R. Soc. B 279, 2180-7; 2012), greenhouse gas emissions stop forebears, and the which found that the general increase in immediately (which of course will not group enjoyed great body size among Triassic archosaurs was happen). Predicting the specific great success in the passive, and not a driven trend. These changes in oceanic and atmospheric aftermath of the are early days in the numerical circulations is confounded, however, devastating Permo-Triassic mass exploration of macroevolution, and the because there has been no documented extinction. The living archosaurs are basis for such important work is the past occurrence of an icy Antarctic and an specialised endpoints of a once much thorough documentation of fossils, ice-free Arctic from which to reason by more diverse clade, comprising dinosaurs, systematics, and stratigraphy presented analogy, and north-south pterosaurs, and crocodiles, and their in this volume. interconnectedness is uncertain, nor has ancestors, and it was in the Triassic that there been anything comparable to our these lines all originated. Reviewed by Michael J Benton geologically instantaneous increase of Triassic archosaurs first attracted greenhouse gases to levels unknown for attention in the 1820s and 1830s when ANATOMY, PHYLOGENY AND PALAEOBIOLOGY 35 million years. the first tetrapod remains were recovered OF EARLY ARCHOSAURS AND THEIR KIN Bill Hay has searched for explanations from the classic Triassic red beds of S J NESBITT, J B DESOJO & R B IRMIS (Eds)Published of the two major stable states of Germany and England, and a great deal by: The Geological Society of London 2013: SP 379. Phanerozoic climates, “greenhouse” and has been discovered since. A new ISBN 978-1-86239-361-5 (hbk) 608pp List price: £150.00. Fellows’ price £75.00. subordinate “icehouse”, and of the generation of researchers, represented in www.geolsoc.org.uk/bookshop switches between them. He has focused this book, has been recovering new

22 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST Would you like to receive a free book and write a review? Available titles are listed online, of which a small selection is shown below. Contact the editor for further information [email protected]

Advances in Carbonate paper on the effect of diagenesis on running at about 82 million barrels/day, fracture crack-seal mechanics, a paper on but the rise in demand by 2050 will be Exploration and 3D modelling of karst cave systems, and such that we will need 110 million Bpd. a paper on reservoir modelling using Yet all that industry has been able to do Reservoir Analysis data from Triassic outcrops (Germany). over the past few years is keep production From these, it is clear that accurate flat in a time of extended oil prices. The title of the new assessment and carbonate reservoir Where is all that extra production to come GSL text covers a wide modelling requires a methodical from? So it’s not just a question of breadth of research. integration of specialized geologic sub- whether or not the assets are toxic, but The text categorises the disciplines. The text provides numerous whether we can even get near keeping up papers under four analogues useful for exploration and with demand. Admittedly, tight oil has main areas: Emerging modelling efforts. It also describes new proved a boon in the USA. But is that just plays and techniques; techniques for assessing and collecting short term? And can it really be repeated Improved reservoir data, and creating realistic carbonate elsewhere over the long term? It has been characterisation; reservoir models. I would suggest that said that once you start drilling shale Influence of fractures any geoscientist working on carbonate wells it takes all the running you can do and faults, and Advances in reservoirs purchase a copy. to stay in the same place, like Alice’s geomodelling. The editors have collected Red Queen. a diverse range of papers under a broad Reviewed by Thomas Hoak Leggett’s answer is to call for massive contextual umbrella. All papers are well investment in what he calls the cleantech illustrated with excellent photos, effective energy sources we shall need in the use of colour graphics and a useful index. ADVANCES IN CARBONATE EXPLORATION AND future. Currently we are saddled with a The papers were originally presented at a RESERVOIR ANALYSIS dysfunctional dinosaur and riddled with J GARLAND, J E NEILSON, S E LAUBACH & K J meeting in November 2010, with online WHIDDEN (Eds) Published by: The Geological Society short-term thinking. The industry may be publication in 2012. of London, 2013: SP370. ISBN 978-1-86239-350-9, right to say there will always be gas, and Most geoscientists approach carbonate 310pp, hbk. oil, and coal. But the Stone Age didn’t List price: £90.00: Fellows’ price: £45.00 reservoirs with trepidation due to the www.geolsoc.org.uk/bookshop stop because we ran out of stones. potential for complexity in multiple Endless growth is a problem on one overlapping sub-disciplines, and the planet with finite resources. So what can perceived requirement for expert-level we do about it? We could all start by specialisation. To this end, it is reading Leggett for ideas, that’s for sure. appropriate that the contributors in this The Energy of Nations volume come from academia, government Reviewed by Colin Summerhayes research organizations, industry consortia Subtitled ‘Risk and major oil companies. The majority of Blindness and the Road scientists in the oil industry, however, are to Renaissance’, the THE ENERGY OF NATIONS - RISK BLINDNESS AND THE ROAD TO RENAISSANCE consultants and geologists who work for risk that Leggett’s book JEREMY LEGGETT Published by: Routledge 2013. smaller petroleum companies which draws to our attention 272pp ISBN: 978-0415857826 (sbk). generally cannot field the in-house is that because of the List price: £19.99 expertise often necessary to conduct major demands of nations for carbonate system analyses. Individuals us collectively to cut and small organisations will benefit the back on the use of fossil BOOKS Available for review most from the presentation of current fuels (so as to mitigate research in the book. the effects of global warming caused by Please contact [email protected] if you would The introduction represents a thorough emissions of carbon dioxide) eventually like to supply a review. You will be invited to keep the review copy. See a full up-to-date list at summary of the contents and highlights the assets that oil companies have in the www.geolsoc.org.uk/reviews the various contributions to the current ground, and that form the basis for their state-of-the-art. A historical summary share price, will become worthless because u Stratigraphic landscape analysis, paper of carbonate research (Burchette) we shall have to stop using them. thermochronology and the episodic development provides a valuable industry perspective, They are potential toxic assets rather of elevated, passive continental margins by Green, p. et al., Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland and suggests future research avenues. like the bundles of dud mortgages recently Bull. 30. 2013 (sbk) There is one paper on lacustrine packaged by the banks and traded as u Antarctica and Supercontinent Evolution by Harley microbialites in rift settings. Two papers valuable until some infant somewhere S L et al (Eds). Published by The Geological Society on karst system modelling and assessment realised that the emperor had no clothes. SP 383 2013 237pp (hbk) (Apulia Platform, Italy; Jurassic “This risk goes completely unrecognised u Isotopic Studies in Cretaceous Research by Bojar limestones, Southern France), papers on by all sectors of the financial chain” he A-v et al. (Eds) Published by The Geological Society assessment and modelling of says. If that realisation comes suddenly 2013 SP 382 221pp (hbk) hydrothermal dolomites (both in Basque- rather than slowly, it could “amount to u Remote Sensing of Volcanoes and Volcanic Cantabrian Basin, Spain) application of another bubble bursting and a grave Processes: Integration Observation & Modelling new techniques to an old area (Grosmont, shock to the global financial system”. by Pyle D M et al., (Eds). Published by The Geological Society SP 380 2013 360pp (hbk) Canada; Taq-Taq Field, Kurdistan), two We are looking at what Leggett calls u papers on modelling of carbonate build- “unburnable carbon”. Orogenic Andesites and Crustal Growth by Gomez- Tuena A et al., (Eds) Published by The Geological ups (Sacramento Mountains, USA; Leggett’s argument also revolves Society SP 385 2014 414pp (hbk) offshore Palawan, Philippines), a topical around ‘peak oil’. Production has been

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 23 PEOPLE NEWS CAROUSEL

All Fellows of the Society are entitled to Going strong after 163 years! entries in this column. Please email [email protected], quoting your Archivist Caroline Lam explains why all Society Presidents Fellowship number. find themselves sitting on a commission set up in 1851...

uColin Bristow The Royal Commission for the Great Colin Bristow has been Exhibition was the body charged with presented with The Bolitho overseeing the organisation of the Gold Medal of the Royal world’s first ever trade fair, which Geological Society of Cornwall opened in Hyde Park in the specially by Lady Elizabeth Bolitho. constructed ‘Crystal Palace’ on 1 Colin was Chief Geologist of English China May 1851. Clays for nearly 30 years and a Visiting The Commission consisted of Professor at Camborne School of Mines, as members of all political parties as well well as author of many papers and books, as individuals prominent in the fields mostly concerned with industrial geology of art, science, agriculture and and SW England. He was also Chairman of architecture - including, ex officio, the APIPG and President of the Institution of presidents of the Geological Society, Geologists shortly before merger with The Institution of Civil Engineers and the Geological Society of London. Chair of the East India Company. Other Society Fellows served as u Theophilus Davies members of the sub-committees and on Theophilus Davies has been the medal-awarding juries, including awarded the NMGS/SHELL Henry Thomas De la Beche under his Award for 2014 by the Nigerian hat as Director of the Geological Survey. Mining and Geosciences The Archives still hold the medal Society. The award is the certificate awarded to De la Beche in which helped establish the Victoria and highest offered by the Society, for geologists recognition of his services, signed by Albert Museum, Science Museum, of any nationality who have made significan Prince Albert who was appointed Natural History Museum, Royal Albert contributions to Earth sciences by President of the Royal Commission Hall and Imperial College, as well as persistent, consistent and excellent research (and who was also, coincidentally, a the Royal College of Art and the Royal in any applied aspects of the Earth sciences Fellow of the Geological Society). College of Music. on the African continent. However, after ‘Albertopolis’ was Successful nearly complete, enough money u Stephen Foster So successful was this ‘Exhibition of the remained for the Commissioners to Stephen Foster, William Smith Works of Industry of All Nations’, that found an educational trust that still Medallist of 2006 and a BGS- the Commission became a permanent operates today. The current presidents Divisional Director during 1991- body on 2 December 1851 to administer of GSL and ICE still serve on it, and 2000, has become a Senior the substantial profits from the event grants are available for research in Adviser to the Global Water and specifically, to use them ‘to increase science and engineering, industry and Partnership based in Stockholm – working the means of industrial education and industrial design. on incorporating groundwater sustainability extend the influence of science and considerations into integrated policies for art upon productive industry’. ➤ For further information see www.royal- urban water management, and the Initially this saw the purchase of 87 commission1851.org/awards/ governance of irrigated agriculture and land- acres of land in South Kensington use change. u Jamie Robinson IN MEMORIAM WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/OBITUARIES Jamie Robinson has joined SLR Consulting as a Technical THE SOCIETY NOTES WITH SADNESS THE PASSING OF: shown in bold. Fellows for whom no obituarist has yet Director, based in the Blackburn, James Kirk * Leckie, George Gallie * been commissioned are marked with an asterisk (*). The company’s Bradford on Bowler, Christopher Michael Little, Betsy A * symbol § indicates that biographical material has been Lance * Middleton, John * lodged with the Society. Avon office. A Chartered Chapman, W T * Miller, James * Geologist and Specialist in Land Condition, Holroyd, J D * Million, Ronald * If you would like to contribute an obituary, please email Hudson, Neal F C * Moffatt, William Stewart * [email protected] to be commissioned. You can Jamie has previously worked for Hull, John Robson, Geoffrey Robert * read the guidance for authors at environmental consultancies in UK and Irving, Ted Spencer, Peter Murray * www.geolsoc.org.uk/obituaries. To save yourself Australia, is an examiner for the SiLC Jacqué, Maurice * Spurr, Arthur M M* unnecessary work, please do not write anything until you Jones, Brian Lloyd * Williams, Colin L * have received a commissioning letter. qualification and a scrutineer for the Geological Society. At SLR he will develop In the interests of recording its Fellows' work for posterity, Deceased Fellows for whom no obituary is forthcoming the Society publishes obituaries online, and in have their names and dates recorded in a Roll of Honour at the company’s global geochemistry and Geoscientist. The most recent additions to the list are www.geolsoc.org.uk/obituaries. hydrochemistry capabilities.

24 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST GEOSCIENTIST PEOPLE NEWS

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

DISTANT THUNDER How are the mighty fallen

Nina Morgan* discovers University in California. As a mark of respect, Jordan must how an earthquake put have been influential in the Louis Agassiz's nose commissioning a marble statue severely out of joint of Agassiz to join those honouring luminaries such as As a geologist and Johann Gutenberg, Benjamin palaeontologist Swiss-born Jean Franklin, and Alexander von Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1807- Humboldt on the second story 1873) began making waves early of the north wall of what was in his career. At the age of just then the Zoology Building. 26 he published the first part of But Mother Nature had other Recherches sur les poissons ideas, and the Earth turned out fossils - a five-volume opus to be Agassiz's undoing. When magnum which appeared at the San Francisco earthquake intervals from 1833-43). Then in struck in 1906, many of the 1840, aged just 33 and working buildings on the Stanford with William Buckland (1784- campus (c.50km to the south), 1856) first Reader in Geology at were also damaged. Among the Oxford University, he discovered casualties was Agassiz's statue, convincing evidence of ancient which fell head-first to the glaciers in Scotland. ground below. Boston Imbedded In 1846, thanks to a grant from According to one contemporary Frederick William IV, the King of account "...the statue fell Prussia, Agassiz crossed the foremost into the ground (right Atlantic to take up an invitation through a cement walk) up to his saying, 'Hark! Listen!'" Jordan Hall. Opposite him to give a course of lectures at shoulders, and still sticks there, According to Steven Jay Gould, stands his friend and mentor, the the Lowell Institute in Boston. legs in the air and his hand held others were heard to say “I liked Prussian geographer Alexander These proved very popular, and out gracefully. People came Agassiz better in the abstract von Humboldt. with offers of finane flowing in, running from the quad with such than in the concrete”, though Acknowledgement he decided to stay on to sober faces, but when they saw this may be apocryphal. ➤ Sources for this vignette include investigate the geology of North him they couldn't help laughing, Amazingly, although his statue the Wikipedia entry for Louis America. He remained in the and one fellow went up and was imbedded to the shoulder, Agassiz, and the article United States for the rest of his shook hands with him." the only damage was to its Earthquake Impacts on Prestige, life, and became an important Another account described nose. This was soon reunited Memorial Arch & Agassiz Statue, and inspirational figure in the "...Agassiz's natural instinct that with the rest, and Agassiz's available at: American scientific community. when the earthquake came he statue, fully restored, was http://quake06.stanford.edu/ Among his admirers was decided to stick his head returned to its original position. centennial/tour/stop3.html David Starr Jordan (1851 - underground to find out what Today it stands securely 1931), an ichthyologist and the was going on in the earth below mounted on a plinth, on one *Nina Morgan geologist and first president of Stanford and with his finger pointing side of the entry to Stanford’s writer based in Oxford

Frank Alexander Middlemiss 1920-2014 - an appreciation

Wendy Cawthorne, Assistant Librarian writes: Dr Frank Fozzard, a fellow student, during his first week. Middlemiss, known to generations of students as the author of Middlemiss became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1950 many geology textbooks, died 22 January 2014 aged 93. Born in but resigned in 1982, the year he officially retired from the post of Leyton (25 March 1920) he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps Reader. His main interest was in Lower Cretaceous brachiopods, during WWII and, having been taken prisoner at Anzio in February but as an expert in the geology of the Weald and SE England, he 1944, spent 14 months as a POW in Italy and Germany. On return led numerous field courses for students at QMC. to the UK he went to Queen Mary College to study geology, graduating with a ‘first’ in 1950 (PhD 1955). He remained at QMC ➤ With thanks to Stella Redburn. See also www.theguardian.com/ for the rest of his career. He even met his future wife, Florence science/2014/feb/11/frank-middlemiss

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 25 GEOSCIENTIST OBITUARY

OBITUARY COLIN LESLIE WILLIAMS 1948-2013

Sedimentologist, palaeontologist, rock music olin Williams was promoter and Dean of Faculty at Plymouth University periods of consultancy born in 1948, which he juggled with his growing up on a university commitments. council housing C estate in Newport, Participation Gwent. He spent some of his Always mindful of his early years both in and out of background, he developed a hospital, suffering a number passion for ‘widening of operations to relieve an participation’ and he joined orthopaedic condition. Ian Tunbridge in the newly- His early career was formed University Partner governed by music, working College Faculty in 2003. as a ‘gig’ promoter before he This network of partner headed overseas to work in colleges extended from Bristol the oil industry in both North in the east to Penzance in the Africa and South America. west, and also included the Channel Islands. Rock music In 2008 he became Dean of His passion for rock music the Faculty and continued in was eventually overtaken by this role until his death. his desire to be a geologist During this time in his and he returned to the UK to administrative role he enrol as a mature student at never lost an interest in the then Plymouth the geosciences and Polytechnic. He studied supported the subject at geology as a part of the new every opportunity. BSc in Combined Studies; a (supervised by Ian Tunbridge contributed to a number of He had a genuine passion forerunner of the geosciences and Malcolm Hart). papers on the Upper for geology and degree programmes that are With the increasing Greensand Formation and palaeontology in particular. still in operation today. numbers of students in the mid-Cretaceous He also retained a love of He went on to complete an ‘new’ University of Plymouth micropalaeontology. In 1996 music, science fiction - and MSc in Marine Earth Sciences (Which received its Royal he was given a full-time malt whisky! He was a real at University College, Charter in 1992), he was contract and, for a time, was ‘family man’ and is survived London, before returning to awarded a part-time teaching programme leader for by his wife Debbie, son Plymouth to study the position in sedimentology geology. During this time he Brandon and daughter Tanith. sedimentology of the Upper and palaeontology and later also maintained contact with Greensand Formation in granted a research fellowship. the hydrocarbons industry ➤ Written by Malcolm Hart S.W. England for a PhD During this time he and was involved in small

26 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST GEOSCIENTIST CALENDAR Can’t find your meeting? VISIT www.geolsoc.org.uk/listings] [full, accurate, up-to-date

ENDORSED TRAINING/CPD COURSE DATE VENUE AND DETAILS

Borehole Design Construction and Operation 28 April - School of Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University. Contact: Professional 02 May Development Unit E: [email protected]

Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) 16 May Exeter Football Club, Exeter. Organiser: Fugro Engineering Svcs. Free one-day technical CPT course including advanced geotechnical and geo-environmental cone types and a demonstration on a CPT rig. Contact: Steve Poulter E: [email protected].

Lapworth’s Logs n/a ‘Lapworth’s Logs’ is a series of e-courses involving practical exercises of increasing complexity. Contact: [email protected]. Lapworth’s Logs is produced by Michael de Freitas and Andrew Thompson.

DIARY OF MEETINGS MAY 2014 MEETING DATE VENUE AND DETAILS

Rockwatch at Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 3-4 May Contact: Geraldine Marshall E: [email protected] Geologists’ Association

AGM & Presidential Address: Flint, basins and the 9 May Speaker: Rory Mortimore. Venue: Burlington House., Time: Not available at time of writing. end of the Chalk in the British Area Contact: Sarah Stafford E: [email protected] Geologists’ Association

Monitoring Active Volcanoes 13 May Speaker: Hazel Rymer. Venue: University of Wolverhampton, Room TBC. West Midlands Regional Time: 1800 for 1830. Contact: Dabiel Welch E: [email protected]

Student Geophysics Symposium 13 May Venue: BGS, Keyworth. Free to students – others £25. See website for details. Near Surface Geophysics Group Contact: Oliver Kuras E: [email protected]

Pushing the Boundaries – New Issues and 13 May Venue: Priory Rooms, 40 Bull St, Birmingham B4 6AF. Time: 0930-1600. Charges Apply. Applications in Groundwater Modelling See website for details. Contact: Georgina Worrall E: [email protected] Groundwater Modeller’s Forum, T: 020 7432 0981; F: 020 7494 0579 Hydrogeological Group

Chronology and Climate of the Last Interglacial 15 May Venue: Burlington House. Time: 10.00-17.00. See website for details and online registration. Marine Studies Group Contact: Mark Chapman E: [email protected]

Puddingstone and related silcretes of the Anglo-Paris 16-19 May Conference and Field Trip. Venue: Burlington House, Hertfordshire, & N. France. Charges apply Basin - geological and archaeological perspectives. with Fellows’ discount. See website for details and registration. Contact: Georgina Worrall The Geological Society of London; The Geologists' E: [email protected] T: 020 7432 0981; F: 020 7494 0579 Association; Society of Antiquaries

Fermor Meeting 2014: Comparative Planetology 19-20 May Venue: Geological Society, Burlington House. Charges apply with Fellows’ discount. See website Geological Society, Astronomical Society for details and registration. Contact: Naomi Newbold E: [email protected] T: 020 7432 0981; F: 020 7494 0579

Alternative competencies for geo-value 20 May Venue: Main Building, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff. Time: 17.30 for 1800. enhancement in construction. Southern Wales Speaker: Paul Maliphant. Contact E: [email protected] Regional

Rifting in Africa - Seismological views 20 May Venue: S.H. Reynolds Lecture Theatre (Room G25), Department of Earth Sciences, University of from Afar. Western Regional Bristol. Time: 1800 for 1830. Speaker: Prof. Mike Kendall, University of Bristol. E: www.geolsoc.org.uk/wrg

Managing Nuclear Power on a Dynamic Earth 21 May Venue: Burlington House. Speaker: Neil Chapman. A Society London Lecture, followed in the Geological Society evening by the launch of ‘Underlands – a journey through Britain’s lost landscape’ by Ted Nield (Granta Books). See advert p. 6 for details.

Assessment and Design Mitigation for Rockfalls 21 May Venue: Brewery Tap, Leeds. Speaker: Thomas Clifford (Atkins). Time: None given at time of (Reprise of the Glossop Award 2012) writing. Contact James Barr E: [email protected] Yorkshire Regional

150th Anniversary of Homo neanderthalensis - the 23-25 May Venue: National University of Ireland, Galway. See website for details. Convener: Dr John Murray William King Meeting 2014 E: [email protected] National University of Ireland, Galway

Rockwatch at the National Stone Centre, Wirksworth, 24 May Venue: National Stone Centre, Wirksworth, Derbyshire. Leaders: Susan Brown and Albert Derbyshire. Geologists Association Benghiat. Time: 11.00-16.00. Contact: Geraldine Marshall E: [email protected]

Reservoir Quality of Clastic and Carbonate Rocks: 28-30 May Venue: Burlington House. Charges apply, with Fellows’ discount. See website for details and Analysis, Modelling and Prediction registration. Contact: Laura Griffiths E: [email protected] T: 020 7432 0980. Petroleum Group

Rockwatch at the Norris Museum 29 May Venue: Norris Museum, The Broadway, St Ives. Social Event and Workshop. No booking Geologists’ Association necessary. Contact: Geraldine Marshall E: [email protected] or the museum T: 01480 497314 E: www.norrismuseum.org.uk.

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 27 GEOSCIENTIST OBITUARY

OBITUARY GEOFFREY KELLAWAY 1914 - 2013

Outstanding geologist who developed sources eoffrey (Geoff) of clean hot water for the thermal spas of Bath the King’s Spring where it Arthur Kellaway, a was proved to be a secure and Fellow for 74 years, hygienic source of thermal died in Brighton on water. Geoff edited a review G 18 September 2013. of the research in The Hot Born in Bristol in 1914, he Springs of Bath. His interest in graduated with the top First the hot springs continued Class Science Degree of undiminished and, Bristol University in 1936. originating from the

The excellence of his research successful proposal to build a

was recognised by DSc new Millennium Spa in Bath, degrees from the universities he led a further multi- of both Bristol~ and of Bath. disciplinary investigation into their origin between 1999 and 2002.” THOSE WHO WORKED WITH GEOFF Bluestones Those who worked with REMEMBER HIM Geoff remember him as a free AS A FREE THINKER, thinker, who spoke WHO SPOKE persuasively about his current ideas and projects. His 1971 PERSUASIVELY ABOUT Nature paper on ‘Glaciation HIS CURRENT IDEAS and the Stones of Stonehenge’ challenged the idea of human AND PROJECTS transportation of the stones in ~ favour of a glacial origin. Yeovil This led to a lively public Geoff joined the British debate, especially with Geological Survey in 1937, archaeologist Professor Glyn initially revising the One- Daniel (Oxford University), Inch Yeovil geology map. In the originator of what Geoff 1940 Geoff was posted to the referred to (more than a little Northamptonshire ironstone sneeringly) as the 'boating field, as a result of the authors on Quaternary since the Roman occupation party hypothesis'. wartime concentration of structures of the UK. Geoff the thermal springs were not Geoff married Bronwyn in Survey work in areas of was promoted to Senior in use by Man. The leaders 1939, who died aged 84 years economic importance. Back Geologist in 1945 and District of Bath and North-East in 1999. He is survived by in the Bristol area in 1943, Geologist/ Senior Principal Somerset Council paid this his two daughters, three Geoff worked on the Six-Inch Scientific Officer in 1962, tribute to Geoff: “During the grandchildren and two geological survey of the retiring in 1974. period 1978 to 1987, Geoff great-grandchildren. Bristol/Somerset coalfields, led a multi-disciplinary producing the Bristol District Hot springs investigation to find a Special One-Inch Sheet with In retirement, Geoff source of clean water for use ➤ By Clive McCann, with F B A Welch, illustrated by undertook a major task, of in the Pump Room and to contributions from: Andrew memoirs in 1948 and 1993. great public service, on the enable the Council to restore Morrison, (BGS Archivist), Funded by the Royal Society, hot springs of Bath. In 1977 Spa bathing to the City. Jo Farrar, Paul Crossley, Mark Williams, Geoff’s he studied the permafrost of the discovery of the “The culmination of these daughters (Zoe and Ros), Alaska and Canada in 1954, pathogenic amoebae Naegleria efforts was the skilful Desmond Donovan, gaining knowledge which fowleri resulted in the closure drilling of an inclined Ramues Gallois, David was incorporated into later of the spa water bathing borehole to intercept the McCann and Ted Nield. joint papers with other pools, and for the first time flow of thermal water from

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

28 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST GEOSCIENTIST CROSSWORD

CROSSWORD NO.179 SET BY PLATYPUS WIN A SPECIAL PUBLICATION!

The winner of the March Crossword puzzle prize draw was Jeremy Joseph of Surin, Thailand.

All correct solutions will be placed in the draw, and the winner’s name printed in the July 2014 issue. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Closing date - 19 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] ACROSS DOWN Name ...... 1 Short Caphalopod shell which expands 1 This Johann Elert gave his surname ...... rapidly (10) to a planetary law (4) 6 Molten rock at surface (4) 2 River mouth (7) Membership number ...... 9 A digger of trenches. Matthew Boulton 3 Order of Triassic - Cretaceous Address for correspondence ...... described canal engineers like William marine reptiles (13) Smith as a 'tribe of jobbing' 9a's (7) ...... 4 Female giant (6) 10 aka peridot (7) 5 Of equal or constant pressure ...... 12 Early deep-sea exploration vessel (8) ...... (nowadays more commonly spelt with an 7 Southwestern US State in the extra 'e') (10) basin-and-range containing ...... 13 Latin egg (3) Grand Canyon and Barringer Meteor Crater (7) ...... 15 Alcohol family molecule (6) 8 Infamously inflammable ancient 16 Border Series, Boundary Fault, and Postcode ...... library (10) Whisky (8) 11 Student of fishes (13) 18 Killer and eater of animals (8) 14 Study of the Nile civilisations (10) 20 Stunted Japanese ornamental tree (6) SOLUTIONS MARCH 17 Measured on the 'SHOM' Scale, 23 Source of useful mineral (3) presumably (8) ACROSS: 24 Type of slip commonly seen in landsliding 1 Chalcedony 6 Abut 9 Assayer 10 Glucose 19 Precious green beryl (7) (10) 12 Unstressed 13 Age 15 Record 16 Skeleton 21 Mastic-like substance forced 26 Ethanedioate, found richly in rhubarb (7) 18 Hydrated 20 Avulse 23 Tau 24 Industrial 26 between surfaces to create an Pilings 27 Hobbits 28 Sand 29 Octahedron 27 Take on the form of another, as in impervious join (7) convergenet evolution, or mimicry (7) 22 Blood collecting chamber feeding DOWN: 28 Jedi master he is (4) the ventricle (6) 1 Coal 2 Arsenic 3 Cryoturbation 4 Dorset 29 When distances between curves and lines 25 Green legumes notoriously 5 Nagasaki 7 Buoyant 8 Thereunder 11 approach zero as they tend to infinity (10) identical (4) Undeliverable 14 Archetypes 17 Geodesic 19 Drumlin 21 Leakier 22 Asthma 25 ISBN

WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | MAY 2014 | 29 GEOSCIENTIST RECRUITMENT

To join us you’ll need; Team Leader: Mineralogy and t 1SPWFOSFTFBSDIUSBDLSFDPSEJOBGJFMEXIJDISPVUJOFMZVUJMJTFTBEWBODFE Petrology instrumental techniques related to mineralogy and/ or petrology t 'JSTUEFHSFFJO&BSUI4DJFODFPSTJNJMBS 1I%JOBSFMFWBOUUPQJDPS Salary £31,330 to £49,207 per annum MSc plus equivalent research experience Based in Keyworth, Nottingham t 8PSLJOHLOPXMFEHFPG.40GGJDF t .VTUCFBCMFUPEFNPOTUSBUFFGGFDUJWFSFTFBSDIUFBNBOEQSPKFDU The British Geological Survey (BGS) is one of the world’s leading and management experience forward thinking geological science institutes with a focus on both public t (PPEJOUFSQFSTPOBMDPNNVOJDBUJPOTLJMMTBOEQSFTFOUBUJPOBMBCJMJUJFT good science for government and geoscientific research to understand t .VTUCFBCMFUPHJWFSFMFWBOUFYBNQMFTPGMFBEFSTIJQBCJMJUJFT earth and environmental processes. A vacancy has arisen for a Team t 8JMMJOHOFTTUPUSBWFMJOUIF6,BOEPWFSTFBT Leader in Mineralogy and Petrology to be based at our headquarters in t 'VMMESJWJOHMJDFODF Keyworth, Nottingham. t "CJMJUZUPEFWFMPQSFTFBSDIQSPQPTBMTBOEXJOFYUFSOBMGVOEJOH BGS operates cutting-edge mineralogy, petrology, microanalysis and t .BOBHFNFOUFYQFSJFODFSFMBUFEUPBEWBODFEJOTUSVNFOUBMBOBMZTJTGBDJMJUJFT imaging facilities at its headquarters near Nottingham, UK. These well- t .FEJBFYQFSJFODF TUSPOHQVCMJDBUJPOUSBDLSFDPSE equipped laboratories are staffed by an experienced team of scientists t *OTUSVNFOUBMGBDJMJUZMFBEFSTIJQ who work closely with other BGS and external researchers. The Mineralogy Aside from presenting an excellent opportunity to take the lead in an area and Petrology Team provide the highest quality analysis and interpretation of science which is critical to the future strategy of BGS, you will also be of rocks, minerals and other materials related to a diverse range of encouraged to develop your own research interests within an exciting and applied geoscience topics including radioactive waste and carbon dioxide vibrant applied geoscience research environment. geodisposal, unconventional hydrocarbons, metallogenesis, climate A generous benefits package is also offered, including a company pension change and geohazards. scheme, childcare voucher scheme, 30 days annual leave plus 10.5 days As the Team Leader for Mineralogy and Petrology, you will report directly public and privilege holidays. to the BGS Science Director for Minerals and Waste. You will be expected Applications are handled by the UK Shared Business Service Ltd; to provide leadership, vision and direction for your team, ensuring that all to apply please visit our job board at http://www.topcareer.jobs/Vacancy/ relevant areas of BGS national capability and externally-funded science are irc137593_4313.aspx and submit your up-to-date CV and covering letter, underpinned by excellent mineralogical and petrological research. You will which clearly outlines why you are applying for this post and how you also help your team and work with BGS and partner institutions to identify meet the criteria described in this advertisement. Please quote reference and pursue externally-funded research opportunities (grants, research number IRC137593. programmes and commissioned work). Closing Date: 5 May 2014.

30 | MAY 2014 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST Deep Earth Processes windows on the workings of a planet

The Geological Society, Burlington House, 15-16 September 2014 Piccadilly, London, UK

The physical and chemical nature of Earth’s deep interior is key in controlling many of the processes that shape our planet: from mantle convection to melting, from volcanism to plate tectonics. Rationalising the latest observations – be they clues revealed in the compositions of mantle melts, diamond formation, seismological nuances, or atomistic scale predictions – requires interaction across sub-disciplines. This international meeting seeks to draw together the latest ideas and results from geophysicists, geochemists, mineral physicists, geodynamicists and petrologists to identify the processes shaping the inaccessible depths of our planet.

Thematic sessions: • Deep mantle structure • Composition of the lower mantle • Core formation, CMB & D" • Surface expression of deep Earth processes Convenors: Sally Gibson, , UK Saskia Goes, Imperial College, UK Simon Redfern, University of Cambridge, UK Mike Walter, University of Bristol, UK Keynote Speakers: John Hernlund, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Bernie Wood, University of Oxford, UK Invited Speakers: Chris Ballentine, University of Oxford, UK John Brodholt, University College London, UK Arwen Deuss, University of Cambridge, UK Dan Frost, Bayreuth, Germany Matt Jackson, UC Santa Barbara, USA Further information Peter van Keken, University of Michigan, USA Mike Kendall, University of Bristol, UK For further information about the conference please contact: Graham Pearson, University of Alberta, CA Dan Shim, Arizona State University, USA Naomi Newbold, Conference Office, The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG Call for abstracts T: 0207 434 9944 E: [email protected] There is a call for abstracts and contributions are W: www.geolsoc.org.uk/deepearth14 invited by 30th May 2014. Further information on submitting an abstract can be found at Follow this event on Twitter #deepearth14 www.geolsoc.org.uk/deepearth14 Image credit: Planetary Visions Ltd Visions Planetary Image credit: Co-evolution of Life and the Planet Future perspectives in Earth System Science

55thth aandnd 66thth NNovemberovember 20142014

The Geological Society, London Long-term co-evolution of life and the planet (NERC research programme)

Evening Ice-breaker: 4th November at UCL

Convenors: Dr Alistair Crame, British Antarctic Survey Dr Gavin Foster, University of Southampton Professor Tim Lenton, University of Exeter Professor Richard Twitchett, University of Plymouth Professor Graham Shields, University College London Programme Manager: Ying Zhou, University College London ([email protected])

The Earth that sustains us today has arisen out of planetary scale co-evolution of the physical and biological worlds. The complexity of these interactions necessitates a multidisciplinary ‘Earth System Science’ approach. Two years on from ‘Life and the Planet 2011’, this two-day meeting will explore advances in our understanding of the coupled evolution of life and the planet.

The four main themes of this meeting are: 1) Precambrian origins of the modern Earth System; 2) Key events in the evolution of marine ecosystems; 3) Geological constraints on biological evolution in the polar regions; 4) Descent into the Icehouse during the Cenozoic Era.

www.lifeandplanet.net/2014-life-and-planet.html

Call for abstracts

Conference posters and a limited number of oral contributions are welcome. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words and should be submitted as a Word document by Monday 30th June 2014. For further information about the conference, or to submit a poster abstract, please contact: Georgina Worrall, The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG T: 0207 434 9944 E: [email protected] W: www.geolsoc.org.uk/lifeandtheplanet14 Twitter hashtag: #LATP14