Australia's Metalliferous Mineral Wealth
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MERCIAN Geologist VOLUME 18 PART 1 AUGUST 2012 East Midlands Geological Society Contents President Vice-President Profi le – Brian Jones 2 Brian Jones Tim Colman Geobrowser 3 Secretary Treasurer Tim Colman 5 Janet Slatter Colin Bagshaw Australia’s metalliferous mineral wealth Editorial Board John N Carney 34 Tony Waltham John Carney Thixotropic wedges or fl uidised water-escape columns in the Charnian Supergroup at Bragdate Park Keith Ambrose Alan Filmer David Bate Gerry Slavin H Rollinson, J Adetjuni, G Souch, M Greenwood 41 Derby dust: geochemical characterisation of Council airborne inorganic particulate matter in western Derby Keith Ambrose Richard Hamblin Colin A Baker 47 Vanessa Banks Sue Miles The Holocene 8200 BP event: David Bate Gerry Shaw its origin, character and signifi cance Albert Benghiat Ian Sutton Geoffrey Warrington and John E Pollard 55 Sue Cotton Geoff Warrington On the record of ‘corals’ from the Late Triassic Arden Sandstone Formation, Western Park, Leicester Correspondence Albert Horton 60 Society Secretary, 100 Main Street, The occurrence of calcium phosphate Long Whatton, Loughborough LE12 5DG in the Mesozoic and Tertiary of Eastern England 01509 843297 [email protected] Hugh S Torrens and Trevor D Ford 69 Mercian Geologist Editor, An early-19th century geological map 11 Selby Road, Nottingham NG2 7BP of the Peak District by John Farey 0115 981 3833 [email protected] Reports Mercian Geologist is printed by John Browns, Members’ Evening, 2012: and published by the East Midlands Geological Society. Mines and quarries database: Don Cameron 74 No part of this publication may be reproduced in printed Mining at Alderley Edge: Geoff Warrington 75 or electronic form without prior consent of the Society. ISSN 0025 990X Book Review 76 © 2012 East Midlands Geological Society British Triassic palaeontology 34: Geoffrey Warrington 77 Registered Charity No. 503617 Stone circle in British Columbia: Michael Czajkowski 78 Excursion – Bradford Dale: Colin Bagshaw 79 Front cover: The apron reef limestones of Parkhouse Excursion – Upper Dove Valley: Neil Aitkenhead 80 Hill, formed on the edge of the Carboniferous Excursion – Ashover: Tim Colman 82 Derbyshire Carbonate Platform, and visited on a Millom Rock Park, Cumbria: Alan Filmer 83 Society excursion (see p80). Photo by Tony Waltham. The Record 84 Back cover: Gypsum extraction from the upper Supplement part of the Mercia Mudstone at the opencast pit of The geological setting of the lead mines of the Hucklow, Eyam, Bantycock Mine, at Balderton, south of Newark. Stoney Middleton and Longstone Edge area, Derbyshire Photos by David Bate and Tony Waltham. by Trevor D Ford PROFILE Brian Jones Our new president, Brian, was born in the suburbs of Nottingham early in the Second World War, and was brought up largely by his mother, with his father serving in the army. Leaving school at the age of 15, he followed an engineering apprenticeship and studied for an ONC and HNC in mechanical engineering at Nottingham colleges, then spent several years in further studies of ancillary engineering subjects. At this early stage he worked in mechanical engineering, but moved into structural steelwork engineering where his interests were more readily satisfi ed. Subsequently, he joined a Civil and Structural Engineering consultancy practice in Derby where he acquired experience and knowledge of other construction materials, including concrete, aluminium, masonry, and timber. Additionally work frequently involved geotechnical engineering, a subject closely allied to his later interest in geology. In preparation for the entrance examinations of The Institution of Structural Engineers, he became involved for several years in the part-time and Structural Engineering consultancy practices, teaching of mathematics and engineering subjects and in the East Midlands Branch of The Institution at colleges in both Nottingham and Derby. of Structural Engineers. On being elected to membership of the Institution From the mid 1970s, he attended adult education of Structural Engineers (M.I.Struct.E.) and classes in Nottingham, developing his knowledge becoming a Chartered Structural Engineer (C.Eng), and interests, principally in geology, but also in a he made a career move into local government variety of other subjects such as natural history, in the Structures Section of Nottingham City vernacular architecture and, more recently, English Engineers Department. In 1973 he was appointed literature and medieval history. to the post of Principal Structural Engineer at He was involved in the establishment of a WEA Derby Borough Council, and later he moved to branch in Arnold, serving as Branch Chair for fi ve Chesterfi eld Borough Council as Group Structural years, before moving to the much larger Nottingham Engineer in the Technical Services Department. Branch and serving as Branch Chair for a similar Although a smaller Authority, work was much period. It was as WEA representative on Centre involved with geotechnical and geological matters, Committee at the University of Nottingham’s dealing with the problems left by a largely defunct Adult Education Centre that his interest in adult coal mining industry. This concerned not only the education provision grew, and he occupied the post provision of structural design and advice to client of Branch Treasurer for nine years, until Liberal departments within the Council, but also with the Studies courses effectively ended at the University letting and managing of contracts for the opencast in 2008. mining of former colliery sites with subsequent redevelopment. From the mid-1970s, he joined geology excursions both in Britain and abroad to the In 1994 he was involved in the refurbishment Western United States and Hawaii. These overseas of Tapton House, which was leased by George trips were particularly inspiring and have been Stephenson when he came to Chesterfi eld in the supplemented by holidays at home and abroad 1830s to construct the North Midland Railway, where investigation of the local geology has been and was his home until his death in 1848. a primary objective. Brian joined the EMGS soon In 1997 Brian took early retirement from local after attending classes in around 1976, and ever government. Not wishing to give up entirely, he since has been a frequent supporter at both indoor has continued working part time in various Civil meetings and on fi eld excursions. 2 MERCIAN GEOLOGIST 2012 18 (1) 1998), but the search for new oil reserves continues GEOBROWSER and the stage is now set for a third exploration phase - for shale-gas, which was highlighted on Energy from the Vale of Belvoir the BBC’s Sunday Politics for the East Midlands on the 24th March this year. The pleasantly rolling pastoral scenery of the Vale and its surrounding wolds are developed on Mesozoic strata that conceal one of the most New prospects? important resources of fossil fuels in north- As we reported in Geobrowser for 2010, shale- western Europe. Its value is emphasized by the gas could be a new hope for energy production prodigious amounts of money spent during the last and is a relatively ‘green’ resource of fossil fuel. century on exploration. Coal was fi rst proved in Unfortunately however, sensational headliners the 1920’s, during a programme of deep drilling have jumped on the bandwagon with titles such as: by the D’Arcy Exploration Company (later to ‘Rich Shale Gas Deposits found in Leicestershire’ become BP). Following intensive exploration (http://thegwpf.org/uk-news/5321, from Leicester during 1973-76 the NCB (National Coal Board) Mercury, 28 March 2012). On closer examination announced reserves of 510 M tonnes, making this of this article we see that according to the BGS the largest unworked coalfi eld in Western Europe these are only potential ‘deposits’ that will require (Mann, 1980; Vale of Belvoir Inquiry Report: extensive sampling and drilling in order to prove. HMSO). Meanwhile a combination of geophysics, At the moment it seems that most prospection in underground colliery data and seismic surveys had the Vale of Belvoir will be directed at strata pre- earlier located anticlinal structures suitable for oil dating the Coal Measures and in places lying at or gas accumulation. Oil was fi rst struck in June depths of over 1000 m. Due to syn-Carboniferous 1939 to the north of the Vale of Belvoir, at Eakring subsidence within a structure known as the (QJGS, 1945, 255-317); during the Second World Widmerpool Half-graben (or ‘Gulf’), up to 500 War, with the help of imported American expertise m of potentially gas-rich source rocks are present from Oklahoma, many more wells were brought in some parts. Of Namurian age, they are now into production and the search extended farther referred to as the Bowland Shale Formation and are south, into the Vale. This resulted in 33 wells sited broadly equivalent to the unit formerly called the around Plungar, which produced 304,067 barrels Edale Shale Group, which famously crops out at of oil between 1953 and 1959, but today there are Mam Tor in Derbyshire. Rocks of similar age and only two producing fi elds, at Rempstone and Long lithology in the USA have proved suitable for gas Clawson. production, causing a ‘shale-gas revolution’ there over the past 30 years; although the prospectivity One major outcome is that the Vale of Belvoir of mudrocks is complex, and subject to a host of now contains a wealth of subsurface information - poorly-understood variables and the direct transfer well over one hundred exploration boreholes have of technologies to similar rocks in Britain is been drilled for coal and oil, some almost a kilometre presently untested. deep, and these are augmented by a network of seismic profi les which, with an aggregate length of over 1000 km, probably exceeds the combined Fracking, earthquakes and toxic leakages length of roads and footpaths. A brief period of In order to extract shale-gas the enclosing strata underground coal extraction from the Asfordby must fi rst be fractured, a process (hydrofracturing, pilot colliery was fraught with geological problems or ‘fracking’) which involves pumping water and ceased in 1997 (Report, Mercian Geologist, and chemicals into shale rock at high pressure.