Geological Society Research Articles

Core surprise: What's inside a plate boundary?

Despite the fact that 90% of global seismicity occurs at plate boundary faults, our understanding of their internal structure is lacking. It’s not easy to see inside a plate boundary fault – typically composed of a high-strain fault core surrounded by a fractured damage zone – and when we can, it often requires expensive drilling projects that yield limited information on the internal structure of the whole fault. Understanding the internal structure of large faults is crucial, because their chemical and mechanical properties control how and where earthquakes rupture, nucleate and propagate. This in turn limits the size of the earthquake or the amount of radiated seismic energy, and consequently the severity of surface damage. The 1999 magnitude 7.7 earthquake along the Chelungpu plate boundary fault, for example – the second deadliest earthquake in Taiwan’s recorded history – saw significant variations in slip and ground motion at different locations along the fault which resulted in large local variations in casualties and damage. Subsequent field investigations related these variations to changes in the fault’s structure (i.e., clay width, geometry), which in turn controlled how the fault moved.

Thomas, Lucy and Alatau: The Atkinsons' Adventures in Siberia and the Kazakh Steppe by Stewart John Massey (review)

REVIEWS 581 It is however somewhat old-fashioned in its approach, focusing above all on Kings and Battles, Dynastic Relations, and Enlightenment and Reforms. Interpretations are also on occasion old-fashioned: thus while Frederick II’s partial but definitely incomplete relaxation of serfdom leads on to a hesitantly positive judgment of him as a monarch of his time (p. 216), Catherine II’s failure to abolish serfdom looms as a major blot on her escutcheon which meant that Russia could not ‘transform itself into a modern society’ (p. 240) — recent re-evaluations of Russian serfdom are not considered. Some items that one might expect are omitted. Christian Wolff is mentioned briefly, but the fact of the dominance of his system in Russian philosophy throughout the eighteenth century, until replaced by another German luminary, Kant, does not appear. The wide-ranging influence in Russia of cameralism, largely a German phenomenon, which equally affected Russia, Prussia and Austria, is ignored. One result of cameralist policy was the formation of a whole new social group in Russia, the Volga Germans (unmentioned, except fleetingly in connection with the 1812 formation of the Russian-German Legion, p. 367). Friedrich II’s opposition to the death penalty for infanticide or abortion is explained (p. 206) in terms of Enlightened Reform, disregarding its place in the cameralist population policies which were a major driver of his domestic regime. The volume ends with detailed military accounts of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and his downfall 1812–13, including the place of Germans and German forces in the Napoleonic and the Russian ranks. This volume is a cross between detailed history and coffee-table presentation; but it brings together in concise form a great deal of foundational information about Russian-German interactions, parallels and comparisons between 1700 and 1813. Cambridge Roger Bartlett Stewart, John Massey. Thomas, Lucy and Alatau: The Atkinsons’ Adventures in Siberia and the Kazakh Steppe. Unicorn, London, 2018. 344 pp. Illustrations. Appendices. Catalogue raisonné. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. £25.00. This is the latest book about the fascinating travels of an English family, in 1847–53, across the Urals, Siberia and what is now Eastern Kazakhstan (the previous title on the same topic, South to the Great Steppe by Nick Fielding, came out in 2015 and was reviewed in SEER, vol. 94, no. 4, pp. 748–50). Writing of the industrial towns along his route, the father of the family opined that ‘civilization of a very high character had reached these regions’ (p. 77), while the mother expressed her preference for the nomadic lifestyle of local ethnic SEER, 98, 3, JULY 2020 582 minorities: ‘I could almost wish I were a Kazakh, wandering forth like them, under a serene sky, in search of mountain pastures’ (p. 232). Thomas Witlam Atkinson (1799–1861), an architect who fell into debt, sought to revive his fortunes by travelling to Russia’s little-known regions to make their pictorial record for a subsequent sale. Permission to do so was granted by Emperor Nicholas I. While in Russia, Thomas married the governess Lucy Sherrard Finley (1819–93), who joined him on his journeys. Their son Alatau Tamchiboulac (1848–1906), named after his parents’ favourite geographical locations, was (Thomas claimed) ‘the first and perhaps the only Englishman that [would] ever be born in [the Cossack fort of] Kopal [now Qapal]’ (p. 131). Despite his very young age, Alatau, too, became Thomas and Lucy’s travelling companion along a substantial segment of a total of nearly 50,000 arduous miles. All in all, while in Russia, Thomas produced well over 500 watercolour sketches, chiefly, it seems, of landscapes and indigenes (the whereabouts of most sketches are now unknown). His mission thus accomplished, Thomas and family returned to Britain in 1857. That year also saw the publication of his travel account, Oriental and Western Siberia. The book went into several editions in the UK and the USA and was even translated into Spanish. Thomas became a kind of celebrity and was elected a Fellow at both the Royal Geographical and the Geological Societies in London. However, of his sixtythree pictures auctioned at Christie’s in 1858 only less than a half were sold, possibly...

The contribution of publications of the Yorkshire Geological Society to the understanding of the geological development of the Carboniferous Pennine Basin, northern England

The Carboniferous rocks of the Pennine Basin form the topographical spine of the region between the Scottish Border and the Peak District. They provided many of the mineral resources that fuelled the Industrial Revolution and the growth of the great northern English cities. The description of these resources was very much a focus of early papers in the Proceedings , but they went beyond the assessment of their economic importance, providing striking early insights into our understanding of deep time when the Bible still had a strong control on scientific thinking. Over a 180 year history of publication, the Proceedings and Occasional Publications contain an unparalleled description of the rocks of the Pennine Basin of Carboniferous deposition, and they continue to provide great insight into what have been intensively studied successions but of which much still remains to be learned. This review considers the relevance of these publications to our understanding of the sedimentology of Carboniferous strata, the geometries of Carboniferous basins, how these basins constrained the formation of reefs and controlled the movement of rivers and deltas in the process of eventual infill of these basins, and how sea-level variations influenced the development of cyclical successions, the hallmark of much of the Carboniferous succession.

Dr Harold Garnar Reading (1924–2019)

Dr Harold Reading, who died on 13th October 2019 at the age of 95, was a pioneering sedimentologist of international renown, with strong links to the geology of the Pennines. He was a member of the Yorkshire Geological Society for 62 years, only cancelling his subscription in early 2019, when his eyesight failed. He will be best remembered for his ground-breaking textbook ‘Sedimentary Environments and Facies’. Harold was born in Kent in 1924 and was educated in the Wirral and in Hertfordshire. His formal education was curtailed by the war and, at the age of eighteen, Harold joined the Indian Army, travelling by ship via South Africa and serving in a cavalry regiment in the northwest of pre-partition India until 1947. The experiences of this exciting time had a lasting influence on Harold's international understanding and perspective. On returning to post-war Britain, Harold obtained a place at Oxford University to read Forestry, which included an option to take Geology as a subsidiary subject. This course was …

An analysis of U.S. wastewater treatment plant effluent dilution ratio: Implications for water quality and aquaculture

Wastewater discharge and surface flow data from 2007 to 2017 was used to calculate wastewater dilution factors (WWDF) for U.S. Geological Society hydrologic unit codes (HUC) in the contiguous U.S. HUC 10-year average WWDF values generally increased from the east coast (HUC 1–3: WWDF range 125–466) as you move west to the Mississippi River (HUC 7, 8, 10: 1435–1813) before further declining moving west (HUC 13–18: 7–908), particularly in the California (HUC 18: 9) and southwestern states (HUC 13–16: 7–351). Within HUCs, watersheds with higher population centers had lower WWDF values. This population effect on WWDF was greater in drier regions (e.g. Southwestern U.S.) or during drought. This is particularly pronounced in the regions of the Southwest and West where populations are growing in an already water limited region. Moderate WWDF improvement was observed and projected through 2022 in these regions. A few areas of the country where surface water is used for aquaculture overlap with areas of low (<2) WWDF, but it is not widespread for the period examined. With continued population growth and the intensification of climate change, the proportion of treated wastewater effluent in surface waters may grow and potentially influence users of that water, but over the 10-year period examined WWDF values were relatively stable or improving for most regions of the contiguous U.S.

Reply to Discussion on ‘Breakup continents at magma poor rifted margins: a seismic v. outcrop perspective’. Journal of the Geological Society, London , 175, 875-882

Dr. Giancarlo Molli constructively replied to our paper ‘Breakup continents at magma poor rifted margins: a seismic v. outcrop perspective’ (Molli 2020) with a twofold argument (i) criticizing the collection of data, and, more importantly, (ii) questioning our discussion on the syn-tectonic behavior of basalts in the study area. 1. Regarding the first point, G. Molli produced a new, high quality interpretative map and a set of retro-deformed sections of the Levanto-Bonassola area to support the idea that Alpine deformation was underestimated by our work. At least three high-quality, detailed maps of the area were published (Decandia and Elter 1969; Barrett 1982; Cortesogno et al. 1987) and, in addition, there are a number of maps produced in the frame of PhD thesis (among which Molli 1995) that are, at present, not yet published. The fact that none of these maps are perfectly identical one to each other does not surprise any field geologist, as each geological map mainly derives from the balance of missing data (cover) and outcrops, especially in highly-anthropized areas, as is the case for the Levanto-Bonassola area. For example, if the maps of Cortesogno et al. (1987) and Decandia and Elter (1969) are compared for the area north of the Bonassola village, it can be seen that different solutions were proposed introducing or not prominent Alpine structures. This example is striking, in particular if one considers the period in which these distinguished geologists worked, because it shows how different maps gave priority to specific primary or late features that were often functional to the proposed framework. For what concerns our work, we wish to stress the concept that the map in Decarlis et al. (2018) was functional to a broader discussion and we therefore highlighted primary structures. The choice of prioritizing some observations (nature of contacts …

In the field with Joe: early excursions of the Freelance Geological Society

Fieldwork in the twenty‐first century is the subject of health and safety legislation and paperwork, as we don our luminous jackets and protective helmets. Sometimes, the geology can feel like an afterthought. Contrast this with the Freelance Geological Society in the late 1940s and after, in the field most weekends, collecting, climbing and caving, in a post‐war world with abundant quarries and mines.

Reply to Discussion on ‘The Mesoproterozoic Stac Fada proximal ejecta blanket, NW Scotland: constraints on crater location from field observations, anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, petrography and geochemistry’, Journal of the Geological Society , 176, 830–846

Simms (2019) states in his discussion: > They dismiss the Lairg Gravity Low as a possible impact crater based on palaeoenvironments, yet the cited paper specifically states ‘the Stoer Group has nothing in common with any of the Moine sequences discussed here' (Friend et al. 2003, p. 254). A direct comparison between the Stoer Group and the Moine Supergroup was never intended; instead the point we made (Amor et al. 2019, p. 844) was that earlier meta-sediments of admittedly uncertain age, as found at the Shin inlier, and over which the much later Moinian sediments were thrust, can be interpreted as marine in origin (Conclusion 1 of Friend et al. 2003), and thus quite different from the sedimentary matrix of the Stac Fada impact debris, which resembles the Stoer Group sediments. These earlier meta-sediments (now metapelites, psammites and marble) lie on a Lewisian-type crustal basement that is located to the east of the present-day outcrop of the Stoer Group, in the vicinity of Lairg, and are presumed to have been thrust an unknown distance from the east during the emplacement of the Moine thrust complex. All geological and plate reconstructions for this time place the deposition of the Stoer Group sediments in a rift valley on the eastern or southeastern margin of Laurentia (Kinnaird et al. 2007; Dalziel 2010). Furthermore, Nicholson (1993), Rainbird et al. (2001), Williams & Foden (2011), Kinnaird et al. (2007), Krabbendam & Rainbird (2012) and Lelpi et al. (2016) agree that this was a discrete and isolated rift, with significant high ground of Lewisian gneiss to the east as evidenced by deeply cut canyons and current direction towards the west (Stewart 2002), although Simms & Ernstson (2019) infer an extension of the Stoer Group deposits much further to the east. While …

UK oil and gas fields: an overview

Abstract This volume was conceived when one of us (JG) returned to the UK in mid-1996. Having not worked the UK offshore since the late 1980s it was clear that there had been many changes, not least in the number of fields on production. During that first year back in the UK, JG9s copy of Abbots (1991) UK Oil and Gas Fields, 25 Years Commemorative Volume became exceedingly well used. A casual comment to Wendy Cawthorne of the Geological Society library to this effect solicited the response that JG was not alone in finding Abbots (1991) useful. Memoir 14 was the Geological Society9s 9best seller9. However, although Abbots (1991) continues to sell well, it was by 1996 out of date insofar as it contains papers describing only about half of the fields then on production. A combination of egotistical zeal, wishing for a bestseller and altruism towards the UK industry led us to make an offer to the Geological Society to revise Memoir 14. The offer was accepted and by April 1998, editors had been appointed and letters of invitation to contribute to the memoir were sent to exploration managers in all the UK operating companies. The responses to those letters were for the most part positive. A request was made to authors for manuscripts to be sent to the editors by June 1999. The first to arrive was six months ahead of schedule (thanks A. Yaliz & N. McKim for their paper on the Douglas Field). However, neither the editors

About this title - Geological Hazards in the UK: Their Occurrence, Monitoring and Mitigation – Engineering Group Working Party Report

The UK is perhaps unique globally in that it presents the full spectrum of geological time, stratigraphy and associated lithologies within its boundaries. With this wide range of geological assemblages comes a wide range of geological hazards, whether they be geophysical (earthquakes, effects of volcanic eruptions, tsunami, landslides), geotechnical (collapsible, compressible, liquefiable, shearing, swelling and shrinking soils), geochemical (dissolution, radon and methane gas hazards) or georesource related (coal, chalk and other mineral extraction). An awareness of these hazards and the risks that they pose is a key requirement of the engineering geologist. The Geological Society considered that a Working Party Report would help to put the study and assessment of geohazards into the wider social context, helping the engineering geologist to better communicate the issues concerning geohazards in the UK to the client and the public. This volume sets out to define and explain these geohazards, to detail their detection, monitoring and management and to provide a basis for further research and understanding.

ETYMOLOGY IN THE EARTH SCIENCES: FROM ‘GEOLOGIA' TO ‘GEOSCIENCE’

The origin and usage through time of geologia, geognosy, geogony, oryctognosy, geology and geophysics, as characterised by their frequency of occurrence in the Google Books Ngram Corpus, is discussed. The English, French, German, Italian and Spanish corpuses used in this study have been normalised over the same timespan using the average frequencies of occurrence of the same set of ‘neutral’ words in each language (as advocated by Younes and Reips 2019). Use of the term geology is found to predate publication of James Hutton's Theory of the Earth in 1795 by about 100 years; geognosy, oryctognosy and geogony, much less commonly used, became established in the 1780s and began to fall out of use around 1820. The terms geologist, and geognost follow a similar pattern. The emergence of geophysics is a less familiar field: While the phrases physics of the Earth and physical geography can both be traced back to the early 1700s, geophysics only began to be used in the early 1800s and did not really become common until about 1860; geophysicist becomes common in German after 1860, but more generally after 1880. The first geophysics-related publications were bulletins from magnetic and seismic observatories and its first dedicated journal, Beiträge zur Geophysik, began publication in 1887, eighty years after the formation of The Geological Society of London. The tems earth science and geoscience, popular today, have steadily increased in their usage since being introduced in the 1880s and 1930s respectively.

Heirs of the revolution: X-ray diffraction and the birth of the Mineralogical Society of America

AbstractThe founding of the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) in 1919 followed so closely on the heels of the discovery of X-ray diffraction (XRD) in 1912 that one might hypothesize a causal link. Was MSA born out of this scientific revolution? The formation of our Society conventionally is attributed to the desire for a professional journal and the need to emerge from the shadow of the Geological Society of America, but these issues were not new in 1919. This review argues that MSA's birth can be understood by an exploration of two historical strains: (1) Although modern notions of atomism traditionally are associated with the emergence of the kinetic theory of gases in the late 19th century, mineralogists had invoked ordered atomic spheres as the fundamental metaphor for crystalline structures over a century earlier, leading directly to W.L. Bragg's discovery of the atomic design in halite; and (2) in contrast to the broader chemistry community, mineralogists were uniquely poised to embrace X-ray diffraction and the revolution in crystallography that attended it. This revelation gave rise to a sense of distinct identity.An examination of MSA's early records unambiguously reveals that U.S. mineralogists were closely attuned to the crystallographic insurgency as it took place across the Atlantic. In particular, Edgar T. Wherry, one of the organizers of the American Mineralogist and of the Society, actively dis-seminated information about the new discoveries to his colleagues in the United States. Other founders of MSA similarly championed the transformative character of the new crystallography, thereby warranting the establishment of a specialized professional society. The continuing force of the revolution is revealed in a counter-reaction a century later, as mineralogists have renewed their focus on phases at the boundary between crystals and glasses, leading to reconsiderations of the meaning of crystallinity.

Subduction Polarity in Ancient Arcs: A Call to Integrate Geology and Geophysics to Decipher the Mesozoic Tectonic History of the Northern Cordillera of North America: REPLY

Subduction Polarity in Ancient Arcs: A Call to Integrate Geology and Geophysics to Decipher the Mesozoic Tectonic History of the Northern Cordillera of North America: REPLY

About this title - United Kingdom Oil and Gas Fields: 50th Anniversary Commemorative Volume

Geological Society Memoir 52 records the extraordinary journey of more than 50 years that has led to the development of some 458 oil and gas fields on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). It contains papers on almost 150 onshore and offshore fields in all of the UK's main petroliferous basins. These papers range from look-backs on some of the first-developed gas fields in the Southern North Sea, to papers on fields that have only just been brought into production or may still remain undeveloped, and includes two candidate CO 2 sequestration projects. These papers are intended to provide a consistent summary of the exploration, appraisal, development and production history of each field, leading to the current subsurface understanding which is described in greater detail. As such, the Memoir will be an enduring reference source for those exploring for, developing, producing hydrocarbons and sequestering CO 2 on the UKCS in the coming decades. It encapsulates the petroleum industry's deep subsurface knowledge accrued over more than 50 years of exploration and production.

Reply to Discussion on ‘A reassessment of the proposed ‘Lairg Impact Structure’ and its potential implications for the deep structure of northern Scotland’. Journal of the Geological Society, London , 176, 817-829

Butler and Alsop provide a clear and thorough explanation as to why our suggestion (Simms & Ernstson 2019), that the Lairg Gravity Low might be a buried impact crater translocated from further east, is incompatible with what is known of the structure of northern Scotland, and I concede that in this particular scenario they are probably right. My original paper (Simms 2015) was based largely on field observations that, amongst other things, indicated that the Stac Fada Member impact ejecta preserved at outcrop had come from the east (despite claims to the contrary by others; Amor et al. 2008, 2019). When subsequently I became aware of the LGL I realized that its …

Discussion on ‘A reassessment of the proposed ‘Lairg impact structure’ and its potential implications for the deep structure of northern Scotland’ Journal of the Geological Society, London, 176, 817-829

The interpretation of the Stac Fada Member of the Stoer Group of NW Scotland as a proximal ejecta blanket of late Mesoproterozoic age (Amor et al. 2008) has led to the search for the impact crater from which it originated. One prominent suggestion has been that this crater lies buried beneath east-central Sutherland, broadly centred on the village of Lairg (Fig. 1; Simms 2015). Simms & Ernstson (2019) develop this suggestion by interpreting the well-known negative anomaly that dominates the Bouguer gravity map of northern Scotland to represent the roots of this crater. However, they qualify their interpretation, noting that the geology at the Stac Fada outcrops implies a more distant crater location, and go on to propose hitherto unreported ‘crustal shortening structures' to explain this discrepancy. In doing so, they challenge current understanding of structural evolution in the Moine Thrust Belt and for crustal structure in NW Scotland. The purpose of this discussion is to demonstrate not only that the Simms & Ernstson (2019) proposals are incompatible with the known structural geology of northern Scotland, but that the geology of the Moine Thrust Belt renders the Lairg site to be one of the very few places that can be regarded as a highly unlikely source for the Stac Fada impact rocks. Internal Earth processes, rather than extra-terrestrial interventions, should be sought as explanations for the ‘Lairg gravity low'. A more general aim is to show, through this discussion, that making small changes to tectonic models commonly carries unintended consequences for geological interpretations that can go unrecognized if only illustrated on unscaled sketches. Fig. 1. Simplified geological map of northern Scotland, with locations discussed in the text, together with the location of the contested ‘Lairg impact crater’. X–Y is the location of the section line for Figure 2a. As recognized …

Mapping of Subsurface Geological Structure and Land Cover Using Microgravity Techniques for Geography and Geophysic Surveys: A Case Study of Maluri Park, Malaysia

A microgravity investigation on bedrock topography was conducted at Maluri park reference level in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The study aim to mapping the near-surface structure and soil and land cover distribution for geography and geophysics surveys. Two types of cross-section modeling of the residual anomaly generated the MaluriBouguer Anomaly model for site-1 and site-2 at Maluri Park. The 2D microgravity models produced the contour map, displaying the characterization due to density contrast in rock types while mapping the subsurface geological structure at different depths. Moreover, a synthetic model was initiated with the assumption of lateral distance on the left and right sides taken at 50 m and a depth of 60 m. The results of modeling confirmed that the soil and rock type composition on both models site tests are topsoil (1.1 to 1.92 g/cm3), soil (1.8 g/cm3), clay (1.63 g/cm3), gravel (1.7 g/cm3), sand (2.0 g/cm3), shale (2.4 g/cm3), sandstone (2.76 g/cm3), and limestone (2.9 g/cm3). The 2D gravity modeling using two model site tests obtained a correspondence with the observed microgravity data.&#x0D; Keywords: Bouguer anomaly, limestone, microgravity, soil structure, topography.&#x0D; References&#x0D; Amaluddin, L. O., Rahmat, R., Surdin, S., Ramadhan, M. I., Hidayat, D. N., Purwana, I. G., &amp; Fayanto, S. (2019). The Effectiveness of Outdoor Learning in Improving Spatial Intelligence. Journal for the Education of Gifted Young Scientists, 7(3), 667–680. https://doi.org/10.17478/jegys.613987&#x0D; Arisona,A., Mohd N., Amin E.K., &amp;Abdullahi, A.(2018).Assessment of microgravity anomalies of soil structure for geotechnical 2d models.Journal of Geoscience, Engineering, Environment, and Technology (JGEET)3(3), 151-154.&#x0D; Georgsson, L.S. (2009). Geophysical Methotds Used in Geothermal Exploration. Presented at Exploration for Geothermal Resources, 1-22 November 2009, 1-16.&#x0D; Grandjean, G. (2009). From Geophysical Parameters to Soil Characteristics.Florida: Report N°BRGM/FP7-DIGISOIL Project Deliverable 2.1, Final ReportDepartment of Civil and Coastal EngineeringUniversity of Florida.&#x0D; Hiltunen, D.R., Hudyma,N.,Tran,K.T.,&amp;Sarno,A.I. (2012).Geophysical Testing of Rock and Its Relationthipsto Physical Properties.Florida:Final ReportDepartment ofCivil and Coastal EngineeringUniversity ofFlorida.&#x0D; Kirsch,R. (2006).GroundwaterGeophysics, ATool for Hydrogeology.New York: Springer.&#x0D; Kamal,H.,Taha,M.,&amp;Al-Sanad,S. (2010). Geoenvironmental Engineering and Geotechnics, GeoShanghai 2010 International Conference. (accessed 02.03.17)&#x0D; Lilie, R.J. (1999).Whole Earth Geophysics: An Introductory Textbook for Geologists and Geophysicists. New Jersey:Prentice-HallInc.&#x0D; Pringle, J.K., Styles, P., Howell, C.P.,Branston, M.W., Furner, R., &amp;Toon,S.M. (2012). Long-term time-lapse microgravity and geotechnical monitoring of relict salt mines, marston, cheshire, uk. Geophysic77(6), 165-171.&#x0D; Samsudin, H.T.(2003).A microgravity survey over deep limestone bedrock.Bulletin of Geological Society of Malaysia4(6), 201-208.&#x0D; Tan, S.M. (2005). Karsticfeatures of kualalumpur limestone. Bulletin of the Institution of EnginnerMalaysia 4(7), 6-11.&#x0D; Tajuddin, A.&amp;Lat, C.N. (2004).Detecting subsurfacevoids using the microgravity method, a case study from kualalipis, pahang.Bulletin of Geological Society of Malaysia 3(48), 31-35. &#x0D; Tuckwell, G., Grossey, T., Owen, S., &amp; Stearns, P. (2008). The use of microgravity to detect small distributed voids and low-density ground. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 41(3), 371–380. https://doi.org/10.1144/1470-9236/07-224 &#x0D; Wanjohi, A.W. (2014). Geophysical Field Mapping. Presented at Exploration for Geothermal Resources, 2-23 November 2014, 1-9.&#x0D; Yusoff , Z.M., Raju,G. &amp;Nahazanan, H.(2016).Static and dynamic behaviour of kualalumpur limestone. Malaysian Journal of Civil Engineering Special Issue Vol.28 (1), p.:18-25.&#x0D; Zabidi, H. &amp; De Freitas, M.H. (2011).Re-evaluation of rock core logging for the prediction of preferred orientations of karst in the kualalumpur limestone formation. Engineering Geology, 117(3-4), p.: 159–169.&#x0D; &#x0D; Copyright (c) 2019 Geosfera Indonesia Journal and Department of Geography Education, University of Jember&#x0D; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share A like 4.0 International License

Making geoscience fieldwork inclusive and accessible for students with disabilities

AbstractFieldwork is a fundamental characteristic of geoscience. However, the requirement to participate in fieldwork can present significant barriers to students with disabilities engaging with geoscience as an academic discipline and subsequently progressing on to a career as a geoscience professional. A qualitative investigation into the lived experiences of 15 students with disabilities participating in a one-day field workshop during the 2014 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting provides critical insights into the aspects of fieldwork design and delivery that contribute to an accessible and inclusive field experience. Qualitative analysis of pre- and post-fieldwork focus groups and direct observations of participants reveal that multisensory engagement, consideration for pace and timing, flexibility of access and delivery, and a focus on shared tasks are essential to effective pedagogic design. Further, fieldwork can support the social processes necessary for students with disabilities to become fully integrated into learning communities, while also promoting self-advocacy by providing an opportunity to develop and practice self-advocacy skills. Our findings show that students with sensory, cognitive, and physical disabilities can achieve full participation in field activities but also highlight the need for a change in perceptions among geoscience faculty and professionals, if students with disabilities are to be motivated to progress through the geoscience academic pipeline and achieve professional employment.

A THREE-STEP VIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF GEOLOGY

ABSTRACT The evolution of geology as an independent science can be envisaged as a relatively continuous process yet marked by three fundamental steps. These represented singularities which established significant advances in the epistemological and heuristic power of the discipline. This interpretation of history has to be strictly based on an evaluation of the epistemological basis of geology according to modern scholarship. The recognition of these ‘golden spikes’, albeit artificial, may help geologists to better grasp the philosophical position of geology with respect to other sciences. The first step was the publication of Steno's Prodromus in 1669, which established the methodological rules for decoding a geologic history from the geometrical arrangements of beds. The second step was the founding of the Geological Society of London in 1807, an act by which a new community recognized itself as a scientific and professional entity applying a novel methodology in the study of Earth. Their approach represented a synthesis of the Wernerian-historical and the Huttonian-causal methods. The third step was the emergence of plate tectonics in 1967, when the actualistic method (i.e. uniformity of laws and processes) could be extended to the interpretation of the whole lithosphere. At the same time, the heuristic power of historical geology was validated by independent, physico-mathematical testing.

Introduction to keeping lessons alive in engineering geology

In the evening of 1959 the residents of Frejus, France, were devastated by a deluge of water flowing from the collapsed Malpasset Dam. By the following morning they would learn that the disaster had claimed the lives of over 400 of their neighbours. Today, the remains of the Malpasset Dam squat over the Reyran, both as a memorial to the disaster and as a sobering warning to keep the lessons alive. The Malpasset Dam is a classic case-study in engineering geology and was the subject of the honorary lecture given by Pierre Duffaut at the 2018 Annual Conference of the Engineering Group of the Geological Society. Our conference theme explored how we might keep such lessons alive, and how this preservation may lower risk in the future. Our honorary presentation is summarized in Duffaut & Larouzee (2019), which describes how both the failure in identifying and interpreting risk from ground conditions, together with a breakdown of risk management during operation, contributed to the disaster. While there have been significant improvements in minimizing risk in engineering geological projects over the past …