Geo-natter
2022-10-05 13:30 - 15:00, 2022-10-19 13:30 - 15:00, 2022-11-02 13:30 - 15:00, 2022-11-16 13:30 - 15:00, 2022-11-30 13:30 - 15:00, 2022-12-07 13:30 - 15:00, 2022-12-21 13:30 - 15:00 (Europe/London) | Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
A chance to chat informally about geology, show off your rocks and fossils, ask questions about geology, find out what’s happening and perhaps even arrange to take part in future events

Scotland's fossils (lecture)
2022-10-06 18:30 - 20:30 | Dynamic Earth, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AS, United Kingdom
This is a public lecture organised by the Edinburgh Geological Society.
The lecture will explore the amazing variety of fossils in Scotland, covering hundreds of millions of years of evolution from the corals and sharks of the Carboniferous to the dinosaurs and pterosaurs of Skye. An expert panel of palaeontologists will guide you through the history of life recorded in Scotland’s sedimentary rocks with time to ask questions and look at specimens.
The lecture celebrates the first UNESCO International Geodiversity Day: a worldwide celebration, bringing people together on 6th October each year, to promote all the many aspects of geodiversity.
Contributors:
Dr Katie Strang, Scottish Geology Trust
Paige dePolo, University of Edinburgh
Natalia Jagielska, University of Edinburgh
Chair:
Dr Neil Clark, The Hunterian
Booking essential – tickets £5, free for EGS Members, students and young people.
Ticets can be booked at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/egs-public-lecture-scotlands-fossils-tickets-407856067477.

Lithium in Cornwall: the foundation for a responsible UK battery supply chain (lecture)
2022-10-13 19:30 - 21:30 | Lecture Room 407, Boyd Orr Building, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QW, United Kingdom
Dr Rebecca Paisley, Exploration Geochemist, Cornish Lithium
Cornish Lithium is an innovative, eco-technology company focused on mineral exploration and development for the environmentally sustainable extraction of lithium in the historic mining district of Cornwall, UK. The company has secured agreements with the owners of mineral rights over a large area of the county and is using modern technology to re-evaluate the region for lithium and other technology metals which are essential components of modern life. A secure domestic supply of such metals is considered vital to the industrial strategy of the UK as it moves towards a zero-carbon future.
Rebecca is the Lead Geochemist for Cornish Lithium., She holds a PhD in Earth & Planetary Sciences from McGill University, Canada, and a master’s degree in Earth Sciences from the University of Oxford, UK. She specialises in using geochemical data to constrain sub-surfaces processes in a variety of geological environments. Rebecca joined Cornish Lithium to assist with developing the geochemical side of their exploration efforts, and currently designs and implements the geothermal waters sampling strategies for their drill programs. She also manages Cornish Lithium’s direct lithium extraction (DLE) work package, evaluating different technologies and their abilities to process Cornish geothermal fluids.
This will be a remote talk. The speaker will be ‘on-screen’ in the lecture theatre and attendees can interact with the speaker from the lecture theatre. We will be recording the talk for later viewing but in order to maximise in-person attendence and minimise the technology issues we are not offering live online access to the talk.

Fossil Grove Open Day
2022-10-16 12:00 - 16:00 | Fossil Grove, 51 Victorial Park Drive South, Glasgow, G14 9QR, United Kingdom
This event will consist of tours of the Fossil House and the quarry and activities for children. It is part of the Scottish Geology Festival.

Walking with giants: on the banks of a 130-million-year-old river (lecture)
2022-11-10 19:30 - 21:30 | Lecture Room 407, Boyd Orr Building, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QW, United Kingdom
Megan Jacobs, University of Portsmouth
The Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation, of the Isle of Wight, UK, is one of the best places in Europe to find dinosaurs. This island is full of brightly coloured sandstones and floodplain clays that regularly yield fossil remains ranging from fish and crocodiles to huge dinosaurs and giant pterosaurs. Take an exciting look back in time at the Wessex Formation and its ancient floodplains and forests. Learn about the geology, meandering rivers, complex soils, and the high diversity of animals from insects to pterosaurs, as well as what we have even recently learned from dinosaur stomach stones.
Megan is a visiting researcher at the University of Portsmouth, with her research focusing on Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous vertebrates, including ichthyosaurs, pterosaurs and dinosaurs.
This will be a remote talk. The speaker will be ‘on-screen’ in the lecture theatre and attendees can interact with the speaker from the lecture theatre. We will be recording the talk for later viewing but in order to maximise in-person attendence and minimise the technology issues we are not offering live online access to the talk.

Annual General Meeting
2022-12-08 19:00 - 19:30 | Lecture Room 407, Boyd Orr Building, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QW, United Kingdom

Integrating geology into Ireland's radon map (lecture)
2022-12-08 19:30 - 21:30 | Lecture Room 407, Boyd Orr Building, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QW, United Kingdom
Associate Professor Quentin Crowley, Trinity College, Dublin
Radon is the main source of ionising radiation affecting the general population. Geology is the primary controlling factor for soil gas radon, which in turn influences indoor radon concentrations. Globally, exposure to indoor radon is the second highest cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoking. Integrating geogenic data into radon maps helps to improve our understanding of where radon is sourced and how it travels through the sub-surface. Integrating geology also helps to improve spatial resolution of radon maps and reduce uncertainties of predicted anomalies. This talk will explore how geology was used to refine Ireland’s radon map, as part of a national strategy to help to lower the radon-related lung cancer incidence.
Quentin is associate professor in geology and fellow of Trinity College Dublin. He is director of the Trinity Centre for the Environment, and academic lead of EIT Climate-KIC at the university. His research can be broadly described as environmental geoscience, with an emphasis on evolving earth systems, including how society interacts with the solid Earth.
This will be an in-person talk. It will be preceded by the society’s annual general meeting.

The Anthropocene: a planetary scale change to the biosphere; and the future well-being of planet Earth
2023-01-12 19:30 - 21:30 | Lecture Room 407, Boyd Orr Building, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QW, United Kingdom
Professor Mark Williams, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester
Over the past ten millennia humans have halved the mass of the biosphere, concentrated most of the mass of terrestrial mammals in themselves and the animals that feed them, and in their billions of individuals now account for most of the numerical abundance of primates. Of itself, this indicates a level of domination that is exceptional for a single large species in the history of the biosphere. To that we must add the systematic reconfiguration of ecosystems globally and the 1000s of non-native species that have been translocated therein. Many of these changes have left a distinctive palaeontological signature in the sedimentary record, one likely to be recognisable in most regions and ecosystems of the world, and one which may help to define a new epoch of geological time, the Anthropocene. If sustained, this change may denote a permanent state-shift in the structure of the biosphere. If it fails, it will likely be the result of excessive human consumption resulting in a mass extinction. I will discuss how palaeontology contributes to quantifying the degree of Anthropocene change, and how it might be used to influence our strategies towards a more sustainable relationship with nature.

A manicured Japanese garden in Kyoto
Mark is a palaeobiologist at Leicester University. He studies the evolution of life on Earth and has been a long-time member (and former secretary) of the Anthropocene Working Group. He has co-authored popular science books with Jan Zalasiewicz on climate change, ocean evolution, and the story of life on Earth, and with Jan and Julia Thomas he co-authored “The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach” His latest book with Jan is called “The Cosmic Oasis: the Remarkable Story of Earth’s Biosphere”.

Geo-natter: fossil shrimps
2023-01-18 13:30 - 15:00 | Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
A chance to look at rocks and fossils, get your own specimens identified, chat informally to others, ask questions about geology and find out what’s happening locally.
Today’s topic will be fossil shrimps.

Geo-natter: coprolites
2023-02-01 13:30 - 15:00 | Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
A chance to look at rocks and fossils, get your own specimens identified, chat informally to others, ask questions about geology and find out what’s happening locally.
Today’s topic will be coprolites.

A new stratigraphic framework for the early Neoproterozoic successions of Scotland (Moine Supergroup no more) (lecture)
2023-02-09 19:30 - 21:30 | Lecture Room 407, Boyd Orr Building, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QW, United Kingdom
Dr Maarten Krabbendam, British Geological Survey
The advent of modern dating techniques has, in recent decades, provided much better timing constraints on the deposition of Neoproterozoic sequences in Scotland, in Greenland and Svalbard. This has shown that the Neoproterozoic evolution of this north Atlantic province is dominated by three tectonic episodes: the Grenville-Sveconorwegian orogeny, the Renlandian orogeny and the rifting and formation of the Iapetus Ocean. In Greenland and Svalbard, Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks can be divided into three ‘megasequences’, constrained by the three major tectonic episodes. In northern Scotland, however, the classic subdivision of Torridonian and Moine is at odds with these megasequences: a new stratigraphic framework is thus necessary. The oldest megasequence in Scotland is the newly named Wester Ross Supergroup, comprising the Iona, Sleat, Torridon and Morar groups of the Scottish mainland and Inner Hebrides, and the Westing, Sand Voe and Yell Sound groups in Shetland. These units were deposited c. 1000–950 Ma within a foreland basin to the Grenville Orogen. The second megasequence is the newly named Loch Ness Supergroup consisting of the Glenfinnan, Loch Eil and Badenoch groups of the Scottish mainland. These units were deposited after the Renlandian orogeny between c. 900–870 Ma and record Knoydartian orogenesis c. 820–740 Ma. The Dalradian Supergroup in the Grampian Highlands and Shetland belongs to megasequence 3; it was deposited c. ?800-480 Ma and records the opening of the Iapetus Ocean, ultimately leading to deposition of the passive margin Cambrian–Ordovician Ardvreck and Durness groups in the NW Highlands.

MSc Geology, University of Utrecht, 1990
1991 – 1994: Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK. Geological mapping Glen Shee, Grampian Highlands.
1994-1997: PhD in Structural Geology & Metamorphic Geology, Exhumation of eclogite, West Norway. University of Oxford, 1997
1998 – 2001: Postdoctoral Fellow, Monash University, Australia. Work on large-scale metallogenesis controls, in collaboration with BHP Minerals.
2001- 2022: Senior Survey Geologist, BGS. Mapping in NW Highlands; Grampian Highlands, projects in Mauritania, Sweden, India, Tajikistan.
2022: Chief Geologist Scotland, BGS

Geo-natter: fossil crinoids
2023-02-15 13:30 - 15:00 | Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
A chance to look at rocks and fossils, get your own specimens identified, chat informally to others, ask questions about geology and find out what’s happening locally.
Today’s topic will be fossil crinoids.

Geo-natter: ammonites
2023-03-01 13:30 - 15:00 | Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
A chance to look at rocks and fossils, get your own specimens identified, chat informally to others, ask questions about geology and find out what’s happening locally.
Today’s topic will be ammonites.

The Gardar rocks of South Greenland (lecture)
2023-03-09 19:30 - 21:30 | Lecture Room 407, Boyd Orr Building, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QW, United Kingdom
Professor Brian Upton, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh
Brian is emeritus professor of geology at the University of Edinburgh. He has conducted field studies in many parts of the world, concentrating especially on the Arctic. But throughout his career he has continued to investigate the unique alkaline rocks of South Greenland.

Geo-natter: agates
2023-03-15 13:30 - 15:00 | Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
A chance to look at rocks and fossils, get your own specimens identified, chat informally to others, ask questions about geology and find out what’s happening locally.
Today’s topic will be agates.

Geo-natter: geology quiz
2023-03-29 13:30 - 15:00 | Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
A chance to look at rocks and fossils, get your own specimens identified, chat informally to others, ask questions about geology and find out what’s happening locally.
Today’s chat will include a geology quiz.

Cononish gold mine (lecture)
2023-04-13 19:30 - 21:30 | Room 639, James McCune Smith Learning Hub, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QW, United Kingdom
Rachael Paul MSc, Senior Geologist, Scotgold
An overview of the geology and mining cycle at Cononish Gold Mine in Tyndrum with Scotgold, including regional geology, surface exploration, underground diamond drilling, grade control modelling and mining methods.
Rachael is a chartered geologist who studied at St Andrews University and Camborne School of Mines. She has worked in exploration, resource estimation and open-pit and underground mining geology. Her career highlights include mapping/structural modelling in the sedimentary host copper-belt DRC, gold exploration in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, USA, being selected as one of the top 100 Woman in Mining 2022 and returning home to continue her career at Cononish gold mine in Tyndrum.

Fossil Grove Open Afternoon
2023-04-16 12:00 - 16:00, 2023-05-21 12:00 - 16:00 | Fossil Grove, 51 Victorial Park Drive South, Glasgow, G14 9QR, United Kingdom
This event will consist of tours of the Fossil House and the quarry and activities for children.

Geo-natter: geology of Madeira
2023-05-10 13:30 - 15:00 | Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
A chance to look at rocks and fossils, get your own specimens identified, chat informally to others, ask questions about geology and find out what’s happening locally.
Today’s topic will be the geology of Madeira.

Members' Night
2023-05-11 19:30 - 21:30 | Lecture Theatre, Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
The last evening meeting of the session will consist of short presentations by society members.
Iain Allison. Oman
Simon Cuthbert. In search of Iapetus: fieldwork in the northern Scandes
Ian Veitch & Campbell Forrest. Macduff boulder bed

Bute
2023-05-12 14:00 - 2023-05-15 12:00
Leader: Con Gillen
Field days: Friday (afternoon)/ Saturday/ Sunday/ Monday (morning)
In the south of the island, we will see Carboniferous, Permo-Carboniferous and Palaeogene igneous rocks (lavas, bedded ash with bombs and fossil wood, sills, dykes, vents, mantle xenoliths). We will go to Kilchattan to inspect the unusual columnar-jointed sandstone. In the north of the island, we will see Dalradian slates, schists and grits, exhibiting folding and sedimentary structures, along with the Highland Boundary Fault and Highland Border Complex (Loch Fad Conglomerate, Ordovician).
The terrain involves coastal and inland footpaths and some rough beach walking, with some bracken and long grass.
Accommodation will be dinner, bed & breakfast in the Glenburn Hotel, Rothesay; transport will be in shared cars.
Please contact the residential excursions secretary Roy Bryce at restrips@gsocg.org if you are interested in coming.

Geo-natter: geology up close
2023-05-24 13:30 - 15:00 | Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW, United Kingdom
A chance to look at rocks and fossils, get your own specimens identified, chat informally to others, ask questions about geology and find out what’s happening locally.
Today’s topic will be “geology up close”.

Seamill to Portencross
2023-05-27 09:00 - 18:00
Leader: Austen Brown
An excursion to view the upper and lower Old Red Sandstone (Devonian), faults, dykes, a felsite sill and associated structures. There will be an opportunity to tour Portencross Castle, and view Clyde Plateau Lavas from Goldenberry Hill. We will also be able to view a large number of glacial erratics and beach pebbles and will examine some “modern” post-glacial landscape features.
Leaving Molema Building at 9:00, returning at 18:00, travelling by coach.
