Founded 1858 | Promoting public interest in geology and advancing geological knowledge
Founded 1858
12 October 2023
Professor Jane Evans, British Geological Survey
A boatload of Vikings: isotope evidence from a mass execution in Weymouth
9 November 2023
Professor Tony Prave, University of St Andrews
Birth of the Dalradian Supergroup and its path through Neoproterozoic Earth history
7 December 2023
Professor Craig Storey, University of Portsmouth
The onset of modern plate tectonics
11 January 2024
Dr Steven Hollis, University of Edinburgh
Closing the Iapetus Ocean: late arc and ophiolite formation in the Grampian Orogeny and implications for UK mineral potential and metal security
8 February 2024 (remote talk)
Toni Galloway, University of St Andrews
Using hotspring systems as analogues to conditions on early Mars
14 March 2024
Dr Murray Reid
What lies beneath: the geology of Strathkelvin
28 March 2024 (remote talk)
Dr Denver Fowler
Finding dinosaurs in the Judith River Formation, Late Cretaceous, Montana
11 April 2024
David Webster
Neoproterozoic glaciation in Scotland: the Port Askaig Formation
9 May 2024
Members’ Night
1. Angus Miller. The Scottish Geology Trust’s Geosites project
2. Ella Davis. Determining tectonic transport directions in the southern part of the Northern Highlands Terrain, Scotland
13th October 2022 (remote talk)
Dr Rebecca Paisley, Exploration Geochemist, Cornish Lithium
Lithium in Cornwall: the foundation for a responsible UK battery supply chain
10th November 2022 (remote talk)
Megan Jacobs, University of Portsmouth
Walking with giants: on the banks of a 130-million-year-old river
8th December 2022 (in-person talk)
Associate Professor Quentin Crowley, Trinity College, Dublin
Integrating geology into Ireland’s radon map
12th January 2023 (in-person talk)
Professor Mark Williams, University of Leicester
The Anthropocene: a planetary scale change to the biosphere; and the future well-being of planet Earth
9th February 2023 (in-person talk)
Dr Maarten Krabbendam, British Geological Survey
A new stratigraphic framework for the early Neoproterozoic successions of Scotland (Moine Supergroup no more)
9th March 2023 (in-person talk)
The Gardar rocks of South Greenland
Professor Brian Upton, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh
13th April 2023 (in-person talk)
Rachael Paul MSc, Senior Geologist, ScotGold
Cononish gold mine
8th March 2023 (in-person talks)
Members’ Night
9th September 2021
David Webster
Geology of Islay
14th October 2021
Professor Mike Searle, University of Oxford
Tectonics and mountain building in the Himalaya
11th November 2021
No lecture. The planned lecture was cancelled for personal reasons and rescheduled for 9th December 2021.
9th December 2021
Dr Neil Clark, Hunterian Museum (Retiring Presidential Address)
Dinosaurs from Muck
13th January 2022
Dr Emrys Phillips, British Geological Survey, Edinburgh
Deformed dirt: the deformation caused by glaciers and ice sheets
10th February 2022
Dr Andrew Finlayson, British Geological Survey, Edinburgh
Below the bonnie banks – investigating Loch Lomond’s subaqueous Quaternary landscape
10th March 2022
Noel Williams, Lochaber Geopark
Big boulders of Scotland
14th April 2022
Professor Colin Ballantyne, University of St Andrews
Landslides, glaciation and the evolution of mountain landscapes during the Quaternary
12th May 2022
Members’ night
Because of Covid-19 restrictions, lecture meetings for Session 163 took the form of online Zoom events.
10th September 2020
Professor Simon Cuthbert, AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow
The geology of Mercury
8th October 2020
Professor Matthew Thirlwall, Royal Holloway, University of London
New isotopic age determinations from the Northern Highlands and their implications
12th November 2020
Professor Bruce Levell, University of Oxford
The Argyll Group: two beauts
10th December 2020
Dr Daniel Field, University of Cambridge
Bird evolution from the Late Cretaceous onwards
14th January 2021
Dr Tim Kearsey, British Geological Survey, Edinburgh
Palaeosols as evidence of terrestrial climate change at major Palaeozoic vertebrate evolutionary events
4th February 2021
Dr Doug Robinson, University of Bristol (retired)
The geology of the Mendip Hills
11th February 2021
Professor David Beerling, University of Sheffield
Large-scale CO2 removal via enhanced rock weathering
11th March 2021
Dr Dave Schofield, British Geological Survey, Edinburgh
Terrane evolution of southern Great Britain
8th April 2021
Dr Queenie Chan, Royal Holloway, University of London
Catch a shooting star
13th May 2021
Quiz Night
10th October 2019
Dr Nick Schofield, Aberdeen University
Hydrocarbon exploration in volcanic effected basins
14th November 2019
Peter Ledingham, Geoscience Ltd
The United Downs Deep Geothermal Power project
13th December 2019
Professor Gawen Jenkin, University of Leicester
Green gold? How to get metals out of the ground in a “green” and sustainable way
9th January 2020
John Brown, Arup, Edinburgh
Engineering geology of the Queensferry Crossing
13th February 2020
Dr Amanda Owen, University of Glasgow
Understanding the spatial variability of sedimentary deposits
12th March 2020
Professor Andrew Scott, Royal Holloway, University of London
Burning planet: the story of fire through time
9th April 2020
Professor Jenny Collier, Imperial College, London
Breaching of the Dover Strait and the creation of “Island Britain”
This lecture was cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak.
14th May 2020
Members’ Night
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, this event was held by means of a Zoom webinar.
11th October 2018
Professor Alasdair Skelton, University of Stockholm
Is mountain building a sink or source of atmospheric CO2? A case study of metamorphic fluid flow from the SW Scottish Highlands
8th November 2018
Professor Ian Alsop, University of Aberdeen
Unravelling soft sediment deformation in earthquake-triggered mass transport deposits
13th December 2018
Dr Roddy Muir, Midland Valley Exploration
Ben Nevis – remnant of a lost volcanic landscape
10th January 2019
Dr Jim Morrison (Retiring Presidential Address)
A broader view of the Moine Thrust
14th February 2019
Dr Nick Fraser, National Museum of Scotland
Joint lecture with the Glasgow Natural History Society
The Heath Robinson world of the Triassic
20th February 2019
Dr Tim Dempster, University of Glasgow
Clough Medal and Joint Celebrity Lecture with the Geological Society of Edinburgh, to be held in Edinburgh
Sideways views of Scottish garnets: insights into metamorphic processes
14th March 2019
Dr Bernard Besley, Besley Earth Science Ltd
Basin evolution in the Variscan foreland in southern Britain
1th April 2019
Dr Nick Schofield, University of Aberdeen
Hydrocarbon exploration in volcanic-affected basins
9th May 2019
Members’ Night
12th October 2017
Professor Peter Doyle
Disputed Earth: Geology and the Western Front, 1914–1918
9th November 2017
Professor Lorna Dawson, Head of Forensic Soil Science, The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen
Soil in criminal investigations: investigation and evaluation in current and cold cases
14th December 2017
Professor Stephen Daly, University College Dublin
Palaeoproterozoic terrane accretion on the Celtic fringe of the Nuna (Columbia) supercontinent
11th January 2018
Dr Simon Cuthbert, University of the West of Scotland
Venus – dark secrets behind the veil
8th February 2018
Dr Roger Anderton
From Mid Argyll to Mull: the sea bed geology of the Firth of Lorne
21st February 2018
Professor Bob Holdsworth, Durham University/Geospatial Research
Joint Celebrity Lecture with Edinburgh Geological Society, to be held in Edinburgh
Cracked and full of sand: insights into the development of fractured basement reservoirs west of Shetland
8th March 2018
Dr Nick Tosca, Oxford University
Re-animating the chemistry of Precambrian oceans: new perspectives on the environmental backdrop to early life
12th April 2018
Dr Tony Spencer
T. Neville George Medal lecture
Establishing the glacial record of the Port Askaig Tillite Formation (Cryogenian) in Argyll
10th May 2018
Members’ Night
13th October 2016
Professor Rachel Wood, Chair of Carbonate Geoscience, University of Edinburgh
The Great Dying: what happened 250 million years ago?
10th November 2016
Professor Ian Fairchild, Professor of Geosystems, University of Birmingham
Cave deposits (speleothems) as archives of past environments and climates
8th December 2016
Professor Tony Fallick, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre
Planet Earth’s mid-life crisis: carbon isotopes, concretions and the “Great Oxidation Event”
12th January 2017
Dr Stephen Brusatte, Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Edinburgh
Scotland’s Jurassic Park: the Isle of Skye and new fossil discoveries by the PalAlba group
9th February 2017
Dr Diarmad Campbell, British Geological Survey
Making better use of the ground beneath our cities; the Glasgow experience is that it helps to ASK…
9th March 2017
Dr Derek Fabel, University of Glasgow
Extremely rare isotope metrology @ SUERC (Scottish Universities Environment Research Centre)
20th April 2017
Professor John Parnell, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen
An alternative fossil record: evidence for a deep biosphere in Scotland’s past
11th May 2017
Members’ Night
8th October 2015
Dr John Mendum, BGS Edinburgh
Problems of Highland geology, past and present
12th November 2015
Professor John Cope, National Museum of Wales
T. Neville George Medal lecture
Redrawing the geological map of South Wales
10th December 2015
AGM and lecture
Dr Brian Bell, University of Glasgow
Presidential address: Palaeogene magmatism in the British Isles: recent advances and current thinking
14th January 2016
Dr Jim Morrison, GSG Meetings Secretary 1990-2015
A quarter century of society meetings and lectures (Sessions 133-157)
11th February 2016
Professor Stephen Hesselbo, Cambourne School of Mines
Joint Celebrity Lecture with Edinburgh Geological Society
Rhythms of the Jurassic
10th March 2016
Dr David Brown, Dr Daniel Koehn and students, University of Glasgow
The Glasgow University Tanzania expedition: the volcanology, tectonics and carbonatites of the East African Rift
14th April 2016
Professor Tim Lenton, University of Exeter
Revolutions that made the Earth
12th May 2016
Members’ Night
9th October 2014
Dr Peter Treloar, Kingston University
Minerals – from mines to mountains
13th November 2014
Dr Graham Leslie, BGS Edinburgh
Accretion and tectonic amalgamation in Anglesey
11th December 2014
AGM and lecture
Dr Jim MacDonald, University of Glasgow
A journey through geological time in Namibia
15th January 2015
Professor Zoe Shipton, University of Strathclyde
UK shale gas: frack on, frack off or frack well?
12th February 2015
Dr John Winchester, Keele University
European accretion in the Palaeozoic: recognition and origins of accreted terranes
12th March 2015
Dr Ian Williamson, formerly of British Geological Survey
Are the Early Palaeogene lava fields of NW Scotland monotonous piles of old, cold and very boring basalt?
9th April 2015
Dr Laura Evenstar, University of Bristol
Atacama Desert: the chicken or the egg scenario?
14th May 2015
Members’ Night
10th October 2013
Dr Richard Bates, University of St Andrews
Doggerland extended – submerged prehistory in Northern Scotland
[Joint lecture with Archaeological Society]
14th November 2013
Dr Tom Bradwell, BGS Edinburgh
Ice streams in the British (Scottish) Ice Sheet: theory and observations – from onshore and offshore
12th December 2013
AGM and lecture
Dr Jim Hansom, University of Glasgow
What has Geodiversity ever done for us? Answers from a coast near you!
9th January 2014
Joint Celebrity Lecture with Edinburgh Geological Society
Professor Chris Hawkesworth, University of St Andrews
The evolution of the continental crust: the isotope legacy
13th February 2014
Dr Simon Cuthbert, University of the West of Scotland
Geological travels in Norway
13th March 2014
Dr Rob Strachan, University of Portsmouth
New interpretations of the Caledonian geology of Shetland
10th April 2014
Dr Simon Passey, University of Cambridge
Continental flood basalts of the Faroe Islands and the opening of the North Atlantic
15th May 2014
Members’ Night
11th October 2012
Dr Steve Jones, Birmingham University
The relationship between the Greenland-Scotland Ridge, the Iceland Plume and Northern Hemisphere glaciation
8th November 2012
Dr Jim Morrison, Geological Society of Glasgow
North Atlantic opening – an introduction
13th December 2012
AGM and Presidential Address
Miss Margaret Donnelly
Geological journeys
10th January 2013
Dr Jon Mound, Leeds University
The complex and dynamic inner core
14th February 2013
David McInroy, BGS Edinburgh
Formation of the Rockall microcontinent: a result of pre-Palaeogene extension in the NE Atlantic region
14th March 2013
T. Neville George Medal lecture
Professor Jenny Clack, Cambridge University
Populating Romer’s Gap: rebuilding terrestrial ecosystems after the end-Devonian mass extinction
18th April 2013
Dr David Chew, Trinity College, Dublin
Measuring Palaeozoic time by isotopic dating
9th May 2013
Members’ Night
13th October 2011
Dr Phil Stone, BGS Edinburgh Geology in the Falkland Islands
10th November 2011
Professor Dorrick Stow, Heriot-Watt University
Vanished Ocean: how Tethys shaped the world
8th December 2011
Annual General Meeting and Dr David Chew, Trinity College, Dublin
Measuring Palaeozoic time by isotopic dating
Note: This meeting was cancelled because of bad weather
12th January 2012
Two shorter talks from society members
9th February 2012
Dr David Brown, University of Glasgow
Palaeogene pyroclastic rocks of Scotland
8th March 2012
Dr Mike Romano, University of Sheffield
Tracking Jurassic dinosaurs
12th April 2012
Joint Celebrity Lecture with Edinburgh Geological Society
Dr Peter Cawood, University of St Andrews
Making mountains: drivers and consequences
10th May 2012
Members’ Night
