BGS centre announces geology’s key worth

Posted on May 21, 2012 by
Image

Professor Sir John Beddington CMG FRS does the business

BGS celebrates completion of a £25m investment that mirrors Earth science’s value to the nation, says Chief Scientific Adviser.

The Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington CMG FRS, opened the headquarters of the British Geological Survey in Keyworth, after its £25m makeover.  Formerly named for former Director Sir Kingsley Dunham, the Nottinghamshire campus has been renamed the BGS ‘Environmental Science Centre’.  The redevelopment, all funded from the public purse by NERC, has taken almost a decade.

John Ludden, Director, BGS, welcomes the assembled to the unveiling

John Ludden, Director, BGS, welcomes the assembled to the unveiling

John Ludden, the Director who has overseen the redevelopment, said: “BGS enters a new era with the opening of its renovated site.  It will develop an innovation centre and will build further partnerships with industry and research institutions, focusing on the energy and environmental challenges of the future.”  Duncan Wingham, the new Chief Executive of NERC, then welcomed Sir John Beddington, who unveiled the plaque of dedication and congratulated BGS on managing the redevelopment with the ‘panache and style’.

DECENTRALISED

BGS has been based at the Nicker Hill site, Keyworth, since being ‘decentralised’ as part of the mid 1970s’ enthusiasm for relocating government agencies out of London.  BGS headquarters were finally transferred ten years later.  The rather remote site had formerly been a catholic teacher training college, and required considerable adaptation during its first 35 years to suit the needs of a research organisation.  The latest massive cash investment has however been by far its greatest phase.

Hutton Building, BGS Keyworth

We make you Siccar – Steve Parry, the genius loci of the BGS Geological Walk, explains unconformities to former NERC CEO, Alan Thorpe.

The first new building to be opened – by the Princess Royal in 2009 – was the William Smith Building, now home to 200 scientists and support staff.  Centrepiece of the completed site is the James Hutton Building, housing a further 100 scientists and support staff and also featuring top of the range environmental features (both are A-rated for energy performance).  Its entrance is graced by a huge stylised representation of Hutton’s famous unconformity at Siccar Point, fashioned from rocks of the correct age equivalence to those that inspired Hutton.

The campus also features an ‘Innovation Hub’ for co-located companies, including BGS International, which was spun off into the private sector earlier during recent reorganisation.  Another company now sharing the Innovation Centre is PANalytical, who were also represented at the grand opening, and  Ludden hopes that more companies – chiefly, though not necessarily exclusively, environmental in their missions – will be attracted to the site in much the same way as has been seen at the NERC site in Daresbury Innovation Centre, Cheshire.

BGS Geological Walk, Keyworth with its presiding spirit, Steve Parry

BGS Geological Walk, Keyworth with its presiding spirit, Steve Parry

The Geological Walkway, which aims to display the UK’s uniquely varied lithological heritage, is a 130 metre-long concourse, each step along which brings you roughly 25 million years closer to the present (cunningly represented by some glacial till paving, and a homage to Stonehenge with an upright sarsen and recumbent bluestone from Preseli).  Along the way, natural stone paving is divided into geological periods by stainless steel strips, and each rock type badged with a numbered disc referring the visitor to an accompanying leaflet.

Steve Parry of BGS, who managed the design and sourcing process, explains that, in addition to the paving stones (which are in strict stratigraphic sequence – though not ‘to scale’, since such walk would have been nearly all Precambrian!) a number of monoliths line the route, in ‘broadly’ correct sequence.  Departures from stratigraphic order were only made for the best design reasons, he says; though he admits not all rocks are equally suitable:  “Geology” he says wisely, “doesn’t always give you what you want”.  The walk is open to the public every weekday during office hours.  And, as befits a British tourist attraction, it actually looks better when it’s wet.

RECONFIGURED

Remodelled main reception, Sir Kingsley Dunham Building, BGS Keyworth

Remodelled main reception, Sir Kingsley Dunham Building, BGS Keyworth

The sequence begins outside the reconfigured main reception in the Sir Kingsley Dunham Building.  Four huge monoliths leave the visitor in no doubt about what goes on within.  Pride of place goes to a 15-tonne boulder of Lewisian gneiss from the Outer Hebrides.  Cretaceous Chalk from Northern Ireland, Coedana Granite from Anglesey, Charnian volcaniclastics from nearby Charnwood Forest  and Bardon Breccia, also from the Charnian Supergroup (Leicestershire), stand for the other parts of the UK.

The grand opening, attended by a wide range of people including BGS stakeholders, contractors, staff, friends and neighbours, also included a display of BGS’s 3D visualisation facility, dramatically demonstrating the digital database that is now the BGS’s main output, and a tour of the National Geological Repository.  The newly extended and renamed former core store became the centre of some controversy last year when some user groups expressed alarmed at the proposal, now being implemented, to transfer to Keyworth the UK offshore cores previously housed in Gilmerton, Edinburgh.

The National Geological Repository, BGS Environmental Science Centre, Keyworth - soon to be home to over 400km of core from the UK offshore.

The National Geological Repository, BGS Environmental Science Centre, Keyworth – soon to be home to over 400km of core from the UK offshore.

Ludden believes that the fears expressed for the integrity of the more delicate cores during transit have been fully allayed, after the ‘before and after’ digital photographs that have revealed practically no significant changes, and which themselves are proving such a valuable and popular resource.  The move is expected to be completed later this year, by which time the Repository will contain approximately 400km of core in ‘world class conditions’ (including being warmed by waste heat from the NERC computer hub) with room to spare.

Visitors with a sense of history will be pleased too to see the Farnese Hercules, cleaned and occupying pride of place along the way to the geological walkway.  Carved for the Great Exhibition to demonstrate the excellent properties of Portland freestone, the statue was famously emasculated by Director Sir Archibald Geikie in order to spare Lady Geikie’s blushes when she visited the Survey.  The expense of the delicate operation was such that a Parliamentary question was asked at the Committee of Public Accounts, and Geikie was summoned to account for his action.

'NERCules', with tackle fully restored

‘NERCules’, with tackle fully restored

Herc’s tackle was thereafter kept in a silk-lined box, handed down from Director to Director as the unofficial orbs and sceptre of office.  This was opened once a year and passed around the table at GS annual staff dinners.  On removal to Keyworth however the offending member was restored to its wistful owner, and recent cleaning has had the interesting effect of revealing the join.

Rumours that in return for their funding, BGS’s parent Research Council had insisted on renaming the hero “Nercules” are however entirely without foundation.

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Something wiki this way comes…

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

What are the most visited websites in the world?

To answer this question, many of us will refer to Wikipedia. While the site hasn’t quite achieved the stratospheric heights of Facebook and Google, it is rarely out of the top ten.

“Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge”

says the foundation’s mission statement. And they really do mean ‘all’ knowledge – you can read up about quantum theory, find out who George Clooney’s dating or how many different types of jam there are without having to consult an encyclopaedia, or Hello! magazine once.

Since its launch in 2001, Wikipedia has been known as the scourge of teachers and lecturers, with students constantly reminded that cutting and pasting a wiki article isn’t the same as doing actual research. But is it?

You can see why they’re worried: anyone can edit Wikipedia, and there’s a lot of fun to be had in doing so. Whilst most editors are fastidious about their accuracy, it’s always tempting to play around with an article, if only to see how long you can get away with it before the editors descend.

But as the editorial process becomes more and more stringent, attitudes to Wikipedia are changing. Some universities are even including Wikipedia editing as part of their courses, to encourage students to share what they’ve learned. The site isn’t just a source of knowledge; the editing itself can be a learning process, as well as an opportunity to practise communicating complicated topics to a general audience. It’s not just the accuracy that needs improving – some articles on scientific subjects include far too much detail and technical jargon, contradicting the site’s own aim to make knowledge freely accesible to all.

There are over eight thousand articles about geology on Wikipedia – and that’s just those which are easy to classify. Whether you agree with it or not, this information is reaching a huge audience – the ‘volcano’ page receives over 160,000 hits per month. With so much traffic around the world, the consequences of errors or misleading articles can be huge.

To try and encourage greater accuracy, particularly in the science pages, Wikimedia UK is collaborating with scientific organisations to encourage more members to contribute to Wikipedia articles. On 30 March,we teamed up to provide a training workshop on becoming a Wikipedia editor. Participants learned about Wikipedia’s rules about neutrality, referencing and correcting entries, as well as using a ‘sandbox’ or trial area to produce entries.

Becoming a Wikipedia editor can be daunting – the English site currently has nearly four million articles in all, and is expanding rapidly. To simplify things, the pages are organised into ‘projects’, with editors volunteering to join in with the projects which best fit their expertise. Projects can be general – there is a ‘geology project’, for example, or very specific subjects. Once a member, editors can get a better sense of what articles already exist, and which are in need of shaping up. They can also discuss any issues with other editors.

All Wikipedia articles are rated for their accuracy, neutrality, completeness and style. ‘Featured articles’ (FA) are those which have come out on top, after being rated by Wikipedia editors. After this, articles are graded from A to C, or classified as ‘start’ or ‘stub’ articles which need completing. It’s easy to access the articles listed in the table, or have a look at a project which is more specific to your expertise, such as palaeontology, volcanoes, dinosaurs, etc.

A quick look at the geology project’s table shows that, whilst there are some excellent examples, there is still a lot of work to be done to improve geology’s presence on Wikipedia.

Like it or not, the site has become one of the first – and often only – resources people turn to in search of answers. And despite the occasional well publicised errors and hoaxes, the site’s commitment to providing accessible and high quality information is the reason for its popularity. The more experts engage, the better the information will be, and without their input, others less qualified will fill the gap. The responsibility lies with those who know better to get there first.

Original article in Geoscientist Online, 3 May 2012

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Precipitating a crisis?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by

Hosepipe bans are becoming a familiar feature of summer, and with claims that 2012 could see ‘the worst drought in 30 years’, they are here again.

Well timed, then, that the theme of a recent Geological Society conference was “Water Futures”. There is often confusion and misunderstanding about water supply in the UK and elsewhere, and I learned much at the event which is not often reported.

For example, did you know that most oil extraction produces more water than oil? This water is often hot, so is a good potential source of thermal energy. It may also contain lots of precious chemical elements, such as helium, which we need in labs to run our machines, and lithium, which helps us charge our mobile phones.  Even without these bonuses, doesn’t it feel like an enormous waste to just let this water go unused as we currently do?

I also discovered that Londoners are unlikely to go thirsty soon: there are big water reserves literally under our feet. Indeed, in the past it was necessary to extract some of this water to avoid flooding of tunnels and other deep undeground structures in the City. Although this is no longer the case, there’s plenty of water down there to quench our thirst for a while.

Nevertheless, drought is a very real concern, even in non-arid parts of the world like the UK. Interestingly, here, some of the water crisis issues are more to do with water quality than quantity, with a lot of concerns to do with the effects of industrialisation, agriculture and overpopulation.

A big current issue is the excessive  abstraction  of groundwater, mostly for the sake of irrigation: this water is literally squeezed out of the ground, used to water crops then drained into the sea. Water loss from underground reservoirs as a result of this is so high that it has caused sea level to rise by nearly 1mm. At a time where melting ice is already causing sea level rise, the combination sounds worrying.

Climate change, as you would expect, has other impacts on the water cycle. For example, temperature increases cause evaporation of surface waters, linked with increase aridity particularly in certain parts of the world, such as the Med. Higher temperatures also result in higher water consumption, both surface and underground, and when the latter occurs, other problems ensue, such as saline water intrusion into aquifers.

Not surprisingly, model predictions often produce very different results. But how can we be sure these differences are real and not the result of the models themselves? Clearly more work is needed here to validate these models and increase reliability.

Another surprise of Water Futures, at least for me, came from discovering that it is not only climate affecting water but, rather unintuitively, water use affecting climate too: apparently this is the result of more water squeezed out of the earth, to satisfy the needs of intensified agriculture, some of which ends up as excessive vapour (=cloud & rain) in the atmosphere.

So, are we going to be in trouble this summer? Well, probably yes; apparently current water levels are lower than anything ever observed before in this country. Although different aquifers respond differently to the problem, and some parts of the country will be worse affected than others, we are certainly entering a new phase in our, well, water future…

The final message I’m taking home with me is that we need to be more clever about how we use water. Not all waters are created equal, even within short geographical distances. Combination of use, which is inevitably disproportionate, and also variations in the nature of different aquifers, makes some more precious than others.The message was that we should value “expensive” water and rely more on the “cheaper” stuff …. if available.

But enough about what I think! What do hydrogeologists out there think about the state of water? What are the challenges and priorities in trying to manage water resources as best as we can?

With the 2012 hosepipe ban now upon us in the UK, let’s all contemplate our water future.

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Hockney on the Rocks

Posted on March 5, 2012 by

Across the courtyard from The Geological Society, the Royal Academy’s latest exhibition David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture is attracting bigger crowds: the queue that snakes in steward-managed concertinas around the statue of Joshua Reynolds seems to be unabated by the cold March winds. It’s understandable: Hockney is very popular, and, along with Freud at the NPG, this exhibition is the hot ticket of 2012. I found it joyful, bold and witty and felt that what Hockney was attempting with and saying about landscape was ground-breaking. But then, I’m no art critic.

The significance of geology in Hockney’s paintings is perhaps not something that comes immediately to mind. Reading his numerous books, the overwhelming influences on his work are clearly space and light. Of the 60 canvas A Bigger Grand Canyon (1998), which appears early in the exhibition, Hockney has said ‘Big spaces: that’s what was getting into my head […] the longing for big spaces’[1]. To look at the painting is to look at the immensity of the Grand Canyon with the same sense of vertigo you might feel standing on the edge of one of its many outcrops. There is too a surrealism to this odd warped sculpture with its dark cavern and fire-orange Martian intensity.

A Bigger Grand Canyon (1998) - copyright David Hockney

It is, as Jane Kinsman writes, ‘a Symbolist landscape with the colours of the desert’[2]. Yet through Symbolism Hockney has captured the geology of the Grand Canyon (for what else is it but geology?) exactly: the stratification, the dry river beds, what Beus and Morales (2003) call the ‘giant stairsteps’[3] of Mesozoic and lower Cenozoic strata.  He has also captured it playfully, with a purple pebble-dash for the limestone and a light speckling for sandstone, in many ways not dissimilar to how geologists sketch strata in the field.

In the same room are two other paintings with distinctive geological motifs: Flight into Italy – Swiss Landscape (1962) and Rocky Mountains with Tired Indians (1965). In both, the mountains are symbolized by a distinctive Aquafresh stripe of geological stratigraphy, influenced, Hockney states, ‘by the 1962 paintings of Harold and Bernard Cohen’[4].

Flight into Italy - Swiss Landscape (1962) - copyright David Hockney

There is a humorous aside to both these paintings, which has interesting implications from a geological standpoint. Hockney had hoped to paint the Alps when journeying to Italy in 1961 but unfortunately was not able to see them because he was in the back of a windowless van the whole way (wittily illustrated in the painting).  When he arrived home he decided to paint a picture anyway, to ‘make it up’: he writes, ‘It’s just taken from a geography book, what the mountains are like’[5]

Similarly, when he went to teach at the University of Colorado, in Boulder, he was given a studio without any windows. ‘Here I am’, he writes, ‘surrounded by these beautiful Rocky Mountains; I go into the studio – no window! And all I need is a couple of little windows. So I painted Rocky Mountains and Tired Indians. The whole picture is an invention from geological magazines and romantic ideas’[6].

As Andrew Causey points out, therefore, both paintings derive from ‘an unseen landscape’[7]. And it is fascinating that when he paints a mountain he cannot see, he paints it rather as the geologist might: inside out. Indeed, painting what cannot be seen might also describe the work of geological surveyors; apart from where stratification can be clearly seen in cliffs, rocks are hidden below the surface and the geologist’s work is to visualise what is underneath, out of sight. Likewise, as geologists assign colours to denote rocks which are hidden, so Hockney uses geological colouring to represent the mountains he too cannot see.

These imagined scenes are in stark contrast to the majority of the paintings in the exhibition, which are recent works Hockney has produced since returning to his family home in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, on the eastern corner of the Yorkshire Wolds. In these multiple canvases or iPad prints, painted from memory or en plein air, Hockney revels in the landscape, capturing the spirit of hurtling over the hills, catching the morning light in the woods, meditating on trees in the different seasons.

Having lain so long in the shadow of the Yorkshire Dales and Moors, much has been made about the exhibition putting the Wolds on the map.  It’s landscape is a quieter geology of cretaceous chalk, narrow glacial valleys and shallow soils (it is one of the few areas in the UK for which the British Geological Survey has not seen fit to publish a regional Memoir).

But its beauty is palpable; mysterious; calming – Hockney’s bands of dark purple, winter greens, bone skies and ghost-grey mists bring to life the sparse, sweeping curves like never before. In Three Trees near Thixendale, Winter 2007 the different tones of the field against the hills beyond so well conjures the chalky chill of the ancient landscape I want to breathe deep the cool clean air. Is that just me? One can look at the Grand Canyon paintings and see the geological record cut into the cliffs, but with the Wold paintings the sense of geology is more intuitive: you can feel it under your feet.

Three Trees near Thixendale, Winter 2007 - copyright David Hockney

[1] Hockney, David David Hockney: Looking at landscape/ being in Landscape: September 15-October 24, 1998, L.A. Louver  L.A.: [The Gallery], 1998, p.10

[2] Kinsman, Jane ‘Imagining the Grand Canyon’ http://nga.gov.au/hockney/

[3] Beus, S.S. & Morales, M. Grand Canyon Geology 2nd Edition Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003

[4] Stangos, Nick, ed. David Hockney by David Hockney [S.l]: Thames and Hudson, 1976, p 87

[5] Ibid, p 87

[6] Ibid, p 101

[7] Causey, Andrew ‘Mapping and representing’ in Melia, Paul, ed. David Hockney Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995

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The origins of plate tectonics

Posted on February 27, 2012 by

This week, we’ve been uploading clips from Richard Thomas’ film ‘Dan McKenzie and friends’, which looks at the early history of the theory of plate tectonics.

It’s easy to forget that plate tectonics, an idea we’re all familiar with at least on a basic level, isn’t all that old. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the theory as we know it today began to come together, thanks to the scientists featured in the film, as well as others.

Abraham Ortelius 1527 - 1598 (Rubens, 1633)

Contintental drift, on the other hand, has been around for a surprisingly long time. Continue reading →

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Survivors: Nature’s indestructible creatures

Posted on January 23, 2012 by

An ex – President of the Geological Society is bound to be one of the survivors. But starting on Tuesday 24th at 9  p.m. I am fronting a BBC4 series about different kinds of survivors – animals and plants whose relatives are known deep in the fossil record.

“Living fossils” was how Charles Darwin described them. It is a label that has stuck, although we now know that even if their morphology has not changed much, interesting things might still be happening at the genetic level.

Based on my new book “Survivors” (Harper Press) the series is a dash around the world to look for some of the animals and plants that time has passed by. If there are secrets to longevity, it would be good to know what they are.

The journey took the crew and the author (twice their age) to watch horseshoe crabs spawning on Delaware Bay, to the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park  (in a blizzard), to Kangaroo Island to search out echidnas, and to Henley on Thames to find liverworts. It was a fine distraction for one who has spent most of his life looking at trilobites.

Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow night, and let me know what you thought in the comments below.

Horse shoe crab fossil

Horse shoe crabs living

Living horse shoe crabs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Geology with added microbes

Posted on January 16, 2012 by

One of the fastest growing areas of research in the geosciences is what is now called ‘geomicrobiology’. Although bacteria and other microbes have long been used in industrial processes such as bioleaching, where  metals are extracted from their mined ores, it is only now that the role played by microbes in geological processes is being fully appreciated. At and near Earth’s surface, such organisms can be involved in electron transfer reactions that have a great impact on the chemistry of sediments, soils and waters, influencing the cycling of major elements such as sulphur and iron, and of trace toxic elements such as arsenic. Continue reading →

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Top five youtube geology clips – and other ways to spend the Christmas holiday…

Posted on December 23, 2011 by

A rock that looks like Santa Claus - what could be more festive?! (c. JoEtta Abo)

As well as eating and drinking, Christmas is traditionally a time for doing very little. In celebration of this, we’ve compiled a few geological ways to pass the time during the holiday. Continue reading →

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All in a whorl

Posted on December 13, 2011 by

We knew we were in for it when we chose a picture library image of an unidentified ammonite for the cover of the November issue of Geoscientist.  So far reactions have been of two kinds – compliments on the graphic design, and complaints regarding the lack of diagnosis.  So, hoping to move on beyond the commercial photolibrary’s rather unhelpful “Fossil 9857643”, we asked around. Continue reading →

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Farewell to the Antarctic

Posted on December 8, 2011 by

There has been some rough weather in our last few days – it comes as a surprise when the horizontal surface you’re standing on suddenly has the gradient of one in three! But this is pretty good for the Furious Fifties. It can get much, much worse.

We have discovered our cabin window leaks as the spray washes over the ship. The drip tray beneath the window builds up a few inches of water, then, with just the right amount of roll building up a suitable wave, a cascade sloshes onto the bed. Not mine; it was the Alaskan who had the cold shower at 2am…

Macquarie Island

Macquarie Island

Macquarie Island

Continue reading →

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