Tag Archives: history

Krakatoa revealed? Part three

Posted on March 13, 2013 by

I’m in Java, Indonesia, filming a documentary on the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa – read part one and part two here. We have spent the last two days filming on and around Anak Krakatau. The boat ride out from the … Continue reading →

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Krakatoa revealed? Part two

Posted on March 12, 2013 by

I’m in Java, Indonesia, filming a documentary on the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa – read part one here. Today was a day of mixed blessings. It started well, with filming at the 4th point lighthouse destroyed originally by the 1883 … Continue reading →

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Publishing maps: a cautionary tale

Posted on March 4, 2013 by

Visitors to the building may notice an addition to the Lower Library – a display about the fortunes and misfortunes of one the UK’s most famous geologists never to be a Fellow, William Smith. Smith’s most celebrated achievement, the first … Continue reading →

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Sedimentary my dear Watson?

Posted on February 25, 2013 by

During the last month or so, I’ve been cataloguing the ‘Merriman Collection’ (ref: LDGSL/1088) from our archives.  The collection of 412 glass lantern slides, primarily dating from 1880s-1910s, was donated to the Society by Mrs Mary Merriman in 2002 after … Continue reading →

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Valentine, By a Palaeontologist

Posted on February 14, 2013 by

Edward Forbes (1815 – 1854), former President of the Society, was apparently a bit of a dabbler in poetry. His ‘Valentine, By a Palaeontologist’ was read at a GSL dinner on 14 February 1845, by which time Forbes had given … Continue reading →

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Notes from a small volcanic island

Posted on January 9, 2013 by

Early start from Gatwick to Tenerife, but greeted on lading with warm sun and blue skies. We are here for three days to film a documentary for the Weather Channel on volcanoes and their effects on the earths climate. Apparently … Continue reading →

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A tale of three meetings

Posted on December 13, 2012 by

The Geological Society’s meeting room has changed a lot in the last century. Until a refurb in the seventies, it looked very much how it had done for most of its life – raked rows of benches standing opposite each … Continue reading →

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Murchison’s Peacetime Map of Siluria

Posted on November 19, 2012 by

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison spent much of the early 1830s stomping round Wales and the West Midlands immersed in an oceanic world of metre-long sea scorpions. A world which later gave rise to both leeches and creatures with backbones.  Above the … Continue reading →

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Whisky on the rocks

Posted on September 17, 2012 by

No trip to Aberdeen would be complete without incorporating Scotland’s most famous export (apart from shortbread and Andy Murray). Luckily, we had a valid geological reason too – the link between whisky and geology is well known.

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Early Geological Social Networking

Posted on July 3, 2012 by

When I imagine the early geological map-makers, I think of men on grand tours, taking geological hammers to prise fragments of rock from exposed strata.  Late at night they’d examine their findings by candlelight, take notes and draw sketch maps, … Continue reading →

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