Wednesday
28th September - Joint lecture with the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh Are
'Hotspots' Hot? - Plate Tectonics without Deep Mantle Thermal PlumesProfessor
David Green, University of Tasmania | David H. Green,
Emeritus Professor at the University of Tasmania and formerly Director of the
Research School of Earth Sciences, Canberra, is amongst the most distinguished
petrologists of the past fifty years. With Ted Ringwood he developed the pyrolite
model for the upper mantle, leading to his seminal contributions on mid ocean
ridge basalts (MORB), mantle melting in the presence of fluids and the origins
of nephelinites and carbonatites. Complementary to this, David has led the experimental
research responsible for several of the key breakthroughs in understanding metamorphism
- including the gabbro-eclogite transition, geothermobarometry, and quantification
of high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphism. David is a Fellow of the Royal
Society, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Member of the Order of Australia,
and recipient of several medals and awards for his outstanding work. His talk
will critically examine the evidence for 'hotspots', focussing on experimental
constraints that indicate relatively small differences in the temperatures in
the source regions for parental MORB and Ocean Island Basalts, and discuss the
implications of this for Deep Earth processes. |
Wednesday
19th October Geology and Architecture in South ScotlandProfessor
James Floyd
Heriot-Watt University | Jim Floyd
spent most of his career at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, where
he was instrumental in much of the modern geological mapping of the Southern Uplands.
Alongside his geological career, he has always had an interest in heraldry and
architecture. Jim was awarded an honorary Professorship in the School of the Built
Environment at Heriot-Watt University in 2007, and now focuses on the conservation
of Scotland’s stone-built heritage, particularly architectural heraldry.
Jim will bring together these various interests in his talk on geology and architecture
in Southern Scotland. Abstract |
Wednesday
2nd November Coral Aragonite: Rosetta Stone of Past Climates or Another
Useless Rock?Dr Adrian Finch
St Andrews University | Adrian
Finch is a Reader at the University of St Andrews. He is a mineralogist and petrologist
with a wide range of interests, including luminescence in minerals and the petrology
of alkaline rocks and their associated mineralisation. His talk to the EGS will
focus on another of his main research areas, studying the geochemistry and mineralogy
of corals. Adrian’s talk will discuss how we can use the geochemistry of
coral aragonite to understand the history of past climate change. Abstract |
Wednesday
16th November Presentation of the Clough Medal The Evolution of a Mesozoic
Subducted Slab beneath Gondwanaland tracked by Mineral Inclusions in Deep DiamondsProfessor
Ben Harte
University of Edinburgh | Ben Harte, from
the University of Edinburgh, is the winner of this year’s Clough Medal. Ben’s
long and wide-ranging career has included such diverse interests as metamorphic
rocks in the Scottish Highlands and beyond, the study of mantle peridotites, and
analysis of diamonds to unravel processes in the deep mantle. He was extensively
involved with the development of the analytical facilities, including the ion
microprobe, at the Grant Institute in Edinburgh. Ben has made many contributions
to the EGS over the years, including authoring the Society’s Ballachulish
Excursion Guide. His talk will look at how mineral inclusions in diamonds can
be used to understand processes deep in the Earth’s mantle. Abstract |
Wednesday
30th November Continental Collision and How the Crust Deforms: early ideas
from the Scottish Highlands to active deformation in the HimalayasProfessor
Rob Butler
University of Aberdeen | Rob Butler is
a structural and tectonic geologist based at the University of Aberdeen, where
he moved a few years ago from Leeds. Rob’s work combines field, structural
and geophysical data to understand deformation processes in the continental crust,
from mountain belts through continental basins to submarine slopes. He is also
the director of the Virtual Seismic Atlas, a major project to share the geological
interpretation of seismic data across the geological community. Rob has worked
extensively in the Scottish Highlands, the Alps and the Himalaya, and will draw
on this work to discuss how the crust deforms in zones of continental collision.
Abstract |
Wednesday
14th December 2011, 7.30 pm
Fellows’ Night & Social EveningAt
BGS Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh | Short
presentations from:
William Moreland - The geochemistry of Arthur's
Seat
Beverly Bergman - Geology and Hospital Planning: a Crimean War
Map
Norman Butcher - Arthur Holmes and the communication of geology
Brian
Upton - The Weaklaw Vent, East Lothian |
Wednesday
18th January Annual General Meeting (7pm) Finding gold - from the Solomon
Islands to Scotland Gawen Jenkin (University of Leicester) | Gawen
Jenkin is Senior Lecturer in Applied Geology at the University of Leicester. His
research interests focus on the interaction of fluids and rock within the crust,
with applications to formation of mineral deposits, sequestration of CO2, and
understanding past environments. He is the Chair of the Mineral Deposits Studies
Group of the Geological Society of London, and has worked extensively with the
Earth Science Teachers Association and other organisations to promote public understanding
of science. His talk will focus on the development of gold mineralisation in a
number of countries across the globe, including Scotland. Abstract
|
Wednesday 1st February
Groundwater in Africa Alan Macdonald (BGS Edinburgh) | Alan
Macdonald is a hydrogeologist based at the BGS in Murchison House. Over the last
twenty years, he has worked across the world on groundwater development and management,
particularly in developing countries. Recent projects have included a study of
groundwater resilience to climate change in Africa, and studies of water supply
and sanitation in Ethiopia. Alan is Chair of the International Association of
Hydrogeologists Burdon Groundwater Network, which supports hydrogeologists working
to increase access to safe water in developing countries. His talk will look at
the challenges and opportunities associated with groundwater management in Africa. |
Wednesday
29th February Joint Lecture with the Mining Institute of Scotland at Heriot-Watt
University, 7pm Geotechnical challenges in miningNick Watson (Wardell
Armstrong) | Joint EGS-MIS lecture, held at Heriot-Watt
University – see http://www.mining-scotland.org/meetings.htm
for directions. Nick is an engineering geologist who has many years experience
working on a variety of mining projects across the world. He will look at the
various geotechnical issues associated with mining operations and mineral processing
illustrating with some case studies. |
Wednesday14th
March Mercury - new views of the Sun's innermost planet David
Rothery (Open University) | David Rothery is a Senior
Lecturer at the Open University. His research focuses on the study of volcanic
activity by means of remote sensing, on Earth and other planets. He is the UK
Lead Scientist on the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer which will be part of
the ESA mission to Mercury to be launched in 2014. He has frequently appeared
in the media talking about volcanoes and planetary science, and has written a
number of popular science books. David’s talk will look at developing understanding
of the planet Mercury. |
Wednesday
28th March From climate change to life on Mars: what did magnetic minerals
ever do for us? Richard Harrison (University of Cambridge) | Richard
Harrison is a Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. His research concentrates
on mineral magnetism, from the atomic to the planetary scale. Changes in magnetic
fields can be easily studied by a range of techniques, and provide a wealth of
information about processes within the Earth system. Over ten years of lecturing
in Cambridge, Richard has received a number of awards for both his research and
his teaching. Most recently, he was Mineralogical Society Distinguished Lecturer
for 2010-2011. His talk will look at how we can use magnetic minerals to understand
a variety of geological processes. |
Thursday
12th April Joint Celebrity Lecture with the Geological Society of Glasgow (in
Glasgow) Peter Cawood (University of St Andrews) | Peter
Cawood is the Chair of Earth Sciences at the University of St Andrews. Peter moved
to St Andrews in 2010 from Australia, where he was director of the Tectonics Special
Research Centre at the University of Western Australia. He was President of the
Geological Society of Australia from 2008-2010. Peter’s research focuses
on mountain belts, how they have evolved, and what resources may exist in them
today. His work is carried out on all scales, from microscopic to global, and
he has worked across the world in a range of tectonic settings. His talk will
look at how mountains are made, and what consequences developing mountain belts
have for the Earth System. |
