How to Look for "Gold" Hydrogen 

I wrote about the presence of hydrogen in June (SEE HERE) and THIS ARTICLE follows on, giving some insights into the search for crustal hydrogen.

For many years it was believed that while hydrogen may be produced in the crust, it was too reactive and able to escape too easily for any significant quantities to be trapped. But opinions have changed and there are reports that significant deposits are being found.

But they are not in the places where there has been lots of drilling in the past - you are unlikely to find hydrogen in the places where you would look for oil or natural gas.

It is a familiar story - if you don't look for it you will not find it! But where to look for it. And the theorists are now postulating where the places to look are.

What you need are lots of groundwater and lots of iron-rich rocks. Put simply steam reacts with iron to produce hydrogen. The temperature needs to be hot - about 300⁰C. And you need a reservoir and a seal.

The use of hydrogen as a fuel, replacing hydrocarbons, would make a tremendous difference to the production of greenhouse gases. And that would be a good thing!

 Kilauea Puts on a Spectacular Show!

Many of you will have seen some of the videos from the Big Island of Hawaii. Kilauea has been fountaining lava hundred of metres into the air in some of the most spectacular footage I have ever seen.

THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO has a geologist explaining the geology, which is almost as fascinating as the the sight of the lava fountaining.

 Lake Water Mixing is Slowing - Should we be Worried?

I came across THIS ARTICLE in Quanta magazine and found it very interesting. The bit which caught my imagination was the method of measuring water clarity. 

The disc pictured above is lowered into the lake and when it disappears from the observers sight - that is the Secchi depth.

The lake with the longest history of clarity readings is Crater Lake in Oregon in the USA. And lately the lake has been getting clearer. And that is the result of less mixing of the lakes water.

Lake water mixing is the result of many things, but one of them is the surface water becoming warmer, therefore lighter and less likely to descend and mix. In winter the surface water cools and therefore sinks and mixes. But, in many places this no longer happens.

And as a result the water at the bottom of lakes becomes depleted in oxygen.

In Crater Lake another result is that the warm surface layer becomes thinner - the energy (wind) needed to mix the surface layers becomes greater and it does not happen. The thinner surface layer means less phytoplankton and clearer water.

The article goes on to look at other lakes, especially Lake Tahoe, which used to be very similar to Crater, but shows more signs of deterioration. 

This is an article well worth reading.

 Down to Earth Extra December 2025

The December 2025 edition of Down to Earth Extra jas been published. You can download it HERE or you can read it below.

 Down to Earth Extra November 2025

The November 2025 edition of Down to Earth Extra has been published. You can download it HERE or you can read it below.

Jurassic Lives Uncovered

A little while ago I was complaining about a lack of local geological stories. Then two come along at once! You have probably read all about them yourselves but just in case, here is what I have found out.

First of all - Xiphodracon goldencapensis - is an 185 million year old icthyosaur found in 2001 in the cliffs between Charmouth and Seatown. I read about it first in a BBC ARTICLE and, later, tracked down the ACADEMIC PAPER which describes the beastie in great detail. The lead author of this paper, Dean Lomax, is based at Bristol and Manchester Universities.

The holotype and only known specimen of the hauffiopterygian leptonectid, Xiphodracon goldencapensis (ROM VP52596) from Golden Cap, between Charmouth and Seatown, Dorset, UK. The skeleton is exposed in ventrolateral view. The skull has been fully prepared free of matrix whereas most of the skeleton is still in matrix. The left (upper) forefin has been prepared so that it is three-dimensionally preserved and projects upwards. Scale bar represents 20 cm.

The animal has been identified as a new species and dated as being from the early Pliensbachian. This is a time from which few icthyosaur fossils have been collected and this makes the find of some importance.

And secondly - a dinosaur trackway found. The BBC has produced a YOUTUBE VIDEO about the discovery of a very long sauropod trackway in an Oxfordshire limestone quarry. One suspects that a documentary is on its way.

The trackway is over 220m long and is thought to have been made 166 million years ago. The dinosaurs were land animals but they were walking in shallow sea water - there are marine fossils next to the footprints. 

Anne Bronte's Rocks

 Anne Bronte's Rocks

A correspondent, in reply to my remark that it was becoming difficult to find things suitable for this blog, sent me THIS LINK to the journal "Bronte Studies". This journal does not usually find its way to the top of my reading list but it takes us back to a time when being educated meant being interested in everything!

If you go to the Bronte Parsonage Museum you will see Anne Bronte's collection of stones.

 Anne Bronte’s collection of stones, as displayed at the Bronte Parsonage Museum. Courtesy of the Bronte Society.

The collection has been studied and found to be largely carnelians - a form of the silica mineral chalcedony. There is also a piece of flowstone and a couple of agates. The stones could not all have come from one site and they seem to have been deliberately chosen.

The article suggests that Scarborough is the most likely place where Anne collected her rocks. Her work as a governess took her to the place. She may have collected them herself or purchased them from a lapidary, of which there were several within the town. Some of the carnelians are of high quality and suggest that Anne knew what she was doing while making her collection. She certainly valued her collection enough to take it back to Haworth.

(You have probably noticed the plethora of links in this post. This is a new feature of Blogger, the app which I use to write this blog. I suspect that I will turn it off in future posts.)

 Air Balloon Geology

Recently a subscriber to this blog asked "I wonder if you know of any geological treatise on the A417 "Missing Link" at the Air Balloon pub site? ..... They plan to keep the strata exposed for all to see when driving past, like has been done on the Cirencester dual carrageway."

Well, the short answer is that I do not know what is happening there. If you do, send me the details HERE and I will pass them on. 

But the request sent me on a mission to discover what the geology is at the Air Balloon Pub. My knowledge of the place is being stuck in a traffic jam, waiting to get on to the M4 at Gloucester. And I discovered the latest addition to the BGS web site - the GeoIndex Beta.

With a little persistence I managed to produce the following map.

The original map can be found HERE.

If you click, on the original map, on a formation you get a pop-up similar to the following:-

The link takes you to THIS PAGE which tells you a lot about the Birdlip Limestone. The parent of this page IS THIS - the Lexicon of named rock units of the BGS.

I used this to name several of the formations on my Air Balloon map.

To search the Lexicon use the Computer Code given in the pop-up, or the Preferred Map Code. (This the code in the last line of the rock names I have put on my Air Balloon map.)

So now I know a great deal more about the Air Balloon Pub area and know how to access a vast amount of Geological Knowledge, but I still cannot answer the question which started this search!

 Dead Sea Models Salt Deposition

A correspondent sent me THIS LINK. The article is based on THIS ACADEMIC PAPER. The Dead Sea is, at the moment, the only water body sufficiently deep enough and salty enough to model the conditions which produced the vast salt deposits which are found in many places and times in the geological record.

The academic paper, in particular, examines, in great detail, all the things which determine the salt deposition. These include temperature, which varies with the seasons, salt concentration which varies with depth, temperature and the season, evaporation which depends on temperature and wind, wind which affects mixing, sizes of the deposited halite crystals and beach deposits.

Reading the reports makes me realise that it is very complicated! And that I am ill equipped to explain it all to you! So read the papers, and hope that you can begin to understand what is going on. 

 Is the Core Separate from the Mantle - Maybe Not

A correspondent sent me THIS LINK which looks at new evidence suggesting that material from the core is getting into the mantle and, eventually, to the Earths surface.

We have long been taught that the lighter mantle floats above the denser metallic core and that there cannot be movement between the two (except for earthquake waves).

But work on helium isotopes casts doubt about the separation. Helium-3 was formed just after the Big Bang and was confined to deep in the Earth, some believed it was confined to the core. Helium-4 is formed from the decay of uranium and thorium and is confined the mantle and the Earths surface. But then Helium-3 was found in volcanic lavas from mid-ocean ridges.

Ruthenium is an element with an affinity for iron and thus is concentrated in the iron-rich core. This applies particularly to Ruthenium-100. Other ruthenium isotopes came to Earth later via meteorites but Ruthenium-100 should be confined to the core. But it is now found at the surface.

So how is the core stuff getting into the mantle? Debate rages with a lot of attention being paid to two huge "blobs" - one under the Pacific and the other under Africa. These are believed to be hot but dense and supplying plumes leading to the surface. Are they "mining" the core or are they a bridge from the core to the surface.

Expect to hear more about this in the future.

 Down to Earth Extra August 2025

The August 2025 edition of Down to Earth Extra has been published. You can download it HERE or you can read it below.

 The Grand Canyon - Then and (Almost) Now

My attention has been drawn in the last week to two articles both concerning the Grand Canyon. THIS ARTICLE was sent to me by a correspondent - thank you - and concerns well preserved fossils from the middle Cambrian (Bright Angel Formation) 505 million years old, found in the Grand Canyon, and THIS ARTICLE which suggest that the meteor impact which created Meteor Crater, 100 miles from the Grand Canyon, caused landslides which dammed the canyon. This happened 56,000 years ago - almost yesterday!

The Cambrian fossils found are slightly younger (3 million years only!) than those of the Burgess shale and are mainly priapulid worms with some crustaceans and molluscs. They show that life was innovating new forms. The source paper can be found HERE and has some wonderful pictures of the beautifully preserved (but tiny) fossils.

Crustacean sternal elements from the Bright Angel biota.

Paragnath-bearing triangles are indicated by 1 s, and the successive posterior triangles by 2 s. (A) Posterior end of paragnath-bearing triangle and anterior section of successive triangle. (B) Complete triangle with laterally splayed paragnaths (black arrows). (C) Detail of scaly ornament of median cuticular strip in (B). (D) Detail of anterior setose surface in (B). (E) Complete paragnath-bearing triangle, with articulated anterior section of successive triangle. (F) Detail of boxed area in (E) showing scale-bearing cuticular strip and marginal setal fringes. (G) Articulated paragnath-bearing and partial posterior triangles defining median food groove. (H) Detail of boxed area in (G) showing sphaeromorphic acritarch adpressed onto the food groove cuticle. (I) Subtriangular cuticular lobe, representing possible setulose labrum. (J) Complete paragnath-bearing triangle and articulated, semi-complete posterior triangle. (K) Detail of boxed area in (J) showing spheroidal acritarch adpressed onto the food groove cuticle. Slide numbers and England Finder coordinates listed in data S1. Scale bars, 50 μm except in (C) and (H) (5 μm) and (D), (F), and (K) (25 μm).

The evidence for the damming of the Grand Canyon is not controversial. There are caves 45m above the river which have driftwood logs in them. In the last few years improved dating techniques have been used and they show that the ages of the damming and the meteor impact are about the same. Whether one caused the other is rather more difficult to prove.

Terror Bird Meets it's Doom

A correspondent sent me THIS LINK (I had seen it too!), concerning a dramatic event which happened 13 million years ago in the Middle Miocene.

This was in, what is now, Colombia. The locality is a desert (the Tatacoa Desert), then it was a swamp. A local collector had found the fossil and exhibited it in his own museum. Researchers from a Colombian university were cataloging the collection and discovered two things. The first was that the fossil was a leg bone from the top, land based, predator of the time Phorusrhacinae sp, better known as the Terror Bird. Fossils of this bird are rare, but what was even more exciting was the presence of tooth marks on the bone.

The tooth marks are similar to the teeth of crocodile-like creatures whose fossils can be found in museum collections. The most likely candidate is Purussaurus neivensis which was among the top, water based, predators of the time.

The tooth marks show no sign of healing and suggest that the Terror Bird did not survive, or that it was dead already and the croc scavenged it. (In scientific language being eaten is a trophic event!)

The story gives a fascinating glimpse of life in the past.

 Field Trip Proposal by Nick Chidlaw

Nick Chidlaw is proposing to run a field trip entitled:-

GEOLOGY OF THE PERMIAN STRATA OF COUNTY DURHAM, NORTH EAST ENGLAND

which sounds rather good. He introduces it as follows:-

-------------------------------------

June 2025 

Dear All,  

It has been very gratifying the level of interest and enrolments on the courses and field trips I have proposed and run during last year, and to learn from a number of attendees, particularly on recent events, that they would be interested in further field-based ones during 2025. 

I am proposing a 4 day field trip, to be run in late October this year, which interested parties may be available to attend. This focuses on the Permian strata of County Durham, in NE England. People who’ve studied Permian rocks in the S of England (exposed extensively in eastern Devon) will note that these were 

formed in a continental desert environment, under a hot dry climate. The crust that became the British Isles was located just N of the equator; the Permian period extending from 299 to 252 Ma. Other strata deposited under similar conditions of this age occur extensively in parts of SW and S Scotland, and NW 

England.  

Such continental sediments also occur in NE England, but are overlain by thicker and more extensive marine strata of this age. Outcrops of marine Permian occur locally in other parts of Britain, but are very small compared with that found in County Durham. It is in the latter that study of a wider range of Permian environments can be made than elsewhere in Britain. All these strata in County Durham have greater affinity with those of a similar age in mainland Europe, together with the area in between under the North Sea (known from hydrocarbon exploration): some of the stratigraphic names in County Durham reflect this, utilising terms applied in Germany. The Permian strata in County Durham are impressive, reflecting a range 

of environments that were highly diverse. In addition, the effect of post-depositional changes to the marine Permian rocks of the area are striking: from the development of bizarrely-structured concretions in carbonate deposits, through wholesale dissolution of evaporite stratigraphic units, to the formation of collapse structures and breccias in the rocks overlying these formerly-present strata.     

On the proposed field trip, two days visit locations inland, and two days to coastal locations. Tidal conditions on the two coastal dates are optimum to allow visits to be carried out safely and for longer than otherwise.       

This part of England is perhaps perceived by some who have not so far visited it, to be unattractive in appearance, it being a key location in Britain’s past for heavy industry, particularly ship-building and coal mining.  In actuality, the environment is largely agricultural, with a highly attractive coastline, and negative 

features on the landscape from these past industries have essentially been removed.  I have travelled widely in County Durham, the infrastructure is modern and well–developed, and urban areas whether large or small, are for the most part pleasant in appearance.     

Accommodation Factor  

Ideally, enrollees would arrange accommodation on or near to the coastal area, thereby minimising time needed to travel to most locations each day of the itinerary. This field trip was previously run in June 2019, and when arranging it earlier that year we discovered that a lot of available accommodation in the coastal 

area (the ideal location for the trip) had already been booked up. Some of the field party then had to arrange accommodation further inland, resulting in longer travel times to get to and from most of the field locations.  

The dates of the current proposal, being in late October, will hopefully allow for more accommodation to be available than during summer months, and enrollees may be able to book nearer to, or on, the coast.  

These dates are also chosen to avoid booking Friday and Saturday nights which will be attractive to people 

wanting to stay in the area just for a weekend.  

Tidal and Daylight Factors  

A number of key locations to be visited on this field trip are coastal and subject to tidal conditions. The dates proposed take this into account, enabling safe access to exposures for as long as possible.  

The dates are within Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the clocks having just changed from British Summer Time going back 1 hour. This means sunset will be at around 4. 40 pm. We would ensure we complete the itinerary each day while enough daylight remains; this could involve starting the itinerary earlier each day: field events I run usually have a programme of geological study between 10.00 am and 5.00 pm; this could be adjusted to 9.30 am – 4.30 pm so that everything is completed in good time.  

I hope you find the proposal (see below) of interest and are available to attend. I look forward to hearing 

from you.  

Regards, 

Nick Chidlaw nickchidlaw@gmail.com  

------------------------------------

Nick gives very full details of the trip which are too long for this blog post. You can download it in its entirety HERE.

 Visit the Holm Islands

Dr. Nick Chidlaw has proposed a trip to Steep Holm and Flat Holm. He has written an extensive introduction to the trip which I have repeated below. It sounds rather good.

-------------------------------------

Dear All,

I am currently proposing a trip to study during 1 day the geology of the Holm Islands; these are located in the sea where the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel meet. 

There are 2 islands, Steep Holm and Flat Holm, the former being part of England, and the latter Wales.  

I have run trips to study the geology there in the past, and they have enrolled well and attendees have greatly enjoyed visiting the islands and studying the geology.  I have also run indoor courses and given talks on the subject, and they have gratifyingly drawn good responses too. 

The plan is to duplicate as far as practical the field programme used on earlier trips.  This involves landing on Flat Holm, and studying the geology in beach sections and local crags, and sailing around Steep Holm, observing the geology from close inshore but not landing. This plan for Steep Holm is because most of the geology is best observed in its steep cliffs around the island; when on Steep Holm itself, much of this geology is not saffely accessible.  The sailing around Steep Holm is not done quickly - we spend over an hour going around, with many stops during which we discuss the geology visible at each key point.  

The rocks on both islands are of early Carboniferous age, mostly shallow marine with some indicating episodic emergence. The lithologies are limestones and dolostones with variations in grain size and shelly fossil content, and minor non-carbonate mudrocks. On Flat Holm is a limestone unit known only from that island. Many of the stratigraphic units can be linked to the nearby mainlands of England at Weston-Super-Mare, and in the Barry area in Wales.  The strata are extensively deformed by compressional folding and faulting that occurred during the Variscan Orogeny around the end of Carboniferous times c. 300 million years ago: on Steep Holm, the strata mostly dip gently to the S, but become steely-inclined,  in places 70 degrees, on its northern side; on Flat Holm, the island is mostly occupies a gentle upfold, plunging to the south west. There are reverse faults observable on Flat Holm together with minor folds superimposed on the main fold, and some impressive ripple structures in the limestone unique to Flat Holm. During the Triassic period, under a hot dry climate, the two islands formed 'inselbergs' surrounded by extensive flats that episodically became lakes. Crustal stretching during the Middle Jurassic c. 170 million years ago carried metalliferous brines up opening faults on Steep Holm, locally depositing galena and baryte. Before the end of the last glacial, c. 12,000 years ago, the sea was much further to the west, and the islands formed hils, between which the River Severn flowed in a narrow ravine some 45m below present sea level. With the ending of the last glacial, sea level rose to form the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, leaving the Holms as the islands we see today.

Date of the proposed trip

Saturday 30th August 

Transport & organisation

Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) operated by Bay Island Voyages Ltd out of Cardiff Bay.   It is to be appreciated that if the sea conditons on the day are unsuitable, the company will decide to cancel / postpone the trip for reasons of safety. 

Timings     

The Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary have some of the highest tidal ranges in the world; as can be appreciated, the proposed itinerary is strongly governed by predicted tidal conditions and currents. On this proposed date, the activities take place from 8 am, with the field party returned to Cardiff Bay by 2 pm.

The details are as follows :

0800     Meet at Cardiff Bay (check in, safety briefing, life jacket fitting. 

0830     RIB passes out through Cardiff Bay Barrage 

0850     Arrive at Flat Holm. Landing fee £5.00 per person (cash only, payable on arrival). We are allowed c. 2.5 hours on the island 

1120     Depart Flat Holm

c.1145  Arrive Steep Holm - circumnavigate island, with frequent pauses, for c. 1.5 hours. 

1315     Depart Steep Holm

1345     Pass through Cardiff Bay Barrage 

1400     Arrive Cardiff Bay

Fee

The fee involves payment to Bay Island Voyages Ltd for providing private charter transport, and tuition by myself. 

I will pay Bay Island Voyages their fee, from fees received from those who are interested and available to attend the trip. 

There are 12 places available on the RIB, 11 trip attendees and myself.  

The fee per person £125.00 

In case there is a good number of people interested and available, enrolments will need to be on a first-come first-served basis. 

If there are fewer than 11 who can attend the trip, the cost is likely to be too high per person if the private charter fee is shared between those who can attend; we will need to cancel the proposal should this be the case. 

If there are more than 11 who are interested and available to attend the trip, they can be put on a waiting list and Bay Island Voyages Ltd have said there may be another RIB available, but they do not know at the present time.  

If the trip can go ahead, I will sent a PDF of the trip document to all those enrolled in good time before the date of the trip. This will provide all logistical information attendees will need (including location of Bay Island Voyages car parking area and embarkation point) plus geological background. Attendees would bring printouts of the trip document with them for reference during the days programme. 

Viability Deadline

Bay Island Voyages Ltd has a busy programme, but they are helpfully prepared to operate a provisional booking with us for 2 weeks up to 14th July.

I must therefore make a definite booking with them, and pay their fee, by this set date.  If the payment and booking is not secured by that date, they will make the RIB avaiable to other potential users for 30th August. 

Payment to me

 

If you are interested and available for this trip, please forward me your fee of £125.00 by Saturday 12th July. 

I will let you know on Saturday 12th July if we can put the trip on. If we do not have enough enrolments, I will return your fee the same day. 

Please note enrolment requests are to be sent to:

Nick Chidlaw <nickchidlaw@gmail.com>

Some images are given below to illustrate the islands and the transporting vessel used. 

I hope you find this proposal interesting and that you can attend.  Any queries you may have, do let me know.

Holm Islands from South Wales

Flat Holm

Steep Holm

Holm Islands RIB

-----------------------------------------------

 The Oldest Meteorite Impact - Not Quite

A correspondent has sent me THIS LINK which concerns a meteorite impact in Western Australia. The "Science Alert" article is based on THIS ACADEMIC PAPER and is also the subject of 

THIS ARTICLE.

The burden of the article is that it refutes an earlier PAPER which claimed that the impact was the earliest known on Earth. The original dating was based on the very old age of the rocks in which cone structures were observed and an age for the impact of 3.47Ga. 

The later paper tells us that, in the same area, shatter cones have been found in younger rocks aged at 2.77Ga and they conclude that the maximum age of the impact is 2.71Ga - and the minimum a meagre 0.4Ga.

These papers are examples of the scientific method at work. I also note that the article in THE CONVERSATION illustrates its argument about superposition by using a photograph of the Siccar Point unconformity - the earliest described unconformity. Do I detect someone poking fun at the competition!

 Hydrogen - Is This the Fuel of the Future?

If you look at the current edition of New Scientist you will find many article about hydrogen exploration. I asked Google Gemini "List recent publications concerning geological exploration for hydrogen" and got THIS VERY INTERESTING ANSWER.

Hydrogen as a fuel is a very good thing - it's combustion leads to energy and water. Up to now the problem has been difficulties in making or finding it, storing and transporting it, and having the engines to use it. The infrastructure of the oil industry already exists and up to now, fulfils the needs of society.

But the advance of electric vehicles suggests that oil might be on the way out. Oil companies are no doubt aware of this. But electricity is not their thing. Finding and moving hazardous materials is. I suspect that they see movement from oil to hydrogen as fitting in with their expertise.

A movement from oil fuel to electricity might be difficult for them. A change from oil to hydrogen - not so much.

 A Dinosaur's Last Meal

A correspondent, who is currently in the area, sent me the link to THIS ARTICLE which concerns the work done on an Upper Cretaceous sauropod (Diamantinasaurus matildae) found near the small town of Winton in the middle of Queensland, Australia.

The dinosaur, called Judy for reasons which need not detain us, is so well preserved that her stomach contents are preserved. This is the first time that we have direct evidence that sauropods were vegetarian. There is lots of indirect evidence that they must have been so but now we can see what they ate.

Also she is the first dinosaur fossil with skin preserved that has been found in Australia.

Small portion of Judy's skin, showing approximately hexagonal scales covered in tiny lumps (termed papillae). Scale bar in centimetres. (Poropat et al., Current Biology, 2025)

Judy's stomach contents confirm what had been thought - sauropods ate from trees high off the ground. But she was not fully grown and so, also ate low growing plants - angiosperms.

The work done on Judy is also discussed in THIS ARTICLE. The source paper for both is THIS ACADEMIC PAPER. The latter covers everything in painstaking detail. I particularly liked "The fossilised bones were exposed using standard digging equipment (e.g., hammers, chisels, screwdrivers, dental probes, paintbrushes)"

 Were There Five Mass Extinctions?

THIS ARTICLE in New Scientist questions whether there were five Mass Extinctions - end of the Ordovician (445 million years ago), the late Devonian (372 million years ago), the end-Permian (252 million years ago), the end-Triassic (201 million years ago) and the end-Cretaceous.

The evidence for mass extinctions is best seen in the marine environment, where fossil preservation is easier. On land preservation is more difficult. And so mass extinction is more difficult to prove. Or is it that mass extinction did not happen on land?

And if it did not happen on land, was it a mass extinction? On land, animals find it easier to move than sea creatures. Plants have seeds which can survive long after the parent dies. Insects, with there rapid regeneration times, seem to avoid extinction. (But have a poor fossil record.)

Much of the argument seems to come down to a matter of definition. Labelling the present day as the Sixth Mass Extinction might make conservation goals more difficult if it comes to arguing about definitions.

 Down to Earth Extra June 2025

The June 2025 edition of Down to Earth Extra has been published. You can download it HERE or you can read it below.

 Land Level Rises - What is the Cause?

A correspondent sent me THIS LINK. It is based on THIS ACADEMIC PAPER. The reason for the papers is the measured rise in land level in South Africa. The rise is not much - 6mm in the period 2012 to 2021. The rise could be measured because of the extensive GPS network in the country.

But what is the cause of the rise? For several years the reason was thought to be the mantle plume beneath the region. But the research described in the papers suggests that the real cause is drought! If you think of the soil as a sponge, taking the water out will cause the sponge to expand. Therefore land level rises.

All very interesting but the research suggests that the GPS system can be used as a means of measuring the severity of drought and planning to mitigate the consequences of predicted water shortages.

 An Unsurprising Discovery

A correspondent sent me THIS LINK. It is based on this ACADEMIC PAPER in Nature. The Nature paper concentrates on the history of the breakup of the ice shelves which fringed the British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The BBC article concentrates on the scratches the icebergs breaking off from the ice shelves left on the sea floor. 

It has always seemed to me that such scratches would inevitably be found some time; - there was an ice sheet; icebergs would be spawned; icebergs would leave sea bed scratches. So it is nice that there presence has been proved.

The paper in Nature uses the scratches to detail how the BIIS retreated and uses the data to model how the Antarctic Ice Sheet might break up.

Icebergs calved in the Witch Ground Basin would drift eastwards towards the Norwegian Channel before being routed northwards towards the continental shelf edge. The isostatically-corrected bathymetry of the central North Sea at 20 ka is from Bradley et al. 60, with bathymetric depth contours displayed every 25 m. Colored stippled lines represent the modeled ice margins of the last British-Irish (BIIS) and Fennoscandian (FIS) ice sheets at timeslices between 20 ka and 18 ka from Clark et al. 40. NCIS—Norwegian Channel Ice Stream.

 Petrification: Fossils & the Revelation of Deep Time

News has come to me of this free exhibition at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution and it sounds very interesting. It runs until Saturday 11th October.

========================================

What makes fossils so special? Fossils provide the evidence that there was life on earth before humans and this year Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is displaying a selection of the best from the depths of our amazing collections. Petrification is BRLSI’s latest exhibition and in it you will discover fossils from across 505 million years of the history of life. The BRLSI’s earliest fossil is a trilobite from the Cambrian geological period!

Our exhibition begins by encouraging visitors to follow a Deep Timeline, starting out at a meteorite which represents the formation of both the Solar System and planet Earth 4.567 billion years ago!

Crossing the gallery, the timeline leads visitors through the Precambrian era, when only single-celled life existed, all the way through to the Cambrian Explosion of life. The final ninth of the timeline, which is depicted in a scale running up the wall of the gallery, is where all the palaeontologic action happens.

This is where visitors get to experience trilobites and corals, dinosaurs, marine reptiles, mammoths and cave bears! Colour-coded exhibits in the room correspond to the timeline so that visitors always know where in Deep Time they are.

And that’s really just the start! Learn more about some of the amazing things you can hope to find in Petrification, and our accompanying activities for families and children here.

Come to BRLSI and discover the beautiful complexity of prehistoric life and Bath’s influential role in the birth of palaeontology.

Please note our opening hours are Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm (closed on Sundays).

We are open Good Friday (18 April) and Easter Monday (21 April).

============================

 Filling the Mediterranean - a Megaflood of Articles

It has probably not escaped your notice that there has been a plethora of articles in the last few days about the flooding of the Mediterranean when the barrier at Gibraltar was breached. It has been on YouTube HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and many more; on various web sites such as HERE and HERE. It has also featured on my FAVOURITE PODCAST. I could go on but you get the picture.

All these eruptions of interest, except the podcast, are due to THIS PAPER which discusses, in some depth, the geomorphological results of the refilling of the Mediterranean, especially the part east of Sicily.

I first became aware of the drying of the Mediterranean when I read about the difficulty the builders of the Aswan Dam had in finding hard rock for the dams foundations. They discovered that there was a deep canyon along the Nile caused by the river eroding downwards to a base level far below the present Mediterranean. The canyon had been filled in with sediments deposited when the base level rose back to its present position. 

The interest in the refilling shows the publics interest in exciting stories and the stories don't get any more exciting than the Gibraltar waterfall!

 

 The Case of the Missing Niobium

A correspondent sent me THIS LINK. As he said, it is very interesting but I admit I found it rather difficult to understand. So, being a bit of a tech wizard, I decided to get some help from my pal Gemini, and asked it to summarise the article in less than 200 words. I reckon it did a good job and I understand it much more. Read and see if you agree.

I wish Gemini and its like had been around when I was at University!

Below is Gemini's summary.

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A new study challenges the long-held assumption that Earth's early crust was significantly different from today's continental crust. Researchers used mathematical models to simulate the formation of Earth's first protocrust during the Hadean eon (4 to 4.5 billion years ago). Their findings suggest that this early crust surprisingly exhibited a similar chemical fingerprint to modern continental crust, specifically a lack of the element niobium.

This niobium depletion was previously thought to be a hallmark of subduction zones, implying the existence of tectonic plates early on. However, the model indicates that niobium would have been drawn to Earth's core during its formation, explaining its absence in the early crust without the need for plate tectonics. This suggests that continental crust formation may have been an original part of Earth's layering process. The study offers a new perspective on Earth's early geological evolution and potentially the formation of continents on other planets.

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 Somerset Geology Group - 2025 Update

The Somerset Geology Group has published its update for spring 2025 and it contains much of interest. You can download it HERE and you can read it in this blog below.

They have a new website which you can see at https://somersetgeology.org.uk.

And they have update Hugh Prudden's Bibliography of Somerset Geology. You can download the updated version HERE, and compare it to the old version which you can get HERE.

As a result of the update I have changed a couple of web pages - https://westcountrygeology.com/somerset-papers/ and 

https://bristolgeology.com/somerset-papers/. Because incorporating pdf files into my web pages is not easy I have converted them to Word files but this entails a small loss of formatting.

 CARDIFF UNIVERSITY GEOLOGY FIELD COURSE FOR ADULTS

Nick Chidlaw has contacted me about a course he is running this summer in association with Cardiff University Lifelong Learning. The details are given below.

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I am offering to run a field course for 4 consecutive days in June this year.  This is organised by Lifelong Learning at Cardiff University and examines the geology at key locations in and between the Malvern Hills and the Cotswolds.  

Enrolees do not need to be students studying at Cardiff University - it is intended and available for the adult public.

Please see attachment for details, and for contacting Lifelong Learning. The course fee is £196.00, concessionary fee £157.00 .

The Attachment is HERE.

No prior knowledge of geology or the study area is assumed.

The course carries assessment, which is completed after the course is run and returned to the tutor within 14 days.  It is designed to be easily completed (ticking boxes, filling in words only) and in practise course attendees find the process enjoyable and useful for consolidating what they've learned. There is only a 'pass' or 'fail' grading: a pass is 40%.

Most course attendees score very highly - usually above 80%, with some getting scores in the high 90's.

Any queries you have about the course content, do contact me; enrolling and course payment is done through Lifelong Learning at Cardiff (contact details given in attached doc).

I hope you find this proposal of interest, that you're available and that you decide to enrol.

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You can read the attachment below. Nick is referring to the central item.