Category: Show On Website

22nd February 2017

Dr Joel Gill, Project Development Scientist with the British Geological Survey and Founder and Director of Geology for Global Development.

He has a background in engineering and geology and worked in Tanzania, India and Guatemala, advising on water resources, geology and geo-education.

His talk was based on the GfGD principles of trying to ‘mobilise and equip the geological community to prevent and relieve poverty, in all its forms everywhere’. This was illustrated by reference to 3 UN initiatives. (See www.gfgd.org for more details).

The international framework for tackling this global challenge crystallised in 2015 with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals:- a set of 17 goals with 169 targets, aiming to eradicate poverty and unsustainable consumption, facilitate growth and social development, etc.within a 15 year time frame.

Here, Geological Sciences with their knowledge of Earth Materials, Resources and Management are essential to, for instance, effective clean water systems and energy supply and management (www.un.org has more detail).

There has been some progress – e.g. extreme poverty has fallen by 50%; access to an improved source of drinking water has increased from 76% in 1990 to 91% of the global population in 2015.However, in sub Saharan Africa sanitation facilities and access to clean water are still poor. An example was given in Tanzania of little improvement over 15 years to water access. 35-50% of water projects failed due to poor siting of wells, lack of understanding of the culture, and the training needed for water management.

In March 2015, at a UN world conference, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was adopted. It has 7 targets, including increasing access to Multi-Hazard Warning systems, and 4 priorities e.g., Risk Resilience (see Sendai website for more details). An example was given of Multi-Hazard Research in Guatemala and the role Geoscientists can play e.g. integrating research into the impacts of landslides, flooding and ground subsidence.

Finally, the 2015 Paris Accord on Climate Change was briefly mentioned and the role geoscientists can play researching new minerals needed for the new generation of solar panels to meet alternative/renewable energy targets.

Dr Gill concluded by referring to work with Professor Ian Stewart. This had indicated more of a need for geoscience courses to promote the ‘hard’, ‘soft’ and interdisciplinary skills needed to connect effectively with global humanitarian issues.

The meeting ended with a request for Dr Gill to identify a project to which CGS could contribute.

A paper by Dr. Gill is due to be published in Spring 2017 in the IUGS journal

Editions (link on IUGS website)

Of cannonballs and pencils: Borrowdale graphite.

A packed Tullie House lecture theatre got the full story of the Seathwaite graphite mine, from David Millward of the British Geological Survey, in a very clear and well structured account. Many images and facts from the presentation will linger long in the mind including [1] the impressive cavity left by the main pipe-shaped orebody, [2] the size of the graphite nodule in the Tullie House collection, [3] that the moderate temperature volcanic hydrothermal system was capable of producing graphite as highly crystalline and of the same high quality as found in ultra-metamorphic regions, [4] the wide array of modern high tech kit that was used in the study, [5] the intriguing history of exploitation and ancillary socio-economic developments, [6] the range of ancient and modern uses of graphite, [7] the mine’s special characteristics in that it is one of only two volcanic-hosted graphite deposits and it was the first place where colloform graphite was identified, [8] the challenge of keeping CO2 in the magma to form such a deposit, [9] the clear biogenic source of the carbon very likely derived through assimilation of Skiddaw Group material into the magma, a process also responsible for the globally-rare garnet phenocrysts in the BVG, [10] the fundamental nature of the Burtness Comb Fault that probably played a role in channelling magmas to the site of mineralisation, [11] the bureaucratic complexities involved in working on an Scheduled Ancient Monument and the five year delay to the project when the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak coincided with the planned start, and [12] the desirability of having caving skills to do geology underground in old workings.

Perhaps more for the ore deposit aficionados were aspects like [1] the Raman spectrometry to determine the degree of crystallinity of the graphite, [2] the Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry to study isotopes in micrometre-sized areas of the separate graphite forms, [3] the array of microscopy techniques employed down to Scanning Electron Microscope resolutions, [4] the extensive use of fluid inclusion data to characterise the nature of the fluid and how it evolved during the mineralisation process, [5] the structural control at fault/fault intersections and the catastrophic disturbance of fluid conditions at fault rupture events, [6] the extent of fluid-rock interaction and the crucial role this process played in forming the deposit as the hydration of country-rock minerals led to carbon supersaturation in the fluid driving massive graphite precipitation, [7] by combining all the data, the deposit clearly is shown to be epigenetic and must have formed after the Birker Fell Formation but whilst the Borrowdale volcanics were still evolving, and [8] the remarkable sequence of events in the depositional model and the number of critical steps required to create such a special deposit. All of these results come from a highly fruitful collaboration with a group of Spanish researchers.

The final thought put to the group was that if, industrially, we could replicate the natural process at Seathwaite we could produce synthetic graphite with much greater energy efficiency than happens at the moment for this critical raw material. Audrey Brown proposed the vote of thanks supported by great acclaim from the audience.

CAB

GLACIERS AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Professor Mike Hambrey

A large audience assembled at Braithwaite Institute on November 9th to hear Professor Hambrey (who now lives at Threlkeld) give a comprehensive review of his own glaciological research and the implications for climate change. He outlined some of his field trips to polar regions and displayed photographic and statistical evidence of the depletion of ice from mountain glaciers in different parts of the world and from the great ice caps and ice sheets. Mountain glaciers, especially in the Himalayan chain, contribute greatly through meltwaters to the water supply of large areas of Asia. Significant loss of ice from continental areas leads to rise in sea level, a problem already affecting some low-lying Pacific islands. A special concern in the North Atlantic is the way in which major loss of ice from Greenland cools the ocean and may lead to the disruption of the important Gulf Stream which in turn could adversely affect the climate of NW Europe.

The rate of temperature increase in polar regions is higher than at lower latitudes and his Antarctic field research has revealed how the potential collapse of ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula would allow the release of interior ice into the ocean and its subsequent melting.

The deep drilling into the polar ice caps and in particular the extraction of 3000m of ice core from the Vostok site has enabled sampling of trapped air bubbles from the atmosphere  going back millions of years. The CO2 levels measured match closely the known temperatures (from other evidence) and indicate how warm periods coincide with high CO2. Such data has shown while the CO2 concentration has not exceeded 300 ppm for most of the last million years, it reached 320 ppm in 1960 and has rapidly risen to 400ppm at present.

Professor Hambrey concluded by warning that rising CO2 together with other greenhouse gases will result in further increase of global temperatures. Present trends, unless checked by radical measures, will lead to a 40C further rise by the end of this century. At this level polar ice caps could not be sustained.

Lecture by Dr. Simon Ferley

Wednesday 12th October 2016

Dr Ferley began from first principles. He considered the properties of soil and the way it’s strength varied with water content, which he demonstrated with samples from his own garden. He then went on to describe the different ways in which slopes fail with some mathematical equations enhanced by some very clear diagrams. It became abundantly clear that water content is crucial to the stability of any slope and that appropriate drainage is essential to prevent failure.

He then discussed measures which could be taken to mitigate naturally occurring failures. These included good maintenance of channels downstream, delaying flow in areas nearer the catchment by tree planting and creating artificial meanders in a stream. He was cautious about flood defences as although they are necessary in some areas, they may exacerbate problems downstream.

Dr. Ferley had some dramatic photographs of rock and soil failures both from this country and abroad, almost all due to inappropriate engineering works rather than natural events.

He finished with a quick resume of the cause of the devastation to the A591 which had been due to excessive rainfall that had, by natural processes, been channeled into a steep, narrow gully.

Susan Beale

The Sirius Minerals North Yorkshire Polyhalite Project

Tristan Pottas, was unable to give this talk but two of his colleagues gave an interesting overview of this exciting new mining project near Whitby. Asher Haynes described the process of exploration and the excitement of discovering a truly vast deposit of polyhalite in North Yorkshire. Polyhalite is an unusual multi-nutrient mineral that is an exceptionally good fertilizer as it is essentially chloride free, does not affect the pH of the groundwater when applied, and needs virtually no processing. However this valuable resource lies 1500m below the National Park with all its tight planning restrictions. Nevertheless the project would bring significant economic benefits to the area by way of employment and would contribute to the national economy. Sirius had been given planning consent after describing these advantages and developing an extraction method which placed most of the infrastructure below ground level. The Company are currently seeking the necessary finance in readiness to commence construction.

David Warburton, completed the evening by describing the characteristics of polyhalite (K 2 MgCa 2 (SO 4 ) 4 2H 2 O) and his recent research Masters degree at University of Leeds where he had attempted to discover how this mineral is formed. This deposit is most unusual in its thickness, averaging 25m, whereas deposits of around a metre are the norm. Polyhalite is a late stage mineral to form in a sequence of evaporates, so how does such a huge volume occur? David attacked the problem from a geochemical perspective, looking at the isotopes of the various elements which all pointed to formation from seawater during Permian time. The study of thin sections by the BGS suggested that polyhalite replaced anhydrite and other minerals, very soon after the original crystals had formed. The results support the formation of polyhalite via seawater concentration processes, though the topic is far from closed and much more research could be completed.

The combination of a more sustainable approach to the extraction of a valuable resource and the attempts to discover its formation and the questions raised made for a fascinating evening. The speakers were both enthusiastic and hopefully will return in due course to update us on their progress.