teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association

teaching 

EARTH 

SCIENCES 

Dear Editor 

From Primary Committee 

From the Chair 

Teaching Palaeontology 

Using Raw Data from the 

Internet: The Example of 

www.asoldasthehills.org 

Katla-Clysmic! – 

Managing a Hazardous 

Environment 

Should Earth Science 

Teachers Worry About 

Creationists’ Ideas 

Durham Earth Scientists 

go Back to School! 

Derby Conference Post- 

16 ‘Bring and Share’, 

September 2005 

A-Level Study Day at 

Dudley Museum and 

Art Gallery and the 

Educator Placement 

Programme 

More Recent 

Geological Howlers 

Take a Nappe 

Tales from Iceland 

The Life and Work of 

Alfred Wegener 

1880-1930 

News and Views 

Diary 

Reviews 

PEST Issue 55 

Magazine of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION 

Volume 31 ● Number 3, 2006 ● ISSN 0957-8005 

www.esta-uk.org

Teaching Earth Sciences: Guide for Authors 

The Editor welcomes articles of any length and nature and on any topic related to 

Earth science education from cradle to grave. Please inspect back copies of TES, 

from Issue 26(3) onwards, to become familiar with the magazine house-style. 

Text 

Please supply the full text on disk or as an email attachment: Microsoft Word is 

the most convenient, but any widely-used wordprocessor is acceptable. Figures, 

tables and photographs must be referenced in the text, but sent as separate jpeg 

or tiff files (see below). 

Please use SI units throughout, except where this is inappropriate (in which case 

please include a conversion table). The first paragraph of each major article should 

not have a subheading but should either introduce the reader to the context of the 

article or should provide an overview to stimulate interest. This is not an abstract in 

the formal sense. Subsequent paragraphs should be grouped under sub-headings. 

To Advertise in 


EARTH 

SCIENCES 


EARTH 

SCIENCES 

References 

Please use the following examples as models 

(1) Articles 

Mayer, V. (1995) Using the Earth system for integrating the science curriculum. 

Science Education, 79(4), pp. 375-391. 

(2) Books 

McPhee, J. (1986 ) Rising from the Plains. New York: Fraux, Giroux & Strauss. 

(3) Chapters in books 

Duschl, R.A. & Smith, M.J. (2001) Earth Science. In Jere Brophy (ed), Subject- 

Specific Instructional Methods and Activities, Advances in Research on Teaching. Volume 8, 

pp. 269-290. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science. 

Figures 

Prepared artwork must be of high quality and submitted on paper or disk. Handdrawn 

and hand-labelled diagrams are not normally acceptable, although in some 

circumstances this is appropriate. Each figure must be submitted as a separate file. 

(not embedded in a Word file) Each figure must have a caption. 

Photographs 

Please submit colour or black-and-white photographs as originals. They are also 

welcomed in digital form on disk or as email attachments: .jpeg format is to be preferred. 

Please use one file for each photograph, to be at 300dpi. Each photograph 

must have a caption. 

Copyright 

There are no copyright restrictions on original material published in Teaching Earth 

Sciences if it is required for use in the classroom or lecture room. Copyright material 

reproduced in TES by permission of other publications rests with the original 

publisher. Permission must be sought from the Editor to reproduce original material 

from Teaching Earth Sciences in other publications and appropriate acknowledgement 

must be given. 

All articles submitted should be original unless indicted otherwise and should 

contain the author’s full name, title and address (and email address where relevant). 

They should be sent to the Editor, 

Cally Oldershaw 

Email: cally.oldershaw@btopenworld.com 

Tel: 07796 942361 



Telephone 

Ian Ray 

0161 486 0326 

www.esta-uk.org 

COPY DEADLINES 

TES 31.4 (PEST 56) 25 September 2006 for 

publication November/December 2006 

TES 32.1 (PEST 57) 13 December 2006 for 

publication January/February 2007 

TES 32.2 (PEST 58) 20 February 2007 for 

publication April/May 2007 

WHERE IS PEST 

PEST is printed as the 

centre 4 pages in 

Teaching Earth Sciences.


Dear Editor 









Environment 









A Level Study Day at 




Programme 

More Recent 


Take a Nappe 




1880-1930 


Diary 

Reviews 

PEST Issue 55 



TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 31 ● Number 3, 2006 


EARTH 

SCIENCES 

Teaching Earth Sciences is published quarterly by 

the Earth Science Teachers’ Association. ESTA 

aims to encourage and support the teaching of 

Earth sciences, whether as a single subject or as 

part of science or geography courses. 

Full membership is £25.00; student and retired 

membership £12.50. 

Registered Charity No. 1005331 

Editor 

Cally Oldershaw 

Tel: 07796 942361 

Email: cally.oldershaw@btopenworld.com 

Advertising 

Ian Ray 

Tel: 0161 486 0326 

Email: ianray@ray2003.fsworld.co.uk 

Reviews Editor 

Dr. Denis Bates 

Tel: 01970 617667 

Email: deb@aber.ac.uk 

Council Officers 

Chairman 

Martin Whiteley 

Tel: 01234 354859 

Email: mjwhiteley@yahoo.co.uk 

Secretary 

Susan Beale 

Email: beales.lowrow@virgin.net 

Membership Secretary 

Hamish Ross 

PO BOX 23672 

Edinburgh EH3 9XQ 

Tel: 0131 651 6410 

Email: hamish.ross@education.ed.ac.uk 

Treasurer 

Maggie Williams 

Email: maggiee.williams@tiscali.co.uk 

Primary Co-ordinator 

Niki Whitburn 

Email: farfalle@btinternet.com 

Secondary Co-ordinator 

Chris King 

Email: c.j.h.king@educ.keele.ac.uk 

Higher Education Co-ordinator 

Mike Tuke 

Email: miketuke@btinternet.com 

CONTENTS 

4 From the Editor 

5 Dear Editor 

6 From the Primary Committee 

7 From the Chair 

8 Teaching Palaeontology Using Raw Data from the 

Internet: The Example of www.asoldasthehills.org 

Lucy A. Muir, Joseph P. Botting and Roy Barlow 

11 Katla-Clysmic! – Managing 

a Hazardous Environment 

Ian K Hardie 

14 Should Earth Science Teachers Worry About 


Dr Antony Wyatt 

17 Durham Earth Scientists go Back to School! 

Stuart Jones 

20 Derby Conference Post-16 ‘Bring and Share’, 


Chris King 

22 A-Level Study Day at Dudley Museum and 

Art Gallery and the Educator Placement 

Programme 

Kate Figgitt and Bill Groves 

24 More Recent Geological Howlers 

Jo Conway 

25 Take a Nappe 

Jack Treagus 

28 Tales from Iceland 

Dawn Windley 

29 The Life and Work of Alfred Wegener 1880-1930 

Clare Dudman 

32 News and Views 

37 ESTA Diary 

38 Reviews 

PEST – Issue 55 – At School with Earth Science 

Visit our website at www.esta-uk.org 

Contributions to future issues of Teaching Earth 

Sciences will be welcomed and should be 

addressed to the Editor. 

Opinions and comments in this issue are the 

personal views of the authors and do not 

necessarily represent the views of the Association. 

Designed by Character Design 

Highridge, Wrigglebrook Lane, Kingsthorne 

Hereford HR2 8AW 


EARTH 

SCIENCES 

Front cover 

Glacial meltwater river from the snout 

of the Solheimajökull glacier 

3 www.esta-uk.org


Helping Raise Achievement 

As I write this, the sun is shining and the students 

are sitting exams. It always seems rather unfair 

to wait the whole year for a bit of sunshine and 

then spend it indoors! Following the exams, of course is 

the marking of exam papers. My first batch for marking 

arrived today, looking pretty with pink covers. 

For those of you who are not marking, you may well 

be involved in setting examinations, discussing assessment 

methods and debating the curriculum. Whatever 

your involvement or interest, have you thought of the 

decision makers and how you might help by including 

your ideas, experience and expertise There are a number 

of consultations to which your comments could be 

help. Don’t be put off writing as an individual – your 

views are important. If you would prefer to get together 

with a group of colleagues, or write a piece for your 

school, association or society to submit on your behalf, 

then do it. And next time you are having a chat and 

‘putting the world to rights’ in the staff room or elsewhere, 

check out where your ideas might be useful and 

maybe even make a difference. 

Draft criteria for AS and A level Science 

The draft GCE criteria consultation is now over and 

QCA has drawn together all of the responses into a set 

of recommendations. Several ESTA members including 

Chris King, Pete Loader and myself were involved 

in the production of the draft criteria for Geology. See 

www.qca.org.uk/downloads/QCA-06-2404_GCE_Science.pdf 

(geology is on page 17). 

Sustainable Schools 

Issues like climate change, water scarcity and energy efficiency 

have come to the fore with the launch by the 

Department for Education and Skills (DfES) of a major 

consultation with schools on sustainable development. 

The consultation aims to get schools, pupils and their 

communities thinking about how they can fulfil the Government’s 

vision for schools to be models of sustainable 

development, and what support they need to do so. 

The framework contains ideas for encouraging 

pupils to walk or ride to school, interesting ways of 

exploring sustainable development issues in the curriculum 

and incorporating environmental projects in 

their buildings and grounds. It gives schools an opportunity 

to talk about their approach with all those who 

work with them, like local authorities, voluntary organisations 

and businesses. 

The Secretary Alan Johnson and Junior Education 

Minister Parmjit Dhanda marked the launch with a 

visit to Argyle Primary School in Camden, London. 

The school has developed several sustainable development 

projects, including a watering system powered by 

renewable energy. Alan Johnson said: 

“We know that our young people are keenly aware of environmental 

issues – in fact in many ways they are driving the 

change in attitudes to recycling and conservation”. 

“I would urge schools to tap into this interest to really engage 

young people through the curriculum, the school’s environment 

and awareness of the community around them. Schools can 

really help young people be part of the solution to the world’s big 

challenges”. 

“We know that many schools are leading the way, either by 

working to improve the goods they offer, encouraging healthy 

ways to travel to schools and looking at how they can use energy 

and water more efficiently. I want to see this action replicated in 

all schools. The long-term benefits are huge – it can contribute 

to raising achievement, improving behaviour and cost savings”. 

“Schools are at the heart of their communities and many are 

already leading the way by encouraging sustainability in different 

areas of school life by looking at things like efficient use of 

energy and water. I would like to see this replicated in all 

schools.” 

“Young people are keenly aware of, and highly motivated by, 

environmental issues. In many ways they are ahead of adults in 

their attitudes to recycling and conservation. Channelling this 

enthusiasm helps raise achievement and improve behaviour and 

could save money as well as addressing big issues such as climate 

change – it really is a win-win solution.” 

This is believed to be the first government consultation 

to be carbon neutral and covers the following areas: 

● food and drink – considering how food for school 

meals can be ethically sourced 

● energy and water – reducing the demand for energy 

and water through energy and water conservation 

● travel and traffic – encouraging and supporting more 

eco-friendly journeys to schools, for example walking 

and cycling 

● purchasing and waste – reducing costs and support 

markets for ethical goods and services at the same 

time 

● buildings and grounds – good design can translate 

into improved staff morale, pupil behaviour and 

achievement as well as nature conservation 

● inclusion and participation – providing an inclusive, 

welcoming atmosphere that values everyone’s participation 

and contribution 

● local well-being – acting as a hub of learning and 

change in the local community 

● global dimension – helping pupils to appreciate the 

impact of their personal values, choices and behaviours 

on the wider world. 

Working with Climate Care, the DfES has offset the 

CO 2 emissions arising from all printing and distribution, 

consultation events, and response routes in what is 

believed to be the first climate neutral government con- 


4


sultation. The money used to offset these will go 

towards sustainable energy projects, like the production 

of energy efficient cooking stoves for schools in India. 

Schools have a special role to play in securing the 

future for young people; they can help young people be 

part of the solution to the world’s big challenges, rather 

than part of the problem. 

Would you like to respond, or can you help a school 

to start thinking about these issues The next step is to 

read the consultation document: Sustainable Schools – 

Consultation Document (PDF). If you’d rather get free 

printed copies of the documents sent to you, telephone 

DfES Publications on 0845 6022260 quoting ref 0470- 

2006DOC-EN (consultation paper) and 0481- 

2006DOC-EN (summary). www.dfes.gov.uk/ 

consultations/conDetails.cfmconsultationId=1398 

Making the most of rainy days – Science and the 

social and political impact of water shortage 

In May, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Earth 

Sciences met in the House of Commons for a meeting 

on water shortage. Presentations were given by Trevor 

Bishop (Head of Water Resource Management, Environment 

Agency), Andrew McKenzie (Groundwater 

Information Manager, British Geological Survey) and 

Mike Pocock (Head of Strategic Planning, Veolia 

Water UK – including Three Valleys Water, Folkestone 

and Dover Water and Tendring Hundred Water). 

We are currently experiencing the worst drought 

since 1932. The drought, housing growth and environmental 

pressures require us to urgently appraise the 

future and how we can maintain security of supply 

whilst balancing risks, costs and environmental concerns 

and ensuring sustainability. The presentations 

looked at possible strategies for ensuring that water is 

available where it is needed, including techniques such 

as the underground storage of water and its recovery, 

and bulk transfer of water resources from areas of surplus 

to areas of deficit. 

Editor 

Dear Editor 

Mnemonics – Are you ready for a possible avalanche of 

mnemonics Have you been inundated by a flood of 

them 

I have attached some, they are mostly restricted to 

my student days – I haven’t needed to teach the subdivisions 

of the Ordovician, the families of the Graptoloidea 

or the zones of the Namurian! 

Others have been quoted in my teaching as examples 

(e.g. plagioclases, hardness scale), but I have then set 

students to work ones out for themselves. Do get back 

to me on any of these if you care to. Peter Perkins 

A few of these are ready to mind and others I had forgotten 

and have had to ‘dig out’ from a small card-index 

box I still have from student days. 

Mohs’ scale: The Governor (of) Cyprus Found A 

Fellow Quarrelling, The Cad Died. 

This was devised when I was doing National Service 

in Cyprus in 1957 – between A-level Geology at school 

and going on to Reading University. 

Phanerozoic: Cards Of Silk Don’t Cause Permanent 

Traces; Judges Create Even Over Messy Plates. 

This illustrates that a mnemonic doesn’t need to be 

‘intelligent’, just so long as it isn’t gobbledegook. This 

is, of course, incomplete – firstly, it predates the appearance 

of Palaeocene in the list that was widely used in 

textbooks; and secondly, I never needed to complete the 

mnemonic in order to complete the list – Pleistocene 

and Recent always got added correctly. 

Ordovician: Always Commiserate Loves Last 

‘Appiness 

I am (now) ashamed that this goes down the succession 

– I have always taught my students to start at the 

bottom and work up. However this, I suppose, illustrates 

that with a mnemonic the important thing is getting 

the facts correct, irrespective of how it is done. This 

also dates back to when the Tremadoc was placed in the 

top of the Cambrian – so it wouldn’t do for nowadays. 

Plagioclases: Apples And Oranges Always Look 

Bloody Awful. 

Nothing much to add to this! 

This is one you ought to be able to work out! It was for 

remembering the contents of a list and not any special 

order: Put All Spitfires Under Giant ‘angers. 

Graptolites: these are the families of the Graptoloidea 

– or they were in the late 50’s! 

I had to check up on this and found it in A, Morley 

Davies ‘An Intro to Palaeo’, page 206: [does anybody 

else have this book on their shelf!] Dogs Love Digging 

Deep (in) Lots Of Dirty Mud. One problem with this 

(but it wasn’t a problem) is that I had to remember 

‘Lots’ referred to Glossograptidae. 

Namurian: Goniatites Run Riot (having) Hodson 

Exploring Eire Pleasurably. 

These are the zones and, as with the Ordovician, 

they run downwards, against the sequence. Also it 

includes the P1-P2 Lower Bowland Shales; all of this as 

on page 202 of ‘The Stratigraphy of the British Isles’ by 

Rayner. As you probably realise it dates from a time 

when Frank Hodson was Head of Palaeo at Reading – 

so is, in a sense, ‘of the moment’ and not applicable to 

the present. 

Answer to number five: Garnets (Did you get it) 

Peter Perkins 

Email: peterandvalerie@perkins29.freeserve.co.uk 

5 www.esta-uk.org


Dear Editor 

To keep you up to date with the changes taking place 

as English Nature is replaced by Natural England you 

may be interested to see the press release at 

www.defra.gov.uk/news/2006/060426c.htm which 

announces the appointment of Board members to 

Natural England (the body that will replace English 

Nature, the Countryside Agency and the Rural 

Development Service in October 2006). Natural 

England’s Board is the equivalent of English Nature’s 

Council which some of you may be familiar with and 

on which Professor Chris Wilson and most recently 

Professor Malcolm Hart have sat and which has 

played a key role development of high level strategy 

and priority setting. 

Dr Colin Prosser 

Head of Geology 

English Nature 

01733 455213 

Sir Martin Doughty, the Chair Designate of Natural 

England said: “I am delighted that we have a Board with 

such a wealth of expertise, experience and knowledge. Among 

its members are leading ecologists, lawyers, upland and 

lowland farmers, recreation and access experts and academics. 

I believe that we have an excellent team to drive forward 

Natural England’s purpose, ensuring that the natural 

environment is conserved, enhanced and managed for the 

benefit of people now and in the future.” 

Dear Editor 

Whilst I don’t intend to add to the “howler” debate 

again, I offer this as an indication of the need for 

better geoscience education in the media. 

Holy misunderstood! 

“... As far as we know, this is the only planet that sustains life 

and yet we’re beginning to understand that we live on a 

dangerous planet. We build homes and cities on rock plates 

that shift and collide as they float on molten magma...” 

(Quote from The Rt. Rev. Tom Butler. Radio 4 

“Thought for the Day”, 11th October 2005) 

Pete Loader 

Email: peteloader@yahoo.co.uk 

From the Primary Committee 

Geographical Association Conference 

Primary Committee Report 

For many years the Primary team have delivered workshops at the ASE 

annual conferences, relating to minerals, rocks, soils etc. Although part 

of the Earth science content of the primary National Curriculum is 

found within Science there is also much within Geography. 

Over recent years the Primary team have been fostering their relationship 

with the Geographical Association and this resulted in the 

team facilitating a very successful Rivers workshop at the Geographical 

Association conference last year. This year we were invited to repeat a 

similar workshop at their conference in Manchester in April. Three 

members of the Primary team facilitated, offering a practical and very 

“hands on” session. Participants were given an initial example of how 

the evolution of a river might be demonstrated in a classroom, using 

everyday equipment (rather than specialist resources). They then 

worked in groups, each aided by one of the team. They were provided 

with a variety of equipment and asked to work together to investigate 

how they might do this within their own school environments – 

depending on the facilities they might have. Finally, the groups demonstrated 

their own ideas to each other, and discussed the different methods 

that had been devised. 

The workshop usually uses running water to provide the “river”, 

however none was available. We were able to overcome the potential 

difficulties of this thanks to the ingenuity of the facilitators, together 

with other colleagues present, and indeed also to the participants. We 

incorporated the lack of running water into the activities, giving them 

an extra dimension and the participants a further task to solve. We feel 

it was so successful that in future this will be incorporated into the 

Rivers workshop, and not all groups will use running water. 

The workshop was fully booked and was very well received by the 

participants, who expressed the feeling that it was much better to actually 

do something rather than sit and listen. We were aided in the facilitation 

of the workshop within a different situation from normal, by 

the fact that we have built up a good relationship with the Geographical 

Association and its staff, who went out of their way to enable its 

smooth running. 

In order to continue and to build on this successful liaison, we have 

one team member who is now on the Geographical Association Early 

Years and Primary Phase Committee, and involved in the Geographical 

Association branch in their region. 

Two photographs of the workshop have been included in the latest GA 

Magazine, and can be seen on their website under Conference 2006 

www.geography.org.uk/download/GA_Conf06PhotoSupplement.pdf page 17. 

Niki Whitburn 

ESTA Primary Co-ordinator 

Senior Lecturer, Bishop Grosseteste College. 

Email: farfalle@btinternet.com 


6


From the Chair – Steady Progression 

Council meetings were held in April and July and I’m 

pleased to report that, by and large, we’re continuing to 

make steady progress. I’ll mention some of the highlights 

here and gloss over the tedious bits. 

Some great news to start with. We’ve secured funding 

from the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great 

Britain (PESGB) over the next 3 years which will help 

to reduce your costs when attending the annual Course 

and Conference. There is also provision to develop further 

our web-based teaching and learning resources 

such as GEOTREX. By sharing the funding between 

Conference, which is our flagship event, and resource 

development, every one of you should benefit from 

PESGB’s generosity. 

Membership numbers are remaining fairly static at 

around 530, with only a small annual turnover of members. 

It is particularly encouraging to see that several 

newly-qualified teachers are joining ESTA for the first 

time and we are also pleased to report that the publicity 

campaign we mounted last year has attracted some 

additional corporate members. Whilst on the subject of 

membership, we discussed the pros and cons of providing 

an automated system such as PayPal, but concluded 

that it was not appropriate at the present time. 

In response to suggestions made by those who 

attended the A-Level Workshop last year, Council has 

agreed to make the GEOTREX database and past issues 

of Teaching Earth Sciences available only to members. We 

have tried to strike a balance between ease of access and 

providing value for members, by placing these 

resources under password-protection on the website. If 

the thought of having to remember yet another 

wretched password fills you with dread – fear not. All 

you have to type in when the dialogue box requests 

your User name and Password is “esta” on both occasions. 

We’ll try it for a trial period of 6 months and then 

review the situation. 

Past issues of Teaching Earth Sciences (as far back as 

v.26.3, 2001) can now be found in the ‘Magazine’ section 

of the website, along with a list of contents to 

enable you to locate particular articles. Whilst generating 

this list I was struck by just how much good stuff is 

tucked away in those 16 issues and has probably been 

forgotten. It may well be worthwhile taking a quick 

look to see what is available and now downloadable. 

The annual Course and Conference is never far 

from our minds as we’re either recovering from the latest 

or preparing for the next. I was disappointed to learn 

from the authorities at Bristol University that the Wills 

Memorial Building, location for our gathering in September, 

will be shrouded in scaffolding and plastic 

sheeting for most of 2006. This magnificent Gothic 

building is undergoing a major external restoration, but 

we have been assured that it is ‘business as usual’ on the 

inside. Arrangements for the Conference are now virtually 

complete, so send in your application form and 

keep an eye on the ‘Bristol 2006’ section of the website 

for those inevitable last minute changes. 

This is my last contribution as Chairman because I 

complete my 3-year stint in September and hand over 

to Dawn Windley at the Bristol Conference. It’s been 

an interesting journey into the world of geoscience 

education which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and I’d simply 

like to thank you all for your support and encouragement 

along the way. 

Martin Whiteley 

For a trial period, we are putting GEOTREX and 

past issues of Teaching Earth Sciences under 

password protection on the ESTA website. 

Pssst… don’t forget… 

the word is… esta 

These resources have cost thousands of pounds 

to develop and we want to capture their value 

for ESTA members. 

7 www.esta-uk.org


Teaching Palaeontology Using Raw Data 

from the Internet: The Example of 


LUCY A MUIR, JOSEPH P. BOTTING AND ROY BARLOW 

The Internet is an enormous source of information, but distinguishing the reliable from the 

unreliable can be very difficult. Using it as a vast textbook is therefore problematic, but the 

Internet can be an extremely worthwhile tool for more focused activities. In particular, we want to 

demonstrate its use as a source of raw scientific data, which can form the basis of exercises and 

projects at a variety of levels. 

This article is focused on our website about the 

palaeontology of the Builth-Llandrindod Inlier of 

Powys, central Wales. Although teaching was not 

initially a priority, we have come to appreciate the possibilities 

and are interested in developing them. The site is, 

we believe, unusual in that it explicitly aims at an audience 

ranging from those with an interest in palaeontology 

but little knowledge to established academics and 

researchers. We provide raw data and interpretations 

based upon them, allowing readers to draw their own 

conclusions. The data can also be used as material for a 

variety of teaching exercises. Below, we give some practical 

suggestions for how this could be done. 

The ‘Old as the Hills’ website 

The Builth Inlier, which forms the area around the 

towns of Builth Wells and Llandrindod Wells, contains 

a succession of Ordovician rocks amidst the Silurian of 

mid-Wales. The area is famous for its trilobites (around 

60 species), and was the location for Peter Sheldon’s 

classic study of gradual evolution (Sheldon, 1987). It is 

also the home of the earliest published trilobites, Trinucleus 

fimbriatus (then called ‘Trinucleum fimbriatum’) 

and Ogygiocarella debuchii (then thought to be a flatfish), 

described by Edward Lhwyd in 1698. The inlier also 

Figure 1 www.asoldasthehills.org 

contains at least forty sponge species; only three are 

known from the rest of the Welsh Ordovician. (This is 

probably because it is almost the only place in Wales 

studied by a sponge expert during the last hundred 

years – there are many more sponges waiting to be discovered.) 

In addition, there are substantial graptolite, 

brachiopod, ostracod, echinoderm, bryozoan and mollusc 

faunas, with occasional worms, cnidarians and 

problematica. The ‘Old as the Hills’ website is an 

attempt to bring this treasure-trove to the attention of 

the wider world. 

The site was created in early 2005 by Roy Barlow, Joe 

Botting and Lucy Muir, as an extension of their collaboration 

on an exhibition of fossils from one site in the 

inlier. The initial idea to set up a website was Roy’s, 

who is responsible for the design and overall ‘look’ of 

the site. The content was primarily written and drawn 

by Joe, with some input from Lucy. Joe and Lucy are 

both palaeontologists, currently at The Natural History 

Museum, London, and Roy is a graphic designer currently 

at the University of Cambridge. Roy possesses 

the artistic and IT skills to create an attractive and functional 

site, while Joe and Lucy have sufficient palaeontological 

knowledge and experience to be authoritative. 

All three maintain the website entirely as a hobby. 

The site is not aimed at any particular group, but we 

hope that anyone, whether complete beginner or professional 

palaeontologist, will find something useful. In 

some ways, this is difficult – how do we explain things 

in such a way that beginners aren’t put off, and professionals 

don’t feel patronised In other ways, it’s easy – 

whatever we put on the site will be useful and at the 

right level for someone. Part of the way we have dealt 

with the issue is to have separate divisions of the site for 

different audiences, although in reality, the divisions are 

soon blurred. For example, there are a number of essays 

dealing with topics such as how fossils are preserved and 

how to identify various types of fossil. No professional 

palaeontologist needs to read a basic essay on these matters... 

unless, that is, they have a purely biological background 

and perhaps study large vertebrates. Conversely, 

the taxonomic database containing the publication his- 


8


tory of every named species described from the Builth 

Inlier is unlikely to be useful to someone without much 

knowledge of palaeontology – unless, through curiosity, 

a student explores the way it is arranged, and inexplicably 

gains a deeper understanding of how taxonomy 

functions in the real world. Much of the learning experience, 

after all, comes from exploring the unintuitive 

and difficult, and becoming familiar with it. In our opinion, 

what a student may gain from even the most esoteric 

parts of the site may not be easily definable, but can 

be a vital part of their development. 

The site consists of four parts: Introduction, 

Research, Image Gallery and Forum. The Image 

Gallery contains pictures from the exhibition that preceded 

the website, as well as other photographs and 

reconstructions. In due course we hope this will contain 

photographs and drawings sent in by readers, and 

pictures of scenery. On the Forum, anyone can make 

comments, ask for help with identifying fossils or discuss 

any aspect of palaeontology. We also use this space 

to announce updates to the website. 

The Introduction is the section of the site that will be 

most attractive for the inexperienced, including basic 

information about the Builth Inlier, links to essays on 

various palaeontological topics and information about 

the people involved. It also contains what is, for beginners, 

possibly the most useful article on the site – the 

Beginners’ Guide to Fossilologizing. This gives details of 

basic geological equipment, collecting etiquette and 

care of collections. The emphasis is on responsible collecting, 

having an understanding of what one is doing 

beyond the act of collecting itself, and of course having 

fun in the process. 

The Research section is primarily for the more experienced 

palaeontologist, and contains the bulk of the 

information on the site. It contains a brief history of 

work in the area and a bibliography of scientific publications, 

a detailed stratigraphy (including range charts 

for graptolites and other groups), suggestions for possible 

student projects, a database of all the species 

described from the inlier, with references, and an illustrated 

faunal list extending to well over three hundred 

species at the time of writing. 

The continually updated faunal list contains every 

species from the inlier in the scientific literature, and 

every species that we ourselves have found – in other 

words, the nearest we can get to the total fossil assemblage. 

Most species are illustrated by idealised drawings. 

The list is a useful tool on several levels. Firstly, it could 

be printed and used for identifications in the field or laboratory. 

Although many of the species illustrated are so 

far known only from the Builth Inlier, some (especially 

the graptolites, brachiopods and trilobites) are known 

more widely. Secondly, the drawings show the range of 

form in the groups that are represented in the area – for 

example, there are representatives of at least five orders of 

trilobites. This aspect is not particularly important scientifically, 

but potentially very useful in teaching. Thirdly, 

and most soberingly, it is interesting to compare the 

number of species described in the scientific literature 

with the total number that have been found. For the 

sponges and echinoderms, all the species either have 

been described (mostly by a certain J. Botting) or are in 

the process of being prepared for publication. The trilobites, 

planktonic graptolites and brachiopods are fairly 

well known, with about eighty to ninety percent of the 

known fauna having been described from the inlier. For 

the other groups the picture is slightly less rosy. None of 

the six species of gastropod or fifteen species of dendroid 

graptolite have been described, and perhaps one species 

of bryozoan out of over twenty. Only eight of the thirtyone 

(and rising) species of ostracod have appeared in scientific 

publications. 

In total, less than forty percent of the fossil species in 

the inlier have been described. Given that the Builth 

Inlier is a classic and intensely studied area, this is really 

rather worrying. If our state of knowledge for the 

Builth Inlier is typical for that of the fossil record as a 

whole, we literally don’t know the half of what’s out 

there. There are also statistical reasons, based on comparisons 

of the Builth Inlier faunas with those in nearby 

areas and on the distribution patterns of species within 

the area, to believe that the list is not remotely 

approaching completion for many groups. Every field 

trip yields several new species, and there is no sign that 

we are running out of things to find. 

Teaching possibilities 

The main aspects of the site we want to emphasize are 

as follows: 

● the completeness and accuracy of the raw data is 

unusual, to say the least, among similar public access 

sites, with much of the information unpublished; 

● the presentation and approach used in the site is 

accessible to any interested parties; 

● elements such as the reconstructions are imaginative 

Figure 2 

Trinucleus 

fimbriatus: 

drawing from the 

faunal list. 

© JOE BOTTING 

9 www.esta-uk.org


Figure 3 

A typical 

ecosystem 

reconstruction, of 

a shallow-water 

habitat. 

© JOE BOTTING 

to problems with preservation, or are there clear differences 

that must reflect the original communities 

This one’s for more advanced students. 

● Stratigraphy: the range charts, combined with the 

geological history, present a detailed case study in 

which there are many potential exercises. For example, 

the students could be asked to use the faunas 

presented to divide the sequence into three or four 

biozones, with a detailed discussion of their reasoning. 

This requires them to consider elements from 

the basic distribution patterns of the groups, to the 

reliability of the record (are sponges a good group to 

use), environmental preferences for any given 

group, and so on. 

extrapolations to some extent, but also based as 

firmly as possible in the reality of the fossil faunas; 

● in the open presentation of data and interpretations, 

we actively invite the reader to be critical, and to 

hypothesize; 

● it gives students direct access to palaeontological 

research data, and introduces them to the ways 

of analysing and interpreting it, without oversimplification. 

These lead to several possibilities for the teaching of 

palaeontology, and related elements in geology and 

biology. The following are suggestions for specific 

activities that use the information in the site for inspiration, 

or as a detailed basis, but they are by no means 

exhaustive. We encourage you to be creative in designing 

exercises, and are happy to help if you have ideas 

that you wish to develop. 

● Taxonomy: use the faunal list directly to attempt to 

divide a group or groups (e.g. trilobites, graptolites) 

into taxonomic groupings at various levels. 

● Preservation: use the images, and the essay on fossil 

preservation (ideally as well as specimens), to investigate 

the changes that take place during fossilisation. 

How does the preservation of a trilobite differ from 

that of a graptolite, or a sponge This is potentially 

open-ended, going into ever-greater detail. Ultimately, 

it can lead to an understanding of how representative a 

fossil fauna may be of the original community. 

● The ecological/environmental reconstructions offer 

the opportunity for a great deal of debate over their 

accuracy. Which aspects do the students find convincing 

Which are speculative, or likely to be incorrect, 

and why How does an understanding of fossil 

preservation affect the reconstructions 

● Ecology: how does the fauna being revealed compare 

with modern ecosystems in similar environments 

Are the differences between them potentially all due 

Perhaps most importantly of all, using the site in any 

meaningful way introduces the students to information 

that is real scientific data, rather than a textbook presented 

for them to learn from. It is not an exercise in 

learning facts so much as a prompt for expanding their 

awareness and comprehension of the meaning of data 

and information, and how it can lead to a better overall 

understanding of the subject. In our opinion, recent 

teaching policy has often suffered from an emphasis on 

examinations, and simply learning enough to pass them. 

We are more interested in helping students to develop 

independent and analytical thought. While sites such as 

ours cannot provide the information needed to fulfil curriculum 

requirements, they can help to encourage and 

inspire students at all levels, by deepening their understanding 

of how the science really works. Ultimately, it 

both helps the student to understand difficult concepts, 

and shows them why they are learning them. 

We invite suggestions and discussion regarding ways 

to improve the teaching potential of the site. 

Lucy A Muir, Department of Palaeontology, 

Natural History Museum, 

Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD 

Email: l.muir@nhm.ac.uk 

Joseph P Botting, Department of Learning, 

Natural History Museum, 

Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD 

Email: joe@asoldasthehills.org 

Roy Barlow, Photographic and Illustration Service, 

Old Examination Hall, New Museums Site, 

Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RS 

Email: roy@asoldasthehills.org 

References 

Lhwyd, E. (1698) Part of a Letter from Mr. Edw. Lhwyd 

to Dr. Martin Lister, Fell. of the Coll. of Phys. and R.S. 

concerning several regularly Figured Stones lately 

found by him. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 

20(243), pp. 279-280. 

Sheldon, P.R. (1987) Parallel gradualistic evolution of 

Ordovician trilobites. Nature 330, pp. 561-563. 


10


Katla-Clysmic! – Managing 

a Hazardous Environment 

IAN K HARDIE 

Iceland is a raw and spectacular country that contains an extraordinary variety of geology and 

geography. Iceland inspires all who visit this beautiful island that sits astride the northern end of 

the Mid Atlantic Ridge. 

Iceland, however, has more than its fair share of natural 

hazards as a consequence of its rich set of physical 

processes and forms. Volcanic eruptions (of 

many types), winter storms (with the ferocity to tear off 

the tarmac from roads and throw it aside like an old carpet) 

and river floods (where the discharges are measured 

in 000’s of cumecs) are only some of the natural 

events that regularly occur; Iceland certainly is rugged 

and, most definitely, “in the making”; a physical geographer’s 

and geologist’s paradise. Further, in April, 2006, 

a fairly new natural hazard for the country engulfed 

areas of Western Iceland; grassland fires. After an 

unusually dry winter, the vegetation was tinder dry and 

for days the fires burned (until the more typical rains 

returned to dowse the flames!). 

For resident Icelanders (and the growing number of 

seasonal visitors) the combination of natural forces, 

their processes and forms creates an environment that 

must be understood and managed if the security of people 

is to be attempted. Fortunately, Iceland has the 

organisation AVRIK, The Civil Defence of Iceland. 

AVRIK has divided Iceland into 27 “Police Areas”. 

Each of these Police Areas has a Civil Defence Committee. 

It is their job to carry out all procedures as 

developed by AVRIK. This organisation is the government 

agency responsible for, 

“ ...disaster preparedness and response.” 

There are 3 particular aspects of the work of AVRIK 

that are most important: 

● RISK ANALYSIS: To identify areas where particular 

types of natural disasters are potential hazards to 

humans/human activities; 

● MITIGATION: To take action to decrease and 

minimise the impact of an identified natural disaster. 

● COORDINATION: To develop plans and then 

organise, train and manage all persons with responsibility 

in the Civil Defence of Iceland. 

In each of Iceland’s 27 Police Areas, all potential natural 

disasters have undergone risk analysis, mitigation and 

co-ordination. Every activity and aspect of each community 

is evaluated; what could happen; what could be 

done to minimise the impact of this event (on people, 

property and infrastructure) and is there a well co-ordinated 

plan to deal with all eventualities 

Fortunately, Icelanders have a very strong and deep 

sense of community and local people work very willingly 

with the earth scientists in order that everyone’s 

knowledge can be shared, theoretical and practical. 

As a result of all this advance analysis and “disaster 

preparedness”, each of Iceland’s 27 Police Areas now 

has an all important Orange Folder. This orange folder 

contains all the documentation needed instantly when 

a red alert situation develops and action has to be taken. 

JÖKULHLAUPS 

One particular type of natural hazard experienced in 

Iceland is the jökulhlaup. A jökulhlaup is a glacial flood 

resulting from sub-glacial volcanic activity. As volcanic 

activity increases beneath an icecap, a vast quantity of 

meltwater begins to accumulate, trapped between the 

volcanic crater and the underside of the icecap. With 

further melting of the ice, the icecap is slowly lifted up 

until such time as the trapped water finds an escape 

route; with great fury, a jökulhlaup then begins. Such 

floods carry enormous quantities of both grey/black 

meltwater (choked with glacial silts and moraine) and 

blocks of ice the size of vehicles and small houses. 

There have been at least 20 jökulhlaups (glacial 

floods) since the Settlement of Iceland in 974 A.D. The 

most recent major Icelandic jökulhlaups occurred in 

1996 and 1998 (with a minor one in 2004). They all 

occurred in south east Iceland, under the Vatnajökull 

icecap close to the Skaftafell National Park. The volcano 

Grímsvötn was the underlying cause. At its height, 

50,000m 3 of water was discharged every second 

(although only for a short time). The outlet route of 

this water from the Vatnajökull icecap was the 

Skeioarárjökull glacier, a piedmont glacier with a snout 

edge of around 18kms wide. A wave of water between 3 

to 4 metres high and over half a kilometre wide 

advanced, thick with silt, moraine and ice. Awesome in 

its power as it was, as a result of monitoring and management, 

the Skaftafell National Park Rangers were 

able to gain a high vantage point, pull up a seat... and 

enjoy the show! However, despite there being no 

human casualties, bridges and the road system was 

severely damaged along with the fibre optic communication 

link. 

But without the monitoring and the establishment 

of systems to mitigate the effects of a jökulhlaup, the 

11 www.esta-uk.org


consequences for lives, property and livelihoods could 

be totally devastating. With this in mind, the potential 

jökulhlaup from Katla volcano beneath Mýrdalsjökull 

icecap is being very impressively managed. 

MÝRDALSJÖKULL AND KALTA VOLCANO 

JÖKULHLAUP 

For students of geography and geology, a visit to Iceland 

on a Study Tour provides the opportunity to understand 

fully natural forces and to appreciate the power of 

nature and the need to work with it. There are many 

examples of this to be appreciated in Iceland, each fascinating 

to see, interesting to appreciate and so important 

to understand. Iceland is the ideal destination for 

students of geography and geology in order that they 

gain an understanding of just how important their 

knowledge and understanding is in being able, through 

its application, to allow people to live “safely” in areas of 

natural hazard. 

The predicted jökulhlaup from the Mýrdalsjökull 

icecap is an excellent case study with which students 

can engage. This is an easily accessed area out along the 

south coast of Iceland, about a 2 hour drive east of 

Reykjavík. This jökulhlaup is imminent! 

Figure 1 shows the Mýrdalsjökull icecap with Katla 

volcano sitting east of centre of it. This icecap has many 

glaciers descending from it e.g. Solheimajökull. It is 

beneath this massive icecap that sub-glacial volcanic 

activity is presently taking place. Katla volcano is said to 

be “well overdue” (based on its past pattern of eruptions) 

and it is expected that in the next 3 - 4 years a 

jökulhlaup will occur. 

There are three possible routes that the waters of the 

jökulhlaup could take (shown by arrows 1, 2 and 3 on 

Fig 1). Routes 1 and 2 are the most likely. In these cases 

the waters of the jökulhlaup would invade the Mýrdalsandur 

and the Sólheimasandur/Skógarsandur respectively 

on the south coast of Iceland. There is a small 

percentage chance that the jökulhlaup would take 

Route 3. Such knowledge and predictions are only possible 

as a result of geologists, glaciologists, seismologists, 

hydrologists and geographers using their unique 

skills and understanding; it’s a most impressive demonstration 

of the application of Earth Sciences at the physical/human 

interface. 

This aerial picture looks northwards over the 

Mýrdalsjökull icecap. The “bent arm” shape of the 

magnificent Solheimajökull glacier can be clearly seen. 

At the head of this glacier, as it spills off the Mýrdalsjökull 

icecap, the ice is estimated to be approaching 

700m thick. The potential for damage from a jökulhlaup 

is obvious. Lives, property and livestock are all at 

risk. Another major impact could be on the water supplies 

to these communities. The economic consequences 

for the country are huge. Running east/west 

across the immediate foreground of the above picture is 

the “1” road, the main “ring road” around Iceland. This 

road is the main transport link for many eastern and 

north eastern Icelandic communities, bringing in food, 

supplies and fuel. 

Figure 1 

The above picture shows the glacial meltwater river 

from the snout of the Solheimajökull glacier. The glacier 

can be seen in the far distance with the Mýrdalsjökull 

icecap behind, on the horizon. Route 2 of the 

potential jökulhlaup (see map above) would come 

down this valley, completely destroying the glacier and 

reshaping the landscape significantly, washing out 

moraines and fluvio-glacial features (including the 

moraine ridge from the Little Ice Age of the 1600’s). 

The massive boulder in the foreground (about 1m 


12


high) would be like a piece of gravel to the advancing 

wall of glacial floodwater in a jökulhlaup. 

If Route 3 was to be taken by the jökulhlaup (see Fig 

1) then it would be down this valley of the Markarfljót 

River that its water would travel. This view taken from 

the top of Stóra Dímon, shows the Mýrdalsjökull icecap 

in the far distance (the icecap beneath which Katla 

volcano sits). The present scene, with its magnificent 

braided river channels with its eyots (or aits), temporary 

islands, would be just a little disturbed for quite a while! 

The volume of water that can be expected in a “worst 

scene scenario” for the predicted Katla jökulhlaup is an 

amount of meltwater of between 200,000 and 300,000 

cubic metres of water being discharged per second and 

for a period of several hours. It is estimated that the 

glacial floodwaters could reach the low-lying/coastal 

areas in between 1 to 4 hours (with the possibility of 

this also causing a tidal wave that would come back 

ashore). The potential damage that this wave of glacial 

meltwater could cause, rushing down from the mountains, 

along the valleys and to the sea, is immense. 

MONITORING SYSTEMS 

The evidence for a likely eruption of the Katla volcano 

and a resultant jökulhlaup is:- 

● The Katla volcano is warming up; 

● Mýrdalsjökull has many glacial meltwater cauldrons 

forming within it; 

● Mýrdalsjökull icecap is lifting up (suggesting magma 

is rising beneath the glacier); 

● Earthquakes and earth tremors are much more frequent, 

often continuous. 

Recently it has been quite “whiffy” beside the outlet 

meltwater river from Solheimajökull due to the 

increased amount of volcanic activity from Katla. As 

this volcano awakens beneath the icecap, escaping volcanic 

gases from its vents are carried away in solution in 

glacial meltwater. Some of this meltwater travels underneath 

Solheimajökull glacier to its snout – hence the 

whiff! 

The photograph shows a measuring station on the 

outlet river from Solheimajökull (with the “1” road 

seen to the left). Conductivity measurements of the 

glacial meltwater are helping to gauge the changes in 

dissolved gases that in turn indicate changes in the volcanic 

activity of Katla. The measurements are remotely 

sensed and monitored. It is measures such as this that 

indicate the concern of the Icelandic Authorities to take 

fully on board their responsibilities for: 

“ ... disaster preparedness and response.” 

In the case of Katla, the dormant/active volcano that 

sits beneath the Mýrdalsjökull icecap, the natural events 

that could result from Katla erupting include:- 

● Ash clouds and ash fall; 

● Gas emissions; sulphur and fluoride; 

● Earthquakes (initially and afterwards); 

● Floods (rapid then subsiding); 

● Lightning (from within the ash cloud). 

The impacts of these natural events could cause trouble 

for many aspects of life and living in the valley. 

MITIGATING MEASURES 

In August 2004 a series of major community meetings 

were held where the causes of the potential jökulhlaup 

were described and the probable consequences were 

graphically shown. Computer simulations were used to 

indicate the three possible routes that the floodwaters 

from the jökulhlaup could take; the simulations also 

indicated the likely volumes, flow rates and depths of 

floodwater along each of the likely “corridors”; this was 

an impressive example of risk assessment using many 

techniques to simulate the likely event(s). 

In March 2006, in the Fljótshlío Valley (Route 3 – 

Fig 1), a practise evacuation was held in order to evaluate 

emergency procedures and to fine tune them if necessary; 

they were! One small community was not 

telephoned to request that the residents beat a hasty 

Continued on page 14 

13 www.esta-uk.org


Should Earth Science Teachers Worry 

About Creationists’ Ideas 

DR ANTONY WYATT 

In the United States there have long been campaigns to promote the teaching of creationism or 

intelligent design in science classes, despite court decisions that have ruled such actions 

unconstitutional. Similar trends in Britain, and a growing number of evangelical Christian and 

Muslim science students arguing that statements from the Bible or Koran should be taken as 

scientific fact, are prompting concern. 

What have creationism, scientific creationism, 

or intelligent design (ID) to do with How can such pressure be countered To begin with I 

Terminology 

teaching Earth Science At first sight it may think that we need to consider our use of language. 

just seem like a bit of fuss and bother when discussing There are many words that we bandy about rather 

evolution, which can only account for a small fraction loosely, and this is seized upon, and the meanings perverted 

by the creationists (used as a broad term to 

of course content; something that causes big problems 

for biology teachers, but which can otherwise be include scientific creationists and ID supporters). 

ignored. But do not be fooled. In some schools and An obvious word that is often misused is theory. We 

colleges the vast majority of students taking science all know that scientific ideas start off as hypotheses, and 

courses believe in creationism. Pressure is growing that for a hypothesis to be considered a theory it has to 

for theology to take precedence over science. 

have been tested, and there has to be no evidence to 

Does it matter I certainly think so. I was recently show that it is false. But it is clear that this is not comprehended 

by many students. How often do you read 

teaching a course for an oil company about the origin of 

oil and gas. All of the trainees had good science degrees or hear students claim something like “there is no scientific 

evidence for evolution, it’s only a theory” Not 

from Nigerian universities and all were hoping to work 

in the industry. I was shocked when they told me why only does this show ignorance about the scientific evidence 

for evolution, it also shows ignorance about the 

they did not believe the scientific case that I was setting 

out for them. They knew that the oil and gas had been nature of theories. We could start by redoubling our 

placed there by God, because they had been told this by efforts to ensure that all students understand the meaning 

and use of the term. 

their pastor. The word of an unscientific clergyman was 

more important to them than decades of scientific There is also a problem with the use of believe and 

endeavour. Eventually I managed to get most of them to belief. If I say that I believe in some aspect of science, for 

see that the distribution of oil and gas fields is scientifically 

predictable, making exploration more than a hit picked up by creationists and used to claim that science 

example the end Cretaceous mass extinction, this is 

and miss affair, but I don’t know how long it will take is just another belief system, like religion, and that religious 

beliefs should be given equal weighting to for their pastor to win them back. 

scien- 

Continued from page 13 

retreat to their designated evacuation centre; this has 

now been rectified! Further, each household has now 

been issued with a vivid orange Information and 

Instruction Sheet (A3 size and double sided!) for reference 

in the event of the predicted jökulhlaup. 

Other examples of mitigation and to minimise disruption 

if Katla does “blow” include: 

● Ensuring that the sewerage systems of surrounding 

settlements are robust (a health consideration); 

● Ensuring that contingency plans have been established 

to deal with the many rats that emerge during 

and after a volcanic eruption (as a result of the heavy, 

sinking volcanic gases into their “dens”!). 

Disaster management, therefore, is a major issue in Iceland. 

Much of what could happen can be predicted but by 

no means it all. Iceland has to be on prepared alert at all 

times for all eventualities. Iceland and Icelanders really 

do live... “on the edge”; how exhilarating! 

Ian K Hardie 

Email: ian.hardie@rayburntours.co.uk 

www.rayburntours.com 

tel: 01569 760854. 

Ian is the Geography and Educational Tour Development 

Manager for Rayburn Tours. Ian is also a self proclaimed 

Icelandophile! For 30 years Ian was a full time 

teacher of geography in a large secondary school and he 

thoroughly enjoyed planning and leading his own educational 

study tours for his pupils. Rayburn Tours now 

operates educational tours to many destinations as a 

result of Ian’s work for the company; these destinations 

include the ever popular Iceland. 


14


tific theories in science classes. I can distinguish in my 

mind between scientific belief (a theory is based on 

observation and experiment and only accepted as long 

as there is no negative evidence) and religious belief (an 

idea is accepted based on authority, and there may be 

evidence to show that it cannot be true), but it is clear 

that creationists either cannot distinguish, or deliberately 

confuse the two meanings. It would help if there 

were two words to differentiate these concepts. I suggest 

that unless, and until, agreement is reached on separate 

terms, we all do our best not to use belief/believe 

in a scientific context. 

We should also make clear to our students that it is 

not a case of either science or whatever religious text 

they follow. Even if, for example, the Darwinian theory 

of evolution were to be disproved, it would not prove 

the religious creation myths. Both could be wrong. 

Creationist viewpoints 

Below I consider the attack on science from creationists 

who claim to be Christians. This is not to say that we 

should ignore other faith positions, but simply to try to 

keep the argument within bounds. Creationists are 

often subdivided into short-day creationists, who say 

we must take the Genesis story literally, and the world 

was created in six days, and long-day creationists, who 

believe that the order in Genesis is correct, but that the 

days are not our normal days, but much longer periods 

of time. Of course there are many Christians who think 

that the Genesis timetable is just a myth which should 

not be taken literally. 

There is more to the creationists’ stance than just 

anti-evolution. They are anti-science. If you believe 

the Genesis story to be true, then science has to be 

wrong. How this can be squared with the existence 

and use of technology, which depends upon the veracity 

of science, I don’t know. Without technology, modern 

civilisation could not exist, and most humans 

could not survive. I find this a powerful argument for 

the truth of science, even if I do think that the world 

is far too overpopulated. 

How can I make such bold claims, and, if they are 

true, why aren’t they more commonly publicised As 

shown below, I make them on the basis of my understanding 

of Earth Science. The general lack of understanding 

of the subject is one reason why the arguments 

are not more commonly made, but it is also because 

most people think that the problem is simply one about 

evolution, and leave the arguments to a few biologists. 

Arguments against the creationist position 

My first argument comes from geochronology. We have 

a variety of dating techniques, some radiometric, others 

depending upon other properties. No serious worker in 

the field accepts the creationists’ arguments that all 

these methods are flawed, and all flawed in such a way 

that different techniques give consistent, but wrong 

answers. We may argue about whether the date of the 

start of the Cambrian is 542 Ma, or some other figure, 

but it is certainly not something less than 4004 BC. 

Geochronology shows that short-day creationism is 

incompatible with science. Proponents of short-day 

creationism must therefore be anti-science. 

My second argument comes from geochemistry, 

though I suspect that many physicists and chemists 

would also claim the rights to the argument. We have 

decades of measurements that have produced a clear 

picture of the relative distribution of the elements. This 

distribution pattern matches that which is predicted by 

theories of how stars work. The standard theory is that 

all elements that we see today, apart from hydrogen and 

helium, were produced within pre-existing stars, 

mostly by nuclear fusion reactions. The stars then 

exploded, with some of the fragments eventually being 

swept up by the developing solar system. Without such 

pre-existing stars there could be no elements heavier 

than helium in our solar system, except in the sun, 

where temperatures and pressures are high enough for 

nuclear fusion to occur naturally. 

The Genesis story has the sun and stars created on 

day four. Apart from the problem of how you have day 

and night without the sun, it means that prior to day 

four, everything had to be made of hydrogen or helium. 

According to the Bible, prior to day four we not only 

have water and the solid Earth, but also, on day three, a 

variety of flowering plants. No doubt petrologists 

would be as bemused as botanists to find that their 

objects of study were made up only of hydrogen and 

helium, but the botanists would also need to explain 

how, in the absence of the sun, plants could survive at 

temperatures close to absolute zero. 

My third argument comes from stratigraphy and 

sedimentology. If the sun and moon were not present 

until after the first flowering plants, then prior to the 

flowering plants there could have been no tidal influences. 

The stratigraphic record does not show a major 

change in depositional systems some time after the first 

appearance of flowering plants. Older rocks show water 

transport, and, in relevant places, tidal influences. If we 

were to accept the Genesis story then to explain the 

rocks we would have to postulate not only some 

unknown source of elements, and unknown source of 

heat, with the unknown heat source vanishing at exactly 

the time that the sun’s radiation first reached the Earth, 

but also a non-tidal mechanism that gives rise to sedimentary 

structures that are identical to tidal deposits. 

As an aside, it is worth thinking about the problem of 

going from the Earth alone in space, to the Earth with 

orbiting moon, both in orbit around the sun. If this 

were a scientific theory, then it would predict major 

perturbations at the time of change, which should be 

recorded in the stratigraphic record. I can think of no 

evidence supporting this, and consider that searching 

for such deposits would be similar to the early nineteenth 

century geologists search for deposits left by 

Noah’s Flood. 

15 www.esta-uk.org


My fourth argument is based on the fossil record. 

We should remember that the fossil record is simply a 

record of what has been found in rocks of different 

ages. It is entirely neutral as to causes. Yes, the fossil 

record is best explained by evolution, but it would be 

the same if evolution were found to be false. The 

order of creation in Genesis (flowering plants, followed 

by great sea creatures and birds, followed by 

land animals and man) is not compatible with the fossil 

record. Arguing against evolution cannot change 

this fact. Creationists often claim that because we use 

fossils for correlation the fossil record is a chimera, 

based on circular arguments. This ignores the fact that 

correlation is only possible once the outlines of the 

record are clear. As in many other cases, their argument 

is based either on ignorance, or deliberate misreading 

of the scientific method. 

A lot more could be said, but if we were to postulate 

long-day creationism as a scientific theory, and test it 

against the evidence, it is clear that it would fail on 

many counts. It only takes one failure to show that a 

theory is no longer tenable. We have more than enough 

evidence to show that long-day creationism cannot be 

considered as science. To follow long-day creationists, 

and argue that the days of Genesis are not normal days, 

but that the order as written down is correct, is clearly 

anti-science. 

What can we do 

It is a difficult problem, as people get very sensitive 

about their religious beliefs. But it is clear that we cannot 

go on as we have in the past century or so, and 

ignore the creationists. We owe it to our students to see 

that they consider all the evidence. As it is, many of 

them are reading distorted ideas about science from 

creationist booklets and ending up with a confused and 

erroneous understanding. Of course some of the arguments 

for science involve more complex thinking than 

others, but that is what education (and life) is all about. 

There are some obvious questions that can be posed 

to students who argue for the creationist viewpoint: 

● How can you have day and night (day 1) without the 

sun (day 4) 

● How can we have the chemicals to make up water 

(day 1), minerals and rocks (day 2) before there were 

stars (day 4) to produce the elements 

● How can plants (day 3) live without the sun (day 4) 

for warmth or photosynthesis 

If you believe in short-day creationism: 

● How do you explain the fact that we find bones and 

shells that contain no trace of carbon 14 

● How do you explain sequences of up to 13,500 

varves in postglacial lakes 

If you believe in long-day creationism: 

● How could flowering plants (day 3) reproduce 

before there were birds (day 5) or insects (not mentioned, 

but as land animals presumably day 6) to act 

as pollinators 

● How can we see galaxies that are billions of light 

years away when they were only created after the 

flowering plants (which are less than 145 Myr (million 

years) old) 

I suspect that you would be surprised by some of the 

answers you might get to some of these questions. It is 

clear to me that many of the creationists that I have spoken 

to have a very odd picture of the universe and how 

it works. It will be a sad day for education if, by our lack 

of action now, we find ourselves having to teach that 

odd picture. 

Antony Wyatt 

Email: antony_wyatt@hotmail.com 


16


Durham Earth Scientists go Back to School! 

STUART JONES 

A newly developed module at Durham University gives final year undergraduate students the 

chance to see what teaching is really like. More importantly, it provides valuable key skills for 

undergraduates and a teaching assistant for teachers who often do not have a degree in geology 

but are expected to teach aspects of the Earth sciences in the national curriculum. Maybe this is 

a route to create greater interest in the Earth sciences 

Hollywood film makers have long realized that 

geology attracts large audiences of all ages with 

examples including films like Jurassic Park, Volcano, 

Dante’s Peak, The Day After Tomorrow and Apocalypse 

Now. Even if the films are permeated with exaggeration, 

denial and misplaced alarm, learning more about the 

Earth is delivering real knowledge and promoting Earth 

sciences. 

It is not just film makers that love using geology, the 

BBC has long supported the Earth sciences and last year 

the factual drama Supervolcano examined what would 

happen if the Yellowstone supervolcano were to erupt 

and the resulting catastrophic event. This was followed 

in the same year by the popular science programme 

Journeys from the Centre of the Earth, which introduced 

many more to geology. 

The surge in fictional and popular Earth sciences 

may make you think that the Earth sciences are more 

popular than ever, but unfortunately the situation 

seems to have changed very little. Perhaps the other 

sciences have also been suffering more in recent 

years, with fewer students studying the pure sciences 

as each year passes, which means there are fewer people 

who can teach, so fewer will be able to study science 

and so on. 

In 2002 Simon Singh, popular science writer and 

broadcaster, helped to develop the Undergraduate 

Ambassadors Scheme (UAS) to help turn about the 

declining numbers of university applicants to Science, 

Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) 

and the corresponding teacher shortages in these subjects. 

UAS was designed to introduce science undergraduates 

to the world of teaching especially in physics 

and maths. 

As a result, the tried and tested UAS concept has 

been adapted and developed for Earth sciences. At the 

Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, a 

new level three module called Earth Science into schools 

has been developed to encourage Earth science and natural 

science undergraduates to consider teaching as a 

career, whilst providing valuable transferable skills 

developed in a classroom that would be of use in whatever 

career path is followed after leaving university. At 

the same time, the module provides teachers with a 

knowledgeable and enthusiastic assistant who is able to 

offer practical help and engage pupils in Earth sciences. 

This is the first year of the module at Durham and the 

only Earth science department nationally that offers 

such an option. 

The module follows a fairly varied format where the 

first term consists of in-house training, tutorials and 

classroom preparation. PGCE trainee teachers in science 

at Durham assist with tutorials, lesson planning 

and role plays, prior to a full day of workshops for a 

class of year 8 or year 9 pupils that is led by the undergraduates. 

In term two, each undergraduate is paired 

with a science teacher in a local school and works 

closely with them one half day every week (or equivalent) 

for approximately 10 weeks leading up to the 

delivery of a special project in school. The module is 

designed to operate across all age ranges of school 

pupils, from primary to sixth form. The module is 

completed by the submission of a portfolio and a presentation 

given to invited teachers, based upon the 

development of the special project and the underlying 

Earth science. 

There has been no shortage of enthusiasm for the 

module amongst the students currently enrolled. The 

benefits of the module are becoming widely recognised 

in being able to offer key skills that are not attainable 

from other modules and also to be better equipped for 

future employment through consolidation of learning. 

Certainly several of the students have applied for 

teacher-training courses as a direct result of this module 

and it is a move in the right direction towards 

inspiring the next generation about Earth sciences. 

Student experience 

All of the students enrolled on the module realise the 

need for lots of bright young science teachers who can 

inspire the next generation of students. However, the 

module lets students teach without any long-term 

commitment on their part. Here three Earth science 

students, who are enrolled on the module this year, 

describe what it is really like. 

1. Gareth Roberts 

Gareth Roberts is currently in the third year of a fouryear 

MSci Geological Sciences degree at Durham. 

What made you choose the module 

My initial attraction to the module was to the transfer- 

17 www.esta-uk.org


Figure 1: 

Year 8 pupils 

from a County 

Durham school 

participating in a 

one-day series of 

Earth science 

workshops at the 

Department of 

Earth Sciences, 

Durham University, 

delivered by the 

undergraduates 

registered on the 

module. 

able skills that could be gained from being in a classroom 

and the ability to apply some of my geological 

knowledge. 

What did you do on the module 

I was placed in Sedgefield Community College, 

County Durham, where I taught year 8 and year 11 

pupils. The teachers were a great help in offering advice 

and guidelines to work within, especially for the year 11 

pupils. Initially I was just observing classes, but I soon 

became involved in classroom activities and practicals, 

helping to explain concepts and ideas on an individual 

basis. Towards the end of my placement I delivered several 

PowerPoint presentations with active demonstrations 

about plate tectonics to two differing ability year 

11 classes. 

Did you enjoy taking part 

It is difficult teaching a class of 35 13 year-olds and hard 

to gain and maintain their attention. You really have to 

understand your geology and apply difficult scientific 

principles in new and exciting ways. However, the challenge 

is most rewarding and the plethora of skills that 

you acquire such as interpersonal skills, organisation, 

time-management, quick thinking and leadership are 

all vital for what ever career pathway I take after completion 

of my degree. 

Did the module match your expectations 

Teaching is exceptionally hard work in constantly having 

to stand in front of a class of pupils who really 

would rather be elsewhere and perhaps find geology 

and rocks boring. My target was to at least to try to purvey 

some basic principles and spark some scientific 

interest. Mostly I found the pupils to be enthusiastic 

and responded much more positively than I thought 

they would. The main difficulty was rephrasing a sentence 

because the pupils did not understand even 

though you have already said it four times. Most pupils 

responded better to practical work, but for any lesson to 

work, a considerable amount of planning was required, 

far more than I expected. 

Are you considering a career in teaching 

I have decided not to apply for teacher training after finishing 

my four-year degree, although I am really 

pleased that I took part in the module. I have seriously 

considered teaching in secondary school, but now 

realise I wish to continue with research. 

Would you recommend the module to other 

geology students 

Definitely – the module is fantastic for all involved. I 

have learnt so much from this module and it challenges 

you in different ways from a standard lecture course. 

Even if you are not necessarily interested in becoming a 

teacher as a career pathway it gives you massive 

amounts of confidence in public speaking and enables 

you to communicate with people from all walks of life. 

2. Helen Bonello 

Helen Bonnello is in her final year of a four-year MSci 

geological sciences degree at Durham and has been 

accepted for a PGCE course. 


I wanted to apply some of the skills I have learnt while 

at Durham and have a taster of teaching. 


I was assigned to Hardwick Primary School, County 

Durham, where I began by observing year 4 pupils in 

their general science classes. After the first week I 

started assisting the teacher with general running of 

the lessons and helping to explain ideas and concepts 

about rocks, minerals and fossils. The teacher soon 

realised the benefits of my presence, in having access 

to the university facilities and departmental collections 

and I was asked to provide demonstrations and 

practical materials each week. This proved incredibly 

popular with the pupils. 


I loved it and definitely performed better than I would 

have done in a conventional module. However, it was 

not an easy choice and teaching in a Primary school was 

more challenging than I expected. The whole module 

has been most rewarding and especially good to see 

how well the pupils had taken into account what I said. 

My special project involved using rocks, minerals and 

fossils to identify key elements of the rock cycle and 

teaching to the whole class. The pupils were always 

responsive, if at times liable to go off on a tangent and it 

has certainly increased my levels of confidence in 

standing up in front of an audience, even if these were 

only 7 year olds! 


I expected far many more difficulties in maintaining the 

attention of a class than actually it turned out. The 

pupils were always enthusiastic and responded posi- 


18


tively to all the activities. The teacher informed me that 

the pupils looked forward to my lesson each week and 

were often excited to know what fossil would appear 

from one week to the next. No one can understand how 

difficult and tiring teaching is until you have taught a 

lesson, and perhaps taking undergraduate level geology 

and having to dilute many advanced principles and 

using the correct terminology really does determine if 

you understand the subject in the first place. 


This module has allowed me to attain a more comprehensive 

view of teaching and promted me to apply for a 

middle school PGCE teacher training programme. I am 

really looking forward to getting started. 



This module certainly helped me to attain a place on a 

PGCE teacher training course and offers a valuable 

insight into what it would be like to become a teacher. 

The toughest component of the course is taking 

advanced scientific principles, many of them at a research 

level, and having to deliver these in a coherent and 

understandable way for the pupils. The 20 questions that 

were asked by the pupils about all and everything, but 

geology, was more than compensated by the one relevant 

question and the sheer satisfaction it offers. 

3. Natasha Wallis 

Natasha Wallis is in her final year of a Natural Sciences 

degree at Durham and considering teaching as a career. 


It was a spur of the moment decision but was a module 

that offered the opportunity to apply your scientific 

knowledge and enthusiasm for science generally into a 

school classroom – just something that appealed. 


My school placement was St Bedes Catholic Comprehensive 

School, Peterlee, County Durham where I 

taught year 10 and year 11 pupils, particularly the 

Earth Materials component of the chemistry AQA 

GCSE syllabus. I was guided by a teacher, but frequently 

responsible for planning, teaching and implementing 

a lesson. Through discussions with the 

science teachers my special project was based on revision 

aides for year 11 pupils and involved creating 

posters on Earth material topics that were to be displayed 

in the school. Many of the pupils were all too 

easily distracted by peer pressure and the posters 

seemed to offer a different way of learning. We will 

not know if it was successful until August! 


It was the most demanding module of my time in 

Durham, but also the most rewarding. 


All of my expectations have been exceeded with the 

pupils’ response over the 10 week period to my teaching 

and their improved learning. Many of the pupils thought 

geology was boring – ‘Just looking at rocks Miss, that’s 

boring’, and perhaps I have enlightened many to the 

wider application of the subject. Although it is tough to 

convince all the pupils that science is important and 

interesting; the use of exciting practical materials, 

demonstrations and appropriate analogies (e.g. geology 

and the iPod) has hopefully enticed a few more. 


If I had not considered it before, it certainly is a serious 

consideration now. As a Natural science student I perhaps 

have a wider background across many of the sciences 

and would suit secondary science teaching. 



Yes, without any reservations. There are no other modules 

that provide you with better time management 

skills, improved communication, leadership and 

improved understanding of science. Beyond all else, 

when a pupil tells you ‘Thank you Miss, I really enjoyed 

today’s lesson’ you achieve immense satisfaction and 

know all the effort was worthwhile. 

Early signs are indicating that the module is having the 

desired effect of providing broader career options and 

improving key skills for the current undergraduates. 

Equally, school pupils are becoming more inspired 

about Earth sciences and may become the next science 

ambassadors. Perhaps the latest Hollywood film Ice Age 

2: the meltdown, may warm several more students to the 

idea of Earth sciences. 

Dr Stuart J Jones 

Lecturer in Sedimentology 

Department of Earth Science 

South Road 

Durham University 

Durham DH1 3LE, UK 

Email: stuart.jones@durham.ac.uk 

19 www.esta-uk.org


Derby Conference Post-16 

‘Bring and Share’, September 2005 

CHRIS KING 

The ESTA conference Post-16 ‘Bring and Share’ session 

was abuzz with new ideas and approaches with 

inputs from: 

● Chris Bedford – Radley College: Visualisation of 

geology structures in 3D 

● Mandy Winstanley – Luton Sixth Form College: 

Revision guides 

● Jane Ladson – Highfields School: ‘So you’re starting an 

A-level Geology course’ booklet 

● Pete Loader – St. Bedes College: Columnar jointing 

● Derek Briggs – Educational Consultant: Mix-nmatch 

● Ian Kenyon – Truro School: IT quickfire quizzer 

demo 

● Alan Richardson – Halesowen College: Exercises in 

‘Training scientists’ 

● Jo Conway – Yale College: Swiss roll - edible geology 

continues! 

● Alison Quarterman – Greenhead College: Bedding 

in a box 

● Maggie Williams – University of Liverpool: Field 

sketch update 

● Chris King – Keele University: Plate tectonic animation 

● Ben Church – Monmouth School: Introducing 

GEOTREX 

Many thanks to all those who were able to contribute to 

this session – which seems to get better and better year 

by year. Unfortunately, many of the inputs this year 

didn’t lend themselves to being written up at all (such 

as the IT item) or are/will be written up elsewhere in 

the pages of ‘Teaching Earth Sciences’. Here, we are very 

grateful to Chris Bedford, Derek Briggs and Jo Conway 

for their efforts below. The ESTA Conference is in 

Bristol this year, (15th - 17th September 2006) – is it 

possible that the Post-16 ‘Bring and Share’ could be 

even better With your contribution, it can. 

Chris King 

Email: c.j.h.king@educ.keele.ac.uk 

Idea title: 

Presenter: 

Visualising geological structures in 3-dimensions: hands-on block diagrams 

Chris Bedford, Radley College, Abingdon OX14 2HR cmb@radley.org.uk 

Brief description: Basic version – write once only: 

● Gather empty catering boxes, e.g. of Mars Bars TM , Turkey Twizzlers TM , etc. 

● Draw on two sides of a geological structure (e.g. anticline) with marker pen 

● Ask students to draw on the third/fourth/fifth side to show outcrop patterns 

● This works particularly well when done in parallel with paper exercises on block diagrams 

Advanced version – re-writeable: 

● Cut HIPS* to fit top and sides of empty catering box (or two photocopier paper box lids 

taped together to form a cuboid shape) 

● Stick on the HIPS sheets using double-sided sticky-tape 

● As for basic version, draw on two sides of a geological structure, then ask students to 

draw on the third/fourth/fifth side to show outcrop patterns – but use a whiteboard pen 

● Can be rubbed out and re-used as a mini 3-D whiteboard 

● This has recently worked exceptionally well in assisting with the visualisation of block 

diagram problems 

Age range: 

Post-16 

Apparatus: 

Catering boxes of various sizes; photocopier paper box-lids; double-sided sticky-tape; 

whiteboard pens; *High Impact Polystyrene sheets (known in the trade as ‘HIPS’ – available 

through educational suppliers or friendly CDT departments) 


20


Idea title: 

Presenter: 

Mix-n-match (‘The present is the key to the past’) 

Derek Briggs, 36 Old Road, North Petherton, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 6TG. 

Brief description: Bring fossils to life and provoke thought. 

Aims: to bring fossils to life by observation and comparison with modern equivalents and 

to provoke thought and discussion about their needs, environment(s) and preservation. 

Objectives (in order): 

● to match fossils and modern equivalents into pairs, recording the number and matching 

letter of the specimens 

● to give reasons for the pairing (the number of reasons depending on the age/ability – 

example reasons could include: general shape; one, two or three matching features per 

pair) 

● extend to consider ‘life’ requirements and so environment(s) of each fossil on the basis 

of the modern equivalent 

● go on to build up the ‘big picture’ (e.g. an ancient sea- or landscape) 

● suggest explanations for particular feature(s), e.g. occurrence of a plant in a selection of 

Jurassic marine organisms; preservation/non-preservation of various parts of the life 

forms; etc. 

Age range: 

Junior – adult 

Apparatus: 

A numbered collection of fossil items (preferably local and discoverable on field trips) and 

matching modern equivalents, identified by letter. Examples could include: 

Calamites – horsetail 

fossil gastropod – snail/ whelk shell 

fossil bivalve(s) – modern bivalve(s) fossil echinoid – modern echinoid 

ammonite – Nautilus 

fossil seed fern – modern fern 

ichthyosaur/ plesiosaur vertebra – modern mammal vertebra 

These are initially arranged in two columns, not in matching pairs 

Idea title: 

Presenter: 

Swiss roll – edible geology continues! 

Jo Conway, Yale College of Wrexham, Grove Park Road, Wrexham LL12 7AB. 

jlc@yale-wrexham.ac.uk 

Brief description: Gather a few swiss rolls, cheap ones from the supermarket are fine! It doesn’t matter if they 

are chocolate sponge or plain with jam, but avoid the chocolate covered ones! 

● Use a knife to mark on the fold axis 

● Students can then see the three dimensional aspect 

● Use string to measure around the outside of the fold (long distance), and a ruler to measure 

the short distance between the same two points, students can then calculate the 

percentage shortening. 

● Cut the swiss roll at an angle to the vertical, and re-measure long and short distances. If 

this is done with many swiss rolls all cut at slightly different angles, then students can 

examine the different percentage measurements they get. 

● This has provided a very good start to consider EVALUATION of the data they collected 

whilst in the field (where they have usually completely disregarded the importance 

of making measurements perpendicular to the fold axis!). 

● Eat the evidence! 

Age range: 14 - 18 

Apparatus: 

A selection of swiss rolls; a knife; a cutting board. 

21 www.esta-uk.org


A level Study Day at Dudley Museum and 

Art Gallery and the Educator Placement 

Programme; museum/school links in Dudley 

Obviously such a valuable resource has a part to 

play in Earth Science Education in the locality, 

and this is mainly done by ‘Outreach’. Take the 

specimens into the schools for the students to see, 

preferably with a ‘geologist’ who can interest and 

inspire. Local Primary schools were already inviting the 

Keeper of Geology, Graham Worton to give short interactive 

sessions on fossils, rocks and soils covering both 

Science and Geography elements of the curriculum. 

This hopefully will develop into a formal programme. 

But soon the question was 

asked – what about A level students 

Whereas in the primary 

sector we found that we were 

working with dynamic and 

enthusiastic teachers who 

wanted information about Earth 

science, at A level the equally 

dynamic and enthusiastic teachers 

were also specialist Earth scientists. 

Their needs were rather 

different. So we tried to set up a 

small network where information and expertise could 

be exchanged. After an initial teacher placement day we 

started to organise some events in the Museum. Our 

aim was to raise the profile of geology with young people 

in the local area, and we proposed to do this by 

engaging with the students themselves, as well as their 

teachers. 

A level study day 

In February we held a Study Day / Conference for year 

12 students, focussing on an applied geology theme. As 

the centres who showed an interest were all working for 

the WJEC GCE AS geology examination, it became a 

day focussed on the unit GL3, Geology and the Human 

Environment. 

Over eighty students with their teachers attended. 

The day kicked off with Pete Loader, the Chief Examiner 

for this examination, giving tips on examination 

KATE FIGGITT AND BILL GROVES 

Dudley Museum and Art Gallery in the Black Country is a hidden gem of geology. It has a 

collection of around 20,000 rocks, minerals and fossils, but heavily biased towards 

palaeontology. Positioned in the centre of Dudley, within a mile of the world famous Wren’s Nest 

Nature Reserve, and also on the South Staffordshire Coalfield, it has one of the finest collections 

of Much Wenlock Limestone fossils from the Silurian, together with a superb collection of Coal 

Measure plants. There are two small geological galleries, stuffed full of specimens in addition to 

larger teaching spaces. 

Our aim was to raise the 

profile of geology with young 

people in the local area, and we 

proposed to do this by engaging 

with the students themselves, as 

well as their teachers. 

technique. Pete was the only A level geology teacher 

who took part in the day; we wanted the students and 

teachers to hear from practising professionals, in a mixture 

of presentations and interactive sessions. 

Potential case study material was abundant; a chartered 

geologist described a complex waste disposal project 

in the Black Country, a hydrogeologist from the 

Environment Agency described the problems involved 

in water supply and pollution and an engineering geologist 

dealt with rock failure and tunnelling based on 

work in the caves and canal tunnels 

of Dudley. These professionals also 

brought with them equipment such 

as rock bolts, water pumps and 

drilling bits and cores. 

We had close cooperation with the 

Earth Sciences Department at the 

University of Birmingham, and in 

the middle of the day, Andy Chambers, 

the Admissions Tutor spoke 

about Geology degrees generally, 

and there were representatives from 

the departments at Leeds and Manchester to answer 

individual questions. The day ended with a highly 

interactive problem-solving exercise based on British 

Earthquakes (Figure 1). 

The most encouraging part of the day was to see the 

interaction at the lunch break, between the wide variety 

of professionals, academics, A level teachers, and of 

course students from a number of different centres. 

This was the first time that Dudley Museum has tried 

to use its geological expertise to support A level teaching, 

but we suspect that it will not be the last. 

Educator Placement Programme; museum/school 

links 

The West Midlands regional council for museums, 

libraries and archives (MLA) as part of their ‘Cultural 

Entitlement Programme’ have an exciting scheme 

called the Educator Placement Programme. In this 


22


Figure 1 (left) 

AS geology 

students work 

with earthquake 

data as part of the 

Study Day 

Figure 2 (right) 

Year 13 students 

work with fossils 

from the Museum 

as part of the 

Educator 

placement day 

Museum/Archive professionals are required to spend 5 

days with a school in which time they shadow a teacher, 

consult with the children to explore their wants and 

develop two lessons relevant to their learning and the 

museum or archive collection. The aim is to get 

museum educators into schools and to get school children 

into museums. 

This is normally the territory of infants and primary 

schools but at Dudley Museum and Art Gallery it was 

thought, why not A level students We had a fine fossil 

collection and a local sixth form college, King Edward 

VI College, Stourbridge, keen to set up links with the 

Museum. We attended the first meeting and met an 

enthusiastic group of museum professionals and teachers, 

from a wide range of centres, not just traditional 

museums; Worcestershire Record Office; RAF 

Museum, Cosford and Acton Scott Historic Working 

Farm are just three of a varied bunch. We were the only 

Museum dealing with children older than 12. 

The initial consultation work with the students 

revealed one need, as one year 13 student said, “When 

are we going to get our hands on some of these wonder 

fossils” Palaeontology was to be a theme of the two 

lessons and the educator/teacher team devised two presentations. 

The first, for year 12 students, featured 30 

trilobites and an exercise in which students had to 

describe them using the morphological terms they had 

previously learnt in the classroom, and debate a possible 

mode of life. 

The second lesson for year 13 students involved 

looking at the Silurian Reef environment of the Much 

Wenlock Limestone. forty fossils of various types were 

looked at and the students had to decide where in that 

environment they were most likely to be found, talus 

slope, in the reef, back reef etc. (Figure 2). This was 

supported by a PowerPoint presentation of the 

museum’s fossils. They were finally introduced to the 

concept of palaeoecology and fossil communities. 

As every experienced teacher knows, even the most 

carefully laid plan is subject to change ‘on the hoof ’, 

and we were fortunate in having three AS and two A2 

sets to take part in these presentations. Honest student 

evaluation was also a must and helped to end up with an 

interesting and valuable couple of lessons. 

The Museum also supported the college when they 

made their annual visit to look at the reef environment 

at the Wren’s Nest National Nature Reserve, a facility 

they give to many schools and colleges. 

The aim of the student who wanted to get his hands 

on the ‘wonder fossils’ was fulfilled, but more significantly, 

links with the Museum are stronger and visits 

from Post-16 students, more common. This in turn 

satisfies the aim of the MLA in getting more young people 

into museums. 

If any geology teacher or school/college would like to 

be kept in touch with developments at Dudley 

Museum, please contact the authors. 

Kate Figgitt (Education Officer) 

Email: kate.figgitt@dudley.gov.uk 

Bill Groves (Geology Outreach Officer) 

Email: bill.groves@dudley,gov.uk 

Dudley Museum and Art Gallery 

St. James’s Road 

Dudley 

West Midlands 

DY1 1HU 

23 www.esta-uk.org


More Recent Geological Howlers 

JO CONWAY 

Below are a few of the writings that have made the exam marking team giggle over the last couple of exam 

seasons. Once again, my thanks go to fellow examiners for forwarding them on to me and also to the students! 

Fossil faux pas: 

● In labelling a dinosaur vertebrae the 

following were seen: 

● invertebrate 

● coxix 

● pygidium tail. 

● Use a type of foraminifera called: 

pachydermanegloboquadrina. 

● Trilobites are only found off the coast 

of Morrocco. 

● What were Stegosaurus plates used for 

● were used like solar panels turning 

heat from the sun into energy 

● to prevent other dinosaurs from 

jumping onto the creatures backs 

● to make them look nasty and find a 

mate 

● to find a mate for visual and noise 

● to shade it from the sun 

● to act as wind supports and stops the 

Steg from being moved by a strong 

wind. 

● Whilst the tail horns were used for hitting 

against a tree to enable the Steg to 

collect fallen leaves. 

● Fossils such as wildcats indicate Tertiary 

climates. 

Deformation: 

● Fault Y is a reverse fault due to the 

downthrown side being forced up. 

● This is a normal reverse fault and the 

ground has been thrust 25m – well that 

covers many of the fault types so one of 

them must be right! 

● The downthrow points to the upthrow. 

● The fold symmetry was described as: 

● Equilateral 

● Yes 

● Good. 

● Earthquakes sometimes cause buildings 

to liquifact. 

● Earthquakes can be stopped by bombing 

the faults. 

Rock wrongs: 

● Basaltic magma is more explosive and 

dangerous than granitic magma. 

● Volcanic BALLS are a significant geological 

hazard. 

● Andalusitic lava. 

● Volcanic deposits such as alluvium and 

peat are present. 

● In trying to explain how flood basalts 

could cause a mass extinction: 

● It is possible that the magma floods 

occurred on the continents because 

the creatures (that became fossils) 

didn’t have legs-they couldn’t run 

away and were killed 

● because they were so unexpected 

they would be unpredictable and 

there would be nothing the species 

could do about it because they are in 

the middle of tectonic plates 

● Flood basalts destroy bedding 

planes, beds which contain the fossil 

record, the beds become metamorphosed, 

recrystallisation occurs and 

an entirely new rock can be formed, 

therefore loss of the fossil. 

● the dinosaurs would have seen it 

coming. 

● The BLL limestone subducts under the 

shales. 

● Because hornfels contains a lot of schist 

and is quite fine grained so it must be 

near the marble. 

● It is more likely the schist metamorphosed 

the marble. 

● It’s too hot for partial melting to take 

place. 

● The Apron REEF is in the middle of 

the limestone, suggesting it is an intrusion. 

● The outcrop of SG on the hill is just 

like the cherry on the cake. 

● The rocks are near horizontal because 

it’s got trees on it. 

● How does peat change to anthracite – 

it changes from a liquid to a solid. 

Miscellaneous: 

● For stabilisation of a landslide on Mam 

Tor, one candidate suggested “spraycrete 

the face of Mam Tor” whilst 

another “build a large granite wall to 

prevent it slipping into water which 

could potentially cause a tidal wave”. 

● Other candidates would use: Graben 

baskets or large wire MESS netting. 

● Whilst others would monitor the landslide 

with a “Seismometer which doesn’t 

only record earthquakes but all 

seismic activity”. 

● Geologists wouldn’t be able to get 

access to the mineral veins because 

there’s a farm on top of the veins. 

● The major plate tectonic event to 

which the subsidence of the North Sea 

Basin is related is the creation of the 

Andes. 

● Why would geologists study the tide 

before excavating They will have to 

predict when it is best to excavate so 

parts of the tunnel are not above water 

(e.g. between low tide and high tide). 

● Circular drainage patterns. 

● For example, the Peak District, this 

area, to the north of Manchester has 

some of the most incredible rock formations 

ever seen. 

● Before open cast mining you must clear 

the rock of foliation. 

● Milancovich invented the 40,000 year 

tilt. 

● Unconformities can also form aqueducts. 

Spellings!: 

● Heryican orogeny 

● Laminated crass bedding 

● Open caste mining 

● River capture mistakenly called pirate 

capture! 

● A notable landform formed in 

periglacial areas is a nun-attack. 

● Euniformitarianism (uniformitarianism 

in Europe) 

● Wolly mammoth 

Jo Conway 

jlc@yale-wrexham.ac.uk 


24


Take a Nappe 

JACK TREAGUS 

The geological term nappe comes from the French word for a tablecloth and has come to refer to 

a large-scale sheet of rock pushed over another; in Britain, it often refers to a recumbent fold, 

with or without a thrust at its base. 

Three geologists in Britain were responsible here 

for the discovery and description of nappes – 

major recumbent (flat-lying) folds, with nearparallel 

limbs. The first was Charles Clough (1852- 

1916), a Yorkshireman, who joined the Geological 

Survey of Scotland in 1875 after rejecting the priesthood. 

He was the first to identify such a nappe in 

Britain, in the metamorphic rocks of the Dalradian of 

the SW Highlands of Scotland. Clough died, tragically, 

when he was hit by a railway wagon while working in a 

narrow cutting in the Scottish coalfield area. The second 

was Edward Greenly (1852-1949) who, on his 

marriage to a well-off lady, left the Geological Survey of 

Scotland, where he was a colleague of Clough, to single-handedly 

map the Isle of Anglesey; part of his 

superb mapping led him to propose major nappe structures. 

His map was of such quality that it and an accompanying 

Memoir were published by the Geological 

Survey. The third was Robert Shackleton (1909- 

2001), who led largely an academic life, partly at the 

University of Liverpool (1947-1963) and later at the 

Open University. Although he demolished Greenly’s 

nappe hypothesis in Anglesey, he was a great admirer of 

the latter’s work; from his meticulous detailed mapping, 

he developed the work of Clough into our present 

understanding of the nappe structure of the Dalradian 

of the Central Highlands of Scotland. 

Clough’s work in the Dalradian 

Clough’s first major assignment at the Scottish Geological 

Survey in 1884 was to the Cowal area to the west of 

Loch Lomond, between Lochs Long and Fyne (Figure 

1), an area of gentle topography, poorly exposed except 

on the loch shores. This work was published as the 

Memoir to the Cowal district (Clough in Gunn et al 

1897). Nothing of the stratigraphy or structure was 

known of these rocks, that are mostly schists (muds and 

silts, now muscovite-chlorite-biotite schists) and 

greywackes (pebbly feldspathic sandstones), with minor 

limestone and volcanics, all of low metamorphic grade. 

The structure of this complex area is shown in very simplified 

form in Figure 2a, as section W-X of Figure 1. 

Clough showed that the rocks were arched over a fold, 

that had an upright axial plane, trended towards the ENE 

and was some 30kms across within this area; he called 

this the Cowal Anticline (now called an Antiform, as it is 

not a first generation fold). He stated that this was a comparative 

late structure, as it had folded cleavage planes 

related to sets of minor folds of an earlier age than those 

related to the major antiform. He saw that these early 

minor folds consistently overfold towards the NW and 

he deduced they must be on a limb of a major early fold 

that, when the effect of the later antiform was removed, 

would have been originally recumbent (Figure 2b or c). 

It is important to emphasise that Clough honestly 

said that he did not know whether this early major fold 

was, before its refolding, an anticline or a syncline, since 

he did not know whether the rocks of this limb were 

upside down, which they would be if the fold were an 

anticline, as illustrated in Figure 2b, or ‘right-way-up’, 

if it were a syncline, as illustrated in Figure 2c. Sedimentary 

structures, such as cross-bedding and graded 

bedding, that would indicate the ‘way-up’ of the limb 

were not recognised in metamorphic rocks at that time, 

but on balance Clough favoured the original recumbent 

fold being an anticline (Figure 2b), with its hinge 

closing towards the SE. The age of the Dalradian rocks 

(as they came to be known) was unknown. 

About this time, geologists in the Alps, with the benefit 

of exposures on mountain-sides hundreds of 

metres high, were discovering similar such major 

recumbent folds that they called nappes, often similarly 

refolded. There is no evidence that Clough was 

aware of such work. Subsequent to his work at Cowal, 

Clough was a key figure in the elucidation of the nappe 

Figure 1 

The Dalradian of 

the Central 

Highlands north of 

the Highland 

Boundary Fault. 

Clough’s Cowal 

area around Lochs 

Fyne and Long is 

outlined to its NE 

by dots; W-X is the 

line of crosssection 

of Figure 

2a and Y-Z the 

cross-section of 

Figure 5. 

25 www.esta-uk.org


Figure 2 

a. One formation 

boundary is shown 

to simply 

illustrate Clough’s 

view of the late 

Cowal Antiform, 

folding earlier 

minor folds. b. and 

c. The early major 

fold is shown as 

the two 

alternatives, an 

anticline closing 

to the SE or a 

syncline opening 

to the NW; the 

effect of the late 

antiform is 

removed. The tail 

of the Y symbols 

points towards the 

younger rocks. 

Figure 3 

Map of Holy 

Island, off the 

west coast of 

Anglesey. Shaded 

ornament is 

schist, white is 

greywacke and 

dotted is 

quartzite; 

R indicates 

Rhoscolyn area, 

see Figure 4. 

Figure 4 

Diagrammatic 

cross-section of 

the Rhoscolyn 

Anticline. A line is 

shown parallel to 

the axial-plane of 

the fold and to the 

cleavage in the 

greywackes. The 

dotted closure 

beneath sea-level 

is the nose of 

Greenly’s 

proposed nappe 

structure. 

and thrust structures that were to revolutionise the 

understanding of the Moine Thrust and the NW Highlands. 

There is not space here to expand on Clough’s 

genius, but remarkably there are books on the geology 

of the Scottish Highlands, and indeed on the principles 

of structural and metamorphic relationships, that make 

no mention of his fundamental contributions. Apart 

from being the originator of the idea of refolded recumbent 

nappes, he recognised that metamorphism was a 

product of temperature and depth of burial, and not 

only separated stages of metamorphism but dated them 

in relation to structural events. This is not to mention 

his enormous contribution to the geology of the NW 

Highlands, Mull, Skye and Glencoe. 

Greenly’s work on Anglesey 

In 1907 Greenly was working on the metamorphic 

rocks of Anglesey (Figure 3), particularly on Holy 

Island, south of Holyhead, when he was visited by his 

friend, Clough. He writes (Greenly, 1938 p290) that he 

showed Clough the magnificent cliff-section at 

Rhoscolyn, where two beds of greywacke sandwich a 

bed of quartzite (Figure 4), all folded around an anticline. 

But he confessed that he was unable to understand 

the structure. Clough suggested that that they 

might be looking at a fold that had been originally flatlying 

and recumbent (i.e. a nappe) such as the Scottish 

Survey were now finding in the Highlands, that had 

been subsequently refolded. Greenly leapt at the idea 

and in the Memoir related to his superb map of Anglesey, 

Greenly (1919, 1920) proposed that the structure of 

the lower part of the complex succession in these Precambrian 

rocks, was a pile of such nappes, trending 

NE-SW. In particular, at Rhoscolyn he connected the 

two greywackes beneath the sea to form an early nappe 

nose that had been affected by a late major fold, the 

Rhoscolyn Anticline; this late fold was associated with 

smaller-scale minor folding, as shown in Figure 4. 

However, it should be said that although Greenly was, 

like Clough, ahead of his time in recognising sequences 

of minor fold episodes on Anglesey, he did not produce 

evidence that any one particular set was related to his 

early nappes and another to their refolding. 

Greenly, like Clough, was unable to positively decide 

whether his nappe at Rhoscolyn, that would have been 

recumbent before refolding, was an anticline or syncline, 

in the absence of knowledge of ‘way-up’ of the 

sequence. However, since he considered that rock fragments 

in the greywackes were probably derived from 

older rocks in the succession he proposed that the 

nappe was a syncline opening to the NW, the quartzite 

thus being the youngest rock in the sequence. 

Shackleton’s re-interpretations 

This brings us to the work in the 1950s of the third of 

our geologists, Robert Shackleton. In the mid-1950s, he 

became interested in nappe structures and re-investigated 

the area of Greenly’s nappe at Rhoscolyn in 

Anglesey. He showed (Shackleton, 1969), from sedimentary 

structures, graded bedding and cross-lamination, 

that the two greywackes on either side of the 

central quartzite, were not the same formation repeated 

by a nappe, but represented a continuous upward succession 

of greywacke-quartzite-greywacke (Figure 4). 

This sequence had been simply folded by the 

Rhoscolyn Anticline, with only minor modification by 

later structures. He also produced sedimentary and 

structural evidence that disproved Greenly’s other proposed 

nappes on Holy Island. Although there has been 

no dispute about the continuous upward succession at 

Rhoscolyn, there have been other interpretations concerning 

the relative age of the anticline, some revising 


26


the concept that the rocks lie on the limb of a nappe. 

This author and colleagues (Treagus et al 2003) have 

maintained that, with modification, Shackleton’s structural 

interpretation was correct. 

Shackleton also turned his attention to the Dalradian 

in the 1950s. The overall flat limb of the recumbent fold 

that Clough had identified in the SW of the Central 

Highlands of Scotland, had by then been recognised to 

extend another 15kms to the NW, as far as Ben Lui and 

across to Glen Lyon, between Loch Tay and Schiehallion 

(see Figure 1). Sedimentary structures had been identified, 

showing that the rocks on this flat limb were essentially 

up-side-down. Thus, together with Clough’s 

evidence, the nappe was certainly an anticline, with its 

nose closing somewhere towards the SE (Figure 2b). 

Shackleton (1958), as a result of using sedimentary structures 

and detailed structural mapping along the SE margin 

of the Dalradian (Figure 1), was able to identify the 

position of the anticlinal nose of the nappe (now named 

the Tay Nappe) in a zone just to the NW of the Highland 

Boundary Fault (Figure 5). He showed that the nose of 

the anticline had been bent down by a late fold, and thus 

has the shape of a synform; he coined the now universally-employed 

term downward-facing for such an early 

fold that had later been inverted. Shackleton used the 

relations between the bedding (having determined its 

‘way-up’) and the first cleavage (and the overfolding of 

the minor folds, as Clough had done) to make this 

deduction (Figure 6). Essentially, the late fold is the continuation 

of the SE limb of the Cowal Antiform. 

The inverted limb of the Tay Nappe has now been 

recognised to extend even further northwards, as far as 

the southern edge of the Etive and Cruachan Granite 

body, and to the north of Schiehallion; laterally it dominates 

the structure of the Central Highlands (Figures 1 

and 5). It is important to emphasise that the 60km NW- 

SE extent of the Tay Nappe is now seen as a result of the 

development of the structure by two distinct early 

deformation episodes, as anticipated by Clough. 

Amongst others’ work, papers by this author (Treagus, 

1987; 1999) have proposed that the nappe was initially a 

relatively small anticline leaning towards the SE, that 

has subsequently become stretched out in that direction 

by a strong second episode of deformation (Figure 7). 

Postscript 

I hope you haven’t confused the above with the English 

word nap – something woolly or sleep-inducing! 

Although the rocks at Cowal are probably inaccessible 

to most readers, those at Rhoscolyn are well-worth a 

visit. The anticline is easily demonstrated on reasonably 

safe, accessible cliffs and the sedimentary structures are 

not difficult to find. Details can be found in Treagus et 

al (2003), but the author (e-mail address below) would 

be pleased to supply a photocopied map showing key 

localities for minor folds and sedimentary structures. A 

24-page pamphlet describing localities in the area, with 

superb colour photographs, is published by the Countryside 

Council of Wales and costs £5; it can be obtained 

from Dr.M.Wood, by phoning her at 01248 810287 or 

e-mailing margaret@coleg10freeserve.co.uk. 

This article is essentially the content of a talk given 

to the Manchester Geological Association at their 

annual dinner in 2005; it has also been published in the 

North West Geologist (number 12, 2005) and is reproduced 

here with permission of its editors. 

Jack Treagus 

School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Science, 

University of Manchester, M13 9PL. 

Email: jack.treagus@btinternet.com 

References 

Figure 7 

Figure 5 

Cross-section Y-Z 

of Figure 1. The 

two folded lines 

represent 

formations that 

schematically 

illustrate the 

geometry of the 

Tay Nappe and of 

its nose, the 

downward-facing 

Aberfoyle 

Anticline. 

Figure 6 

Detailed view of 

closure of 

Aberfoyle 

Anticline of Figure 

5; early minor 

folds and axialplanar 

cleavage 

(double lines) are 

shown 

diagrammatically. 

Figure 7 

Above: a simplified 

sketch of the 

earliest 

development of 

the Tay Nappe as 

an asymmetric 

anticline leaning 

to the SE. 

Below: the 

subsequent 

stretching of that 

fold to the SE. 

Gunn, W. Clough C.T., Hill J.B. (1897). The Geology of Cowal. Memoir of 

the Geological Survey, Scotland, Sheet 29. 

Greenly, E. (1919). The Geology of Anglesey. Memoir of the Geological Survey 

of Great Britain. 2 volumes, London. 

Greenly, E. (1920). 1:50,000 and 1 inch to 1 mile Geological Map of Anglesey. 

Geological Survey of Great Britain, Special Sheet No. 92 and 93 with 

parts of Sheets 94,105 and 106. 

Greenly, E. (1938). A Hand through Time. (London: Murby). 

Shackleton R.M. (1958). Downward-facing structures of the Highland 

Border. Journal of the Geological Society London 113, 361-92. 

Shackleton R.M. (1975). Precambrian rocks of North Wales. In Wood, A, (ed) 

The Pre-Cambrian and Lower Palaeozoic rocks of Wales. University of Wales Press, 

Cardiff, 1-22. 

Treagus J.E. (1987). The structural evolution of the Dalradian of the Central 

Highlands. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 78, 1-15. 

Treagus J.E. (1999). A structural reinterpretation of the Tummel Belt and a 

transpressional model for evolution of the Tay Nappe in the Central Highlands 

of Scotland. Geological Magazine 100, 643-660. 

Treagus S.H., Treagus J.E. & Droop G.T.R. (2003). Superposed deformations 

and their hybrid effects: the Rhoscolyn Anticline unravelled. Journal of 

the Geological Society London 160, 117-136. 

27 www.esta-uk.org



DAWN WINDLEY 

After many years of “just thinking about it” I finally got away to Iceland over the Easter break last 

year – and what a fantastic geological place to visit! Four days was long enough though, as you 

can rapidly run out of money there. You need a small bank loan to enjoy a meal out – wine/beer 

is around £7.50 a glass and a plate of fish and chips can set you back £18.00! 

But the scenery is fantastic – we flew with Icelandair 

over the craggy, desolate basaltic shore 

line and landed almost in the middle of the 

Reykjanes Peninsular – home to the Mid Atlantic Rift - 

where there is actually a bridge crossing from one continent 

to the other !! 

Travelling with the company Discover the World 

(who also do fabulous trips to Ice Hotels) – we hired a car 

and drove along the main road in the southern part of the 

island – visiting such places as Pingvellir - the site of the 

ancient Icelandic Parliament (The Althing) and the 2km 

long Almannagja rift wall, part of the Mid Atlantic Rift 

System. In the visitors centre at the rift wall there was a 

really good audio/visual interactive display showing the 

formation of the landscape (numerous lava flows) in the 

area. We visited Geysir – home of the now extinct Gesyir 

and very active Strokkur geyser which produces 

impressive 30m high eruptions every 10 minutes like 

clockwork! We also visited the awesome Gulfoss waterfalls 

cascading down over huge lava flows. 

Towards the east on the southern ring road are some 

amazing columnar basalts (apparently home to the 

many elves that live in Iceland) and the small town of 

Kirkjubaejarklaustur flanked by immense lava fields. 

The most famous of these lava flows was stopped by the 

historical ‘Fire Sermon’. It is reported that in June 1783, 

the earth split into twenty, five-kilometre long fissures 

and, over the next seven months poured out a continuous 

thick blanket of poisonous ash and smoke, and 

enough lava to cover 600 square kilometres. The ash 

clouds were so thick they reached Europe where they 

caused poor harvests. In Iceland, there were no harvests 

at all and livestock dropped dead, poisoned by eating 

fluorine-tainted grass. As the lava flows from the Lakagigar 

(the Laki craters) eruptions encircled the town of 

Kirkjubaejarklaustur the pastor Jon Steingrimsson, 

delivered his sermon and the lava miraculously halted. 

Unfortunately, the damage was done and over the next 

three years Iceland’s population plummeted by a quarter 

– through starvation, earthquakes and outbreaks of 

smallpox – to just 38,000 people. The Danish government 

at the time even considered evacuating the entire 

population to Jutland. More recently some of the 

human remains have been excavated and examined. 

Many show curious growths/nodules on the bones that 

are due to fluorine build up. An excellent case study for 

WJEC GL3 Geology and the Human Environment! 

Amazing glaciers were seen at Skaftafell National 

Park another 2 hours drive along the southern ring road, 

a carriageway with many bridges crossing the meltwaters 

on the glacial outwash plains. The road itself was 

only finished in 1984 completing the circular route 

around the island and was unfortunately washed away in 

1996, after an eruption beneath the Vatnajokull ice-cap. 

The eruption started in September 1996 north of 

Grimsvotn and produced meltwaters on the 5th 

November 1996 much bigger in volume than ever 

expected – 50,000 cubic meters of water per second 

rushed down the valleys carrying collosal amounts of 

debris, silt, gravels and boulders. Huge icebergs were also 

transported and it completely destroyed the area, sweeping 

away the entire road and a whole series of bridges that 

lay in its path. The iron girders and concrete bases to the 

bridges can be seen carelessly scattered across the landscape 

where the meltwaters deposited them. Another 

excellent case study for WJEC GL3! 

From our hotel near Seljalandfoss we could almost 

see Heimay and the Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar) 

through the mist. We didn’t visit (the boat 

runs once a day and takes two and a half hours), but 

later found out that a plane flight across only takes 6 

minutes (around £39 single) – so well worth it if you get 

the chance. According to the guide book, minature 

houses now mark the locations of the original houses 

lost in the famous 1973 Kirkjubaejarhraun eruption 

(GL3 Case study three). 

A trip to Iceland wouldn’t be complete without the 

visit to the famous Blue Lagoon – Iceland’s most 

trumpeted bathing spot. Thick fog swirls over the 

warm milky-blue waters surrounded by lava flows, 

making this a great hot-pot experience. The lake is actually 

artificial, set in the middle of a flat expanse of black 

lava blocks and filled by the outflow from the nearby 

Svartsengi Thermal Power Station which taps into 

the steam vents fed by sea water seeping down into the 

subterranean hot pots. By the time the water emerges it 

is at a comfortable 38 degrees – very pleasant and the 

white silty mud has healing properties too. For a picture 

of Blue Lagoon, see www.delderfield.nl/travel/pages/ 

Blue%20Lagoon%2C%20Iceland.htm 

Close by, at Seltun are some hot springs and mud 

pools – the site of a moderately impressive geyser that 

exploded in 1999, leaving a large steaming grey and very 

smelly pond. The pale-green crater lake at Graenavtn 

is also well worth a look. 

Iceland is an amazing dynamic country, with spec- 


28


The Life and Work of Alfred Wegener 

1880-1930 

CLARE DUDMAN 

In 1968 J Tuzo Wilson declared that the recent revolution in geology should be called the 

Wegenerian revolution in honour of its chief proponent, Alfred Wegener. Yet Alfred Wegener 

remains little known today by the general public in spite of having a surprisingly full life of 

geological and scientific discovery. His inclusion in the National Curriculum at GCSE might change 

this and a study of his life is useful to students in two respects: his role in the formulation of the 

hypothesis of Continental Drift and how new ideas are accepted in science. Since he also led the 

dramatic life of an adventurer and explorer he is a glamorous example of science in action. 

Figure 1 

Wegener 

Alfred Wegener was born in 1880 in Berlin. He 

was the youngest of five children, two of whom 

died before adulthood. At eighteen he entered 

the Friedrichs-Wilhelms university in Berlin to study 

science, graduating with highest honours. He then 

joined his older brother Kurt as an assistant at the 

Prussian Aeronautical Laboratory. The purpose of his 

work was to examine the nature of the atmosphere and 

this led to the brothers staying aloft for 52.5 hours in a 

hydrogen balloon which was a world record. 

As a result Alfred was asked to go on a Danish expedition 

to Greenland as meteorologist in 1906. The 

expedition lasted two years and Wegener helped map 

the north-east coast, took the first colour photographs 

on an expedition and various innovative photographs of 

arctic mirages and ice. Significant was his expedition to 

Sabine island, an island off the coast of East Greenland 

where he measured the longitude and found that it 

appeared to be rather more west than it had been about 

40 years previously. 

On his return to Germany he became a private lecturer 

in Marburg on astronomy, meteorology and cosmic 

physics. In 1908 he gave a lecture at Hamburg and met 

his future wife Else Köppen in the audience. He then 

wrote the thermodynamics of the atmosphere (published 1912) 

and in which he explained the now accepted theory of 

rain drop formation in temperate latitudes. 

At Christmas 1910 he noticed that the coastlines of 

Africa and South America interlocked, an idea which he 

at first he dismissed, but a few months later was forced 

to reconsider when he came across a compendium of 

fossils which listed the similarity of fossils of the carboniferous 

in South Africa and Brazil. Rejecting the 

established theory of the time of land bridges Alfred 

realised that a far better explanation was that the continents 

had once been joined and then had drifted apart. 

He was immediately convinced he was correct and a 

few months later presented his ideas to the newly 

formed Frankfurt geological society. There was an 

immediate outcry, but by this time Wegener was in 

Greenland again. 

In Wegener’s 1912-13 expedition to Greenland he 

became one of the first people to overwinter on the ice 

sheet and the first to cross it from east to west with 

ponies. After almost losing their lives several times they 

were rescued when almost starving to death. 

He returned to marry Else in 1913 and as soon as the 

Great War was declared immediately sent out to the 

Figure 2 

Wegener 

overwintering 

1912 

 

tacular scenery. The inhabitants make very good use of 

the geothermal resources – they even pipe the hot water 

under the pavements to prevent ice forming on them in 

the winter time. If you’re lucky and go at the right time 

of the year, you may see the Northern Lights. For us, 

there were magnetic storms – but it was far too cloudy 

to see the lights. At least this meant it wasn’t particularly 

cold (averaged around 6 degrees), about the same as the 

UK at the time. 

Iceland is great – a hard rock Geologist’s idea of 

heaven and a spectacular place to take students for some 

memorable teaching (ask Alison Quaterman at Greenhead 

College about this), although I’m not entirely sure 

what you would do for soft rock Geology and fossils. 

Dawn Windley 

Thomas Rotherham College 

29 www.esta-uk.org


Figure 3 

Crossing ice 

sheet 1913 

Figure 5 

The Kamarujuk 

glacier where 

Wegener lost 

his life 

trenches in northern France. He was wounded twice, 

the last wound ensuring he was unfit for active service. 

He was also shell-shocked. He used his recuperation to 

revisit his idea of continental drift and wrote the first 

edition of the Origins of the Continents and Oceans. The 

rest of the war he spent as an itinerant meteorologist 

doing revolutionary work on meteorite impact craters 

on the earth and on the moon in his vacations. There 

are meteorite impact craters named after him on the 

moon and on Mars. 

Shortly after the end of the war he obtained his first 

permanent academic post by replacing his father-inlaw, 

Vladimir Köppen, as a professor of meteorology at 

Hamburg. During his time there he wrote two further 

editions of the Origins of the Continents and Oceans incorporating 

new evidence, and also, with Köppen, wrote 

the Climates of the Geological Past which showed how the 

map of the world looked in past geological ages. His 

books were translated and so his ideas came to the 

attention of a wider audience and caused more controversy 

and ridicule. 

In 1924 the family (he now had three daughters) 

moved to Graz and he became professor of meteorology 

and geophysics. Since he had now accumulated 

more evidence he wrote the fourth and last edition of 

the Origins of the Continents and Oceans and in 1926 his 

ideas were ridiculed in New York meeting of the American 

Association of Petroleum Geologists. After this, 

interest in the theory died down and his work disregarded. 

Further meteorological work was followed by 

two expeditions to Greenland (a preliminary one in 

1929 and the main one in 1930) to establish three scientific 

stations across the widest part of the ice sheet. 

The last expedition was beset by delays. At the end of 

September Wegener decided to lead a final sledge party 

to supply the central station. He arrived at the end of 

October in atrocious conditions. A couple of days later 

he set off back to the coast with an Inuit companion 

called Rasmus. It was the last time anyone ever saw 

them alive. 

The following summer Wegener’s body was found 

sewn into his caribou sleeping bag by his Inuit companion 

and buried in the ice. It was supposed that he 

had died of heart failure. His Inuit companion was 

never found. 

Following magnetic exploration of the oceanic floor, 

Wegener’s idea was revived in the 1950s and 1960s. But 

instead of the continents behaving like icebergs pushing 

through a sea of sima, as Wegener had proposed, it was 

now suggested that the Earths’ crust consists of a small 


30


the islands in the Baltic Sea, established the method for 

locating the site of a meteorite impact from witness 

observations which is used today and did important 

work on water spouts and typhoons,. He was the first 

person to take a type of colour photograph on expeditions, 

took the first photographs of Arctic mirages, 

developed theories on other visual effects including 

Arctic halos and sun dogs. 

His work and the philosophy of his work is carried 

on today at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven 

which is the German equivalent of the Scott 

Polar Research Institute at Cambridge. 

Clare Dudman 

Email: clare@claredudman.clara.co.uk 

Figure 4 

Else, Hilde and 


1916 

number of plates which constantly move against each 

other. In this way Wegener’s hypothesis of Continental 

Drift evolved into the theory of Plate Tectonics. 

Wegener’s work can be mimicked in the classroom 

using models. For instance: 

● Students could manipulate their own paper continental 

jigsaw to make the one large proto-continent 

Wegener called ‘Pangaea’. 

● Students could then go on to match the various ‘evidences’ 

(as shown in Wegener’s ‘The origin of the 

Continents and Oceans’ (Dover Press) including: 

● Mountain chains that stop on one side of the 

ocean to continue on the other. 

● American coal seams matching coal seams of the 

same age found in Britain. 

● The fossils of the small dinosaur ‘Mesosaurus’ 

and the plant ‘Glosopteris’ found in Africa and 

South America 

● Rocks of the same type and age on opposite coasts 

thousands of miles apart. 

● Identical worms and snails found each side of the 

Atlantic, while different ones are found elsewhere. 

More advanced students could consider why Wegener 

thought that the theory of isostacy meant that the concept 

of land bridges was unlikely; why the discovery of 

radioactivity had a role in Wegener’s rejection of the 

cooling earth theory and why the apparent uplift of the 

Scandinavian land mass also supported his theory. 

Wegener was a scientific revolutionary in many ways 

and had interests in many fields of science. He established 

that there was a meteorite impact crater on one of 

References 

Dudman, C., 2003 Wegener’s Jigsaw. Hodder and 

Stoughton. (also available from Amazon as One Day the 

Ice will Reveal All its Dead, Penguin 2004) 

Marvin, U. B., 1973 Continental Drift. The Evolution 

of a Concept. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington. 

Miller, R. 1983 Continents in Collision. Time-Life 

Books. Alexandria. Virginia 

Oreskes, N., 1999 The Rejection of Continental Drift: 

Theory and Method in American Earth Science. Oxford 

University Press. 

Reinke-Kunze, C. 1994 Alfred Wegener. Polarforscher 

und Entdecker der Kontinentaldrft. Birkhäuser Verlag. 

Schwarzbach, M 1986. Alfred Wegener. The Father of 

Continental Drift. Transl. Love, Carla. Madison Wisconsin: 

Science Tech. XX . 

Wegener, A. 1911 Thermodynamik der Atmosphäre JA 

Barth Leipzig 

Wegener, A 1966 The Origins of Continents and 

Oceans. Tranls. from the fourth edition. New York: 

Dover Publications. 

Wegener, E. 1960 Alfred Wegener. Tagebuucher, Briefe, 

Erinnerungen etc. Wiesbaden. 

Wegener, E. 1933 Greenland Journey. The Story of 

Wegener’s German Expediton to Greenland in 1930- 

31. Blackie 

Wutzke, U. 1997 Durch die Weisse Wüste. Gotha Justus 

Perthes. 

Images used with permission of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany. 

31 www.esta-uk.org



Scibermonkey 

The Biochemical Society recently 

launched scibermonkey, a new free 

online resource for Key Stage 3 science. 

Mapped onto the QCA scheme of work 

for KS3, scibermonkey easily searches all 

units and lesson objectives, directly 

linking you to the best science resources 

on the web. Quick links and features 

include: 

● Pupils pages – years 7, 8 and 9 

● Teachers page, spreadsheets and print 

outs 

● Revision 

● Background reading 

● Fun 

● Lesson planning 

● Site maps 

● Add extra resources 

● Leave feedback 

● All resources vetted by professionals 

See www.scibermonkey.org, 

www.biochemistry.org and 

www.biochem4schools.org (an online 

biochemical resource for teachers and 

students). Please contact Hannah Baker, 

with any feedback and/or links. She 

would like to hear from individuals, 

scientific societies or other organisations. 

Hannah Baker 

Email: hannah.baker@biochemistry.org 

Tel: 020 7280 4152 

QPA Celebrates “Web Oscar” for Virtual Quarry 

Both ESTA and ESEU contributed 

significantly to the educational aspects of 

the Quarry Products Association’s flagship 

educational website, the Virtual Quarry 

(www.virtualquarry.co.uk). The site, 

which was only launched in January this 

year, picked up the “Most Imaginative 

Design” award in the 2006 

Communicators in Business Awards, 

beating off stiff competition from leading 

players such as BT and international law 

firm Allen & Overy. 

Following securing Aggregates Levy 

Sustainability Funding (ALSF) through 

MIST in autumn 2004, the QPA brought 

together a steering group from across the 

industry and education to try and raise 

Congratulations 

the profile of the quarrying industry 

through helping young people to make 

the link between their local quarry and 

the built environment. The resulting 

Virtual Quarry site features a fully 

interactive 3D tour of a hard rock quarry, 

with specially created animated 

characters to explain the processes 

involved in extracting rock from the 

ground, crushing and screening to 

produce aggregates and transporting the 

products to where they are needed. The 

virtual tour also includes background on 

the planning process, on archaeology and 

a look at how quarries are restored when 

extraction is finished. 

From QPA press release 

We were pleased to spot an entry entitled Outstanding pupils and teachers in the 

Geological Society Annual Report 2005. The Society awarded a copy of The Geology 

of Scotland to the highest scoring candidate in each exam board offering geology 

A-Level, and for OCR the winner was Orlando Browne from Radley College, 

Abingdon. His teacher, Dr Chris Bedford, also received a copy of the same volume. 

Chris is an ESTA activist and a regular supporter of the annual Conference where 

his contributions to the A-Level Bring and Share session are always well received. He 

clearly practises what he preaches! 

Chairman 

THEMATIC 

TRAILS 

There are now more than 100 guides 

published or marketed by the educational 

charity Thematic Trails. They are full of 

serious explanation, yet challenge the 

reader to question and interpret what they 

see in the field. Each guide is an 

information resource suitable for teachers 

to translate into field tasks appropriate to 

a wide range of ages. 

For a free catalogue, Email 

keene@thematic-trails.org or phone 

01865 820 522. Alternatively, visit the 

website www.thematic-trails.org and 

download an order form. Quote your ESTA 

membership number and you’ll qualify for 

a 15% educational discount. 

Email: keene@thematic-trails.org, 

phone 01865 820 522 or visit the 

website www.thematic-trails.org 

‘Cooked alive’ in 

shelter from 

volcano 

Two men were ‘cooked alive’ after 

taking shelter in a concrete bunker to 

escape the lava and heat of an 

erupting volcano in Central Java, 

Indonesia. The purpose-built bunker, 

with heavy steel doors and walls more 

than two feet thick with no apparent 

air leaks, was no protection from Mt 

Merapi, the most dangerous volcano 

in Indonesia. The villager and the 

volunteer, who was helping to move 

people away from the area, could not 

be rescued until the temperature of 

the ash and lava had cooled 

sufficiently. The debris had been so 

hot that it melted shovels and 

exploded truck tyres. 

From an article in the Daily Mail, 

17 June 2006 


32


Harcourt Education Backs National 

Science Learning Centre 

International educational publisher 

Harcourt is supporting the National 

Science Learning Centre in York with 

development funds for its Resource 

Centre and to provide educational 

bursaries for secondary science teachers. 

The National Science Learning 

Centre provides innovative and 

inspirational professional development 

for science teachers and technicians from 

across the UK. 

Harcourt, best known in UK schools 

and colleges for its Heinemann, Ginn 

and Rigby books and other educational 

resources, will support the Centre in 

York from spring 2006 until July 2007. 

Harcourt’s funding will also make 

bursaries available for the forthcoming 

Contemporary Science course: How 

Science Works, Controversial and 

Contemporary Science. This course ran 

from 12-14 June with its second part 

being completed in February 2007. 

The sponsorship from Harcourt will be 

used to fund places for secondary 

science teachers from across the 

country. Although it is too late for this 

course, they are planning another, so do 

get in touch. 

The National Science Learning 

Centre is part of a network of 10 Science 

Learning Centres, which is a joint 

initiative by the Department for 

Education and Skills and the Wellcome 

Trust. The leading aim of the National 

Science Learning Centre is to upgrade 

the quality of professional development 

on offer to science teachers, technicians 

and support staff. Teachers and 

technicians are able to explore the 

advanced resources on offer at the 

National Science Learning Centre 

through residential courses, informal 

visits or online. The Centre’s Resource 

Centre is open to all teachers who visit 

on courses and is also available to anyone 

in the world of education who wishes to 

make a special visit. It is the intention of 

the National Science Learning Centre 

that its Resource Centre will eventually 

house the definitive collection of Science 

teaching and learning resources. 

Anyone involved in education who 

wishes to visit it only has to call the 

Centre in advance to let them know they 

are coming. 

For further information visit 

www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk or 

contact Anna Gawthorp 

Communications & Business Director 

National Science Learning Centre 

University of York, York YO10 5DD, 

tel 01904 328303. 

Anna Gawthorp 

Email: a.gawthorp@slcs.ac.uk 

Wales’ Resource 

Centre for Women 

in SET 

Wales’ Resource Centre for 

Women in SET was launched in 

South Wales in November 2005 and 

in North Wales in February 2006. It is 

part of the JIVE Wales project and is 

based at The Women’s Workshop, 

Cardiff. There will also be space 

available at Coleg Menai, Bangor to 

hold meetings, seminars, store 

literature, etc. 

As well as being where the JIVE 

team are based, the actual Resource 

Centre will also offer: 

● Information and advice on current 

positive action and funding 

opportunities for Women wishing 

to follow a SET career. 

● Advisory services and best practice 

solutions to employers and women. 

● A mapping of the current gender 

SET specific initiatives operating in 

Wales. 

● A mapping of SET training 

provision for women in Wales 

● A database of Welsh women experts 

in SET, to act as role models, 

mentors, media contact, etc. 

The Centre will explore the barriers 

preventing women from progressing 

in SECT from school through to 

employment in industry. Recruitment, 

retention and progression initiatives 

will also be promoted. 

To make an appointment to visit 

Wales’ Resource Centre for Women in 

SET, please contact: 

Bex Gingell 

Research & Information Officer 

The Women’s Workshop 

Clarence House, Clarence Road 

Cardiff CF10 5FB 

bex.gingell@womensworkshop.org.uk 

Tel:029 2049 3351 

33 www.esta-uk.org



Geological conservation 

English Nature has published a guide to 

good practice for geological 

conservation. It covers aspects such as: 

Why conserve geology including 

definitions of geology and 

geomorphology) why geology is 

important and the benefits of geological 

conservation Geological site 

conservation; Management guidance by 

site type, including active quarries and 

The outdoor classroom 

pits, disused quarries, coastal cliffs and 

foreshore, rivers and streams, 

underground mines and tunnels, road, 

rails and canal cuttings, mine dumps etc; 

numerous case studies including Wren’s 

Nest and Dryhill, Clee Hill, 

Hengistbury Head, Mam Tor, Birling 

Gap, Blakeney Esker, Hope’s Nose 

accompanied by superb photographs. 

See www.english-nature.org.uk 

As Earth scientists we are aware how important it is to get pupils outside the 

classroom in order to enhance their learning and also to show them the ‘real thing’ 

and let them experience the outdoors first hand. How what happens in the ‘outdoor 

classroom’ can best be integrated with the ‘in-door’ curriculum is one of the topics 

researched in a study funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), 

the Countryside Agency, and Farming and Countryside in Education (FACE). 

See the Growing Schools website www.teachernet.gov.uk/growing 

schools/support/detail.cfmid=25 for the full report. 

UK Groundwater Forum 

UK Groundwater Forum, a group representing the groundwater community in the 

UK which aims to raise the awareness of groundwater and issues relating to its 

management (see www.groundwateruk.org). The review showed that groundwater is 

missing from relevant areas of the curricula (e.g. where the water cycle is referred to) 

and that in general the requirement to teach about water as a natural resource is not 

sufficiently great. 

David Macdonald – Email: dmjm@bgs.ac.uk 

Groundwater Museum 

The National Ground Water Research and Educational Foundation have developed a 

virtual museum. The Virtual Museum of Ground Water History Website has 7 

sections called ‘wings’ including: 

● Notable groundwater scientists 

● Drilling devices of yesteryear 

● Pumping equipment through the ages 

● Focus on the science 

● Tools of the trade 

● Aquifer maps – with cross-sections 

The site suggests that Alexander the Great may have been the first person to trace the 

path of groundwater – by using horse carcasses. Many of the photographs on the site are 

of specimens that are on display in the National Ground Water Association (NGWA) 

Headquarters in Westerville, Ohio, US. See www.ngwa.org/museum/museum.cfm 

The melting icet 

In March, Geotimes asked its online 

readers the question: Do you think 

the current melting in the Arctic and 

Antarctic poses future problems for 

Earth 

Yes, but people can adapt 48% 

Yes, it will be catastrophic 36% 

No 10% 

Don’t know 6% 

From Geotimes online polls see 

www.geotimes.org 

Crater in the 

Sahara Desert 

Images from space have revealed the 

largest known crater visible in the 

Sahara. The structure spans 31 km – 

large enough to contain about 70,000 

football fields. Researchers at Boston 

University’s Center for Remote 

Sensing in Massachusetts, made the 

discovery in February, while looking at 

satellite images of Egypt’s Western 

Desert. The research team speculate 

that the crater formed when a 

meteorite hit the earth 100 million 

years ago. 

From an article by Kathryn Hansen 

in Geotimes, May 2006 

Glacial 

earthquakes 

The number of so-called glacial 

earthquakes, caused by the movement 

of glaciers, has doubled in recent 

years, coincident with the acceleration 

of many of Greenland’s major outlet 

glaciers. A group of researchers 

suggests that these observations 

indicate a rapid global response to 

changing climatic conditions. 

From an article by Ekstrom et al 

in Science, 24 March 2006 


34


Deep drilling 

For the first time, scientists have drilled 

through the Earth’s oceanic crust to 

collect intrusive igneous rock called 

gabbro. Supported by the Integrated 

Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), the 

scientists drilled through the volcanic 

rock that forms the Earth’s crust to reach 

a fossil magma chamber lying 1.4 

kilometres beneath the seafloor. 

The drilling was carried out in the 

Pacific Ocean, approximately 800 km 

west of Costa Rica by an international 

team of scientists aboard the research 

drilling ship JOIDES Resolution. 

“By sampling a complete section of 

the upper oceanic crust, we’ve achieved a 

goal scientists have pursued for over 40 

years, since the days of Project 

MoHole,” says Damon Teagle, National 

Oceanography Centre, University of 

Southampton, UK, and co-chief scientist 

of the drilling expedition. “Our 

accomplishment will ultimately help 

science answer the important question, 

‘how is new ocean crust formed’” 

Formation of ocean crust is a key 

process in the cycle of plate tectonics; it 

constantly ‘repaves’ the Earth’s surface, 

builds mountains, and leads to 

earthquakes and volcanoes. Project 

MoHole, begun in the 1950s, aimed to 

drill all the way through the ocean crust, 

into the Earth’s mantle. 

Jeffrey Alt of the University of 

Michigan, Expedition and co-chief 

scientist of an earlier leg of this mission 

explains that “having this sample from 

the deep fossil magma chamber allows 

us to compare its composition to the 

overlying lavas. It will help explain,” he 

says, “whether ocean crust, which is 

about six- to seven- kilometres thick, is 

formed from one high-level magma 

chamber, or from a series of stacked 

magma lenses.” He emphasizes that “the 

size and geometry of the melt lens 

affects not only the composition and 

thermal structure of the ocean crust, but 

also the vigour of hydrothermal 

circulation of seawater through the 

crust.” Alt states that such systems lead 

to spectacular black-smoker vents, 

modern analogues of ancient copper 

deposits and deep-ocean oases that 

support exotic life. 

IODP Program Director James Allan 

at the U.S. National Science Foundation, 

which co-funds IODP research with 

Japan, further clarifies what the 

expedition’s discovery represents. “These 

results,” he says, “coming from the 

structural heart of Pacific crust, confirm 

ideas from seismologic interpretation 

about how fast-spreading oceanic crust is 

built. They refine our understanding of 

the relationship between seismic velocity 

and crustal rock composition, and open 

new vistas for investigating the origin of 

lower oceanic crust, best addressed by 

deeper drilling.” NSF and Japan each 

provide a scientific drilling vessel to 

IODP for research teams. 

Geophysical theories have long 

projected that oceanic magma chambers 

freeze to form coarse-grained, black 

rocks known as gabbros, commonly used 

for facing stones on buildings and 

kitchen countertops. Although gabbros 

have been sampled elsewhere in the 

oceans, where faulting and tectonic 

movement have brought them closer to 

the seafloor, this is the first time that 

gabbros have been recovered from intact 

ocean crust. 

“Drilling this deep hole in the eastern 

Pacific is a rare opportunity to calibrate 

remote geophysical measurements such 

as seismic travel time or magnetic field 

with direct observations of real rocks,” 

says geophysicist Doug Wilson, 

University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Co-chief scientist on an earlier 

expedition to the same drilling site, 

Wilson was instrumental in helping to 

select the site drilled. His contribution to 

the research mission was through study 

of the ocean crust’s magnetic properties. 

“Finding the right place to drill was 

probably key to our success,” Wilson 

asserts. The research team identified a 

15-million-year-old region of the Pacific 

Ocean that formed when the East 

Pacific Rise was spreading at a 

“superfast” rate (more than 200 

millimetres per year), faster than any 

mid-ocean ridge on Earth today. “We 

planned to exploit a partially tested 

geophysical observation that magma 

chambers should be closest to the 

Earth’s surface, in crust formed at the 

fastest spreading rate. If that theory were 

to be correct,” reasoned Wilson, “then 

we should only need to drill a relatively 

shallow hole (compared to anywhere 

else) to reach gabbros.” Wilson and his 

colleagues proved the theory correct. 

Following three years of research and 

multiple trips to the site in question, 

the borehole that rendered the magma 

chamber is now more than 1,500 meters 

deep; it took nearly five months at sea 

to drill. Twenty-five hardened steel and 

tungsten carbide drill bits were used 

before the scientists’ work was 

complete. The rocks directly above the 

frozen magma chamber were extremely 

hard because they had been baked by 

the underlying magmas, much like 

tempered steel. 

IODP scientists want to return to the 

site of the unearthed magma chamber to 

explore deeper, in hopes of finding more 

secrets hidden deep within the ocean’s 

crust.Photos online at www.nsf.gov/ 

news/news_summ.jspcntn_id=106899 

From Integrated Ocean Drilling Program 

(IODP) press release, 20 April, 2006. 

See http://www.iodp.org/ 

News-Releases/superfast-spreadingcrust-3-news-release/www.iodp.org 

35 www.esta-uk.org



Mars.google.com 

Following on from Google Earth, which 

combines satellite images with other data 

into extensive 3D presentations and 

allows you to navigate the Earth and 

view the details of landscapes and 

features from the Grand Canyon to 

tsunami damage, there was the 

interactive google for the Moon. Now, 

you can also get a closer look at Mars. 

The homepage has elevations of Mars 

which range from 9 km below the 

planet’s average surface level to 21 km 

above the surface, and every crater and 

trench between. You can scroll across the 

surface, which is made up of more than 

17,000 photos seamlessly joined together 

and home in on areas that interest you. 

The photos were obtained by NASA’s 

Mars Odyssey spacecraft which has been 

orbiting the planet for about 5 years. 

You can also click on a list of features to 

explore, including: canyons, mountains, 

dunes, plains, ridges etc; on a particular 

mountain, for example Olympus Mons 

(which is 3 times as high as Mt Everest), 

watch videos or learn about the size and 

history of specific areas or features. 

See mars.google.com 

Deepest 

dinosaur 

The first dinosaur to be found in 

Norway is also the deepest discovered 

dinosaur in the world. It was 

recovered from 2,256 meters below 

the seafloor during drilling offshore in 

the North Sea. 

From The Research Council of 

Norway press release, 24 April, 2006 

Scientists ‘too busy’ for pupils 

A study suggests that the pressure to 

publish research means many scientists 

do not have time to go into schools to 

encourage pupils to take up sciences. A 

survey of 1,485 scientists found 64% said 

they needed to spend their time 

generating funds for their departments. 

The Royal Society survey also found 52% 

of respondents did not regard outreach 

work in schools, public debates or media 

interviews as important. The society said 

scientists needed more encouragement to 

share their knowledge. 

The survey of research scientists 

highlighted that taking part in public 

engagements was sometimes regarded as 

“fluffy” and “not good for their careers”. 

73% had received no training in talking 

about science to a non-specialist audience. 

However, the study also found that 

45% would like to spend more time 

engaging with the “non-specialist 

audience” about science and 74% of 

those surveyed had taken part in at least 

one public science event in the past 12 

months. Respondents said they would be 

motivated to undertake more public 

commitments if, by doing so, they 

generated rewards for their departments 

– 81% said this would be a key incentive. 

A spokesperson for the Royal Society 

said contact with practising scientists was 

one way to encourage young people to 

consider further study and careers in 

science. 

“Teachers can also gain a huge 

amount from meeting and talking to 

practising scientists as a way of updating 

their knowledge and refreshing their 

passion for modern science. 

“It is heartening that 50% of scientists 

surveyed identified schools and school 

teachers as being among the most 

important audiences to engage with.” 

Sir David Wallace, vice president of 

the Royal Society, said: “While the report 

identified that research pressures are a 

factor in discouraging involvement with 

science communication activities we 

should be careful not to paint an overly 

simplistic picture of ‘cause and effect’. 

“We need to see the profile of this kind 

of work being raised within departments 

so that it is seen as a more integral part 

of a well rounded career.” 

The aim of the study is to help 

funding organisations, universities and 

other research institutions devise a 

reward system for those scientists who 

get involved with public engagement 

activities. The survey was conducted 

with the support of Research Councils 

UK and the Wellcome Trust. The 

findings come as the number of students 

in Scotland taking most science subjects 

has fallen markedly. 

Statistics from the Scottish Executive 

have shown a fall of about 20% in 

students of physics and electronic 

engineering at Scottish universities in a 

decade. In England, though, the number 

of candidates taking sciences at A-level 

has risen slightly in the past two years. In 

2005, 33,164 students sat A-level 

chemistry, compared with 32,130 in 2004 

and entries for biological sciences rose 

from 44,235 to 45,664. But entries for 

A-level physics fell from 24,606 in 2004 

to 24,094 in 2005. 

Story from BBC NEWS: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/ 

1/hi/education/5124950.stm 


36


A Curriculum for Excellence 

‘A Curriculum for Excellence’ (ACE) is the Scottish Curriculum which is being 

debated in the Scottish Parliament. The document ‘Science Rationale’ is available on 

the Scottish Executive website www.scotland.gov.uk. The Curriculum Review ACE 

aims to enable all young people to become: 

● Successful learners 

● Confident individuals 

● Responsible citizens 

● Effective contributors 

These 4 capacities underpin the curriculum for which there are 7 principles including: 

challenge and enjoyment, breadth, progression etc. The Earth Science Education Unit 

(ESEU) Scottish facilitators and the Scottish Earth Science Education Forum (SESEF) 

discussed the curriculum and the ‘big ideas of Earth science’ at the ESEU Scottish 

facilitators’ weekend in Stirling recently. 

See www.acurriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk. 

Natural History Museums supporting education 

A report ‘How can natural history museums support science education’ had been 

published by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in conjunction with the 

Natural History Museum, Manchester University and others. It shows a continuing 

need for Earth science input into museum educational programmes. The research had 

been carried out by a team at King’s College, London. See www.nhm.ac.uk 

Geophysics 

Education 

in the UK 

The British Geophysical 

Association (a joint association of 

the Royal Astronomical Society and 

the Geological Society of London) 

have undertaken a review of 

Geophysics education in the UK 

(see TES 31.1 page 38-39), 

producing recommendations to 

increase the number of graduates 

needed in the coming decades to 

address the major environmental 

and energy problems confronting 

society. The launch of the report 

was held on Monday 24th July at 

the Institute of Physics, London. 

ESTA Diary 

AUGUST 

5th - 6th August 

Rock’n’Gem Show 

Kempton Park Racecourse, 

Staines Road East (A308), 

Sunbury on Thames, 

West London 

Contact: www.rockngem.co.uk 

12th - 13th August 


Royal Welsh Showground, 

Builth Wells, Mid Wales. 


15th August 

4th Annual Rockwatch field trip to the 

Mendips 

Contact: www.rockwatch.org.uk 

Tel: 0207 734 5398 

SEPTEMBER 

2nd - 3rd September 


Newton Abbot Racecourse, 

Newton Abbot, Devon 


9th - 10th September 


Newark Showground, 

Winthorpe, 

Newark, 

Notts 


15th - 17th September 

ESTA Course and Conference 

Bristol University 

Contact: Martin Whiteley 

Email: mjwhiteley@yahoo.co.uk 

Tel: 07732 913812 

30th September 

Murchison House Open Day 

www.bgs.ac.uk 

Contact: David Bailey 

Email: deba@bgs.ac.uk 

Tel: 0115 936 3395 

OCTOBER 

2nd - 5th October 2006 

BGS Schools week 

Contact: David Bailey 

Email: deba@bgs.ac.uk 

Tel: 0115 936 3395 

21st - 22nd October 


Kempton Park Racecourse, 

Staines Road East (A308), 

Sunbury on Thames, 

West London 


28th - 29th October 2006 


Margam Park, 

Margam Country Park, 

Neath, Port Talbot. 


NOVEMBER 

4th - 5th November 

Geologists’ Association Festival of Geology 

University College London 

Contact: www.geologist.demon.co.uk 

37 www.esta-uk.org


Reviews 

Sedimentary rocks in the field: a colour guide 

Dorrik A.V. Stow, 2005, London: Manson Publishing, 320 pp., paperback, £19.95, hardback, £39.95. 

ISBN 1-874545-69-3 (paperback), 1-874545-68-5 (hardback) 

The aim of Sedimentary rocks in the field is 

to prepare university and senior school 

students and professional and amateur 

geologists to collect and record 

information about sedimentary rocks 

from field exposures and to begin to 

interpret and understand them. Fifteen 

chapters cover the principles and 

techniques of description, classification, 

analysis and interpretation, and the 

characteristics of different groups of 

sedimentary rocks. Most comprise an 

initial section of text, diagrams and tables, 

followed by superbly reproduced field 

photographs, mostly taken by the author, 

each accompanied by concise but 

comprehensive information. There are 

over 400 of these and they are the most 

attractive and distinctive feature of this 

book. It is pocket-sized (just) and the 

paperback version has a sturdy textured 

card cover; this book is certainly intended 

to accompany its owner into the field! 

A Foreword by Arnold Bouma leads to 

an introductory overview of the book’s 

scope that explains the main subdivisions 

of sedimentary rocks and outlines their 

economic significance. Chapter 2 

introduces field techniques, covering 

safety, equipment, data recording 

techniques and initial analysis. Chapter 3, 

‘Principal characteristics of sedimentary 

rocks’, is the core of the book, containing 

about one-third of its pages and 

photographs. There follow 11 chapters 

dealing with conglomerates, sandstones, 

mudrocks, carbonates, siliceous sediments, 

phosphorites, coal and oil, evaporites, 

ironstones, soils and volcaniclastic 

sediments. Each chapter considers 

definitions and rock types, principal 

characteristics, and occurrence, and useful 

boxed sections explain field techniques 

specific to each lithology. A final chapter 

introduces the interpretation of 

sedimentary rocks and rock successions, 

covering facies, architectural elements, 

sequence stratigraphy, core analysis and 

depositional environments; most of these 

sections are again accompanied by carefully 

chosen photographs. The book concludes 

with a list of references and key texts, a 

comprehensive index, a detailed geological 

timescale, symbols for sedimentary logs, 

diagrams for grain size, sorting and 

roundness, stereonets and a sediment 

description checklist. Several of the most 

useful diagrams are reproduced on flaps to 

the front and back covers, although the 

insides of the covers are blank. 

Conventional textbooks can often be 

criticised for explaining everything but 

describing little, so that after studying 

the book you might know how, say, 

microbial lamination forms, but you 

couldn’t identify it in the field. Users of 

this book will certainly be able to 

identify most of the features they 

encounter in sediments and sedimentary 

rocks by comparing them to its 

photographs and tables. But a criticism 

often directed at image-based guides like 

this is that users may identify features 

and attempt to interpret them by 

matching them to their closest likeness, 

rather than by applying knowledge and 

understanding. Could this book do both 

jobs and act as a basic sedimentology 

textbook, providing the user with both 

descriptive knowledge and interpretive 

understanding 

Some aspects of the structure and 

order of the book seem to me to work 

against this aim. Dealing with field 

techniques before rock types and 

structures seems like putting the cart 

before the horse. The measurement and 

analysis of cross-bedding orientation, for 

example, come before the definition and 

description of cross-bedding. The 

principle of using grain size to draw a 

graphic log is introduced before the 

subdivisions of grain size. Similar 

problems arise within Chapter 3, where 

sedimentary structures are covered 

before sediment texture and 

composition; structures are described as 

occurring in certain sediment types 

before those sediment types have been 

described and defined. If the book is 

used as an identification key, these issues 

probably don’t matter, but they do limit 

its value as a basic sedimentology 

textbook. I feel that the initial chapters 

on field techniques and sedimentary 

rock characteristics would have been 

better grouped together with the final 

chapter on interpretations in a separate 

section from the lithology-based 

chapters. This could perhaps be 

considered for a second edition. 

Another concern is a degree of conflict 

between description and interpretation. 

The image-based approach is most 

appropriate to a descriptive handbook but, 

to his credit, Stow tries to help readers 

understand what they have identified. But 

this doesn’t always work. As just one 

illustration, Table 3.3 describes the 

‘properties’ of sedimentary components 

in order to help with identifying 

sedimentary rocks, but knowing that 

brachiopods ‘are common in Paleozoic 

and Mesozoic deposits’ will not help in 

recognising them. The problem is partly 

due to space limitations, but I fear that 

those studying a geology course – as 

opposed to those with a casual interest – 

will not find sufficient depth of treatment 

here and, useful as this book would 

undoubtedly be to them, it will take a 

secondary role to a conventional textbook. 

I was particularly disappointed that 

terminology and definitions are not used 

consistently and precisely throughout. 

For example, despite a clear definition on 

page 150, there is inconsistency in the 

use of the terms mudstone, mudrock 

and shale. Photograph 6.12 contrasts 

‘silt-rich’ with ‘mud-rich’, but Table 3.27 

clearly defines ‘mud’ as a term that 

encompasses silt. ‘Arenite’ is defined in 

Table 5.1 as equivalent to ‘siliciclastic 

sandstone’ and including matrix-rich 

wackes, whereas in Figure 5.1 lowmatrix 

‘arenites’ are contrasted with 

Cont. on page 40 


38


Introduction to Organic Geochemistry. Stephen Killops & Vanessa Killops. 

Blackwell Publishing. 2nd Edition, 2005. ISBN 0-632-06504-4 paperback. £29.99. 393pp. 

As an inorganic geochemist, with only 

distant school day memories of organic 

chemistry, I was interested in the offer to 

review this book, as much as anything to 

see what I was missing in this other, 

mysterious area of geochemistry. 

“Introduction to organic 

geochemistry” is an updated and 

expanded version of the Killops’ earlier 

volume, expanded to consider the fate of 

all organic matter, rather than 

concentrating on material of more 

interest to oil geologists. The inclusion 

of more environmental geochemistry is 

an expansion of the First Edition, which 

was published in 1993, and consideration 

of aspects of environmental change 

through geological time helps explain 

present day changes and how carbon 

cycling can be understood. With ever 

increasing interest in global carbon 

emissions, this is an important addition 

to the book. 

The book comes in 7 chapters 

covering about 320 pages – Carbon, the 

Earth and Life; Chemical composition of 

organic mater; Production, preservation 

and degradation of organic matter; Long 

term fate of organic matter in the 

geosphere; Chemical stratigraphic 

concepts and tools; The carbon cycle and 

climate; and Anthropogenic carbon and 

the environment. There are three brief 

Appendices, followed by an extensive 

Reference section, which contains in 

excess of a thousand references dating up 

to 2004, providing an excellent source of 

information for anyone who wants to 

follow up some aspect of the text. The 

book ends with an equally impressive 

Index with three columns of terms per 

page across 30 pages. Each chapter is well 

illustrated with clear greyscale diagrams 

and sketches of, at first glance, an 

alarming range or organic molecules. 

Alarming, that is, to the uninitiated, but 

by the time you have worked through 

Chapter 2 on the composition of organic 

matter, it all starts to make much more 

sense. The subsequent chapters then 

explain what happens to these organic 

molecules, how they react, change and 

interact in the geological environments. 

The coverage of this book addresses a 

range of disciplines – geology, 

sedimentology, archaeology, biology etc. 

and this make it a useful text across a 

broad spectrum of readers. The use of 

numerous text boxes skilfully introduces 

the background to a range of areas of 

Earth science, and thus makes the text 

much more accessible to the nonspecialist. 

This is very useful for novices 

in the field of organic geochemistry, and 

the definition of technical terms, 

highlighted in bold, where they first 

appear, make it much easier to keep up 

with the text. The Index is a great help 

here, with the location of the definition 

of these terms highlighted in bold. 

As someone who teaches inorganic 

geochemistry at BSc and MSc levels, it 

would have been useful to me if this 

book could have included some examples 

and case studies which could be used as 

part of lecture courses, presented in a 

form which could easily be slotted in to 

an undergraduate course. There is so 

much information here though, that it 

would be hard to know exactly what to 

pull out to add a couple of lectures into 

2nd year geochemistry course. The 

coverage is excellent, and as a text for an 

advanced undergraduate or Masters 

course in Organic Geochemistry it 

would be an excellent choice. If a future 

edition is planned, it would be useful to 

have a few key case studies, some data on 

which practical exercises could be 

structured, which could be used in lower 

level, general geochemistry courses, and 

this may help increase the appreciation of 

organic geochemistry amongst the 

student population – this is an area not 

widely taught in UK universities, and 

perhaps should appear more prominently 

in undergraduate Earth science courses. 

On the whole, however I was very 

impressed with this book. Obviously, in a 

book of this size, the coverage of 

different subjects varies, and you may not 

find your favourite bit of organic 

geochemistry represented as well as you 

would like, but there is no doubt that the 

breadth is extensive, and the depth is 

impressive. This really is more than an 

introduction to the subject, and will be a 

great source of information to both 

students and professionals alike, and at 

£29.99 it represents very good value for 

money as a reference or text book. As a 

final word, I have to admit that organic 

geochemistry is now somewhat less of a 

mystery than it was a few months ago, 

and if I need to know more, I know 

exactly where to start looking. 

Dr Nick Pearce 

Institute of Geography and earth Science 

University of Wales 

Aberystwyth 

SY23 3DB 

Wales UK 

39 www.esta-uk.org


Reviews 

Discoverers of Earth’s History. 

Paul Mohr. Millbrook Nova Press, Tonagharraun, Corrandulla, Co. Galway, Ireland, 2005. 

ISBN 0-9543177-2-6. 65pp. price 10 euros incl postage. 

First impressions can be misleading. 

This book is a good example. The cover 

has the title Discoverers of Earth’s History 

(from Greece to Darwin). The title page has 

Discoverers of Earth’s History, Ideas on the 

rocks: Snapshots through the centuries from the 

earliest times up till Darwin. The text begins 

with Discoverers of Earth’s History: 

Brushstrokes through Human History. It all 

made me worry about the accuracy of 

the contents, particularly when I found 

that the first discoverer mentioned was 

Egyptian rather than Greek. 

The book itself consists of two and a 

quarter pages of introduction, a short list 

of recommended reading, a semichronological 

listing of authors 

considered to be important in the 

development of geology (with brief 

notes on their contributions), an index 

to authors names, and a couple of 

quotations from Aristotle. Despite my 

initial misgivings I enjoyed reading the 

book and I think that this could make a 

good start for anyone wanting a brief 

introduction to what some individuals 

may have contributed to the science. 

I was particularly pleased to see that the 

author had included writers from many 

parts of the globe, though I am sure that 

the coverage of non-European writers 

could have been expanded. 

Cont. from page 38 

matrix-rich wackes. Page 219 refers to 

‘lamination’ occurring ‘at the microscale 

(0.2-2 mm) and mesoscale (10-50 mm)’ 

although Figure 3.1 clearly defines strata 

10-50 mm thick as ‘beds’ not laminae. A 

fieldwork manual must encourage care 

and precision in all aspects of 

observation and description, and I worry 

that such inconsistencies might, by 

example, allow sloppy, imprecise and 

ambiguous description and terminology 

to persist. These inconsistencies could be 

remedied in a second edition. 

Other niggles include the use of ‘paleo-’ 

rather than ‘palaeo-’ and the parallel 

The problem is how can you follow up 

any individual There are no specific 

references to help you. For anyone with 

access to a good geological library the 

answer would be to consult Serjeant’s 

Geologists and the history of geology. He lists all 

the biographical works that he has found 

for each author (so, in the case of people 

like Darwin, lists can go on for several 

pages), and, if you have both supplements, 

he covers the period up to the early 1990’s. 

The difficulty is that you need several feet 

of shelf space for Serjeant. Mohr’s book is 

a much less daunting prospect. 

Information on an individual author 

ranges from a few lines, to just over a 

page. One problem that I found was that 

joint work is usually only included in the 

entry for one author. For example if you 

look up Sedgwick there is no reference 

to the naming of the Devonian System, 

nor is there a cross-reference to 

Murchison, where the joint work is 

mentioned. In the Lyell entry, Buckland 

is mentioned as influencing Lyell, but 

there is no individual entry for 

Buckland. In some cases information 

that I would have expected to see is not 

included under either author. For 

example, there is no mention of 

Sedgwick training Darwin in field 

geology prior to the voyage of the 

numbering of illustrations; 6.3, for 

example refers to a figure, a table and a 

photograph. There are a few errors in the 

plate numbers, and some of the hand-lens 

photographs of sediment composition 

don’t really work – but full marks for 

trying to show them. Some features 

highlighted in photographs do not seem to 

be defined in the text or tables, including 

loess, thrombolite and reef knoll. 

In summary, Sedimentary rocks in the 

field is comprehensive, superbly 

produced, attractive and ‘fit-forpurpose’. 

It will help you to recognise a 

vast range of features of sedimentary 

rocks and get you started on 

Beagle. I also felt it somewhat 

anachronistic that in the entry for 

Pythagoras (died 500 BC) it mentions 

that the Earth “is not itself at the centre 

of the universe (contra Aristotle)”, when 

in the Aristotle entry (died 322 BC) 

there is no mention of the problem. 

One or two entries brought me up 

with a jolt. Did Darwin really introduce 

the terms acid and basic to igneous 

rocks I had always understood that they 

were first used in the German literature. 

But I was amused by the start of the 

entry for Rudolph Erich Raspe (1737 – 

1794). The author of The adventures of 

Baron von Münchausen was a geologist! 

There is a lot more to this book than 

you might expect from its length, and 

the comments above are really nothing 

but minor quibbles. Although there is no 

attempt by the author to follow themes 

through time, it is possible to get some 

idea of how ideas developed and crossed 

national and linguistic boundaries. It 

certainly shows that many well-known 

stories about the origin of geological 

ideas ignore the real history and 

originators. I can see myself dipping in 

to my copy for many years to come. 

Antony Wyatt 

c/o 35 Livonia Road 

Sidmouth, Devon EX10 9JB 

understanding and interpreting them. 

As a check-list and aide-memoire to be 

taken into and used in the field, it is 

superb. For amateurs and those with a 

passing interest in sedimentary rocks, 

this book will probably suffice for the 

description and basic explanation of 

sedimentary rocks. Those with a greater 

interest in sedimentary rocks, who need 

a thorough understanding of what they 

see in the field, will probably now need 

two books; one chosen from a selection 

of existing textbooks, plus Dorrik Stow’s 

Sedimentary rocks in the field. 

Geraint Owen 

University of Wales Swansea 


40


21st Century Science GCSE – various GCSE Science texts published by Oxford University Press in 2006. 

Reviewed for their Earth Science content only. 

GCSE Science Higher. Editors: J.Burden, 

P. Campbell, A. Hunt, R Millar. 

ISBN 0-19-915024-9, paperback, 

£16.00. 272 pp. 

GCSE Science Foundation. Editors: 

J.Burden, P. Campbell, A. Hunt, R 

Millar. ISBN 0-19-915022-2, 

paperback, £15.00. 240pp. 

GCSE Chemistry. Authors/Editors: A. 

Hunt, A Grayson. ISBN 0-19-915050-8, 

paperback, £17.00. 269pp. 

GCSE Additional Science. Editors: 

J.Burden, A. Hunt, R Millar. 

ISBN 0-19-915044-3, paperback, 

£17.00. 271pp. 

GCSE Science Higher; 

GCSE Science Foundation 

I was really looking forward to 

undertaking this review, having been 

involved myself with a minor part of the 

development of the Pilot Resources for 

this exciting new course. The Pilot 

Resources text for Modules 1 to 3 of the 

Core course was extremely well written 

by Peter Campbell and Anna Grayson, 

and consistently illustrated with clear, 

accurate diagrams. 

My first reaction on opening the 

newly published GCSE Science 

textbooks for the course was one of 

despondency – I happened to spot that 

“plate” had been replaced by “crust” on 

two diagrams, and that the clear flowing 

English had been replaced by sentences 

only one sixth of the length of this one! 

If this wasn’t “dumbing down” I 

wondered what was. 

I now realise what has happened and 

am less inclined to write in the tones of 

the apoplectic colonel from Tunbridge 

Wells. I am told that the pilot scheme, 

with over 70 schools taking part, was 

very successful, but that the Pilot 

Resources had been found “too 

difficult”. The authors have therefore 

been obliged to redraft their texts, whilst 

keeping most of the same graphics. The 

book I had started to read was for 

Foundation level GCSE students, so I 

simply express my alarm at the literacy 

levels expected of some students of this 

age group. The level of writing in the 

Higher book is rather more mature. 

The main topics covered in both 

GCSE Science Foundation and GCSE 

Science Higher in Section P1 are: Time 

and Space; Deep Time; Continental 

Drift and Plate Tectonics. Both books 

mention earthquake and volcano 

hazards, but only the Higher book 

relates plate tectonics to the Rock Cycle. 

Both books have a section on the 

extinction of the dinosaurs. 

As befits the ethos of the 21st 

Century Science project, students are 

encouraged to think about how the 

scientists involved reached their 

conclusions and disseminated them. In 

the dinosaur section, the asteroid theory 

is set alongside the eruption of the 

Deccan Traps, but the awkward fact that 

other flood basalt eruptions did not 

cause mass extinctions is commendably 

highlighted. 

On their own, the books would not 

enable students to answer all the 

questions set, but schools using the 

course are supplied with sets of 

worksheets, practical activities, audio and 

video clips etc. ESTA members who 

attended the Manchester Conference 

may recall Anna Grayson playing the 

audio tape of an interview with Fred 

Vine and a dramatisation of James 

Hutton and friends in a rowing boat at 

Siccar Point. I am familiar with the Pilot 

versions of the worksheets, but was not 

sent the current versions, although these 

were requested. 

So, on balance, I like the new books. 

They present a largely accurate picture, 

albeit in simple terms. So how did 

“crust” slip in to replace “plate” I 

suspect that the publishers had a hand in 

this, rather than the authors! 

GCSE Chemistry; 

GCSE Additional Science 

Of course, the proper word is lithosphere, 

and this term features quite 

unashamedly in these other two books. 

In the chapter headed Chemicals of the 

natural environment, the four spheres – 

atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere 

and biosphere are all named as sources 

of all the chemicals we need. “Metals 

from the lithosphere” have a section to 

themselves, as do “Human impacts on 

the environment”. 

The lithosphere is correctly described 

as comprising the crust and upper 

mantle acting together, and interactions 

between the spheres are outlined, in 

good Earth Systems style. A very brief 

account of a range of useful minerals and 

rocks is given, including reference to 

their atomic structure and how this 

influences their properties. Extraction 

techniques are outlined, linked to the 

chemistry of the processes. “The life 

cycle of metals” includes recycling and 

gives a thoughtful summary of 

environmental considerations. 

The first module in GCSE Chemistry 

is about Air Quality. The worksheets 

which accompanied the Pilot Resources 

described an investigation into the 

emissions from the Headteacher’s 

Mercedes, and I am assuming that this is 

still included! However, another feature 

of the Pilot which has been dropped 

from the text was a discussion of the 

evolution of the atmosphere over 

geological time. This is a pity, since the 

topic is included in many specifications, 

and is not easy to teach. 

GSCE Additional Science is a 

compilation of topics across Physics, 

Chemistry and Biology, and the chapter 

on Chemicals of the natural environment is 

identical to that described above. 

All the books are very well designed 

and carry helpful guidance to aid the 

student’s navigation around the text. 

Pictures and diagrams are mostly well 

chosen and clearly drawn, which must 

encourage anyone to want to use the 

book. The 21st Century Science course 

itself is highly structured and takes a 

while for the teacher to comprehend, 

but following it carefully should result in 

a positive experience for students, even if 

the Earth science forms only a small part 

of the whole. 

Peter Kennett 

142, Knowle Lane, 

Sheffield 

S11 9SJ 

41 www.esta-uk.org

A Level Study Day at 




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The readership consists of dedicated Earth science 

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● Primary schools 

● Secondary schools 

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geology in colleges and universities. 


EARTH 

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42

● Science Activities and Work Sheets .pages 7 - 16 

● Literacy Activities and Work Sheets . . . . . . . . .pages 17 - 26 

Teaching Resources 

There are a number of web-based resources for the teaching and learning of Geology aimed at 

all levels of the National Curriculum. The major sources are listed below and they can all be 

accessed from the ESTA website www.esta-uk.org 

Resource Level/Age Link Description 

GEOTREX 

ESEU 

JESEI 

NATURE FOR 

SCHOOLS 

AS & A2 

(16+ yrs) 

KS3 & KS4 

(11-16 yrs) 

KS3 & KS4 

(11-16 yrs) 

KS2 & KS3 

(7 -14 yrs) 

Geology Teacher’s Resource Exchange (GEOTREX) aims to facilitate 

networking and the sharing of resources and ideas, making teaching and 

learning more effective for everyone. 

The Earth Science Education Unit (ESEU), based at Keele University, provides a 

programme of in-service training for KS3 and KS4 in England and Wales that is 

designed to raise staff confidence and enthusiasm in teaching about the Earth. 

KS3 topics focus on the QCA Scheme of work, whilst the KS4 topics focus on 

the GCSE Science syllabus. In Scotland, the programme focuses on primary 

and lower secondary teachers via the 5-14 Guidelines for Science and Materials. 

The Joint Earth Science Education Initiative (JESEI) was developed specifically 

to help chemistry, biology and physics specialists with their teaching of Earth 

science. It includes more than 40 activity-based topics that highlight the 

relevance and interest of Earth science to KS3 and KS4 pupils. Some of the 

resources are also useful for both younger and older audiences. 

English Nature has developed more than 100 lesson plans that provide activities 

and information to help pupils better understand nature and the natural 

environment. There are also suggestions for outdoor activities appropriate for 

almost all schools to use in their own locality. The resource pages support the 

National Curriculum at KS2 and KS3, with some material for KS1 (5-7yrs). 

Primary Level 

Working with Soils: This pack includes a booklet, Waldorf the Worm, relating the story 

of a family of worms, together with supporting activities and worksheets £6.00 + p&p 

Working 

With 

Soil 

Working with Rocks: This pack contains Christina’s Story, which tells the tale 

of a marble gravestone, together with supporting activities and worksheets. 

Sixteen full colour postcards depicting common building and ornamental 

stones are also included £6.00 + p&p 

Contents 

● The Map . .inside cover 

● Information . . . . . . . . . . . . .pages 1 - 3 

● How to Use the Work Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 4 - 6 

● Numeracy Activities and Work Sheets . . . . . . .pages 27 - 30 

Authors 

This pack was wri ten and developed by members of the ESTA Primary Commi tee. 

Wall Maps 

United Kingdom Geology Wall Map (1:1 million, flat or folded) £4.00 + p&p 

Geological Map of the World (1:30 million, flat or folded) £6.50 + p&p 

Waldorf the Worm 

Practical Kits 

Fossils: Twelve 

representative 

replica fossils 

and data sheet 

in a boxed set 

£17.00 + p&p 

Rocks: Reference set 

comprising 15 large samples, 

with worksheets and notes 

£15.00 + p&p 

Rocks: Class Kit with 6 sets of 

15 medium-size samples, 

worksheets and notes 

£45.00 + p&p 

Enquiries and orders to earthscience@macunlimited.net

teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association

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