University of
St Andrews
NEWSLETTER
Number 10
July 2016
Welcome to the 10th issue of the
Newsletter. In this issue, there are two
new categories; one is Former Staff and
the other is a Special Feature that
describes reminiscences of a graduate
from 1955. Your editor has also been
out and about to get news from former
staff and an alumna.
Will McCarthy and Tim Raub
As always, alumni are encouraged to
send their news to me. Contact details
are on the rear cover.
_______________________________
Andy Mackie retired in May after 45
years service with the University, 39 of
which were spent in the Geology
Department. He started his career in the
Dept. of Physics workshops in 1971,
then moved to Geology in 1977. He
began as workshop technician making
thin sections and various bits of
equipment, but also developed aerial
photography and radio-controlled boats.
He was responsible for the Department
vehicles and was also Building Officer.
He was a skilled engineer who could
turn his hands to anything that was
asked of him. We all wish him well in
his retirement.
Richard Batchelor
_______________________________
STAFF NEWS
Will
McCarthy
has
been
voted “Young Author of the Year” by
the Editorial Board of the Journal of the
Geological
Society
for
his
groundbreaking paper proposing new
insights
in
granitic
magma
emplacement in the upper crust.
McCarthy, W., Petronis, M.S., Reavy, R.J.,
Stevenson, C.T. 2015. Distinguishing diapirs
from inflated plutons: an integrated rock
magnetic fabric and structural study on the
Roundstone Pluton, western Ireland. Journal of
the Geological Society, 172, 550-565.
Abstract: The mechanism of granite
emplacement is, despite decades of research,
still controversial, mainly because the field data
for distinguishing between diapirs and inflated
plutons is often equivocal. This paper provides a
technique which can for the first time, go a long
way to resolving the controversy. The
Geological Society (founded 1807) is the oldest
and most prestigious Learned Society in the
world for academic and professional Geology.
The Journal of the Geological Society is its
flagship journal, publishing only the most
topical and highest quality articles covering the
full range of the Earth Sciences.
Dr Ann Mullen (VP International)) and Andy
Mackie
Such an award is an outstanding
achievement. Well done Will.
________________________________
Teaching Awards
Congratulations are in order for two
DEES staff. Tim Raub won Best
Dissertation Supervisor (science /
medicine) and Will McCarthy won
best
sub-Honours
lecturer
for
science/medicine.
Professor Cawood, Andy Mackie, Ginny Mackie
at the presentation ceremony
1
_______________________________
Promotions
Congratulations to Adrian Finch for
his promotion to Professor, to Rob
Wilson for promotion to Reader and to
Nicky Allison for promotion to
Lecturer.
_______________________________
Richard Batchelor's paper, published
jointly with his wife Rosalind Garton
(BSc 1978) "An occurrence of
Palaeohelcura tridactyla....." was the
second-most downloaded paper from
the Scottish Journal of Geology in
March 2016. The paper describes the
claw marks left by a water scorpion in
Devonian inter-lava sediments found in
Friarton Quarry, Perth.
_______________________________
Andy Mackie some years earlier!
_______________________________
Aubrey Zerkle presented a talk entitled
“Life’s Extreme Origins” at this year’s
Edinburgh Science Festival, as part of
an event showcasing Life in the
Extremes. The event, which was held at
the National Museum of Scotland,
featured three engaging talks on
different aspects of life in extreme
environments, looking at its importance
in our soils (Prof Colin Campbell,
James Hutton Institute), what it can tell
us about early life on the planet (Dr
Zerkle), and whether life might exist
elsewhere in the Universe (Dr Adam
Stevens, University of Edinburgh). The
talks were followed by a lively
discussion with over 70 members of the
public
on
various
aspects
of
extremophile life, from the search for
signs of life on Mars to theories of how
life could have survived a Snowball
Earth.
NEW STAFF
DEES welcomes new teaching and
post-doctoral appointments.
Paul Savage is an isotope geochemist
who is interested in applying novel
isotope systems to planetary sciences –
in particular, he is interested in
constraining the composition and types
of materials which accreted to form
planet Earth and the other rocky bodies
in our solar system, and how the
terrestrial planets evolved from
undifferentiated masses to differentiated
bodies, with silicate mantles and
metallic cores, and in the case of our
planet, with liquid water and sentient
life.
He finished his undergraduate degree in
Geology at Bristol in 2006, and
completed his DPhil at Oxford in 2011,
under the supervision of Alex Halliday.
Since then he has been a PDRA at
Washington University in St Louis,
USA, and at the Institut de Physique du
Globe de Paris, France, working with
Frederic Moynier. Whilst there he
began a Marie Curie International
Outgoing Fellowship, and completed
the final year of this work at Durham
University, working with Kevin Burton.
Left to right: Dr Stevens, Dr Zerkle, Prof
Campbell.
2
Most of his research is lab-based, and
he'll be working closely with James
Rae and Andrea Burke at the newly
opened
St
Andrews
Isotope
Geochemistry (STAiG) laboratories. In
terms of teaching, he is co-coordinating
the new taught Masters in Geochemistry
with Ruth Robinson (but then as sole
coordinator from 2017), and he'll play a
large role in delivering the new level 5
'Isotope
Geochemistry'
course,
alongside Andrea Burke.
David Evans
David Evans
My research is focussed on the use,
understanding and development of
geochemical systems incorporated into
the skeletons of marine calcifiers. The
over-arching aim of this work is to
utilise systems that relate systematically
to environmental conditions to further
understand past climatic variation on a
range of timescales, and to inform us of
the resilience of calcifiers to
anthropogenic-forced global change. I
completed my MSc and PhD at Royal
Holloway University of London. During
that time, I developed the use of laserablation as a highly spatially resolved
analytical
technique
capable
of
extracting palaeoenvironmental data
from fossil organisms at sub-seasonal
resolution. I also worked extensively on
laboratory cultures of foraminifera
(unicellular marine protists) in order to
calibrate new geochemical systems,
especially
for
ocean
chemistry
reconstruction. Since then I have been a
postdoctoral
associate
at
Yale
University working on the use and
development of the carbonate clumped
isotope palaeothermometer.
Paul Savage
Mark Fox-Powell
Mark Fox-Powell is joining us as a
PDRA for the next 3 months (and
hopefully longer). He is working with
Mark Claire and Aubrey Zerkle on a
Carnegie Trust-funded project about
salts and microbial habitability of Mars.
At St Andrews, as a PDRA, I am
undertaking a three-year Leverhulmefunded project to work with Nicky
Allison on both coral and inorganic
Mark Fox-Powell
3
aragonite geochemistry. In particular,
this research aims to identify the role
that organic compounds and seawater
carbonate chemistry play in controlling
the structure and geochemistry of
aragonite
during
coral
biomineralisation. Characterising and
understanding these processes is of
fundamental importance to predicting
the future impact of climate change on
the health of coral reefs, and may
improve our ability to accurately extract
environmental reconstructions from the
geochemistry of fossil material.
understanding the basic geology behind
EU reserves of critical metals and the
Gardar is one of the best preserved
igneous alkaline provinces in the world.
The goal of my particular contribution
is to improve our understanding of
volatile behaviour in the roof zones of
peralkaline magma chambers, and
hopefully draw parallels with the active
volcanic
systems
I’ve
studied
previously.
Will Hutchison
Claire Cousins has scored a hat-trick.
She has attracted two grants on which
she is PI and a third grant on which she
is co-I. These are:
_______________________________
RESEARCH NEWS
a).
Scientific
Integration
and
Exploitation of ExoMars PanCam,
ISEM, and CLUPI (3 year PDRA).
This project will prepare three instruments on
the payload of the upcoming 2018 European
Space Agency's "ExoMars" rover mission.
ExoMars has the main goal of searching for
evidence of microbial life preserved within
subsurface rocks sampled via a 2 m drill - the
first mission of its kind. Data from these three
instruments will be used to decide where
ExoMars should drill and look for
biosignatures.
Value: £211,555 (of ~£480,000 project total).
Will Hutchison
I have studied volcanic and geothermal
systems around the world and am
passionate
about
integrating
geophysical,
geochemical
and
geological data sets to understand the
fundamental processes that drive these
systems, and how we can safely and
sustainably develop the resources they
offer. My PhD focused on active
peralkaline volcanoes in the East
African Rift, and in particular the
processes that take place at the interface
between
the
magmatic
and
hydrothermal reservoirs.
b).
Chemolithotrophs on Mars:
metabolic pathways and biosignatures
(3.5 year PhD Studentship).
Whether Mars once supported life is a core
aspect of space exploration. A fundamental step
in this endeavour is unravelling how life can be
geochemically sustained and preserved in
Martian environments. This project will use
chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms from
hydrothermal lakes and pools in Iceland to
elucidate which metabolisms dominate ancient
Mars-like habitats, and identify their resulting
organic and stable isotope (C, N, S)
biosignatures.
Value: £85,152
I’m now planning to investigate the
“fossilized” equivalents of these
peralkaline systems in Greenland’s
Gardar Province as part of the EU
H2020 consortium HiTech AlkCarb.
HiTech AlkCarb is targeted at
c). Luminescence Age Dating for In-situ
Environments (2 year feasibility
project).
The vast majority of geological activity on Mars
ceased ~3 billion years ago. However, glacial
4
and aeolian weathering, erosion, and
sedimentary transport are ongoing process with
geomorphological changes on million-year to
daily
timescales.
Optically
Stimulated
Luminescence (OSL) dating will provide a
means to determine the time since sediments
were last moved at the Martian surface during
the past 100 - 500,000 years and so will aid our
understanding of the evolution of near-surface
environments. The objective of this project is to
develop
a
prototype
instrument
for
Luminescence Age Dating for In-situ
Environments (LADIE) suitable for Mars
surface deployment, that will determine the
length of time since geological materials were
last exposed to sunlight at the surface.
Value: £10,501 (of ~£100,000 project total)
the Outer Hebrides, mostly research
trips which focused on marine
biological
habitat
mapping
and
assessment of the impacts of storm
activity on the coast lines. So when
Donald Herd, a colleague and native of
Lewis (from the village of Suainebost)
mentioned the possibility of a trip to
visit his ancestral stomping grounds
with the possibility of building
collaborations for some future work on
the islands I readily agreed to go even if
it is sometimes dodgy weather in
March!
The first two projects are funded by the
UK Space Agency ‘Aurora Science’
Programme, and the third is funded by
the UK Space Agency ‘CREST-3’
preliminary technology development
programme.
_______________________________
New Journal
Aletheia Heah, Marketing Executive
with Taylor & Francis, has announced
the launch of Atmospheric and Oceanic
Science Letters (AOSL).
In the far north of Lewis there is a
fantastic community historical society –
Comunn Eachdraidh Nis. This group is
working to preserve island history,
language and culture for both local
community now and into the future as
well as providing a resource for visitors
to the area. This northern part of the
island has a diverse range of heritage on
offer from some of our most ancient
rocks in the Lewisian Gneiss to the
heritage of the people.
Taylor & Francis have partnered with
the Institute of Atmospheric Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, to
publish AOSL. The journal is a Gold
Open Access journal which means that
all the content published in the journal
is
freely
available
online
at:
The island of Lewis is justifiably
famous for its archaeology, the centre
piece of which are the iconic standing
stones of Calanais (Callanish) dated to
about 3000BC, about the time that
farming began during the Neolithic
period. However it is incredibly
difficult to date the actual erection of
stone circles, especially when almost no
other structures, like houses or burial
chambers, have been discovered in the
surrounding environment. We visited
this site in order to check out the wider
landscape as a potential place to
conduct palaeolandscape studies. Since
it was a quiet time of year with no
visitors, Donald took the opportunity to
fly the site for aerial photography. We
experimented with photographing a
number of the stones as the structure
displayed in the Lewisian Gneiss that
the Neolithic people used is quite
stunning!
http://tandfonline.com/toc/taos20/current
Contact details:
Aletheia Heah - Marketing Executive
Taylor & Francis Asia Pacific:
60 MacPherson Road, #06-09 Block 1
Siemens Centre, Singapore 348615
Direct Line: (65) 6508 2833
Main Line: (65) 6508 2888
Fax: (65) 6742 9356
Email: [email protected]
Visit: www.taylorandfrancis.com
_______________________________
Palaeolandscapes of Lewis
Over the last 10yrs or so I (Richard
Bates) have made a number of visits to
5
As the day was such a good one we
visited a much later broch on our way
back to the north of the island. Dun
Carloway is a remarkably wellpreserved Iron Age broch probably
constructed between 100BC to 100AD.
It has a typical double wall construction
which can be seen in the east side. The
remains were in use, latterly as a kiln,
until at least 1000AD. Folklore tells
that the clan Morrison of Ness
(Donald’s ancestors) used to hide in it
while they went on cattle raids of their
rival clan, the MacAulays!
from the official opening (on 4 March
2016) of a new isotope geochemistry
laboratory.
The new £2 million DEES laboratory
space is part of the University’s efforts
to combine world-leading scientists
with the finest facilities. The new St
Andrews isotope geochemistry (STAiG)
facilities boast two clean laboratories
supplied with highly purified air to
ensure
that
samples
are
not
contaminated by dust and other
impurities
during
handling
and
preparation
for
analysis.
These
laboratories house five state-of-the-art
mass spectrometers which enable
extremely precise chemical analyses to
be made on materials such as moon
rocks, meteorites, corals, ice cores and
sediments.
Professor Peter Cawood, Head of
DEES, said: “These new laboratory
facilities have unique capabilities that
will drive science forward, both in the
Earth Sciences and across disciplines
including biological, chemical, and
material sciences.”
Calanais standing stones
_______________________________
New Laboratory formally opened
Acting Principal and Vice-Chancellor
of the University of St Andrews,
Professor Garry Taylor, officially
opened the facilities and Professor Alex
Halliday of Oxford University delivered
a keynote lecture entitled ‘Isotope ratio
mass
spectrometry
from
planet
formation to medicine’ following the
official opening.
Professor Alex Halliday FRS said:
“Isotopic
measurements
have
revolutionised our understanding of the
Earth and Solar System. It is great to
see the University of St Andrews taking
a lead and developing new research
programmes in this key area.”
L to R: James Rae, Andrea Burke, Garry
Taylor, Alex Halliday, Peter Cawood, Paul
Savage, Dan Nita
The composition of the early solar
system, the great secrets of Earth’s
evolution, and understanding past and
present climate change are just some of
the areas of research that will benefit
_______________________________
Leverhulme Trust Grant
Claire Cousins and Mark Claire have
been successful on their Leverhulme
6
Trust proposal: “Frozen but not
forgotten: microbial habitability and
preservation in planetary fluids”. You'll
also recall Gordon 'Oz' Osinski (Univ.
of Western Ontario) who visited us this
Spring; he, along with Charles Cockell
(Edinburgh), are Co-Is . They're getting
a cool £166k that will go to fund a 3year PDRA.
In Claire’s words: "the project will use
Si- and S-rich spring fluids from
Iceland and the Canadian High Arctic to
do a bunch of microbial habitability
experiments in simulated Mars,
Enceladus, and Europa hydrothermal
fluids, and investigate the preservation
of resulting biosignatures via cryogenic
mineralisation."
______________________________
EPSRC grant.
Richard Bates and Tim Raub have
obtained £38k funding from the EPSRC
Institutional Support for a project
named Scoping Paired Ethiopian Heat
Demand and Geothermal Supply
Databases.
Congratulations to both.
________________________________
ATHENA SWAN AWARD
DEES has been awarded an Athena
SWAN Bronze Award. The award
recognises
our
commitment
to
advancing women’s careers in science,
technology, engineering, maths and
medicine (STEMM) employment in
academia. We have identified particular
challenges for future improvements and
we are implementing an action plan to
address these.
_______________________________
Blackwell
Manda
successfully
defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled
"Decrypting the crustal evolution of the
Mozambique Belt in Malawi" with only
minor corrections.
Abstract: Global paleogeography exerts a first
order control on both the deep and surficial
components of the Earth system. Temporal and
spatial constraints on the Mozambique Belt of
Eastern Africa are needed to understanding its
crustal evolution and its role in assembly of
Gondwana. This thesis provides detailed data on
the timing, sources and nature of tectonothermal events responsible for magmatism in
the Mozambique Belt in southern Malawi.
An integrated approach of petrography,
geochemistry, radiogenic isotopes, and single
zircon geochronology has been used to
determine spatial and temporal constraints and
to better constrain models of the assembly of
East and West Gondwana, which occurred
along the Mozambique Belt. In particular the
thesis attempts to address key unresolved
questions about the number and timing of
accretionary pulses within the orogen.
The granitoids are intermediate to acidic with
relative enrichment in LILEs and depletion in
HFSEs with moderately negative anomalies for
Th, Nb, P, Zr and Ti. They show enrichment in
LREEs and depleted HREEs with negative Eu
anomalies. The meta-granites are largely
metaluminous with a few peraluminous, I-type
granites belonging to the calc-alkaline series.
Radiogenic isotope data reveals slight
differences with older rocks, Mesoproterozoic
rocks showing positive ɛNd and ɛHf values
signifying derivation from depleted mantle
material, whilst the younger aged rocks display
negative epsilon values suggestive of crustal
material recycling and mixing for their source
and origins.
Granitoids of southern Malawi display
characteristics consistent with derivation in a
continental Andean type arc with some aspects
of the chemistry resembling tonalitetrondhjemite-granite (TTG) suites mapped in
the Mozambique Belt in Kenya, Tanzania,
Mozambique, and Antarctica although the data
are not sufficiently compelling to assign the
Malawi rocks to classic TTGs.
POSTGRADUATE NEWS
_______________________________
Robert Campbell Postgraduate Prize
Congratulations to Colin Mettam who
has been awarded this year’s Robert
Campbell Postgraduate Prize. The
citation states that the prize was
awarded in recognition of Colin’s
outstanding progress in research and
L to R: Ed Stephens (internal examiner),
Blackwell Manda, Peter Cawood (supervisor),
Prof. Rob Strachan (external examiner)
7
for his significant contributions to the
Department community during 2015-16.
Rob Campbell was a final year research
student in DEES who died in August
2013. This award for research
postgraduates in the Department was
established in his memory. Previous
winners are Sebastian Fischer (2014)
and Cristina Evans (2015).
Colin is approaching his final year as a
postgraduate student and is using highresolution geochemical techniques to
investigate the evolution of marine
conditions on the margins of the Boreal
Ocean in East Greenland during the
Late Permian extinction event. As well
as his research achievements, Colin has
demonstrated deep commitment to all
aspects of departmental life, in
particular his enthusiasm for assisting
with field excursions, laboratory classes
and other aspects of the teaching
programme, activities which were all
singled out for praise.
Colin was presented with the award by
Tony Prave, the Department’s Director
of Research, next to an oak tree in front
of Andrew Melville Hall. The tree was
planted alongside a bench in Rob’s
memory as a mark of gratitude and
respect by the Andrew Melville students
who he cared for while serving as an
assistant warden.
UNDERGRADUATE NEWS
Graduating class of 2016
___________________________
Last Undergraduate Mull Fieldtrip
for Colin Donaldson
This year the Mull Fieldtrip experienced
great geology, sun and good weather,
but nevertheless it was a sad occasion
because it would be the last Mull trip
for Colin Donaldson. Colin has been
running trips to Mull since the 1970s
and retired this summer. His years of
experience, erudite contributions and
calm but measured teaching style have
been characteristics of the Mull trip and
our graduates will recognise it as one of
the pivotal trips in our degree
programme. He has transformed the
skills and confidence of countless
generations
of
St
Andrews
graduates. To celebrate the occasion,
this year’s Mull class made a cake to
encapsulate Colin’s research interests in
volcanic geology. It was presented to
him on the last day of the trip at the end
of the summary lecture. I’d like to say
that it will be a less enjoyable trip
without Colin’s scientific and social
contributions in future years, but we all
wish him and Margaret the very best in
retirement. - Adrian Finch.
Colin Mettam and Tony Prave
A volcano cake made specially to mark Colin’s
volcanic interests.
_______________________________
_______________________________
8
Director of Teaching Report
ever-growing sub-discipline of the
Earth Sciences, and the modules will be
core components of the new MSc in
Geochemistry. Other developments
include increased provision of maths
and chemistry support for students in
Sub-Honours to help with the transition
to Honours and a new Industry
Mentor Scheme that is being driven
forward by our new Student President
Mikey Van Mourik. One of the recent
and positive developments across the
University is the interaction between the
Directors of Teaching and the Student
Presidents. Outgoing Earth and
Environmental Sciences President,
Sarah Alexander, launched Windows
into Work last year with several
industry speakers talking about their
career choices. Mikey will continue to
expand this scheme and integrate it with
the Industry Mentor scheme that is
one of his pet projects for the next year
(see the Student President request for
interested alumni participants below).
We were highly delighted that Will
McCarthy (Teaching Fellow) and Tim
Raub (Lecturer) won the Best
SubHonours Lecturer Award and the
Best Dissertation Supervisor Award,
respectively, in April at the University
Teaching Excellence Award Ceremony.
Two awards for our department in one
ceremony is a fantastic achievement and
recognition of how well regarded our
teaching programme and staff are by the
students. Needless to say, thank you to
all the students for voting for Will and
Tim. You voted…..they won!
June 22nd was Graduation 2016 and a
super day, as ever. The sun mostly
shone
and
everybody
looked
particularly smart in their black and
white outfits, robes, or kilts and even
some traditional Nigerian dress. Staff
really enjoy this event too, with the
opportunity to meet proud family
members and celebrate all the students’
achievements over four to five years of
hard work. It’s both an exciting and
scary time, as new graduates launch off
into the next phase of their lives: some
uncertainty in the job market and the
recent vote for the UK to leave the EU
will produce a bumpy entry into
professional life for a while. We wish
our graduates the very best of luck,
whether starting postgraduate studies, a
new job, or are applying for
opportunities. Your degree is highly
regarded by employers and universities
and that should be a comforting thought
in these times.
The past year has been a busy one with
more curriculum revisions; responding
to student comments and feedback, we
launched a new module called
Metallogeny taught by new Teaching
and Research Fellow Jonathan
Cloutier. Jonathan’s appointment is cofunded by the Mining Institute of
Scotland Trust and a generous donation
by an alumni, and his arrival in St
Andrews has allowed a revival of
Honours level ore geology, once a
research strength in the department. The
module was highly praised by the
students and a welcome addition with
its tailored industrial focus. With all the
new staff arriving over the last few
years, and the development of an MSc
in Geochemistry and an MSc in Oil and
Gas Innovation, we have been able to
develop new modules that increase the
range of options that students can take
in 4th and 5th year. Isotope
Geochemistry
and
Advanced
Geochemistry will be providing aspects
of theory and application within this
As the academic year moves into the
summer we say adieu to two important
people. Vincent Rinterknecht is off to
Paris (CNRS) to continue in a more
research-focused post and everyone
wishes him well and thanks him for his
contributions
to
the
teaching
programme over the last 5 years. It is
also time to say farewell to Professor
Adrian Boyce who has been our
External Examiner for 5 years (though
it probably seems a lot longer to him!).
9
Adrian has helped us to develop a more
balanced curriculum while keeping our
core elements, and he has constantly
noted that our degrees provide
challenge and very high levels of skills
training, and develop confident and
skilled students. He has reviewed and
modified countless documents for our
department. It has been a huge task and
we are indebted to him for all his
efforts. Our new External Examiner is
Professor Helen Williams from
Cambridge and we are looking forward
to working with her.
We are gearing up for our MSc
Geochemistry students who arrive in
September 2016; we currently have 10
students enrolled in the course currently
and are very much looking forward to
launching this new degree programme.
We have two fully funded places on our
MSc in Oil and Gas Innovation, which
is a collaborative course running across
many universities in Scotland and
looking to put new ideas into
exploration, production and decommissioning. Additionally, a new
Summer Field Geology Camp ran this
summer. Will McCarthy has put a
you can imagine that these overseas
visitors are having a very good, but
challenging, time. There will be a
longer piece on the Summer Field
Geology Camp by Will in the next
Newsletter.
Finally, the costs of field training are
increasing steadily, and as our
programme grows, our Endowments
and Alumni donations are stretched.
Although students universally praise all
aspects of field training and excursions,
the costs are causing financial
difficulties for some and may well be
affecting recruitment. We are now
looking into Crowd Source funding to
raise money to support more of the field
training costs. The University is still
deciding on which platform to use, and
so we will give more details and make a
formal announcement in the next
Newsletter. Look out next time for the
opportunity to support field work
training costs!!
All for now - have a great summer.
Ruth Robinson
Alumni Mentoring Scheme
As part of a new project called Windows
into Work, the new Earth Sciences
President, Michael van Mourik, is
looking to set up a mentor scheme
between final year students and alumni,
with the help of Ruth Robinson and
James Wren. It would be great to have
as many alumni involved as possible.
The scheme will allow students to have
contact with a mentor working in a field
in which they are interested. We will
ask alumni to fill out a profile of their
career(s) and experience, and use this to
link them with relevant students. This
will hopefully be a good way for final
gargantuan effort into developing the
course and 20 senior Geology students
from North American universities
undertook field work in all weather
conditions
on
sedimentary,
metamorphic and igneous sections
around Fife and East Lothians, and the
fabulous Dalradian, Moine Thrust and
Hebridean Foreland sections of the NE
Scotland and the NW Highlands. As I
write this piece, the students are
finishing up their Ullapool maps and
getting ready to head back to St
Andrews (sound familiar?). Fond
memories for many alumni and I’m sure
10
year students to gain advice and
information for life after graduation.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
If you are interested in joining the
project, please get in touch with
Michael ([email protected]) and
he will provide more information on
becoming a mentor.
_______________________________
Arch Reid (BSc 1955) has sent his
reminiscences about life in the Geology
Department in the early-mid 1950’s. All
the staff he mentions are long gone.
(See SPECIAL FEATURE later on.)
ALUMNI NEWS
Rebecca Simister (BSc 2009) works as
an Environmental Consultant at
Mouchel Consulting in Glasgow. Most
of the work is in infrastructure projects
for environmental assessments for road
schemes and windfarms. She is
currently working on the Geology, Soils
and Groundwater Assessment for the
A9 dualling project around Slochd,
specialising in groundwater.
Arch Reid (on right) with his contemporary Ian
Maycock (left)
James (Hamish) Scott (BSc 1950). His
grandson, John Leroux, visited DEES in
March in a quest to find out more about
his
grandfather
who,
as
an
undergraduate, was invited to join an
expedition to Nepal. The expedition
was led by mountaineer H.W. Tilman of
Himalayan fame. From DEES archives,
Richard Batchelor was able to give John
copies of photographs of his
grandfather’s Honours class from 1949
(photo below).
Rebecca at work
Robyn Ranford (BSc 2001). After
spending 3 years working offshore in
the oil industry, she decided to move
into IT. She has spent her career so far
working for software companies,
developing online web applications and
has recently moved into systems
support for the gaming industry She is
based in Dundee where she recently met
up with roving reporter Richard
Batchelor.
Robyn
&
Richard
Hamish Scott on right
11
In return, John Leroux sent us photos
and documents of Hamish’s expedition.
He returned to St Andrews in 1960 to
do a PhD in parasitology, having
previously worked in fisheries research
in Malaya. After an eventful spell in
Nigeria, he and his family moved to
New Brunswick, Canada, where he
spent the rest of his career as a scientist
at the Federal Biological Research
Station. Aged 70, he retraced his steps
to Nepal where he managed to climb to
18,000ft.
Perhaps his greatest claim to fame was
that as an undergraduate at St Andrews,
he played rugby for Scotland when, in
the Calcutta Cup match of 1950,
Scotland beat England 13-11 at
Murrayfield.
Hamish Scott with a sherpa, thought to be
Tensing Norgay
A regular visitor to St Andrews, Hamish
died while on a visit in 2010.
________________________________
Greenland Expedition 1971
A new book has been published to mark
the 45th anniversary of an expedition to
Greenland by St Andrews staff and
students.
Scott was the official photographer on
the expedition but he obviously noted
the local geology. His discovery of
tachylite along a thrust plane resulted in
a joint paper with Harald Drever (Proc.
Roy. Soc. Edinb. 1953, vol.5, pt 2).
Robert Mutch, Philip Gribbon, Anthony Shaw
Robert (Bob) Mutch graduated BSc
Geology in 1971. Phil Gribbon is a
retired St Andrews academic (Physics
& Astronomy).
Through a collection of nearly 200
photographs, combined with a selection
of maps, illustrations and narrative, the
book chronicles the exploits of the 1971
University of St Andrews expedition to
the Cape Farewell region of Greenland.
The main expedition base was
established in the area between
HW “Bill” Tilman and Hamish Scott
12
Tasermiut fjord and the lake,
Taserssuaq. Exploration into the
adjacent areas, including the infamous
Qinguadalen, was through a series of
climbing camps. The challenges of the
terrain and the vagaries of the weather
were overcome. More than 30 first
ascents were made and most are
illustrated in the book. The material
presented combines a selection of detail
from the original expedition report with
photographs and personal accounts
from expedition members.
Richard caught up with her earlier this
year.
A prolonged stay in Nanortalik awaiting
the arrival of their supplies and
equipment, enabled the group to explore
the local area, including a brief visit to
the nearby island of Sermersoq. They
were also able to join in and record the
local celebrations for the 250th
anniversary of the 1721 rediscovery of
Greenland by Hans Egede.
Sandra operating the new Varian Techtron AAS
Details of canoeing trips, exploration of
Viking sites and a summary of botanical
survey findings complete the account.
Also included, is a guide for finding
further information on the exploration
history and the travel and tourism
opportunities in this fascinating area.
Richard and Sandra, Perth
Norman ("Norrie") Spittal
Norrie worked as a technician in the
Department of Geology workshop
between 1965 and 1970. In that time he
faced challenges from Harald Drever
and Barry Dawson to make thin
sections from unusual rocks. Drever
wanted large thin sections (100mm x
40mm) of Hebridean basalts that
contained skeletal olivines. That
required a certain physical effort. Norrie
also tells of a section of kimberlite he
was preparing for Dawson that wouldn't
grind down to the required thickness. It
became apparent that the base glass
grinding plate was getting scratched.
The culprit was a pin-head sized
diamond. Today, Norrie is a well-kent
face in St Andrews as a self-employed
window cleaner.
https://sites.google.com/site/stagreenla
nd71book/
_______________________________
FORMER STAFF
Sandra West, Technician, 1967 –
1972, worked in the Geology
Department Geochemistry laboratory
which then was situated in the Bute
Building. The lab. had been set up by
Dr Peter Bowden. The work involved
wet chemical analysis using titration,
colourimetry and Atomic Absorption
Spectrophotometry. Sandra moved to
Perth in 1972 where she worked full
time as a school lab. technician until she
left to bring up children in 1979.
Richard Batchelor replaced her in
1972. Today she works part-time as an
assistant at Perth Museum where
_______________________________
13
GeoBus Assistant – The Experience
Writing this I have been with the
GeoBus for 113 days and to say it is
your normal 9-5 job would, of course,
be in jest. My week normally begins on
a Sunday. Upon arriving at St Andrews
on a Monday morning I get stuck into
the printing and paper work first of all.
When that’s done it’s time to head over
to the Bute and pack the bus. I have
checked the list, all the equipment is on
the trolley and ready to be loaded. It is
a challenge itself packing the bus,
almost like a game of Tetris we tend to
joke amongst ourselves, and there is a
great sense of achievement once
everything is loaded with not an inch to
spare. Job done, door closed, only to be
greeted by the trolley you forgot
about… again. Profanities murmured,
van unpacked and repacked (twice), the
infamous trolley is now secured and the
bus is ready for its week long journey
across Scotland.
You would imagine my week would
follow a typical mantra of “eat, sleep,
teach, repeat”, similar to that of Fatboy
Slim’s 2014 hit, but it doesn’t. In fact
it’s a lot more varied than I had
originally thought and for me the term
“outreach” has never been as fitting as it
is with the GeoBus.
For those of you who don’t know me or
have seen me fluttering about the
printer on a Monday, my name is Sean
and I am the newest member of the
GeoBus team. I graduated from the
University of Birmingham with a joint
honours in Geology and Archaeology.
Before starting work with GeoBus I was
actively
involved
in
science
communication both through work and
volunteering.
I have a continued
interest in the Fossil Grove site in
Glasgow where I spent two working
summers making the site more
accessible to the public. I decided to
take up the offer with GeoBus to
experience a different sort of outreach
and not to be stuck behind a desk – this
is exactly what I have got. Here’s an
insight as to what I do and some of the
things the GeoBus has been up to.
The project visits over 100 schools
across Scotland but we all know that! It
was in the recent job advert. What you
14
may not know is that the project doesn’t
only visit public/private schools – we
have visited pupils in a secured unit and
those with special educational needs.
The GeoBus aims to give everyone the
same opportunity to experience Earth
Science. The variety of workshops and
continued development of new ones
ensures that recent research is reaching
pupils. One of the newest full day
events titled Carbon Capture and
Storage (CCS) sees pupils work over 4
different workshops focusing on climate
change and how CCS can tackle this.
These whole day events are, well, very
busy but with the help of some of our
trusty student and staff volunteers they
tend to run smoothly.
During a
workshop, pupils can vary and so does
their enthusiasm but it is our job to
inspire and remain confident no matter
what happens, even if you did forget to
tell a group of kids to keep hold of their
balloon as it filled with vinegar/CO2 –
this never happened.
I have travelled thousands of miles with
the team and if outreach was measured
on the number of miles you have
trekked, the GeoBus would easily
surpass many other projects – but
outreach has evolved and I have noticed
that much is measured on the number of
“re-tweets”, “likes” and “YouTube
views” you have received. The GeoBus
use of social media is still in its infancy
but after taking over the Twitter account
I can see the impact this simple media
tool can have.
The continued
interaction with pupils/schools is highly
rewarding and to see your pictures and
60 word tweet being “liked” or “retweeted” by a pupil feels like a 60 word
success story itself.
The use of
YouTube and development of our
“Geology in a Minute” series is proving
to be very popular, being re-tweeted by
Prof. Iain Stewart and even viewed by
someone in Korea. Our Vlog saw me
having to get over my reluctance to go
on camera and learn how to robot dance
(ref. Goodbye to Ben!).
Even St
Andrews staff are popping up in our
careers videos. The social media aspect
is very exciting and I can only say watch this space - as we have many
more
ideas
to
come.
So it’s obvious, this is not your normal
9-5 job and I am no longer sitting
behind a desk. This isn’t a problem
though and my continued effort to
improve that robot dance is coming
along nicely. The GeoBus experience is
something you need to see for yourself
and if you don’t believe me then you
can always volunteer. If you do decide
to come along and lend a helping hand,
all I ask of you is to remember these
wise words – “Kids will eat anything”.
Sean Doherty
15
technician was Bob Johnston who
combined one of the brightest minds around
with a pragmatic but friendly approach that
endeared him greatly to the students. There
is little doubt that we learned more from
Bob than we did from all the other faculty.
I do not think Bob ever had an
undergraduate degree but the department
did eventually award him a Master’s
degree. He was the one I mostly kept in
touch with after graduating. After his
retirement you could usually find him at
morning coffee in Janetta’s in South Street,
lurking behind an extensive cloud of
tobacco smoke.
SPECIAL FEATURE
“Geology in the Early Holocene”
Arch Reid
Back when I started in the Department of
Geology the Pleistocene ice age was
definitely over, though St Andrews in the
winter remained one of the colder, damper
places on planet Earth. St Andrews was my
choice for University, largely because it
was readily reachable on my bike. I chose
to take Geology in my first year, since it
was at a convenient lecture time, and since
my mother had read a Daily Express article
about how geology was an exotic career,
and that you could find a geologist in any
and all remote portions of the globe.
Morning first year geology lectures were at
10-11 in the Bute Building. My Maths
class was at 9 and this was pretty early so
Maths was sometimes missed. My third
first year class, Physics, was at 12, and the
11-12
gap hour could lead to other
distractions, resulting in an occasional
missing of the 12-1 slot. However I did not
miss any of the geology lectures. My
original plan was to major in Physics but
everything in Physics seemed, at our level,
so cut and dried, and it seemed a very long
distance to get to anything in Physics that
was unknown and interesting. Whereas in
geology there was so much that was
unknown and you were immediately
confronted with boundaries to current
understanding. For example, in those days
nobody seemed to know how, or come
close to agreeing on, how granite was
formed. Thus my attendance at geology
lectures in first year was near perfect, but
my performance in exams was lower than
in my other classes, Maths and Physics.
Somehow this inferior performance led to a
selection of geology as a major, plus also
mathematics, largely because mathematics
did not involve any afternoon practicals.
Donald Innes
The Department head was Professor
Donald Esme Innes. In lectures and labs he
would commonly divert from geology to
the subject of the first world war where, in
his words, life was somewhat easier – in
that you at least knew from which direction
the enemy was coming. He taught in an old
brown Harris Tweed jacket that he used for
illustration. I remember its folds being
used to recreate a geosyncline. “Fold, Fold,
Sink” he would intone, fold, fold, sink, and
then with a rapid crumpling of the jacket –
‘Orogenesis’ – as the tweed wrinkled into a
new mountain range. This was long before
plate tectonics; continental drift was taught
very briefly in lectures as an ancient and
somewhat amusing idea. Professor Innes’
Harris Tweed jacket, as it crumpled, was
much closer to the truth than perhaps even
he realized.
The Geology Department was not then very
large and as lowly undergraduates we spoke
little, if ever, to the teaching staff and
talked much more to the technical staff.
Colin Methven was usually busy making
absolutely beautiful thin sections. We all
had to make a thin section and my effort
was displayed to the class as a good
example of what not to do. The senior
16
Petrology was taught by Harald Drever, a
fascinating man who, in our eyes, had
devoted most of his life to wondering about
olivines in basalt and whether they
crystallized there or were added as solids to
the mix. He lectured in a monotone,
frequently with a pipe going, and in a cloud
of smoke that hid much of what he wrote
on the blackboard. The majority of his
writing was already obscured, as much of
the time he lectured facing, and thus
obscuring, the blackboard. Of all the many
geology lectures at St Andrews I think I
was most inspired by a lecture Drever gave
on some olivine-rich basalts, where he first
presented the evidence that the olivines had
to be cumulates, added as solids to the melt,
and then, in the second half of the lecture,
showed that really was not the case and that
these were ultra-hot Mg-rich melts.
Drever was acting head of Department for a
year after Innes retired, and he then was
replaced by the new Professor, Charlie
Davidson. I do not think the two of them
got along all that well. Davidson’s first
year was my last year in Honours and the
Department did not then run all that
smoothly. My recollection was that our
Honours class (the biggest class in many
years, there were three of us!) averaged
about 1-2 lectures a week, and basically had
to thrive on neglect. But this was not so
bad: we would go and read recent journal
articles in the library (there were not so
many back then). I recall being told quite
early in the geology program – if you give
back all you have had in lecture, and do it
perfectly, you can earn a grade of 75
percent (a marginal A). Anything above
that was supposed to spring from additional
reading and from personal insight.
We had a considerable variety of lecturers
in these years. The most entertaining was
John Attridge who would make vertebrate
palaeontology come to life. He would
lecture on the Huxley-Wilberforce debates
on Darwinian evolution and even play their
parts in the debate. I do not know if we
learned more from Attridge, but his lectures
were certainly the most fun. [Attridge
discovered a gigantic specimen - 9
feet/2.7m long - of the fossil fish
Holoptychius from the famous Dura Den
locality in Fife. He published his find in
Nature 1956 - Ed]. Other lectures and
lecturers were generally not so intriguing
and were generally quickly forgotten. The
lone geochemist in the department once
gave the most erudite but tedious address
on the chemistry of photographic processes.
Harald Drever
I did get to know Harald much better when
he came to Houston and stayed with us for
the Lunar Science Conferences. He loved
these visits, took part in all the conference
business, and attended all the multiple
parties that were a major part of the
Houston lunar scene. In all of this his
participation and his enthusiasm never
flagged, though there was one rare
exception. He did wilt a little bit after 18
holes of golf in the very hot and humid
Houston weather, with nothing to wear but
good thick, tweedy, Scottish professorial
clothing. And I also remember telling Bob
Johnston about his remarkable vigour and
enthusiasm while on these Houston trips,
and Bob replying – “Aye, but you never
saw him when he came back”.
Our first ever field trip was when Drever
took us one Saturday to look at
amygdaloidal lavas along the beach. Our
first extended field trip was a week around
Ingleton in west Yorkshire led by a
structural geologist. I have a clear memory
of our first day in the field where we
stopped at what must be the best
unconformity exposure in existence. White
horizontal Carboniferous limestone in thick
layers lies on top of the much older dark,
steeply-dipping beds of the Ingletonian
(Silurian). We sat there for a long time as
our instructor repeatedly asked us what this
feature was – and in a class of thirty-odd,
17
not a soul knew or would even volunteer a
guess.
sections cut that showed the thermal
overprint of the regional metamorphism.
It is interesting that after all these years it is
the field trips that one recalls best. We had
a week in Girvan where Drever succumbed
to the flu and Mark Bandy (translator of
Agricola’s De Re Metallica, visiting from
Harvard) tried to show us how to be field
geologists, even in unfamiliar terrain. I do
feel that we learned a remarkable amount of
geology at St Andrews but, if there was a
lack back then, it was on field experience
and field instruction. As undergraduates
we never had to do any field mapping. I
remember that in one honours exam I wrote
long and intensely on a morning theory
question on migmatites, and then, in the
afternoon practical, completely failed to
recognize a migmatite sample. On leaving
St Andrews I did learn a bit more about
field work, in my first summer field season
having to map metamorphic Grenville
rocks for the Quebec Ministere des Mines.
We had external examiners and final orals.
My oral was a bit of a nightmare. The
external examiner had earlier in the year
given a lecture to the student society on
gemstones. In my orals he asked if I had
attended the lecture. I thought I had, but
had zero recollection, probably having
fallen asleep in the lecture. In case he
remembered my face from the lecture, I
replied that yes I had attended the lecture.
At which point, to my dismay, he
questioned me extensively on the subject
matter of the lecture and I floundered,
particularly on the subject of green gem
minerals.
All three of us in honours did graduate and
have stayed in geology throughout our
careers, which inevitably meant going
overseas. Fortunately I remain in touch
with the other two students in my
graduating Honours class and have visited
them in the last few years.
We did have extensive practical sessions,
and we learned quite a bit of optical
mineralogy, the petrographic microscope
being the most sophisticated tool available
at the time. We studied what was available
in the rock and mineral collections, to the
point where we got fairly good at
identifying rock or mineral samples. Our
training method was that you had to call out
the identification before catching the
sample, as it was thrown from the other
side of the room.
[Arch Reid began his career at NASA,
Houston, took a Chair at Cape Town, South
Africa, then returned to Houston for the rest
of his career. - Ed]
I still have my first year geology notes,
scribbled in large foolscap sheets during
lectures. We only had exams at the end of
term. In preparing for first year exams, I
pulled out my lecture notes shortly before
end of term and found them to be in large
part undecipherable. This was the point
where I gave up on cursive writing and
have printed ever since.
Arch Reid in later life
_______________________________
My Honours thesis was on rocks from the
top end of Glen Clova, we had been taken
up there by Bill Harry who lectured on
metamorphic grade and style in the Scottish
Highlands. Lovely area but I had little clue
as to interpreting the geology. My thesis
was probably saved by Drever who,
without my knowledge, had the correct thin
18
USEFUL LINKS
http://earthsci.st-andrews.ac.uk
https://www.facebook.com/standrewsgeologyalumni
http://soi.st-andrews.ac.uk
http://www.cersa.org.uk
http://www.geobus.org.uk
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/alumni/relations
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/alumni/relations/stayconnected/email
CONTACT
E: [email protected]
T: 01334 463940
F: 01334 463949
MAIL:
Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences
Irvine Building
North Street
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9AL
Irvine Building
The Scores cliffs
We are always interested to receive news from our alumni which, with your
permission, we would like to publish in the Newsletter and the DEES website.
Contact the editor: Richard Batchelor ([email protected])
Front cover picture: First year students on the “Highland Fling” excursion, posing at the natural arch, Tarlair, Macduff.
(Photo: Will McCarthy)