Geologists' Association

There's still time to submit up to 3 photos to our 2026 Geology Photographic Competition.

📸 Cash prizes!
📸 Free to enter
📸 Open to members and non-members

⏰Deadline: Friday 28th August 2026

ℹ https://geologistsassociation.org.uk/photocomp_entry/

Look out for an interesting documentary on BBC Radio 4 this coming weekend created by Karine Polwart, Dave Milligan and Pippa Murphy: ‘James Hutton and the Restless Earth’, which weaves together the thoughts of Angus Millar, Professor David Farrier and Ilana Halperin together with music specially created for the programme.

Tune in to BBC Radio4 at 19.15 BST on Sunday August 9th or catch up on BBC Sounds after that.

Geology.
Deep Time.
Human Time.
Deep Futures.

Traces of the world we’ve made.

Hutton’s hypothesis that the formation of the earth had taken unfathomably longer than contemporary Biblical understandings was bound up with his hands on experience of earth processes as an innovative farmer. When he and two companions stepped ashore from a boat trip to Siccar Point, a rugged promontory in the Scottish Borders in June 1788, what Hutton saw was horizontal layers of Old Red Sandstone overlaying tilted, vertical ribs of dark greywacke, laid down some 60 million years earlier. The immense gap in time between these rock types, a breach in the continuous geological record, is what geologists today call an unconformity. And it is evidence, as Hutton had theorised, of unfathomably long, slow processes of geologic change.

Dr Angus Miller explains the geological processes at play and offers insight into Hutton’s character.

For David Farrier, Hutton’s discoveries illuminate not only the deep past but pose ethical questions about the future. He wonders how our urban, industrial and technological debris might eventually manifest in rock strata, what our future ancestors might make of us and what responsibilities we have to generations as yet unborn.

Ilana Halperin shares a birthday with Iceland’s Eldfell volcano, which she visits at significant milestones throughout their lives. Her art explores the intersection of human and geological time, evoking deeply personal connections to rock. For Ilana, Hutton’s discoveries offer a radical reimagining of our relationship with the fabric of the planet.

Written by Karine Polwart
Produced by Peter McManus
Music: Karine Polwart, Dave Milligan, Pippa Murphy
Sound Design: Pippa Murphy

Miocene vertebrate footprints from the Eastern Paratethys deposits of the southern Caspian, Northern Iran by Nasrollah Abbassi (a), Reza Emamgholi (a), Javad Rabbani (a), Abdolreza Moghaddasi (b) and Mohammad Saeed Shariatzadeh (c).

In the latest edition of Proceedings of the Geologists' Association (PGA), volume 137, issue 4.

Read the full article online via Science Direct:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016787826000398

(a) Department of Geology, University of Zanjan, Iran
(b) Exploration Directorate, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)
(c) Khazar Exploration and Production Company (KEPCO)

Welcome to August 2026 with a colourful picture of The Great Opencast, Parys Mountain, Anglesey 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 taken by Lydia Wardley, which is one of the images from our 2025 Photographic Competition.

At the end of the 18th century Parys Mountain was the largest copper mine in the world. Today, the bare, heavily mined landscape gives the mountain a strange appearance. These volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits, primarily containing copper and zinc, were formed by hydrothermal activity at submarine volcanic vents.

If you would like to submit a photo to our 2026 Photo Competition and be in with a chance to win a cash prize, full details can be found on our website. Closing date Friday 28th August 2026: https://geologistsassociation.org.uk/photocomp_entry/

We are pleased to announce that Professor Phil Manning, Director of Science at Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi and Chair of Natural History The University of Manchester will deliver one of the headline talks at the Festival of Geology this year: Impossible Fossils.

Have you ever wondered how something as delicate as a paper-thin argonaut shell, or a skinny bird bone or even the feint ghost of a fossil feather gets to be fossils. How is it that some things get to be immortalized in stone but others are pulverized by deep time into dust. This talk will take you on a journey that explores the ups and downs of fossilisation, but also the often hidden controls that pull the strings of exceptional preservation. From T. rex to Turrilites, take a tumble through the slings and arrows of becoming a fossil with Phil!

Plans for the full Festival programme are coming together nicely and will be available via our website in due course: https://geologistsassociation.org.uk/festival/

Save the date! Free family-friendly event on Saturday 29th August 2026 hosted by one of our local groups - Essex Rock and Mineral Society. See the flier for details.

The ERMS family fun day is 29th August at Stanway. Fun for all ages and free entry. Please share.

The latest edition of Earth Heritage magazine is out now!

Issue 65 is full of interesting and informative articles about geology and earth-science sites and initiatives across the UK. The latest edition includes several Geologists' Association Curry Fund award recipients, including a geo-art project linked to the the Dewars Farm dinosaur footprint trackway visited recently during the GA President's Day 2026.

View and download the pdf copy for free:https://www.earthheritage.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/EH-65_final-v2.pdf

You can also purchase a hard copy via the GA website - GA Members £5.50 / Non-members £7: https://geologistsassociation.org.uk/earthheritage/

Earth Heritage is produced twice-yearly by the Geologists’ Association, Natural England , Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru / Natural Resources Wales , NatureScot and the Quaternary Research Association (UK)

Subscribe to notifications of new issues at https://www.earthheritage.org.uk/subscribe-to-earth-heritage/

Thank you to Paul Hildreth of Yorkshire Geological Society for leading our weekend field meeting to Flamborough Head and the Yorkshire Coast.

Paul gave us a thorough understanding of the Flamborough Head stratigraphy from the Red Chalk and Ferriby Chalk Formation at Speeton Cliffs through to the Flamborough Chalk Formation between Danes D**e and Sewerby, including a comparison with the Chalk of the Southern Province. We enjoyed many opportunities to examine the strata up close, including an in-situ Sternotaxis plana zonal marker fossil. Photo credit: Cathy Gallagher.