Geologic Website of the Month
June 2009
British Geological Survey
www.bgs.ac.uk
Michael F. Forlenza, P.G.
Editor - Houston Geological Society
The modern study of geology was founded in Britain based on the work of James Hutton, Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, William Smith, and others. One of the places where this legacy can be appreciated is at Siccar Point.
Siccar Point is one of the world's most famous geological sites, yet it lies hidden at the foot of a remote sea cliff in Berwickshire, Scotland. It was here in 1788 that James Hutton, the 'father of modern geology,' accompanied by John Playfair and Sir James Hall, recognized the vast extent of geological time that went far beyond the then accepted age of the earth of 6000 years. He saw that the near-vertical greywackes of the Silurian Gala Group were unconformably overlain by the younger, gently-dipping sandstones of the Devono-Carboniferous Stratheden Group (Upper Old Red Sandstone). He reasoned that the vertical layers were originally laid down as horizontal beds of sediment on an ocean floor, and that it must have taken a very long time — perhaps millions of years — for these sediments to be lithified, folded, uplifted, and then eroded by earth processes before the younger sandstones could be laid down on top.
Siccar Point is just one of the ten ‘Secret’ geology places featured on the website [www.bgs.ac.uk/education/secretGeology/home.html] of the British Geological Society (BGS). The website of the BGS has the familiar "newspaper" format of a banner above several columns of items. The left column has links to sections about the BGS and what types and areas of research they conduct. The center two columns provide graphics, links, photographs, and capsule summaries to recent or ongoing areas of research and investigation. A series of larger photographs and illustrations are rotated through the primary space at the top of the center columns pertaining to the featured items. The right column is a list of links to news items, feature items, and related geoscience websites.
Founded in 1835, the BGS is the world's oldest national geological survey and is the United Kingdom's premier center for earth science information and expertise. According to the website, the BGS is the nation's principal supplier of objective, impartial, and up-to-date geological expertise and information for decision making by governmental, commercial, academic, and public users. The BGS carries out research in strategically-important areas including energy and natural resources, vulnerability to environmental change and hazards, and earth system science. This work is often conducted in collaboration with the national and international scientific academic community. The BGS maintains and develops understanding of earth sciences to improve policy-making, enhance national wealth, and reduce risk. The BGS is part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), which is the United Kingdom's primary agency for funding and managing research, training, and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences.
The BGS website strikes a good balance between content for a general, non-technical audience and content for a professional, technical audience. Topics on the website that might be of interest to a non-technical audience can be found by clicking on the links labeled ‘Homeowners,’ ‘Popular geology,’ ‘Teachers & students,’ and ‘For everyone.’ The Homeowners page has a nifty link where property owners or prospective buyers can order a "GeoReport’ for any postal address or grid reference location. GeoReports are custom reports for which the user can request pertinent information on the assessment of on-site building stone, radon protection, ground stability and subsidence potential, and groundwater availability.
For the casual visitor, the Popular geology link offers some interesting areas for browsing. These include: "Britain beneath our feet,’ an interactive atlas of geology; "Fossil focus,’ a primer on common fossils; ‘Holiday Geology Guides,’ information on the geology of popular tourist areas of England; and ‘Secret’ geology places.
The Popular geology webpage also features a selection of historic documents and photographs from the BGS archives. These documents include the National Archive of Geologic Photographs with more than 100,000 fully-described images. The BGS archive is where you can learn about William Smith. William Smith was the subject of Simon Winchester’s 2002 book titled The Map that Changed the World.
William Smith was born in Oxfordshire in 1769, the son of the village blacksmith. As a boy he developed an interest in the exposures of rock and the fossils which were to be found locally. Later as a surveyor, his work for canal construction and for the sources of building stone and coal led to a great increase in his knowledge and awareness of various geological features. As he travelled, he observed that the familiar strata he recognized from the south of England were repeated in other areas, with some outcrops stretching right across the country.
Coal miners were already aware of the occurrences of regular successions of workable coal seams. But on a larger scale, Mr. Smith began to recognize that sedimentary rocks could be identified by the fossils they contained, and that these rocks were always arranged in the same sequence. His discovery that strata can be distinguished by fossil assemblages was a concept virtually unrecognized by geologists of that period. Working on this principle, Mr. Smith was able to draw up a table of successive strata which could be applied in any other locality—an early version of the geological column.
By 1799, Mr. Smith, using both his skills as a surveyor and the knowledge gained from his field observations, developed a geological map. His first geologic map was circular in form covering the area around Bath and was exhibited at the Bath Agricultural Society. In 1801, Mr. Smith produced a small geological map of England and Wales which illustrated the outcrops of seven geological formations. He prepared other maps for exhibition at various meetings, but