This is one of GA’s little guides to a very specific area. This one is West Cornwall, a holiday destination that I recently visited during which I spent some time looking at the geology, along with the gardens and archaeological sites.
Category: Geology
I like local geological guides, which aim to get you out and about, visiting areas you might not have known are worth a daytrip. And this is a good example. I sat down and read it cover to cover, as it is only 90 pages long. And I now really want to visit this bit of Kent coastline. Largely concentrating on the Upper Cretaceous Chalk, this guidebook explains and illustrates what seems to be some marvellous geology that can also be explored during what could be a lovely day out on the beach.
This is another lovely guide by the GA to an area that perhaps readers would not associate with good geology. But, of course, that is because of its title, because the areas like Pendle Hill and Derbyshire are wonderful, not just to visit for their geology, but also for their holiday appeal.
This is one of the oldest of the GA’s guides and is currently in its third edition (the first having been published in 1957 and the second in 1972). Although there have been changes in classification and so on, the general exposures are largely as good as they used to be – or they were the last time I went!
In recent years, Graham Park has been prolific in his writing for Dunedin Academic Press. In this new tome, he has produced what I suspect is a really great introduction to a range of key concepts and geological processes for both undergraduates and the interested, moderately well-informed amateur.
I love the Scottish Highlands and I am proud to say that I have climbed many of the mountains covered in the glossy hardback. But, as I say in the other book review on this page, it is more than a picture book. It contains some excellent and fascinating science explaining their outstanding beauty.
This book would seem to be the follow up to the well-received A History of Life in 100 Fossils. However, this time, this glossy hardback tells the story of plants on earth using significant fossils that are, for the most part, kept at the Natural History Museum in London. Like that other book, it is set out in a simple format, in which a couple of sides of text are used to describe a full page colour photograph of the fossil in question.
I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of ‘hydrogeology’ before, but I should have. Hydrogeology is an important and vibrant sub-set of geological science, dealing with the distribution and movement of water –groundwater – in the Earth’s soil and rocks. Groundwater transport is one part of the overall hydrological cycle in which water is transferred by evaporation from the oceans and seas into the atmosphere.
I like fossils, but it is always nice to have a brief but informative guide to the actual science behind one’s finds. And this Dunedin guide certainly fits the bill for amateurs and undergraduates alike.
Trenton Holliday’s excellent book, tells the story of Cro-Magnon people in the context of recent scientific advances. However, while it does not shy away from complex scientific issues, the book is written with a light, understandable touch.
I really like the ‘Introducing ….’ series publish by Dunedin Academic Press, as you will have ascertained, if you have read the many reviews I have included in this magazine. This second edition of Introducing Sedimentology by Stuart Jones updates the version I reviewed a while ago (see Book review: Introducing Sedimentology, by Stuart Jones), and I found it equally enjoyable.
This is a new guide in Dunedin’s ‘Introducing …’ range of books, covering the branch of geology that studies rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification), primarily in sedimentary rocks, but also layered igneous rocks. In this way, it is intended for students and amateur geologist, rather than the academic earth scientist.
The is a second edition of Prof John Cope’s excellent geological guide to the Dorset coast for the Geologists’ Association. It is slightly shorter than the first edition, with some minor corrections and some of the figures revised, together with new photographs. It also now includes the huge quantity of data amassed over last few decades during the hydrocarbon exploration work in the county.
Dunedin Academic Press has once again added a title to its series of introductions to scientific subjects. This one is a short introduction to an essential subject to any budding geologist (essential, because, as the author points out, 70% of the rocks on the Earth’s service are sedimentary in origin and are of the utmost economic importance to all of us.
If you can see past the somewhat robust title (a reference to James Hutton’s discomfort riding around Scotland on horseback during his geological investigations), this is an interesting read, combining both geological science and humour in just about the right measures.
This is a new edition of the classic little guide on Blue John by Trevor Ford, who has now sadly passed away. It is published by the East Midlands Geology Society and has been revised, updated and expanded by Trevor’s colleagues, Tony Waltham and Noel Worley.
This 4th edition is the first edition of this book to be published with full colour illustrations throughout, and is presented as an enhancement and revision to the text to reflect advances in sedimentology since the publication the 3rd edition. Therefore, I suspect that it retains its place as a leading geological text and reference book for professional geologists and students alike.
William Boyd Dawkins is an immensely fascinating character, who dominated British geology during his time, and yet is mostly forgotten today. He received a professorship and a knighthood, along with many top awards, and yet Mark Wright, in this excellent biography, describes him as “a liar and probably a cheat”.
This is the second Geologists’ Association guide by Professor John Cope. The other is the second edition of his excellent Dorset guide. And, on the grounds that “if it ain’t broken, don’t mend it”, this guide to the south Devon coast follows the highly successful basic plan of that other guide, including the extensive use of colour photos and diagrams.
This is a guide to the collection, preservation and display of fossils from more than 50 locations in the UK. It is unashamedly based on the UK fossils format, but obviously, rather than being an online resource, it is a pocket sized book to be taken and read on site.
I have reviewed some excellent previous guides in this series (Iceland: Classic Geology in Europe 3), but this one is closer to home and covers an area that I have fond memories of from my Munro-bagging days. This is more a companion guide for those walking in the Highlands, especially those on geological field trips.
I remember reading and enjoying this book when the first edition came out many years ago. I am also a keen hillwalker and have stood on top of many of the Scottish mountains referred to in the text. In fact, I particularly enjoyed climbing Ben More on the island of Mull, which I remember reading was the last volcano in northwest Europe.
Almeria is a province in southeast Spain, situated in the furthest southeast part of the Iberian Peninsula. And it is a classic area for southern European and Mediterranean Neogene and Quaternary geology. In fact, it is not far north of the southern boundary of the European tectonic plate and, as a result, has been profoundly affected by the interaction of this and the African plate.
I quite like regional guides books, even about areas I haven’t been to and am unlikely to visit. That isn’t the case for South Wales, which is one of my favourite areas in the UK for both scenery and geology. Therefore, this guide is another good addition to my collection and will no doubt accompany me soon on another holiday in the Principality.
Those of you who have read a few of my book reviews will know that I love geo-guides to small geographical areas, rather than just the big geological scientific issues. In fact, there are lots of good UK guides like this one, to areas such as Dorset and Yorkshire, and many areas of Scotland and Wales, for example. And this is another excellent example of that genre.
