The Geologists' Association

Vectis Formation foot cast examples. A, small ornithopod cast infilled with Viviparus gastropods. B, possible theropod foot cast on a block of Filosina bed. Collection of Mr. Downs. Scale equals 10 mm.

A, simplified sedimentary logs of the Wessex Formation, redrawn from Sweetman and Insole (2010). B, simplified sedimentary log of the Vectis Formation, redrawn from Radley and Allen (2012).

A, offshore view of Hanover Point showing the large number of tourists visiting in August 2025. Images taken by Theo Vickers. B, ornithopod foot cast at Hanover Point. C, outcrop at Hanover Point showing the 1 Hanover Point sandstone, with 2 dinoturbated ventral surface, and 3 fallen blocks containing foot casts.

Geological map of the Isle of Wight showing the outcrop of the Wealden Group.

The historiography of dinosaur footprints of the Lower Cretaceous Wealden Group on the Isle of Wight, UK by Megan Jacobs of Wight Coast Fossils.

In volume 137, issue 1, February 2026 of Proceedings of the Geologists' Association.

Read the full article online: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The talk will also be broadcast simultaneously via Zoom.

To attend the meeting via Zoom, members and non-members should register in advance. Members will receive a link for registration by email. Non-members should telephone 020 7434 9298 or email the sarah@geologistsassociation.org.uk for details.

Join us at @geolsoc.bsky.social Burlington House on Friday, 6th March at 18.00 GMT for our next free evening talk: Are ‘shales’ really that dull? by Joe Macquaker.

Refreshments will be served beforehand in the Lower Library from 17.30 GMT. Non-members are welcome free of charge.

The valley is an example of glacial erosion: a U-shaped valley carved by an immense glacier as it passed through. The rocks are granite, formed about 100 million years ago. On the left is the 3,000ft wall of El Capitan, famous for its rock climbs and Half Dome is at the centre of the distant skyline

Welcome to March with a dramatic image of Yosemite Valley in California, USA from the Geologists' Association 2026 calendar taken by Karina Ibanez, which was Highly Commended in the GA 2025 Photo Competition.

Please join us in welcoming Ben Cunningham as our new Student Representative, a co-opted role on the GA Council.

Ben is currently undertaking the Palaeontology and Evolution MSci at @bristoluni.bsky.social with a research focus on sauropsid diversity, comparative anatomy and palaeobiogeography.

Registration fee: £5 GA members/£15 non-members. GA members have priority booking until 4 weeks before the event when any remaining places will open to non members

If you would like to become a member of the GA full details are on our website: geologistsassociation.org.uk/join/

Our first UK field meeting of 2026 is on Sunday 19th April to Lambourn in Berkshire to study the rocks, springs and geomorphology with Lesley Dunlop of Berkshire Geoconservation Group.

For full details see: geologistsassociation.org.uk/ukfield/#19a...

Selected structural features in southern England, the English Channel and northwest France. The distribution of the correlative Tilleul and Ogbourne Hardgrounds is shown; these are absent to the north-east of the Wight–Bray Fault and associated with Variscan basement thrusts across central southern England. The section at Winterbourne Kingston, on the Litton Cheyney Fault, shows a conglomerate of older Cretaceous debris derived from the overthrust hanging wall, deposited on a surface correlative with the Ogbourne Hardground (Gale, 2019a). The Ogbourne Hardground is absent in the marginal successions in Devon. 'Strahan's Hardground' at Lewes, East Sussex, is correlative with the Ogbourne Hardground. Map modified from Wikimedia Commons.

Identification of marker marl beds in the lower and middle Turonian of the northern Anglo-Paris Basin. See text for detailed explanation.

Geological map of the area adjacent to the English Channel, to show the Cornubian and Armorican Massifs and the Turonian depocentre. This study focuses on successions on the Devon and Seine-Maritime coasts, where the successions thin towards the basin margins. Map modified from Wikimedia Commons.

Front cover of the scientific journal Proceedings of the Geologists' Association.

Correlation of the lower and middle Turonian chalks of south-west England and north-west France - condensation towards the Cornubian and Armorican massifs by Andy Gale

In Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, vol 137, issue 1, Feb 2026: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

There's still time to register for our next free online talk, tomorrow (Friday 6th February 2026) at 19.00 GMT when Dr Emma Nicholls of @morethanadodo.bsky.social will tell us 'Tales from a Geological Curator'

Email sarah@geologistsassociation.org.uk to register and receive more details

The Cuillin Mountains on the Isle of Skye have some of the best glacial landforms in Britain. This remarkable example is a roche moutonnée, in the bowels of the Cuillin magma chamber. This gabbro has been rounded and deeply scoured by rock fragments trapped in the ice of a passing glacier.

'Ice-Scoured Bedrock, Cuillin Range, Scotland' taken by Belinda DiQuinzio, which won First Prize in the GA 2025 Photo Competition.

Welcome to #February2026 with a dramatic image from the Geologists' Association 2026 calendar entitled 'Ice-Scoured Bedrock, Cuillin Range, Scotland' taken by Belinda DiQuinzio, which won First Prize in the GA 2025 Photo Competition.

One of our Local Groups: the Essex Rock & Mineral Society is holding its annual Essex Gem & Mineral Show on Saturday 21st February 2026 at North Romford Community Centre in Essex

It is the foremost show in the southeast of England with over 30 vendors and displays

More details email: show@erms.org

2026 UK Field Trip: The Building Stones of Strata Florida Abbey and St Padarn’s Church, Llanbadarn on Saturday 16th May 2026, led by Tim Palmer, Caroline Palmer & Ruth Siddall of @pavementgeology.bsky.social

£5 GA Member / £15 Non-member

Full details: geologistsassociation.org.uk/ukfield/#16may

Join us online via Zoom on Fri 6th Feb at 19.00 GMT for our next free talk when @dremmanicholls.bsky.social of @morethanadodo.bsky.social will deliver 'Tales from a Geological Curator'

Members and non-members must register in advance: non-members email sarah@geologistsassociation.org.uk for details

Rock up to London: discovering stones and fossils from around the world on an urban geology tour The city’s architecture travels through time and continents, incorporating everything from slabs of the Italian Alps to meteorites that hit southern Africa 2bn years ago

Great to see a friend of the GA Dr Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social in the spotlight for her geological walking tour of London

Check out the website of London Pavement Geology for more information: www.londonpavementgeology.co.uk

www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...

Greenland is rich in natural resources – a geologist explains why Greenland’s rare earth element deposits may be among the world’s largest by volume.

Spotlight on the natural resources of Greenland. Very topical considering current world politics.

theconversation.com/greenland-is...

Issue 64 of Earth Heritage magazine is out now and free to view online

Over 50 pages featuring earth science topics & localities from the home nations and further afield: tinyurl.com/48bb27v8

@quaternaryra.bsky.social
@naturalengland.bsky.social
@natreswales.bsky.social
@naturescot.bsky.social

There's still time to register for our next free online lecture this coming Friday at 19.00 GMT: Reconstructing the Cretaceous Greenhouse by Prof Andy Gale from Portsmouth University.

Email sarah@geologistsassociation.org.uk for details.

When 21 men saw in the new year by dining in a dinosaur Guests braved the cold of December 1853 to have dinner inside a concrete mould of a dinosaur in a warehouse.

A fascinating historical new year's celebration involving Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

@cpdinosaurs.bsky.social

www.bbc.com/news/article...

The GA magazine is a quarterly publication free to members.

Full information about all the benefits of joining the Association is available on our website: geologistsassociation.org.uk/join/

Front cover of the Geologists' Association magazine showing junior geologists and their families on a Rockwatch outing to Staithes in North Yorkshire.

A near complete fossil fish from the Toulmin Smith collection, Ctenothrissa microcephala (Agassiz, 1843), NHMUK POV OR 41688. Collected from the Lower Chalk of Burnham, Kent.

The Onkalo repository, the world's first higher activity geological disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel, where Posiva will commence first waste emplacement in Archaean granitoid rocks in 2026. Photo courtesy of Posiva International.

The crowd throngs in anticipation of Dean Lomax's lecture at the Festival of Geology in Burlington House, November 1st, 2025.

The December issue of the GA Magazine is out now!

The current issue includes excursions to Canada and Iceland and a UK field trip to Derbyshire. Plus articles on the historic fossil collection of the first GA president: Joshua Toulmin Smit and geological aspects of nuclear waste disposal.

The prehistoric shark found in a suburban town in Scotland The fossil was so complete experts could see remains of the last meal it ate, 330 million years after it died.

Fascinating story. The fossil is on display at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Season's Greetings from everyone at the Geologists' Association.

Part of Edinburgh's Radical Road to reopen ahead of James Hutton anniversary Hutton's Rock is where the founding father of geology arrived at his theory of how and when the world was formed.

Very welcome news if this happens in time for the anniversary next year.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Join us online on Friday 9th January at 19.00 GMT for our first free talk of 2026 when Professor Andy Gale of Portsmouth University will be reconstructing the Cretaceous greenhouse.

The talk will be via Zoom. Non-members should email sarah@geologistsassociation.org.uk for details.

A: Sample site Headscarp west (HSW) upper, quartz vein is adjacent to the 30 cm scale bar. B: Sample site HSW lower with quartz vein location circled. C: The headscarp/rupture surface at headscarp east (HSE). D: Closer view of HSE with sample sites circled. E: The upper-mid-slope antiscarp (AS) in the middle distance with Honister Hause glacial transfluence breach (and road pass) behind. F: Upper and lower sample locations (circled) on the upper-mid-slope antiscarp.

The Robinson rock slope failure (RSF) as mapped by the authors with cosmogenic sample locations: headscarp west, headscarp east and antiscarp (HSW, HSE and AS) indicated. Panels 1–4 represent zones of distinct morphology and are adapted from Wilson and Jarman's (2015) Figure 13.1 (upper zones only, eight zones were delineated in total). Inset shows location within the Lake District.

Front cover of the scientific journal Proceedings of the Geologists' Association.

Late Quaternary evolution of a large rock slope deformation (Robinson, English Lake District) – a first such exploration by cosmogenic exposure dating in the British mountains by Peter Wilson et al

In the latest Proceedings of the Geologists' Association: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

a) The pedestalled trackway on the floor of the northern recess at the Fynbos Trail Steep site; the track in the foreground is Track #2. Arrows indicate tracks; scale bars = 10 cm (photo courtesy of Stephen Granger). b) and c) 3D photogrammetry models of respectively the second and fourth tracks in the trackway. d) 3D photogrammetry model of the trackway, showing five tracks, with Track #1 on the left and Track #5 on the right. Horizontal and vertical scales are in metres.

A large possible proboscidean track in profile, west of Cape Agulhas; scale bar = 10 cm.

Map of the southern Cape, showing the extent of Wankoe Formation deposits and sites mentioned in the text.

The front cover of the scientific journal Proceedings of the Geologists' Association.

Vertebrate tracks in Pliocene aeolianite deposits of the Wankoe Formation, Western Cape Province, South Africa by Charles W. Helm et al.

In the latest edition of Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, vol 136, 6, December 2025.

Read the full article here: www.sciencedirect.com/.../pii/S001...

🎁Online access to the quarterly journal Proceedings of the Geologists' Association
🎁Reduced subscription rate to the joint GA/GSL bi-monthly journal Geology Today
🎁Access to research and conference grants
🎁Access to and borrowing rights from the University College London library

Membership includes:
🎁Monthly lectures - in-person at Burlington House and online via Zoom
🎁Priority booking and discounted rates for UK and Overseas field excursions
🎁Discounted rate for the GA Annual Conference
🎁Quarterly Geologists' Association magazine
🎁Discounted prices for GA Guides