Humberside Geologist no 10

published 1992

EDITORIAL

Mike Horne

Humberside Geologist continues to bring you its mixture of archive material, recent research, reports of field meetings and news concerning Society members.

I feel that it is important for our Society to continue its tradition of publishing members' contributions, which goes back to the start of our Transactions in 1894. Many small pieces of scientific information would go unpublished if it were not for publications like Humberside Geologist, as the journals of the larger Societies become more and more the preserve of the professional geologist. These small contributions by amateurs may not seem to be very important now, but if they are not published they would be lost for ever. Early work by our Society, such as the report about the Black Band in this issue, means that details of long over-grown exposures are available for present day scientists to study, now that the significance of Anoxic Oceanic Events has become clear.

As well as the scientific aspect of our publication, there is the historical and nostalgic aspect. Here is a record of what the Society does and of the people who keep it going with their enthusiasm. Reports of field meetings act as a reminder of happy days for those who attended and hopefully provide those who couldn't attend with details, so that they can visit sites by themselves. Our Winter Lectures are always interesting and we are grateful to the experts from a wide variety of fields who come and speak to the Society. But these meetings are a bit formal and there is not really time for members to socialise. It is at the field meetings that I feel that the true amateur spirit of the Society flourishes; where little bits of local information are exchanged and 'veteran' members pass on their experience and enthusiasm to beginners.

This enthusiasm and dedication come across in our publication too. For instance there is an article by John Barry from Cromer about some erratics he has been studying. I visited John recently and he very kindly spent some time in the field with me. Having had a look at the erratics on the beaches in Norfolk with him and seen that 99 per cent of them are flint, I can now understand why it took him 400 hours in the field to find the four specimens of erratics from Aland. Would a professional geologist have the time to be able to do this sort of research ?

This issue of Humberside Geologist includes an article from our archives by C.Green, a past Secretary of the Society, and a series of papers about erratics and flints.

M.Horne, October 1992.