The Chalk of the Northern Province: its regional context
Symposium
a joint meeting of the Hull Geological Society
with the Yorkshire Geological Society and Hull University
10th to 13th September 2015
Introduction
and welcome by Mike Horne FGS
on
behalf of the Hull Geological Society.
Welcome to Hull and I hope that you enjoy the lectures,
debates and field meetings. This is as much a thankyou as an introduction
because if it were not for several factors this meeting would not have taken
place.
·
The Chalk being such a
strange rock
·
A long history of
research
·
Volunteers in
geological Societies
·
A book that my father
gave me
·
You
We are meeting to share our love of the Chalk. The “great
white ooze”. This is a rock that was deposited over such a wide area for such a
long period of geological time with seemingly very little variation in
sedimentology and palaeontology. It is a rock that is slow to reveal its
secrets, especially in Yorkshire where you need to use a big hammer to break it
open!
There is a long history of research
into the Chalk in Yorkshire for example –
·
Rev E Maul Cole
·
the Mortimer brothers
·
G W Lamplugh
·
W C Ennis
·
J W Stather
·
Thomas Sheppard
·
D W Toyne
·
the Wright brothers
·
Felix Whitham and the
Hull Geological Society Centenary Project
·
And new research by Paul
Hildreth, John Green and Derek Gobbett published in
Humberside
Geologist
last
year.
Volunteers are the backbone of geological Societies. It
is because of geologists giving their time and sharing their knowledge that
these events take place. A good example is Yorkshire Geology Month which was
started by the Hull Geological Society in 2005 with the simple concept of asking
Yorkshire geologists to run events for local people in the month of May. This is
now being organised by Paul Hildreth on behalf of the Yorkshire Geological
Society.
This Symposium would not have taken place without the
hours of work donated by volunteers – David Hill, John Holt, John Knight, Paul
Hildreth and Patrick Boylan who attended with planning meetings with Dave
Greenough, Jeff Blackford and Mike Rogerson of the Department of Geography and
Earth Resources at the University of Hull. Will Watts organised the booking
system and Keith Park and Patrick Boylan who produced the Circular and website.
Dave Greenough who organised all the coach, rooms, refreshments, hotels,
delegates pack &c. All the speakers and exhibitors who have given their time to
come to Hull and share their knowledge and expertise.
This is what makes geology a special science!
My father, Colin, will be 91 this month and he is
indirectly responsible for this meeting. He bought me my first hammer. Also he
gave me a text book about stratigraphy when I was staring my research into the
Chalk as part of the Hull Geological Society Centenary Project. In the back of
the book was a list of the Rules of stratigraphy and I read them! I began to
question how we applied those rules to the Chalk Biostratigraphy. It is because
I could not find the definitions of the Biozones that I asked the Yorkshire
Geological Society and University of Hull to host this meeting.
Lastly thank you to all the delegates for attending – I
hope you enjoy the Symposium and take part in the discussions.
Copyright - Hull Geological Society 2015
Registered Educational Charity No. 229147