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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

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