Past Lectures

Previous lectures up to the present time are listed below. Where an abstract is available a details link will be shown.

Monday 4 March 2024

Presidential Address - It’s all a matter of time…

Prof. Alison MacLeod ,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 5 February 2024

Maps, mountains and madness – Charles Lapworth and the Highland Controversy

Prof. Paul Smith,  Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Event Details


Monday 8 January 2024

AGM and Members Evening - Talk by Jeremy Krause


Event Details


Monday 4 December 2023

Experimental Taphonomy: Unravelling the Burgess Shale

Dr Nic Minter,  Portsmouth University
Event Details


Monday 6 November 2023

Mining Magmas for Metals and Energy – a novel strategy for achieving Net Zero

Prof. Jon Blundy FRS,  Royal Society Research Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
Event Details


Monday 6 November 2023

The Rutland Ichthyosaur: Digging up a 'Dragon’

Dr Emma Nicholls,  Oxford University Museum of Natural History
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Monday 2 October 2023

Coastal Geology, Erosion and Flood Risk in an Era of Man-made Climate Change

Prof. Ken Pye,  Kenneth Pye Associates Ltd
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Monday 4 September 2023

A rolling stone gathers some gloss

Prof Rob Hosfield,  University of Reading
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Monday 7 August 2023

Evening Ramble: Rooks Nest LGS, California Country Park and the Iron Rich streams of south Wokingham

Elaine Butler,  RGS
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Monday 3 July 2023

Evening Ramble: The Wellington Estate.

Ailsa Davies,  RGS
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Monday 5 June 2023

Ice Age Lincolnshire

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
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Monday 15 May 2023

Challenger Revisited

Illuminating anthropogenic climate change with 150 years of ocean science

Dr Lyndsey Fox,  Natural History Museum
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Monday 15 May 2023

Hydrothermalism , the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai eruption and submarine caldera volcanism

Dr Izzy Yeo,  The National Oceanographic Centre, Southampton
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Monday 3 April 2023

Maps, mountains and madness – Charles Lapworth and the Highland Controversy

Prof. Paul Smith,  Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Event Details


Monday 6 March 2023

Presidential Address
Cryptic volcanism: unravelling hidden climate-environment interactions

Prof. Alison MacLeod ,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 6 February 2023

The Winchcombe Meteorite

Dr Ashley King,  The Natural History Museum, London
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Monday 9 January 2023

AGM and Members Evening


Event Details


Monday 5 December 2022

Mining Magmas for Metals and Energy – a novel strategy for achieving Net Zero

Prof. Jon Blundy FRS,  Royal Society Research Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
Event Details


Monday 5 December 2022

Members evening replacing postponed lecture.

In person and members only.


Event Details


Monday 7 November 2022

The Surface of Mars: A (Partial) Geological History of the Red Planet

Dr Joel M. Davis,  Birkbeck, University of London
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Monday 3 October 2022

Understanding how processes within the Earth’s mantle are manifest at the surface in landscapes and in the geological record

Dr Simon Stephenson ,  Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
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Monday 5 September 2022

When Scotland and England collided – the closing of the Iapetus ocean.

Lesley Dunlop,  Northumbria University
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Monday 1 August 2022

Evening Geological Ramble: A walk along the River Whitewater


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Monday 4 July 2022

Evening Geological Ramble: The Hurley Chalk Pit


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Monday 6 June 2022

The evolution of the nitrogen cycle during the Proterozoic:

constraints from the study of Indian carbonatites.

Dr. Sudeshna Basu,  Department of Earth Sciences, UCL
Event Details


Monday 9 May 2022

The old, the new and the revisited: tectonics, granites and resources in SW England

Prof. Robin Shail,  Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter
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Monday 4 April 2022

The Voyage of the Beagle

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
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Monday 7 March 2022

Presidential Address

Engineering geo-hazard challenges for construction upon the Hythe Formation in Kent.

Dr Clive Edmonds,  President, Reading Geological Society
Event Details


Monday 7 February 2022

13 degrees of warming

Understanding the Eocene Earth

Dr Tom Dunkley Jones,  University of Birmingham
Event Details


Monday 10 January 2022

AGM and Members Evening


Event Details


Monday 6 December 2021

UV-B radiation was the terrestrial killer at the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary

Prof John Marshall,  University of Southampton
Event Details


Monday 1 November 2021

Ireland's geology and landscape

A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Dr Michael J. Simms,  Senior Curator of Natural Sciences, National Museums NI
Event Details


Monday 4 October 2021

Cambrian Explosion

A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Dr Luke Parry,  St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
Event Details


Monday 6 September 2021

Evolution of flowering plants, especially in relation to Darwin's "abominable mystery"

A Zoom talk. Video available.

Prof Richard Buggs,  Queen Mary College, University of London
Event Details


Monday 2 August 2021

Evening Geological Ramble


Event Details


Monday 5 July 2021

Understanding Large Igneous Provinces and Volcanic Rifted Margins

from the North Atlantic Igneous Province and Beyond.
A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Dr Dougal A Jerram,  DougalEARTH Ltd.
Event Details


Monday 7 June 2021

Geological History of Africa

A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Dr Duncan Macgregor,  Macgeology
Event Details


Monday 10 May 2021

Sarsen stones

a geological conundrum reassessed.
A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 12 April 2021

Meteorites

A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Dr Queenie Hoi Shan Chan,  Royal Holloway, University of London
Event Details


Monday 8 March 2021

A geotraverse across Shetland

New insights into the Scottish Caledonides
A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Rob Strachan,  University of Portsmouth
Event Details


Monday 1 February 2021

Around the Firth of Forth

Geological contrasts and the human story
A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Angus Miller,  University of Edinburgh
Event Details


Monday 11 January 2021

AGM and Members Evening

A Zoom meeting. Members will be sent joining details.


Event Details


Monday 7 December 2020

Getting to the root of roots

A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Dr. Sandy Hetherington,  The University of Edinburgh
Event Details


Monday 2 November 2020

The Geology of Mercury

A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Prof David Rothery,  Open University
Event Details


Monday 5 October 2020

Sand!

A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Dr Ian Selby,  University of Plymouth
Event Details


Monday 7 September 2020

Presidential address
From millimetres to metres – case studies of damaging ground movement

A Zoom talk. Members will be sent joining details.

Dr Clive Edmonds,  President, Reading Geological Society
Event Details


Monday 3 August 2020

Evening Geological Ramble



Monday 6 July 2020

Campi Flegrei

Dr Christopher Kilburn,  UCL


Monday 1 June 2020

An evening of Sarsens, walk in Whiteknights Park, lecture on Sarsens and drink at Queens Head

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 11 May 2020

The Geology of Mercury

Prof David Rothery,  Open University
Event Details


Wednesday 22 April 2020

Wing interglacial deposits - the forgotten SSSI

Joint Meeting with TVRG & BGG

Tom Power
Event Details


Monday 6 April 2020

Getting to the root of roots

Dr Sandy Hetherington,  University of Oxford
Event Details


Monday 16 March 2020

Further Meetings CANCELLED

Covid19 Emergency - cancellation until further notice



Monday 2 March 2020

Geo-archaeology in the North Sea

Dr Andrew Bellamy,  Tarmac
Event Details


Monday 3 February 2020

The day after tomorrow – is the Gulf Stream set to shutdown?

Dr Jon Robson,  Reading University
Event Details


Monday 6 January 2020

AGM and Members Evening


Event Details


Monday 2 December 2019

Survivors

the animals and plants that time has left behind

Richard Fortey,  Natural History Museum
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Monday 4 November 2019

The Thames through time

Prof Danielle Schreve,  Royal Holloway University
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Monday 7 October 2019

Discovery of a Paleocene meteoritic ejecta blanket on the Isle of Skye

Dr Simon Drake & Dr Andy Beard ,  Birkbeck College
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Monday 2 September 2019

Presidential Address
Recently formed Sinkholes and Crown Holes since 2000 with reference to Berkshire

Dr Clive Edmonds
Event Details


Monday 5 August 2019

Rock and mineral identification – EARLIER TIME 6:30pm

Dr Hazel McGoff,  University of Reading
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Monday 1 July 2019

The bizarre Cretaceous limestone reservoirs that formed in lakes at the bottom of the South Atlantic

Dr Paul Wright,  PW Carbonate Geoscience
Event Details


Monday 3 June 2019

Evening Geological Ramble in Hazeley Heath

Hartley Wintney

Ailsa Davies,  RGS
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Monday 13 May 2019

Limestones, Microbes and Viruses

Role of bacteria and viruses in carbonate precipitation

Prof. Maurice Tucker,  University of Bristol
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Monday 1 April 2019

Did the Iceland Plume cause the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation?

Dr Stephen Jones,  University of Birmingham
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Monday 4 March 2019

The 'real' Value of Micropaleontology

Dr. Haydon Bailey,  Consultant Micropalaeontologist
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Monday 4 February 2019

Geological Storage of Radioactive Waste

Prof John Cosgrove,  Imperial College, London
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Monday 7 January 2019

AGM and Members Evening

Social event – member's presentation
Dr Kit Brownlee
Gleanings from my cabinet of curiosities


Event Details


Monday 3 December 2018

The Geology of London

Diana Clements,  Geologists' Association
Event Details


Monday 5 November 2018

Volcanoes: encounters through the ages

Prof David Pyle,  University of Oxford
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Monday 1 October 2018

The Last British Ice Sheet and its impact on the British Landscape

Dr Bethan Davies,  Royal Holloway College
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Monday 3 September 2018

Extra-ordinary Women Geologists: from Mary Anning to now

Dr Chris Duffin,  Natural History Museum
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Monday 6 August 2018

University of Reading Specimen Store.

Specimen identification.

Hazel McGoff
Event Details


Monday 2 July 2018

NOTE START TIME 19:15 for 19:30
The control of geology and climate change on 2 millennia of English viticulture

Prof Richard Selley,  Imperial College, London
Event Details


Monday 4 June 2018

Evening Geological Ramble

Lower Shiplake

Roger Hurley,  RGS
Event Details


Monday 14 May 2018

North Atlantic Igneous Province:
the East Greenland Geological Expedition, 1966

Prof David Bell,  University of Oxford
Event Details


Monday 9 April 2018

Control the Drainage: The Gospel Accorded to Sinkholes

Dr Tony Waltham,  Karst Geologist
Event Details


Monday 5 March 2018

Presidential Address
Fogo volcano, Cape Verde Islands

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 5 February 2018

Recovery of life from the Permian mass extinction

Prof Michael Benton,  University of Bristol
Event Details


Monday 8 January 2018

AGM and Members Evening

Social Evening, AGM and member's presentation: Roger Lloyd – GA Field meeting in China


Event Details


Monday 4 December 2017

The Cretaceous world: chalk seas in a Greenhouse world

Prof Andrew Gale,  University of Portsmouth
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Monday 6 November 2017

Shale Oil and Gas potential of the onshore UK

Prof Alastair Fraser,  Imperial College, London
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Monday 2 October 2017

Australia - SE Asia collision

The Wallace Line and Wallacea

Prof Robert Hall,  Royal Holloway College
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Monday 4 September 2017

Scotland's Lost Asteroid

Precambrian asteroid impact in NW Scotland

Dr Ken Amor,  University of Oxford
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Monday 7 August 2017

Evening Geological Ramble

Ramble in the Hambledon area near Henley

Alison Barraclough,  RGS
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Monday 3 July 2017

Measuring the temperature of formation of carbonate minerals: applications of ‘clumped isotopes’ to diagenesis and the hydrocarbon industry

Dr Cedric John,  Imperial College, London
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Saturday 3 June 2017

Geological Ramble in Burnham Beeches SSSI & NNR

Geology with a hydrology theme and a link to wildlife & habitats.

Dr Graham Hickman & Dr Helen Read
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Monday 8 May 2017

How to weigh a dinosaur

Dr Susannah Maidment,  University of Brighton
Event Details


Monday 3 April 2017

The Anthropocene

A New Geological Epoch Driven by Human Impacts

Dr Colin Summerhayes,  Scott Polar Research Institute
Event Details


Monday 6 March 2017

Presidential Address
Permafrost in the geological record

Professor Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 6 February 2017

Rising Sea Levels

Dr Phil Collins,  Brunel University
Event Details


Monday 9 January 2017

AGM and Members Evening

Social event - Presentation by Elaine Butler
The iron-rich streams of Barkham


Event Details


Monday 5 December 2016

Giant marine reptiles and whales during the Eocene-Oligocene cooling event

Dr Nick Longrich,  University of Bath
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Monday 7 November 2016

Impact Earth

A look at meteorite impacts through time

Dr Paul Olver,  FGS FRAS
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Monday 3 October 2016

Ground Investigation (GI) for HS2 Phase One

Jonathan Gammon,  Head of Ground Investigations, HS2 Ltd
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Monday 5 September 2016

Mineral Exploration in Africa

In particular the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kathryn Kavanagh,  BGS International
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Monday 1 August 2016

Evening Geological Ramble

Ramble in the Hambledon area near Henley

Alison Barraclough
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Monday 4 July 2016

Terra Infirma

What has salt tectonics ever done for us?

Prof. Christopher Jackson,  Imperial College London
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Monday 6 June 2016

Evening Geological Ramble

Ramble in the Curridge area

Dr Clive Edmonds
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Monday 9 May 2016

Carbonate platforms of the Early Cretaceous

'miner's canaries' for perturbations of the global carbon cycle

Dr Peter Skelton,  Open University
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Monday 4 April 2016

Earth's Climate Evolution

Dr Colin Summerhayes,  Scott Polar Research Institute
Event Details


Monday 7 March 2016

Presidential Address
Diversion of the River Kennet

Sulham Gap area geology

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 1 February 2016

Exploration using remote sensing in Greenland

Dr Philippa J Mason ,  Imperial College London
Event Details


Monday 4 January 2016

AGM and Members Evening

Social event – Presentation by David Riley
Geology of New Zealand


Event Details


Monday 7 December 2015

Virtual fieldwork using Google Earth

Exploring global tectonics from your armchair

Dr Ian Watkinson,  Royal Holloway, University of London
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Monday 2 November 2015

Geological evolution of the Himalaya

50 million years of mountain building and earthquakes

Prof Mike Searle,  Oxford University
Event Details


Monday 5 October 2015

The Auvergne

Rifting, stratovolcanoes, volcanic cones and more

Lesley Dunlop,  Northumbria University
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Monday 7 September 2015

Suffolk Pleistocene Story

Dr Peter Allen ,  Royal Holloway, University of London
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Monday 3 August 2015

Evening Geological Ramble

Building stones in Reading centre.

Lesley Dunlop,  University of Northumbria and Berkshire Geoconservation Group
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Monday 6 July 2015

Exceptionally preserved Cambrian fossils

Early animal life and world heritage in Yunnan

Prof Derek Siveter,  University of Oxford
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Monday 1 June 2015

Evening Geological Ramble

Terraces of the Thames Part 2

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
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Monday 11 May 2015

The London Underground Extension and Upgrade

Jonathan Gammon,  Consultant Geologist
Event Details


Monday 13 April 2015

Geological evolution of the North American Cordillera

Prof Douglas Robinson,  University of Bristol
Event Details


Monday 2 March 2015

Presidential Address
Geology of Old Father Thames

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 2 February 2015

Virtual Palaeontology

Dr Mark Sutton ,  Imperial College, London
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Monday 5 January 2015

AGM and Members Evening

Two short presentations by students George Aldis and Ben Print


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Monday 1 December 2014

Maximum global production of conventional oil and gas due to geological and cost constraints, and prospects for non-conventional production.

Dr Roger Bentley,  University of Reading
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Monday 3 November 2014

Building Mount Everest – The Inside Story

Professor Dave Waters,  University of Oxford
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Monday 6 October 2014

Tales of Plumes

The African Rift, Magmas and Mantle convection

Dr Nick Rogers,  The Open University
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Monday 1 September 2014

The tectonic history of the Alps

Dr Mike Streule,  Imperial College, London
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Monday 4 August 2014

Evening Geological Ramble

Dr. Bernard Skillerne de Bristow,  RGS
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Monday 7 July 2014

Journey through the centre of a mountain

Dr. Bernard Skillerne de Bristow,  RGS
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Monday 2 June 2014

Evening Geological Ramble

Terraces of the Thames, starting in Whitchurch Hill

Professor Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
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Monday 12 May 2014

The Quaternary of the British seabed

What do marine dredged aggregates tell us?

Dr Andrew Bellamy,  Marine Resources Manager for Lafarge Tarmac
Event Details


Monday 7 April 2014

Dissecting SE Asia

insights and errors while searching for the big picture

Dr Michael Ridd,  Consultant Geologist
Event Details


Monday 3 March 2014

Presidential Address
Geology of the Galapagos Islands

From Charles Darwin to the present

Professor Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 3 February 2014

Permo-Triassic mass extinctions, Russia

Searching for the cause and effect of the World’s greatest mass extinction in the Permo-Triassic of Russia

Dr Andrew Newell,  British Geological Survey
Event Details


Monday 6 January 2014

AGM and Members Evening

AGM and Members Evening
Social event - short lecture, food, wine and discussions


Event Details


Monday 2 December 2013

Darwin’s Lost World

The early history of life on Earth

Prof Martin Brasier,  University of Oxford
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Monday 4 November 2013

The Geology of Naxos

200 million years of Greek history

Dr Douglas Robinson,  University of Bristol
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Monday 7 October 2013

Seafloor Methane Hydrates: Svalbard Update

Dr Angus Best,  National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
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Monday 2 September 2013

Fossils of Solnhofen Limestones

Dr Chris Duffin,  Natural History Museum
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Monday 5 August 2013

Evening Geological Walk

Around Chazey Heath looking at the Thames ‘Ancient Channel’

Chris Fone,  RGS
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Monday 1 July 2013

Evening Geological Walk

An Evening Walk around Hurley

David Riley,  RGS
Event Details


Monday 3 June 2013

Permian and Triassic Mineralisation in the rocks of South-West England

Dr Richard Scrivener,  Consultant Geologist
Event Details


Monday 13 May 2013

The Planet in a Pebble

Dr Jan Zalasiewicz,  University of Leicester
Event Details


Monday 8 April 2013

Presidential Address
Geology of El Teide,Tenerife

Third highest volcano in the world

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 4 March 2013

Soft Ground Tunnelling through London – Crossrail

Mike Black, MSc,  Head of Geotechnics, Crossrail
Event Details


Monday 4 February 2013

The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Geochemical investigations of a 56 million year old global warming event

Dr Alex Dickson,  University of Oxford
Event Details


Monday 7 January 2013

AGM and Members Evening : Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons

Christine Moore


Monday 3 December 2012

Kola peninsula, NW Russia

Rare Devonian igneous intrusions in the pre-Cambrian basement – a tectonic puzzle and a mineral extravaganza.

Chris Fone
Event Details


Monday 5 November 2012

Meteorites

Dr Caroline Smith,  Curator of Meteorites, Natural History Museum


Monday 1 October 2012

The Birth of the Solar System

Dr Sarah Russell,  Natural History Museum
Event Details


Monday 3 September 2012

Sorby’s Legacy

Dr Bernard Skillerne de Bristowe
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Monday 6 August 2012

Evening Geological Ramble

Burnham Beeches

David Riley
Event Details


Monday 2 July 2012

Quaternary Sediments on the English Chalk

History of Land Use and Erosion

Prof Martin Bell,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 11 June 2012

Evening Geological Ramble

Caesar’s Camp Gravel, Aldershot

David Price
Event Details


Monday 14 May 2012

Unusual Microfossils

Dr Adrian Rundle,  Natural History Museum
Event Details


Monday 2 April 2012

Limestones

Their Evolution Through Time

Prof John Murray,  National Oceanography Centre Southampton
Event Details


Monday 5 March 2012

Presidential Address
The Geology of Global Warming

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading
Event Details


Monday 6 February 2012

Up the Down Escalator

Continental Collision and the Exhumation of Ultra-High Pressure Rocks

Dr Clare Warren,  The Open University
Event Details


Monday 9 January 2012

AGM and Members Evening : Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Chris Fone
Event Details


Monday 5 December 2011

The Evolving Kennet Valley

Climate change and neo-tectonics

Dr Philip Collins,  School of Engineering & Design Brunel University


Monday 7 November 2011

From asteroid to meteorite

The story of Almahata Sitta

Professor Hilary Downes,  Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Birkbeck College, Department of Earth Sciences UCL


Monday 3 October 2011

Why should the UK care about the Arctic?

A climate perspective

Dr Sheldon Bacon,  National Oceanography Centre, Southampton


Monday 5 September 2011

French Chalk

An explanation for the English White Cliffs

Professor Rory Mortimore,  University of Brighton


Monday 1 August 2011

Evening Ramble Stanford Dingley



Monday 4 July 2011

A plain man’s guide to the geology of the Reading region

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading


Monday 6 June 2011

A Walk on Sonning Common

Christine Hooper,  RGS
Event Details


Monday 9 May 2011

History of Cement

Peter del Strother
Event Details


Monday 4 April 2011

Field Road Project:

Reading 2000 to 2012 the highlights to date

Dr Clive Edmonds,  Peter Brett Associates


Monday 7 March 2011

Presidential Address
Volcanic Ash

Prof Peter Worsley,  University of Reading


Monday 7 February 2011

How Britain became an island

Catastrophic megafloods in the English Channel

Dr Sanjeev Gupta,  Imperial College, London