Mineralogy & Geology

I'm interested in many aspects of mineralogy and geology, and the techniques used in their investigation (e.g. microscopy) but particularly crystallography, ores of non-ferrous metals, borate minerals, gemstones, rock-forming minerals, and topographical mineralogy. Also in petrology (mainly igneous & metamorphic, esp. pegmatites, alkaline and ultramafic rocks), tectonics & volcanicity. (The Moon & Mars also fascinate me, but I have to curtail this list somewhere!)

I had many years of professional experience in several of the above fields:

First as a geologist, petrologist, and mineralogist with the British Geological Survey from 1973 to 1990, (in The Geological Museum at South Kensington from 1973 to 1984), where my research interests included the geology and mineralogy of the Lake District, the St Kilda intrusive centre (Outer Hebrides), The Lizard Complex, the Li-mica granites of St Austell and Tregonning-Godolphin in Cornwall, U mineralisation, radioactive waste disposal, and gemstones. (I studied for my FGA whilst working at The Geological Museum.)

I subsequently worked as mineralogist for the European division of Rio Tinto Borax (1990 - 2000), mainly working in exploration and mining support, production quality control, mineral processing trials, and commercial research projects. (e.g. concerning applications of borate minerals in the glass & ceramics industries.)

My work with BGS & Rio Tinto involved a great variety of tasks, from geological mapping in remote mountain terrain to laboratory management, through collecting samples at many localities including working mine, quarry and borehole sites, and identifying and characterising a wide range of rocks and minerals in laboratories, using many techniques including optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy and the electron microprobe.

I am now retired, after years of being lucky enough to be paid to do some things which would have cost me a fortune to do as a hobby. But ironically, of course that meant that my own mineral collection took a back seat for most of that time, and now that I have the time to pursue my personal mineralogical interests, I no longer have access to all those high-tech laboratory facilities! So now I am making more use of the traditional techniques such as optical mineralogy (including optical absorption spectroscopy and attempts to set up a spindle stage), flame tests, SG determinations and morphological crystallography, to help to identify my specimens! (In between the astronomy, birdwatching, decorating, family chauferring duties, gardening, hillwalking, photography, reading, sailing, web browsing & blogging, etc, that is!)

Personal Background

I spent almost 10 years of my childhood living in Kenya (from 4 to 14 y.o.), and as far back as I can remember, I enjoyed going out into remote, wild country, and that still is part of what attracts me to the moors and mountains, apart from their geological interest (See my "Top Image"). Although the first attraction of the African wilderness was of course the wildlife, the scenery came a close second, and in East Africa, what scenery! High mountains, including some of the world's largest volcanoes - Mts. Kenya, Kilimanjaro, Elgon, and Meru, Ngorongoro Crater, and The Great Rift Valley with it's huge fault scarps, active volcanoes, hot springs, fumaroles and soda lakes. Then out on the savannah, amongst the baobab trees, inselbergs of ancient granite looking like huge cottage loaves dotted over the landscape, and road cuttings sparkling with huge plates of mica in the pre-Cambrian pegmatites. For anyone interested in science that was a fertile nursery, and I am sure that being raised in that environment was a primary factor in sparking my interest in geology.

And as for sailing! I have been known to turn down a place on a mineralogical field trip because I was taking up an opportunity to go offshore yacht racing - such difficult decisions and sacrifices one has to make! I can still remember my first trip out in a boat under sail; although I didn't take up sailing myself until much later, I know that was the day the bug bit. I was about 10, and was taken out to go snorkelling on the barrier reef north of Mombasa in a lateen-rigged hollow-log outrigger sailing canoe (I can't think of a more concise description!) Yes, Kenya has a barrier coral reef; not as "Great" in extent, as far offshore, or as famous as the Australian one, but similar in character on a smaller scale (and it serves to keep the sharks away from most of the beaches!) To get out to it, one crosses a shallow lagoon of air-clear warm water inshore, with white, soft, coral sand, and coral rock-pools full of brilliantly coloured tropical fish, a multitude of molluscs, and many other animals. At the reef itself, even on a relatively "calm" day, there is usually a roar of surf as the Indian Ocean swell steepens then breaks to grind away at the offshore edge, so in our tiny boat, we had to get out to the reef and back in the calm of low tide, before the waves came back into the lagoon.

On one of my later visits, we were fortunate enough to get out there on a truly calm day, and were able to go snorkelling out over the reef, to the open ocean beyond. What was so staggering, and so memorable that the sensation is still with me almost 50 years later, was the totally unexpected contrast between what I had seen before, inshore of the reef, and what I found outside it. The water was just as clear as in the lagoon, and as I crossed the outer edge of the reef, instead of a feeling of safely hovvering a few metres above coral and white sand, I was able to look down the steep coral face at yet more fish, corals, etc and found myself above water so deep that even with some of the best underwater visibility in the world, I couldn't see the bottom; just dark blue fading away to black. I didn't stay out there long, because apart from what I can only describe as "underwater vertigo", I had seen a large shadow moving far below me, and I was not too keen on finding out what was swimming down there in those dark blue depths, or how hungry it was. Later, though (possibly in a geography class, but I can't remember exactly where) I wondered how it was that a shallow shelf of coral extended roughly horizontally for over a mile offshore, but then abruptly plunged away so steeply into the ocean depths, and got my first clues as to the concept of a continental margin - yet another turn of the "Geological Worm".

After returning to England, I was fortunate to be taught geography by a teacher who was very interested in geology, to the extent that he took our physical geography class on field trips, not just to study river valleys or chalk scarps, but to look at coastal sections of the Jurassic, and to chalk pits where we could collect fossils. Our clasroom discussions included concepts such as continental drift, of which he was strong advocate well before "Plate Tectonics" was put forward as an acceptable explanation. That sort of encouragement led on to me taking geology as one of my A-level subjects, and becoming determined to pursue a geological career.

Societies

[Gemmological Association of Great Britain] (FGA qualified former fellow - now lapsed because I cannot justify paying out the ever increasing fees just to maintain my Fellowship status)
Mineralogical Society, GB [Fellow]
Royal Horticultural Society
Royal Society For The Protection of Birds
Royal Yachting Association
Sussex Mineral and Lapidary Society

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I know this is perhaps more of a biography/CV than a "Homepage", but at least it gives anyone who's interested a bit of background to my experience and current interests, including mineralogy and geology.

Pete N.