list names key geological sites of international scientific relevance that have made a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history.

The UK sites are:

• Siccar Point, Scotland
• Giant Causeway and Causeway Coast, Northern Ireland
• Moine Thrust, Scotland
• Ynys Llanddwyn Mélange, Wales

The selections have been made from right across the world and include other well-known sites such as the Grand Canyon (USA), Sugar Loaf Mountain (Brazil) and Mount Everest (Nepal). Whilst many have helped to develop the science of geology, others are the world best examples of geological features and processes.

The list was drawn up by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), one of the largest international geoscience organisations in the world, together with UNESCO.  

The identification of the top 100 sites was part of a project that involved more than 200 specialists from almost 40 nations and ten international organisations.

There were a number of sites from across the UK put forward as part of the list, with nominations coordinated by representatives from BGS and the environment agencies from the four regions of the UK.

Dr Kirstin Lemon of the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland (GSNI) was among the panel of international experts to evaluate more than 181 nominated sites.

It fantastic that the international geoscience community has given visibility to these sites, which recognises their importance for the development of geological science.

These sites are some of the world best demonstrations of geological features and processes and contribute to our understanding of the Earth formation through time. Now they are officially recognised as holding the highest scientific value.

Dr Kirstin Lemon, GSNI.

The full list of global sites will be revealed at a special IUGS event in Spain this week.

Siccar Point

Siccar Point, off the coast near Eyemouth, Scotland, is a world-famous place of geological interest. Its historical importance was established in 1788 by James Hutton, when he discovered the near-vertical layers of sedimentary rock, which enabled him to describe deposition, folding and erosion, some of Earth most fundamental geological processes that form the landscapes we know today. Hutton account, according to Scottish Geology, describes Siccar Point as ‘looking so far back into the abyss of time’.

Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast

The Giant Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site was selected primarily for its role in the development of geology as a science, representing a key site in proving the origin of volcanic rocks during the 18th century. It was nominated jointly by GSNI, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and Trinity College Dublin due to its importance.

Moine Thrust

The Moine Thrust is the main geological structure in the North West Highlands, made up of a sequence of Precambrian metasedimentary rocks. Known informally as ‘the Moine’, it has attracted geologists from all over the world for well over a hundred years. The site is the focus of many influential studies, all helping to advance understanding of structural geology and thrust tectonics. It was here in the early 1880s that Charles Lapworth demonstrated that the sequence of rocks was not a simple stratigraphic order, but was repeated by folds and faults.

Ynys Llanddwyn Mélange

The Ynys Llanddwyn Mélange is part of Newborough National Nature Reserve and Forest and located within the GeoMon UNESCO Global Geopark. ‘Mélange’ is the name given to the chaotic body of mixed rocks at this location including limestone, cherts and pillow lavas . It was here that the term was first used, over 200 years ago, and debates as to how mélanges form are still ongoing to this day. 

Mary Anning is known as one of the most celebrated fossil hunters in the UK. Her pioneering work was undertaken around the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, where she found, amongst many others, ichthyosaur, pterosaur and plesiosaur fossils. Here, BGS Conservator, Simon Harris, talks us through a letter from Anning, sent in 1822, and what this letter can tell us about her life and work at the time.

Transcript

Dear Madam

I cannot give you a correct account of the fossills found in the neighbourhood Lyme has I dont know any thing of shells, but I will write down the names of all those fossils that I can reccolect.

Blue Lias, Ichthyosarus vulgaris, Icthyosarus platydon Tenuirostis, Plesiosarus, dorsal fins resembling the radie of Balistis, dapedium politum, fragments of three other distinct species of fish, Crustacions insects, vegetable impressions, pentacrenite, a variety of Amonites, Natulis, Belemnites, palates of fish Wood, and almost every kind of shell, Iron pyrites, barytes, Calcarious spars, Cupids wings, green sand, Lobsters, cray fish, crabs, teeth, fern Echinets, wood, a variety of fossil shells, gupsum selenite Chalk, teeth, palates, vertebral colums of pentacrenite four kinds of Echinetes, a greate variety of shells madrepore’s, Alceoniums,Terabratulae Pectens

Alluvium, tusks of the mammoth, teeth of the Rehinocerus, teeth of a species of Bullock, flints Chalcedony agates, jaspers, wood echinetes, alceonium a variety of shells Amonites,

I have included all the fossils found between Charmouth, and Axmouth,

I am very sorry to hear your journey to Exeter, has been of so little service to you, I fear you will not be better till the spring, as I cannot think this usesonable weather is good for invalids, I am greatly obliged to you for your kind present, and also for your kind intentions of speaking to your doctor but I was too ill to undertake the journey, it seems an age since I had the pleasure of seeing you, I fear you will not be able to reade this horrid scrall, I can scarcely hold any pen everything seems an exertion

I remain dear madam your
obliged servant
Mary Anning

Mary Anning
Collector of Fossils
Lyme Regis

The subscription was written by Mrs Robt. Kennaway of Charmouth Dorsetshire, to whom this letter was addresses in the year 1822.- and who herself is a scientific geologist, and collector of fossils.
J.H.S.

 

 

This is a fascinating letter. Although we do not have the letter which prompted this response, it clearly answers the question which thousands of visitors to the Jurassic Coast ask to this very day, namely: ‘What fossils can I find here?’

Even in her early twenties, Mary Anning demonstrates in her letter a thorough knowledge of the rocks between Axmouth and Charmouth, around a 10 mile stretch of coast with Lyme Regis at its centre, which probably represents the furthest she would have been able to walk in a day, not having access to any other form of transport.

In the letter, she correctly and concisely lists fossils that would be familiar to collectors today:

• the three most common species of ichthyosaur found, Ichthyosaurus vulgaris (now called I. communis), I. platyodon, and I. tenuirostris
• the Plesiosaurus, which was at that point still very new to science — in 1823 Anning would discover a spectacular complete specimen, which would enable the full description of Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus to be completed by William Conybeare
• the existence of at least four different kinds of fish
• much of the invertebrate fauna, including the ever-present ammonites, belemnites and crinoids (‘pentacrenite’, known today as Pentacrinus)
• the presence of wood and vegetable impressions (probably leaf impressions, which are found occasionally), which indicate that there was land not very far away from where the fossils were being formed

She is also aware that certain fossils are found in certain rocks, and not in others, demonstrating an underlying knowledge of the local stratigraphy.

Anning uses scientific terms wherever possible and, where not, tries to draw on the similarities with modern species with which she is familiar through her limited access to books and scientific papers, which we know she sometimes was able to borrow and would labouriously copy out by hand. For example ‘dorsal fins resembling the radie of the Balistis’ may refer to the modern Balistes, a triggerfish. The fossils themselves may be the rarely found spines of cartilaginous shark species; later she would discover remains in the rocks near Lyme Regis that would permit a fuller description of these fossils.

We see relatively few uses of folklore terminology for fossils despite the fact that, at this time, use of these descriptions to explain the strange anomalies found in the rocks would have been commonplace. Think, for example, of the terms nakestone‘ to describe ammonites, ea dragons‘ for marine reptiles, ‘Cupid’s wings’, possibly referring to some species of bivalve or brachiopod shell, or ’fairy loaves‘ for sea urchins. This demonstrates that Anning had built an impressive scientific understanding of her finds, even without access to the level of formal education held by the men of science with whom she would correspond.

There are very few notable omissions from Anning list, but one to mention is of ’bezoar stones‘ or as we now call them, coprolites (fossil faeces). We know that it wasn’t until 1824 that Anning began to make the connection between these unusually shaped stones and the animals that made them, although it is probable that she had encountered them many years before.

This letter still stands as a remarkably complete account of fossils that are found around Lyme Regis to this very day. If you were to ask a local collector the same question today, you would receive an answer that was not very much different! It shows us that Mary Anning was an extremely skilled and knowledgeable fossil collector, who made every effort to learn as much about the things she was collecting as she possibly could.

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