Help us to restore the St Andrews Geology Wall!

‘Right person to take campaign further’: Former Angus pupil launches St Andrews Geological Wall fundraiser

Hunor Deak, 24, who was born in Transylvania, Romania, has launched a new independent initiative to help raise funds and get the site restored, along with a new phone app.

Having emigrated to Scotland as a child, Hunor was inspired by geology teacher Paul Ewing while a pupil at Arbroath High School.

With his own collection of rocks and minerals, and inspired by visits to places like the Arbroath cliffs, Hunor studied geology at Edinburgh University from 2016-2020, graduating with a BSc geology degree.

He’s since set up his own geology society – the Angus and Dundee GeoSciences Society – which covers the city of Dundee and the county of Angus.

Scottish Geology Trust inspires Angus man to lay foundation for new group celebrating Tayside landscape

My journey within geology.

An Ode to the Geological Map

An Ode to the Geological Map,

A rainbow of colour runs across a map,

A weird concoction of symbols, plans and land,

With mighty faults criss-crossing with teeth,

A geological map is a mystery indeed.

Information gathered in the wind and rain,

Or under the blue sky, on wide sunny plains,

Dip direction and dip angle put together by compass,

With under the watchful eyes of characters of science!

The map of colour cracks open the Earth,

With Folds, Fossils, Lavas, Volcanoes on the wide turf,

All is a head scratcher like Peach and Horne,

Yet it all boils down to the ideas of James Hutton.

All students, all teachers, all men hold it in awe,

Opener of deep secrets of the mysteries of terrains,

As precious to men of geology, as a casket of ale,

To us a geological map is like uisge-beatha or fine champagne!

https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/hdeak/2019/11/21/a-lecture-on-gem-stones-their-extension-into-the-geological-sciences-and-an-ode-to-the-geological-map/

Hunor Deak

I am a BSc Geology graduate from the University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences. I studied various aspects of geosciences for 5 years. I worked for the University of Edinburgh as a Student Ambassador, Receptionist and Office Aide. I wrote geology based blogs to several sites of the School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh. I am an active member of a major UK political party and a UK wide Councillor association (Liberal Democrats). I am interested in mining geology, European history, Museum management, international relations, the history of propaganda, student recruitment and Scottish local politics.

https://hunortraiandeak.medium.com/

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hunor_Deak

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunor-de%C3%A1k-458503121/

Inspecting a Puzzle of an Ore under a Petrological Microscope

Inspecting a Puzzle of an Ore under a Petrological Microscope

There are many ways to travel around the world, Seeing many words, worlds, different weather. There are many ways to go back in time, You just need a telescope, look up in the sky, the starlight of today was emitted 1000s of years ago! But there is only one way to travel back in time, and travel the world as well, the Ores- Petrological microscope.

The Petrological microscope is a strange creature, Made of multiple stages, Pulls light sources, and a multitude of lenses, The stage can be rotated around, Scattering spectra in all directions. The microscope opens little worlds!

Slides of rock cut down to 0.003 mm, Put through the probing light of the eye, The rock sparkles in a multitude of colours. Little worlds trapped in stone.

The ores show their true beauty under the direct light as well, They are gold, creamy with milky, or a tad bit brown, Chalcopyrite veins cutting the earlier sphalerite, Hematite dances with Pyrite, While the Pentlandite looks on, Telling us the tales of past ore deposition.

The colours dance as the stage spins around, Garnets, stay ever so dark, With Olivines keeping their bright blue colour, Plagioclase feldspars stripe through the maze, As carbonites dance in a night club like haze, Way too many minerals to name!

Unicorns hide in the eye piece!

I am from Arbroath, the town of the Red Lichties. In some of my future posts instead of geology I will be promoting the place and talking about general life there. I am deeply passionate about Scottish history so I might post a couple of photos of my visits to different Castles and to the Highlands. I might do a couple of posts about ‘extracurricular’ geology where I walk through different Scottish geological areas and talk about the region (for instance I am quite fond of the area of Auchmithie).

In the second semester of my first year Undergraduate Geology degree I studied EMP2 and SWAP outside of the core course: Introduction to the Geological Record. EMP 2 was oriented towards mathematics while SWAP was oriented towards Environmental Science. Both subjects imparted useful ideas in the realm of GeoSciences ranging from mathematical modelling to the workings of microclimates around the world.

Why All students, from All years, from All subjects should attend Seminars

I know that I have not written much lately on this blog despite having a lot to write about. I have been on field trips to Andalusia in Spain, to Kinlochleven in Scotland and to Transylvania in Romania. Hopefully I can make some time for that as the geology at those places was very interesting from the Carboneras fault to the Ditrau intrusion series. Plus it would be a shame if I couldn’t showcase the great range of photos I took. Currently I am enrolled in a course called Frontiers in Research. A major section of the course is me attending seminars and writing blogs about them, communicating the science to the public and to the rest of the university. However before posting them, I decided that I shall write a reflective piece about the seminars themselves. I have been going to seminars for about 2 years and a half, so it is an important question to ask: Why to go to them in the first place? (And no, your answer shouldn’t be: ‘Cause I was told by my PT or Dr. Andrew Bell made me to.)

https://edingeoslife.com/2018/10/22/why-all-students-from-all-years-from-all-subjects-should-attend-seminars/

My University Courses Part 3: Politics in a changing World: An Introduction for non-specialists

In first year I took this politics course as my outside subject. It taught me why I shouldn’t take any outside subjects. Don’t get me wrong the course itself was educational. It informed me of important world issues. However it had no relevance to my degree whatsoever. I realized that when I take a third course I should chose the ones that cover the same or similar topics as my mandatory courses. Geology is geology, I shouldn’t get too creative. So lesson learnt there.

https://edingeoslife.com/2017/04/21/my-university-courses-part-3-politics-in-a-changing-world-an-introduction-for-non-specialists/#more-4071

What do I do as a Student Ambassador?

I am a Student Ambassador with the University of Edinburgh. My job is to give tours of the university to visitors, prospective students and to anybody who is interested in the university. I mostly work for the department of Student Recruitment and Admissions and for Edinburgh Global, but I can be contracted by any department of the university. I am expected to help out on Open Days, School Visits, Alumni Events, teacher training sessions and on visits from International Delegations of other Universities.

On Open Days I give out leaflets, show people around the campus and just make them feel in general comfortable around the university.

In some cases I go on Schools visits either with my department of the School of Geosciences or the general student recruitment team.

https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/hdeak/2020/02/09/my-job-as-a-student-ambassador/

Miki Nakajima is a postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science. In her talk she laid out her work on trying to understand the origins of the Earth-Moon system.

Understanding the chemical makeup of the Moon is important for terrestrial science as the two systems are so interlinked. It would help us to gain a better understanding of tidal interaction between the Earth and the Moon. The data would clean up our chronological understanding of the formation of the Earth.

Originally, I didn’t consider this blog to fit with the wider scheme of Earth sciences. The Hutton Club talk mostly focused on historic conservation, archaeology and how tourism is managed in Scotland. However, the more I listened as the hour passed by I realised, the technologies and software used, also occur in geosciences. HES contributes a lot of data towards site conservation, including areas where coastal erosion is threatening a variety of Neolithic villages. The data from their coast monitoring sites allows other researchers to study coastal erosion on the west coast of Scotland and since the data contains full 3D scans, a long term understanding can be built of how the coast changes and whether climate change has an effect on the speed of erosion.

The School of GeoSciences hosts a wide range of seminar series which helps the students learn more about their chosen topics, helps researchers network and the events are open to members of the public. The seminars cover a wide range of topics from human geography to the volcanoes on Venus.

The school runs 3 major seminar series: Global Change, Earth and Planetary Science and the Hutton Club (with Edinburgh Earth Observatory-AGI Scotland).

Global Change usually takes place at the Crew Building on a Wednesday, being hosted by mostly ecologists and environmental scientists. It focuses on subjects closely connected to the biosphere of the Earth and how it interacts with the other spheres (such as the cryosphere or the atmosphere). Most of the lectures focus on short term change, change that can be observed within human lifetimes.

Earth and Planetary Science is presented by geologists and geophysicists at the Grant Institute, usually on Thursdays. However, the EPS invites guest organisations for talks such as the Edinburgh Geological Society. EPS focuses on geology, hard physical sciences and unlike the other two it tackles topics connected to other planets within and outside of the Solar System. The seminars are dedicated to the mysteries of the Earth.

Hutton Club leans more towards full geography and the humanities, the talks take place at Drummond Street in the Old Library. While EPS and GC discuss subjects such as Climate Change and the mining industry, they shy away from the moral questions. It is rare to see those seminars consider ethical behaviour. The Hutton Club stands in complete contrast to the EPS seminar. It is a much more open minded institution, leaning towards subjects that are not deeply entrenched in geosciences. Lot of guests dare to ask the hard questions and rarely do arm waving by declaring an idea a “controversial topic”. Hutton Club hosts a lot of talks where the human application of geosciences is presented. For instance, GIS lectures move away from the technicalities of the software and explore how local communities are kept safe from natural hazards.

Dr Annique Van Der Boon is a respected scientist and content creator who has a wide European research portfolio as she worked at various EU institutions, been on multiple field excursions around Europe and studied at the University of Utrecht. She currently works at the Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool.