In 2001 the Dorset and east Devon Coast was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a place of outstanding universal value on the basis of its geological succession, coastal processes and landforms and its place in the history of the development of geology (especially stratigraphy and palaeontology). Extending from Orcombe Point in the west to Studland in the east, this World Heritage Site's 85 miles of coastline contains a record of 185 million years of Earth history. At the time of the proposal being submitted to UNESCO there were discussions about whether the planned site could be extended westwards to Torquay, covering the Permian and the Devonian rocks of Teignmouth, Dawlish and Torquay or eastwards to include the Isle of Wight. For various reasons (mostly non-geological) it was decided not to expand the proposed site further, although the Isle of Wight would have been the natural extension of the site, including more of the Cretaceous succession as well as the marine Cenozoic succession of the Hampshire Basin. This excursion is, in reality, looking at what the expanded site would have included.

Amazingly, 18 years after the commercialization of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), less than 4000 systems have been installed worldwide. If you compare this number with another rapid multielement technique, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), first commercialized in 1974, the difference is quite significant. In 1992, 18 years after ICP-OES was introduced, more than 9000 units had been sold, and if you compare it with the same time period that ICP-MS has been available, the difference is even more dramatic.

Geology as a science has a fascinating and controversial history. Kieran D. O’Hara’s book provides a brief and accessible account of
the major events in the history of geology over the last 200 years – from early theories of Earth’s structure during the Reformation, through major controversies over the age of the Earth during the Industrial Revolution, to the more recent twentieth-century development of plate tectonic theory, and on to current ideas concerning the Anthropocene.

In August 1882, the Morgan brothers recognised a mineral deposit, now known as the Mount Morgan Gold-Copper Deposit. The final production figures for the mine were 250 tonnes of gold and 360,000 tonnes of copper from 50 million tonnes of ore, making the average grades 4.99g/t gold and 0.72% copper.