A drive southwards from Bilbao through the most easterly part of the Cordillera Cantabrica took us from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary (Miocene) of the Ebro Valley and to the charming little town of La Guardia. (It was difficult to locate on the map being shown under its Basque name, Biasteri). Set on a hill, with fine views over the vineyards of the Rioja Alavesa towards the impressive limestone cliffs of the Sierra de Cantabria to the north, this old walled town, dating from the 10^th century, has been well preserved. The narrow streets within the walls retain the mediaeval layout; many of the buildings, including the 16^th century Ayunstamiento (Town Hall) and the two churches, are very attractive, being built of limestone somewhat similar in colour to that of the Cotswolds. The church of Santa Maria has a magnificent façade, dating from the end of the 14^th century, which is multi-coloured on its interior side, and an altar-piece of fine quality.

After lunch, and a visit to the small, but excellent museum, we visited two bodegas, tasting one Rioja at the first and three at the second. Unfortunately, the guide at the first spoke Spanish and English, both rapidly, while at the second the tour was led by a Spanish-speaking guide only; I, for one, found it difficult to follow. The vineyards of the Rioja Alavesa cover some 7000 hectares on the north side of the river Ebro, mostly on limestone soils. Ninety percent of the wine produced here is red, half for export, mostly to the UK. The main grape is the high-yielding Tempranillo to which some (c. 10%) Garnacha is added to increase acididty. The wine is blended and remains 13-14 months in the bottle. There seems to be a preference for French oak (pedunculate oak, Quercus robur, our English oak) over American oak which is only a third of the price; the former has to be cleft, the latter can be sawn. They also seem to prefer natural cork from Portugal and the Spanish province of Extremadura, i.e. both from the bark of the cork oak Quercus suber, to the new plastic ones.

Day 5 dawned 'grey and drizzly' as we moved quickly eastwards along the A8 motorway towards San Sebastian. Our destination was Zumaia, on the coast, about 70 km from Bilbao.

We cut down quickly to our first beach past the edge of the small town. The intermittent rain made the steeply dipping rock strata hard to negotiate and the rhythmic grey sandy Maastrichian turbidites and their intervening thin red marls seemed even greyer on first sighting.

But quickly our visit took on a new tempo - the weather brightened and, around a low headland, we slipped and slithered towards the famous K - T Boundary. It was clearly exposed and was marked by a dark grey layer (which is the iridium-enriched horizon) closely followed by a thin white secondary calcite horizon. Little here in this quiet comer of Northern Spain to suggest the global catastrophe it represents. Andy said that the final Maastrichtian ammonite Pachydiscus terminus has been found within one metre of the boundary. The boundary itself showed signs of Zoophycus borings indicating that it represents a hiatus in the rhythmic sedimentation of the Maastrichtian. This is borne out by the lowest nanoplankton zone of the Tertiary also being absent at this point. The succeeding, near-vertical pinkish limestones of the Danian were once included in the Cretaceous and only within the last 20 years have been recognised as post-Chixulub, post-dinosaur and post-ammonite! Just a thought at this key site as we left - shouldn't this be a World Heritage Site to rival Gubbio in Umbria?

We continued along into the next bay and higher into the Tertiary. Near-vertical grey sandstones and thin grey marls (Thanetian age) crowded with wonderful convulutions of trace fossils and sole structures greeted our eyes. Flute casts, prod marks, slumped beds and channelling abounded giving a clear message as to the 'way-up' of the strata. A strange ‘backbone-shaped’ trace fossil (with several slipped discs!) mystified all of us including Andy while superb Scolecia traces were abundant on many bedding planes. I personally took a whole batch of slides at this point as they were the best I had ever seen - I even managed to bring one specimen home in a beach pebble!

The weather continued to improve as we all retreated to various cafes and bars in downtown Zumaia for some welcome lunchtime refreshments. In the afternoon we travelled back westwards along the coast road through Ondarroa and Lekeitio, through groves of Mediterranean pines and eucalyptus, with tantalising glimpses of the sea as the road clung to the steep Atlantic cliffs.

At Ereno, large disused quarries had extracted pink Urgonian (Cretaceous -Aptian) limestones as valuable building stone. The quarries showed clear evidence of sequential drill holes and wire-cut surfaces and the characteristic 80 degree dip towards the north. Deep solution hollows, crowded with masses of orange-brown limonite, invaded the pink limestones while within the cut faces multiple horizons of rudists in life position could be clearly identified. Each bank of rudists, some preserved in characteristic black calcite, was truncated by a clear erosional horizon. One recent theory suggests that at this time global warming was controlling these cycles of 'rudist blooms'. Increased carbon dioxide into the atmosphere caused a phase of warming which triggered sea level rise. Rudist reefs began to thrive in the new, shallow, warm marine environments and also began to extract carbon dioxide to construct their reefal structures. The temperature then cooled and the sea level dropped allowing the erosion of the rudist colonies. The periods of increased carbon dioxide into the atmosphere could have been closely associated with enhanced volcanic activity at mid-ocean ridges.

We left a now peaceful Ereno to head back to Bilbao through the modern Guernica (made famous by Picasso’s tragic Civil War painting) and its environmentally disastrous wood-pulp factories. We had all enjoyed another excellent day where the superb exposures in Northern Spain had given us key insights into more global issues. Many thanks Andy for taking us to these special places.

On the last field day of our week to Northern Spain we visited two coastal exposures just east of Santander.

Our first location, called Playa de Galizano, consisted of a small sandy, in places rock strewn, halfmoon bay surrounded by ca. 30m high cliffs. The eastern side of these were composed of L. Cretaceous shallow marine sandstone, mainly thin bedded with some cross stratification, showing a series of water channels. In places the bedding was interrupted by coarse, horizontal iron rich layers. Some flat boulders showed box structures with iron festooning, evidence of deposition in a shallow narrow channel. Further along the exposure towards the sea the rocks contained micaceous layers and trace fossils resembling cuneate leaves. These were thought to be traces left by mud surface feeders, further indication of a very shallow depositional environment.

On the western side of the bay an erosive contact between the sandstone, seen opposite, and the younger Cenomanian limestone above, was exposed in a ca. two meter section, representing a rise in sea level. The sandstone contained, in addition to iron rich minerals as opposite, fragmented oysters. Limestone boulders, brown in colour, contained conglomerates of orbitoids (giant planktonic foraminifera) and some showed interesting honeycombe weathering. The structure of the bay is complicated in that there appears to be a concealed fault parallel to the sides of the bay uplifting the sandstone opposite.

Our second and final location was an adjacent bay to the east, the Playa de Langre, similar in size to Galizano. Here the rocks were formed from L. Cretaceous limestones and marls, grey in colour with some iron staining. These showed a break in succession in that the marls below were separated form the limestone above by an unconformity representing a massive facies change to deep shelf conditions, probably due to ocean ridge activity and melting of ice in the mid Cenomanian. Typically, the limestone here contained trace fossils only, in particular a spectacular network of Thalassinoides, with individual traces up to 15cm across. In various places the rhythmic bedding of the limestone was disturbed by faulting, associated with the development of the north-east Iberian continental margin and the positioning of the Iberian plate during the U. Cretaceous and L. Tertiary.

Photographs

A wet Sunday afternoon in September may not seem like the perfect time to visit one of the largest cemeteries in Western Europe, but 22 souls appeared to think it was. This was a joint trip between London Branch and the Brookwood Cemetery Society to look at the rocks and other interesting materials used in the headstones and other memorials to be found in the Cemetery.

Brookwood Cemetery has long held a fascination for me, being close by Brookwood station from where I commuted to London for a few years. Indeed the railway was integral to the development of the Cemetery by the London Necropolis Company, as John Clarke, the Chairman of the Cemetery Society, was keen to point out to us. John has made a special study of the operation of the railway spur within the Cemetery grounds, the two private stations and the daily funeral trains which came down the Company’s depot at Waterloo.

Although the Cemetery was originally developed as “London overspill”, it is still active today and is one of the major Muslim burial grounds in the UK.

On our visit we started in the Anglican section of the Cemetery. Brookwood is divided into two parts by the aptly named road, Cemetery Pales—the section nearest the railway being the Nonconformist section.

Brian started off very gently with an explanation of the rock cycle and the difference between sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks and the processes that produced them. He was able to show a number of examples within a very small area.

Sue Hay took us over the road, past the former mason’s yard where monuments were made, into the Nonconformist section. Here she was able to show us several examples of fine igneous and metamorphic stone. Larvikite, the beautiful blue syenite only found in Norway, was particularly well represented. We also saw my particular favourite, a very striking memorial in a red igneous rock which showed signs of incipient re-melting.

Brian led us back along the line of the former Cemetery railway to the Anglican section to look at some monuments of note. These included the memorial to Sir Charles Lyell and other members of his family. Sir Charles has been called the “Father of Modern British Geology”. We also found a naturalist’s grave in the shape of a longbarrow complete with a monolith of Serpentinite brought all the way from the Lizard. The final monument was of another Victorian geologist, whose cross was inscribed with what looked like the logo of the OUGS!

Many thanks to Brian & Sue for leading this trip at short notice, due to Diana Smith’s illness.

If you would like to know more about Brookwood Cemetery, we hope to run another trip next year. In the meantime, the Cemetery Society runs guided walks on the 1st Sunday of each month—see their website at www.surreyweb.net/bcs. Pictures of this trip are available on the LOUGS website.

Branch members: Ian Baker, Laurie Baker, Paul Clasby, Brian Clayfield, Kate Dadd, Joan Densham, Jeffrey Eccleston, Peter Franklin, Sue Hay, Brian Harvey, Gillian Hetherington, David Hooper, David Hopwood, Keith Hotchkiss, Bob Morley, Paul Olver, Susan Olver, Jenny Parry, Christa Peeling, Jim Pester, Mary Reidy, Graham Taylor, John Thompson, Wilf Walker, Kevin Walmsley, Margaret Wenban, Lindsay Wheeler. Guests: Dee Edwards, Dave Williams.

The Branch Organiser, Polly Rhodes took the Chair and welcomed all present..

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE : Nick Baker, Dick Blackmore, Helen Chandler, George Gibbons, Ros Gourgey, Gail Kennedy, Peta McInerney, Diana Smith, Michael Stocker, Alex Toohey, Barbara Wood, Chris Wright.

The minutes had been distributed in the December edition of the London Platform. No comments had been received or were made at the meeting.

Acceptance of the Minutes was proposed by Kate Dadd and seconded by Peter Franklin and were accepted by the meeting nem con.

No matters were raised.

Polly read her report for the year.

This year has again been one of variety. Unfortunately the beginning of the year saw a very unusual occurrence , literally at the last minute we were let down by our speaker so the year began with a social!! Apart from this slight hiccough, the rest of the year ran smoothly. We had some 26 events, including all the conservation work, but not including manning the stand at Reading for the six weeks of S103 Summer School. Generally we have had better turnouts for the events this year.

There were ten talks, ranging from the “Geology of Bottled Water” (John Mather) to “ Minerals” (Mike Henty) and “Messengers from Mars” (Monica Grady). Again we are indebted to the speakers who give up their time for us, notwithstanding if there are low attendances.

Once again we would like to thank Iain and his faithful band of helpers for the Conservation work which has been done over four visits this year. Grants have now been procured to make this a more permanent feature with sign boards.

There have been five single day events ( including Brian Harvey’s excellent Geowalks, the Clandon - Albury traverse with Iain Fletcher and a visit to the Dinosaur footprints of Fairlight Cove with David Scarboro) and three weekend events ( to Builth Wells with Peter Sheldon, The Lake District with Barbara Cumbers and Lincoln with Paul Olver) and we have been lucky with the weather.

Amongst all this activity there were a couple of items which were tried for the first time and which were deemed to have been extremely successful. The first was the changing of the day, time and venue of the AGM to being held at The Royal School of Mines on a Saturday afternoon. This was followed by a talk by our President, Peter Sheldon and then followed by dinner at the Pasta Sugo. Later on in February it was decided to take at least one monthly meeting a year out of London and we were lucky enough to be able to use Royal Holloway, Egham as a venue, having had a Geowalk in the afternoon. Because of the success of both these ventures, it was decided to repeat the experience for 2000.

This year also saw the introduction by the OU of the new Geology course, S260. It has had some really good reviews and has even won the Europrix ’99 competition held in Finland recently for the best CD/multimedia in the Knowledge and Discovery category and this was out of a field of 118 entrants from all over Europe. As such we had to rethink the organisation and content of the annual Revision Day in October. We met for discussion in September and then another highly successful Revision Day was held at Egham for around 50 students in spite of all the worrying beforehand! Thanks again to the usual band of tutors and Committee members.

The stand at the GA Reunion was organised by Kay Walmsley and she and her helpers are to be congratulated on the high standard of the display. A pleasing aspect at the Reunion was the interest taken in our society judged by the number of membership forms taken.

The sign of a healthy society is a dynamic committee and this is as true of the local branches as it is of the National Committee. After the last AGM it was decided to co-opt some members onto the Committee and we were lucky enough to enlist three new volunteers. Dawn Tilley ( who has been stuffing your envelopes for the last couple of years), Paul Hetherington and Chris Sadler joined us in February and have been making their presence felt since then . As some of you are aware, we now have our own web page. This is due to the efforts of Paul, who is a self confessed non-geologist although husband of a committed geologist, Gill. This is by no means a bad thing because he is giving us another perspective.

There are some forthcoming changes to the Committee and it is sad to see some long serving members leave. Kay Walmsley, who has been on the Branch Committee as Treasurer since 1995, came onto the Committee at very short notice when our previous Died suddenly. She was flung in at the deep end and in spite of everything that has been thrown at her (not literally!) has coped with the exceedingly difficult task in front of her with diligence and good humour. She certainly kept her head when all around were losing theirs, To say that we are indebted to her is an understatement and we do thank her enormously for what she has done. We wish her all the best in her retirement. As you will know already, Barbara Cumbers is giving up the editing of the Newsletter which she has done for the last three years and we are extremely grateful to her for all her hard work and commitment during that time. However, she is not leaving the Committee.

Apart from the above already mentioned we must once again thank the rest of the Committee who work so hard on your behalf. We are delighted that John Wade , the ever long suffering secretary, is literally back on his feet again and has once more taken over the reins and we thank Dawn Tilley and other members for stepping in when the need arose. Di Clements has taken on the responsibility of the overall organisation for the monthly meetings at RSM and we thank her for that. Sue Vernon, Iain Fletcher and Chris Sadler have all pitched in with various jobs as well. It is lovely to have the wealth of talent on which to call!!

Next year we look forward to plenty more events for which planning is already well underway It will see the last of the S103 Summer Schools at Reading (as well as at Keele) and so the responsibility for the recruiting stand will pass to another branch. I am sure that with your support the London Branch will continue to thrive, dare I say it( I refuse to use the “M” word!) into the next century.

At this point Polly made a retirement presentation of a pair of agate bookends to Kay and some flowers to Barbara to mark her giving up the London Platform editorship. Applause followed.

Paul Clasby proposed that the report be accepted, Gill Hetherington seconded and the motion was carried by the meeting nem con.

Copies of the annual accounts were circulated at the meeting. Kay reported on the accounts

The accounts were straightforward with a small surplus for the year of about £30

The position was healthy and no increases in event fees were necessary this year.

Due to difficulties with boards at the GA Reunion, the Committee had discussed and authorised the purchase of some boards of our own. Quotes had been obtained and the best deal taken up. The transaction will be part of this year’s (2000) accounts.

Kate Dadd asked why there was a substantial discrepancy between the turnovers for some years.

Kay explained that in some longer events, hotel bills were settled on by individuals and did not go through the Branch accounts. At other times, full monies were paid through the Branch.

Acceptance of the accounts and the treasurer’s report was proposed by Kate Dadd, seconded by John Thompson and approved by the meeting nem con.

With no other nominations and Polly being willing to continue as Branch Organiser, Bob Morley proposed and Barbara Cumbers seconded that she continue. This was passed by the meeting nem con.

The remaining Committee except for Kay were willing to stand again. One nomination had been received for a replacement for Kay, this being Bob Morley, proposed by Polly Rhodes and seconded by John Wade. John suggested a composite motion with one vote covering:

i. Re-election of current Committee members willing to continue, i.e Barbara Cumbers, Diana Clements, Iain Fletcher, Sue Vernon and John Wade.

ii Re-election of the Committee members co-opted since the last AGM, i.e. Paul Hetherington, Chris Sadler, and Dawn Tilley.

iii Election of Bob Morley to the Committee.

This composite motion was proposed by Sue Hay and seconded by Peter Franklin. This was approved by the meeting nem con.

Polly then announced that Bob would take over the duties of Branch Treasurer.

Roger Le Voir was willing to continue as auditor. He was proposed by Kay Walmsley, seconded by Margaret Wenban and accepted by the meeting.

Polly distributed a provisional list of events for the year and briefly ran through it.

None prior to or at the meeting.

Brian Harvey stated that for many members, notification of events came too late to alter or make other arrangements There were murmurs of agreement from other members. After some discussion it was agreed that the Committee should look for a way of achieving a much earlier notification, perhaps in the previous mid year. It was pointed out that some provisional events at this stage could end up as “non-events”.

Paul Clasby drew attention to the event of the British Society for the Advancement of Science for the period 6.9.00 to 12.9.00 at Imperial College, which would be worth going to as it included earth sciences. Polly told the meeting that our contact at RSM, Paul Grant was in fact, co-ordinating for IC.

Paul also reported that although a book was available for the BBC programme “Earth Story” there were apparently no videos to be made available. This was a great pity. The committee will write on this matter.

There being no other business, the meeting was declared closed at 16.05 hrs.

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