Lectures | Aberdeen Geological Society

The 26 – 27 Lecture programme is in final preparation and will be released around end of September. Members should look out for our Mailchimp emails a week or so prior to each event. Members are welcome to bring along accompanied visitors or friends.

Any other person wishing to attend will be made welcome but should contact the Secretary first to ensure dates and timing are unaltered.

Lectures take place in Lecture Theatre 1 of the Meston Building, Kings College, University of Aberdeen unless otherwise stated, at 6:30pm. Join us from 5:30pm for tea and coffee at the University Library cafe.

october

03oct2:00 pm3:30 pmThe first "Man of Granite", James Hutton at 300.Talk by Dr Stuart Archer2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Cowdry Hall, Aberdeen Art Gallery

15oct6:30 pm8:00 pmWarming up Aberdeen to GeothermalTalk by Dr. David Cornwell, University of Aberdeen6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Lecture Theatre 1 - Meston Building

Event Details

How can Aberdeen heat homes and buildings more sustainably while supporting a fair and practical energy transition for its communities?

The Aberdeen Geothermal Feasibility Pilot (AGFP) is exploring whether geothermal heat could become part of the answer by gathering the first direct subsurface evidence needed to assess the city’s potential. A research project funded by UKRI-NERC and led by the University of Aberdeen, AGFP combines an instrumented on-campus research borehole with a dense passive seismic survey across the city to map the subsurface to depths of up to 5 km. Together, these data will improve understanding of temperature, geology, groundwater, fractures, and rock properties beneath Aberdeen, helping to reduce uncertainty and inform future geothermal decisions. The project also addresses the wider barriers to geothermal uptake in cities like Aberdeen, including investment risk, public awareness, skills transition, heat network readiness, and fuel poverty. By linking subsurface science with education, community engagement, and practical planning, AGFP is helping to make geothermal more visible, credible, and achievable. It aims to combine open-access data and local partnerships to advance geothermal from a promising idea into a realistic option for Aberdeen’s just energy transition.

Dr David Cornwell is a Senior Lecturer in Geophysics at the University of Aberdeen and an observational geophysicist and seismologist specialising in imaging and monitoring the Earth’s subsurface. He holds degrees in Geophysics, Exploration Geophysics and Seismology from Leicester and Leeds, and his research spans ambient seismic noise, geothermal exploration, tectonics, earthquake hazards, and subsurface imaging. He is Co-Lead of the Aberdeen Geothermal Feasibility Pilot, which is using research drilling, city-scale seismic imaging and fibre-optic monitoring to investigate Aberdeen’s geothermal potential.

Time

(Thursday) 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Location

Lecture Theatre 1 - Meston Building

Meston Building, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UE

Calendar GoogleCal

29oct6:30 pm8:00 pm800 years of Scottish mineral exploration, from monks in Leadhills to hi-tech in AberdeenshireBy Fraser Gardiner, Aberdeen Minerals6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Lecture Theatre 1 - Meston Building

november

12nov6:30 pm8:00 pmThomas F Jamieson - the Aberdeen-born Ice-Age Geologistby Mike Shepherd6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Lecture Theatre 1 - Meston Building

Event Details

This is an evening talk by Mike Shepherd.

Thomas Francis Jamieson (1829-1913), born in Aberdeen, was an amateur geologist and the factor (estate manager) of the 11,000-acre Ellon Estate. A leading light of the 1860s glacial revival, he established several modern concepts in glacial geology, most notably the theory of glacial isostasy (that the weight of ice sheets depresses land masses).

When, in 1840, the Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz proposed Scotland had experienced the effects of the Ice Age, few British geologists took him seriously. But then, in 1862, Jamieson established from mapping glacial striae and the direction of travel of erratic boulders in the north of Scotland that thick ice sheets had spread out radially from the Scottish Highlands. A year earlier, Charles Darwin asked Jamieson to check the fieldwork forming the basis for Darwin’s 1838 paper on the parallel roads of Glen Roy. Darwin had suggested that the three terraces in the glen were beaches. Jamieson established evidence that they were the strandlines of an ice-dammed lake. Darwin agreed, writing to Jamieson that, ‘My paper is one long gigantic blunder,’ adding, ‘Did I not say that you would be able to settle the question?’

Biography: Born in Aberdeen when the Earth was young, Mike gained an honours degree in geology and mineralogy from the University of Aberdeen. Thereafter, he worked for oil companies in the North Sea, specializing in geological methods of locating the remaining oil in mature producing fields. This was the basis for his textbook, Oil Field Production Geology (AAPG 2009).He is retired and now writes local history books, such as how Bram Stoker came to write Dracula in Aberdeenshire. His research on Thomas Jamieson, near completion, will be used to write a book about this Ice-Age geologist.