Abstract British geologists participated for more than a year in the planning of “Operation Overlord,” the Allied invasion of northwest France. Following D-Day on June 6, 1944, they contributed to the subsequent 11-month operational phase in western Europe, including the initial 3-month battle for Normandy. Beachhead maps were prepared prior to the invasion at 1:5,000 scale from published topographic and geologic maps, aerial photographs, and secret ground reconnaissance. They indicated the character of the beaches and cliffs, distribution of different surface sediments, and other factors likely to affect cross-beach mobility. Airfield suitability maps were made to indicate the distribution within enemy territory of candidate areas for the rapid construction of airfields. After the invasion, between June 7 and August 13, 1944, 20 airstrips, mostly 1,100–1,500 m in length, were completed in the British occupied area of Normandy. Geological information was used to guide the systematic development of road metal. Initially, weak Jurassic limestones were quarried, as at Creully; later, stronger Paleozoic quartzites were worked, as at Mouen, southwest of Caen. Stone produced by the Royal Engineers in Normandy quickly rose to a peak monthly total of more than 140,000 tonnes in August 1944. Water supply intelligence and the control of well siting and drilling were geologist's responsibilities. In 1st Corps area, about 50 water points were established, with 12 operational at any one time. Water in Normandy was obtained largely from rivers and existing wells, supplemented by 33 new boreholes. Geologists were also used to assess the effects of aerial bombing; soil conditions affecting cross-country vehicular movement; ground conditions for river crossings; and the nature of the sea floor beneath the English Channel. Normandy thus provides a case history of British military geology “par excellence.”

Abstract A review of northern Victoria Land ultramafic xenoliths, collected and studied over more than 30 years, was carried out. More than 200 samples were gathered and characterized in a coherent and comparative manner, both for mantle-derived and cumulate xenoliths. Almost 2000 analyses of major elements and more than 300 analyses of trace elements of in situ and separated olivine, pyroxenes, amphibole, spinel and glass were taken into consideration. Particular attention was devoted to mantle lithologies in order to emphasize the composition and the evolution of this portion of the subcontinental lithosphere. The three main localities in northern Victoria Land where mantle xenoliths were found (i.e. Mount Melbourne (Baker Rocks), Greene Point and Handler Ridge), over a >200 km distance, were described and compared with ultramafic xenoliths in three other localities (Harrow Peaks, Browning Pass and Mount Overlord) that are mainly cumulate in nature. Altogether, these data enabled us to reconstruct a long evolutionary history, from old depletion to most recent refertilization and metasomatic events, for this large sector of the northern Victoria Land subcontinental lithospheric mantle.

Abstract During the 19th Century, the British military pioneered geological mapping and teaching, and the operational use of Norton tube wells. In the First World War, the British army appointed its first military hydrogeologist to serve as such, to develop water-supply maps for Belgium and northern France and guide deployment of Royal Engineer units drilling boreholes into the Cretaceous Chalk of the Somme region and Tertiary sands beneath the Flanders plain. Similar well-boring units were also deployed with geological guidance in the northeastern Mediterranean region. All military geologists were demobilized after hostilities ceased, but wartime experience was quickly drawn together in the first Royal Engineer textbook on water supply. During the Second World War, several British military well-drilling units were raised and deployed, notably to East Africa and North Africa as well as northern France, normally with military geological and sometimes (in Africa) with military geophysical technical direction. A reduced well-drilling capability has since been retained by the British army, through the Cold War to the present day, supported by a small group of reserve army geologists to contribute basic hydrogeological expertise to the armed forces for peace-time projects and war-related operations.

Abstract To drill boreholes for water supply, the Royal Engineers raised ten ‘Boring Sections’ between September 1939 and May 1943, eight in the UK, two in Egypt. While supporting campaigns in World War II, two deployed briefly to France, seven served widely within the Middle East (one of these in Iraq and Iran and later Malta, the others mostly operating from Egypt), one deployed to Algeria/Tunisia, four to Sicily and/or Italy (one of these onward to Greece), two deployed to support the D-Day Allied landings in Normandy and the subsequent advance via Belgium to Germany, and three served long-term in the UK. Greatest use was by Middle East Command, which at its peak had about 35 officers, 750 men and 40 drilling rigs assigned to water supply, and whose boreholes attained a cumulative length of some 40 km. The British Army used geology to help guide emplacement of boreholes in all these regions. Innovations included groundwater prospect maps at scales of 1:50 000 and 1:250 000, to help planning for the Allied invasion of Normandy and the subsequent campaign in NW Europe. Geology also helped guide groundwater abstraction by Indian Engineers in the Far East, and British/South African troops in East Africa.

Abstract Problems experienced by armoured fighting vehicles (‘tanks’) crossing soft ground became apparent during World War I. These were avoided early in World War II by the use of ‘going’ maps in North Africa from 1940 to 1943, but when operations moved to NW Europe it was realized that there would be the additional problem of changes in ground conditions due to variations in soil moisture according to the weather. This led to an investigation into factors controlling the movement of tracked vehicles over water-softened ground, beginning in July 1944 with the establishment of the ‘Mud Committee’, tasked to consider problems in light of recent developments in the (then) new science of soil mechanics. Contemporary ideas, as applied to building and road construction, were found to be inapplicable, and attention was therefore focused on empirical trials. The Committee faced the constant problem of balancing the requirement for short-term results with the need for long-term research. As a result, it failed to meet many of its objectives by the end of hostilities, but its work did provide a sound basis for the development of a method of classifying soils for military purposes and for future work on track design.

Abstract At the time the Geological Society was founded in 1807, Europe had entered the latter half of some 23 years of near-continuous warfare, in which the overall scale and intensity were wholly new. Wars from 1792 to 1815 affected the careers of many well-known geologists in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Influential early members of the Society included a significant number of men with periods of military service or education, or militarily-funded employment: four of its 11 primary founders, Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon, James Franck, George Bellas Greenough and Richard Phillips, as well as six of its first 23 Presidents – Greenough, Henry Grey Bennet, John MacCulloch, Roderick Impey Murchison, Henry Thomas De la Beche and Joseph Ellison Portlock. Several councillors, such as Thomas Frederick Colby and John William Pringle, and three of its first five executives – William Lonsdale, David Thomas Ansted and T. Rupert Jones – also had military affiliations. Largely as a consequence of Napoleonic warfare, from 1814 to 1845 national geological mapping in Britain was supported by military funding, and between 1819 and the end of the century geology was a subject taught at various times in all military training establishments within Britain.

Abstract In the last two centuries, demographic expansion and extensive urbanization of volcanic areas have increased the exposure of our society to volcanic hazards. Antarctica is no exception. During the last decades, the permanent settlement and seasonal presence of scientists, technicians, tourists and logistical personnel close to active volcanoes in the south polar region have increased notably. This has led to an escalation in the number of people and the amount of infrastructure exposed to potential eruptions. This requires advancement of our knowledge of the volcanic and magmatic history of Antarctic active volcanoes, significant improvement of the monitoring networks, and development of long-term hazard assessments and vulnerability analyses to carry out the required mitigation actions, and to elaborate on the most appropriate response plans to reduce loss of life and infrastructure during a future volcanic crisis. This chapter provides a brief summary of the active volcanic systems in Antarctica, highlighting their main volcanological features, which monitoring systems are deployed (if any), and recent (i.e. Holocene and/or historical) eruptive activity or unrest episodes. To conclude, some notes about the volcanic hazard assessments carried out so far on south polar volcanoes are also included, along with recommendations for specific actions and ongoing research on active Antarctic volcanism.

Abstract Grenville Arthur James Cole (1859–1924), Professor of Geology at the Royal College of Science for Ireland, was an avid cyclist and shared this passion with his wife Blanche. Born in London, Cole studied at the Royal School of Mines and lectured for a number of years at Bedford College for Ladies. Largely concurrent with his professorship he served as Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland at a time when it was in moderate decline. He undertook many cycling tours around continental Europe and Ireland. These trips were recounted in two early travel books. The Gypsy Road: a Journey from Krakow to Coblentz , published in 1894, provides a delightful account of a tour undertaken by him on a tricycle and his companion on a penny farthing, across what is now Poland, the Czech Republic, and eastern Germany. In a later slim volume entitled As We Ride , co-authored with his wife, a number of expeditions to France and the Balkans are eloquently described. Between 1902 and 1908 he organized a week-long geological excursion to various parts of Ireland for his students, and transport was by train and bicycle. His cycling trips provided him with the opportunity to collect research materials, make geological observations, and to photograph features of interest. Subsequently much of this material was used in his publications and in teaching. Cole's main academic studies were in igneous and metamorphic petrology. He valued and promoted fieldwork as an essential component of geological training. He was heavily involved with professional and amateur scientific societies, and was a prolific author of both academic and popular geological papers and books.

Abstract Magma generation in the Ross Sea system is related to partial melting of strongly metasomatized mantle sources where amphibole most probably plays a crucial role. In this context, metasomatism induced by a mela-nephelinite melt in lithospheric mantle of the Mt. Melbourne Volcanic Province (northern Victoria Land (NVL), Antarctica) was investigated experimentally studying the effects of melt interaction with lherzolite at 1.5–2.0 GPa and T =975–1300 °C, and wehrlite at 1.0 GPa and T =1050–1250 °C. The experiments were designed to induce melt infiltration into the ultramafic rocks. The observed modifications in minerals are compared with those found in mantle xenoliths from NVL. The effects of metasomatic modifications are evaluated on the basis of run temperature, distance from the infiltrating melt and the diffusion rates of chemical components. Both in lherzolite and wehrlite, clinopyroxene exhibits large compositional variations ranging from primary diopside to high-Mg–Cr–(Na) augitic and omphacitic clinopyroxenes in lherzolite, and to low-Mg and high-Ti–Al–Fe–Na augites in wehrlite. Olivine (in wehrlite) and spinel (in lherzolite) are also compositionally modified: the former shows enrichment in Fe and the latter displays a higher Cr/(Cr+Al) ratio. The systematic variations in mineral compositions imply modifications of the chemistry of the infiltrating melt as recorded by the glass veinlets and patches observed in some charges. In experiments involving wehrlite paragenesis, the glass composition approaches that of melt patches associated with both amphibole-free and amphibole-bearing natural samples, and is related to olivine + clinopyroxene crystallization coupled with primary clinopyroxene dissolution at the contact between the metasomatizing melt and the solid matrix. Even if amphibole crystallization was not attained in the experiments, we were able to explain the occurrence of amphibole in the natural system considering that in this case a hot metasomatizing melt infiltrates a cooler matrix.