Geology on the Web

The front cover of this edition of ‘Charnia’ is graced with a copy of the seismograph of the Dudley Earthquake. As I write this, the event actually occurred a couple of nights ago. I was writing the Editorial - or at least about to write it - when the floor vibrated, accompanied by a very low frequency rumbling which went on for quite a few seconds. The noise was somewhere between the lowest note of a church organ (10-15Hz?) and the rumbling made by a very heavy lorry being driven past the house. The seismograph was posted on the British Geological Survey’s website by breakfast on September 23^rd (see also front cover). If you have access to the web, you’ll find the BGS site at www.bgs.ac.uk or if you have a search engine of the Google calibre, just type-in British Geological Survey. You’ll be amazed at the variety of geological information from just this one website, which also has a portal accessing other geological websites.

Another trace of the Dudley earthquake on September 23rd, taken

 by the recorder in the Geology Department at Leicester University

The Editorial attempts to justify the bias towards past life, so to even things up, a look at subjects other than palaeontology within the field of Earth Science is in order. If volcanoes take your fancy try The Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes (University of Hawai’i at Hilo) at http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~csav

Other sites are:

The Electric Volcano at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~volcano

The Space Science Engineering Center at http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/volcano.html

The MTU volcanoes page at http://www.geo.mtu.edu/volcanoes

As you can see, American websites predominate. If you wish to widen your field somewhat, try Ian West’s Geological Directory at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/index.htm Here you will find just about everything from volcanoes to regional geology of just about everywhere.

There are many sites which are crammed full of geological links - try http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/

Perhaps minerals and crystallography  are of particular interest to you. If so,  Albert Hines’ Virtual Crystallography is quite unique. Access this at http://members.toast.net/ahines/rocks/vir_cris.htm

If you are not familiar with Miller Indices, which describe the intersection of  crystal faces with the three dimensions of the solid world, go to Bob’s Rock Shop for a quick tutorial at  http://www.rockhounds.com/rockshop/xtal/part1.html

I didn’t realise that the Russell Society held its meetings for the Central Region at Loughborough Univer-sity, details of which are located at  http://www.russellsoc.org/index.htm

All this is just the merest dip in the ocean. If you’ve searched any of these websites it’s highly likely that you’ve been drawn to other links. Why not write in to ‘Charnia’ describing worthwhile geological websites you’ve located?

Graham Stocks