A lot of activity for the group in the last Quarter with Adrian presenting in Brussels, substantial fieldwork programmes for Tim and Aayush and conference attendance for Curtis and Jacob. We welcome new PhD student Anna Szreter working on the Ivigtut ore deposit in Greenland and sponsors Stallion Resources have agreed to convert Curtis’s Masters by Research into a PhD, working on the Motzfeldt body in South Greenland. Congratulations also to Kris Sokol who successfully submitted and defended his PhD thesis on fluid movement at the Illerfissalik. Aayush and Tim have been involved in further OSL lab work and have contributed to several new dating and archaeological publications.
Publications
Tipping R, Kinnaird TC, Dingwall K & Ross I (2022) Some geomorphological implications of recent archaeological investigations on river terrace of the River Dee. Scottish Journal of Geology, 59, available online
Kinnaird TC, Bates M, Bateman R & Srivastava A (2021) Constructing sediment chronologies for Dogger Bank. In: Gaffney V (ed) “Europe’s Lost Frontiers: Volume 1: Context and Methodology“. Archaeopress.
Hamilton D & Kinnaird TC (2021) Building chronologies for Europe’s Lost Frontiers: Radiocarbon dating and age-depth modelling. In: Gaffney V (ed) “Europe’s Lost Frontiers: Volume 1: Context and Methodology“. Archaeopress.
Theses
Hearty congratulations to A-team PhD student Krzysztof (Kris) Sokół for submitting and then successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled “THE NATURE OF FLUIDS ASSOCIATED WITH SUBVOLCANIC ALKALINE MAGMAS AND THEIR ROLE IN ’HI-TECH’ METAL TRANSPORT AND MINERALIZATION”. The thesis was jointly supervised by Adrian with Will Hutchison, Jonathan Cloutier (Tasmania) and Madeleine Humphreys (Durham). The examiners were Professor Iain Samson (University of Windsor, Canada) and Dr Paul Savage (St Andrews). Kris expects to submit his (few) corrections early in the new year.
New Members
Welcome to Anna Szreter who has started PhD on the Ivigtut Deposit in Southern Greenland. The project is a co-Tutelle PhD studentship with the University of Oslo (Prof Henrik Friis). Anna beat off stiff competition from a world-class set of candidates to be awarded the post. She will spend half the time here in St Andrews and another half of her time at Oslo. Adrian and Anna visited Oslo in December to meet Prof Friis’s team and plan out a programme for the project. The fieldwork of the project is being sponsored by the licence holder to Ivigtut, Eclipse Metals.
Furthermore, the agreement between Stallion Resources and the University of St Andrews has been extended, allowing Curtis Rooks to develop his current Masters by Research into a PhD project at the University.
Masters and PhD Studentship Opportunities
We are always interested in hearing from candidates who would like to complete studies of the mineralogy, petrography and petrogenesis of alkaline igneous rocks and/or critical metal resources. The University also runs taught Masters programmes including Masters in Strategic Earth Resources and the Masters in Geochemistry. Adrian and the research group contribute several aspects to the delivery and content of these programmes and frequently supervise Masters projects.
Presentations
Despite rail strikes in the UK, Curtis Rooks and Jacob Southey presented research from their masters at Mineral Deposits Studies Group in Leicester 4-6 Jan 2023. Jacob is now working for British Lithium but came to MDSG to present information from his Masters’ research on the Qeqertaasaq Carbonatite Complex in West Greenland.
Fieldwork
Tim and Aayush have been busy, with a hectic series of international fieldwork programmes involving Italy, Mallorca, Galloway, Sudan and Morocco.
- Scotsdyke, Richmond – monumentality and landscape: linear earthworks in Britain, with Tom Moore, Durham
- Mull of Galloway, Dumfries – the Rhinns Revealed, with AOC Archaeology
- Mallorca, Spain – Archaeology, Remote Sensing, and Archaeometry: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Landscapes and Ceramics from the Roman to the Medieval Period in Mallorca (Balearic Islands), with Miguel Ángel Cau Ontiveros, Universitat de Barcelona
- King Arthurs Hall, Devon
- Westende, Belgium – TESTEREP: The Evolution of the Flemish Seascape (5000 BP-present), with Soetkin Vervust
- Yealmpton, Devon, PARCEDES, with Magali Watteaux, Université de Rennes 2
- Northern Dongola Reach, Sudan, AHLAN, Adaptations in Human Landscapes Along the Nile (AHLAN), with Chris Sevara, Newcastle
- Draa, Morocco, Resilient Past Water Management in the Near East and North Africa), with Louise Rayne, Newcastle.
Aayush worked with Tim on some fieldwork but also led a group working on the development of civilisations in the Indus Valley in November 2022.
Outreach
Adrian has been involved in several outreach and advising activities. In October 2022, he was in Brussels representing the University of St Andrews at a symposium on sustainability, alongside colleagues from the University of Bonn. The symposium, held at Scotland House next to the European Parliament, explored different aspects of sustainability and was timed to coincide with the launch of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act.
Adrian’s talk was followed by submitting a deposition to the call for evidence associated with the EU Critical Raw Materials Act. Our deposition expressed the view that Europe could, if it desired, become self-sufficient in critical metal resources, but that would require political will to achieve it. Currently, as well as importing almost all of its critical metal resource requirements, it outsources the environmental impact that the extraction of those resources make on the planet. By bringing production to Europe, European governments are no longer dependent on imports and they can bring European-standard legislation to the extraction and processing of the ores.
Aayush has been developing teaching skills by taking on the undergraduate and postgraduate Masters Courses in MSc Statistical Ecology and MSc Marine Ecosystem Management with focus on the applications of software ArcGIS Pro to address issues related to several earth and environmental problems.
Adrian also became Chairman of the Directors of Lochaber Geopark, taking over in the role from his erstwhile mentor Professor Ian Parsons. Geoparks are important ways of preserving and promoting the geological heritage of the highlands, which have been some of the most important areas in advancing geological thinking since the beginning of geology as a science. Adrian is one of five new appointments to the Board of Directors, each of whom come from the Scottish Universities who teach geology and Earth Sciences. He hopes to bring his understanding of igneous processes and resources to develop and promote the Lochaber Geopark project.
And Finally….
St Andrews University hosted its St Andrews Day (30th November) Masters graduations – A big congratulations to everyone who were doffed on the head by John Knox’s breeks. This included Lot Koopmans who had worked on the Younger Giant Dyke in 2021, plus the 2022 graduates of the MScs in Geochemistry and Strategic Earth Resources, many of whom had carried out their Masters projects within the A-team. Below are a selection of images from a great day.
Professor Adrian Finch 