GeologyRocks

About the author

Jon
Imperial College London

This book details the geological history of the Lothian region of Scotland. Within this area lie some world-reknowned geological localities from Siccar Point where James Hutton realised the need for "deep time", to the Granton shoreline, on the north of Edinburgh, where the first conodont animal was discovered (by one of the book authors, although this isn't mentioned in the text). The book begins with a brief look at geological theory, ranging from sedimentology to igneous petrology. As a trained geologist it's difficult to know if this is sufficient for a complete beginner to follow the rest of the book easily, but this section is superbly written. In fact, the audience that this book is aimed at is not easy to ascertain, but more on that later.

Clarkson and Upton then take us on a marvellous journey through time from the Silurian to the Carboniferous, describing not only the palaeogeography of the time, but also the key localities (along with grid references so the reader can actually go there). This spans some 160 million years of geology from 460 to 300 MA. Unfortunately, Edinburgh has no more geology until the Pleistocene glacial sediments, which are also described. The authors' attempt to fill in the missing time by inference of the geology from the rest of the UK. This section is perhaps the weakest in the book, which lacks the rich detail that exists in the other chapters. This is not surprising, just considering the very nature of the chapter, however it is still a gripping read.

As I alluded to ealier, the audience of this book is slightly amibiguous. Is it for a geologist who lives/works/visits Edinburgh? Is it for an Edinburgh resident? I think the authors have tried to please all these audiences, and by and large succeed, but I'm not sure that a complete novice to geology that resides in Edinburgh could follow the book in its entirety. As a geologist residing in Edinburgh I had some difficulty placing some of the localitlies, until I got out an OS map and looked up the handy references. It's possible the authors assume a little too much knowledge in both areas for an easy read.

Overall this is an excellent book and thoroughly recommended. Despite the title, this book should appeal to any geologist whether they live in Edinburgh or not. If you're unfamiliar with Edinburgh, bring a map though! As for the any non-geologist; you may well be fine reading this, but it might take you a few atempts to get to grips with some of the concepts - it's worth the effort though!

Book Details:

Euan Clarkson and Brian Upton, 2006, Dunedin Academic Press. ISBN: 1903765390