2026-2027
All talks for 2026-27 will take place at the Central Teaching Hub of the University of Liverpool, Lecture Theatre C, but please check the LGS Newsletter to make sure there has not been a change of room for a particular meeting. Entrance will be via the main door.
Talks will start at 7.30pm and finish by 9.00pm.
Please be aware that for security reasons, the building manager may lock the main door to stop access from outside at some time after 7.30pm. If you arrive late or are unable to gain access, you may need to contact someone inside the lecture theatre to let you in.
This is a provisional timetable of lectures for 2026-2027 and may be revised.
2026
October 6th
Colonel Martin Amlôt
Presidential address
October 20th
Dr. Janet Richardson, Edge Hill University
Pediment surfaces are a widespread feature of the southern African landscape and have long been regarded as ancient landforms. Cosmogenic nuclide data from four pediment surfaces in the Gouritz catchment, Western Cape, South Africa are reported, including boulder surface samples and a depth profile through a colluvial pediment deposit. Pediment surfaces are remarkably stable with long-term denudation rates between 0.3 and 1.0 m My-1, and their 10Be concentrations approach or are at secular equilibrium. Several pediment surfaces grade above the present trunk valleys of the Gouritz River, which suggests that the trunk rivers are long-lived features that acted as local base levels during pediment formation and later incised pediments to present levels. The geomorphic processes controlling the formation and evolution of the pediments varied over time; with pediments formed by hillslope diffusive processes as shown by the lack of fluvial indicators in the colluvial deposits and later development by fluvial processes with small tributaries dissecting the pediments. Integrating various strands of evidence indicates that the pediments are long-lived features.
October 27th
Professor Andy Biggin, University of Liverpool
‘Huge hot blobs may have made Earth’s magnetic field wonky.’
I will be talking about my group’s latest research into using records of Earth’s magnetic field recovered from continental igneous rocks of all ages to ascertain aspects of global magnetic field behaviour and infer the deep Earth structures and processes giving rise to them. I’ll touch on our latest findings around how fluctuations in the strength of the dominant axial dipole part of the magnetic field are linked to full-blown polarity reversals and how supercontinent-sized structures in the lowermost mantle may be causing deviations from this simple symmetry morphology.
November 17
Professor Peter Styles, Keele University
Kefalonia – a new plate boundary and perhaps the site of Homer’s Ithaca.
December 1st
Dr. Vanessa Banks, BGS
Geohazards in the Peak District.
A review of the natural and anthropogenic geohazards that are encountered in the shallow and deeper near surface geology of the Peak District. The review will embrace around fifteen geohazards including mass movement, karst, flooding, and anthropogenic hazards for example related to mining.
December 15th
Mike Stoddart
Xmas Quiz
Cheese & Wine
2027
January 12th
Members’ Evening
This depends on you volunteering to talk about something that you are interested in, for 10 – 15 minutes.
Without your input – there is no meeting.
Please contact Chris Hunt [ chris1972scfc@outlook.com ]
January 19th
Professor Peter Falkingham, Liverpool John Moores University.
“Fossilized footprints record the motions of long extinct animals, but making sense of their 3D shapes is difficult because so much information is beneath the surface. I will talk about the range of technological solutions my team and I have brought to bear on the challenge of reverse engineering dinosaur footprint formation.”
February 2nd
Peter Williams, University of Liverpool
Radon – UK’s big geohazard
Earthquakes in Venezuela have killed about 15000 people in the last 100 years.
Radon is responsible for more than 1000 deaths in the UK each year.
February 9th
Dr. Joanne Egan, Edge Hill University
This study employs high-resolution palaeoecological analyses, including stratigraphy, tephrochronology, radiocarbon dating, pollen, diatom and ordination techniques, to reconstruct Holocene environmental change within a watershed in the Pacific Northwest of North America. By integrating terrestrial and aquatic records from both central and marginal basin locations, the research examines ecosystem dynamics across multiple spatial scales. Particular attention is given to the environmental influence of tephra deposition associated with the climactic eruption of Mount Mazama (~7,600 cal. years BP), alongside older Mazama and Glacier Peak eruptions. The study evaluates volcanic disturbance within the context of longer-term vegetation, aquatic and climatic change.
February 23rd
Dr. Maggie Williams, University of Liverpool
Practical session: Bubbles, lava lamps and density fireworks.
In this practical session you will be using simple laboratory experiments to investigate what goes on in volcanic plumbing systems.
