7th Oct
Professor Pete Burgess
University of Liverpool
Presidential Address:
Artificial Intelligence in Geoscience:How it works and why it often doesn’t.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been headline news in recent years, but how does it work, and what does this new technology mean for geoscience? Will AI revolutionise geoscience as often claimed, or is this just the latest in a long serious of bubbles with exaggerated claims of AI capability? This talk will explain the basics of how the latest AI methods work and show examples of
how it can be very useful, but also explain the limitations that mean AI often does not work as well as required, and make an argument that true and truly useful machine intelligence has not yet been invented; Sarah Connor is likely safe for a while yet.
14th Oct
Dr. Rob Duller
University of Liverpool
Alluvial stratigraphic architecture viewed through a mass-balance lens.
The arrangement of river channel deposits within floodplain deposits is known as fluvial architecture (FA). This represents heterogeneity that impacts how fluids and gases move through or are stored within these deposits. For more than fifty years, geologists have sought to understand how FA is generated. Using an experimental delta where we observe surface process and the strata generated, we find that simple rules emerge over time that can describe FA, even on Mars! From an educational standpoint, we recognise a key misconception of the role of subsidence rate in FA generation.
8th Oct
Dr. Paige dePolo
Liverpool John Moores University
The taphonomy of a pantodont-rich assemblage from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, USA
66 million years ago, an asteroid hit the earth and kicked off the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. In the wake of this extinction, many weird and enigmatic mammals began radiating into empty niches. One group, pantodonts, quickly grew to the largest mammals yet known in Earth history. In this talk, we’ll look at a collection of fossils from Torreon Wash in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and think about their taphonomy (what happened to the animals after death). I will then develop an argument for gregariousness within Pantolambda bathmodon (a small pantodont) and illustrate that grouping behaviour is wide-spread within this clade.
4th Nov
Professor Jim Marshall
University of Liverpool
Bill Harper
The Deva Debate
Did water from the Mersey ever flow into the Dee Estuary? A hundred and more years ago many historians and some geologists accepted the hypothesis that the historic Mersey flowed westwards through the ‘Deva Spillway’ (an erosional channel through the Wirral) to enter the Dee near Chester. Despite arguments to the contrary the idea has persisted through to modern times. In this debate Jim will discuss early (but post-glacial) origins for the channel whilst Bill (recent book available – £5) will discuss the evidence for much more recent change. You can decide what you think!
18th Nov
Dr. William Brown
British Geological Survey (Edinburgh)
“The wandering magnetic north pole”
Many of us are aware that Earth has a magnetic field, and that the magnetic compass has been around for a while and can help us navigate, but fewer of us are aware of how changeable Earth’s magnetic field is, and to what extent magnetic navigation is still integrated in our modern technology-heavy lives. We will look at what observations and models tell us about the changing field – from the particularly active recent decades for the north magnetic pole to the possibility of a reversal of the magnetic poles.”
25th Nov
Professor Jim Marshall & Dr Lis Rushworth
University of Liverpool
Practical session: Digital Landscape Mapping using LIDAR surveys
Feature mapping has always been an important aid in the construction of Geological Maps. Participants will have the opportunity to develop a better understanding of modern, digital, terrain maps and have a chance to explore the use of online resources that can be used at home or on their phones. We will go on a virtual field trip to explore an area in the Pennines which is very familiar to LGS members!
