Minutes of the meeting of the Geological Society Stratigraphy Commission, 8 th March 2017, at Burlington House, London, in the Council Room.

Transcription

1 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, STRATIGRAPHY COMMISSION Minutes of the meeting of the Geological Society Stratigraphy Commission, 8 th March 2017, at Burlington House, London, in the Council Room. Present Dr T Barry [TB] Prof J Cope [JC] Prof. A Gale (Chairman) [AG] Prof. P Gibbard [PG] Prof. S Hesselbo [SH] Dr J Gregory [JG] Dr M Hounslow [MH] Dr J Marshall [JM] Dr M Oates [MO] Dr O Sutcliffe [OS] Prof C Waters (Secretary) [CW] Apologies Dr P Bown [PBo] Dr A Coe [AC] Dr D Condon [DC] Prof. D Harper [DH] Dr K McNamara [KM] Dr D Kemp [DK] Dr A Kerr [AK] Dr J Powell [JP] Prof. G Shields-Zhou [GS] Prof. P Pearson [PP] Prof. M Williams [MW] Prof. J Zalasiewicz [JZ] Item 1 Apologies CW reported that Peter Rawson had offered his retirement from the Commission. Peter was thanked for his great service to the Commission. He joined in 1975 (with just 5 years off from ) and was responsible, or jointly responsible, for producing the original Cretaceous Special Report, the Atlas of Palaeogeography, the Geology of England and Wales and the Guide to Stratigraphical Procedure, all of which have significantly promoted the work of the Society. Item 2 Minutes of the previous meeting held on 23rd November 2016 The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted with no modifications. Item 3 Matters Arising 1) All to look at MH s proposed additions to the Commission website related to the section on British GSSPs, stratotypes and auxiliary stratotypes and propose contributions. Action ongoing. Discussed under item 5 of the agenda. 2) PB/PP to send to Angharad Hills and Commission results of discussions at Strati2015 on use of Lower, Middle and Upper and sub-epochs. Action ongoing. PG indicated that the proposal has yet to be voted upon by the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification (part of ICS). The decision needs to be forwarded to Angharad Hills. 3) PR to circulate to Commission, via TB, outline of Cretaceous SR content and lead authors for each chapter. Action closed. See item 6 of the agenda. 4) TB to coordinate ideas for amended Guide to Stratigraphic Procedure. Action ongoing. See item 7 of the agenda. 1

2 5) AG to circulate Callomon rebuttal manuscript for comment. Action ongoing. AG indicated that he had drafted a response document and will circulate to members. 6) All to provide CW with any modifications to membership details. Action ongoing. No changes received. CW suggested that when the current changes in membership have stabilised that he will circulate a revised version for editing. 7) CW to contact Maarten Krabbendam and MO to contact Matthew Wakefield. Action closed. See item 4 on the agenda. 8) MH to ask if metrics for usage of GSSC web pages can be obtained. Action closed. See item 5 on the agenda. 9) MO to coordinate a workshop on offshore Jurassic to progress SR. Action ongoing. See item 6 on the agenda. 10) CW to recirculate digital copy of the original manuscript and JZ/Felix Gradstein edits, proposal outline and request for chapter authors. Action closed. 11) AG to send Stratigraphical Procedures proposal to Angharad Hills. Action closed. See item 7 on the agenda. 12) CW to contact Science Committee to see if the Society has any formal role in Geoparks and ask if the Commission should be involved. Action closed. See item 8 on the agenda. Item 4 Membership Given the recent departures of Alan Smith and Peter Rawson and departure of KM later this year, it was necessary to seek new members. Alan had suggested Colin Reeves and his cv had been circulated around the Commission in advance of the meeting. It was agreed his profile in plate tectonics and magnetic and gravity mapping would contribute to the range of expertise. However, CW raised the issue that he is based in Holland and that this would need to be raised with the Society s Accounts Department to ensure that they would be prepared to meet any travel costs. CW had contacted Maarten Krabbendam, who was uncertain if he would be able to join, given the significant travel distances. JG suggested that he could contact Matthew Wakefield to invite him his input to the new Stratigraphical Procedures would be very useful. CW mentioned that he had submitted his resignation from BGS, and although he was happy to continue as Secretary, it would be good to have a replacement from BGS. It was suggested that Mark Woods from BGS could be invited, particularly as he would be able to contribute to the Cretaceous Special Report. TB suggested that in order to have maintained numbers attending meetings we should being more flexible with the number of meetings, perhaps having two a year with the scope for an additional thematic meeting if there is a specific topic that is of importance. 2

3 CW asked was there anything in the statutes to say that there needed to be three meetings, but it was felt that it was permissible to have only two. It was suggested that CW request members to vote whether Wednesday was still the preferred date and whether a flexible meeting arrangement was acceptable. On the idea of thematic meetings, CW reported that Bruno Galbrun, the new President of the French Stratigraphy Commission had been in contact with PG and JZ and offered an opportunity for dialogue between Commissions. Perhaps this could be considered for one such thematic meeting. This could subsequently be considered for other European Commissions, though clarification on funding would be required. Action (new): CW to contact Mark Woods and JG/MO to contact Matthew Wakefield. Action (new): CW to contact membership and seek opinions on scheduling of meetings. Action (new): CW to contact the Society s Accounts Department to determine if travel costs for Colin Reeves and representatives of European Commissions would be available. Item 5 Website Update MH summarised the metrics report compiled by Liz Pedley on 3 rd March on people visiting the Commission website pages. The pages were viewed approximately 8,040 times between 1/3/2016 and 28/2/2017. This accounts for 37% of total visitors to the groups and networks section of the site ( Looking at the most-viewed pages it appears the pages on UK stratigraphy are attracting a wider audience than most groups through google searches. Visitor numbers fluctuated throughout the year (typically highest either side of Christmas and probably reflecting students undertaking dissertations) and has increased compared to the numbers from Most were visiting the British stratigraphy pages, particularly Precambrian and early Palaeozoic pages being the most popular. The web manager has suggested that additional links to the pages be placed elsewhere on the Society s webpages, e.g. the education pages. AG asked if it was possible for the ICS website to provide links. It already is on the UCL reading list. MH suggested the site needed more good pictures, not just of GSSPs. Because the site is password protected it was not possible for surfers to submit their own photos. OS queried was there a way that the students looking at the website could provide feedback on where they wanted information not currently provided by the website and further reading could be included in updates. Action (new): All to consider submitting to MH potential photos for inclusion on the Society website. Additionally, MH said that he had added descriptions of most of the Silurian GSSPs plus the proposed Kimmeridgian GSSP (which has been voted on, but is awaiting final ratification through the ICS and the Jurassic Subcommission). Jan and Mark have offered to write something on the Dob's Linn GSSP. Steve Hesselbo has offered to write something about the Pliensbachian and Sinemurian GSSPs. There is scope for adding information on Carboniferous sub-stages if the proposed Yorkshire Geological Society Memoir is published. 3

4 Item 6. Publications TB mentioned that Geoff Warrington reports progress on the Permian SR University of Leicester have agreed to help with drafting of figures and are awaiting figures to be passed to them; Triassic SR on hold until Permian report is completed. The Cretaceous proposal has yet to be formulated. With Peter Rawson no longer a member and wishing to stand down from leading this publication AG suggested he could develop the proposal, but that the Stratigraphical Procedures Handbook took precedence. His preference would be a report that covers differences in opinion rather than a single scheme. He would be happy working with potentially Mark Woods on the Chalk, the non-marine Lower Cretaceous could be covered by Prof. David Batten at Aberystwyth University, SH has unpublished information on the magnetostratigraphy, Peter Rawson for the Lower Cretaceous of northern England and the Newsletters on Stratigraphy publication edited by Gradstein and Waters will provide a useful basis for the North Sea contribution. MO reported that CW had managed to ask Jim Riding and he is happy to host a workshop at BGS in late March/early April on the offshore contribution to the Jurassic SR. This section will be largely based upon the Millennium Atlas, but the meeting will help to define the structure of the chapter, demarcate responsibilities. Pamela Sansom. It was suggested that this could be a theme for the Commission s October meeting and the Cretaceous SR could be a theme for Action (ongoing): MO to coordinate a workshop on offshore Jurassic to progress SR. Item 7 Stratigraphical Procedures handbook AG reported that he had submitted the proposal to Angharad Hills and she had provided edits, which after some minor changes by CW had been circulated to the Commission. She is broadly supportive of the proposal, but we still do not have the official go-ahead. JM suggested that the marine-non-marine transition isn t adequately covered in the proposal and he could contribute to that. The general feeling was that A4 (SR size) would be better for this edition of the publication as this would allow reproduction of better quality figures. OS mentioned that he had informal approval from Neftex to provide support in figure drafting on a gradual basis. CW mentioned that JP had received approval from GeoArabia to use their figures. Moujahed Al-Husseini had also suggested that the GeoArabia electronic library could be made available via the Society. Action (new): JP to contact Society s Council/Publications to see if they would be interested in hosting the GeoArabia electronic library via the Lyell Collection. Item 8 Geoparks CW introduced this topic. The Society had circulated information to members on UNESCO Global Geoparks in the UK on 2 nd August 2016 in advance of the 7 th International Conference on UNESCO Global Geoparks in Torquay held on 27 th -30 th September. CW contacted Andy Howard on the Science Committee to find out if the Society is involved during the proposal stages and should the Commission have some formal role in this. His response was that the Geoconservation Committee, chaired by Richard Bevins Relations/Geoconservation-Committee would be the route through which the Society 4

5 would be involved with Geoparks, but that it would be sensible to have the Commission s expertise available to provide advice. It was suggested that a conversation be established with the Committee and JC offered to speak with Richard Bevins. Action (new): JC to contact Richard Bevins Science Committee to see if the Geoconservation Committee would wish to establish contacts with the Commission over discussions for future Geopark proposals. Item 9 Anthropocene CW provided a brief update on Anthropocene Working Group outputs/highlights. The main development is a large compilation of information on the pros and cons for potential GSSP environments, and the nature of potential diachroneity and mobility of important stratigraphical markers within host materials, e.g. in marine anoxic basins, lake sediments, ice core, speleothems, corals, even tree rings. CW suggested that potentially Newsletters on Stratigraphy would be approached, but PG suggested Quaternary International would reach more Quaternary workers. Other potential journals that should be considered are Geological Magazine, Royal Society Open Science and Earth Science Reviews. A publication outlining responses to various critical papers will be published by Newsletters on Stratigraphy in the very near future. The Science paper published in January 2016 had been identified as 84 th ranking for profile by Altmetric out of 2.7 million research outputs. CW also reported on a short article in Nature in the New Year that Erle Ellis (an AWG member) had published attacking the nature of the composition of the group and indicating that the importance of this topic was far too great for geologists to decide upon. JZ, CW and PG had been involved in responses to this article. Item 10 AOB a) Andy Howard, a member of the Science Committee, was asked by the Committee to comment on whether BGS would support the spelling change of certain Chronostratigraphic names and he reported back to the Committee as follows: The Stratigraphy Commission has voted to harmonize nomenclature following Ogg et al BGS is represented on the SC and has therefore had input to the SC decision. The Science Committee should therefore consider the SC s recommendations as having input from BGS following Colin Waters consultation, and decide whether to recommend the proposal to Council on that basis. As Paul Pearson explains in his draft article there is no compulsion for publishers to follow the ICS spelling, but a Geological Society lead would certainly help to move that process on. In addition to its publications BGS uses these chronostratigraphic terms in its digital databases so there would time and cost implications involved in a change, so any transition is likely to be phased and gradual. There has been no news concerning a decision by the Science Committee. PP had uncovered that in the founding resolution of the GSL from 18 November 1807 'That there be forthwith instituted a Geological Society for the purpose of making geologists acquainted with each other, of stimulating their zeal, of inducing them to adopt 5

6 one nomenclature, of facilitating the communications of new facts and of ascertaining what is known in their science and what remains to be discovered.' This will go into the Geoscientist article. Following the Minutes from the last meeting it was confirmed that the decisions should be forwarded to the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification for information, not for opinion. b) CW suggested that with the departure of Sarah Fray it is important that we should approach the new Executive Secretary, Dr Richard Hughes (formerly BGS and Coal Authority) and invite him to one of our meetings. c) DC is coordinating an internal BGS Workshop on 23 rd April. The scope of this will be much broader than the old BGS Stratigraphy Committee, which was led by Land Survey usage of mainly lithostratigraphy. The positive ambition is to raise the profile of stratigraphy across the BGS and to develop a vision/strategy for this underpinning area of science. d) CW reported that the Fritz Hilgen proposal on unit stratotypes and Milankovitch cycles (a version of the manuscript had been circulated at an earlier meeting) has been submitted to the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification (ISSC) for vote. e) PG suggested that for future meetings we should have a standing item on the International Commission on Stratigraphy. PG showed members the recent mobile app version of the ICS stratigraphic chart. Use, let your students know, and send any feedback to Phil. ICS will be completing voting on the Statutes by the end of the month and ISSC will be addressing the sub-series and sub-epochs issue. GTS2020, to be published by Elsevier, has been initiated and there will be a closer relationship between the GTS Foundation and ICS. Action (new): CW to add ICS to running items on the agenda of future meetings. Item 12 Date of next meeting Wednesday 10 th May, Arthur Holmes Room (could possibly be upgraded to Council Room). 6

7 ----- Summary of actions Action (ongoing): All to look at MH s proposed additions to the Commission website related to the section on British GSSPs, stratotypes and auxiliary stratotypes and propose contributions. Action (ongoing): PB/PP to send to Angharad Hills and Commission results of ICS discussions on use of Lower, Middle and Upper and Cenozoic sub-epochs. Action (ongoing): TB to coordinate ideas for amended Guide to Stratigraphic Procedure. Action (ongoing): AG to circulate Callomon rebuttal manuscript for comment. Action (revised): CW to recirculate membership details once recent revisions have stabilised. Action (new): MO to coordinate a workshop on offshore Jurassic to progress SR. Action (new): CW to contact Mark Woods and JG/MO to contact Matthew Wakefield. Action (new): CW to contact membership and seek opinions on scheduling of meetings. Action (new): CW to contact the Society s Accounts Department to determine if travel costs for Colin Reeves and representatives of European Commissions would be available. Action (new): JP to contact Society s Council/Publications to see if they would be interested in hosting the GeoArabia electronic library via the Lyell Collection. Action (new): JC to contact Richard Bevins Science Committee to see if the Geoconservation Committee would wish to establish contacts with the Commission over discussions for future Geopark proposals. Action (new): CW to add ICS to running items on the agenda of future meetings. 7