The Russell Society

The Russell Society has once again produced a desk calendar featuring mineral and geological photographs that have been submitted in the Society's Annual Photo' Competition.

The 2012 desk calendar is available now at the very reasonable cost of £2.20 excluding postage and packaging which costs £0.80. Thus the total cost to have the calendar delivered to your door is just £3.00. The calendar is 140 mm by 126 mm and comes in a clear plastic case that acts as a stand. The calendar runs from January 2012 to January 2013 inclusive.

To order a calendar please send a cheque, made payable to The Russell Society, to the Treasurer, Margaret Ince along with your full name and address for delivery. Margaret's address is given in the Membership List and also on the back page of the Newsletter. If you are not a member and you would like to obtain a calendar please email this web site using the Contacts menu option, and not changing the subject line, your request will be forwarded and you will be sent back contact details for ordering.

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The Society's Annual Social Meeting and AGM 2012 will be hosted in the South-West branch area in April. The weekend will be based at the Tremough Campus of the Combined Universities of Cornwall near Falmouth, Cornwall. This was the venue for the 2005 ASM when it had only just opened.

As well as a full programme of field trips, visits, talks and social activities there will a celebration of the Society's 40th anniversary. Full details, links and booking forms are are available on the dedicated ASM 2012 page. Booking forms have been sent to members and these should be returned before the January 15th deadline. Some of the field trips will be oversubscribed so if you do not want to be disappointed book now.

If you have never been on a Society ASM weekend before then perhaps this is the one to try. Not only will there be anniversary celebrations but the opportunity to visit some of the classic Cornish collecting sites that gave us some of the best specimens of their kind, many new to mineralogy.

The 2011 ASM weekend photographic report is still available to view, please follow this link ASM 2011 report to see what we get up to over an ASM weekend.

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Following on the success of Nature's 1 - 3, this is another one-day meeting, co-organized by the Russell Society, the Mineralogical Society, Gem-A (the Gemmological Association of Great Britain), and in association with Rockwatch and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The meeting will be held on the day before the first Oxford Mineral Show for 2012. The aim is to provide a day of talks which will appeal to anyone with an interest in minerals and gems, including members of all organizing and associated organizations. Students from schools and universities are welcomed. The day will commence with coffee and registration at 10.00 am followed by the first talk at 10.30 am. Lunch will be followed by some displays with more talks in the afternoon. Registration costs £20 per person and £10 for those under sixteen years of age. For RockWatch delegates, including parents, the cost is £10 each. For more details and to register online go to The Mineralogical Society web site:
http://www.minersoc.org/pages/meetings/nature4/nature4.html.

Provisional list of speakers

Morning Session, Session chair: Roy Starkey, President of The Russell Society.

• 10:20 Welcome and introduction.
• 10:30 "Re-creating 3D models of fossils", Derek Siveter, Oxford University.
• 11:00 "Nuclear Waste: we have a problem", Richard Pattrick, University of Manchester.
• 11:30 Coffee Break
• 11:45 "Minerals at the Nano-Scale: Exploring our Crystalline World", David Palmer Managing Director, CrystalMaker Software Ltd.
• 12:15 Lunch and displays

Take time to view displays and demonstrations by BGS, Gem-A, The Mineralogical Society, RockWatch, The Russell Society, Richard Tayler and Andy Tindle.

Afternoon Session, Session chair: Kevin Murphy, Executive Director of The Mineralogical Society.

• 13:45 "Minerals, mining and mess: Cleaning up after mining for metals and coal", Bill Perkins, University of Aberystwyth.
• 14:30 "Williams Caerhays Mineral Collection - Rescued from near-oblivion", Courtenay Smale.
• 15:00 Break
• 15:15 "The Lore and the Profits: Gems, Myths and the Jewellery Trade over 2000 years", Jack Ogden, Gem-A.
• 15:45 "The wonders of volcanoes ", David Pyle, Oxford University.
• 16:15 Closing remarks.
• 16.30 Disperse to the Museum Galleries where you can discover the stories behind Nature's Treasures.

The anglesite on irridescent gossan, Mona Mine, Parys Mountain, Anglesey is a Roy Starkey specimen and photograph.

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It is time again for the annual Society Photo' Competition. Participation is only open to RS members. Entries can be made in any of three categories with maximum of two photographs per category (thus you can submit up to six photographs). The category and title of each image should be clearly indicated when submitted. The three categories are:

• A: Mineral specimen (whole or in part),
• B: Micromount specimen,
• C: A geological exposure.

Digital images (ideally 1024 pixels x 768 pixels) should be submitted to Margaret Ince by email or by post on a disc. Margarets contact details are given in the Membership List or on the back page of the Society Newsletter. The deadline for submission is Thursday 1st March 2012.

Judging will take place on Friday 20th April at the Society ASM where a winner and runner up will be slected from each category and an overall winner will be selected from each category winner. All winners and runner up images will be shown published here on the society web site To see the 2011 winning photographs go to the Annual Photo' Competition page. Photographs submitted for the Photo' Competition may be used for the Society calendar.

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For those amongst who love exploring the geological scenery of Scotland a new book has just been published; "A Geological Excursion Guide to the North-West Highlands of Scotland", edited by Kathryn M. Goodenough and Maarten Krabbendam and published by the National Museums Scotland with Edinburgh Geological Society. The area covered largely corresponds to the North-west Geopark. The 16 excursions are:

• Loch Assynt and the Achmore Duplex
• A Transect through the Canisp Shear Zone,
• Achmelvich
• Stoer Group at Stoer Peninsula
• Stoer Group at Enard Bay
• Ullapool River, Creag nam Broc and Glen Achall
• Knockan Crag and the Knocken Klippen
• Traligill and Bealach Traligill
• Conival and Ben More Assynt
• Glen Oykel and the Loch Ailsh Pluton
• Cam Loch, Ledmore and the Loch Borralan Pluton
• Glencoul
• Scourie Mor
• Tarbet
• Durness, Balnakeil Bay and Faraid Head
• The Moine Thrust Zone at Loch Eriboll
• Roadside Stops around the North-west Highlands

Information is also given on travel and accommodation. The guide is aimed at professional geologists. undergraduate students and the enthusiastic amateur will also find it invaluable.

Book details: Publication June 2011, ISBN 978-1-905267-53-8, 228 pages, size 210 mm x 148 mm, 115 colour illustrations in paperback (flexiback binding for ease of reference and carrying), cost is £15.99. The book is available from bookshops, from www.nms.ac.uk/books or contact the publisher on 0131 247 4083, or see www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/p_sales.html.

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