December 2025

Added at 14:33 on 05 December 2025

NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2025 

This is an update newsletter giving details of our winter lectures, our AGM, and our 2026 field 
trips. 

HGS AGM and Quiz, 4 March 2026 at Inverness Youth Hostel at 7:30pm.  We will hold this as 
a largely informal get together, and we hope that as many as possible of you will attend in 
person.  We will start with the formal part of the proceedings, our AGM, and this will be run as hybrid meeting so that those of you unable to attend in person will still be able to participate.  
This will be our first AGM as SCIO, and we will keep it reasonably short. 

The Quiz will then follow, for those present only.  Largely Scottish geology/geography based 
there will be a mix of categories and questions, some easy and some at a challenging level. 
During the Quiz we will leave the Zoom session open so that those not present will if they wish be able to listen in but will not be able to participate. 

2025/26 HGS lectures.  A reminder that these are either on Zoom only or held at Inverness 
Youth Hostel (hybrid), and unless otherwise noted are on Wednesday evenings starting at 19:30. 

2025
Wed 10 December       Dr Maarten Krabbendam (BGS): The Moine no more       Zoom 

2026
Wed 21 January    Dr Mike Simms (National Museums NI):  Meteorites: Messengers from the Solar System Hybrid

Thursday 19 February    Prof John Howe (SAMS): Seabed mapping    Zoom

Wed 4 March    HGS AGM and Quiz, see note above    Hybrid

Wed 18 March    D  r Nick Gardner (University of St Andrews): Battery Metals Hybrid 


Proposed Field Trips 2026.  The programme is still under development. 

Monday afternoons    Behind the scenes tour of Inverness Museum, in small groups, Andy 
Moffat 1400-1600, various 

winter dates tbc 
Tbc April                   Lochindorb, Dr Martin Smith 
Sat 16 May               Portsoy, Prof John Parnell 
Tbc May                   Quarrywood, Dave Longstaff 
Sun 28 June             Evidence of the ice age in upper Strathnairn, Ann and Peter Reynolds 
Sat 19 September  Tarbatness/Portmahomack.  Dr Steven Andrews  
Tbc, October           Hermitage/Dunkeld.  Dr Martin Smith 


In addition, there is the Ken Glennie Conference and field trips, Fri 8 to Sun 10 May.  Arranged 
by Aberdeen Geological Society there will be a conference in Aberdeen 8 May and proposed 
field trips around Elgin and Hopeman Sat 9 and Sun 10 May. 

2025/26 HGS lecture series further details 

Wed 10 December. Dr Maarten Krabbendam (BGS): The Moine no more: A new stratigraphic 
framework for the early Neoproterozoic successions of Scotland. (Zoom) 

The advent of modern dating techniques has in the last decades provided much better timing 
constraints on the deposition of Neoproterozoic sequences (1000-550 Ma) in Scotland, in 
Greenland and in Svalbard. This has shown that the Neoproterozoic evolution of this north 
Atlantic province is dominated by three tectonic episodes: the Grenville-Sveconorwegian 
orogeny, the Renlandian orogeny and the rifting and formation of the Iapetus Ocean.  In 
Greenland and Svalbard, Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks can be divided into three 
‘megasequences’, constrained by the three major tectonic episodes.  In northern Scotland, 
however, the classic subdivision of Torridonian and Moine is at odds with these 
megasequences:  new stratigraphic framework is thus necessary.
The oldest megasequence in Scotland is the newly named Wester Ross Supergroup, comprising the Iona, Sleat, Torridon and Morar groups of the Scottish mainland and Inner Hebrides, and the Westing, Sand Voe and Yell Sound groups in Shetland. These units were deposited c. 1000–950 Ma within a foreland basin to the Grenville Orogen.  
The second megasequence is the newly named Loch Ness Supergroup consists of the 
Glenfinnan, Loch Eil and Badenoch groups of the Scottish mainland. These units were 
deposited after the Renlandian orogeny between c. 900–870 Ma and record Knoydartian 
orogenesis c. 820-725 Ma.  
The Dalradian Supergroup in the Grampian Highlands and Shetland belongs to the third 
megasequence:  it was deposited c. <725-500 Ma and records the opening of the Iapetus 
Ocean, ultimately leading to deposition of the passive margin Cambrian-Ordovician Ardvreck 
and Durness groups in the NW Highlands.

 
Wed 21 January.  Dr Mike Simms (National Museums NI): Meteorites: Messengers from the 
Solar System. (Hybrid) 
Huge sums of money are spent sending people, and machines, into Space to analyse and 
retrieve extraterrestrial rocks, but every year samples fall to Earth for free, as meteorites. Most are from the Asteroid Belt, with a few from the Moon or from Mars, but their ultimate origins extend more widely through the Solar System. They tell us much about how profoundly different the early Solar System was from what we see today, from where the material of which it is made came, how it evolved through time, and even how life may have begun. This talk will provide an overview of interesting things meteorites can tell us, and there will be an opportunity to handle some genuine samples. 

Thursday 19 February.  Prof. John Howe (Scottish Association for Marine Science: SAMS). 
Seabed mapping.  (Zoom) 

John is a marine geologist with the Scottish Association for Marine Science and the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI). This talk explores the development of seabed mapping and its application for marine geoscience. The talk will mainly focus on the Firth of Lorn, western Scotland and will examine the region’s submarine solid and late glacial geology and 
geomorphology, including the famous Gulf of Corryvreckan. In addition, the use of autonomous underwater vehicles to map the glacial environments of Svalbard and Greenland will be described. 

Wed 18 March. Dr Nick Gardner (University of St Andrews): Battery metals - and the race to 
net zero. (Hybrid) 

The transition to a renewable energy system for the generation, transmission, and storage of 
electricity, requires an unprecedented supply of key metals, in particular the so-called “battery metals” tin, lithium, tungsten, and tantalum. These metals are primarily sourced from 
magmatic-hydrothermal deposits, most notably small-scale deposits known as pegmatites. 
Here, we discuss how in a global mining context these battery metals are relatively minor, with a fragile supply pipeline. We discuss the current rush for lithium, and focus on current research on lithium pegmatites: how new geochemical tools can help shed light on the processes of mineralization, to help us build better models for the formation and discovery of these enigmatic deposits. 

Other items of Interest 

SGT James Hutton Deep Time Trail.  The SGT crowdfunding exercise to instigate a Siccar Point 
geology trail with information boards and better access to Siccar Point has now finished and has been a great success. HGS has contributed £100 to the project and building is expected to start in earnest in 2026. 

Links to other Scottish geological societies and sites of interest are on our website 

https://www.highlandgeologicalsociety.scot/ 

Contact information 

Co-chair      Alan Thompson    highlandgeologicalsociety@gmail.com 

Secretary   Anne Cockroft        hgssec@gmail.com 

 
Treasurer   Kathryn Logan       treas4hgs@gmail.com