Beneath the canopy it is dark and gloomy on the forest floor, the air heavy ahead of late-afternoon rain. I am alone in a remote spot on a remote island in a remote corner of the Pacific. Three men appear from the trees behind me. They are […]
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To stumble upon in the field and recognise it for what it is – outcropping mineralisation with the grade and size potential to become an orebody. A long-anticipated moment of fierce joy and satisfaction for the lone prospector or exploration geologist. I does not happen very often […]
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“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.” Albert Einstein, 1953 Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of uncertainty – some most unsure, some nearly sure, none […]
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As a 10-year-old in 1953, I migrated with my family to South Australia, and settled in to one of the fast-growing outer suburbs of Adelaide that were being rapidly built at that time to accommodate the post-war influx of migrants. I enrolled for the new term at […]
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The Problem Climate Change (CC) dominates today’s environmental concerns. We are daily bombarded with the message that it will lead to future catastrophe for humanity, if not for the planet. Human emissions of greenhouse gasses are the primary cause and only drastic societal change will enable us […]
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Here’s the thing You know what Australia looks like. You would recognise it on a map: its general shape, the peninsulas, the great gulfs. You could draw it from memory, probably, and if you did, it might look something like this: Figure 1 That’s a pretty […]
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Early one summer’s evening in Exeter, having just dropped off a friend for his train at St David’s Station, I am returning to my car when I am hailed by an old acquaintance, Jack. Jack greets me effusively: Hi there. I’m glad I saw you. I just […]
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“How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observations must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service.” - Charles Darwin. Speak to exploration geologists and you will find two opposing views about what a geologist should do when […]
Read more →The Great Pandemic of 1889-1890 In the Northern winter of 1889 -1890, one of the deadliest pandemics since the Black Death of the mid 14th Century swept the world. Our forebears called it the Russian Flu. Where the Black Death took three years to spread from Constantinople […]
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