Unearthed

Description

'Unearthed: impacts of the Tellus surveys of the north of Ireland details how this unprecedented land and air survey of hidden Ireland rewards us with a more complete understanding of the natural history of this region. It tells an epic story of how Ireland's geological past will sustain its future'. Professor Iain Stewart MBEBetween 2004 and 2013, million of government and EU funding was spent on high-resolution, airborne geophysical and geochemical sampling surveys of Northern Ireland and the six northern counties of the Republic of Ireland. This book presents some of the findings of the first two stages of Tellus, the largest collaborative cross-border programme of geoscience surveys ever undertaken on the island of Ireland. Tellus is a concerted cross-border investment in the terrestrial geosciences, intended both to stimulate exploration for natural resources and to generate essential data for environmental management. A huge volume of geoscientific data has already been produced and analysed by researchers in Ireland, the UK and beyond. In this book, scientists who have worked with the Tellus data reflect on the outputs and impacts in terms of the economy, the environment, energy, agriculture and ecology.

Sujets

• Sciences et techniques
• Irlanda del Norte
• Earth science
• Energy and society
• Environmental management
• Environmental factor
• Applied ecology
• Environmental chemistry
• Petrology
• Economic geology
• Wetland
• Environmental science
• Geophysics
• Geochemistry
• Scientific method
• Northern Ireland
• Geology
• Cartography
• Agricultural science
• Irlande du Nord

Informations

• Publié par: Royal Irish Academy
• Date de parution: 21 septembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908996893
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

UNEARTHED
Impacts of the Tellus surveys of the north of Ireland
EDITED BY MIKE YOUNG FOREWORD BY IAIN STEWART
Unearthed: impacts of the Tellus surveys of the north of Ireland First published in 2016 by the Royal Irish Academy 19 Dawson Street Dublin 2 www.ria.ie
Copyright 2016 Royal Irish Academy
ISBN: 978-1-908996-89-3
The articles in this book are open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Except where noted:
Geological mapping for Northern Ireland / Tellus data are provided by the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland.
Geological mapping for Ireland / Tellus Border data are provided by the Geological Survey of Ireland.
Topographic mapping for Northern Ireland is derived from Land and Propery Services Open Data and contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. ( http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ ).
Topographic mapping for Ireland is derived from Ordnance Survey of Ireland Open Data ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode ).
While every effort has been made to contact and obtain permission from holders of copyright, if any involuntary infringement of copyright has occurred, sincere apologies are offered, and the owner of such copyright is requested to contact the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record is available from the British Library.
Design: Alex Donald, Geological Survey of Northern Ireland. Index: Brendan O Brien. Printed in Poland by L&C Printing Group.
Contents
FOREWORD
DIRECTORS FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
1. THE TELLUS GEOSCIENCE SURVEYS OF THE NORTH OF IRELAND: CONTEXT, DELIVERY AND IMPACTS
Mike Young
2. THE TELLUS AIRBORNE GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS AND RESULTS
James Hodgson and Mike Young
3. THE TELLUS GEOCHEMICAL SURVEYS, RESULTS AND APPLICATIONS
Mike Young, Kate Knights, Dermot Smyth, Mair ad Glennon, Ray Scanlon and Vincent Gallagher
4. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT FOR REGIONAL GEOSCIENTIFIC SURVEYING: THE TELLUS BORDER COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGN
Mair ad Glennon, Marie Cowan and Ray Scanlon
MINERAL AND ENERGY EXPLORATION
5. MINERAL RESOURCES AND TELLUS: THE ESSENTIAL BALANCE
Garth Earls
6. GOLD EXPLORATION IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND: NEW TARGETS FROM THE TELLUS PROJECTS
Garth Earls
7. USING SOIL GEOCHEMISTRY TO INVESTIGATE GOLD AND BASE METAL DISTRIBUTION AND DISPERSAL IN THE GLACIATED NORTH OF IRELAND
Michael Dempster, Mark Cooper, Paul Dunlop and Andreas Scheib
8. CRITICAL METALS FOR HIGH-TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS: MINERAL EXPLORATION POTENTIAL IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND
Paul Lusty
9. A NATURAL LABORATORY FOR CRITICAL METALS INVESTIGATIONS IN THE MOURNE MOUNTAINS GRANITES
Kathryn Moore, Norman Moles and Paul Lusty
10. GEOTHERMAL POTENTIAL OF GRANITIC ROCKS OF THE MOURNE MOUNTAINS
Mohammednur Desissa Ture, Derek Reay, Mark Muller, Chris Yeomans and Laura Ayres
11. SHAPE AND INTRUSION HISTORY OF THE LATE CALEDONIAN NEWRY IGNEOUS COMPLEX, NORTHERN IRELAND
Mark Cooper, Paul Anderson, Daniel Condon, Carl Stevenson, Rob Ellam, Ian Meighan and Quentin Crowley
12. USING TELLUS DATA TO ENHANCE TARGETING OF VOLCANOGENIC MASSIVE SULPHIDE MINERALISATION IN THE TYRONE IGNEOUS COMPLEX
Steven Hollis, Mark Cooper, Garth Earls, Stephen Roberts, Richard Herrington and Stephen Piercey
13. THE GEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY ANOMALIES OF THE ORDOVICIAN-SILURIAN MOFFAT SHALE GROUP, NORTHERN IRELAND
Mark Cooper, James Floyd, Gareth Barker, Mohammednur Desissa Ture, James Hodgson, Brian McConnell and Matthew Warke
14. FAULTS, INTRUSIONS AND FLOOD BASALTS: THE CENOZOIC STRUCTURE OF THE NORTH OF IRELAND
Hugh Anderson, John Walsh and Mark Cooper
AGRICULTURE AND ECOLOGY
15. INFORMATION FOR AGRICULTURE FROM REGIONAL GEOCHEMICAL SURVEYS: THE EXAMPLE OF SOIL PH IN THE TELLUS AND TELLUS BORDER DATA
Murray Lark, Louise Ander and Kate Knights
16. AN ECOHYDROLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF WETLANDS IN THE BORDER COUNTIES OF IRELAND: A FRAMEWORK FOR A HOLISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF WETLAND SYSTEMS
Valerie McCarthy and Alec Rolston
17. ASSESSING NUTRIENT ENRICHMENT RISK TO GROUNDWATER-DEPENDENT ECOSYSTEMS IN THE BORDER COUNTIES OF IRELAND
Raymond Flynn, Victor Perello, Ruaidhr McKernon and Valerie McCarthy
ENVIRONMENTAL MAPPING AND MANAGEMENT
18. MAPPING THE TERRESTRIAL GAMMA RADIATION DOSE
David Beamish
19. SOILS AND THEIR RADIOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS
David Beamish
20. MODELLING IN-HOUSE RADON POTENTIAL USING TELLUS DATA AND GEOLOGY TO SUPPLEMENT IN-HOUSE RADON MEASUREMENTS
Don Appleton and James Hodgson
21. DETERMINING GEOCHEMICAL THRESHOLD VALUES FROM THE TELLUS DATA SETS: THE EXAMPLES OF ZINC AND IODINE
Rebekka McIlwaine, Siobhan Cox and Rory Doherty
22. IDENTIFICATION OF THE GEOCHEMICAL SIGNATURES OF DIFFUSE POLLUTION IN THE TELLUS BORDER SOIL DATA SET, USING SOURCE APPORTIONMENT
Mark Cave, Louise Ander and Chris Johnson
23. STREAM SEDIMENT BACKGROUND CONCENTRATIONS IN MINERALISED CATCHMENTS IN NORTHERN IRELAND: ASSESSMENT OF PRESSURES ON WATER BODIES IN FULFILMENT OF WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE OBJECTIVES
Barbara Palumbo-Roe, Louise Ander, Mark Cave, Chris Johnson and Mark Cooper
24. MAPPING METALLIC CONTAMINATION OF SOILS IN THE LOWER FOYLE CATCHMENT
Solveigh Lass-Evans
25. REFINING THE HUMAN HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT PROCESS IN NORTHERN IRELAND THROUGH THE USE OF ORAL BIOACCESSIBILITY DATA
Sherry Palmer, Ulrich Ofterdinger and Jennifer McKinley
26. COMBINING ENVIRONMENTAL AND MEDICAL DATA SETS TO EXPLORE POTENTIAL ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND HEALTH: POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENTS
Jennifer McKinley, Ulrich Ofterdinger, Sherry Palmer, Chloe Jackson, Damian Fogarty and Anna Gavin
27. MAPPING A WASTE DISPOSAL SITE USING TELLUS AIRBORNE GEOPHYSICAL DATA
Ulrich Ofterdinger, C. Wilson, Martin Robinson, Jean-Christophe Comte, Rachel Cassidy, David Beamish and Alastair Ruffell
28. THE USE OF AERO-MAGNETICS TO ENHANCE A NUMERICAL GROUNDWATER MODEL OF THE LAGAN VALLEY AQUIFER, NORTHERN IRELAND
Neil Dickson, Jean-Christophe Comte, Jennifer McKinley and Ulrich Ofterdinger
29. CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN THE SOILS OF NORTHERN IRELAND: POTENTIAL BASED ON MINERALOGICAL CONTROLS
Nicola Ashton, Andrew Tye, Richard Pattrick and Bart van Dongen
30. SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL GEOCHEMISTRY IN GEOFORENSICS
Alastair Ruffell and Jennifer McKinley
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
REVIEWERS
Foreword

Beneath the scenic skin of Ireland there lies another world. It s a world familiar only to a few - to those geologists who have quietly probed its depths, revealed its rocky basement and charted the journey of its prodigiously ancient roots. This land below ground has a history that extends way beyond human lives and legends to leave a geological legacy that - for its modest size - is the most varied in the world. But this diverse geological mosaic below our feet is more than simply the bedrock underlay to the familiar wild places, farmlands and towns above. It is the economic wealth of peoples past and present and the stone furnishing of the streets and buildings we see every day. Geology may lie out of sight, but in terms of its critical importance to the modern world it is far from being out of mind.
Which is where the Tellus Project came in. This project, named after the Roman goddess of the Earth, was conceived to catalogue Ireland s hidden inventory and assess not only its contemporary value and usefulness, but also its threats and unknowns. Imagining and imaging what lies below us is a tricky business and requires a clever combination of surveying from above - magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric mapping from lowflying specialist aircraft - and walking the ground to detect surface clues in the rocks and in the tens of thousands of soil, sediment and water samples collected for laboratory analysis.
This combined land and air offensive has been unprecedented - nowhere else on earth has been examined in such detail. As a result of over ten years of forensic examination, subsurface Ireland is probably the most intensively studied piece of geological real estate on the planet. The results have had immediate benefits in terms of promoting economic investment, unearthing valuable new information on the region s mineral resources and mapping the environmental characteristics of a much-loved landscape. The dangers presented by the rocky underworld are also now more apparent; the research highlights hot spots of natural radiation or possibly toxic contaminants leaking from deep metal-rich rocks, and appraises levels of industrial pollution in the cities.
All in all, the Tellus work is expected to have a huge impact on the economic, environmental, agricultural and health sectors. But perhaps the biggest prize of a decade of exploring hidden Ireland is a more complete understanding of the natural history of this region. It tells an epic story of how Ireland s geological past will sustain its future.
Professor Iain Stewart MBE
Director of the Sustainable Earth Institute
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth
As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire. The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold .
Job 28: 5-6

The granitic Mourne Mountains viewed across Dundrum Bay from greywacke sandstones of St John s Point, County Down.
Photo: Travel Pictures

Directors Foreword
The Tellus programme was conceived in the 1990s as a major geoscience project that would benefit the whole island of Ireland by providing modern geophysical and geochemical data with which to update geological map