Syenites are felsic plutonic igneous rocks characterized by the lack of quartz (<5 percent) or feldspathoids (<10 percent), although quartz syenites have 5–20 percent quartz. Typically they consist of feldspars, predominantly alkali feldspar with minor ferromagnesian minerals, usually pyroxene, amphibole or biotite. Syenites are overwhelmingly rocks of extensional environments and generally occur in areas of continental rifting, such as the African Rift Valley, and also on oceanic islands, such as the Canary archipelago. The extrusive equivalent of syenite is trachyte. As examples, we wi ..read more

Geology Today, Volume 40, Issue 2, Page i-iv, March/April 2024 ..read more

Geology Today, Volume 40, Issue 2, Page 79-80, March/April 2024 ..read more

Geology Today, Volume 40, Issue 2, Page i-viii, March/April 2024 ..read more

Geology Today, Volume 40, Issue 2, Page 42-51, March/April 2024 ..read more

We are living in the midst of a great technological revolution in history—the energy transition from today's fossil fuel-dominated civilization to low-carbon economies and industries. Geoscientists will significantly contribute to energy science, policy and technologies by advancing our knowledge base of the complex interacting processes and substances in Earth's lithosphere, oceans and atmosphere. Mapping the flow of energy in various forms and intensities in Earth systems, exploration of energy resources and minerals and evaluating the environmental impacts of energy technologies from upstre ..read more

Many rock and mineral collectors have roots in the movies and books of Jules Verne, such as Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864). It seems only fitting that the mineral verneite was recently named after him, one of only three writers (Verne, Goethe and Theophrastus) to have a mineral named after them. Verne was an active amateur geologist, visiting sites throughout Europe. Of Verne's 80 novels, many have geological themes, subthemes or backgrounds second only to the sea. Like in his Journey to the Center of the Earth, Verne's lesser geological novels offer a remarkable literary guide to r ..read more

In 2023, two decades after the restoration of the Victorian Geological Illustrations by the London Borough of Bromley—and the visit of the late HRH Prince Phillip to mark the completion of the restorations—it is clear that these internationally significant sculptures are in a worse state than ever before. Although interest in them remains high, and in spite of the best efforts of the Friends of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs to protect and interpret them, it is plain that they are greatly at risk. In the year that marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the description of Megalosaurus, depicted i ..read more

The beauty of an eclogite is something to behold: any petrologist marvels in the combination of red garnet and green omphacite that are the main mineral constituents of the rock. But besides their stunning appearance, there is much more to eclogites: fundamental concepts in metamorphic petrology and geodynamics were developed based on scientific investigations of eclogites. It is well established that they derive from precursor rocks of basaltic composition and form under high-pressure conditions at more than c. 45 km depth, but other aspects of their occurrences and geological significance re ..read more

Geology Today, Volume 40, Issue 1, Page i-iv, January/February 2024 ..read more