In late October 2022 Simon headed to Orkney, Scotland to meet up in with researchers from the University of Oslo. The plan was to undertake a week of fieldwork as part of a large project headed by Annique Van der Boon (former Liverpool PDRA). There is lots of incredible geology in Orkney, and we were there to sample several important rocks:

1) Devonian aged volcanic rocks; 390 Ma rhyolite and younger more mafic volcanics that are 378 Ma.

2) Two sets of dykes which are different in composition and age; Camptonite 302 Ma and Monchiquite 280-284 Ma.

We did find and sample all of these targets, but we had the most success with the Camptonite dykes. These are really important because of their age; they formed and acquired their magnetisation during the Kiaman superchron, which is a period where Earth’s magnetic field was stuck in reverse for more than 50 million years. It was in a state of reversed polarity (North pole had flipped to the South pole) from ~262 to 318 Ma. Understanding this phenomena is an important part of Earth Science and the measurements of magnetic field direction and strength that we perform on these rocks will tell us about the deep earth processes that would need to exist to create this behaviour. Check out the amazing ariel photographs of the geology of Orkney!