3D attributed models for addressing environmental and engineering geoscience problems in areas of urban regeneration : a case study in Glasgow, UK

The City of Glasgow is situated on and around the lower floodplain and inner estuary of the River Clyde in the west of Scotland, UK. Glasgow’s urban hinterland once was one of Europe’s leading centres of heavy industry, and of ship building in particular. The industries were originally fed by locally mined coal and ironstone. In common with many European cities, the heavy industries declined and Glasgow was left with a legacy of industrial dereliction, widespread undermining, and extensive vacant and contaminated sites, some the infilled sites of clay pits and sand and gravel workings

Norham West Mains Farm borehole : operations report

A borehole was drilled to a total depth of 501.33 m by Drilcorp Ltd at Norham West Mains Farm, near the village of Norham, Berwick upon Tweed. Work was commenced on the 27th of March 2013 and completed on 7th Obtaining cores from the Norham West Mains Farm Borehole is a major task within the TW:eed Project, which is investigating how limbed vertebrates adapted to walk on land around 360 million years ago (see June 2013. The borehole was fully cored from 10.22 m to its total depth through rocks of the Lower Carboniferous Inverclyde Group. http://www.tetrapods.org/). This was a key stage in the evolution of life on Earth and shaped the future evolution of vertebrates, including the eventual appearance of humans. The project builds on some unique new fossil finds made recently in the Scottish Borders and adjacent areas. Analysis of the borehole will provide a framework upon which this research is to be pinned. This scientific research programme is being undertaken by a consortium of organisations led by the University of Cambridge, and including the universities of Southampton and Leicester, the National Museums of Scotland and the British Geological Survey, and funded through the Natural Environment Research Council

The rocks of Spireslack surface coal mine and its subsurface data : an introduction

Surface coal mining at Spireslack, East Ayrshire, has exposed a one kilometre long, vertical section of over 130 m of Carboniferous strata. This includes a variably exposed complete sequence through the Limestone Coal Formation, one of the main coal producing units in Central Scotland, and also the underlying Lower Limestone Formation. Parts of the Lawmuir and Upper Limestone formations are also exposed. Such laterally continuous exposures of these Carboniferous strata are rarely exposed in nature, and therefore Spireslack allows the opportunity to study their features in detail. These include laterally extensive fluvial sandstone sequences; palaeosol horizons with in situ tree casts; regionally correlateable limestones; fold and fault-related structures and their relation to differing mechanical rock properties; and regionally important marine bands and other fossils within the Carboniferous. Data obtained from abandonment plans of earlier underground coal mining, and from more recent surface coal mining, have been used in combination with 1:10 250 geological fieldslips, to reconstruct the position and structure of seven mined coal seams from Spireslack in a 3D geological model. The model reveals geological folds previously photographed but not mapped before and allows the structure and position of the Muirkirk Syncline to be mapped accurately in this area. This report firstly presents an account of the geology exposed at Spireslack, and secondly the results of the 3D geological model. The 3D model will underpin future geological investigations of Spireslack and act as a foundation for subsequent sub-surface geological modelling (e.g. seismic modelling, fluid flow modelling, etc)

Coal mining subsidence, Wemyss villages, Fife

This report describes the results of mining subsidence calculations for the Fife coast around the villages of West and East Wemyss, north of Kirkcaldy. This part of the Fife coastline is well known for the increase in coastal erosion it has suffered in recent years. The reasons for the increase are rooted in past deep mining subsidence, the cessation of the disposal of colliery spoil on the Fife foreshore between Buckhaven and Dysart and the associated loss of beach recharge from heaps of mine spoil (known locally as bings) by longshore drift to compensate for the mining subsidence. The mining spoil at Wellesley Colliery, Buckhaven was eroded by the sea and redistributed southwards by longshore drift depositing up to 5 m of ‘beach recharge material’ on the shores in front of the two villages. Once tipping ceased, coastal erosion (and flooding) re-established itself and retreat of the shoreline accelerated, threatening property and ancient monuments (caves with Pictish and other carvings). The mining subsidence calculations show that the Wemyss foreshore area has been affected by up to 5 m of cumulative and irregularly distributed ground subsidence. The large number of seams (>16) worked and the complexity of the workings will have set up high strains of compression and tension in the strata overlying the worked coal seams. These strains will have caused surface damage and enhanced erosion at the coast. The world famous Wemyss caves have also suffered damage and collapse as a result of mining subsidence and coastal erosion (partial collapse of Court Cave in 1970). Subsidence of up to 2 m, with recent removal of beach material deposits, means the cave system is now even more vulnerable to marine erosion and flooding unless defended

A GIS of the extent of historical mining activities in Scotland: explanatory notes

As part of the secondment of BGS staff to SEPA to help implement the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Scotland, BGS have been asked to provide an approximate outline of the extent of historical mining in Scotland. This will be used to help characterize pressures on Scottish groundwater as part of the initial characterization of groundwater bodies for the WFD. Initial characterization has to be completed by December 2004; for bodies deemed to be at risk there will be further characterization after 2004. A team of BGS geologists carried out the work during September 2003. The aim of the study was: “To delineate the extent of known and inferred historical and current shallow and dee

UK Coal resource for new exploitation technologies. Final report

This focus of this report are the UK coal resources available for exploitation by the new technologies of Underground Coal Gasification, Coalbed Methane production and Carbon Dioxide Sequestration. It also briefly considers the potential for further underground and opencast mining and the extraction of methane from working and closed mines. The potential for mining was mainly considered because it has a bearing on the scope for the new exploitation technologies rather than to identify resources or potential mine development areas. The report covers the UK landward area and nearshore areas, although information on the extent of underground mining was not available for the nearshore areas. This work was carried out by the British Geological Survey, with the assistance of Wardell Armstrong and Imperial College, London. It represents a summary of the results of the Study of the UK Coal Resource for New Exploitation Technologies Project, carried out for the DTI Cleaner Coal Technology Programme (Contract No. C/01/00301/00/00) under the management of Future Energy Solutions (Agreement No. C/01/00301/00/00). Coalbed methane production can be subdivided into three categories: Methane drained from working mines, known as Coal Mine Methane (CMM), has been exploited in the UK since at least the 1950s. Currently all working mines except Daw Mill and Ellington drain methane. It is used to generate electricity at Harworth, Tower and Thoresby collieries and in boilers at Welbeck, Kellingley and Ricall/Whitemoor collieries. There is potential to increase the exploitation of CMM in the UK but this is mainly a question of economics. There is also an environmental case for further utilisation, as methane is an important greenhouse gas, 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide on a mass basis. Methane drained from abandoned mines, known as Abandoned Mine Methane (AMM), is a methane-rich gas that is obtained from abandoned mines by applying suction to the workings. The fuel gas component consists primarily of methane desorbed from seams surrounding the mined seam(s). These unmined seams have been de-stressed and fractured by the collapse of overlying and underlying strata into the void left by the extracted seam(s). Currently AMM is being exploited at sites in North Staffordshire (Silverdale Colliery), the East Midlands (Bentinck, Shirebrook and Markham collieries) and Yorkshire (Hickleton, Monk Bretton and Wheldale collieries). The methane-rich gas is used for electricity generation or supplied to local industry for use in boilers and kilns. Over the last few years, the fledgling UK AMM industry has started to ascend a learning curve. However, it has suffered a major setback since the wholesale price of electricity fell under the New Electricity Trading Arrangements and AMM does not currently qualify as renewable energy in the UK. Coalbed methane produced via boreholes from virgin coal seams, known as Virgin Coalbed Methane (VCBM), has been the subject of significant exploration effort in Lancashire, North Wales, South Wales and Scotland. The best production of gas and water from a single well is understood to be from the project at Airth, north of Falkirk in Scotland. However, this is not economic at present. The main reason for the slow development of VCBM in the UK is perceived to be the widespread low permeability of UK coal seams, although little work has been carried out in the UK on coal permeability, or to truly identify the reasons for the lack of success. This must be overcome before the otherwise significant resource bases in the Clackmannan Syncline, Canonbie, Cumbria, South Lancashire, North Wales, North Staffordshire and South Wales coalfields can be exploited. A technological breakthrough is required to overcome the likely widespread low permeability in the UK Carboniferous coal seams. Otherwise, at best, production will probably be limited to niche opportunities in areas where high seam permeability exists. The criteria used to define and map the location of VCBM resources are as follows: • Coal seams greater than 0.4 m in thickness at depths >200 m • Seam gas content >1m3/tonne • 500 metres or more horizontal separation from underground coal workings • Vertical separation of 150m above and 40 m below a previously worked seam Vertical separation of >100 m from major unconformities of these areas is thought to be about ,900 x 109 m3 (about 29 years of UK natural gas consumption). he main criteria sed for the delineation and mapping of resource areas with potential for UCG were: eparation from underground coal workings and current omic and environmental grounds as described later in this report. he establishment of these criteria do not rule out UCG projects in shallower or thinner seams, if • Vertical separation of >100 m from major aquifers, and • Areas with a CMM resource (current underground coal mining licences) were excluded. Note that the presence of a CBM resource does not imply permeability in the coal seams or that the resource can be recovered economically now or at any time in the future. Using these criteria resource areas were defined and represented on the maps. The total VCBM resource 2 Underground coal gasification (UCG) is the process whereby the injection of oxygen and steam/water via a borehole results in the partial in-situ combustion of coal to produce a combustible gas mixture consisting of CO2, CH4, H2 and CO, the proportions depending on temperature, pressure conditions and the reactant gases injected. This product gas is then extracted via a producing well for use as an energy source. All previous trials of this technology in the UK took place in the 1950’s or before, e.g. Durham (1912), Newman Spinney (1949-1956) and Bayton (c.1955), although this country is well placed for UCG, with large reserves of indigenous coal both onshore and offshore. T u • Seams of 2 m thickness or greater • Seams at depths between 600 and 1200 m from the surface • 500 m or more horizontal and vertical scoal mining licences, and • Greater than 100 m from major aquifers While seams outside these depth and thicknesses criteria are known to support UCG, the criteria were chosen for this generic study on econ T local site specific factors support it. Mapping of the potential UCG resource has identified large areas suitable for UCG, particularly in Eastern England, Midland Valley of Scotland, North Wales, Cheshire Basin, South Lancashire, Canonbie, the Midlands and Warwickshire. Potential also exists in other coalfields but on a smaller scale; this is often limited by the extent of former underground coal mining activities. The total area where coals are suitable for gasification is approximately 2.8 x 109m2. Where the criteria for UCG are met, the minimum volume of coal available for gasification, calculated assuming only one 2 m thick seam meets the criteria across each area, is app63 roximately 5,698 x 10 m (~7 Btonnes). Using an verage of the total thickness of coals that meet the criteria across each area gives a more realistic source figure of 12,911 x 106m3 (~17 Btonnes). pass the expensive step of parating the CO2 from flue gases. If the main objective, however, is CO2 sequestration rather than ethane production then separation of the flue gases may be worthwhile. O2 on coal seams, is would render them unminable and ungasifiable (because the CO2 would be released). Any future ining of such coals would require re-capture and sequestration of the stored CO . ion, providing that other issues, such as low seam permeability, can be vercome. Large areas where coal is below 1,200 m occur in the UK, particularly in the Cheshire asin and Eastern England. In summary • and its potential application in the UK cannot be assessed. However, there are vast areas of coal at depths below 1,200 m that are possibly too deep for mining and in situ gasification

The Upper Devonian Sandstone aquifer of Fife

The Devonian sandstone aquifer of Fife has long been recognised as one of the most important hydrogeological units in Scotland. Its importance was first acknowledged by Earp and Eden (1961), and the aquifer was later described by Foster et al (1976). Data were subsequently gathered together in map form (BGS, 1986) but little analysis of the aquifer was carried out other than a dissertation prepared by Barker (1981), occasional reports on specific issues such as nitrate pollution (e.g. Frost and Sargent, 1993; MacDonald, 1993; Ball, 1994), and the preparation of the 1: 100 000 scale Aquifer Vulnerability Map of Fife (SEPA, 1999). The aquifer currently supplies some 20 Ml/d during the winter, rising to 40 Ml/d in the summer months, when irrigation boreholes are put into use. Groundwater provides an important back up to public water supplies, particularly during dry years when river abstraction is restricted. Despite this, relatively little is known about the overall renewable resource potential of the aquifer. It is also only in recent years that means of safeguarding groundwater from pollution have been investigated in any detail. Renewed interest in the aquifer is now being driven on two fronts. The first is that the East of Scotland Water Authority (ESWA) needs to expand its source provision due to increasing demand. The second is that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) needs to look more closely at the aquifer potential if in the future groundwater abstraction licensing is introduced in significant aquifers (Robins and Ball, 1998). In addition, the requirements of the proposed EU Water Framework Directive indicate that a greater understanding of the aquifer and the sources it supplies will be needed in order to implement properly integrated surface and groundwater management on a catchment basis. With these goals in mind, the East of Scotland Water Authority, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and NERC have jointly commissioned this preliminary study of the Eden valley aquifer

Sedimentology, architecture and depositional setting of the fluvial Spireslack Sandstone of the Midland Valley, Scotland: insights from the Spireslack surface coal mine

The Spireslack surface coal mine exposes a section in the Carboniferous Lawmuir Formation (Brigantian) into the Upper Limestone Formation (Arnsbergian). This paper describes the stratigraphy exposed at Spireslack and, in so doing, names for the first time the Spireslack Sandstone, a distinctive erosively based, sandstone-dominated unit in the Upper Limestone Formation. The Spireslack Sandstone consists of two fluvial sandstone channel sets and an upper, possibly fluvio-estuarine, succession. From an analysis of their internal architectural elements, the channel sets are interpreted as a low-sinuosity, sand-dominated, mixed-load fluvial system in which avulsion and variations in sediment load played a significant part. The lower channel set appears to be confined to erosional palaeovalleys of limited lateral extent and significant relief. The upper channel set is much more laterally extensive and shows evidence of a generally lower sediment load with a greater degree of lateral accretion and flooding. Consequently, the Spireslack Sandstone may represent a system responding to base level changes of higher magnitude and longer duration than the glacio-eustatic scale commonly attributed to Carboniferous fluvio-deltaic cycles. The Spireslack Sandstone may represent an important correlative marker in the Carboniferous of the Midland Valley and may provide an alternative analogue for some Carboniferous fluvial sandstone stratigraphic traps

Rebuilding terrestrial ecosystems after the end-Devonian mass extinction: insights from the TW:eed Project

The TW:eed (Tetrapod World: early evolution and diversification) project is a major research initiative that will generate a coherent picture of the biotic, environmental and geological conditions of the 15-20 million years recovery period following the major extinction event at the end-Devonian that was a major turning point in terrestrial evolution. A paucity of terrestrial invertebrates and few fossils of early tetrapods have been found in post-Devonian successions from the immediate aftermath (Romer’s Gap) and yet, during a relatively brief time period in the Early Carboniferous, fully terrestrial vertebrates evolved, terrestrial arthropods radiated, ray-finned fishes took over from lobe-finned forms and plant groups diversified. Several new localities in Carboniferous successions in southern Scotland and northern England are providing completely new insights into this pivotal period for the evolution of life on land. Significant new tetrapod material is helping to populate Romer’s Gap. Localities are also yielding a diverse fauna of fish (gyracanthids, lungfish, rhizodonts and actinopterygians), invertebrates (malacostracans, eurypterids, ostracods, scorpions and myriapods) and plants. The fossil localities are within the Ballagan Formation, a distinctive unit comprising mudstones with interbedded sandstones, palaeosols and thin beds of dolomitic “cementstone”. The sediments were deposited on an extensive low relief, muddy, vegetated floodplain that was traversed by numerous river systems. Periodically the river-derived floods submerged the floodplains generating extensive shallow freshwater lakes. The presence of gypsum and anhydrite indicates that there were occasional marine transgressions across a marginal coastal plain. So far, most of the fossils have been found towards the top of the Ballagan Formation, but a coastal exposure of the entire formation provides a unique opportunity to search for fossils across a time interval of about 15 million years at the base of the Carboniferous. In addition to the detailed analysis of key outcrops, a drilling program in the Tweed Basin is in the process of acquiring 500 m of continuous core through these earliest Carboniferous successions. A tight stratigraphic framework for tetrapod localities across the region will be generated by integrating the sedimentological (lithostratigraphy), micropalaeontological (biostratigraphy), chemostratigraphical (carbon and oxygen stable isotopes) and petrophysical data from the core and outcrops. The borehole will provide the high-resolution datasets required to investigate the local, and potentially, global palaeoclimate and its evolution through this time interval. This multifaceted project is a unique opportunity to examine the progression, causes and context of the rebuilding of an ecosystem following a major extinction

The Penicuik landslide, Midlothian, January 2007

This report describes the geological context, form and composition of a substantial rotational failure in artificial deposits on the southern bank of the River North Esk, approximately 0.5 km southwest of Penicuik town centre. Slippage of buried industrial waste resulted in collapse of a substantial volume of made ground, and associated tension cracking. Consequently the area was closed until the level of potential hazard could be assessed and remedial measures put in place. Slippage probably occurred as a result on prolonged and intensive rainfall in the weeks leading up to, as well as immediately prior to, the eventual failure. Elevated pore water pressures throughout the substrate, a raised water table, and slope-parallel stratification in the unconsolidated waste are likely to have combined to initiate the collapse