Scottish contributions to rotary wing flight

This paper charts the history of rotorcraft development in Scotland. Beginning with the early efforts of Mumford to achieve rotor-borne flight, through the major technology advances of G and J Weir in the 30s and 40s up to present day activities. The paper shows that despite being a relatively small country, Scotland’s traditional expertise in engineering when applied to the development of rotorcraft,generated significant technological advances

Exploration for volcanogenic sulphide mineralisation at Benglog, north Wales

Exploration for volcanogenic sulphide mineralisation around Benglog is one of three investigations designed to assess the metallogenic potential of the Ordovician Aran Volcanic Group. Detailed geological mapping in the Benglog area enabled an interpretation of the volcanic environment, critical to such an assessment, to be made. The eruptive rocks are acid and basic in composition; the acid rocks are mostly ash-flow tuffs derived from outside the area, whereas the basic rocks have a local derivation. They are all interbedded with dark grey or black silty mudstone and were probably erupted in a submarine environment. Contemporaneous dolerite sills were intruded into wet sediment. This environment was suitable for volcanogenic exhalative sulphide deposits to form and indications of a metallogenic horizon were found at the top of the Y Fron Formation in the form of abundant pyrite, minor pyrrhotite and minor base metal enrichment. Soil samples, analysed for copper, lead and zinc, were collected and geophysical surveys were carried out along eleven east-west trending traverse lines 300 m apart across the volcanic succession. Indications were found of minor vein mineralisation at dolerite intrusion margins and locally along faults. Very high chargeability and low resistivity anomalies over mudstones did not spatially coincide with geochemical anomalies in soil, but the secondary redistribution of metals in soils and variable thickness of overburden precluded confident interpretation of the source of many soil anomalies. Geochemical drainage data, in conjunction with rock analyses, show strong barium enrichment in mudstones which could be volcanogenic in origin but related to two separate eruptive episodes. The findings of the survey were inconclusive. An environment suitable for the formation of volcanogenic exhalative sulphide deposits was established, but the geochemical and geophysical surveys located only minor vein mineralisation and tenuous indications of other styles of mineralisation. Recommendations are made for further work

Miracle chemicals – can they aid salinity?

Non-Peer Reviewe

Collation of the results of the 2014 aggregate minerals survey for England and Wales

1.1 Aggregate Minerals (AM) surveys, normally undertaken at four-yearly intervals since 1973, provide an in-depth and up-to-date understanding of national and sub-national sales, inter-regional flows, transportation, consumption and permitted reserves of primary aggregates. The surveys are used to inform the development of minerals policy in respect to the production, movement and consumption of aggregates. The data are made publicly available. 1.2 This report is the collation of the data for primary aggregates for 2014, therefore there has been a five year period between this and the previous survey (AM2009). In addition to presenting information on regional and national sales, consumption, and permitted reserves of primary aggregates, the AM2014 report also presents data on the movement and consumption of primary aggregates by sub-region. Information is also presented on the quantity of aggregate minerals granted and refused planning permission and planning permission applications withdrawn between 2010 and 2014. In addition, information is presented on the quantity of aggregate minerals within planning permission applications submitted between 2010 and 2014 and were awaiting a decision at 31 December 2014. 1.3 The information is presented for England and Wales and for individual regions and was collected from aggregate producers by Mineral Planning Authorities (MPAs) using a standard form (Appendix F). It was subsequently collated at regional level by the relevant Aggregate Working Party Secretary (Appendix I) or the British Geological Survey (BGS)1 and at national level by the BGS on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Welsh Government. Similar information was published by the then Department of the Environment for 1973, 1977, 1985, 1989 and 1993, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions for 1997, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for 2001 and the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Welsh Assembly Government for 2005 and 2009 (Appendix H). Comparisons of sales, consumption and permitted reserves for these years and 2014 are provided in Tables D1 to D3

Mineral resource information in support of national, regional and local planning : Greater Manchester (comprising cities of Manchester, Salford and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan)

This report is one of a series prepared by the British Geological Survey for various administrative areas in England for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s research project Mineral Resource Information in Support of National, Regional and Local Planning. The accompanying map relates to Greater Manchester, comprising the cities of Manchester and Salford and Metropolitan Boroughs of Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan, and delineates the mineral resources of current, or potential, economic interest in the area and the sites where minerals are or have been worked. It also relates these to national planning designations, which may represent constraints on the extraction of minerals. Three major elements of information are presented: • the geological distribution and importance of mineral resources • the extent of mineral planning permissions and the location of current mineral workings • the extent of selected, nationally-designated planning constraints This wide range of information, much of which is scattered and not always available in a consistent and convenient form, is presented on a digitally-generated summary map on the scale of 1:100 000. This scale is convenient for the overall display of the data and allows for a legible topographic base on which to depict the information. However, all the data are held digitally at larger scales using a Geographical Information System (GIS), which allows easy revision, updating and customisation of the information together with its possible integration with other datasets. The information will form part of a Summary of the Mineral Resources of the North West Region. The purpose of the work is to assist all interested parties involved in the preparation and review of development plans, both in relation to the extraction of minerals and the protection of mineral resources from sterilisation. It provides a knowledge base, in a consistent format, on the nature and extent of mineral resources and the environmental constraints, which may affect their extraction. An important objective is to provide baseline data for the long term. The results may also provide a starting point for discussions on specific planning proposals for mineral extraction or on proposals, which may sterilise resources. It is anticipated that the maps and report will also provide valuable background data for a much wider audience, including the different sectors of the minerals industry, other agencies and authorities (e.g. The Planning Inspectorate Agency, the Environment Agency, the Countryside Agency and English Nature), environmental interests and the general public. Basic mineral resource information is essential to support mineral exploration and development activities, for resource management and land-use planning, and to establish baseline data for environmental impact studies and environmental guidelines. It also enables a more sustainable pattern and standard of development to be achieved by valuing mineral resources as national assets. The mineral resources covered are sand and gravel, crushed rock aggregate, brick clay, building stone, peat, coal, and hydrocarbons

Mineral exploration in the Lower Palaeozoic rocks of south-west Cumbria. Part 1, regional surveys

The results of geochemical, geological and geophysical surveys over Lower Palaeozoic rocks in the south-western part of Cumbria are given in two reports. This report (Part 1) describes the results of a geochemical drainage survey and an examination of mineralised sites, and relates them to information from new geological mapping and an assessment of regional geophysical data. Part 2 contains details of follow-up surveys in the Black Combe inlier. The geochemical drainage survey, involving the collection and analysis of heavy mineral concentrates and stream sediment samples from 119 sites, found substantial antimony, arsenic, barium, bismuth, copper, iron, lead, tin, tungsten and zinc anomalies. Gold was reported for the first time from this part of the Lake District: small amounts were noted in panned concentrates from five sites. Other minerals identified in panned concentrates included arsenopyrite, baryte, bismutite, bismuthinite, cassiterite, chalcopyrite, cerussite, pyrite, pyromorphite, scheelite, sphalerite, stolzite and wolfram&e. The examination of old workings and outcrops revealed many undocumented occurrences of quartzsulphide vein-style mineralisation. The chemical analysis of samples taken from old workings and other occurrences confirmed field observations that locally, particularly in the Black Combe area, this mineralisation is polymetallic with variable amounts of arsenic, gold, bismuth, copper, lead, zinc and in a few cases antimony, barium, cobalt, nickel, tungsten and tin. Iron mineralisation occurs both as oxide (hematite) and sulphide deposits. Mercury was present in appreciable amounts in samples from the High Brow pyrite mine. The distribution of panned concentrate anomalies suggests that the vein-style mineralisation is polyphase and that individual phases may be zoned. Highest zinc anomalies occur near Torver and the highest lead on the west side of Black Combe. Tin and tungsten are restricted largely to the central part of Black Combe, and the most prominent arsenic and bismuth anomalies are found in the same area. Copper anomalies are widespread over the Skiddaw Group and the Borrowdale Volcanic Group. Barium anomalies indicate that baryte mineralisation is weak and localised, occurring principally within the Black Combe area and close to the Windermere Supergroup basal unconformity. Iron oxides from host rocks and hematite mineralisation are responsible for local enrichments of iron, antimony, arsenic and molybdenum in panned concentrates

Steiner t-designs for large t

One of the most central and long-standing open questions in combinatorial design theory concerns the existence of Steiner t-designs for large values of t. Although in his classical 1987 paper, L. Teirlinck has shown that non-trivial t-designs exist for all values of t, no non-trivial Steiner t-design with t > 5 has been constructed until now. Understandingly, the case t = 6 has received considerable attention. There has been recent progress concerning the existence of highly symmetric Steiner 6-designs: It is shown in [M. Huber, J. Algebr. Comb. 26 (2007), pp. 453-476] that no non-trivial flag-transitive Steiner 6-design can exist. In this paper, we announce that essentially also no block-transitive Steiner 6-design can exist.Comment: 9 pages; to appear in: Mathematical Methods in Computer Science 2008, ed. by J.Calmet, W.Geiselmann, J.Mueller-Quade, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Scienc

Mineral resource information in support of national, regional and local planning : Cheshire (comprising Cheshire, Boroughs of Halton and Warrington)

This report is one of a series prepared by the British Geological Survey for various administrative areas in England for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s research project Mineral Resource Information in Support of National, Regional and Local Planning. The accompanying map relates to the county of Cheshire (comprising Cheshire, Boroughs of Halton and Warrington), and delineates the mineral resources of current, or potential, economic interest in the area and the sites where minerals are or have been worked. It also relates these to national planning designations, which may represent constraints on the extraction of minerals. Three major elements of information are presented: • the geological distribution and importance of mineral resources; • the extent of mineral planning permissions and the location of current mineral workings; and • the extent of selected, nationally-designated planning constraints. This wide range of information, much of which is scattered and not always available in a consistent and convenient form, is presented on a digitally-generated summary map on the scale of 1:100 000. This scale is convenient for the overall display of the data and allows for a legible topographic base on which to depict the information. However, all the data are held digitally at larger scales using a Geographical Information System (GIS), which allows easy revision, updating and customisation of the information together with its possible integration with other datasets. The information will form part of a Summary of the Mineral Resources of the North West Region. The purpose of the work is to assist all interested parties involved in the preparation and review of development plans, both in relation to the extraction of minerals and the protection of mineral resources from sterilisation. It provides a knowledge base, in a consistent format, on the nature and extent of mineral resources and the environmental constraints, which may affect their extraction. An important objective is to provide baseline data for the long term. The results may also provide a starting point for discussion on specific planning proposals for minerals extraction or on proposals, which may sterilise resources. It is anticipated that the map and report will also provide valuable background data for a much wider audience, including the different sectors of the minerals industry, other agencies and authorities (e.g. The Planning Inspectorate Agency, the Environment Agency, The Countryside Agency and English Nature), environmental interests and the general public. Basic mineral resource information is essential to support mineral exploration and development activities, for resource management and land-use planning, and to establish baseline data for environmental impact studies and environmental guidelines. It also enables a more sustainable pattern and standard of development to be achieved by valuing mineral resources as national assets. The mineral resources covered are sand and gravel, crushed rock aggregate, silica sand, salt, brick clay, building stones, peat, coal, hydrocarbons and metalliferous mineralisation

Mineral resource information in support of national, regional and local planning : Gloucestershire (comprising Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire)

This report is one of a series prepared by the British Geological Survey for various administrative areas in England for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s research project Mineral Resource Information in Support of National, Regional and Local Planning. The accompanying map relates to the county of Gloucestershire, comprising Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, and delineates the mineral resources of current, or potential, economic interest in the area and the sites where minerals are or have been worked. It also relates these to national planning designations, which may represent constraints on the extraction of minerals. Three major elements of information are presented: • the geological distribution and importance of mineral resources; • the extent of mineral planning permissions and the location of current mineral workings; and • the extent of selected, nationally-designated planning constraints. This wide range of information, much of which is scattered and not always available in a consistent and convenient form, is presented on a digitally-generated summary map on the scale of 1:100 000. This scale is convenient for the overall display of the data and allows for a legible topographic base on which to depict the information. However, all the data are held digitally at larger scales using a Geographical Information System (GIS), which allows easy revision, updating and customisation of the information together with its possible integration with other datasets. The information will form part of a Summary of the Mineral Resources of the South West Region. The purpose of the work is to assist all interested parties involved in the preparation and review of development plans, both in relation to the extraction of minerals and the protection of mineral resources from sterilisation. It provides a knowledge base, in a consistent format, on the nature and extent of mineral resources and the environmental constraints, which may affect their extraction. An important objective is to provide baseline data for the long term. The results may also provide a starting point for discussions on specific planning proposals for mineral extraction or on proposals, which may sterilise resources. It is anticipated that the maps and report will also provide valuable background data for a much wider audience, including the different sectors of the minerals industry, other agencies and authorities (e.g. The Planning Inspectorate Agency, the Environment Agency, the Countryside Agency and English Nature), environmental interests and the general public. Basic mineral resource information is essential to support mineral exploration and development activities, for resource management and land-use planning, and to establish baseline data for environmental impact studies and environmental guidelines. It also enables a more sustainable pattern and standard of development to be achieved by valuing mineral resources as national assets. The mineral resources covered are sand and gravel, bedrock sand, crushed rock aggregate, building stone, hydrocarbons, and coal