We were always realistic: the Heath government, the European Community and the Cold War in the Mediterranean, June 1970–February 1974

The Mediterranean region and contemporary Mediterranean history fascinated Saki Dockrill. She discussed, often, with characteristic perspicacity, all aspects of American and British diplomacy and strategy in the region. For her, British concepts and attitudes to the Mediterranean were more nuanced and inclusive than American ones. She perceived these as having been moulded by emotion and strategic expediency in equal measure. It was this that made her all the more interested in how two American Republican administrations, in particular, dealt with the region. Both Eisenhower and Nixon had a ‘whole Mediterranean’ approach. This essay investigates the extent to which, during Edward Heath’s premiership (18 June 1970–28 February 1974), Britain’s preparations to join the European Community (EC) led to a ‘Europeanisation’ of its policies and approach towards the Mediterranean. It will examine also, how Britain sought to protect its interests in the Mediterranean during the years of détente with what had become, just, limited capabilities. In doing so, it will bring together some of the themes that were a constant source of interest to Saki, namely post-war British efforts to adopt a European role without compromising the ‘special relationship’ with the US and its world role

Inherited structural controls on fault geometry, architecture and hydrothermal activity: an example from Grimsel Pass, Switzerland

Exhumed faults hosting hydrothermal systems provide direct insight into relationships between faulting and fluid flow, which in turn are valuable for making hydrogeological predictions in blind settings. The Grimsel Breccia Fault (Aar massif, Central Swiss Alps) is a late Neogene, exhumed dextral strike-slip fault with a maximum displacement of 25–45 m, and is associated with both fossil and active hydrothermal circulation. We mapped the fault system and modelled it in three dimensions, using the distinctive hydrothermal mineralisation as well as active thermal fluid discharge (the highest elevation documented in the Alps) to reveal the structural controls on fluid pathway extent and morphology. With progressive uplift and cooling, brittle deformation inherited the mylonitic shear zone network at Grimsel Pass; preconditioning fault geometry into segmented brittle reactivations of ductile shear zones and brittle inter-shear zone linkages. We describe ‘pipe’-like, vertically oriented fluid pathways: (1) within brittle fault linkage zones and (2) through alongstrike- restricted segments of formerly ductile shear zones reactivated by brittle deformation. In both cases, low-permeability mylonitic shear zones that escaped brittle reactivation provide important hydraulic seals. These observations show that fluid flow along brittle fault planes is not planar, but rather highly channelised into sub-vertical flow domains, with important implications for the exploration and exploitation of geothermal energy