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Milestones in Geology Reviews to celebrate 150 volumes of the
Journal of the Geological Society
Geological Society Memoirs
Series Editor A. J. FLEET
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Parliamentary-style meeting room of the Geological Society at Burlington House before 1975.
The meeting room after renovation.
Milestones in Geology Reviews to celebrate 150 volumes of the
Journal of the Geological Society E D I T E D BY
M. J. LE BAS University of Leicester, UK
Memoir No. 16 1995 Published by The Geological Society London
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY The Society was founded in 1807 as the Geological Society of London and is the oldest geological society in the world. It received its Royal Charter in 1825 for the purpose of 'investigating the mineral structure of the Earth'. The Society is Britain's national society for geology with a membership of 7500 (1993). It has countrywide coverage and approximately 1000 members reside overseas. The Society is responsible for all aspects of the geological sciences including professional matters. The Society has its own publishing house, which produces the Society's international journals, books and maps, and which acts as the European distributor for publication of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Geological Society of America. Fellowship is open to those holding a recognized honours degree in geology or cognate subject and who have at least two years' relevant postgraduate experience, or who have not less than six years' relevant experience in geology or a cognate subject. A Fellow who has not less than five years' relevant postgraduate experience in the practice of geology may apply for validation and, subject to approval, may be able to use the designatory letters C Geol (Chartered Geologist). Further information about the Society is available from the Membership Manager, The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1V 0JU, UK.
Published by the Geological Society from: The Geological Society Publishing House Unit 7 Brassmill Enterprise Centre Brassmill Lane Bath BA1 3JN UK (Orders: Tel 01225 445046 Fax 01225 442836) First published 1995 The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omission that may be made. © The Geological Society 1995. All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication my be reproduced, copies or transmitted save with the provisions of the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. User registered with the Copyright Clearance Center, 27 Congress Street, Salem, MA 01970, USA: the item fee code for this publication is 0435-4052/95/$7.00.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available for the British Library 1SBN 1-897799-24-1
Typeset and Printed by Universities Press (Belfast) Ltd, Northern Ireland
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Foreword
vii
LE BAS, M. J. Introduction
1
RUDWlCK, M. J. S. Historical origins of the Geological Society's Journal
5
WINDLEY, B. F. Uniformitarianism today: plate t