Abstract
AMONG the recent acquisitions of the Geological Museum is a large geological relief model of the London basin, measuring about 10 ft. by 5 ft. This is constructed on a scale of 1 in. to a mile, vertical heights being exaggerated about six times, and it includes an area extending from Foulness in the east to the Vale of White Horse in the west, and from Baldock in the north to Leith Hill in the south. The model illustrates clearly the main synclinal structure of the London basin, from the chalk rocks of which London draws so much of its water supply. Details of this structure of the solid rocks are accentuated by the colouring of drift and other surface deposits by various shades of stipple superimposed on the solid geology. A second relief model just placed on exhibition illustrates the glacial lakes of Cleveland, on a scale of 1 in. to a mile. This reconstruction, which is based on the work of the late Prof. P. F. Kendall, shows the glaciers, ice-dammed lakes, and drainage system of the Cleveland area at the time of the maximum extension of the Pleistocene ice-sheets. Among the dioramas recently added to the displays is one of an Anglo-Iranian oil-field, presented by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. This is the second experiment in a type of diorama in which the foreground is cut away to a depth of several thousand feet to show the geology. Two diamonds of unusual crystal form from Atian Kama, Akim, Gold Coast, have been given by Mr. G. P. Ashmore. Some five hundred varieties of marble used in decorative work in Western Europe are now being exhibited.
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Geological Museum: Recent Acquisitions. Nature 142, 204 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142204b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142204b0