Geologist's Tartan

[Cinnabar]

I was thinking about how many of "fathers" of geology were scottish, James Hutton and Charles Lyell for example. However there are not tartans for their families, that I am aware of. I was wondering if there is an appropriate tartan to celebrate the influence of scottish geologists. I have seen pics of the "Highland Granite" tartan (Barb has shown a few pics) but I am wondering if there others that would be appropriate.

[Warlock]

You might try researching their names under septs. You may find their name are listed.

[Tattoo Bradley]

That'd be a pretty neat tartan actually. I'm not a "geologist" but some of our lab work is certainly in that field.

[auld argonian]

...and is not BarbT a Professor of Geology when she's not busy making kilts and piping?

Best

AA

[pdcorlis]

If I remember right then yes BarbT is a professor of Geology so if she's not too busy she may have some ideas about tartan choices. I hope so!

[MacWage]

She is in Utah (lasT I talked to her) working on the American Bicentennial/St Andrews kilt for someone. I'm sure she'll be back on-line soon. I'm curious as to her ideas on this topic

[MacWage]

Thread back from the dead!
I just was passing some PMs with Barb and she mentioned the Highland Grantite (like it should be obvious to anyone).

THAT seems like a good one for any interested kilted geologist!

[gilmore]

I have always heard that the clergy's was (were) the only occupational tartan(s).

[Barb T]

There's no occupational tartan for geologists, as far as I know, but Ros Jones (who was a geologist) from the Isle of Mull designed an Isle of Mull tartan (it's officially called the Mull Millenium tartan, or "Mull-ennium") several years ago based on the geology of the Isle of Mull. It's quite a beautiful and unusual tartan (see my photo below). She used to sell kilt lengths, but her business is no longer on the Internet, and I know she was very ill for a time. She may have passed away. She's also the person who designed the Arctic and Antarctic tartans, and both of those are now being sold by the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage trust.

Anyway, the colors in the Isle of Mull tartan are based on the geology of Mull. Here's the way Ros described it:

"The Isle of Iona is represented by green and white for its famous green and white marble. Navy blue surrounds representing the sea dividing Iona from Mull. The Isle of Mull is embodied by five colors representing a cross section from Fionnphort in the west through to Glen More at Mull's centre. Starting with the beautiful pink Caledonian Ross of Mull granite, grey follows for the Moine schists at Bunessan and the Jurassic shales at Carsaig. Black represents the Tertiary basalt lava flows which overlie Mull's ancient basement rocks. Yellow depicts Mull's unique ring dyke, finally dark green represents dolerites and gabbros found in Mull's mountainous heart."

It's the only truly "geological" tartan I know of. For those of you non-geologists, when Ros refers to a "cross setion from Fionnphort in the west through to Glen More at Mull's centre", she's referring to a geological cross section, a vertical slice view that shows the geology below the surface along a particular geographic line.

If you go to ScotWeb, you can see a computer-generated thumbnail of the Mull Millenium (http://scotwebstore.com/tartan/Mull-...earchterm=mull) . The colors are much more subdued on the actual piece that I have - they look very bright and garish on the ScotWeb site.

Cheers,

Barb

[Splash_4]

This is why this site never ceases to amaze me.... So much information. Thanks Barb for that showing us that tartan!