This website uses cookies to give you the best user experience. You have disabled cookies which will render many features of the GSL website unusable. To change your cookie settings, select the option below and follow the instructions. These instructions are also obtainable from the privacy & cookies link at the bottom of any GSL page.
This website uses cookies to give you the best user experience. If you continue without changing your settings we'll assume you are happy to receive all GSL cookies. To change your cookie settings, select the option below and follow the instructions. These instructions are also obtainable from the privacy & cookies link at the bottom of any GSL page.
The Geological Society offers grades of membership for every stage of your career, from student to retirement. Find out about the benefits of membership, and how we can help you achieve and maintain Chartered status.
Information about the Geological Society’s internationally acclaimed books and journals for authors, editors, librarians and readers. Order publications, find out about the Lyell Collection and read guidelines for preparing a paper or submitting a book proposal.
Discover and access geoscience information resources via one of the world’s premier Earth science libraries. Search our collection of printed books, maps and journals, e-resources, bibliographic databases and archives.
Search the events bar for a dynamic programme of conferences, field trips, public events and training courses. Enquire about unique room hire options at Burlington House, Piccadilly.
Information and resources for teachers and students from primary education onwards; for those making careers choices after A-levels including undergraduate and further degrees at university; and for those seeking professional geosciences training or exploring lifelong learning opportunities.
Updates on outreach activities, information about how the geosciences interact with society, details of policy related meetings, consultation responses, and policy briefing notes.
Geoscientist is the Fellowship magazine of the Geological Society: with news about science, people, the Society, features, reviews, opinion, letters and forthcoming events. All this, and more, can be found at our dedicated website Geoscientist Online
Information on our Specialist and Regional groups, Joint Associations and Networks. Keep up to date with activities, news and events and find out how Fellows can get involved.
The Geological Society of London is the UK's national society for geoscience, providing support to over 12,000 members in the UK and overseas. Founded in 1807, we are the oldest geological society in the world.
Back to top
The Geological Society is celebrating 50 years of plate tectonics. In December 1967, Dan McKenzie and Bob Parker published a paper in Nature – ‘The North Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere’. This paper, building on work by many other scientists in the preceding years, was arguably the crucial final step in establishing the paradigm of plate tectonics, which provided a unifying context for the previously disparate disciplines of Earth science and was rapidly accepted across the geological community. Since then, plate tectonics has arguably become the one ‘big idea’ in Earth science that just about everyone knows something about. It has also entered into wider usage as a metaphor for slow and seemingly inexorable change, perhaps most often used and abused by political commentators! But most school students who learn about this fundamental concept in Earth science probably have no idea that its origins are within living memory, and some of those whose work underpinned it remain active researchers. To mark this milestone anniversary, and to celebrate the important role of narrative and storytelling in geology, the Geological Society has developed Plate Tectonic Stories – an online resource that tells the story of 20 geological sites showing how the UK and Ireland have been shaped by plate tectonic processes, and highlighting other 'twin' sites across the world where similar processes and features can be observed. You can start exploring the sites by following the links below. We also held a Plate Tectonic Stories competition to celebrate the anniversary. School students, members of the public and enthusiastic geologists told us their own plate tectonic stories through model making, lace, felt work, poems, animations and even raps! See our Plate Tectonic Stories competition entries here
Educational posters designed for Key stage 2-3 and Key Stage 4-5
Read Professor Rob Butler’s personal reflection on plate tectonics and the geology of Britain and Ireland.