The mineral prospecting expeditions to the South Atlantic islands and Antarctic Peninsula region made by the Scottish geologist David Ferguson, 1912–1914

Abstract

Synopsis David Ferguson’s mineral prospecting expeditions to South Georgia (1912), the Falkland Islands and the South Shetland Islands (1913–1914), on behalf of the Christian Salvesen whaling company of Leith and now largely forgotten, were early examples of commercially motivated terrestrial exploration in the South Atlantic region. Prior geological knowledge was very limited and Ferguson complemented his unsuccessful prospecting work with attempts to understand the regional geology of the areas that he visited. These interpretations were based on relatively cursory fieldwork undertaken in an arduous environment, and did not prove robust; but the well-documented specimen collections that Ferguson accumulated provided the basis for excellent and much-cited petrographical accounts by G. W. Tyrrell of Glasgow University. Ferguson had studied geology at the university and the influence of his mentor there, Professor J. W. Gregory, is apparent. In turn, Gregory utilized Ferguson’s observations in support of a subsided ‘South Atlantic continent’, opposing the ‘displacement hypothesis’ for that region formalized by Alfred Wegener from 1912 onwards. Ferguson’s field notebooks and most of his rock specimens are now held by Glasgow University (Archive Services and Hunterian Museum, respectively) but he distributed representative specimen collections widely, and these are extant in several other British museums. Specimens were also supplied to, and discussed with, William Speirs Bruce who, following the 1902–1904 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, took a keen interest in Ferguson’s discoveries.

Geological exploration of South Atlantic islands and its contributions to the continental drift debate of the early 20th century

“…David Ferguson, an experienced Scottish geologist and mine surveyor who had close connections with the Geology Department at the University of Glasgow, was employed to carry out the prospecting work. His investigations at South Georgia (and subsequently in the Falkland Islands and the South Shetland Islands) have been assessed in detail by Stone and Faithfull (2013).…”

“…But Ferguson doubted the identification of the fossil and prematurely dismissed the possibility of a Mesozoic age since he had rapidly formed the opinion that the South Georgia rocks were very much older than that. Ferguson knew of Pirie's putative graptolite from the South Orkney Islands, and had discussed the geology of that archipelago with William Speirs Bruce (leader of the Scotia expedition) before departing for South Georgia (Stone and Faithfull 2013). Ferguson favoured a correlation between the superficially similar rocks from the two Scotia Arc components, so saw Pirie's fossil as indicative of an Early Palaeozoic age for at least part of the South Georgia succession.…”

Geology reviewed for the Falkland Islands and their offshore sedimentary basins, South Atlantic Ocean

“…Although Halle (1911) had included an outline geological map of the Falkland in his report, the first attempt at comprehensive geological mapping was by Baker (1922Baker ( , 1924, the 'Government Geologist' from 1920 to 1922. Baker was principally concerned with economic geology and whilst his prospecting was unsuccessful (as was an earlier investigation carried out on behalf of the Salvesen Whaling Company (Stone & Faithfull (2013)), his work laid the foundations for the modern interpretation of Falklands geology and he notably utilised Wegener's recently formulated ideas of continental drift to explain the geological similarities with South Africa. Baker's geological map was at a relatively small scale and was only available as a fold-out figure within his relatively obscure 1924 report.…”