Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of Geology Professor of Applied Sedimentology in the Department of Geology, Imperial College, University of London.	January 2005
	"When I was a lad, all you needed was a stout pair of legs, a hammer and some common sense. Now, the technology, particularly computers, has completely altered what one can do. It is quite incredible the way, nowadays, one can actually image oil and gas fields under ground and see actually where they are. As the field depletes, you can actually see the oil water contact moving up over time."

What was it that initially got you interested in Geology?
It was the chance to travel the world at someone else’s expense. It was a great way to travel and visit out of the way places, get eaten by lions, tigers and bears, the open air and all of that good stuff. That was the initial attraction, as well as an interest in where human beings fit in, time and space, the history of the Earth and all of that.
Is this the same thing that keeps you going today, or have you found other things to keep you going?
Why, yes I have—money! No, it is still a pretty absorbing subject. What else is there? It is either geology or “go on the state” as somebody once said.

Can you tell me a bit about your education? When did you get your Ph.D., and in what, where?
I never went to university. I couldn’t get in—nobody would have me. So I did what is called an external degree at London University. I then went to Imperial College at London University, where I got doctored, and have lived happily ever after.
And you have been at Imperial College since then?
Yes, but I did take time out to work in the oil industry.

How did you get into the oil industry?
For three years after I got my Ph.D. in the early 1960s, I had a post-doctoral research fellowship, which gave me the opportunity to work in Libya. Working in Libya, oil companies were providing me with transport and flying me around. After a short while, I was offered a job at an oil company.

How do you go about finding oil?
First of all, you hire a really good consultant—would you like to know what my rates are? I take it you’re not a geologist? You’re an artist, are you? Where do I start? Well, you wander around with a naked light, a sense of adventure and a spirit of optimism if you want to find oil.

I see you have been in the field for 40 some odd years. At this point, do you consider yourself as more of an academic or as a practicing geologist in the field?
I am rather vulgar. I am still in the trade really. The analogy I use is if you’re at medical school and you’re a professor of medicine teaching students how to do an operation, you’d better be actually doing it every now and again yourself, or you won’t have any street cred with your students. It’s like a surgeon saying, “I am going to take out the appendix. You make an incision here—or maybe it’s on the other side—right?” Likewise, if you’re teaching oil exploration, you need to be actively engaged as a consultant doing the same sort of thing—which is terribly vulgar, but it pays the bills.
Is it difficult to balance both sides?
Definitely. There is not an easy answer to that.

How do you think your studies will affect our future society?
Well, if we don’t find lots of oil, our grandchildren will freeze to death in the dark.

Do you see any future fuel supplies that will replace our dependence on oil?
I am being serious now. Even James Lovelock (the guy I man) has said now that we are going to have to go nuclear. There just isn’t going to be enough oil around in the future. What we really need is a really good plague—a really good global catastrophe. The main problem is overpopulation. If the Earth’s population were cut by 90%, there would be plenty of oil for everybody.

I saw an article where you were commenting on frozen methane gas—is this a viable alternative to oil?
Oh yes, gas hydrates. Yes, it is a viable alternative. The resources are absolutely vast, but the technology of extraction is very, very dodgy. If you drill into a deposit and get a huge blast, your ship sinks. That is the bottom line. I don’t think they have the technology sorted out yet.

Has the advent of new technologies changed the way that you study geology?
Oh my goodness yes—definitely. When I was a lad, all you needed was a stout pair of legs, a hammer and some common sense. Now, the technology, particularly computers, has completely altered what one can do. It is quite incredible the way, nowadays, one can actually image oil and gas fields under ground and see actually where they are. As the field depletes, you can actually see the oil water contact moving up over time. People just wouldn’t have believed it when I was a lad starting out. If they said this is what they could do, you just wouldn’t have believed it!

So has this technology had a negative impact on your business of finding oil fields?
Yes. It is not as much fun because you can’t go off to Honkybonkyland anymore. You can find oil—especially offshore, where geologists tend to drown by sitting and staring at a television screen and playing with a PC. We’ve really moved from being bearded, tweeded outdoors types to being button-pushing nerds, which is kind of sad. I absolutely prefer to be out in the field.

Is there a particular area of geology that you see as an emerging field?
Yes indeed. What I am really interested in now is the application of geology to viticulture (the cultivation of grapes). I have just written and published a book called “ The Winelands of Britain: Past, Present & Prospective, ” published by Petravin press, for 10 pounds sterling. We do mail order, and it is an absolutely excellent value and the book has gotten fantastic reviews. What I have done is mapped all of the vineyards that have been in the British Isles over the past 2,000 years, and you can see the control of geology of where they are located. But the really exciting thing is that you can map them in correlation with changing climate. I have been able to map the ebb and flow of vineyards across the countryside for 2,000 years. And there is a super website (http://www.winelandsofbritain.co.uk) that I recommend all of your readers rush to and buy a copy of my book. Please buy this book and make an old man very happy.

You’re not an old man …
Yes, I am an old-age pensioner. You wouldn’t believe it! The secret of a long life is to have a loving wife and three glasses of red wine every evening.
Not white wine?
White wine doesn’t have the flavonoids that clear out the arteries. All doctors will recommend red wine.

What do you think the impact of the Encyclopedia will be on the study of geology and future geologists?
I think it will be very beneficial because you’ve got the world’s experts writing concise, up-to-date articles on everything on Earth.

In such a vast field as geology, how did you select what will be included in what will be the authoritative work in geology? Did you try to cover a little bit of everything?
Yes. We tried to cover the whole field. We have a fan out of about another 20 editors covering different branches of geology, and from them we took advice from them on which topics should be covered.

Do you have any other hobbies other than the pursuit of wine?
I am really into wildlife. I have a little nature reserve at the bottom of my garden, and I go out every night and feed the hedgehogs. And I love bats—and not just because it is close to Halloween. I have a bat detector, one of these little, electronic bat-detector thingies, so that I can actually hear all of the bats talking to each other.

So you have your own vineyard?
Yes, but it is not my own. I am looking at it now, and it is pitch dark and raining. I look out on the south-facing slope of chalk, which is the same rock on which they grow champagne. Twenty years ago, a chum of mine bought a huge estate on this hillside with a big farm that he didn’t know what to do with. So, just for a joke, I made up a little consulting report about all of the old vineyards that used to be down here and the geology—the comparison between the geology here and the geology of champagne, and sent it to him as a joke. He took me seriously, and now it is over 100 hectares. It is the largest vineyard in the British Isles, and certainly one of the largest in Europe. That is my biggest environmental impact in all of the years looking for oil, and that is probably the biggest impact that I have made.

How have you found a crossover from wine to geology?
Well, that is a very good question. What you will find is that vines grow on rocks of every age and every type. Superficially, you would think that that is not important whatsoever, but it is the interplay of geology and climate that together shape the landscape in which the vineyard stands and the soil on which it grows. There is a very close control. And as I said, I have mapped all of the vineyards across the British Isles, and you can see how they are all on very well-drained south-facing slopes of rock from different ages and types. Again, it is the interplay of geology and climate that really determines soil and landscape.

So how did you go about finding the ancient vineyards of Britain? Did you use computers, or did you hit the field with a pickaxe?
Mainly literature search. I then put the locations of the vineyards on a geological map and produced a series of maps through the Roman warm period and the medieval warm period and the little ice age. I could actually map the ebb and flow of vineyards across the countryside for over 2,000 years.

So then a lot of historical research came into play with the geology, as well.
That’s right—and archeology, as well. The Romans had huge vineyards here. They were obviously producing wine on an industrial scale; some vineyards were producing 10‑15 thousand bottles per year to keep the legionnaires going on Hadrian’s war.

What do you find more satisfying? The discovery of an ancient vineyard or an oil deposit?
Well, now that I am in the springtime of my senility, I would think a vineyard.

I see that you touch on creationism in the encyclopedia. Does this come into play in geology often?
We are absolutely amazed as geologists by all of the old arguments over the age of the Earth and evolution, which were all sorted out 150 years ago. Is it half the people in the United States that think the world was formed in seven days and can’t find the Pacific Ocean? It’s something like that isn’t it? We find that really scary.

Have you ever felt any pressure from the religious advocates?
Well, yes indeed. Even our Prime Minister Tony Blair thinks that it is OK to teach that stuff in schools. It is just another view which flies in the face of scientific observation.

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This article by Joe Martis
j.p.martis@elsevier.com