We probably have no control over the rate of coastal erosion along the Manzanilla Coast, for example, where the historically famous outcrop of the Manzanilla type section and excellent exposures of the Springvale and Talparo Formations (first described by Wall and Sawkins in 1860 in their Report on the Geology of Trinidad and shown on the cover of this Newsletter are being destroyed at an estimated rate of 0.4 m per year.

However the destruction of outcrops and type localities by intensive agriculture and increasing urbanisation are controllable and should be actively monitored by the GSTT in association with the relevant Government agencies and Ministries. The Society should be routinely informed of impending construction over outcrops of interest in order to allow samples and photographs to be taken and to ensure systematic documentation of the outcrops before they are covered with concrete.

Recent examples that come to mind are the construction of the Government offices at Riverside Plaza over excellent outcrops of north dipping Laventille limestones at sea level, and of a building on Piccadilly Street in 1985 which covered over interbedded limestones and phyllites of the Laventille Formation. I remember discovering an outcrop of gypsum within grapititic shales northeast of Fort Picton during field work in 1979, which was totally destroyed through quarrying by 1984.
The well-known gypsum deposit at St. Joseph, which was mined earlier in this century, is gradually being encroached upon by the construction of dwelling houses, the legal status of which is uncertain. Squatters have even begun appearing just south of the Springvale Quarry along the Solomon Hochoy highway, the co-type locality of the Savaneta glauconitic sandstone member of the Springvale Formation.

It is interesting to note that J.B. Saunders and H.M. Bolli, in a paper entitled "Trinidad's Contribution to World Biostratigraphy" presented at the 4th Latin American Geological Congress in Port of Spain in 1979 reported that "of the 27 type localities erected on surface samples between basal Paleocene and Middle Miocene. 12 are no longer available. Within the Cipero and Lengua Formations 80% of the original localities have been lost and sometimes even their replacements have gone.

A Stratigraphic Committee has recently been set up by the GSTT and should be responsible for the systematic sampling, description and documentation of all type localities, type sections and other important outcrops so that as much of the data as possible can be preserved even if the original outcrops are subsequently destroyed. In this regard we need to take advantage of the considerable experience of our first generation of local geologists

In Trinidad and Tobago we possess a rich variety of rock types and minerals: from the metamorphic rocks (quartzites, phyilites, schists and marbles) of the Northern Range to the sedimentary clastics and carbonates of the Northern and Southern Basins and the Central Range to the igneous rocks (dacitic tuffs lava flows, andesitic dykes, diorite plutons, serpentites and pyroxenites) and Quaternary- coralline limestones of Tobago. The documentation of the rocks and minerals of Trinidad and Tobago with reference to their origin, location and description is a project long overdue.

All local material collected during the early geological surveys were housed at the Royal Victoria Institute at Port of Spain, but a fire in 1920 resulted in major losses. Subsequently, reference type material has been placed in either the Smithsonian Institute in Washington or the Natural History Museum in Basle. Thus specimens of ammonite (Perisphinetes transitorius) discovered in the Maraval limestones at the Hollis Reservoir and those of rudistis recovered from the Cuche Formation the Central Range and reported by Harris in G.A. Waring's 1926 "The Geology of the Island of Trinidad B.W.I .'' are not easily accessible by local geologists.

As early as 1864 R.J.L. Guppy, a keen naturalist and fossil collector working in Trinidad, as a result of the difficulties he experienced in doing taxononomic work here, commented"… it may be hoped that the time is not far distant when some efforts will be made for the instution of a local museum and of a scientific library." It is disturbing to say the least, that more than 100 years later there is no geological museum, permanent rock display or fossil collection in a country that gave the world the Pitch Lake, has made major contributions to Cretaceous and Tertiary world biostratigraphy, and where arguably the first oil producing well in the world was drilled in l857.

However we cannot even begin think of 'repatriating' some of the more significant local specimens that are currently housed in foreign instutions until we can ensure the same care, preservation and systemic cataloguing of this material, and the necessity of a geological museum becomes obvious. The Ministry of Energy possesses the most completely indexed and accessible collection of scientific material on Trinidadian geology, and both the Ministry and GSTT can work together in realizing Guppy's hopes.

KIRTON RODRIGUES
Editor

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THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
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