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Geologists Day
"You shoot me down but I won't fall
I am titanium ..."
~ Titanium, David Guetta, 2011
Found in almost all living things, water bodies, rocks, and soils, the element Titanium (named after the Greek deities) has superior strength and a light weight relative to other metals, allowing for myriad applications. Titanium is the 9th most abundant metal in the earth's crust, but wasn't discovered until 1791. Amateur geologist William Gregor discovered some black metallic sand in a creek bed, analyzed it and found it to be a mixture of magnetite, a common form of iron oxide, and a new metal! This tartan was designed to acknowledge and celebrate Scotland's world class reputation for research and development in science, engineering and technology and encodes into its pattern both Titanium's atomic number (22) and its position within the periodic table as a transition metal. ⚛️
Originally initiated by a group of prominent Soviet geologists, this day is now recognized by geologists, hydrogeologists, engineering geologists, geophysicists and geochemists. throughout the world.
Geology is an earth science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change.
From the official register:
Designed to acknowledge and celebrate Scotland's world class reputation for research and development in science, engineering and technology, this tartan also recognises Scotland's strength as a global leader in industrial innovation, and its contribution to the UK's aerospace and bioscience industries, with many major international companies having associated operations based in Scotland.
The Titanium tartan is universal and is for all organisations, groups and individuals that want to be represented by a modernistic twenty-first century tartan. First discovered at the end of the 18th century Titanium (an element represented by the symbol Ti) has the greatest strength to weight ratio of all metals, being the only element possessing the strength of steel, with a weight comparable to that of aluminium. This means it is both very strong and extremely light. This along with its high resistance to corrosion, as well as its superior bio-compatibility makes Titanium a key element in the advancement of Scotland's aerospace and life-science technologies.
Titanium was discovered included in a mineral find in Cornwall, Great Britain, in 1791 by clergyman and amateur geologist William Gregor, then vicar of Creed parish. He recognized the presence of a new element in ilmenite when he found black sand by a stream in the nearby parish of Manaccan and noticed the sand was attracted by a magnet. Analysis of the sand determined the presence of two metal oxides: iron oxide and 45.25% of a white metallic he could not identify.
The name of the element was derived from the Titans of Greek mythology, famed for their legendary and superior strength.
Designed by Steven Patrick Sim the Titanium tartan was discovered by extrapolating a thread-count formula from the element's position within the Periodic Table (group 4, period 4), and its atomic number (of 22 atoms). This series of numbers proportionally increased by 3 (as dictated by the 3 main constituent parts of the atom; protons, neutrons, and electrons) resulted in the creation of the tartan's geometry. Colours: the dark grey, grey, light grey and white represent the colours as reflected in the metallic, and lustrous element, Titanium.
The tartan acts also as a tribute to the award winning, and iconic, Glasgow Science Centre (the largest Millennium Commission-funded project in Scotland) which is clad in Titanium.
For more on the Glasgow Science Centre, click the rock!