Introduction to Brian Upton

Welcome to Polar Podcasts, where you’ll hear stories from geologists who’ve spent their careers, their lives, exploring and studying the remarkable and remote geology of Greenland. Why did they become fascinated with Greenland? What were the problems and the discoveries that drove them? And what was it like working in these remote places, where few people venture, even now? 

Brian Upton – emeritus Professor of Geology at the University of Edinburgh – started working in South Greenland in 1955 and continues to publish research on its unique geology to this day.

Inspired by early work on the emerging theory of plate tectonics while at Caltech in the 1960s, he was involved in testing the model in remote eastern and western North Greenland.

Over the decades Brian worked in many parts of Greenland, together with the Geological Survey of Greenland. But throughout his career he has continued to return to the unique alkaline rocks of South Greenland, which remain his passion to this day.

Polar Podcasts goes to air on August 4. Tune in and subscribe to hear Brian Upton and other career Greenland geologists talk about their experiences working in Greenland over the decades.