Alexander Nimmo's on the Application of the Science of Geology to the Purposes of Practical Navigation (1825): The First Investigation of Marine Geology and its Bearing on the Geology of Offshore South West British Isles

Alexander Nimmo, a Scottish engineer working in Ireland from the early 1800s, carried out a marine geological survey of offshore south-west Britain and south Ireland. His findings were published in 1825 and were accompanied by a map of the region on which several lithologies encountered on the seabed are represented. He concluded that a knowledge of marine geology could be advantageous for marine navigation. Nimmo's incursion into marine geology was the first serious attempt of its kind, and predates by almost fifty years similar investigations in the English Channel. In the last thirty years the area investigated by Nimmo has become an important locus for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, and its geological structure is well-known.