Can anyone help please?

A teacher has sent this photo taken at Shap. What are the elongate, dark coloured inclusions in the granite at the contact with the host rock? Please put your replies in 'comments' on this post or send them by email.
Many thanks.

Saturday July 3rd - Watchet and area

Bath Geological Society is organising a field trip to the Watchet area on Saturday July 3rd to be led by Prof. Eric Robinson. It will be an excellent day with an introduction to the local rocks by a study of some of the walls in Watchet. We shall then walk eastwards along the cliffs to Holwell Bay and Doniford Beach. Come and join us to find Lias fossils and to try to work out why the Doniford cliffs are made of river gravels. A handout is available on request - email.
Meet at 11.00 at the car park in Harbour Road, Watchet. Packed lunches, waterproof gear, hard hats and strong boots are required. If you have not signed the list at one of the Bath GS meetings and you would like to join us, then please 'phone our field trip organiser - 07712 776117.

Greenhouse to icehouse: 55 million years of Arctic climate

Greenhouse to icehouse: 55 million years of Arctic climate
Dr Ian Harding, University of Southampton
Thursday 1st July, 7.30p.m. BRLSI, 16 Queen Square, Bath
The Arctic is a region critical for its role in modulating global climate, and there has been much recent publicity regarding the changes occurring in high northern latitudes as a consequence of anthropogenically-induced global warming. After touching on some of the predictions made for future Arctic climate conditions, the presentation will focus on what has been learnt recently about the hitherto poorly understood Cenozoic climatic history of the Arctic. The talk will focus on three main events (the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, the Azolla Event and the Eocene-Oligocene greenhouse-icehouse transition), and will be based on research the speaker has conducted on core material from the Norwegian-Greenland Sea and outcrops in the Svalbard Archipelago.
Everyone is welcome to attend this lecture - visitors £4 - free refreshments
Come early; it will be a full house!
The image is from Sci-Tech - thank you

Purbeck - geology, landscape and stone industry

The Dorset RIGS group (DIGS) has produced an educational CD on the geology, landscape and stone industry of Purbeck.
It consists of a series of PowerPoint presentations based on five RIGS sites in Purbeck. Apart from a detailed survey of the five sites including logging by Paul Ensom, there is information on another site in Dorset where Purbeck strata are exposed and the environmental conditions experienced when the Purbeck strata were deposited. The CD can be used at various levels being well illustrated with pictures of Purbeck landscape, quarries and specimens that have been found locally.
The work was carried out over 3 years as a result of the DIGS group's involvement with the Keystone Project through Purbeck District Council and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The CD has been made available free to Dorset schools and is available to other interested parties for £5 including P& P (cheques made payable to D.I.G.S.) from Alan Holiday (7 Whitecross Drive, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 9PA).

BP Oil Spill Disaster

Click here to view the BP oil spill disaster.

24 July - 31 October - Volcano: from Turner to Warhol

Volcano: from Turner to Warhol at Compton Verney, Warwickshire
This is the first exhibition to celebrate the extraordinary artistic outpourings that volcanic eruptions have triggered over the past five centuries. The exhibition ranges from early engravings, showing imagined cross-sections of the fiery centre of the earth, to an explosive series of paintings by Joseph Wright, J M W Turner and Andy Warhol. It is a chance to examine the presence of volcanoes as geological phenomena and their power and influence, through an exciting range of historic and recent works of art.

26th June - Saltford - A Geological Ramble

Saturday 26 June 2010, 10:00
Saltford - A Geological Ramble
Leader: Simon Carpenter

Saltford is built on Lower Jurassic rocks, which are well exposed in the area and highly fossiliferous.
Simon spent most of his childhood living in Saltford and hopes to share some of his geological knowledge and interest in the town. Using fossils from his own collection and visiting some of the spectacular rock exposures, Simon will unravel some of the town's fascinating geological history.
Meet at 10:00 outside Saltford Post Office (located with other shops along the A4) OS ST683671. The majority of the day will be spent walking around the town, using the comprehensive network of footpaths. Stout footwear is recommended as it may be muddy in places. Lunch stop at the Jolly Sailor Public House. Saltford is served by a regular 'bus service from Bath and Bristol(X39) and the Railway Path, for cyclists. Please consider using one of these means of transport, as parking is limited.
Contact Chris Townson Tel. 01454 778291 (Mobile 07743 125206, on the day) or view the Bristol Naturalists' Society website.

Doctoring Geology - June 3rd

'Doctoring Geology: the Medical Origins of the Geological Society' by Cherry Lewis, University of Bristol - Thursday June 3rd, 7.30p.m. at BRLSI, Queen Square, Bath.
Four of the Geological Society’s 13 founders were medical men: William Babington, James Parkinson, James Franck and James Laird, the Society’s first Secretary. All were physicians and mineralogists except Parkinson, an apothecary surgeon and fossilist. At least twenty per cent of the Society’s early members were also medical practitioners whose prime interest was mineralogy. The subject was taught as part of medical training, required as it was in the fabrication of medicines, thus medical men were drawn into mineralogy and on into geology.
Driven by wealthy mineral collectors and patrons of science like Charles Greville, one reason - perhaps the reason - for founding the Geological Society was to map the mineralogical history of Britain. Towards this endeavour Babington’s expertise in mineralogy brought people together, Laird organised them, and Parkinson was invited because he was not a mineralogist. Franck was unable to participate significantly, being away at war most of the time. The contribution made to the founding of the Geological Society by each of the medical founders will be examined and a biographical sketch of each man reveals the close relationship between medicine and the emergence of this new science of geology.
Everyone welcome - visitors £4 - refreshments included. Cherry's latest book will be on sale after the talk.