3rd March - Landscape dynamics, climate and tectonics

Landscape dynamics, climate and tectonics:

Dr. Alex Whittaker, Senior Lecturer in Tectonics, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College.

Thursday 3rd March, 7.30 p.m.
BRLSI, 16 Queen Square, Bath

Both tectonics and climate profoundly influence the erosional-depositional processes that shape the Earth’s surface.  Moreover, the magnitude, locus and characteristics of sediment export from catchments to basins play a fundamental role in determining depositional stratigraphy.  While progress has been made in understanding the response of landscape systems to tectonics, the extent to which the Earth’s surface is either sensitive, or buffered, to rapid climate change remains extremely contentious.

This talk examines how geomorphic, sedimentological and numerical modelling techniques can be used to constrain how the earth surface processes are influenced by tectono-climatic boundary conditions, and how they govern the production of stratigraphy. Field examples from California and the Mediterranean explore the extent to which we can now quantitatively “invert” stratigraphy for tectonic or climatic forcing, and highlight some of the problems that still remain.

Bath Geological Society - everyone welcome, £4 for visitors - free refreshments

Dinosaur takeover! 14-18th March, Bristol

Dinosaur takeover!
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
14 - 18 March 2016 - Part of British Science Week
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery will be celebrating British Science Week (11-20 March 2016), with a Dinosaur Takeover!  Bristol Museums have partnered with dinosaur experts at the University of Bristol to deliver an exciting half day experience for school groups in the region, packed with thrilling dinosaur-related activities.
Central to the day, Dino Debs and Dino Dan will lead a 90 minute workshop, accompanied by other postgraduate students from The University of Bristol.  School children will be able to handle and examine fossils, get up close to The Bristol Dinosaur, take part in a dino-dig and learn about dino food chains. Pupils will also have time to explore the museum’s dinosaur gallery and permanent exhibits with their teachers. Plus, each child can take home a keepsake fossilised shark’s tooth.
Also -  any school that books a Dinosaur Takeover workshop at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery between 14-18 March, will also be given the chance to book a free in-school follow-up session led by postgraduate students from the University of Bristol.
Dinosaur takeover sessions are suitable for Years 1 to 4. Workshops are bookable morning and afternoon from Monday 14 – Friday 18 March 2016. Each workshop can accommodate groups of up to 35 pupils. More than one workshop can be booked. 
The workshops are charged at £6 per pupil, with accompanying adults free and the opportunity to book a complimentary in-school follow-up session led by postgraduate students from The University of Bristol.A special Dinosaur Takeover! workshop for Home Educators has also been developed and will take place at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery on Friday 18 March between 12.20-2pm, charged at £5 per child. Advanced booking required.
Click here for further information

Could big dinosaurs swim?

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Bristol area Geological Calendar - society secretaries please check

Please could all groups check that their events are both on the Calendar and that they are correct
View the calendar here.

Life on Earth with its mass extinctions - in poetry

Bristol-based writer and declamatory poet Ralph Hoyte invites you to travel through the history of life on Earth, traversing the five mass extinction events which created the tapestry of biodiversity we see around us today.

Listen to the poem

How ice sheets collapse

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Saturday 27th February

Saturday 27th February
Brown's Folly, near Monkton Farleigh and Bathford
Either - walk around the geological trail with Elizabeth Devon, 
Bath Geological Society
Or - join us in our annual conservation of the sites 
Come along with gardening tools or just take the opportunity to visit the sites and talk about geology.
Meet at 10.30 a.m. at Brown's Folly Car Park (G.R. ST 798663). Please note that the car park has been cleared of trees and is now available. 
Strong boots, waterproofs, hard hats are required.

27th - 30th May - Field trip to Anglesey

A Geology Course in Anglesey
Dave Green, Geostudies
Friday 27th May from 7.30 p.m. to Monday 30th May at lunch time
Full details on the Bath Geological Society website
and from the secretary
There are a few places left; everyone is welcome. 

18th February - 'Mr. Smith's Remarkable Maps'

Thursday 18th February 2016 
Mr Smith's Remarkable Maps
Tom Sharpe (University of Cardiff) 
The Studio, M Shed, Princes Rd, Bristol, 6.00pm
William Smith's great geological map of Britain, published 200 years ago, was fourteen years in the making and the first of its kind in the world. In the course of making it, Smith developed the fundamental principles of rock sequences - stratigraphy - and recognised the value of fossils in identifying strata. The groundwork for these discoveries took place in the area around Bath in the 1790s while Smith was surveying the route of the Somerset Coal Canal, but it was not until 1815 that a publisher was finally secured for his mould-breaking map and its accompanying Memoir. Smith's success was to be short-lived however, for within five years, his pioneering geological map was eclipsed by a more detailed collaborative effort by the many members of the Geological Society of London. Nevertheless, Smith's great map of 1815 has since become an icon of geology, and in 2015-16 the bicentenary of its publication is being marked by conferences, exhibitions, lectures and other events across the country.
Tom Sharpe spent over 35 years as a curator in the Department of Geology at the National Museum of Wales, where he looked after the world's largest collection of William Smith's 1815 maps. A renowned authority on early British geology, in this talk he looks at the development of the map and what it can tell us about geological history in the South West.
Free event - Everybody very welcome!

6th February - 'Walking through time', Channel 4, 8p.m.

Please refer to the Geology Society of London blog for more details

February - Forthcoming events

4th February - Bath Geological Society AGM and 'Cotham Marble'
Further details here

16th February - WRGS

24th February - Bristol NATS - Geology section
Thomas Hawkins and his Sea Dragons – a mad, bad fossil collector?
Stephen Locke 7:30pm, Wednesday 24 February
Stephen Locke will give a talk on the controversial 19th century fossil collector Thomas Hawkins. Thomas Hawkins (1810-1889) was the son of a Somerset Farmer/Cattle Dealer who lived at Glastonbury. He inherited a considerable sum of money with which he was able to indulge his passion for collecting fossil marine reptiles from his local area and Lyme Regis. He was undoubtedly a highly eccentric character and was considered by some of his contemporaries to be mad. He wrote several books on the subject of “Sea Dragons” in a style that has been described as lurid. Stephen’s talk will attempt a reassessment of the life and character of Thomas Hawkins who was a fascinating local naturalist. It will be of interest to a wide range of BNS members and previous knowledge of geology will not be required.

Why can't we predict volcanic eruptions?

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