Saturday 25 January 2020

27th January to 2nd February 2020


NEXT WEEKS EVENTS

27TH JANUARy to 2nd february 2020


THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTRACT FROM BRISTOL AND WEST COUNTRY GEOLOGY CALENDARS

MORE DETAILS CAN BE FOUND IN THE BRISTOL AND THE WEST COUNTRY CALENDARS AND ON THE WEB SITES OF THE RELEVANT SOCIETY OR ORGANISATION.


MONDAY 27TH
Geostudies Lecture Course - Germany
When
Mon, 27 January, 19:30 – 21:30
Where
Wynstones School, Stroud Road, Whaddon, Gloucester (map)
Description
The Geology of Germany 

 Monday 13th for 10 weeks (not 17th Feb) until 23rd  March. Held at Wynstones School, Stroud Road, Whaddon, Gloucester from 7.30 - 9.30pm on Mondays. 

Like Britain, Germany consists of a number of exotic Terranes, derived from different continents and amalgamated together by plate tectonic collisions. Northern Germany is part of Avalonia, which amalgamated with the East European Craton (Baltica) along the Tornquist suture in the east. A great deal of this area is plastered by thick Quaternary glacial sediments. 

Central Germany is part of Armorica, which collided with the north during the Variscan orogeny. There is, in places, thick Mesozoic unconformable cover. The extreme south is part of the Alpine orogeny, but its effects were transmitted northwards to affect and reactivate older structures. There was extensive volcanic activity during the Tertiary, and some famous asteroid impact sites. 

Cost £75

Tuesday 28th


Wednesday 29th

Bristol Nats AGM & Members Evening
When
Wed, 29 January, 19:30 – 21:30
Where
Room 1.5 Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol (map)
Description
The Geology Section’s Annual General meeting will consider the report on Section activities during 2019 and appoint the officers and committee to serve for 2020. 

This involves the election of a President, Secretary, Field Secretary and other committee members if appropriate. The post of President is currently vacant. Anyone interested in taking on these positions is asked to contact the Section Secretary who will not be in any way upset if another person wishes to take on the Secretary or Field Secretary roles. Alternatively nominations may be made to the Society Secretary preferably by 15 January.

 Please consider if you might be able to help organize our programme of talks and walks by suggesting Speakers or Leaders. 

The business section of the meeting will be followed by presentations or short talks by members of the Section. Displays of rocks and fossils by members will be especially welcome as will short talks on any aspect of geology. This will be an occasion for members to SOCIALISE and really get to know each other so please do come along.

thursday 30th

Geostudies Lecture - Uniformitarianism
When
Thu, 30 January, 19:30 – 21:30
Where
The Chantry, Thornbury (map)
Description

The Limits of Uniformitarianism.


The science of geology is heavily dependent on the principle of uniformitarianism – the idea  that geological conditions and processes have remained substantially unchanged through geological time, meaning that we can interpret the past on the basis of our understanding of the geological present. But how accurate is this principle? To what extent were conditions and processes different in the past? Are present conditions and processes typical? How well do we understand present processes? And there are also spatial features to consider; A casual examination of a modern sedimentary or volcanic environment reveals rapid and wide-ranging changes in facies over a small area. Our evidence of past environments is largely based on small, possibly unrepresentative, exposures of tiny fractions of those past environments. Are we justified in using evidence from the past to interpret the present and future, such as climate change?  Held at The Chantry, Thornbury, in the Hanover Room.  First meeting 7.30 – 9.30, Thurs 16th  January until April 2nd  (not Thurs 20th Feb or 19th March). Cost £75


Programme

What do we mean by Uniformitarianism? Origin of the term and the historical context in which it arose and developed as a counter to “Old” Catastrophism.

What are the main problems with Uniformitarianism? The rise of “New” Catastrophism in the later part of the 20th century. Problems of direction, cyclicity, punctuation, gradualism in the following fields of geology:

Uniformitarianism and sedimentation. Have conditions changed over geological time? How representative in terms of coverage and completeness is the sedimentary record?

Uniformitarianism and volcanicity, earthquakes, intrusion and landslides

Uniformitarianism and the solar system – external processes affecting earth geology

Uniformitarianism and major environmental change (such as climate and sea level changes)

Uniformitarianism, evolution and mass extinction  

Uniformitarianism and tectonics – was plate tectonics a relatively young development? Is the Wilson (supercontinent) Cycle real?

Geomorphology and Uniformitarianism

Is the present the key to the past? (or in reverse?)




friday 31st


saturday 1st february

OUGS South West - AGM
When
Saturday, 1 Feb 2020
Where
Hannafore Point Hotel, Hannafore Road, West Looe, Cornwall PL13 2DG (map)
Description

Event: South West Branch Day of Talks and AGM
Venue: Hannafore Point Hotel, Hannafore Road, West Looe, Cornwall PL13 2DG
Date: February 1st 2020 (Saturday)
Type: Branch Annual General Meeting
Summary: Programme details below.
Details of Sunday Field Trip T.B.A.
cost - £20 for members, £25 for non-members to include teas, coffees and a light lunch.
More info: 




A discount has been arranged for delegates who wish to stay at the hotel. Please see Booking form. 

SWOUGS Day of Talks and AGM

Saturday February 1st, 2020

Hannafore Point Hotel, Looe, Cornwall PL13 2DG

www.hannaforepointhotel.com Tel 01503 263 273

Programme

1000 Welcome

1015 Dr Doug Robinson

The making of the Mendips

– a 200 million-year, 7,500 km journey across the planet.

1100 break

1115 Dr Irene Manzella, University of Plymouth

Using small scale laboratory experiments to understand volcanic and landslide hazards.

1215 Prof John Mather

The Whetstone Industry of the Blackdown Hills, Somerset.

1300 Lunch

1400 Dr Camille Dusséaux, University of Plymouth

300 million-year-old rainwater gives clues about the altitude of the Variscan Mountain Chain during the Carboniferous.

1515 SWOUGS AGM

1. Reports

2. Accounts

3. Election of Committee

4. AOB

5. Date and time of next AGM

On Sunday the 2nd February there will be a field trip led by Calum Beeson of Penryn Campus, details and timings to come later.

Cost, £20 for members of OUGS, £25 for visitors, to include Teas, Coffees and a light lunch.


sunday 2nd

OUGS South West - Field Trip
When
Sunday, 2 Feb 2020
Where
Cawsand Bay, Torpoint PL10, UK (map)
Description

Event: Branch AGM Field Trip to SSSI at Kingsand and Sandway Cellars
Leader: Calum Beeson
Location: Cawsand Bay, Cornwall
Date: February 2nd 2020 (Sunday)
Type: Field Trip (Day)
Summary: Details TBA
More info: 
Kingsand lies on the shores of Cawsand Bay, with the South West Coast Path running through the village. The village coast, as well as the coast 1 km to the east, forms the Kingsand to Sandway Point SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), which shows examples of extensive Early Permian volcanicity.

The World's Oldest Meteorite Crater

The World's Oldest Meteorite Crater

My attention was drawn to this WEB PAGE (scroll down to the 21st January entry) as Nature wanted to use a photograph of mine to illustrate it. I, of course, said yes. 

We were at Barlangi Rock in January 2011 with a couple of geologist friends from University. In particular, John Bunting had been instrumental in bringing the site to the notice of the meteorite impact community and I was keen to see what he had found. You can see all my photos HERE

The first link is an introduction to THIS PAPER. This gives evidence that the impact has an age of 2229 ± 5 Ma. This is older than the Vredefort impact in South Africa and is the oldest impact found so far.

John's interest in the area was aroused by an observation made many years ago that shocked quartz had been seen in thin sections from the area. Also the (lack of) aeromagnetics of the area - see the figure below.


 The paper speculates that the area was covered by ice at the time of impact and the vaporisation of this may have influenced climate change. But in which direction the authors refuse to hazard a guess!


Barlangi (5 of 19)
On Barlangi Rock with the Meekatharra - Sandstone Highway on the right

Thursday 23 January 2020

Somerset Building Stones

Somerset Building Stones

A corespondent has brought THIS WEB PAGE to my notice. And I am glad they did! It is a wonderful resource recording the traditional building stones used in Somerset.

So far the authors, Garry Dawson and Peter Wright, have covered Taunton Dene and the Quantock Hills east to the River Parrett and are working on West Somerset and South Somerset west of the River Parrett. One hopes the rest will be covered before long! 

The extent of the survey by August 2019

The amount of detail which can be accessed from the page is fantastic - how about a spreadsheet with 40 columns and 2580 rows!!!

The web page is part of the web site of the South West Heritage Trust and that too is well worth exploring. I found the section on films to be particularly interesting.

Saturday 18 January 2020

20th to 26th January 2020


NEXT WEEKS EVENTS

20th to 26th January 2020


THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTRACT FROM BRISTOL AND WEST COUNTRY GEOLOGY CALENDARS

MORE DETAILS CAN BE FOUND IN THE BRISTOL AND THE WEST COUNTRY CALENDARS AND ON THE WEB SITES OF THE RELEVANT SOCIETY OR ORGANISATION.


MONDAY 20TH

Geostudies Lecture Course - Germany
When
Mon, 20 January, 19:30 – 21:30
Where
Wynstones School, Stroud Road, Whaddon, Gloucester (map)
Description
The Geology of Germany 

 Monday 13th for 10 weeks (not 17th Feb) until 23rd  March. Held at Wynstones School, Stroud Road, Whaddon, Gloucester from 7.30 - 9.30pm on Mondays. 

Like Britain, Germany consists of a number of exotic Terranes, derived from different continents and amalgamated together by plate tectonic collisions. Northern Germany is part of Avalonia, which amalgamated with the East European Craton (Baltica) along the Tornquist suture in the east. A great deal of this area is plastered by thick Quaternary glacial sediments. 

Central Germany is part of Armorica, which collided with the north during the Variscan orogeny. There is, in places, thick Mesozoic unconformable cover. The extreme south is part of the Alpine orogeny, but its effects were transmitted northwards to affect and reactivate older structures. There was extensive volcanic activity during the Tertiary, and some famous asteroid impact sites. 

Cost £75
----------------------------------

Teme Valley G S - Lecture
When
Mon, 20 January, 19:30 – 21:00
Where
Martley Memorial Hall B4197 by Sports Ground (map)
Description
Prof. Ian Fairchild, Caves, Caves’ Atmospheres and Caves’ Climates  

tuesday 21st

Geol Soc Western - Early Careers Award and AGM
When
Tuesday, 21 Jan 2020

wednesday 22nd


thursday 23rd

Geostudies Lecture - Uniformitarianism
When
Thu, 23 January, 19:30 – 21:30
Where
The Chantry, Thornbury (map)
Description

The Limits of Uniformitarianism.


The science of geology is heavily dependent on the principle of uniformitarianism – the idea  that geological conditions and processes have remained substantially unchanged through geological time, meaning that we can interpret the past on the basis of our understanding of the geological present. But how accurate is this principle? To what extent were conditions and processes different in the past? Are present conditions and processes typical? How well do we understand present processes? And there are also spatial features to consider; A casual examination of a modern sedimentary or volcanic environment reveals rapid and wide-ranging changes in facies over a small area. Our evidence of past environments is largely based on small, possibly unrepresentative, exposures of tiny fractions of those past environments. Are we justified in using evidence from the past to interpret the present and future, such as climate change?  Held at The Chantry, Thornbury, in the Hanover Room.  First meeting 7.30 – 9.30, Thurs 16th  January until April 2nd  (not Thurs 20th Feb or 19th March). Cost £75


Programme

What do we mean by Uniformitarianism? Origin of the term and the historical context in which it arose and developed as a counter to “Old” Catastrophism.

What are the main problems with Uniformitarianism? The rise of “New” Catastrophism in the later part of the 20th century. Problems of direction, cyclicity, punctuation, gradualism in the following fields of geology:

Uniformitarianism and sedimentation. Have conditions changed over geological time? How representative in terms of coverage and completeness is the sedimentary record?

Uniformitarianism and volcanicity, earthquakes, intrusion and landslides

Uniformitarianism and the solar system – external processes affecting earth geology

Uniformitarianism and major environmental change (such as climate and sea level changes)

Uniformitarianism, evolution and mass extinction  

Uniformitarianism and tectonics – was plate tectonics a relatively young development? Is the Wilson (supercontinent) Cycle real?

Geomorphology and Uniformitarianism

Is the present the key to the past? (or in reverse?)



friday 24th


saturday 25th

OUGS Wessex - AGM and Day of Talks
When
Sat, 25 January, 10:10 – 15:45
Where
The D’Urberville Centre, Collier's Ln, Wool, Wareham BH20 6DL, UK (map)
Description
Event: Wessex Branch AGM and Day of Talks
Venue: D'urberville Centre, Wool, Dorset
Date: January 25th 2020 (Saturday)
Type: Branch Annual General Meeting
Summary: A sociable day with three talks on the theme of 'hidden worlds', an excellent lunch, and a brisk AGM.
More info:
For more information on the day's events, see AGM_2020_flyer.pdf 

Programme:

10.10 am  Registration (with tea and coffee)

10.30 am  Dr Laura Newsome (Camborne School of Mines) 'Microbes and ore deposits'

11.30 am  Stacy Phillips (Open University) 'How to make a mountain: Melting the heart of the Himalaya'

12.40 pm  Buffet lunch

1.30 pm    AGM (Agenda published in Members' Information section)

2.20 pm    Stacey Felgate (National Oceanographic Centre) 'Where has all the carbon gone?'

3.45 pm  Close

The charge for the talks, refreshments and lunch is £8 per person. 
--------------------------------

South Wales G A - Lecture
When
Sat, 25 January, 11:00 – 12:30
Where
Lectures at University of Wales Swansea are held in the department of Geography in the Wallace building. We meet on the landing area inside the main entrance to the building for refreshments with lectures in the main lecture theatre. (map)
Description
To be confirmed

sunday 26th

Free Geology Course

Free Geology Course

A correspondent has brought THIS to my notice. It is a course on "Extreme Geological Events" taught by people from Cardiff University's Geology Department. From the bits I have watched it looks pretty good. 

You can get all the details at the web site where you can sign up for the course - and it starts on the 27th January!

Friday 17 January 2020

Is Venus Active? (Volcanically)

Is Venus Active? (Volcanically)

Not much is known about Earth's nearest planetary neighbour, Venus. It has a reflective cloud cover,over a 96% CO2 atmosphere, which leads to surface temperatures of about 500oC. A few Russian missions to the planet survived long enough to determine that the surface rock was of basaltic composition.

The atmosphere is transparent to radar waves and it is found to be a flat place with few impact craters but many volcanic craters.

Volcanic ‘pancake’ domes on the surface of Venus, about 65 km wide and 1 km high, imaged by orbital radar carried by NASA’s Magellan Mission.

THIS ARTICLE describes an ingenious method of determining if Venus is currently (or recently) active volcanically. In laboratory experiments they determined what would happen to olivine in Venus's atmosphere. Fresh olivine emits more radiation than olivine tarnished in Venus's atmosphere.

A carbon dioxide atmosphere does let some radiation through at a few spectral windows; windows in which olivine emits its radiation. Using this we can see "hot spots" which indicate fresh olivine - and given Venus's atmosphere, olivine does not stay fresh for long!

Colour-coded image of night-time thermal emissivity over Venus’s southern hemisphere as sensed by VIRTIS on Venus Express (Credit: M. Gilmore 2017, Space Sci. Rev. DOI 10.1007/s11214-017-0370-8; Fig. 3)

So, does Venus have active volcanoes - very possibly!

Saturday 11 January 2020

13th to 19th January 2019


NEXT WEEKS EVENTS

13th to 19th January 2019


THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTRACT FROM BRISTOL AND WEST COUNTRY GEOLOGY CALENDARS

MORE DETAILS CAN BE FOUND IN THE BRISTOL AND THE WEST COUNTRY CALENDARS AND ON THE WEB SITES OF THE RELEVANT SOCIETY OR ORGANISATION.


MONDAY 13TH

Geostudies Lecture Course - Germany
Monday, 13 January⋅19:30 – 21:30
Weekly on Monday, until 29 Mar 2020
Wynstones School, Stroud Road, Whaddon, Gloucester
Description:The Geology of Germany 

 Monday 13th for 10 weeks (not 17th Feb) until 23rd  March. Held at Wynstones School, Stroud Road, Whaddon, Gloucester from 7.30 - 9.30pm on Mondays. 

Like Britain, Germany consists of a number of exotic Terranes, derived from different continents and amalgamated together by plate tectonic collisions. Northern Germany is part of Avalonia, which amalgamated with the East European Craton (Baltica) along the Tornquist suture in the east. A great deal of this area is plastered by thick Quaternary glacial sediments. 

Central Germany is part of Armorica, which collided with the north during the Variscan orogeny. There is, in places, thick Mesozoic unconformable cover. The extreme south is part of the Alpine orogeny, but its effects were transmitted northwards to affect and reactivate older structures. There was extensive volcanic activity during the Tertiary, and some famous asteroid impact sites. 

Cost £75

TUESDAY 14TH

Cardiff University Lecture - Volcanoes—all you need to know!
When
Tue, 14 January, 18:30 – 20:00
Where
School of Earth and Ocean Sciences will be held in the Wallace Lecture Theatre (0.13), Main Building, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT (map)
Description
Volcanoes: from fuming vents to extinction events. Tamsin Mather, Earth Sciences, Oxford

The 2019-2020 monthly Tuesday evening lecture series in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences will be held in the Wallace Lecture Theatre (0.13), Main Building, Cardiff University, Park Place,
 Cardiff CF10 3AT.  Lectures begin at 18.30.  Booking is not needed.  Should you require the Q&A sessions to be in Welsh, please email edwardsd2@cardiff.ac.uk at least two weeks before the event.

Did you know that the majority of volcanic eruptions – maybe even 90% – occur under water and of which we are largely unaware? There remains a very great deal we don't know about volcanoes, but many exciting new insights are emerging from ongoing research. This lecture series will encompass the diversity of volcanoes, their functioning and products, together with the nature of eruptions and their attendant problems of predictions plus their ensuing past and present environmental and biological impacts.

WEDNESDAY 15TH



THURSDAY 16TH

Geostudies Lecture - Uniformitarianism
When
Thu, 16 January, 19:30 – 21:30
Where
The Chantry, Thornbury (map)
Description

The Limits of Uniformitarianism.


The science of geology is heavily dependent on the principle of uniformitarianism – the idea  that geological conditions and processes have remained substantially unchanged through geological time, meaning that we can interpret the past on the basis of our understanding of the geological present. But how accurate is this principle? To what extent were conditions and processes different in the past? Are present conditions and processes typical? How well do we understand present processes? And there are also spatial features to consider; A casual examination of a modern sedimentary or volcanic environment reveals rapid and wide-ranging changes in facies over a small area. Our evidence of past environments is largely based on small, possibly unrepresentative, exposures of tiny fractions of those past environments. Are we justified in using evidence from the past to interpret the present and future, such as climate change?  Held at The Chantry, Thornbury, in the Hanover Room.  First meeting 7.30 – 9.30, Thurs 16th  January until April 2nd  (not Thurs 20th Feb or 19th March). Cost £75


Programme

What do we mean by Uniformitarianism? Origin of the term and the historical context in which it arose and developed as a counter to “Old” Catastrophism.

What are the main problems with Uniformitarianism? The rise of “New” Catastrophism in the later part of the 20th century. Problems of direction, cyclicity, punctuation, gradualism in the following fields of geology:

Uniformitarianism and sedimentation. Have conditions changed over geological time? How representative in terms of coverage and completeness is the sedimentary record?

Uniformitarianism and volcanicity, earthquakes, intrusion and landslides

Uniformitarianism and the solar system – external processes affecting earth geology

Uniformitarianism and major environmental change (such as climate and sea level changes)

Uniformitarianism, evolution and mass extinction  

Uniformitarianism and tectonics – was plate tectonics a relatively young development? Is the Wilson (supercontinent) Cycle real?

Geomorphology and Uniformitarianism

Is the present the key to the past? (or in reverse?)


Useful Reading

There is very little in the form of recently published books on the subject, though there are some classic older publications, not issued as e-books:

Berggren and Van Couvering Catastrophism and Earth History – the new uniformitarianism (1984)

C C Albritton Catastrophic Episodes in Earth History (1989)

D V Ager The Nature of the Stratigraphic Record (1993 3rd edition) 

DV Ager The New Catastrophism (1993)

Tony Hallam Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities – the causes of mass extinctions (1994)

Richard Huggett Catastrophism (1997 2nd edition)  

FRIDAY 17TH



SATURDAY 18TH



sunday 19th