Thursday 30 August 2018

Dave Green's Geostudies Programme

Dave Green's Geostudies Programme

Dave Green has sent me his programme for next year, from September to June.
And it is packed with interesting courses and excursions! 

Contact Dave by email at davegeostudies@gmail.com, by phone at 01594 960858 and by post at Dave Green, Joys Green Farm, Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, GL17 9QU
=========================================

Summary guide to Geostudies Geology Courses and Field Trips 2018-2019

For full details see the Geostudies Website (http://www.geostudies.co.uk), or contact Dave Green.

September 2018

Understanding Geology and Scenery around Ross-on-Wye 

Starts September 21st (not 25th Oct or 8th Nov), finishes 6th December.
This 10 week course aims to introduce you to the ways in which the varied and beautiful landscape round our area has come into being. The effects of folds, faults and tectonic dip in exposing  different rock types, and the past and present processes of uplift, weathering, erosion and deposition that have acted upon them, will be examined by reference to local scenery. Use will be made of local maps and cross-sections across them, both geological and topographic; together with specimens of local rocks. Contact Paul Mason on  01989 760399. Cost £60  Enrol  before 15th September to ensure that the course runs.

Geology of the Bristol and Gloucester Region

One of the most varied regions of Britain, spanning the major divisions of the Variscan Front/Bristol Channel-Bray Fault, and the Malvern fault/ Worcester Graben, incorporating rocks varying in age from late PreCambrian to Cretaceous, and three of the terranes making up the geological “jigsaw” of Britain. The course will cover roughly the area covered by the eponymous BGS publication in the British Regional Geology series (3rd edition 1992).  Starts Mon 17th September  for 10 weeks (not 22nd or29th Oct or 5th Nov), until 10th December   Held at Wynstones School, Stroud Road, Whaddon, Gloucester from 7.30-9.30pm on Mondays.  Cost £75 (including tea, coffee etc at breaktime!).

October 2018

Field Course: The Geology of Northern Cyprus and NW Turkey

Dates will be for a week to 10 days trip around a period from 19th to 31st  October (half term in Glos). Half the time will be spent in N Cyprus and half in Turkey, in the area around and to the south west of Istanbul. A wide variety of geology is exposed; from the  Kyrenia Terrane of N Cyprus, spectacularly exposed in the narrow, and still rising, mountain range that forms the entire northernmost coast, but deeply buried beneath the younger sediments of the Mesoria Basin to the south. Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments were folded and metamorphosed during subduction in the late Cretaceous, then exhumed, eroded and covered by latest Cretaceous-Palaeogene sediments and volcanics, then by an Eocene melange; the whole being thrust and folded by Eocene collision with Troodos. Turkey was not a single entity until the Early Tertiary, when several continental fragments with independent Palaeozoic and Mesozoic geological histories were assembled during a complex sequence of events leading to the collision of Gondwana and Laurasia. We shall examine the Istanbul and Sakarya terranes, which were detached parts of Laurasia, undergoing Triassic subduction, collision and obduction/exhumation of ophiolites, including some of the best high pressure metamorphic rocks in the world.  

 

November - December 2018

Field Course: 30th Nov – 2nd Dec (and possibly Monday 3rd too) Geology of the Quantocks and West Somerset 

A classic area for the study of the folded Upper Palaeozoic basement in the Quantocks and Cannington Park, and the unconformable Triassic and Jurassic sequence exposed in faulted basins associated with the Bristol Channel fault. What is the evidence for and against massive Variscan movement of formerly widely separated terranes along this fault? Excellent exposures, particularly of the Mesozoic rocks at and near the coast.

17th December (Monday) Annual Geological Reunion Dinner at Watersmeet, Hartpury 7.30 for 8.00pm

 

January 2019


The Geology of Eruptions, Earthquakes and Tsunamis  

Three of the most devastating natural disaster-forming events are geological, all related to plate tectonics, and are very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately forecast.  What are the causes of these events and their various manifestations? Why are some more dangerous than others? How can we prevent or mitigate these effects? Examples of some of these phenomena will be used to illustrate these points Monday 7th for 10 weeks (not 18h Feb) until 18th March. Held at Wynstones School, Stroud Road, Whaddon, Gloucester from 7.30-9.30pm on Mondays . Cost £75

Advances in Understanding Earth’s Structure and Operation. 

This 10 week course aims to introduce you to relatively new ideas, some accepted, some controversial, about the internal structure and tectonics of the Earth. Many ideas have changed radically since the inception of the Plate Tectonic hypothesis, and especially in the period from the 1990s, partly as a result of new technology, and the re-examination of parts of the theory that evidence did not support. Each week we will examine a different topic, such as subduction, mantle dynamics, mantle plumes.   Held at The Chantry, Thornbury.  First meeting 7.30 – 9.30, Thurs 10th January until March 21st (not Thurs 21st Feb). Cost £75

 

February 2019

Possible Field Course: The Geology of  Neapolitan Volcanoes and their Eruptions  

Dates will be for a week  trip around a period from Fri 15th to Monday 25th .  LET ME KNOW BEFORE CHRISTMAS IF YOU WANT TO COME to take advantage of cheaper air fares and determine the viability of such a trip.

April 2019

The Practical Study of  Minerals

How to identify minerals using techniques based on both physical (crystallographic, twinning, cleavage, hardness, density, streak, colour, lustre, acid reaction, taste etc) and optical properties under the petrological microscope  (relief, pleochroism, birefringence, extinction etc) Monday 29th April, for 10 weeks, until 15th July (not 6th nor 27th May). Held at Wynstones School, Stroud Rd, Whaddon, Gloucester from 7.30-9.30pm on Mondays. Cost £75.

June - July 2019

Field Course: Tues 4th  June   -  Tues 16th July  Geology and Landscape in Gloucestershire  

(evening field course Tuesdays 7-9 First meeting point:- Stinchcombe Hill:  Meet at the car park /roadside pull-in just over the crest of the hill GR ST 744 983 (beyond the golf course car park) .  Further sessions on website, separate leaflet, and/or by contacting Dave Green.


Field Course: to Estonia (Lower  Palaeozoic/Quaternary, undeformed) or Brittany (Proterozoic/Palaeozoic high grade Cadomian orogeny)
Dates could be any week/weekend  in June apart from 1-7th. Details later. Expressions of interest/choice of venue/dates needed

Saturday 25 August 2018

27th August to 2nd September 2018

NEXT WEEKS EVENTS

27th August to 2nd September 2018

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.

MENDIP HILLS AONB HAVE A SERIES OF EVENTS WHICH HAVE ONLY RECENTLY COME TO MY NOTICE. THEY CAN BE DISCOVERED HERE. I HAVE INSERTED SOME OF THEM BELOW. VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR BOOKING DETAILS.

MONDAY 27TH



TUESDAY 28th



Wednesday 29th

FAMILY FOSSIL AND ROCKY FUNDAY
August 29 @ 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
FREE
BOOK HERE

Painting fossils, making clay fossils, explore the Mendip Rocks and tour inside a working Mendip quarry to see the oldest Mendip Rocks. Discover the “Step back in time geological trail in the woods” All welcome. Car parking at SESC. Refreshments available, bring own picnic lunch. Boots/waterproofs for quarry tours.

No need to book. Info: gill@earthsciencecentre.org.uk 01749 840156

Thursday 30th



Friday 31st



Saturday 1st

BANWELL BONE CAVES TOUR– “GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF BANWELL CAVES AND FOLLIES”
September 1 @ 2:15 pm - 5:00 pm
£15.00
BOOK HERE

A chance to see an early 19th Century pleasure garden with unique bone cave and follies/grottoes, not often open to the public.

Banwell Caves, Banwell Lane, BS29 6NA.

Limited places

£15pp, (children under 16 free). Tea/cake available.

Sunday 2nd

Hampshire Mineral & Fossil Show
When
Sat, 1 September, 10:00 – 16:30
Where
Lyndhurst Community Centre, Lyndhurst, Hants. 

-------------------------------------------
Bath Geol Soc Event - Site Clearance
When
Sat, 1 September, 10:00 – 12:00
Where
Dead Maid Quarry Industrial Estate, Mere (ST 803 324) (map)
Description
Mere

A continuation of the clean-up of the exposure of Greensand-Chalk, so come along with gardening tools. Strong boots, waterproofs and hard hats are required.

Meet at 10.30 am at the Dead Maid Quarry Industrial Estate, Mere (ST 803 324) (further details will be posted here at a later date).

Here are the further details.


Dead Maid Quarry Mere



Site clearance on Saturday 1st September 2018 at 10am



Come and help clear vegetation on this SSSI which shows the transition from Upper Greensand to Lower Chalk. All details of geology at http://www.thegcr.org.uk/SiteReports.cfm?Step=3v

The work we did last year has remained and we want to continue to clear  the ivy growth. Bring gardening gloves, secateurs, long handled clippers, short brush, trowel and any short ladder would be appreciated. A hard hat and eye protection is a good idea too. You may get a bit dusty.

Park just beside the location at the back of the trading estate. Access from the north side of the B3092 (old A303) west of Mere, and just before the turnoff of the B3095 signed to Gillingham.

Pub lunch after. Interesting area if you are not familiar with the Mere fault.



Isabel Buckingham

01985219313

isabelbuckingham@btinternet.com

----------------------------------------
Gloucestershire Geology Trust - Cleeve Common Rocks Walk
When
Sat, 1 September, 14:00 – 16:00
Where
Cleeve Common Cheltenham (map)
Description
More info at http://www.glosgeotrust.org.uk/contact.shtml


Tuesday 21 August 2018

When did life begin?

New Method to Determine the Beginnings of Life.

Fossils are rare in old rocks and old rocks are also rare, so dating the beginning of life by looking in old rocks is not easy. Few contain any biological remains and anything found is difficult to identify and usually of little use.

In THIS ARTICLE, written by a Bristol PhD student, a different approach is used. 

The article describes using the genetic data we have for present day organisms and applying a molecular clock to decipher their history. 

I will not pretend that I understand the technique but the article is well worth reading - and the author thinks life started about 3.9 billion years ago before the late heavy bombardment!

Saturday 18 August 2018

20th to 26th August 2018

NEXT WEEKS EVENTS

20TH TO 26TH AUGUST 2018

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.

MENDIP HILLS AONB HAVE A SERIES OF EVENTS WHICH HAVE ONLY RECENTLY COME TO MY NOTICE. THEY CAN BE DISCOVERED HERE. I HAVE INSERTED SOME OF THEM BELOW. VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR BOOKING DETAILS.

MONDAY 20th



Tuesday 21st

SMFS Evening Meeting
When
Tue, 21 August, 19:30 – 22:00
Where
The Friends' Meeting House, 1A, Ordnance Rd, Southampton. SO15 2AZ (map)
Description
Annual Swap & Sell evening.

Wednesday 22nd



Thursday 23rd



Friday 24th

FOSSIL FUN FRIDAY AT WRITHLINGTON, RADSTOCK
August 24 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
FREE
Join the team from Somerset Earth Science Centre for some fossil hunting fun on the coal heaps left behind from coal mining and now a geological reserve.

Booking essential limited numbers.

Wear suitable clothes, bring collecting bags,snacks/drinks, hammers goggles provided.

Meet: Radstock car park near Museum, on Waterloo Road, Radstock BA3 3EP.

Saturday 25th



Sunday 26th




Tuesday 14 August 2018

Text books of my youth available

Text Books of My Youth Available

A correspondent who may be moving house has some old textbooks looking for a good home.

I remember using some of them when I was a student - I still have my copy of Deer, Howie and Zussman, and I am not parting with that!!!

The books available are:- 


Outline of Hisorical Geology - A.K. Wells - 5th edition - 1966

The Stratigraphy of the British Isles - Dorothy H. Rayner - 1967

An Introduction to the rock forming Minerals - Deer Howie and Zussman - 1967

Geological Structures and Maps - A. Roberts - 1961

Treatise on Sedimentation - William H. Twenhofel - 1962 - Vols. 1 and 2

British Palaeozoic Fossils -1964   )  Both publications of:
British Caenozoic Fossils - 1963  )   British Museum

Geodynamics of Pakistan - Geological Survey of Pakistan - 1979

If you are interested in any of the books, let me know and I will put you in touch with my correspondent.

Extinction wars

Was It the Asteroid: Was It the Deccan Traps?

This long, and well written, article follows an advocate of the Deccan Traps being the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs on a field trip to India. It describes the disputes she has had with the asteroid backers and the difficulties she has faced - not all of them geological.

The article describes how scientific controversies can become entrenched and embittered.

You can listen to the article using the soundcloud player below



Or you can see it in cartoon form



Saturday 11 August 2018

13th to 19th August 2018

NEXT WEEKS EVENTS

13TH TO 19TH AUGUST 2018

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.

MENDIP HILLS AONB HAVE A SERIES OF EVENTS WHICH HAVE ONLY RECENTLY COME TO MY NOTICE. THEY CAN BE DISCOVERED HERE. I HAVE INSERTED SOME OF THEM BELOW. VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR BOOKING DETAILS.

MONDAY 13TH

Teme Valley Geological Society - Geological Walk
When
Monday, 13 Aug 2018
Description
 Part of OUGS Symposium–walks around Martley area, examining the geological sites

TUESDAY 14TH

BATTS COMBE QUARRY TOUR – A LIMESTONE LEGACY
August 14 @ 10:00AM - 12:00PM. Also 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
£5.00
A guided tour with Hanson’s UK to view inside this Burrington Oolite quarry, a mineral very valuable as a pure limestone for animal feed, toothpaste and many industrial fillers. Wear boots, long sleeves, no shorts, safety wear provided.

Meet at Batts Combe Quarry office car park, Warrens Hill, Cheddar, BS27 3LR.Limited places. Charge £5pp.


wednesday 15th


Thursday 16th

Thornbury Geology Group, 7.30pm, The Chantry, Thornbury
When
Thu, 16 August, 19:00 – 21:30
Description
Thornbury Geology Group, 7.30pm at The Chantry, Thornbury, and every 3rd Thursday in the month.  

Friday 17th


saturday 18th

BANWELL BONE CAVES TOUR– “GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF BANWELL CAVES AND FOLLIES”
August 18 @ 2:15 pm - 5:00 pm
£15.00
A chance to see early 19th Century follies and pleasure garden with unique bone cave, follies & grottoes not often open to the public.

Banwell Caves, Banwell Lane, BS29 6NA. Limited places, for info contact SESC 01749 840156

£15pp, (children under 16 free), tea/cake available. 

Sunday 19th



Have you heard of the Meghalyan?

Anthropocene vs Meghalayan

You may have heard of the Anthropocene being proposed as a geological time period. But the IUGS (the International Union of Geological Sciences) is having none of that. They say we are still in the Holocene and particularly in the Meghalayan Age.

This has led to a big argument which you can read about HERE. I reckon this will run and run. 

Origin of animals backdated

First Animal Found in Ediacaran?

Stromatoveris psygmoglena is a soft bodied animal found in the Cambrian. Recently many well preserved examples have been found in China. The author of THIS ARTICLE examined them and compared them to Ediacaran fossils and declares them to be the same.

So animal origins go back further than we previously thought.

The comments below the article are worth a look. 

A Cambrian fossil of Stromatoveris from Northwest University, China. J. Hoyal Cuthill

How to date a landslide

Correlating Landslides and Earthquakes in Cascadia

HERE is a longish article about how to date landslides and see whether the landslides are caused by earthquakes. And so far they have not found a landslide with the same age as the great earthquake of 1700.

The technique involves dendrochronology. Trees which died as the result of drowning in lakes formed by landslides are dated and their outermost ring gives the date of the landslide. A rather nice way to get a specific date.


Fig. 1. (left) This slab sample from a drowned tree (visible in the background) in Klickitat Lake in Oregon provides a record of the years before a landslide dam formed this lake, inundating the forest. Slabs with a sufficient number of tree rings can be correlated to regional tree ring records. (right) This correlation is evident from the thinner rings beginning in 1739, shown in this close-up view of tree rings within the slab. Thinner rings document a profound growth slowdown, characteristic of Douglas fir trees throughout Cascadia. The outermost increment that formed immediately under the bark shows that this tree died in 1751. Similar records from other drowned trees could be linked to landslides triggered by great (~M9) earthquake that shook the region in 1700. Credit: Will Struble



Kilauea eruption slowing down?

Kilauea Eruption Slowing Down?

It might be - or perhaps not. Read the speculation HERE.

Lava weakly bubbles from KÄ«lauea’s fissure 8, a significant change from the voluminous lava fountains that had been seen in previous weeks. The photograph was taken during an overflight survey on 7 August. Credit: USGS

Down to Earth Extra - August

Down to Earth Extra - August

Sunday 5 August 2018

Two interesting publications

Two Interesting Publications 

I came across these recently and you may find them of interest.

GEOconservationNEWSletter

AND

OUGS Wessex Branch Newsletter
(after the Geoconservation Newsletter)

Saturday 4 August 2018

6th to 12th August 2018

NEXT WEEKS EVENTS

6th to 12th August 2018

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.

MENDIP HILLS AONB HAVE A SERIES OF EVENTS WHICH HAVE ONLY RECENTLY COME TO MY NOTICE. THEY CAN BE DISCOVERED HERE. I HAVE INSERTED SOME OF THEM BELOW. VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR BOOKING DETAILS.

MONDAY 6th


Tuesday 7th

TORR WORKS QUARRY TOURS WITH SOMERSET EARTH SCIENCE CENTRE
August 7 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm and @ 2 pm - 4 pm
£5.00
Join the team at Somerset Earth Science Centre for a minibus tour of one of the UK’s largest working Limestone Quarries, at Torr Works, near Frome. Morning/afternoon tours, boots/waterproofs,long sleeves & no shorts please.

Car parking at SESC. £5pp. 16 years + only. Max 10 in group.

Info: Gill Odolphie 01749 840156

Wednesday 8th


Thursday 9th


friday 10th

PEN HILL GEO WALK PART 2 August 10 @ 10:00 am - 1:00 pm FREE A walk led by geologist Doug Robinson tracing ~ 200 million years
of Earth history from the Carboniferous to Jurassic periods, from
the southern tropics across the equator into desert settings then
invasion by the Jurassic seas. Walk of ~ 4.5 km with elevation gain of ~ 165 m.
Walk along public footpaths, roadside including A39 and crossing
of this trunk road. Meet on footpath at junction of North Rd and
Little Entry lane, Wells (ST 5536 4627). Parking close to start point
available along Ash Lane (ST 5486 4646), or College Road
(ST 5510 4628). ---------------------------
OUGS Symposium - 'Music of the Earth'
When
10 – 12 Aug 2018
Where
St John’s Campus, Worcester University (map)
Description
Geology of the Worcester area, the Malvern Hills, and Martley

saturday 11th


OUGS Symposium - 'Music of the Earth'
--------------------------------------
SWGA - Family Geology Day, Penarth
When
Saturday, 11 Aug 2018
Description

Leaders. tbc

This is a public geological event aimed at encouraging families to come along and, hopefully, get
interested in geology. We will be looking for fossils, minerals and rocks along the beach and
pointing out other things of geological interest. This is an open-ended event where people can
come for as long or short as they wish and we would be grateful for support from as many of you
as is possible. If you are willing to attend and help out please let the Programme Secretary know
in advance.
------------------------------------

Teme Valley Geological Society - Geological Walk
When
Saturday, 11 Aug 2018
Description
 Part of OUGS Symposium–walks around Martley area, examining the geological sites


Sunday 12th

“MENDIP LEAD MINING” GUIDED WALK August 12 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm FREE Guided walk with Richard Frost of the Mendip Society to
discover the history of this fascinating industry on
Charterhouse. Parking at Blackmoor Car Park (along lane to left of
Charterhouse centre). Some uneven ground/stiles.
Boots/waterproofs. Grid reference: ST505556.
------------------------------------
OUGS Symposium - 'Music of the Earth'