Two indoor courses from Nick Chidlaw

Two Indoor Courses from Nick Chidlaw

Nick Chidlaw has sent me the following:-

Information on courses

I am currently offering two 1-day courses for next March; these are indoor-based, and describe field areas where I have run courses and trips in the past. These courses may be attractive to people who are not in a position to visit these areas e.g. insufficient time available because of family / work commitments, or health problems.

Details of each course is provided at the bottom of this message.

Each course would comprise powerpoint-based lectures, together with examination of hand specimens of relevant mineral and rock types, and published geological maps of the field areas. The hand specimens have been collected by the tutor in the field areas described.

A handout outlining the day’s programme containing sketch maps and other relevant drawings, stratigraphic tables and a list of optional reading,  would be provided on each course. No prior knowledge of geology or the study areas would be assumed.  

Please note that these courses are run on the same weekend and in the same venue, but are independent of one another – you can enrol on both if you wish to, or one of them, according to your interests / availability.

Venue for both courses

The Buckingham Room (single storey building by the car park) at The Chantry, 52 Castle Street, Thornbury, South Gloucestershire. BS35 1HB. See website for further details www.thechantry.org.uk

I will provide Information on accommodation options to those who live beyond reasonable commuting distance. 

On each course, attendees would bring their own packed lunch and other refreshments, or go into the town for lunch.  

Tuition Fee 

£27.00 per person for each course.

Payment of Tuition Fee

Cheque payable to me sent to 8, Silver Street, Dursley, Glos. GL11 4ND. Bank Trans can be arranged if required (let me know).

Deadline for viability of both courses 

Saturday 16th February (4 weeks before the courses are due to run).

Both courses to have a minimum of 10 attendees / fee equivalent. Maximum of 30 attendees on each course. If viability for either or both courses is reached, those enrolled will be informed on the deadline date and arrangements will be able to continue. Further enrolments can be made up to 1 week before the courses are due to run. If the minimum number of attendees / fee equivalent is not reached for either course by the deadline, that course will be cancelled and fees received will be returned to those who have sent them in.

Any queries, do get in touch with the tutor nickchidlaw@gmail.com

EVIDENCE FOR A TERRANE BOUNDARY: THE HIGHLAND BORDER, SCOTLAND

Saturday 16th March 10.00 am – 5.00 pm

Many tectonic plate collision zones around the world contain ‘terranes’: regions of crust with well-defined boundaries, that differ significantly in their geological development from neighbouring regions. Ancient long-since stabilised collision zones globally are often composed of a set of interlocking (often fault-bounded) terranes, each of which originated in different places and had different tectonic histories, but which were progressively amalgamated into the  arrangement seen today. The crust of the British Isles is composed of a number of such terranes, brought together by plate collisions that culminated in the ‘Caledonian Orogeny’ (mountain-building episode, Early Silurian – Mid Devonian times). On this course, we trace one of these terrane boundaries along the Highland Border of Scotland between the Isle of Bute (near Glasgow) in the west, to Stonehaven (near Aberdeen) on the east coast.We will look at the character of the two terranes involved, the nature of the boundary between them, evidence for when the terranes were separated, and for when they finally became joined.

GEOLOGY OF THE HOLM ISLANDS, BRISTOL CHANNEL

Sunday 17th March 10.00 am – 5.00 pm

This indoor day focuses on the geology of the small relatively inaccessible islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm, located in the Bristol Channel Between Weston super Mare and Cardiff. The islands, on which rock exposures are widespread, are composed of a variety of chiefly fossil-rich tropical marine shelf and lagoonal limestones of Carboniferous age, deformed by major earth movements during that geological period. Stratal dips of up to 70 degrees occur, and both large-scale and small-scale folds are present, together with thrust and reverse faults. Later, in Middle Jurassic times, crustal extension permitted hot saline mineralizing fluids to rise into fissures on what is now Steep Holm, forming veins of galena and baryte.  The bedrock geology underlying the Bristol Channel around the islands and between Weston and Cardiff will be described, providing a basis for establishing the geological history of the islands; this includes such contrasts as their presence as discrete limestone hills within desert lake flats during Late Triassic times, and their location either side of a deep ravine containing the River Severn 10,000 years ago.