Courses by Dave Green

Dave Green's Programme

It can be a little difficult to navigate Dave's website so the following slipped my notice until it was brought to my attention. The original can be found HERE.

Contact details for Dave are:-

Email Dave Green, dave@geostudies.freeserve.co.uk 

and website http://www.geostudies.co.uk/

Rocks and Minerals under the Microscope. 

This 10 week course aims to introduce you to the identification and description of rocks and their component minerals under the petrological microscope. This is a practical course, each participant will be provided with a microscope and a set of thin sections of rocks, and will work through a course at their own pace. Held at The Chantry, Thornbury. First meeting 7.30 – 9.30, Thurs 12th January until March 23rd (not Thurs 16th Feb) in the Buckingham Room. Max. numbers 20, “first come, first served” due to number of slide sets. Cost £75

Tuesday evenings in the summer: Field Course: Tues 6th June - Tues 18th July June 2017 Geology and Landscape in Gloucestershire (evening field course Tuesdays 7-9 First meeting point:- Haresfield Beacon: Meet at the roadside pull-in just before the steep descent towards Haresfield village GR SO 824 090 . Further sessions on website, separate leaflet, and/or by contacting Dave Green.

Field Course February 2017 : probably a bit late for this but.... 

The Geology of Northern Sardinia Dates will be for a week to 10 days trip around a period from Fri 10th to Monday 20th . The two terranes making up Sardinia were separate parts of Gondwana during most of the Palaeozoic. They participated in the continental collisions at the start and end of the Carboniferous to produce the Variscan Orogenic Belt, across which it provides a classic cross-section showing different styles of folding and faulting, and different grades of metamorphism, together with the intrusion of vast volumes of granite. Following a long period of erosion it became a carbonate shelf environment during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. During the Tertiary and Quaternary, subduction of Tethys oceanic crust produced extensive volcanic activity. LET ME KNOW BEFORE CHRISTMAS IF YOU WANT TO COME to take advantage of cheaper air fares 

The Geology of the Oceans past and present (including plate tectonics, environments, and current/developing ideas on oceanography and marine geology). Often termed the last frontier to be explored on Earth, there have been great advances in our understanding of the oceanic realm over the past half century. This course aims to study the main developments and what we might expect in the future, based on current research. Monday 24th April, for 10 weeks, until 10th July (not 1st nor 29th May). Held at Wynstones School, Stroud Road, Whaddon, Gloucester from 7.30-9.30pm on Mondays. Cost £70. 

Geology Southern Malverns/Geology & Landscape of Gloucestershire

Geology of the Southern Malverns
A Saturday day school on 22nd June, from 10am to 5pm
This course will attempt to unravel for you the complex geological history of the Malvern Complex (igneous and metamorphic rocks of late PreCambrian age) and its partially stripped-off cover of younger Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, and Permian sediments and igneous rocks. The story is dominated by movements on the Malvern Fault system – a fundamental fracture that may cut the whole thickness of the crust (30km), and which has moved in several different ways at different times, and which is responsible for bringing up the usually deeply buried basement rocks of England and Wales to the surface. Fault movements have also been responsible for the metamorphism seen in the oldest rocks, for providing pathways for magma to rise towards the surface, and for folding, faulting and uplifting the overlying sedimentary rocks into positions from where they were eroded.
The course will attempt to demonstrate the unfolding history, by looking at the relationships between rocks exposed in some of the disused quarries in the area, by noting the effects on landscape of rocks where they are unexposed, and trying to tie the whole picture together, with the help of evidence gleaned from the rocks in the laboratory; notably accurate radiometric dates, and geochemical analyses of the Malvern Complex. The last twenty-five years has seen a tremendous advance in the accuracy of our understanding, largely because careful analysis has been able to see through the geological “noise” caused by the very violent movements on the fault, with its attendant shearing and recrystallisation.
Handouts will be provided.
Further details from the website: please book at least a week in advance

Geology and Landscape of Gloucestershire and surroundings
A weekly field-based introductory course.
No previous knowledge of geology is assumed
Tuesday evenings 11th June to 23rd July 2013
Gloucestershire is one of the most geologically diverse counties in Britain,  and as a result displays an incredible variety of scenery. The aim of this field-based course is to take you towards an understanding of local scenery.  We will look at:-
- the highly diverse  rocks and their structure; and processes
- weathering, slope formation and erosion - which have combined to  produce this equally varied landscape
- the materials from  which the scenery has been sculpted
- processes that have acted upon them since the area emerged from the sea 65 million years ago (about the same time that the dinosaurs became extinct)
No special equipment is necessary, apart from stout footwear and possibly waterproofs - although we will hopefully have seven balmy  summer evenings! 
Meetings are held on Tuesdays each week meeting at 7.00 pm, finishing at 9.00 pm or later (whenever the party feels in need of refreshment !!) 
Cost: £50 for 7 week course or £9 per session
Further details from the website

October 6th - Geology around Chew Valley and Broadfield Down

A Geostudies Saturday field dayschool
Saturday 6th October 2012, 10.00 am – 5.00 pm
Geology around Chew Valley and Broadfield Down
The area lies between the northern face of the Mendips and Broadfield Down, the site of Bristol Airport, and is the location for two of Bristol’s water reservoirs; Chew Valley Lake and Blagdon Lake, which use the impermeable Triassic Mercia Mudstone as their foundation.
We will aim to study the geology and landscape of this
attractive area, within a metaphorical stone’s throw of Bristol and Keynsham; together with an examination of the changing environments recorded by the sequence of rocks laid down over almost 200 million years.
To Enrol contact Dave Green or go to the Geostudies website
As usual, Dave will inform participants signed up to the course a week in advance of the date, as to the meeting point for the start of the course.

19th May - Geological wander around Failand

Saturday, 19th May 10am-5pm. Cost £20
Many people will be familiar with the Failand Ridge, even though they may not live nearby! It is the prominent wooded ridge to the left (east) as you drive south along the M5 past Gordano Services after crossing the Avon bridge, and whose continuation you drive up and over on the split-level section of the motorway with the large limestone cliff on the left. Travelling northeast, the same ridge forms both sides of the Avon Gorge, where it is cut through by that river. Geologically, it forms the southern limb of the Westbury (-on-Trym) Anticline, a limb much broken by thrust faults formed at the same time as the folding. The overlying Coal Measures, to the south, and the underlying Lower Old Red Sandstone to the north, were both much less resistant to erosion than the Upper Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous Limestone which make up the ridge and were quickly worn down following folding at the end of the Carboniferous period (about 300 Ma). These lowland areas became the focus for deposition during the Triassic period of hot deserts, before complete burial of the whole landscape by Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks. The modern landscape is essentially much the same as the Triassic one, now exhumed from beneath the eroded Mesozoic cover.
To enrol, contact Dave Green, via  the  Geostudies website, preferably before this Saturday (12th May), to ensure the course runs. He will then contact you with details of meeting point and itinerary for the day.

St. Briavels Geology - 28th April

Geostudies Field Course – Geology around St Briavels
Saturday 28th April 2012 (10am-5pm) cost £20
This field course is set in a beautiful part of the Wye Valley, and the associated plateau, and will concentrate on the geological sequence of Devonian and Carboniferous rocks, their structure, and their effect on the scenery. Highlights include the setting of the castle, the petrified waterfalls of the Slade Brook and the abandoned incised meander of the Wye.
Further detail on the Geostudies website.
Please let Dave Green know of your interest a.s.a.p. so he can decide whether or not the trip is viable. One week before the date of the trip meeting time, place and further information will be emailed to all participants.

17th March - Geology around Royal Wootton Bassett

Saturday 17th March
Geology around Royal Wootton Bassett. 
Led by Dave Green, Geostudies
Cost £20
A field-based day-school (10am - 5pm) in the area around this now
famous town, looking at the fossil-rich Jurassic to Cretaceous
sequence in the area, and its strong influence on local scenery. In
addition there are one or two geological oddities specific to the
locality; notably the Wootton Bassett Mud Springs, and the Rhaxella
Chert.
Click here for more details and to enrol.