Geobulletin alpha

May 5th - Lucky Planet 

Bath Geological Society - May 5thThe "Lucky Planet"Prof. David Waltham, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway, University LondonHumankind has long fantasized about life elsewhere in the universe. And as we discover countless exoplanets orbiting other stars—among them, rocky super-Earths and gaseous Hot Jupiters—we become ever hopeful that we may come across extraterrestrial life. Yet even as we become aware of the vast numbers of planets outside our solar system, it also becomes clear [...]

April 7th - Chernobyl exclusion zone - 30 years on 

April 7th - Bath Geological SocietyChernobyl exclusion zone - 30 years onDr. Lorraine Field, British Geological SurveyThe world’s worst nuclear disaster took place on the 26th April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the town of Pripyat, in the then Ukrainian SSR. The battle to contain the contamination cost in excess of an estimated 18 billion roubles, and involved over 500,000 workers from across the Soviet Union. There is now a 30 km exclusion zone in effect around the plant. The [...]

4th February - Bath GS - Cotham Marble 

4th February - Bath Geological Society.The replacement talk is 'Cotham Marble'by Dr. Sarah Greene, NERC Independent Research Fellow,School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol7.00 p.m. AGM followed by this talkBRLSI, 16 Queen Square BathEveryone welcome, £4 for visitors, free

4th February - Bath Geological Society AGM 

The Bath Geological Society is having its Annual General Meeting on Thursday 4th February at 7 pm at the BRLSI in Queen Square, BathAll members are welcome to attend the AGMTwo positions on the Bath GS committee will become vacant- Membership secretary- Fieldtrip programme secretaryPlease contact the Chairman if you wish to fulfil either of these important roles.7.30 p.m. First talk of 2016 - title and speaker to be announced as soon as possible. We are sorry about this unavoidable change to [...]

July 2nd - Global greenhouse event 55 million years ago 

The Paleocene - Eocene thermal maximum: a geological insight into what is to come?Dr. Stephen Grimes, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth UniversityJuly 2nd, 7.30p.m. The Paleocene - Eocene thermal maximum is a global greenhouse event that happened approximately 55 million years ago. This talk will explore the causes of this event and the impact it had upon the global biota and whether it can provide insights into what may happen if current global climate change [...]

April 2nd - Nanoparticles in Sandstone Groundwaters 

Bath Geological SocietyThursday April 2nd Nanoparticles in Sandstone GroundwatersProfessor John Tellam, Water Sciences (Hydrogeology), School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of BirminghamThe talk will cover both manufactured nanomaterials and viruses, and what has been discovered about their mobility in the subsurface.7.30 p.m. BRLSI, 16 Queen Square, BathEveryone welcome - visitors £4 - free

March 5th - Geological Exploration of the Moon 

Bath Geological Society The Geological Exploration of the MoonProfessor Ian Crawford, Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology, Birkbeck, University of LondonProfessor Crawford will summarise what is known of the geology of the Moon and what it reveals about the history and evolution of the Earth-Moon system. His talk will describe what has been learned from 40 years of analysis of samples collected by the Apollo missions as well as more recent lunar missions, and make the scientific [...]

Feb 5th - Bath Geological Society AGM and Earthquakes in Asia 

Bath Geological Society Annual General Meeting 7.00 p.m. followed by the lecture at 7.30p.m.Searching for ancient earthquakes in the interior of AsiaDr. Richard Walker, Dept. Earth Sciences, University of Oxford Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan are lands of high mountains, faults, and earthquakes in the heart of Asia. The active deformation is due to the collision of India and Asia, which has generated faulting and mountain-building covering a region stretching from the Himalaya [...]

July 3rd - Jurassic mud volcanoes and methane 

Thursday July 3rdJurassic mud volcanoes and methaneDr. Gregory D. Price, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth UniversityBRLSI, 16 Queen Square, 7.30 p.m.Everyone welcome - visitors £4 - free refreshments Further details on website of Bath Geological

June 5th Hazardous terrain and disaster management & June 8th Bristol building stones walk 

Bath Geological Society invite you to:- June 5th - Space technologies, hazardous terrain and disaster risk reductionDr. Richard Teeuw, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of PortsmouthDuring the 21st century there have been major advances in the use of space technologies for the mapping of hazardous terrain and for disaster management. Natural hazards often have a devastating impact on poor countries - as illustrated by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the 2010 Haiti Earthquake [...]

The Stonehenge Phosphatic Chalk - TODAY! 

Bath Geological Society lecture this evening by Prof. Rory MortimerToday, 7.30 p.m. BRLSI 16 Queen Square, Bath Everyone welcome - visitors £4 - free

Glaciation of the Polar Regions 

November 7th - Glaciation of the Polar regions, James Cresswell, Geoworld TravelJames Cresswell has spent the last six years working as an expedition guide in the Polar Regions. This visual presentation, full of photos and video clips, gives an overview of the different forms and changing nature of 'ice' in these regions. The presentation discusses the great ice sheets, the floating ice shelves, as well as icebergs and sea ice. With the recent collapse of several Antarctic Ice Shelves, negative [...]

Energy from Bath Hot Springs at the Abbey - September 5th 

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE TO BATH GS PROGRAMME September 5thUsing energy from Bath's Hot Springs at the AbbeyCharles Curnock, Footprint Project Director, Bath Abbey It is proposed to take hot water from the Roman Great Drain, which would otherwise flow into the river, and use it, through a heat exchanger, to heat not just the Abbey but also other surrounding buildings, as part of a district heating scheme.Buro Happold has been working with the Bath Abbey over the last three years to [...]

April 4th - Fracking & April 6th - Westbury White Horse & Seend Ironstone 

Reminder of two forthcoming Bath Geological Society events:-April 4th - Shale Gas and Fracking by Roy HartleyShale gas and fracking have appeared regularly in the news in the UK in the last two years. Two extreme views are portrayed - one that development of the UK's shale gas will make the country self sufficient with all the economic benefits that implies - the other is that fracking will pollute our water sources, increase greenhouse gas emissions and have other detrimental effects. [...]

Dec 6th - Eight Evolutionary Myths: the closing of the Darwinian mind? 

Eight Evolutionary Myths: the closing of the Darwinian mind?Professor Simon Conway-Morris, F.R.S., Department of Earth Sciences, University of CambridgeProf. Conway-Morris’ focus of research concerns the study of the constraints on evolution, and the historical processes that lead to the emergence of complexity, especially with respect to the construction of the major animal bodyplans in the Cambrian explosion. His work is central to palaeobiology, but is also of great interest to biologists [...]

Monnow Valley - Landscape evolution on the Old Red Sandstone 

Dave Green will talk about the Monnow Valley tomorrow, Thursday 5th July and lead a field trip to the area on Saturday July 7thEveryone is welcome to both the talk and the field trip. £4 for visitors to the talk and £2 for visitors on the field trip. The talk takes place at BRLSI, 16 Queens Square, Bath - free refreshments.On Saturday, meet at 11.00 a.m. at St. Maughan's Church car park SO461171. Car sharing is recommended as we shall be on narrow roads with restricted parking. Strong shoes [...]

Violent birth of the Earth and the source of precious metals 

Don't forget this talk this Thursday 7th June. It will be given by Dr. Matthias Willbold from the University of Bristol.You can read a comprehensive abstract of the talk on the Bath Geological Society website.7.30, Queen Square, BathEveryone welcome - visitors £4 - free

Thursday 5th April - Tidal circulation in ancient epicontinental seas 

Further details of this lecture by Dr. Peter Allison, from the Earth Science and Engineering Dept at Imperial College, London can be found on the Bath Geological Society's website.The lectures starts at 7.30 p.m. at 16 Queen Square, Bath. Everyone is welcome - £4 for visitors. Free

This Thursday - World Heritage Volcanoes: the best of the best? 

'World Heritage Volcanoes: the best of the best?' This talk will be given by Dr. Chris Wood.Click here and follow the links for further details.1st December, 7.30 p.m. BRLSI, 16 Queen Square, BathEveryone is welcome to attend - £4 for visitors - free refreshments

April 7th - Caves and Cannibals: a Mendip persepctive 

Bath Geological Society invites you to an evening lecture on Thursday April 7th. 'Caves and Cannibals: a Mendip perspective' will be presented by Professor Danielle Shreve.The area of the Mendip Hills in Somerset contains some of the most important Pleistocene cave sites in western Europe in terms of their vertebrate assemblages, Palaeolithic archaeological finds and early human remains. These sites span the period from c. 500,000 years ago until the end of the Pleistocene, c.10,000 years [...]