Earth Sciences and Geology
The group meets on the first Tuesday each month at 3pm-4.30pm at Westerleigh Village Hall, BS37 8QL with parking round the back. See programme at link on the right.
Come and try out a group meeting! All you need is need a burning desire to learn new things about the world around us. Group members come from many backgrounds and we don’t assume you have any specialist knowledge.
At the monthly meeting, we have a chatty slot called “Earth News” for any member to bring up a topical issue in Earth Science. Perhaps someone reports on a volcano, or an extraordinary fossil find, a trip to famous geological site or shows holiday snaps taken at interesting places. We enjoy chatting over a cup of tea or coffee.
Then in the spirit of u3a peer-to-peer learning, one of our members gives a prepared talk on all sorts of topics in Earth Science – such as mammals and dinosaurs, big weather events, the Avon Gorge, grassland, what rocks are made of, how the planets formed. Sometimes we go on field trips in the wonderful countryside around us to brush up on practical geology.
To join the group contact Patrick Mills or Chris Greef using the blue message icon on the right or just come to a meeting.
| Dates for your Diary | |
|---|---|
| Tue May 7th | Vesuvius The active volcano that rises above the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. By Chris Greef |
| Tue Jun 4th | Dinosaurs: New Visions of a Lost World (video). Professor Michael J Benton brings a visual guide to the world of the dinosaurs, showing how rapid advances in technology and amazing new fossil finds have changed the way we see dinosaurs forever. |
| Tue Jul 2nd | Hurricanes How many can we expect this year? - how they form, their history and where they strike. By Patrick Mills |
| Tue Aug 6th | Geology of Iceland By Chris Greef |
| Tue Sep 3rd | The Winchcombe meteorite In March 2016, there was lots of media coverage of a huge fireball over the UK. Five years later, Jim Rowe and his collaborators had their persistent search in Gloucestershire rewarded with the recovery of the Winchcombe meteorite: one of the most important events of its kind in the UK for over 400 years. A Geologists' Association video presented by Ashley King. |
| Tue Oct 1st | T. Rex On the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur, how it achieved such an extraordinary size, and the ingeneous innovations which many, many years later are now manifest in birds. By Patrick Mills |
| Tue Nov 5th | Meeting as usual at Westerleigh Village Hall. Topic tbd. |
| Tue Dec 3rd | How to find rich fossil beds Macrofossils can be found in almost every sedimentary environment, but the relative abundance and distribution of these fossils varies widely. Dr Jon Noad of Calgary Uni explores factors governing preservation like the robustness of the organism, cementation, and weathering profiles. Geologists' Association video. |