In July 2017, I found myself on my first non-compulsory fieldtrip as an undergraduate, in a group of 5 with two academic staff members and two PhD students heading to the Isle of Rum in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. The trip had been planned initially for my Masters project, but with Rum such a famous geological locality, everyone had work they wanted to do there.
Early Sunday morning the department was full of life as bleary eyed finalists arrived eager for their final field trip. The Spanish coastline would not disappoint, a week of beautiful sunshine and exciting, challenging geology lay ahead.
Continue reading “Unravelling the tectonic regime: Almeria, Spain”
The end of Lent term brings with it the start of the undergrad fieldtrip season. The first group of 1A’s left bright and early on Thursday morning for the Ayrshire coast in Scotland, ready for their first proper fieldtrip away from Cambridgeshire.
Day 1 – Off we go!
I’d never been to any part of the southwest so I was very much looking forward to my second Earth Sciences Department field trip – third if we count an afternoon at Ketton Quarry. My first big trip had been to Arran the previous year, to my mind it would take a lot to surpass that experience. This account will contain little to no geological verbiage in order not to bring shame to myself or the department.
Continue reading “Impressions from ‘not a geologist’ – the Dorset section of the 1B South West trip”
Spain 2016 outshone Spain 2015 the moment the plane took off from Gatwick Airport. David Hodell, our mighty leader, breathed a sigh of relief when French Air Traffic Control decided not to strike at the same time as the Cambridge fourth-year Earth Sciences fieldtrip. 29 students and 8 demonstrators left the drizzle behind us and landed in sunny south-east Spain. A quick change into shorts in the airport loos and we were ready for terrible sunburn.
The end of Michaelmas had arrived and it was time for 21 Part IIs and 8 demonstrators to head for Greece. By coach and plane we travelled to Athens, where we picked up our minibuses (without telling the hire company how much off-roading we had planned!) and headed for Loutraki…
Continue reading “Greece 2015: faults, fissures, footwalls and more”
Continue reading “NERC DTP fieldtrip to Newfoundland and Labrador: the industry perspective”
This year’s Cornwall leg of the SW of England field trip was bigger and sunnier than ever – tanned faces, record number of students, big smiles and lots of lovely igneous and metamorphic rocks. The trip starts in Falmouth to show the second year undergrads some world-class geological localities and then to Bude for impressive structures associated with the formation and closure of the Culm Basin. The challenge for our enthusiastic second years being how to align all this new geological information with the broader tectonics of the Variscan Orogeny and Devonian & Carboniferous geology.
Continue reading “Crossing the Moho and exploring the crust in Cornwall”
