Ullapool, Scotland
September 12 – 17, 2013.
Cost: TBA
Just north of Ullapool is the North West Highlands Geopark and here rocks range from the 3 billion year old Lewisian Gneiss to the Torridonian Sandstone which makes up the spectacular mountains such as Ben More Coigach, Suilven and Quinag. White quartzite caps many mountains and the largest area of limestone in Scotland occurs in the Geopark. The celebtrated Moine Thrust is probably the greatest geological treasure in the park. Professor Paul Smith, director of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, will lead this OGG field expedition.
Llandrindod Wells & The Long Mynd
November 8 – 11, 2013.
Cost: £140 (shared room)
BOOKING FORM
Cut-off date for booking:
November 30, 2013
The Welsh Borderlands were situated on the margin of the Welsh Basin during Lower Palaeozoic times. This part of the basin was a shallow, warm shelf sea, teeming with life. Fossiliferous limestones, deposited in this sea, are now exposed in several areas hereabouts and are today quarried for aggregate and lime. They contain the remains of its inhabitants, such as trilobites, brachiopods, bivalves and corals. The rocks laid down in the Welsh Basin are dominated by sequences of sandstone, siltstone and mudstone. Later tectonic activity deformed all of these sediments at the end of the Devonian during the closure of the Iapetus Ocean. So on this trip you’ll get to see some impressive sedimentary rocks, fossil assemblages and folding.
Llŷn Peninsula, Wales
April 4 – 7, 2014.
Cost: £190 (shared en-suite) room
BOOKING FORM
Cut-off date for booking:
January 31, 2013
You’ll discover that the geology of Llŷn Peninsula is complex. Most of the peninsula is formed from Ordovician volcanics, whereas the Cambrian units occur south of Abersoch. Granite instrusions and rhyolite outcrops are responsible for prominent hills such as Yr Eifl, whilst gabbro is found at the west end of Porth Neigwl. The western part of the is formed from Precambrian rocks, the majority of which are considered to form a part of the Monian Complex and thus closely related to the rocks of Anglesey. The Quaternary has also left its legacy of boulder clay and of melt water channels. The Llyn Shear Zone runs on a northeast to southwest line through the Monian rocks. In 1984 there was an earthquake centred on the Peninsula, which measured 5.4 on the moment magnitude scale and was felt in many parts of eastern Ireland and western Britain.