Is there any other country in the world that can rival Britain in displaying such geological diversity in a relatively small area? We have, within our islands, outcrops of rocks belonging to virtually every geological period from the Archaean to the Quaternary, spanning nearly three thousand million years of Earth history. Our geological past is a story of great changes: oceans closing, continents colliding, mountains chains and active volcanoes, environments from tropical forests to arctic tundra, inhabited in turn by trilobites, dinosaurs and mammoths. We will examine a huge range of rocks, fossils and minerals, by progressing through the course from the oldest gneisses to the youngest unconsolidated sediments, focusing on specific regions that illustrate the remarkable geology of the British Isles.
Many people come to geology through a love of landscape, through hill walking, rock climbing, or other natural history disciplines, and the tutor is delighted to welcome all such people to discover the geology underlying their existing interests. Please feel free to make suggestions of additional localities to be included. Bring your diaries to the first session, when we will discuss possibilities for fieldwork.