Geological Field Skills Staff Training Course

BGS, Nottingham. 23rd - 27th March 2009

The GEES Subject Centre in collaboration with the British Geological Survey are running a residential field course to provide academic and support staff, who have little previous experience of geological fieldwork, with the skills to enable them to support basic field teaching, including geological mapping.

The field course will take place on 23 - 27 March 2009 based at the BGS in Nottingham and the field area will include Derbyshire and Yorkshire. The cost of the course is covered by the GEES Subject Centre. Participants will be required to fund their own travel to Nottingham and subsistence (estimated at £350).

Only a small number of places are available on this course so book soon!

For more information contact the Earth Science Senior Advisors:

Jim Andrews: jra2@noc.soton.ac.uk
Helen King: helen@helenkingconsultancy.co.uk

Click here for a registration form (Word document). Completed forms should be sent to the course leader: Dr Colin Waters, British Geological Survey, Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG

Course Specification

Aim:

To provide academic and support staff who have little previous experience of geological fieldwork with the skills to enable them to support basic field teaching, including geological mapping.

Basic Geological Field Skills:

• Using a compass-clinometer to:
  • Take bearings
  • Measure planar structures
  • Measure linear structures
• Navigating in the field
• Recording information on a base map
• Recording information in a field notebook
• Observing/recording an exposure
• Identifying and measuring structural features (bedding, fracturing)
• Identifying lithological features - composition, grain size, grain shape (sandstones and shales)
• Identifying and measuring sedimentary structures
• Recording a stratigraphic sequence by logging

Geological Mapping:

• Covering the ground on a base map at 1:10,000
• Establishing mappable stratigraphic units (logging)
• Determining thicknesses of stratigraphic units (logging)
• Recording planar (e.g. bedding, fractures) and linear (e.g. current directions, fold axes) structural features
• Locating boundaries on a base map
• Using topographic features as a proxy for the geological substrate
• Extrapolating boundaries into areas of poor exposure
• Mapping superficial deposits
• Completing the map - resolving mapping problems e.g. identifying faulting
• Constructing a cross section
• Using remotely sensed data (e.g. Digital Terrain Model, aerial photographs)
• Presentation of maps (different types of geological mapping)

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