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Courses and talks
Talks
I
give general interest talks to groups on a regular basis, and can be flexible
in talking about subjects of particular interest to your group. For
further information please call or email (see Contact
page for details). Current favourites are ...
"Volatile Volcanoes." An introduction to volcanic eruptions around the world, including a firsthand account of the eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano, and the effects of this tragic eruption on the small island community.
"Edinburgh's landscape and the rocks beneath." An exploration of the shape of Edinburgh's landscape and how it relates to the underlying rock.
Courses
I teach these courses for the Open Studies programme of the Office of Lifelong Learning at Edinburgh University. If you are interested in a short course on a particular theme, these courses can be adapted.
| Apocalypse: natural disasters and the threat to humanity | |
| Geology of the Lothians - background | Volcanoes of the World |
| Geology of the Lothians - excursions | Edinburgh's Seven Hills |
For further information about these courses, and how to enrol, visit the Office of Lifelong Learning website.
Geology of the Lothians - background
Edinburgh is justly famous for its remarkable scenery: a landscape that results from the interaction of the processes of erosion and glaciation with the solid bedrock formed millions of years ago. Across the Lothian area we find a variety of rock types and ages; a mixture of sedimentary and igneous rocks formed by different processes, mostly in the period from 400 to 300 million years ago. This course examines these rocks, describing how they were formed, the varying conditions that have existed here through geological time, and how the rocks have been modified, moved and eroded.Week 1 Introduction. An introduction to geology, and the way that the underlying rocks influence the landscape. Different rock types. Geological time. The connections between rocks, landscape and the human use of the Lothian area.
Week
2 Plate tectonics and the geology of Scotland.
To understand Lothian geology,
we need to have an appreciation of the large-scale processes that have shaped
the surrounding area. Starting from 1000 million years ago we track the changes
in the tectonic setting of Scotland and how this has resulted in the amazing diversity
of rocks that we now find here.
Week
3 Sedimentary rocks in the Lothians.
Sedimentary rocks are the dominant
type in the area, mostly laid down under the sea and by rivers. These include
sandstone, shales, limestone and coal. Fossils are not common, but where they
exist they can be used with other clues to build a picture of the environment
where the rocks were formed.
Week
4 Igneous rocks and volcanic activity in the Lothians.
Across the Lothians
there are remains of volcanic activity from the Devonian and Carboniferous periods.
Hard igneous rocks are responsible for most of Lothian's hills. These rocks include
much of the Pentlands, and hills such as Arthur's Seat and the Bass Rock, and
represent a range in types of volcanic activity.
Week
5 Structural geology: faulting and folding of rocks.
The great pile of
sedimentary and igneous rocks that accumulated in the Lothian area has been affected
by faulting and folding, and by erosion. This has resulted in the complex pattern
of rocks that are now found at the surface. An introduction to geological maps,
and ways of reading the hidden structure beneath the ground.
Week
6 Case study: Arthur's Seat and the centre of Edinburgh.
Arthur's Seat
is Scotland's most famous volcano and dominates the city of Edinburgh. It is closely
related to the volcanic plug at Edinburgh Castle, and both volcanoes have been
heavily eroded. A close study of the Edinburgh geological map allows us to recreate
the volcanoes and estimate their size.
Weeks
7 & 8 Case studies: Oil, Coal and Stone.
The mineral wealth of the
Lothians has contributed in different ways over time to the development of the
area. There are thick sequences of carbon-rich sedimentary rocks, that have been
the source of oil and coal. The oil shale industry was an important part of the
West Lothian economy until the 1960s. Coal mining, although a shadow of its former
importance, continues as open cast mining in Midlothian. Stone for building, aggregate
and lime has been extracted all over the area, exemplified by modern limestone
extraction for cement near Dunbar.
Week
9 Sculpting the landscape: erosion and glaciation.
No new rock has been
formed in this area for almost 300 million years. During this period Scotland
has mostly been dry land and mountainous, slowly eroding away. About two million
years ago the climate changed, resulting in repeated periods of glaciation that
have altered the land and produced today's landscape.
Week 10 Synthesis: what was it really like in the past?
Geology of the Lothians - excursions
Meeting 1: Siccar Point and Barn's NessWe start at the bottom, with a visit to the 'basement' and the oldest rocks of the area. At Siccar Point, James Hutton discovered the 'unconformity' junction between rocks of two different ages - the older Siluarian oceanic sediments (greywacke) and the younger Old Red Sandstone. Moving northwards along the coast, the rocks get younger and we at Barn's Ness we find Carboniferous limestone and the best fossil site in the Lothians. Warm seas and coral reefs produced a number of limestone layers.
Meeting
2: East Lothian volcanoes
East Lothian's scenery owes much to volcanic
activity during the early Carboniferous period. Volcanic plugs and intrusions
are scattered across the landscape, and the shape of the coastline is controlled
by the contrast between hard igneous rock and the softer sedimentary rocks. After
a visit to the volcanic centres at Traprain Law and St Baldred's Cradle, we'll
walk east from North Berwick harbour, crossing lava flows and layers of volcanic
agglomerate, interrupted every so often by in-filled volcanic vents. In the agglomerate
we find blocks of a variety of rock types and features associated with the movement
of gas and water.
Meeting
3: Pentland Hills
In the Pentland Hills we find more of the oldest rocks
of the Lothian area, folded greywackes and shales laid down in the Iapetus Ocean
in the Silurian period. These sedimentary rocks are covered by a variety of Devonian
volcanic and sedimentary rocks and there are faults and complications in abundance.
This excursion also examines the local drainage pattern and how it has been altered
during recent Ice Ages.
Volcanoes of the World
Week
1 Introduction to Volcanoes.
What are volcanoes? Why do they erupt? An
introduction to the different kinds of volcanoes and eruptions, and the variety
of igneous rocks that are found in volcanic environments. The distribution of
volcanoes around the world, and the reasons for this distribution and the different
kinds of volcano - plate tectonics. Basalt volcanoes are found under the sea at
mid-ocean ridges, and in Iceland and Hawaii where they form shield volcanoes.
These are very different from explosive silicic (andesite) volcanoes found above
subduction zones- e.g. the Ring of Fire at the margins of the Pacific Ocean.
Week 2 Active
Volcanoes: some examples.
How volcanoes work and the materials that they
produce: lava flows, pyroclastic flows, ash falls. How do these affect local communities?
Case studies of some famous eruptions, including Mount St Helens, Vesuvius, Heimaey
and Hawaii. What kind of volcanoes are they? What were their effects?
Week
3 The Montserrat eruption.
The tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat leapt
into the headlines in the summer of 1997. A first hand account of this on-going
eruption, and how the volcano has affected the local population.
Week
4 Volcanoes and local communities.
Volcanic eruptions occur frequently
and even small events can have a devastating effect on local communities. A look
at how we monitor volcanoes, and the difficulties of predicting eruptions.
Week 5 Ancient
volcanoes and the landscape of Scotland.
An investigation of volcanic
episodes in Scotland, and their influence in the local landscape and the shape
of country. The effects of volcanic activity on humans are not limited to modern
volcanoes. By studying the ancient volcanoes we can explore their influence on
the modern landscape and human use of the country. Millions of years of erosion,
including recent glaciations, have sculpted the igneous rock to form the hills
of central Scotland, including the Campsies, Ochils, Pentlands, the hills of Edinburgh
and the islands of the Firth of Forth. At the time of the opening of the north
Atlantic, volcanoes erupted in the west of Scotland, creating the volcanic centres
in Skye, Rum, Ardnamurchan, Mull and Arran and the lava flows of the Giant's Causeway
and Staffa.
Week
6 Volcanoes and life: creation and destruction.
Volcanoes are the surface
manifestation of an active planet, and the mechanism for creating new rock and
new continents on the surface of the earth. Without this surface expression of
the earth's internal heat, our planet and the life upon it would be very different.
Volcanic activity is linked to climate change and mass extinctions; volcanoes
are at least part of the story of the extinction of the dinosaurs. What of the
future? Will the eruption of another "super volcano" end life as we
know it?
Edinburgh's Seven Hills
Edinburgh's landscape is dominated by the Seven Hills. Despite their different shapes and sizes, they are linked by common themes. Each has a hard core of igneous rock, and they have been altered and eroded by natural forces and human activity.Excursion 1: Blackford
Hill
Excursion 2: Castle Rock and Calton Hill
Excursion 3: Arthur's Seat
Excursion 4: Salisbury Crags
Excursion 5: Corstorphine Hill
Note: the offical Seven Hills are - Calton Hill, Castle Hill, Corstorphine Hill, Craiglockhart Hill, Braid Hills, Blackford Hill, Arthur's Seat. I think it is unfair that Salisbury Crags is excluded, just because it lies beside Arthur's Seat - the Crags are more impressive than many of the other hills. And Craigmillar perhaps deserves a mention (the organisers of the Seven Hills Hogmanay fireworks think so), but it is made of sedimentary rock when all the rest are igneous.
Apocalypse: natural disasters and the threat to humanity
1. Introduction. Overview of Earth Systems (Plate Tectonics, atmosphere, climate), the Solar System and human evolution.
Subsequent
sessions will analyse one type of natural threat, analysing what we know has happened
in the past, with a range of examples of different scales, and looking at the
threat of similar and larger events in the future.
2. Earthquakes and Tsunamis.
3. Volcanic eruptions.
4. Asteroid Impacts.
5. Global climate change.
6.
Apocalypse coming - but what and when? An analysis of the probabilities of events
of different scale and the effects they will have on humanity in the future.
Geology of Scotland's Hills
1. Scotland's story. An overview of the main episodes in Scotland's geological history, the rocks of Scotland, and why different rocks have formed at different times.
Subsequent sessions will investigate different areas of Scotland, describing the rocks and landscapes of each area, and considering how the rocks formed, and how they have been modified and eroded.
2.
The Scottish Highlands - metamorphic rocks
3. The Scottish Highlands - granite
and volcanic rocks
4. The hills of the Midland Valley, including the Ochils,
Campsies and Pentlands.
5. The Southern Uplands
6. The Islands of the
west, including Skye, Rum, Mull and Arran.
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