Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group (WGCG)

April 2016 talk: The History of the Harbury Railway Cutting, by Luke Swain, Network Rail
2016-04-20 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Luke Swain CGeol , Senior Asset Engineer (Geotechnics) — Network Rail:

The History of the Harbury Railway Cutting.

Since the Great Western Railway came to Harbury in Warwickshire, the geology which underlies the village, has provided its fair share of challenges to all of the infrastructure owners. First constructed in circa 1850, the original plan was to construct a tunnel but this soon proved a significant and risky task for the engineers. The solution was to opt for an alternative and to construct the deepest hand dug cutting known in Europe at this time. The most significant landslip to occur in the Network Rail era occurred on the 30th January 2014 and resulted in 400,000 tonnes of soil and rock from the Lower Jurassic period moving towards the railway. The remediation that followed has provided an interesting insight into the Geology of cutting.

March 2016 talk: Rivers, lakes, swamps and seas: exploring an early Carboniferous environment, Prof. Sarah Davies
2016-03-16 19:00 - 21:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Prof. Sarah Davies (University of Leicester):

Rivers, lakes, swamps and seas: exploring an early Carboniferous environment

Following the end-Devonian mass extinction, new terrestrial habitats developed and this was a major change in the Earth system. Examples of terrestrial environments and habitats are preserved in the early Mississippian (Carboniferous) sedimentary rocks that crop out across the borders of England and Scotland (the Ballagan Formation). Of particular significance are the new discoveries of land-based tetrapod taxa in the Ballagan Formation; these are of international importance because tetrapods were thought to be absent from this part of the geological record (an absence termed ‘Romer’s Gap’). Tetrapods preserved in Late Devonian strata were aquatic or semi-aquatic and fish-like whereas terrestrial tetrapod fauna recovered from late Mississippian successions had robust pentadactyl limbs. Until the last few years, there were very few fossil finds from the early Mississippian (Tournaisian).

An ongoing NERC-funded research project is investigating all aspects of the development and evolution of the early terrestrial ecosystem. Placing newly discovered tetrapods in their palaeoenvironmental context, this research investigates why these particular sedimentary successions, comprising fluvial, overbank and saline-hypersaline lake depositional settings, preserve such abundant fossil evidence. The study identifies the key sedimentary process acting to concentrate and preserve faunal and floral material as the frequent transport of fine-grained sediment across seasonally wet floodplains. These successions provide a unique opportunity to enhance our knowledge of this important phase in the development of terrestrial ecosystems.

Feb 2016: Festival of Geology, in Kenilworth with WGCG
2016-02-20 10:00 - 15:30 | Kenilworth Senior Citizens Club
FESTIVAL OF GEOLOGY

Senior Citizens Club, Abbey End Car Park(at the top of the car park beyond the Kenilworth centre)

A FREE event for all the family

What’s under your Feet?

A galaxy of rocks, fossils and minerals comes to Kenilworthon Saturday 20th February 2016 (10am till 3pm)

Come and see….

Stunning specimens

Great displays

Look at rocks under the microscope

Learn something about how our Earth has evolved

Discover why Warwickshire’s landscape is like it is

Bring your rocks, fossils or minerals to be identified!

ADULTS & CHILDREN WELCOME

Senior Citizens ClubAbbey End Car Park (just above the Kenilworth Centre) Kenilworth CV8 1QJ

Feb 2016 talk: Minerals, Magmas & Man, by Paul Olver
2016-02-17 19:00 - 21:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Dr Paul Olver (Hereford & Worcester EHT):
Minerals, Magmas & Man:
Beneath every active volcano is a complex plumbing system for magma movement including deep seated plutons and their even deeper magma chambers. The slow crystallisation of these magma bodies gives rise to a whole suite of pegmatites, greisens and their later hydrothermal veins. Essential metals, in economically important amounts, are concentrated by these processes including tin, copper, zinc and lead plus other rarer metals now with specific uses in our medical, technological and aerospace industries.

Jan 2016 talk: Exceptionally preserved Cambrian fossils of the Chengjiang Lagerstatte,Prof. David Siveter
2016-01-20 19:00 - 21:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Prof. David Siveter (University of Leicester): Exceptionally preserved Cambrian fossils of the Chengjiang Lagerstatte, China: the flowering of early animal life. The discovery in 1984 of the Chengjiang biota, in rocks of early Cambrian age in south China, was one of the most significant palaeontological finds of the 20th century. The fossils are abundant and exquisitely preserved, beautifully showing fine details of the hard parts and soft tissues of invertebrate and vertebrate species about 525 million years old. They are vital keys in helping to unravel the evolution of multicellular organisms during the so-called “Cambrian Explosion”, when such life forms first become common in the fossil record.
The Chengjiang biota provides direct evidence for the roots of animal biodiversity. Over 200 species have been recorded, spread across most of the animal phyla, with arthropods being the most abundant group. The biota presents by far the most complete evidence of an early Cambrian marine community, and an unparalleled record of the early establishment of a complex marine ecosystem, with food webs capped by sophisticated predators. The majority of forms were bottom-dwellers, represented by both infauna and epifauna. The water column was colonized by a variety of floating and swimming animals. Trophic groups present include predators, scavengers, high and low level filterers and, possibly, deposit feeders. Not least, the fossils of Chengjiang bear upon fundamental questions regarding the design of animal body plans and the genetic generation of evolutionary novelty. The scientific importance and outstanding universal value of the Chengjiang fossil site is acknowledged with its recent inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Nov 2015 talk: The Genesis and Evolution of Sulphate Evaporites, by Dr Noel Worley
2015-11-18 19:00 - 21:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Dr Noel Worley (formerly chief geologist, British Gypsum): The Genesis and Evolution of Sulphate Evaporites Evaporites not only provide information about past climates, but also because they are chemically very mobile, present a record of the changes they have undergone through geological time. These changes very often hinder sedimentological interpretation but provide valuable evidence about the effects of diagenetic, metamorphic and hydrogeological processes.

Evaporites are economically important industrial minerals and are essential sources of raw materials for not only manufacturing a wide range of goods but also to sustain life. The United Kingdom is fortunate to have World Class evaporite resources the most important of which formed during the Permo- Triassic. Triassic rocks underlie most of the Midlands and contain evaporite deposits gypsum and anhydrite as well as halite. Important deposits also occur in the Permian of northern England and in the Upper Jurassic in southeast England.

It is rare to be able to see evaporites exposed at the surface and this has limited the geological study of these interesting rocks. However because of the widespread underground mining and associated activity a significant amount of geological evidence is available. A synthesis shows that the sulphate evaporites often experienced a common deposition history and were deposited as gypsum and anhydrite in a sabkha environment. They have subsequently undergone conversion to anhydrite during burial followed by reconversion to gypsum during Tertiary uplift.

Biographical NotesNoel Worley is a geologist and has worked for British Gypsum for 35 years as Minerals & Estates Manager responsible for geological services and resources. He graduated from the University of Sheffield and was awarded a PhD from the University of Leicester. He was President of the Yorkshire Geological Society 2011-2013.
