Wenlock Edge

 fieldwork, geology  2 Responses »
Mar 222010
 

Two visits this weekend to Wenlock Edge, Shropshire with strongly contrasting weather (cold and wet on Saturday, warm and sunny on Sunday). This is Knowle Quarry at Presthope, the original GSSP of the Wenlock, and studied by Roderick Impey Murchison in his establishment of the Silurian System. Knowle Quarry is owned by the National Trust and open to the public but being a SSSI no collecting of material is allowed.

There are two distinct facies present, massive reef knolls and interbedded limestones and marls. The red colour in the photograph is below is iron staining on a strike-slip fault plane that cuts the reefs, the near horizontal slickenside lineations can be seen on the surface.

After studying the features here we moved on to the neighbouring Lea Quarry, which was active until recently. Note that the quarry is on private land and permission from the landowner must be given before entering. Here is the margin between the two main facies.

Here the recently quarried faces and the low sun (on the Sunday at least) led to some very successful fossil hunting. Note that I’m a geophysicist who was along on the trips as a van driver so I apologise in advance for any mis-identification.

Crinoid and brachiopod fragments

Ketophyllum

Favosites

Heliosites

Stromatoporoid

Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall

 geology  Comments Off
Mar 152010
 

This weekend I have been up to Northumberland to witness the illumination of Hadrian’s Wall. This is the view eastwards from Vercovicium or Housesteads Roman Fort. A beacon was lit about every 250m along its length across Britain.

The geology angle is, of course, that the Roman’s used the geology as part of the defences, with Hadrian’s Wall running along the top of the escarpment produced by the outcrop of the Great Whin Sill. Below is Housesteads from Google Earth.

The Price Of Coal

 Uncategorized  Comments Off
Mar 152010
 

Some tragic news from China via Mineweb, that I’ve not come across elsewhere, on the rescue mission for 31 trapped coal miners in the Luotuoshan Coal Mine being called off.

The mine in Inner Mongolia was flooded on the morning of March 1st. There were 77 people underground at the time. One miner was killed, and 45 rescued, leaving 31 trapped in the flood waters. The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, himself a geologist, had ordered the rescue effort to proceed as quickly as possible, but the efforts were called off yesterday after two weeks when it was decided that there was no remaining chance of the trapped miners remaining alive.

In January and February of this year there were 115 accidents in Chinese coal mines, but this was down almost 20% on 2009. Fatalities in Chinese coal mines dropped from 3,215 in 2008 to 2,631 in 2009 – but is STILL A STAGGERING 7.2 FATALITIES EVERY DAY.

That is the real price of coal.