Thursday, March 20, 2014

Derbyshire Field Trip 2014 ... Day 2


KEGS Geology students are now most of their way through the second day – our full day on this trip. The forecast at the beginning of the week was for heavy rain almost all day today…we were very relieved to make it till lunchtime before the rain came! The students worked brilliantly again today which means they will get a lot more out of this trip...and nice to hear a couple of the y13s saying how much they were enjoying it...especially as they understand what they are seeing!

This meant we managed another excellent bout of work at Apes Tor this morning – taking a large amount of measurements for a number of anticlines and synclines – which we are going to attempt creating a cross section for this evening. We’ve also been able to map the observations as we’ve gone along.

Measuring and sketching some of the scree deposits - formed from freeze-thawed limestones during the periglacial period after the last ice age

Lots of dips, strikes and joints measurements - this time in a syncline
As we were passing it on the way to our second locality, we conveniently had lunch back at the hostel – enabling some to partake in hot chocolates (with cream and marshmallows of course!) or cappuccinos alongside our packed lunches in the warm and dry.

Refreshed, we carried on (into the rain!) to the Litton Mill and Ravens Tor area to have a look at yet more limestones but also some basalt pillow lavas on the Monsal Trail. We were able to pick out some lovely formations as well as some of the features we’d studied in the classroom. This trail was also a good place to think about the engineering considerations of creating a railway cutting through such an area….something that could come up in a Y12 paper. Returning down to the road we were able to see some more basalts and consider the boundary between them and the limestone, as well as being able to pick up a couple of specimens (unusual on this trip as many places are protected or inaccessible).

Back at the hostel, with all the waterproofs hung up in the drying room, the students have some free time before dinner (roast chicken chosen by almost all!) and then we’ll get some work done after dinner.

Tomorrow we’re onto Park Hall which is an area the y13s have already studied sediment too in some detail and depth so it will be helpful for them to see the site. There’ll also be some more features we haven’t seen much of so far.