Geology & Earth Science Degree Programmes
Field work forms an integral part of all our Geology and Earth Science degree programmes. Field work undertaken over the course of the degree has a clear progression, from introductory courses in the first year, through specialist second year courses preparing students for their independent field mapping project, to an advanced third year field excursion tailored to the specific degree pathway.
First Year
In the first weeks of the first semester, there is a one day field excursion to Castleton. This provides an opportunity to get to know fellow students in a more informal setting as well as looking at the geology of a carbonate reef deposit and consider the importance of geology in building roads! Students who have not studied geology before get the chance to see rocks in their natural setting prior to laboratory studies.
Around Easter time students spend a week in the field in Devon applying the concepts and skills attained in first year courses. The course provides a general training in field geology, encountering sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks varying in age from Palaeozoic to Tertiary, and an introduction to sedimentary logging and structural and mapping techniques. Students also visit a working quarry.
Second Year
In the second year students participate in three field courses which emphasise different elements of field geology and are related to lecture and laboratory courses taken during the year.
The second year starts with a 10 day field course in France. This is the first course in the second year field work package and the principal aim of this course is to provide practical training in geological mapping techniques, building on the one day introductory field mapping exercise in Devon, and developing the skills obtained during geological map analysis and sedimentological courses in the first year. Students are introduced to field mapping and sedimentary logging in an area of deformed sediments in the external zone of the European Alps.
Around Easter time, students go to N.W. Scotland to study the igneous and metamorphic geology of the Glen Coe area and to undertake detailed mapping of deformed and metamorphosed rocks around Onich. This course aims to provide specialist skills in mapping, producing cross-sections and interpreting areas that have undergone complex deformation.
After the examinations in June, students are taken to beautiful Pembrokeshire.
This field course is the specialist sedimentology component of the second year field work and covers the methods of acquiring, interpreting and analysing sedimentological field data in both carbonate and clastic sedimentary rocks. The course aims to provide a critical understanding of when it is appropriate to use these methods to solve a geological problem.
Field work undetaken in the summer between the second and third years
And so to an independent field mapping project...
In the summer vacation of their second year, students undertake, with minimal field supervison, 5 weeks mapping an area of varied geology. Students have a choice of areas, in Britain and Europe, but it is also possible to arrange areas outside Europe by liaising with local universities. For example, in 2008 and 2009 students mapped areas in both North and South America. The mapping is a test of the student's ability to apply what has been learnt in lectures, reading and from previous field courses. The mapping project gives students a chance to show how they can cope with a geological problem more or less on their own. The mapping, final map and report is an important piece of work that students should be able to show to and impress a potential employer with at interview.
Third Year
In the third year field courses are specific to the degree programme pathway being undertaken.
Geology & Earth Sciences degrees
During the Easter of the third year, students go to Northern Spain on an integrative excursion to demonstrate the rocks, structures and stratigraphy of a transect across the Hercynian mountain belt in NW Spain, from the foreland fold and thrust belt of the Cantabrian zone, through the mid-crustal West-Asturian-Leonese zone, and into the high-grade, lower crustal rocks of the Galician zone. Thus, a wide range of rocks will be seen, from the sedimentary cover of the foreland through low and high grade metamorphic rocks, igneous rocks and upper mantle rocks, providing a superb transect through an orogenic mountain belt.
Geochemistry & ERG degrees
During the Easter of the third year students go to Tenerife with the Environmental students.
Geology with Planetary Science degrees
During the Easter of the third year students go to Germany to visit the Ries impact crater.
Local field excursions also form part of some third year course modules, such as Engineering Geology where students investigate a land slip.
Fourth Year (all degree pathways)
M.Earth Sci. students
At the start of the fourth year, students go to North Wales to investigate the field characteristics of a high quality, producing clastic reservoir. The purpose of this field course is to assess key stratigraphical horizons and decide on the prospectivity of these units as potential reservoirs. Students produce a report aimed at an industrial company. This field course builds on field experience from the previous three years, and provides an introduction to working as a geologist in industry.