Holey Schist!

The Dream is Alive!

2012-01-28T15:24:00.001Z

Hello again!

Anyone still there? Humble apologies, but it has been a while since my last post. Way too long. After a quite shameful return of a mere four posts in 2011, there will be more in 2012 I promise. And for a very good reason which will be explained below!

This last year has seen me devote a lot of my spare time learning to sing. Yes, really! It is something I've always wanted to do but always avoided for one simple reason - lack of confidence. In fact I outlined the background to this in a post on my 'singing blog' called 'A Nightingale Sang...' and you can read it here. This fear of public speaking has prevented me doing so much throughout my life and would be a major problem, should I ever get to fulfill my dream of studying for a degree in Geology. Presentations of a thesis, paper or whatever else? Scary!

So how on earth could I EVER manage to sing a solo in front of a hundered people? No chance mate! Well on November 19th 2011, I did just that. I had a multitude of demons to overcome along the way I almost 'bottled it', but I got through it and I have a CD recording to prove it!

The significant thing about the achievement is the massive confidence boost it has given me as a human being. Friends and family have noted the change in my personality, for the better I hasten to add. I now know that the feelings of nervousness will always be there before a concert, but I CAN overcome them. I also now feel less fearful of the prospect of having to do a presentation in front of fellow students. Which is great because....

Last week I received an UNCONDITIONAL OFFER to study at Derby University for a BSc degree in Geology, starting in September 2012! How great is that? The good thing about studying at Derby as opposed to the previous target of Leicester University, is that some of the credits I have already been awarded at the Open University will count towards my degree at Derby.

There is of course one major hurdle still to overcome and that is 'finance'. It is by no means cut and dried that I will get full funding to study at Derby because of a previous study back in 1978-81 at Luton College. But where there's a will, there is a way. As an old employers favourite mantra used to state: If it's to be, it's up to me!

So, if my previous followers of Holey Schist are still out there, look forward to more regular postings here, as I give this humble blog a bit of a revamp!

Cheers for now,

Alyn

The greatest photograph ever taken by mankind?

2011-07-29T11:17:00.000+01:00

Hello again! I know it has been a while, but life has been spectacularly hectic with geology taking a back seat to my singing exploits. My other blog, A Nightingale Sang... will fill you in on exactly what's been going on if you are interested. Meanwhile, I recently acquired a copy of Professor Brian Cox's excellent book and DVD of his fabulous TV series, 'Wonders of the Universe'. It's absolutely mind boggling stuff, non more so than the following photograph included in the book and taken by the Hubble telescope. I honestly think it ranks as the single greatest photograph taken by mankind.

A bold claim perhaps, but I believe the photograph that follows is exactly that. Take a look at this:-

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field

(Taken from hubblesite.org)

Okay, so on first glance it may not strike you as all that spectacular - just a photo of the night sky with lots of different coloured stars? Well yes, but take a closer look! Some seem to be more like fuzzy blobs and some almost disc-like in shape. Others seem to be linear features, almost like the trail of a comet.

In fact, nearly all the features in this photograph called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, and taken by the Hubble telescope, are in fact not single stars, but galaxies. That's around ten thousand galaxies, each made up of hundreds of billions of stars. If that isn't mind-boggling enough, consider this. . . .

In 2004 it was decided to focus the Hubble telescope's gaze on a seemingly empty piece of space in the southern constellation of Fornax. A tiny piece of the night sky was chosen and the telescope trained on this location for a period of eleven days, spread over four months. Each of the 800 exposures lasted for around 20 minutes. To all intents and purposes, there was nothing there to see, but over this extended time period ancient, distant light may be received if left for long enough. The dimmest objects within this image are a result of the Hubble telescope receiving just one photon of light per minute. The result is this fascinating image of some of the most distant objects ever observed.

The really fascinating thing about this image is that when you look at it you are in effect travelling back in time. The lighter and larger galaxies visible with distinct spiral arms are a lot closer than the smaller redder ones and it is these tiny red ones that are the most intriguing. Astonishingly, it has been calculated that the oldest galaxy seen within this photo is over 13 billion light years away. Therefore, what we are seeing is an image of a galaxy a mere 600 million light years after the Big Bang and the beginning of the Universe itself!

Professor Cox's book is crammed with amazing, mind-numbing information and it's a really compelling read. It adds a great deal to the TV series and I would recommend reading it alongside the DVD - not simultaneously unless you want your brain to explode.

Go purchase and enjoy!

Cheers for now,

Alyn.

Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis - a review of S186.

2011-02-20T18:59:00.000Z

It always helps me to look back on what I have learned on completion of a Open University course, and I aim to take a look at a few key points from he last one - S186: Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis. I'll make a start by looking at one misconception that I had held since my school days.

If you think about the prospect of great expanses of rock flowing like a river, one inevitably thinks of rock heated sufficiently below the surface to change it into a molten state. Thus, when a combination of circumstances allow it to erupt from a suitable opening at the surface a river of molten rock, or lava results.

One revelation produced by the course, was that the mantle was made up of solid rock, that circulates in a solid state - 'solid state convection' as it is known. Now just how can a solid lump of rock really circulate by convection? It defies logic surely? Generally speaking, a 'fluid' is anything that can 'flow', but in geologic terms it can include solids that when under specific conditions of pressure and temperature can also flow while maintaining their solid state.

Arthur Holmes, in his renowned book 'Principles of Physical Geology' explains the paradox of flowing solids wonderfully. He gives the example of pitch, which behaves like a brittle solid if struck with a hammer causing it to shatter, but under ordinary temperatures, will flatten out into a thin sheet simply under its own weight.

Another solid clearly seen to flow is ice.

Above: The Franz Josef glacier, New Zealand

(Taken from www.hostelbloggers.com)

At first sight, what may seem to be a static expanse of ice, rapidly (in geological terms) flows down the mountainside. The photo above, of the Franz Josef glacier almost looks like a river, complete with rapids!

As Arthur Holmes stresses, the key is time. Holmes illustrates this with the example of a ball bearing. If one is dropped into a jar of water it would take only a second to sink to the bottom. If the jar was filled with oil it would take several minutes. If filled with wax it would take maybe a hundred years to reach the bottom and if filled with ice and kept at a constant temperature, it would take millions of years.

So it is with rock. If pressure is maintained for long enough, rock will flow and bend and in the mantle it circulates. However, when rock rises, the pressure upon it decreases, causing partial melting and a change to liquid form. This of course leads to the formation of igneous rocks by way of extrusion at the surface through a suitable fracture to form extrusive rocks such as basalt, or cooling slowly below the surface to form intrusive igneous rocks such as granite.

I will get stuck into the subject of igneous rocks and volcanoes next time.

Cheers,

Alyn.

Life's rich tapestry?

2011-02-12T20:47:00.002Z

Sometimes, life never ceases to amaze at its power to excite, shock or bewilder. This week saw the truly shocking and heartbreaking as well as the beautiful and heartwarming.

Firstly, the weeks work started with the distressing news that a serious accident had occurred over the weekend, on the road construction site where I work. For reasons yet to be determined, a young, 24 year old lad had been caught between the bucket and tracks of a large digger, which crushed one of his his legs below the knee. Sadly, after repeated surgery, doctors were unable to save the leg and had to amputate.

Now, I'm of the opinion that work is a means of earning money to fund the rest of your life's activities. Some have the added benefit of gaining some sort of pleasure from their daily work while many more have to endure a high degree of tedium and drudgary, day in, day out, just to 'earn a crust'. But whatever one has to go through in order to earn a living, the least one can expect at the end of the days graft is to arrive home with a full compliment of limbs.

God knows how this poor guy is going to come to terms with his new life. Hopefully he will get the support he deserves from all around him, including his current employers. My thoughts have been with him for most of this week and also with the the unfortunate colleague whose actions unwittingly brought about this unfortunate incident. Heaven knows how he is feeling too and I'm sure he will need just as much support to get over the trauma. If our employers corporate aims and trendy slogans mean anything, they will both get it!

On a lighter note, the previous weekend saw the latest performance of 'Enchanted', the singing group of 'young ladies' including my eldest step-daughter Anna-Ruth. These gals are getting quite a reputation in the East Midlands and if you check out the You Tube videos highlighted in the right-hand column of this blog site, you'll see why! On Saturday they appeared in a concert with the Loughborough Male Voice Choir in Kegworth.

The girls were outstanding once again as were the 'lads' from the Male voice choir. In the opinion of my wife and daughter, the choir could benefit from some younger blood and guess whose arm was twisted? Yep, 'fraid so! Thursday evening saw me going along to their rehearsal which proved an interesting experience, not least because it was difficult to determine quite where my voice lies. 'Bass' or Baritone - that is the question! It was a fun evening I look forward to more next Thursday! Watch this space for developments!

Actually, this may well spawn a new blog! Better keep 'Holey Schist' a Geology/Natural History blog I think.

Next up will be a look back at 'Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis', the OU course recently completed which threw up such interesting questions as 'when is a solid not a solid'! Answer to be revealed . .

Cheers for now,

Alyn.

Sir David Attenborough - a British broadcasting legend

2011-01-02T23:09:00.001Z

The first draft of this post was intended to be a straight forward review of this year's 'Christmas Books' that Santa saw fit to send my way this festive season. Among the three that he bestowed upon me this year was 'First Life' by David Attenborough and Matt Kaplan. It is the book of the TV mini series of the same name and is a wonderful piece of work. But it got me thinking about the influence David Attenborough has had on my life and after giving it some thought I realised it has been enormous!

Born on 8th May 1926, David joined the BBC in 1952 and rather bizarrely, was initially discouraged from appearing on camera because it was thought that his teeth were too big! His first contribution to the subject of natural history was a three part BBC series called 'The Pattern of Animals' that he presented and produced himself.

My own first recollection of the man was when I started to watch the epic series 'Life on Earth', which brought the incredible variety and beauty of life on earth in all its glory. While Attenborough presented the programmes, it was the animals who were the real stars. One progrmme that I've never forgotten featured the Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda. The way the series introduced the ugly as well as the beautiful, the weird as well as the wonderful was pure genius and it set the standard for natural history broadcasting.

As well as presenting the regular series 'Wildlife on One', the 'Life' series continued with 'The Living Planet'.

This series built on the success of 'Life on Earth' and was based on ecology - the way in which animals adapt to their environment. This was another brilliant series and was followed by 'The Trials of Life' looking at animal behaviour. This completed the 'Life' trilogy, which was the original intention, but other more specialist series covering all facets of life were to follow. In 1993 he presented 'Life in the Freezer', highlighting the natural history of Antarctica.

A noticeable omission from Attenborough's works up until this point was the world of plants and this was addressed in 'The Private Life of Plants' in 1995. The reason for the reluctance to devote too much air time to plants is that they are essentially immobile objects and tend not to do a great deal. How do you make an hours TV programme depicting unmoving objects and make it entertaining? Well, this problem was tackled brilliantly with the use of groundbreaking time-lapse photography to speed up growth, death and seed dispersal.

Following on from this came 'The Life of Birds' (1998); 'The Life of Mammals' (2002) and 'Life in the Undergrowth' (2005), To complete the story of 'life' 2008 saw the production of 'Life in Cold Blood', focusing on the remaining animal groups of amphibians and reptiles. And that was intended to be that until he realised one final, but major omission - the very beginning of Life on Earth. This thought spawned the ultimate prequel - 'First Life'. Another stunning piece of work, this time brought to 'life' by some magical computer animation.

What is a shame about this series and the superb book that goes with it is that for me, it came a year too late. It would've been invaluable in my recent study of fossils and the history of life with the OU! Nevertheless, reading it now is shedding more light on the mysterious onset of life and is helping me better understand the process of evolution. In fact this book ought to be required reading for the disappointing Darwin course that I've just finished. Or maybe the OU could ask Matt Kaplan to re-write the Darwin and Evolution course book?

Anyway, what fascinates me is the Ediacaran period and the discovery of a group of fossils in pre-cambrian rocks such as Charnia masoni, first discovered in April 1957 in Charnwood Forest by an eleven year old schoolboy called Roger Mason, who ironically attended the same Leicestershire grammar school as Mr Attenborough! What brings this subject to life is some superb animated computer graphics giving an interpretation of what these ancient lifeforms may have looked like all those millions of years ago. Of course no-one really knows what these creatures looked like or how they really lived, but isn't that the case with much of geology? It's all about evidence, interpretation, and the discussion that follows. In this book Attenborough offers all sides of the argument, such as in the pros and cons of the 'Snowball Earth' theory, but leaves it to the reader to make his or her own mind up, which is how it should be.

I really hope the man is eternal because BBC television without David Attenborough is quite unthinkable. Even though he's in his eighty-fifth year, I'm sure there will be a few more gems to come from this genius of broadcasting. Long live David Attenborough - a real 'national treasure' if ever there was one!

Cheers,

Alyn

Cumbrian & Japanese earthquakes - December 21st 2010.

2010-12-23T22:57:00.002Z

With me half way through a course on the subject of volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, there has been interesting news this week about earthquakes in Cumbria, England and Japan.

The Cumbrian quake, a relatively modest magnitude 3.5 ML is unlikely to have caused significant damage, but was nevertheless felt throughout Cumbria, in Galloway and southern Scotland. Detailed info can be found at the British Geological Survey website here.

Meanwhile, on the same day, a more potentially destructive quake was experienced in the Bonin Island region of Japan with a magnitude of 7.4 at a depth of 14 kilometers. While we Brits might get excited by an admittedly infrequent but modest 3.5 quake, the Japanese have had to endure an alarming succession of 86, yes, eighty-six quakes between Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd December and all of them have been in excess of 4.7! I know aftershocks are likely after any earthquake, but 86? Scary stuff! Take a look at the list of mgnitudes on this website.

This will all be of use later in my course I'm sure.

Cheers for now,

Alyn.

S170: Darwin and Evolution - The Result!

2010-12-19T21:21:00.000Z

Greetings!

Sorry it has been a while, but what with another Open University course to get to grips with, a ridiculously busy life playing 'taxi' in order to ferry the girls to their umpteen social activities and then TWO WEEKS with the flu (yes, REAL flu not a mythical man-flu!), there has been precious little time for anything else in my cluttered schedule! So much for blogging more in 2010! Sigh!

Anyway, I've mentioned a few times on these pages how uninspired I was by the 'Darwin & Evolution' course, S170. The 10 credit, Level 1, OU course seemed like it would be a good follow up to the truly excellent 'Fossils and the History of Life'. I posted the following feedback onto the OU's website for S170:-

Opinion seems somewhat divided on this course with some really enjoying it and others being decidedly unimpressed. I'm afraid I fall into the latter category. After taking 'Fossils and the History of Life' and loving it, I thought this would be a good follow up course but for some reason it just never 'grabbed' me at all. The enthusiasm was there to begin with and I prepared by reading Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' on the run up, but the study materials managed to kill off that interest completely.

The main reason I think was because of the lack of printed course book. The need to be constantly switching between the online course materials and the set book '99% Ape' was very inconvenient and meant I never got into a settled study routine. I found '99% Ape' to be horribly disjointed and frankly, dull and needs a radical re-write in my opinion!

Also, the well intentioned snail 'megalab' study just did not work in practice. Unlike many, I did manage to find lots of snails, but frustratingly few if any suitable samples to compare them with in my area, which rendered the whole thing a bit farcical. The OU needs to seriously rethink this study in future presentations.

Unlike the period following each of my previous courses, I have no idea if I have passed this course at all, which I think says it all.

I don't think I was being overly harsh either. I really didn't have a clue whether I had properly grasped the material and done enough to pass the course. Last Friday however, I found to my relief that I did manage a good PASS. Hoorah!

Frustratungly, the OU no longer gives a numerical mark for these short science courses, prefering to give a simple, brief indication as to how well you have achieved various 'Key Learning Outcomes'. Now I really hate this modern politically correct tosh - give me a damned percentage mark any day! But at least I did manage 'Well Achieved' in every category except one where I nevertheless achieved 'Achieved', if you follow me? So, I would appear that, despite not enjoyimng this course as much as previous ones, I did manage a very good pass and its another 10m credits in the bag towards a degree, making 80 in total so far!

Not that I will end up with a BSc in Geosciences any more. Oh no, the OU in its infinite wisdom has decided to scrap named degrees in science subjects and are intent on lumping them together under the umbrella called 'Natural Sciences'. While the content of my degree can be made up predominantly of Geology and Earth Science modules, the degree I will be awarded will be 'BSc in Natural Sciences'. Hmm, not at all convinced this is a great idea. It seems a retrograde step to me and from what I hear on the grapevine, there is a move to get the OU to rethink this decision. Fingers crossed, because if there's anything that will push me towards doing a degree at Derby University in preference to the OU it is the fact that I can get a GEOLOGY degree at Derby! Come on Open University - think about it!?!

Time to get on with Volcanoes, earthquakes and Tsunamis. Fascinating stuff and more on this one later!

Cheers for now!

Alyn.

Education - it's a wonderful thing!

2010-11-12T18:58:00.001Z

After finally getting the less than inspiring 'S170: Darwin & Evolution' course out of the way, I'm now already into the next challenge, which is another 10 credit, Science Short Course entitled S186: Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis. And what a cracking course this promises to be!

The leader of this particular module is none other than David Rothery, the volcanologist whose talk I attended last month at the Open University Open Day to mark 40 years of Earth Sciences courses at the OU. (Click here for my post about it)

After witnessing David's talk about his media involvement during the Icelandic volcanic dust storm crisis, it became a 'must do' from that point on. The man is clearly passionate about his subject, but doesn't take himself too seriously. One interview he did for ITV News in particular needs to be seen! Click here to view it. Watch out for the amazing disappearing car! My wife Ruth, doesn't seem to understand quite why I find it so hilarious, but it tickled me, but then, I'm easily amused as Ruth will tell you!

I only received the course materials last weekend, but I'm already hooked in a way that I never was by the Darwin course. It's all down to the style of writing I think. Ruth, who is an English graduate (with FIRST CLASS HONOURS I hasten to add) would be able to explain exactly how and why the writing was so dull and uninspiring on that course and how in just a few opening paragraphs of this new course I am totally hooked! It's not as if I wasn't interested in 'evolution' either. I started off keen enough, but the dullness of the course book killed off the enthusiasm entirely, which was a shame!

Anyway, I mustn't dwell on the negative, but concentrate on the delights of 'volcanoes' and already some long held misconceptions have come to light and been soundly kicked into touch. Firstly, I've always been led to believe that the earth's crust lies above a viscous but generally liquid mantle. Plates move about over considerable lengths of time, moving apart at constructive boundaries and moving together at destructive boundaries but by and large, it's pretty much liquid down there. WRONG! The very first sentence of the opening chaper of the course set text 'Teach Yourself Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis', by the course leader states:

"It is a common misconception that the interior of the Earth is molten".

Er, yes indeed. Oops! But then as I read on it becomes obvious that it simply cannot be. Pressure, obviously, ensures that despite it's heat, most of the rock in the mantle is in fact solid. Hmmm!

Secondly, regarding plate tectonics, Mr Rothery drops this bombshell on page 11:

"it is important to be clear that these tectonic plates are not rafts of crust moving over the mantle. The Earth's crust is firmly joined to the part of the mantle immediately below it".

That was a bit of a revelation too in that the top 100 km or so of the mantle is just as strong as the crust and is joined to the crust to make a single 'mechanical layer'. Interesting stuff!

Third eye opener concerned the next layer down, that of the lower mantle. This layer it turns out while not rigid, is neverhteless solid and yet slowly circulates at a rate of a few centimetres per year. Now this is a difficult concept to grasp but a good analogy is to compare the rock of the lower mantle with say, a slab of Devon toffee! Okay, a bit bizarre, but stay with me okay? Now, put the slab in the fridge for a while and it will be hard enough to shatter if whalloped with a hammer. Go on try it if you've got a spare slab lying around! However, if you leave another slab in the fridge with slightly less than half its length overhanging the fridge shelf and leave it for a few months, it will eventually bend over the shelf. Okay, I've not actually tried this myself - there's little or no chance for a slab of toffee surviving for long enough in my house antway, but I'm told it does work! Anyway, my point is that, yes the toffee is obviously solid, but will still bend if given sufficient time. So it is with the rock that makes up the lower mantle which is subject to what is called 'solid state convection'.

And all this is even before the course (or 'module' as the OU now like to call them) officially starts on Saturday 13th! And I haven't even mentioned 'cowpat bombs' yet!?! Maybe next time dear friends!

Cheers for now!
Alyn.

Flamborough Head - August 2010

2010-11-05T13:41:00.006Z

Well, it's taken a while, but I finally persuaded Anna to download the photographs she took on our brief visit to Flamborough Head while on holiday in Lincolnshire back in early August.

So, Flamborough Head is located off the east coast of England, north-east of the coastal town of Bridlington. My family and I started this particular day with a visit to the rather disappointingly sad spectacle of Scarborough, a place which rather reminded me of Blackpool 'up north' - all a bit run down and desperately trying to return to it's former glory days of the fifties and sixties. I kinda felt that these types of seaside holiday resort need to reinvent themselves somehow. The days of donkey rides and 'Kiss me Quick' hats are long gone I think!

Anyway, our detour to Flamborough was the highlight of the day - for me at least! For those wishing to visit, there is plenty of parking space available near the lighthouse and access to the chalk cliffs is possible down some scarily steep and slightly uneven steps, but it's worth the effort, trust me!

'Yours truly' with the stacks and cliffs of Upper Cretaceous chalk at Flamborough Head

The photo of me was taken by this lovely person, my step-daughter Anna-Ruth. The equally lovely Amy, her younger sister, declined the opportunity to descend the steep steps and stayed up top with her mum!

Anna-Ruth by the way, studied for a GCSE in Geography virtually on her own. The teaching for this subject seemed pretty rubbish in truth, so it's to her enormous credit that she passed it so well! On our walk down the steps (see later photo!) she proudly pointed to the stack and told me all about its formation, so there's definitely a potential geologist deep within her! She currently has her heart set on drama, but you never know!

Now here's a thought . . . she could forget drama and do a Geology degree instead! We could even study at the same time on the same course? How cool would that be? Actually, to the average teenager, that would probably be the most embarrassing thing ever! In a classroom with their 'old man'!?! OMG!!!

'Nature' - the worlds greatest sculpter!

Anyway, I digress. The most striking thing about Flamborough is the distinctly layered chalk cliffs and their associated features. The great accumulation of tiny, fossilised sea life that make up this rock took place some 70 - 90 million years ago. The classic stack shown above, formed comparatively quickly over thousands of years. Constant battering of the now exposed rock by the waves, erodes weak areas in the rock eventually creating caves. Where this occurs on an area jutting out into the sea the cave will eventually break through to form an arch. With further erosion the roof can collapse to form an isolated lump of rock - the stack shown above.

Another view of the stack, chalk cliffs and glacial till above.

Above the chalk cliffs lies a layer of glacial till which is a layer of deposits left behind by a glacier during the last ice age.

I have since learnt that there is a fine example of an arch here, I think on the far right in the above photo, though from our view point we couldn't see through it!

Layered chalk cliff at Flamborough Head.

See what I mean? Scary steps, but solid and safe enough!

Okay, now this is where I need some help. Maybe in 'x' years time after I've actually done my geology degree, the answer to this will be more obvious, but I am currently a bit puzzled by this photo. Throughout the cliffs, the chalk layers are either horizontal or dipping about 10 degrees or so. Here however, at the bottom of the steps there is this section which seems to fold upwards as can be seen at lower right of the photo. At the upper middle of the photo the beds are at about 80 degrees from horizontal! So whats gone on here? Seems a quite localised fold that's quite out of step with the surrounding features!?! Answers on a postcard to . . . .

Me looking for fossils but not finding anything significant - or even insignificant for that matter!

Beautiful! Anna obviously, not the layered chalk and dipping beds! Obviously!

So there you have it. The geological delight that is Flamborough Head - go visit next time you are on the east coast!

Cheers for now,

Alyn.

40 Years of Earth & Planetery Sciences at the OU

2010-10-10T17:56:00.030+01:00

This week has seen a significant anniversary at the Open University. It is now forty years since the start of the Department of Earth Sciences at the Uni. The late Professor Ian Gass lead the way with the guiding principle that 'excellent research breeds excellent teaching'.

To celebrate this milestone, the department held a 2 day conference followed by an Open Day on Saturday 9th October, and I managed to make the short journey down to the campus in Milton Keynes on Saturday. There were lots of things going on - some activities to stop the kids getting too bored, such as panning for gold and making plaster casts of fossils and even 'dressing up as a scientist' and having your picture taken! Tempting, I have to say, but I resisted. I was there for the talks. Just to be sure I booked to hear all the listed speakers with one in particular who was simply a 'must see'. More of that later.

First up was Dr Mark Davies, an ex OU PhD student and now working for ARKeX, a geophysical survey company. His talk was an interesting look at geogravity and how gravity changes according to mass. He showed how techniques for measuring these variations are used to locate oil reserves. Interesting stuff, but not my thing really. Exploration geology is not really where my interest lies, though it might have been if I had studied geology back in the '80s as I'd originally planned.

Next up was meant to be Dr Phil Bland, another ex OU student, talking about the oriigin of meteorites in the solar system, but unfortunately he had been taken ill and couldn't attend. Rather than stay for the 'emergency stand-on, I decided to have an early lunch break.

Then we had Professor Monica Grady (pictured left) of the Open University, with a talk entitled 'Life on Mars - if not, why not'. Monica, it turns out was the author of part of Book 8 from the OU Science Foundation course S104, that I successfully completed last year! So this talk was a good recap on what I'd learnt

The next speaker, Professor John Zarnecki (right) proved a wonderfully engaging bloke. He ran through his whole working life in space exploration, having been associated with many of the major planetary exploration missions over the last few decades including the Cassini Huygens mission that studied the surface of Titan. Best of all was his hilarious account of his desperate and sadly for him unsuccessful attempts to get into space himself on the various European Space Agency missions - proudly displaying his rejection letter from ESA! Great stuff!

The next guy was very much the 'Main Event' and needed no introduction. Professor Iain Stewart (pictured below) of Plymouth University and inspiring presenter of 'Earth:The Power of the Planet' and several other superb TV series in recent years proved to be even better in the flesh as it were, than he is on the telly. After some initial 'ribbing' from the compere for his NOT having done any OU courses, he went on to give a superb talk, loosely based on his most recent TV series 'How Earth Made Us'. What shone out like a beacon, was his near encyclopaedic knowledge of geologists of the past such as James Hutton. His delivery was slick, confident and utterly absorbing. His students at Plymouth Uni must have a ball, that's all I can say!

Follow that! Well for some obscure reason, someone thought it a good idea to have 'a word from one the sponsors'. In this case it was a guy from Thermo Fisher Scientific, suppliers of scientific instruments. It wasn't a sales pitch we were told, so that begs the question why? No idea myself! Odd choice!

Anyway, to wrap up the day we had Dr David Rothery (pictured left) of the OU, who related some hilarious anecdotes regarding his work as the media contact at the OU throughout the recent 'ash cloud crisis' during the Eyjafjallojokull eruption earlier this year. This guy was a hoot, and definitely didn't take himself too seriously! Rather than recount his stories, just go to You Tube and enter his name and look at the films of his media interviews with Sky TV and others. I particular, look out for the 'amazing disappearing car' in a Sky TV interview and the regular appearances of his little box of volcanic ash! Brilliant!

So a good day was had by all I think and highlighted the need to restore Open University Open Days which were a regular thing in days past I believe. Can't think why they were stopped.

Cheers for now,

Alyn

Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons

2010-09-13T13:50:00.001+01:00

Most people like to take a good book to read on holiday with them and I'm no different. Well, maybe a little. . .

Non-fiction doesn't do much for me these days, though I did get through the Da Vinci Code with moderate pleasure a while ago. This year, before leaving for a week in Lincolnshire, I thought it was about time I got hold of a copy of John Wesley Powell's epic record of his Exploration of the Colorado River and it's Canyons, in 1869.

Good ol' eBay eh? There I found a copy on offer at a 'Buy it Now' price of an almost embarrassing £2.47. And that was with free postage! How do they make it pay, I wonder? Anyway, the book soon arrived and was duly opened, shortly after arrival at our holiday cottage in Lincolnshire.

And what a cracking read it turned out to be. Written several years after the event in 1869, Powell's writing style was surprisingly easy to get into. Written as a daily journal he never intended to publish the details in book form but was eventually persuaded to after numerous requests. A huge number of superb sketches of the myriad of geological wonders they encountered are included throughout the account, though it is not clear who drew many of them.

He starts with a general overview of the area to be explored, looking at the valley of the Colorado; the regions mesas and buttes; its mountains and plateaus; and its cliffs and terraces. As you may know, I'm a great believer in making geology understandable to the interested layman in the way Wayne Ranney writes for example. John Wesley Powell seems of like mind too, as is shown in this explanation of the arrangement of four lines of cliffs that extend from east to west across the region:

Place a book before you on a table with its front edge toward you, rest another book on the back of this, place a third on the back of the second and in like manner a fourth on the third. Now the leaves of the book dip from you and the cut edges stand in tiny escarpments facing you. So the rock-formed leaves of these books of geology have the escarpment edges turned southward while each book itself dips northward and the crest of each plateau book is the summit of a line of cliffs.

Go on, try it! Then turn to page 90 of the book and look at the 'Section and birds eye view" I love the explanation and the simple practical exercise. Brilliant!

Chapter 5 sees the start of the record of the expedition. What follows is a truly absorbing account of the triumphs and disasters as they progressed. What really pours out of the pages of this account is Powell's passion for geology and his love of the entire region. Despite the battering he and his fellow explorers endured at times and the hardships that they experienced, his determination to succeed never wavered. Clearly some of his party did not share his belief that they could succeed in completing the journey and three made the decision to leave and 'take their chances'. An unwise move as it turned out as they were to perish at the hands of hostile Indians. Amazingly, Powell was to meet the killers of his colleagues a year or so later in his follow up expedition to the Uinta region and appears not to condemn them for their actions.

I would recommend having a good map of the american south-west or better still, Wayne Ranney's book 'Carving Grand Canyon' at your side when reading this book in order to better track Major Powell' progress. Not all of the names that Powell gave to the multitude of features he encountered have been adopted in the long term, but most certainly have.

I will leave you with John Wesley Powell's closing remarks as he reflected on the experience:-

You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted, but to see it you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths. It is a region more difficult to traverse than the Alps or the Himalayas, but if strength and courage are sufficient for the task, by a years toil a concept of sublimity can be obtained never again to be equaled on the hither side of Paradise.

Cheers,
Alyn.

Welcome to the Anthropocene!

2010-07-29T13:18:00.003+01:00

My first copy of the Open University's 'Geological Society Journal' hopped through the letter box a few days ago and one paper stood out from the others mainly because of it's authors. Dr Mark Williams and Dr Jan Zalasiewicz from Leicester University are two people I met at last years open day at the university and Jan is the author of a splendid book called 'Earth after Us' that I featured in a blog last year (click here to read). The title of the paper is "Enter the Anthropocene: an Epoch of time characterised by humans".

I've often speculated about the likely legacy we humans will leave for future occupiers of planet earth and whether there will be anything left worth occupying millions of years from now. I have always, perhaps a tad naively, believed that maybe man isn't quite as stupid as I fear and will drag the planet back 'from the brink' eventually. But will we? It seems that many believe the earth's failsafe feedback mechanisms could, quite soon be pushed beyond the point of no return, ultimately leading to the destruction of all life on planet earth, leaving nowt but a seemingly dead mass like Mars! James Lovelock, in his book 'Revenge of Gaia' I think touches on this very possibility if I remember correctly.

Anyway, Zalsiewicz and Wiliams' paper looks at the degree of environmental change brought about by man's activites, takes the idea first proposed by the Nobel Prize winning scientist Paul Crutzen and suggests ideas for formalising a specific epoch of geological time to cover the period of human influence on earth.

But how does one classify it? When did this epoch start? Is there a specific event that says before this event is the holocene and after it is the anthropocene? Well, there are a number of factors that might just leave a signature for future visiting geologists from afar to read. Firstly, the extinction of the large animals or 'megafauna' seemed to coincide with the rise of the human being, e.g the mammoths. However, it is difficult to be specific about the date as they died out in the americas 13,000 years ago, but died out 50,000 years ago in Australia. Some 'megafauna' survive today, e.g. elephants and rhino, but are unlikely to be around for too much longer. So maybe the Anthropocene requires a better means of classification?

The introduction of agriculture may provide a more specific date in order to gauge the start of this new epoch. WThe onset of agricultural practices brought widespread tree felling and planting of food crops which will have completely changed the composition of pollen grain accumulations in sediments worldwide, leaving a clear signature in the future rock record. This process will also have altered the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and this too will be detectable by the future geologist.

Another potential means of dating the onset of the anthropocene could be in reading the signs of mans activities. No previous lifeform on earth has physically changed the outward structure of earth quite like man. Just how detectable the remains of man's handywork will be is difficult to gauge. Huge ancient cities vacated just a thousand years ago are now merely dust and rubble. But surely the vast quantities of brick, steel and concrete that make up our twenty-first century megacities will leave plenty of clues and a good idea of just when man was at his creative (or destructive, depending on your outlook) peak? As for how long the anthropocene will last is also difficult to estimate, but the pessimistic amongst us might suggest the width of this potential epoch might not occupy too much paper on the future geologist's stratigraphic column!

The slightly depressing thing that came to my thoughts when reading this piece was that we humans and our relatives have only been around for a few hundred thousand years and are already making a good job of orchestrating our own demise. Yet the good ol' dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate from the Triassic through to the end of the Cretaceous! That's a whopping 160 million years!?! That makes man's tenure seen pretty short term. And we like to think of ourselves as intelligent? Sorry, but making such a 'pig's ear' of everything in such a short (geologically speaking) space of time makes us look pretty dumb! That said, rapid increase followed by sudden extinction is not at all unusual. Let's hope we can turn things around before its too late.

Cheers for now!

Alyn.

Blasphemy, blasphemy!

2010-07-12T17:43:00.001+01:00

I am a regular follower of another geological blog called 'Geotripper' by a guy called Garry Hayes, a teacher of geology at Modesto Junior College in the USA and enjoy dipping into his prolific, enlightening and entertaining 'geoblogs'.

But a recent blog rather took me by surprise. Entitled "Ten Overrated Places to See Before You Die...Part Two" , imagine my shock on finding that the subject of this award, was Grand Canyon South Rim!!!

What? Are you mad? Before I comment further, take a look at his post here.

Grand Canyon at dawn from Bright Angel Lodges.

Overrated? I really don't think so!

(Photo by Alyn)

What Garry is referring to is 'the South Rim experience' and to a degree he is right. With around 277 miles of canyon to play with, tourist access is limited to only a few select places. As a visitor myself in 2008, I was surprised and I must say relieved to find that there is little in the way of development of Grand Canyon. As I understand it there are the lodges and apartments at Grand Canyon Village, a smaller development on the North Rim and also Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. Other than a few camp sites, that is about it and thank heavens for that say I. Can you imagine the horror of a multitude of 'Grand Canyon Skywalks' or similar crass developments littering this beautiful place?

So, Grand Canyon National Park saw fit to channel the tourist invasion into this one place. But is the whole South Rim experience spoiled as a result? Well, I can only relate my own experience. As a citizen of the UK, the trip over to Arizona constituted the 'trip of a lifetime' and yes, was on my list of those essential "places to visit before you die". What I wanted was a way for my family and my mother-in-law to stay as close to the Canyon as possible and at the very least get a feel for this wonderous place.

From L-R: Diane, Amy, Me, Ruth and Anna-Ruth outside our Bright Angel Lodge

(Photo by Alyn)

Well, we stayed in the magnificent Bright Angel Lodges, literally only yards from the Canyon edge. And just a short walk away is the Bright Angel Restaurant where the most magnificent breakfast in the world awaits! One simply cannot 'overrate' their breakfast potatoes, sourdough toast and endless coffee, no Sir!

But I do understand where Garry is coming from. Sure, hoards of camcorder wielding folks hop off the bus in their droves, gaze over the canyon edge, pose for the obligatory photo with canyon backdrop, say "Gee, isn't it lovely" and then hop back on the bus and head for Vegas. For many, that is it. An afternoon's hop along the South Rim viewpoints, a photo at each and prescious little else.

Evening bus tour of the South Rim viewpoints

(Photo by Alyn)

But for so many more, a visit to the South Rim of Grand Canyon is just the start of a whole lot more. As Gary points out, it is impossible to grasp the sheer magnitude of Grand Canyon just by standing at the edge and looking over. When you look at just the Kaibab Limestone layer for example and realise that this layer alone is about 300 feet thick, you may then get an appreciation of the scale a little. So I am left with a longing to revisit and take a hike through at least a part of it. One day my friends, one day . . .

For countless others, they do just that. Hikes, canyon raft trips, camping etc, etc. So in my view, the Grand Canyon South Rim experience can serve as an introduction to the Grand Canyon. For some it is nothing but a single day out. But for many others though it can be a life changing experience and prove to be the start of something special, be it an appreciation of geology or even the feeling of being a little closer to God.

Overrated? Never!

Cheers for now!

Alyn.

Problem solved - I think!?!

2010-07-01T23:18:00.002+01:00

Well, things seem to be working again!

As is often the way with I.T. the Blogger editor just seems to be workin again, though it was probably/possibly a 'cookie' issue or maybe some sort of conflict with a recently upgraded firewall and virus checker. At least they are two of the things I randomly tried and lo and behold, we're back on track! Hoorah!

So expect a proper blog in a day or two!

Back soon!

Cheers,

Alyn.

Blogging problems - Any ideas?

2010-06-30T12:56:00.003+01:00

Greetings!

I know it has been a while, but I'm afraid I'm having a few problems editing posts and even adding any new ones. I will try to explain in the hope that if anyone has experienced similar problems they can maybe offer some advice?

About a month ago, when attempting to access the blog post editor all I would get is the rotating clock thingy in the editing area and nothing else happened. At no time does the editor fully load allowing me to add a post and this has continued for over a month now!?!

Neither can I access and edit any previous blogs in any way. These problems are occurring on my laptop at home via a wireless router. I don't have any such problems when accessing my blog on my computer at work, but that's non the ideal place to be doing my blogging - not if I want to remain employed, that is! So presumably, its a problem with my wireless network? I'm a bit of an I.T. technophobe, so haven't a clue where to go to solve this mini crisis.

I haven't tried accessing the blog directly on my home computer, which I am presuming will experience the same problems, but maybe not?

Any suggestions anyone? 'Blogger' doesn't seem to offer much help and I'm getting frustrated!!!!

Drop me a line if you can help in any way!

Cheers,

Alyn

A day at Tideswell, Derbyshire, with the OU Geological Society

2010-05-19T13:18:00.000+01:00

Studying geology isn't just about reading books. To really get to grips with the subject you simply have to get out in the open air. With this in mind I recently joined the East Midlands branch of the Open University Geological Society, with the aim of getting a bit of practical geology experience, before I dive head first into the level 2 geology couse with the university.

So, the ‘Basic Geology Day’ at Tideswell, Derbyshire (click here for a map of the area) sounded like the perfect introduction for a relative beginner like me. It was designed to give people like me a gentle introduction to sedimentary and igneous rocks. S276, the geology course is all part of my master plan to get a geology based degree sometime before senility creeps in, but is not likely to figure until next year. The first question was, would I be out of my depth? Would an unintensional 'faux pas' see me ridiculed in such educated company? Not a bit of it! I was made to feel welcome right from the off and able to ask any question I felt necessary.

A group of eight gathered in the car park at the old railway station at Millers Dale which comprised four committee members and four ‘newbies’ of varying levels of geological experience. Not only was this my first geology field trip, but it was also the first outing for my brand new walking boots bought specially for this very day - quite obvious to all probably as said boots were quite unfeasibly shiny!

Anyway, after brief introductions, it was off on a short walk to the first stop – a limestone quarry, where Don Cameron, the group leader, described the ‘Derbyshire Dome’. Around 300 million years ago, the sea floor was lifted and a gentle anticline formed across what is now the Peak District, giving the area the characteristic 'dome' shape, hence the name. Folding of the rocks caused cracks (faults) to appear, particularly so within the limestone.

From the top down, the sequence of rocks present are coal measures; millstone grit; shale and limestone. The coal measures and millstone grit were then subject to erosion and at the most exposed upper part of the dome the gritstone was completely removed thus exposing the limestone in the centre of the Peak District.

A former Limestone quarry, Millers Dale Derbyshire.

Don suggested we all take a look at some of the rocks lying around the base of the quarry and seen in the foreground of the above photo. I was of course aware of the fossil content of limestone but not how numerous they can be. The rock that I examined was packed with vast numbers of brachiopods, rugose corals and crinoid stem fragments of varying sizes.

Limestone containing fossil coral (upper centre)

I won’t give you a detailed description of the geology of the day for fear of getting something hopelessly wrong and embarrassing myself, but what this day emphasised for me was that it doesn’t matter how much studying and reading you do at home or in a college, nothing quite matches seeing things out there in the great outdoors. Even something as straight forward as a fault or an unconformity means so much more when you see it with your own eyes and in three dimensions.

A fault line in the limestone caused during the formation of the anticline.

The day finished off with a quick drive up the road to take a look at a doloritic intrusion at Tideswell Dale Quarry, which was well worth the extra short drive. Here, hot liquid rock deep within the earth slowly cooled allowing fairly large crystals to develope forming the dark rock characteristic of dolerite.

Exposure of a dolerite intrusion, Tideswell Dale Quarry, Derbyshire.

Close up of the dolerite intrusion, Tideswell Dale Quarry, Derbyshire.

Close up of a recent rock fall at the exposure.

Some rocks (lower centre) exhibit severe weathering

and a redish colouration due to their iron content.

View towards Froggatt Edge (I think) which denotes the edge of the Millstone Grit.

To the left of the peak, lies shale and limestone.

So all in all, a fascinating intro to geology and the OU Geological Society. Sadly, I can’t make the next trip to The Roaches this Saturday (due to 50th birthday celebrations!), but I will definitely make the (for me) short journey to Bradgate Park in June to find out more about the oldest rocks in England.

Me and my boots can't wait!

Cheers, Alyn

Next up it's Darwin and Evolution

2010-05-05T22:42:00.002+01:00

If only life wasn't so hectic and busy! If only I had the time to do what I REALLY want to do, namely study geology full time and blog away to my hearts content. Alas 'life' gets in the way so often and with my review of my fossil course only part done, I now have the course material for my next course in front of me. No time then, for that journey through time I'd hoped to do through the fossil record. Another time perhaps? I should be touching on it anyway, as I progress through the next endeavour.

For the next ten weeks or so, I will be immersed in everything 'Darwin' and 'Natural Selection'! On May 15th, S170 - Darwin and Evolution commences and it looks like it will be another fascinating course.

So many things about evolution and the fossil record puzzle me. For example, if evolution takes place slowly, there must have been innumerable transitional forms of all creatures, which logically should be represented in the fossil record. But, by and large this seems not to be the case. A first dip into the course book shows that Darwin believed the answer simply lies in the imperfections of the fossil record. The introduction hints at evidence for the important transitions in the history of life on earth, so I'm looking forward to finding out more and maybe dispelling a few myths.

The course book we have been supplied with is called '99% Ape - How Evolution Adds Up', and there is also a DVD of programmes to watch. Strangely there is an experiment/project for us to undertake that involves collecting snails from the garden which is intriguing! Some past students have apparently been unable to take part due to a lack of said creatures, but there will be no such problems for me I don't think - we're over-run with the darn critters here in the East Midlands!

Unlike the previous fossil course which was assessed by a single computer marked assignment, this one will involve actually writing stuff and answering questions to be marked by a human! I much prefer that to be honest. You can't beat the personal interaction with a tutor so I'm looking forward to 'kick off' in 10 days time!

And!

This next Sunday, 9th May I am going on my very first geology field trip with the Open University Geological Society - an 'Introduction to Geology Day' at Tideswell in Derbyshire, which sounds like the perfect way to start. We'll be looking at sedimentary and igneous rocks and I'm really looking forward to meeting new people and 'learning by doing' in the great outdoors. This will also be the debut for my brand new walking boots too! I'll let you know how it went next week!

Cheers for now!

Alyn.

Fossils and the History of Life : Part Three

2010-03-22T21:52:00.251Z

Fossils and the History of Life: Part Three

Okay, I’d better crack on with my round up of S193, Fossils and the History of Life’.

Part Three: Common Phyla in the fossil record

As I mentioned last time, the animal kindom is split into groups called phyla. These are represented in the fossil record and the following is a brief summary of the main points concerning the most important animal phyla represented:-
Porifera:

• Sponges

• Cambrian to Recent
• Mainly marine though some freshwater
• Simple multicellular organisms – no nervous system
• Filter feeders
• Locally abundant fossils especially in Cretaceous rocks
• Found in flint nodules

Cnidaria:

Above: Coral fossil, Favosites turbinatus (Devonian)

• Corals
• Late Precambrian (Ediacaran) to Recent
• Almost entirely marine
• Colonial or solitary
• 3 groups: 1) rugose (solitary or colonial) Ordovician to Permian; 2) tabulate (colonial) Ordovician to Permian; 3) scleractinian (solitary and colonial) Triassic to Recent.
• Have central mouth and stinging tentacles

Note that Sea anemones and jellyfish are also cnidarians, but being soft bodied are rarely found in the fossil record.

Bryozoans:
• Also known as ‘Moss animals’.
• Ordovician to Recent
• Normally marine but also freshwater (uncommon)
• Very small colonial creatures living in groups of several to thousands of individuals
• Feed through tentacles
• Fossils can resemble corals and graptolites (see later)

Brachiopods:
• Cambrian to Recent
• Entirely marine and benthic (sea floor dwelling)
• Consist of 2 parts or valves and shells made up of calcium carbonate mainly though some of calcium phosphate.
• Filter feeders
• Are common fossil in Palaeozoic limestones and shales.

Molluscs:
• Cambrian to Recent
• Mainly marine.
• Very diverse phylum and most abundant large invertebrates in the fossil record.
• Phylum includes: bivalves; gastropods and cephalopods

Brachiopods seem rather similar to bivalves in many ways, but differ in that their ‘plane of symmetry’ passes through both valves rather than between them. Invariably, one valve is larger than the other in a brachiopod hence the common name of ‘lamp shells’.

Gastropods are aquatic, living in shallow marine and freshwater environments.

Cephalopods are entirely marine; have chambered shells and include ammonites, belemnites and nautiloids.

Echinoderms:

Above: Echinoderm fossil, Orophocrinus stelliformis (Lower Mississippian - 345ma)

• Cambrian to Recent
• Entirely marine are benthic, sessile (fixed to rocks) or vagrant (move around sea floor).
• Feed, respire and move using extendible tentacles called ‘tube feet’.
• Echinoids commonly has 5 rayed arrangement of plates and tube feet.• The phylum includes sea urchins, starfish (asteroids) and brittle stars (ophiuroids) and sea lillies (crinoids, see below).

Above: Crinoid fossil, Macrocrinus mundulus (Lower Mississippian - 345 ma)

Arthropods:
• Cambrian to Recent
• The largest animal phylum
• Found in land and water habitats.
• Includes: crustaceans, insects, spiders, and now extinct groups such as trilobites
• Have hard outer segmented exoskeleton which is periodically shed to allow growth

Above: Trilobite fossil, Greenops boothi (Middle Devonian)

• Exoskeleton comprises chitin and possibly strengthened by calcium carbonate or phosphate.

Hemichordates:
• Cambrian to Recent
• The most important group of hemichordates are the extinct and entirely marine graptolites. These are confined to the palaeozoic era and are therefore an important zone fossil. (see later) These look strangely like ‘saw blades’ where the ‘teeth’ are actually small recesses that house individuals that make up a colony.

Chordata:

• Cambrian to Recent
• Possess a notochord through the length of the body
• Include the 5 classes of vertebrates i.e. fish; amphibians; reptiles; mammals and birds.

Above: Dinosaur fossil, a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex, (Cretaceous) located at the Burpee Museum of Natural History, Rockford Illinois, USA.

• Extinct groups include the land dwelling dinosaurs (see above); marine ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs; and the flying pterosaurs.
• Vertebrate fossils are rare and usually comprise only fragments.

So that's a brief and way too rapid round up of the common phyla in the fossil record. The phylum 'Chordata' itself could warrant an entire blog on its own - as indeed any of them could. But I'll maybe do that at a later date if time permits. Next time I wil start that journey through time, starting with a look at the mysterious Ediacaran fossils, examples of which were found close to my hoome in the East Midlands, at Bradgate Park. Then I'll get down to the nitty-gritty of the 'Cambrian Explosion'.

All photographs included above were courtesy of 'The Virtual Fossil Museum' web site. This is an excellent resource, providing photographic galleries of the fossil groups and a lot of other information besides. For a closer look click here.

Cheers for now,
Alyn.

Course Result!

2010-03-22T15:52:00.000Z

Greetings Folks!

I interrupt the series of S193 summaries to bring you the long awaited result of the fossil course, just announced by the Open University . . .

Well, I PASSED. Hoorah!

Mind you, I would be pretty devastated to have failed it. A pass mark of 40% shouldn't be beyond anyone with a modicum of interest in palaeontology to be honest, but I did surprise myself by achieving a whopping

97%

If I had got anything around 80% I would've been quite happy, but getting 97% just makes me wonder how I managed to lose those 3%!?! Anyway, detailed feedback will arrive by post soon I believe, so I'll let you know!

Next up in a day or two will be Part 3 of my S193 summary.

See ya then!

Cheers,
Alyn.

Fossils and the History of Life: Part Two

2010-02-26T13:43:00.002Z

Here is the second part of my summary of Open University course “S193: Fossils and the History of Life’.

Part Two: Fossil Classification and Evolution

Before anyone can get really stuck into palaeontology, an understanding of how fossils are named and classified is a useful starter. Immediately one is confronted with Latin which to many is the stuff of nightmares, but is actually really pretty straightforward in its use in science. Basically, fossils are classified according to the binomial system developed in the 1800s. Here, living things are classified according to a series of groupings in what is called the taxonomic hierarchy.

Firstly, we have the category ‘Kingdom’ and any organism can be classified as either ‘animal’, ‘plant’ or ‘fungi’. Within each Kingdom, organisms fall into broad groups according to their body arrangement or ‘bodyplan’ and these groups are called ‘Phyla’, (singular ‘Phylum’), an example of which is ‘Chordata’ which includes all vertebrates. Phyla are then subdivided into ‘Class’ such as ‘Mammalia’ that is mammals, obviously. The next subdivision is ‘Order’, for example ‘Carnivora’ , e.g. dogs, cats and these then constitute the next division, called ‘Family’. Cats are from the family ‘Felidae’ and include lions, tigers and the domestic cat.

Now, to get to the important bit – two final subdivisions serve to identify a specific species and make up the two parts of the specie’s binomial name. Below ‘family’ lies the category ‘Genus’, e.g. Felis which includes all wild and domestic cats. Finally, individual species are given a (not surprisingly) ‘Species’ name, e.g. catus for the domestic cat. So, the domestic cat is given the name Felis catus while us humans are called Homo sapiens. The observant amongst you will have noticed that the genus name must start with a capital letter while the species name does not and the whole name is written in italics. If you are hand writing an essay (does anyone hand write anything anymore?) then the whole name must be underlined.

Additionally, sometimes one may see what appears to be a surname after the species name. This in fact denotes the name of the person who first described the species in that particular genus. This is generally restricted to formal scientific journals though.

Giving any fossil a species name isn’t as simple as it might first seem. For instance, a ‘species’ is a group of organisms, the members of which can all interbreed. If one discovers a group of fossils, it is unfortunately not possible to determine if they could interbreed! So fossils are invariably categorised on their morphology alone.

Evolution and the fossil record:

A common definition for evolution, taken from the S190 course book is:-

“Evolution is any cumulative change in the heritable characteristics of species or populations from generation to generation or over longer periods”.

Or, more simply, it can be said to be ‘descent from an ancestor and modification of biological features with time’.

Charles Darwin and others had the nerve to suggest in the mid 1800’s that species were not fixed at all but actually changed with time. Darwin and Alfred Wallace were the first to actually come up with a mechanism for this to occur – by way of ‘Natural Selection’. Darwin of course published his ground breaking book ‘On the Origin of Species by Way of Natural Selection’ in 1859 and the whole idea of nayural selection can be summarised in 3 points:

• Members of any population will vary and such variations will be inherited by their offspring.

• A population will produce more offspring than can possiblys urvive and reproduce.

• Every population will experience a ‘struggle for existence’ and the offspring that vary in the ways most suited to their own environment will survive and breed again, causing the favourable variations to accumulate in these populations by ‘natural selection’.

A nice quote from the course book is “variation is the raw material on which selection acts”. So natural selection brings about biological change in a gradual and accumulative way.

Now this seems okay until one wonders, as I do, how did say, a birds wings gradually develop? At what point did this part-developed creature suddenly flap its new feathery arms and say, “well what d’ya know? I can fly!” Darwin, needless to say, had an answer – The Principle of Preadaption.

Feathers it is believed began firstly, merely as insulation and were in fact modified fish scales, a chance modification that just happened to help with insulation. Further gradual changes ultimately allowed flight – a radically different function to the original.

S193 has given tantalising introduction to the subject of evolution and so enrolling on another OU short science course, ‘S170: Darwin and Evolution’ will be a natural progression. Roll on May 15th! So many questions await, such as:-

• If evolution is gradual, why aren’t there examples of a line of fossils of a creature that highlight how it has changes over millions of years? Or are there?

• Did the Ediacaran fauna really become extinct or are they in some way related to modern life forms. I currently find it hard to believe that they just disappeared to be ultimately replaced by totally unrelated creatures.

• Did the ‘Cambrian Explosion' really happen? How can all categories of modern animal phyla ‘suddenly’ appear as if overnight (geologically speaking)? Surely they too gradually evolved but if so, why does the fossil record not reflect this?

I will try to delve into the Cambrian Explosion issue at a later date, but I think it warrants a bit more reading first.

By the way, if anyone out there (a post graduate perhaps?) has any thoughts on this subject or anything to contribute, drop me a line. Remember, I’m just an Open University mature student, delving into something that has fascinated me for ages but hasn't done anything about it, until now!

Next time I will look at the common phyla in the fossil record and start a journey through time.

See you then!

Cheers,

Alyn.

Fossils and the History of Life: Part One

2010-01-29T20:38:00.007Z

So that’s that! S193 done and dusted. I’ve submitted my end of course online assessment and now await the result! I’m quietly confident of a comfortable pass, though I should never underestimate my ability to fall into the clever little traps the OU like to set for you! After doing the first 10 questions early and then going back over them towards the end, I did manage to spot one little mistake of mine, but hopefully there won’t be too many others – we’ll see!

As the Open University’s short, 10 point science courses don’t require any written assignments like the epic S104 foundation course, I thought it would be a good idea for me to summarise the course content here in ‘Holey Schist’. This will help consolidate my knowledge and maybe with a little help from you lot out there, help spot some glaring misconceptions that I may have picked up along the way? So here goes . . .

Part One: A Brief introduction to fossils

Firstly, let’s answer the obvious question: what is a fossil? Well, to quote the S193 course book, “a fossil is simply any evidence of ancient life, naturally preserved within the materials that make up the earth”. Such ‘materials’ are invariably rocks, formed from mud, silt and volcanic ash, but can also include other substances like natural resins (producing for example amber) and even ice.

Prior to doing this course I did wonder what the dividing line was between ‘dead animal’ and ‘fossil’ and the truth is that there is no strict dividing line between the two. Generally speaking though, palaeontologists would only really consider remains over 10,000 years old to be fossils.

The development of life on earth through time is recorded in successive layers of sedimentary rock – their strata. As time passed, the deposition on sediments layer upon layer effectively form ‘pages’ of the earth’s history ‘book’ and present evidence of environmental conditions at the time of deposition and a sample of life around at that time in the form of fossils.

Unfortunately, things are complicated by the fact that many pages of the ‘book’ are often missing. Periods of time when deposition didn’t occur in an area thus creates a time gap. Similarly, when layers are eroded, evidence of the time that that particular eroded rock was deposited is lost. When new deposition occurs on top, the gap in time created between the resulting strata is called an unconformity.

The study of strata and their relationships in time and space goes by the name of stratigraphy. Studying successive sequences of strata and their fossil content has enabled geologists to firstly place events in a geological perspective by dating strata relative to each other. That is, Rock ‘A’ is above Rock ‘B’ and is therefore younger. The arrival of radiometric dating enabled geologists to establish ‘absolute’ dates to rocks, subject to certain levels of uncertainty e.g. +/- 3 million years. Prior to this, dating was, with the benefit of hindsight, wildly inaccurate, but one must also bear in mind that new discoveries and advances in scientific techniques could easily spark a hasty redraft of the currently accepted stratigraphic column.

The British Geological Survey website has an excellent example of the latest Stratigraphic columm. Take a look here.

How to become fossilised:

For all of you who share my somewhat misguided ambition to be dug up ‘x’ million years from now as a beautifully preserved fossil by a future earth creature/alien visitor, just what does one have to do to become a fossil? Well, alas, it ain’t that easy! For instance, when we look at the fossil record it is important to realise that it only represents a tiny fraction of the likely total population of past life and that record is heavily biased towards creatures that lived in shallow marine environments.

The reason for that is simply due to the fact that such environments provide the best conditions for preservation to take place. As well as environmental conditions, other factors have a bearing on an organism’s ‘preservation potential’. For example, whether it has any ‘hard parts’, whether and how quickly it becomes buried in sediment and whether that sediment ultimately becomes a part of the rock record. So, if I am aiming for the best possible chance of preservation I will need to aim to be buried in suitably fine grained, oxygen starved sediment, either in a shallow marine or lake/river environment. Alternatively, I could aim for entombment in sticky tree resin as per insect fossils in Amber. Somehow this latter option doesn’t appeal quite so much – don’t ask me why!?!

It might seem odd that seemingly hard, solid substances like shell and bone can be converted into rock, but both contain miniscule pore spaces which can in the right situation, become filled with mineral rich water. In time the minerals may crystallise out thus filling the pore spaces with those minerals. This process is called ‘permineralisation’. Additionally, original bone can be replaced by minerals completely in a process called (rather unimaginatively) ‘replacement’. Together, these two processes are called ‘petrifaction’, but neither of these processes have to occur for remains of an organism to be termed a fossil. Some fossils can indeed be composed of barely altered bone or shell!

I think that will do for now.

In Part 2 we’ll look at the way that fossils are named and classified and how palaeontology fits in with evolution’. Any comments? Feel free to contribute!

Until next time!

Cheers,

Alyn.

The Holey Schist 'Review of 2009

2010-01-12T19:43:00.068Z

Greetings Everyone!

And a slightly belated 'Happy New Year' to one and all!

So that was it - 2009! What a year that was!?! Some good, some bad and definitely, some downright UGLY! So here goes. Brace yourself - it's The Holey Schist Review of 2009 from my own personal vantage point!

January:- Okay, so 2009 got off to an optimistic start with Ruth being offered a job at Nottingham Trent Uni opening the way for our longed for relocation to the East Midlands! Then I received an unconditional offer of a place at Leicester Uni to study Geology! Exciting times ahead . . .

February:- Ruth and Amy move to Loughborough in readiness for their starts at NTU and Robert Bakewell Primary School respectively! Both settle in really well, but boy is it tough being separated from me and Anna back in Bolton. What sounded a straight forward idea in principle wasn't to prove as easy as all that!

March:- Meanwhile, my Open University course - S104 starts to get tougher, more so when weekend study time is swallowed up by trips to Loughborough in order to reunite the family!

April:- Quantum Physics! The subject that I feared most in S104 turns out to be my greatest triumph! It just showed that with grit and determination great things can be achieved! 90-odd percent? Extraordinary! The 'End of Course Assessment beckons!

May:- My 49th Birthday arrives and gifts of money were used to purchase several books of a geology persuasion, including Wayne Ranney's 'Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau' - definitely my 'Book of the Year - 2009'. Simply, a GEM!

June:- After Anna completes her GCSEs we both move down to Loughborough to be reunited with Ruth and Amy! Hoorah! Meanwhile, S104 Exploring Science is finished, done and dusted. Just a 2 month wait for the result! Left my job with Jacobs and endured possibly the most farcical and stressful job change of my life!

July:- Had offer on the house in Bolton! Hoorah! Buyer later pulls out! Boo! Meanwhile, now working for Balfour Beatty - kind of, err sort of jumped ship as it were!?! Don't ask!!!

August:- Passed S104 with 'flying colours' (whatever that means!?!). Just 8 tantalising percent short of a distinction! Getting that close was something of a miracle in itself, given the mega-stressful year we've all had! Anna also got her GCSE results - umpteen passes as expected! We're VERY proud of her!!!

September:- Can't remember much happening in September other than too much work and stress, Work proving to be fun though - actually involved in building a road - 28 kilometres of it to be precise. Okay, it means turning green fields into tarmac and concrete, but it wil actually improve peoples lives in the long run and help stop lots from getting killed! Yes, really!

October:- Enrolled on S193 - Fossils and the History of life with the OU. Starts in December and is just a short 2 month, 10 pointer. Should be very interesting! Went to sister-in-law Caroline and Charlie's Wedding in Sileby, Leicestershire. Fantastic day! Lovely couple! Got a tad drunk, myself!

Here's a few photos of the great day....

Caroline, Charles and his parents.

My gorgeous wife Ruth, with me looking rather like Mr Fezziwigg from Scrooge. I mean me, not Ruth!

Amy Claire and Anna-Ruth looking beautiful!

November:- NOT a good month! Ruth not well. Details are rather personal, but suffice to say, our 'work/life balance' is a bloody mess and needs addressing as soon as poss! The sooner that damned house is sold in Bolton the better!!! On a positive note, both the girls took to the stage, with Anna singing in a choir called 'Enchanted' while Amy made her first public perfomance with 'Stagecoach'. Step-dad (yours truly) blubbed through every performance! Bless!

December:- Christmas comes and with it snow and weather, the like of which I aint seen for decades! The fossil course is now underway and fascinating it all is!

Above: Gryphaea arcurata, also known as 'Devils toenail' a fossil from the Triassic/Jurassic. (Source: Wikipedia - 2009).

Regular reference to the 'Geological Timescale' means that it is at long last sinking in! Had a great Christmas break well and truly recharged the batteries in readiness for the NEW YEAR!!!

So there you have it. A 'funny old year' and not one I'll look back on with much pleasure in truth. BUT, at least the family has relocated to Loughborough at last and there's so much to be positive about as we get stuck into 2010.

I fully intend to blog a bit more this year and I'll start with a review on S193 once I finish it off in a couple of weeks time. As there are no written assignments required on this one, I think it would be a good idea to summarise the whole thing in a series of blogs right here!

So Happy New Year and stay tuned for some palaeontology! Nice!

Cheers,
Alyn.

Education, education, education . . . .

2009-11-24T13:05:00.000Z

Greetings, one and all!

Yep, education is very much back in the forefront of my mind this week as I start a new Open University course and ponder my potential future line of study.

Regarding the former, I've enrolled on a short 10 point Level 1course, 'Fossils and the History of Life' which kicked off last weekend. And it looks like it will be a fascinating couple of months of peering at a kit of fossil replicas through a hand lens and learning all about this fascinating subject. I've been supplied with a couple of cracking books which I suspect will only be a small part of the learning process. It should all stand me in good stead for when I eventually get to study Geology at University - whenever and wherever that may turn out to be.

So, to bring you up to date then . . .

You may recall that I was given an unconditional offer of a place at Leicester University on their 4 year MGeol course earlier this year. Much rejoicing ensued as I celebrated this momentous feat and looked forward to getting started in Sept 2010. Oh, that it could possibly be that straight forward!

Alas, while most educational establishments are openly emphasising their willingness to admit mature students onto their degree programmes, it isn't necessarily as easy to achieve as it should be and as they make it sound. The harsh facts of the matter are that if like me, you have studied at a higher educational level at some time in your past, then don't go expecting to receive full funding for a degree second time around even if your previous level of study was NOT at degree level.

As it stands, it seems I would have to fund the first two years of study at Leicester myself, which was a crushing blow and makes taking up my place there next year damn near impossible!

But just as despair was about to get the better of me, my wife suddenly remembered that Derby University offer a Geology degree part time! So blinkered have I been about doing a degree full time that this possible answer to my prayers had gone right over my head!

So I attended another Open Day there last month, met one of the lecturers for a chat and I now reckon it's my best chance of getting to study Geology at a University properly. An OU Geosciences degree would be a good last resort, but there's nowt like actually going in to lectures, tutorials and getting out in the rain doing proper geology fieldwork which would be rather lacking in an OU degree I think.

Funding the study myself, paying per module at the rate of as little as 3 modules a year, make it a much more viable option for me and my family at this time. Unless I win the Euro Millions draw of course, which would be a hell of a shock, particularly as I don't actually buy a ticket!

So, I now hope to get an application in shortly for a potential September 2010 start and take it from there. The dream is still alive!!!

Will be back shortly with a progress report on my 'fossils' course.

Cheers for now,

Alyn

Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau

2009-10-16T21:48:00.011+01:00

As a frustrated geologist of years too many to mention, I have an almost unquenchable thirst for knowledge on the subject, particularly since my family’s trip to Grand Canyon last year. But for the keen beginner or ‘interested layman’ it can be a struggle to find books on the subject that adequately help. Yes, there are plenty of geology books, but all too often the infamous ‘geo-jargon’ is there to stop the wanabee geologist in his tracks.

As I’ve mentioned before, I needed a book on Grand Canyon that went some way to answering the myriad of questions I needed answering when I returned home to ‘Blighty’. Wayne Ranney’s book, ‘Carving Grand Canyon’ answered my prayers by laying out all the theories and mysteries surrounding the canyon and it’s history in a highly enjoyable and understandable way. It’s a book that will work for anyone with a modicum of interest in the subject.

Such was the impact of this book on me personally, it caused me to look beyond Grand Canyon and outwards to the Colorado Plateau as a whole. The more you look around Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico and the staggering geological wonders to be found there, the more fascinating the American south-west becomes.

So, right on cue, Wayne in collaboration with his old college lecturer, Ron Blakey, last year published a truly stunning book entitled ‘Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau’.

Viewers of this blog will hopefully have noticed the little slideshow (in the right hand column) of Ron’s palaeogeograhical maps of the world. These have been available on his own web site for some time, but this book at last brings his ground breaking maps to a wider audience.

Above: An example of one of Ron Blakey's palaeogeographicalmaps to be found on his web site (See link on right hand column of this blog!)

Palaeogeographical maps are strangely absent from many geology books these days and I find this odd. For me and I’m sure many others, it is difficult to visualise when looking at a geological formation, just what the region looked like at the time of deposition. Throw plate tectonics into the mix and the job becomes even harder. ‘Ancient Landscapes’ is an absolute triumph in this respect.

The book is split into the essential periods starting with the early Proterozoic (1,750 million years ago) through to the Cenozoic (65 million years ago) and to the present, with each chapter readable on its own. Each period includes varying numbers of truly stunning maps that along with Wayne’s typically understandable text really bring it all to life. As Ron himself explains, the maps have to involve a degree of ‘artistic licence’. Obviously, no one can know for sure what the area really looked like at these points in time, but the maps are based on thorough and accepted research that Ron Blakey has seemingly spent his life drawing together. It is fascinating to read that he created the stunning images from numerous satellite images of modern comparable landforms that he ‘cut and pasted’ together on his computer!

The book finishes with a summary of the historical geology of Grand Canyon and the Grand Staircase followed by a chapter on ‘Where to see the rocks’, covering such locations as Sedona, Petrified Forest, Zuni Cliffs, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Arches National Park and many, many more. I've learnt so much already, such as the effect of repeated transgressions and regressions has on the pattern of strata. So far, I feel I've barely scratched the surface of what this publication contains so it's certainly a book that I will repeatedly return to over the months and years.
In short, a quite magnificent book and possibly the best £25 I have spent in a long while!

As well as buying the book, it is also worth taking a wander over to ‘You Tube’ and having a look at a series of films of Ron and Wayne’s joint lecture at the Grand Canyon Field Institute last year all about the book, the making of the maps and the Colorado Plateau story . Click Here.

Enjoy!

Until next time!

Cheers,
Alyn

Car park fossil hunting

2009-09-21T13:29:00.020+01:00

Hello again,

With my next Open University course on fossils due to start mid November, I have borrowed a couple of books on the subject from my local library, just to whet my appetite. One is the book of the recent BBC TV series 'Fossil Detectives' and the other, 'Fossils of the World' by Turek, Malek and Benes, which is a much more academic book than the other. They will both prove useful in different ways in the coming months I think.

One of the first passages that I read in 'Fossil Detectives' suggested that when you start out in the world of palaeontology, you never forget that first fossil find. Well, I have only recently begun to look into the subject and have never actually found one at all myself, so feel a bit miffed! Anyway, during my lunch break last week I happened to mention to a colleague of mine that I was going to have a stab at doing the OU course, 'S193 - Fossils and the History of Life'. He immediately opened his drawer and produced a handful of what looked to the untrained eye like shells that you might find on a beach. These were in fact fossils of a mollusc which abound in the car park where we work. Bizarre but true!

To explain further, I work on the construction site of a major road improvement scheme in the East Midlands where the company has constructed a site office for the duration of the scheme. All around the car park perimeter, the borders have been dressed with what I simply assumed to be simple, 'bog standard' gravel. Thanks to my eagle-eyed colleague however, I now see it for what it is - a geologists treasure trove of goodies! In amongst a variety of miscellaneous pebbles and chunks of granite are loads of these:-

A brief thumbing through 'Fossils of the World' easily identified these albeit slightly ropey specimens. They are in fact a fossil called Gryphaea arcuata, a mollusc from the Jurassic, i.e. 180 - 135 Ma. According to the natural history museum web site, this is a fairly common fossil but is particularly common to Suffolk, Gloucestershire and the Scunthorpe area, where the Lower Jurassic rocks were mined for their iron ore. Quite why so many of these fossils are lying in amongst other random pebbles and chunks of granite I've no idea. Maybe the dressing supplied to the company to decorate the borders is just a mix of waste rocks of about 2 -3 cm just thrown together.

Anyway, this little chap consists of two pieces, being what I believe is called a 'bi-valve' - a curved left valve and a flat, lid-like right valve. I have only managed to find one example of the latter, seen at front left of the photo. The curved part of this little creature sat in the soft sediment with the lid above the surface. They are commonly called 'Devils Toenails' apparently, presumably because of their resemblance (with a bit of imagination) to toenails? Well, sort of . . .

It seems amazing to me that even in these fairly poor quality specimens, there are distinct growth bands to be seen, which is remarkable for something up to 180 million years old and have most recently been churned up in sacks! But this is what is amazing. Looking at something that stems from something that lived millions of years ago, is pretty mind blowing. Well, mind blowing to me at least. I'm not sure the rest of my family quite understand the fascination - yet!

So, there you go - my first fossil find! A bit of a cheat really, as they were rather handed to me on a plate! What I need next , is a genuine 'first', out in the field extracting a nice trilobite or ammonite from its rocky matrix. Proper palaeontology?

All in good time eh?

Before I go, I had a message posted up (see here) in response to my June post on the 'Geology of Charnwood'. The postee highlighted an innocent error on my part which I've corrected and highlighted my lack of acknowledgement of the source of my information. While I recognise that paraphrasing other peoples work and passing it off as ones own constitutes plagiarism in academic work, perhaps one should bear in mind what 'Holey Schist' actually is - a humble blog! A serious piece of academic work it ain't! I have and always will acknowledge my sources of text and photos, when I deem it sensible, but please remember folks, these are just the casual ramblings of a wannabee geologist - no more, no less!

Cheers for now!

Alyn.

Earth After Us Humans!

2009-09-14T19:24:00.016+01:00

Hi there!

Education is a wonderful thing, particularly when one feels inspired to learn for its own sake, rather than at the start of that quest for a vocation. Having 'dipped my toe' in the educational waters earlier this year, I have felt a little lost since it all ended in June!

Time to get back in the saddle I think, so I have enrolled on 'S193: Fossils and the History of Life'. This is a short 10 point Level 1 course which should be a useful introduction to the subject and build on what I learnt on the previous course. It will set me up nicely either for the MGeol course at Leicester or be another 10 points towards an OU Geosciences degree, whatever I choose to do. Leicester is the ultimate goal but such are the financial implications, it may well prove out of reach. We'll see, but what is important is that I keep studying, learning and growing as a human being. The quest for knowledge is what keeps one 'alive' I think. If we're not learning anything, what is the point of it all?

Anyway, going back to a book I mentioned last time - 'Life After Us' by Jan Zalasiewicz, ironically, a lecturer at Leicester University. I've often wondered how our planet would react to the disappearance of us humans. What, if anything, would remain millions of years from now to show future inhabitants of Earth that an intelligent life form once existed in the past? We like to think man's miracles of engineering will survive long into the future, but in reality, what will last longer than say a few hundred years?

In 'Earth After Us', Zalasiewicz gives us his take on what evidence we are likely to leave behind for some alien visitors to discover 100 million years from now. What evidence will there be for such structures as roads and motorways, 100 million years from now? A thin layer of rock with traces of hydrocarbons, found in long narrow lines over hundreds of miles? What evidence will there be for them to deduce that this former dominant lifeform on Earth propelled itself across its surface by some form of powered transportation?

And what about fossilization of humans? I've always quite fancied the idea of being fossilised for some future life on Earth to find me million years from now! But then, as my daughter Aimee frequently tells me, I'm 'weird'! But how could this immortality be achieved? Most fossilisation occurs in shallow marine environments and it seems to take something exceptional for preservation in other environments to occur. So I won't hold out much hope there!

One heartening thought raised by Zalasiewicz is the fate of those millions of tonnes to human detritus buried on landfill sites. All those supermarket shopping bags, shampoo bottles and innumerable plastic containers thoughtlessly dumped, buried and forgotten about. Out of sight . . .? Well, perhaps millions of years from now, after subsequent buriel under layers of fresh sediment and in the right circumstances, these former hydrocarbons may once again be transformed by pressure and heat to form once again, oil and gas reserves for future life forms to exploit! The ultimate in recycling perhaps! Hopefully, if this were to happen, these future beings will use it somewhat more wisely than we have done.

All in all, a fascinating and thought provoking read. It was interesting to see on the books cover, an interpretation of what Earth may look like 100 million years from now rather like Ron Blakey's maps (see the link elsewhere in this blog site!). However, Zalasiewicz says in his book, "unfortunately, we cannot predict where the Earth's continents will be in one hundred million years time". He believes there are so many uncertainties that "detailed prediction becomes useless". I'm not sure I agree with that. Surely there's always room for prediction whatever the variables? In fact, in 'Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau', Blakey and Ranney present a suggestion as to what the Earth may look like for exactly this time period!

I'll delve more into this latter book next time!

Cheers!

Alyn

Save the World? I don't think so!

2009-09-03T21:07:00.009+01:00

Greetings!

Apologies again for the break in service to my dear blog, but such is life these days! Anyone who has read a few of my blogs this year will realise how 'challenging' things have been for my family since the turn of the year. It's been a little crazy, but there's light at the end of that tunnel at last. Maybe time to start enjoying life again at a more sensible pace? Throughout the turmoil I have at least managed to find a few minutes to read a few interesting books to build on my OU science course and keep the grey matter functional. I've read 'Life after Us' by Jan Zalasiewicz and most recently 'The Revenge of Gaia' by James Lovelock. I'm now onto 'Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau', by a guy who has had way too many mentions from 'Holey Schist' already, but more of that excellent book soon!

So to get back into the swing of things, I'll start with a brief look at Lovelock's 'Revenge of Gaia'. Finding this book (ironically via a reference in 'Life After Us') was particularly interesting as the author takes the view that planet Earth is like a living organism, self-regulating and capable of looking after itself on a constant basis, which is a view I share.

Barely a day goes by without someone teling us what steps we need to take to 'help save the Earth'. Well meaning suggestions I'm sure, but are we not being a little arrogant to suggest that we humans can indeed 'save the Earth'? Dr Iain Stewart of Plymouth University stated in his excellent book and television series 'Earth: The Power of the Planet', that the Earth is quite able to look after itself and is indeed already doing so! A multitude of extremely clever feedback mechanisms help restore the Earth's natural balance.

Lovelock however strikes a cautionary note, warning that if human activity tips the balance too far, we may reach a point where the Earth's natural feedbacks are unable to cope, leaving our planet heading for excessive warming to the point where life will no longer be possible. The thought of Earth becoming like some of our neighboiurs in the solar system is a sobering one and one not to be ignored.

Lovelock also argues the case for nuclear energy in a very persuasive way. Indeed, sitting on a bench in Skegness last weekend, looking out to sea and being confronted by the sight of 54 wind turbines just off the coast, I couldn't help but wonder at the futility of it all! Is this a genuine alternative source of energy to replace fossil fuels, or is it merely to achieve european community goals for carbon dioxide emission reduction? If we surround our coast and cover our hillsides with these huge turbines (which we surely must if we are to replace coal and oil fired electricity generation), can we be sure that their very presence is not going to adversely affect our climate themselves?

Unlike Lovelock, I don't believe that his nightmare scenario will come to fruition. Earth will find a way and restore its natural balance, but the downside I believe will almost certainly mean the extinction of us homo sapiens. How soon this happens will be largely down to how bold we can be to take the necessary steps to slow our and the Earth's decline. Can we voluntarily slow our population growth to achieve a more sustainable global level? A population of 8 billion cannot be sustained based on fossil fuel consumption or any other fuel for that matter, so something has got to give. Throw into the mix the small matters of water supply and food supply and things start to lookvery serious. And the alarming thing is that it may well come to a head in my lifetime - and I'm nearly 50! Scary!

Iain Stewart ended his book with the optimistic view that the Earth will be okay. It will take care of itself very nicely thankyou, but just how long the human being will play a part is very much open to debate.

This all leads very nicely onto the other book I mentioned earlier, 'The Earth After Us' by Jan Zalasiewicz, which looks at Earth 100 million years from now, long after the human being has become extinct. What evidence will there be for the presence of homo sapiens? How will we be judged? Intriguing stuff and more on that next time!

Cheers, Alyn.

Oh Blimey, it's S104 Result Day!

2009-08-06T12:14:00.012+01:00

Greetings Folks!

Brace yourself! It's result day! Nine months of sweat and mental toil come down to this. The suspense has been killing me for the last couple of months, so without further ado, my result is . . . . .

PASS!

YES!!!!! Fantastic! Never in doubt really, but there was a glimmer of a chance of a distinction leading up to the end of course assessment. However, the mark of 77% was tantalisingly 8 marks short. Curses! A shame, but when I think about the domestic turmoil that I was working through while doing the course it was pretty amazing that I was even within sniffing distance of a distinction. Living 100 miles away from half of my family, moving home and changing jobs isn't exactly conducive to serious study! But, I weathered the storm and got through it. In the end, I've got to be delighted by 85% for the coursework and 77% for the ECA.

This great result has given me loads of confidence in my ability and brain power and allows me to think about Leicester University with excitement and confidence. There are lots of obstacles (particularly financial) to overcome before that goal is realised, but at least I know I'm capable, which was the reason for doing S104 in the first place.

As a result of the pass I even get a qualification in it's own right! I now have a Certificate in Natural Sciences and may use the letters Cert NatSci (Open) after my name! I will of course be using this at every available opportunity and expect all my friends and family to use it when communicating with me from now on!

So on that triumphant note I will leave you! Rest assured, lots of bubbly stuff will be consumed in due course!

See ya soon!

Cheers, Alyn

Matlock Bath - the photos!

2009-07-19T21:48:00.023+01:00

Greetings!

Well, as promised, a lead has been puchased from a proper camera shop that stocks proper replacements as opposed to 'universal leads that cost twice the price from a retailer with a name that reminds one of 'Indian food' if you get my drift!?!

So, without any further ado, here are the pics from our recent trip to the delightful Derbyshire spa town of Matlock Bath. . . .

View of Matlock Bath and the River Derwent

Cable car to the summit of the Heights of Abraham - a little scary, but great views!

The cable car ride was very reasonably priced and included trips to view two caverns, so very good value! The cars slowed to a halt almost half way up allowing some good photo opportunities:-

Gulp! That's one heck of a drop! I felt quite safe though, cocooned in the cable car!

Cracking views of the geology too! This is High Tor and more on this in another blog soon! You may be able to make out a few climbers on the sheer face of the limestone! Mad!

Above, a photo within Masson Cavern, a former lead mine and

Below, the carved initials of some of the miners who worked this mine by candlelight, rather alarmingly!

Ruth thought it would be a challenge for me to ride down on this chair lift instead of the cable car!!! Okay, I lie! This was a mock up of the equipment that was used to construct the towers on which the cable car now runs. My fear of falling means that I would have a much more panic stricken look about me if this was anything like real!

The real thing!

So, I will finish for now with a geological poser! This interesting rock exposure is located along the River Derwent in Matlock Bath, just beyond the Jubilee Bridge. Hopefully you can make out the blues, greys and reds in the sloping strata. In my usual style, I will do some reading and return in due course with what I find. Meanwhile, if there is an East Midland geologist looking in who knows this area well, do tell!

Hmmm!?! Nice rocks!

Cheers for now!
Alyn

Coughs, colds, flu and escape to Matlock Bath!

2009-07-05T21:50:00.014+01:00

Eh up mi Ducks!

Excuse the dialect, but that is a traditional greeting in these parts! It's a bit different to the Boltonian words I grew up with, but I'm getting to like it! Being referred to as an aquatic bird did strike me as a little strange, but no weirder than 'cocker' or (worse) 'cock' as they do in my home town of Bolton!

Anyway, if ever one needs proof that prolonged stress has a an adverse effect on one's immune system then the last week is it! What started as a sore throat gradually worsened to perhaps the worst period of illness since I had shingles in 2003! Generally, colds and flu I can cope with, but the shivering, rapidly followed by profuse sweating is not in the least bit pleasant. Add multi-coloured mucous exuding from several orifices and you will start to get the picture!

ENOUGH I hear you scream! I guess that's WAY too much information! So lets move on to pleasanter things. The weekend prior to the viral invasion, my wife and I, conscious of our 'off-the-scale' stress levels decided "enough is enough" and gladly taking advantage of the invaluable child minding skills of 'sister-in-law' Julia, we sought sanctury in the Derbyshire spa town of Matlock Bath.

There are times when one needs to just get away for a few days. Away from the hassles of everyday 'stuff', the staggering ineptitude of Virgin Media (are you listening Mr Branson?) and their banal Indian call-centres! Who was it that came up with the idea of exporting all our telephone help lines to India? Whoever it is needs to be strung up and given a sound thrashing if you ask me! Has anyone EVER actually been 'helped' by an Indian call centre??? I think probably not.

Anyway, good people, lets not go there. Instead let me take you to Matlock Bath, a beautifully picturesque spa town built along the River Derwent and former centre of Lead mining. A missing lead (that's 'lead' as in 'long wirey thing with plugs on the end' as opposed to the heavy metal commonly found on church roofs!) that allows me to download photographs from my digital camera to the PC is temporarliy mislaid post move so alas no photos for now. I'll add them later once its been located, or more likely, a replacement is bought! Meanwhile for an idea of what this fine little town is like click here!

It was in 1698 that three medicinal springs were discovered and a 'bath' created made of wood and lined with lead for people to enjoy the supposedly rejuvenating effects of the waters! But it wasn't until the nineteenth century that Matlock Bath really developed as a spa town and became truly prosperous. The arrival of the railway to the town brought hordes of daytrippers and established it's reputation as an 'inland seaside resort'!

Times and fashions change of course and Matlock needed to reinvent itself to halt its decline. So in the 1980's, someone came up with the inspired idea of constructing an alpine style cable car up to the Heights of Abraham. This opened in 1984 and has been a phenomenal success, restoring Matlock's status as an interesting holiday destination. The cable car is a bit scary, but fun and there's a cracking view from the top.

This will mean rather more when I get the photos of the weekend posted, obviously, so bear with me for a few days! Now, for our stay we chose a thoroughly excellent 'B & B' called 'Sunnybank' in Matlock Bath. Located away from the hustle and bustle of the town, Sunnybank lies on Clifton Road, a somewhat steep road off the main road through Matlock Bath and is run by Mark and Jane Bound. These two people clearly love what they do and bend over backwards to see that everything is just right. Fantastic breakfasts included probably the best cooked eggs ever! Yes, even better than Bright Angel Lodges in Grand Canyon and that IS saying something!

While Sunnybanks position on a steep hill does make parking problematic, Mark paintakingly ensured that there were spaces available for all his guests which was great. To be honest, Sunnybank B & B is MY kind of place! I've never been a fan of pretentious 'poncey' hotels with their gyms, saunas and health spas and their superfluous trouser presses! I always feel so much more able to relax in a good quality, straight forward B & B like this one. So Sunnybank B & B comes highly recommended from both me and Ruth and we'll definitely return - soon and with others!

Well folks, I'll leave it at that for now. I will update this post when I've managed to replace my lead and upload the photos. I will then proceed to enlighten you on the geology of the area too with photos of High Tor - a stunning lump of limestone that overlooks the town!

Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Alyn.

P.S. Can't go this week without mentioning the fact that a certain Wayne Ranney and Helen were married on 21st June overlooking his beloved Grand Canyon! Many congratulations guys and here's to many years of health and happiness for you both!

Charnwood Charnia!

2009-07-01T20:15:00.008+01:00

Greetings Folks!

A quick search in Google for interesting articles about the geology of Charnwood reveals this humble blog as high as third on the list! So if my single blog on the subject last month is enough to shoot this venue to such stratospheric heights I think it proves that there is just not enough written on the subject!

As mentioned last time, the area of Charnwood in the East Midlands contains some of the oldest rocks in Britain, of pre-cambrian age. In 1957 frond shaped fossils were detected in these rocks suggesting the presence of complex, multicellular life in the pre-cambrian era.

A cast of the 'Charnia', the first accepted complex Precambrian organism. (From Wikipedia)

It is quite staggering to think that right on my own (new) doorstep are rocks that contain evidence of the earliest known multicellular life form on earth! The Charnia is one of the organisms found to have been present in the Ediacaran Period of the Neoproterzoic era which was the last era of the Pre-cambrian at 575Ma to 545Ma.

Strangely, the Ediacaran Period gave rise to a distinct form of life that only lasted in this relatively short timespan, before what became known as the 'Cambrian explosion. Few of the characteristics of the Charnian biota were carried forward into the Cambrian explosion of lifeforms, so alas they were a short lived phenomenon! Why they disappeared so abruptly hasn't fully been explained, but some believe it my have been due to the emergence of competition from other lifeforms, the emergence of predators or simply a change in the environment.

Prior to the discovery of the Charnia in 1957, it was believed that no life forms existed prior to the Cambrian. The humble fossil shown above brought about a hasty rethink! What is particularly interesting about the fossils of this period is that they are all soft bodied. Such creatures generally don't fossilise, so there must have been something about the global conditions of this time that allowed such delicate creatures to be preserved in such numbers.

The Leicestershire City Council Museums and Galleries website suggests this interpretation of what the Charnia may have looked like all those years ago:-

How the Charnia may have looked 575 Ma to 545 Ma.

This weekend sees Ruth and I getting away for a couple of days to Matlock Bath in Derbyshire, home of The Heights of Abraham, a scary cable car ride and some interesting caverns. I'll take the camera and post up a few photos next week if you're lucky!

Until then, take care!

Cheers, Alyn

The Geology of Charnwood

2009-06-12T11:27:00.014+01:00

Greetings Folks!

Last weekend, I made yet another trip to the East Midlands to rejoin my wife at our new home in Loughborough. My mum and dad came down with us as well to see the new house. We had a great weekend, despite the miserable weather - rain, rain and more rain! How very British!

Anyway, the rain did finally stop just before Sunday lunchtime, allowing us to go for a drive round the local area. During the drive we stopped in an interesting area of the Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, which turns out to be a particularly significant area of Britain in geological terms! I had heard that Charnwood contains some of the oldest rocks in Britain, but knew little more than that. On our short walk (it had to be short to avoid potential hypothermia in several of our inappropriately dressed party!), we did see some interesting exposures of what seemed to be granite, but I didn't think that these were the rumoured 'oldest rocks in Britain'.

As you'll be beginning to realise by now, I'm not the sort of person who is going to leave it at that! No Sir-eee! A little delving within the 'wibbly-wobbly web' was required to enlighten this curious wannabee geologist! Here's what I've found in an article by Mike Lewis, extracted from his book 'The Rocks of Charnwood Forest'. Click here.

Pre-cambrian rock exposure at Bradgate Park, Leicestershire.

(Photo: from www.naturalengland.co.uk)

There are indeed rocks of pre-cambrian age in the Charnwood Forest area and they are volcanic in origin. Back in the early Palaeozoic, this area formed part of the southern fringe of a continent of which Scandinavia and northern Scotland also formed a part. Volcanic eruptions occurred over a prolonged period from a major crater that is now located near to High Sharpley. Other smaller vents surrounding the main volcano also contributed. Material ejected from the volcano was deposited around the crater for several kilometres with a high proportion carried in the wind in a southerly direction.

There was a great amount of variation in the size of volcanic material produced, which lead to the formation of the agglomerates, tuffs and ashes evident in the exposures seen at Beacon Hill. (See map).

As the period of vulcanism subsided, grading and sedimentation occurred on the sides of the volcano, leading to large areas of conglomerates, overlain by volcanic mudstones. This series of rocks is called 'The Brand Series' and are particularly evident in the western parts of the region as outcrops such as the 'Hanging Stones' beneath Beacon Hill, Billa Barra and Groby.

After the period of volcanic activity, the mid Palaeozoic period saw uplift and folding and the creation of a huge anticline. The numerous faults that were thus created allowed igneous intrusions to form through them which are now seen as the syenite outcrops at Groby, the 'Altar Stones' at Markfield and Cliffe Hill.

Apparently, the dome at Charnwood would have been several thousand feet higher than it now is while its base would have been over a thousand feet lower than its present elevation due to the continuous erosion, stripping rocks from the exposed surfaces, filling the surrounding valleys with the eroded material.

Following this we entered the carboniferous period with the surrounding valleys being swamps and shallow marine environments. The Triassic period saw Charnwood buried beneath dry desert clay-sands ultimately forming marls. The impermeable nature of marls thus allowed shallow lakes to form. The Cenozoic saw further erosion in the tropical environment and the following glacial periods of the Pleistocene added its own process of 'freeze-thaw' erosion and examples of Charnwood rocks have been found in places some considerable distance from the area due to glacial transportation.

So there you go! An rather brief geological history of Charnwood! That's what I have deduced from a bit of reading and may be somewhat abbreviated and maybe even wrong!?! If there is a 'proper geologist looking in who has spotted any alarming errors, please feel free to correct me! As I have said before in a previous blog, we learn just as much by being told we've got it wrong, as we do when we are being patted on the back! What I need to do now of course, is get out there, see all these outcrops for myself and take some photos! When I do I'll update this blog and post them up!

There has also been an interesting development within the younger members of the family recently! My 16 year old daughter Anna, while revising for her GCSE Geography exam, has been bombarding me with questions about geology and rocks recently and has developed a particular fondness for saying 'slatey cleavage' as often as possible! AND even Aimee who is 11, has been asking me what a glacier is and how it forms! So perhaps they are both gradually beginning to realise that maybe geology AND their step-father aren't quite as boring as they once thought? There's nothing quite like getting outside and 'into the geology' to make it all come alive!

One final thing to note is that the pre-cambrian rocks of Charnwood include within them, fossils of some of the earliest examples of multi-cellular life forms on earth! More on this next time!

Cheers for now!

Alyn.

Time to read some books!

2009-06-01T09:18:00.013+01:00

Greetings!

What a strange feeling it is! With the Open University course now all wrapped up, I'm left with a slightly empty feeling! No assignment to aim for? No deadline to meet? Weird!?!

Having got over that realisation now, I find I am able to go ahead and read a book without having to necessarily write a 500 word appraisal of it, (mind you, the type of books I read, I tend to do that in my head anyway!) So at least now I am able to get stuck into my two 'birthday books'. My mum and dad gave me some money for my birthday, so I purchased 2 geology books would you believe?

Firstly, I got a book called "The Earth After Us", by Jan Zalasiewicz. In this book, the author imagines what a population of alien visitors to Earth would make of our planet when they arrive 100 million years from now, long after the human being has gone the same way as the Dodo. What have we humans left behind in the fossil record? What will these aliens make of the 'human stratum' and how will they judge us? I've just started this one and it's a fascinating read as I've often wondered myself, what evidence of our lives will be left millons of years from now? What will the remains of say, a landfill site look like millions of years from now? Bottles, both glass and plastic, mountains of diposable nappies, all compressed and changed into another form presumably, but what? I'll read on and see what unfolds!

Incidentally, by pure coincidence, Jan Zalasiewicz just happens to be a lecturer in Geology at Leicester University and I met him and had a brief chat while at an open day at the Uni last July! When I spotted the book in Waterstones a while ago, I recognised the name from somewhere, but couldn't place it. A quick look at the sleeve notes and the penny dropped!

The second book is one I've been itching to buy ever since I heard about it's imminent publication. Following my family's trip to Arizona last year, I've been fascinated not only by the Canyon, but the whole of the Colorado Plateau area. While there, I bought a book by Wayne Ranney (I may have mentioned it before within this blog? Maybe a million times?) called 'Carving Grand Canyon', which is a superb book, detailing the theories and mysteries surrounding the possible formation of Grand Canyon. Well, the multitude of staggering geological wonders to be found in the American southwest are inextricably linked to the ever changing Colorado Plateau and this is the subject of Wayne Ranney's latest book "Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau".

Written in collaboration with his onetime Northern Arizona University lecturer Ron Blakey, this publication is a truly stunning book! I only picked it up from the postal depot this morning, but a brief flick through it's pages reveal Ron's palaeogeographical maps in all their glory. Let's not beat around the bush - Ron's ground breaking maps are a work of utter genius (see the slideshow of his world maps at the lower right column of this blog!) and their publication is long overdue! Together with loads of explanatory diagrams and Wayne's text, it looks an absolute gem of a book! I'll let you know more and maybe do my own little reviews of these books at a later date.

Cheers for now!
Alyn.

Education - 'tis a wonderful thing!

2009-05-22T11:10:00.005+01:00

Well, that's just about that!

After nine months sweat and toil, it's almost over! S104: Exploring Science, is all but over with only the 25 question computer marked assignment left to do. Astonishingly, I achieved a whopping 97% in my final tutor marked assignment, which means that if I manage to get 85% on my End of Course Assessment, I will be awarded a 'distinction'!!!

When I started out on this journey nine months ago, the goals were merely to see if I was up to study again after donkeys years of nothing, learn a bit and see if I can pass an Open University course - nothing more than that really. With all that has gone on domestically since the turn of the year, it's frankly astonishing that I have even a sniff of a distinction. There have been times when I even considered, albeit briefly, to throw the towel in. With so much going on around me, to then sit down and try to grapple with Quantum Physics, was a 'big ask' as Mark Lawrenson would say!

But this course has given me so much that I never even considered beforehand. I now find myself routinely reading the BBC Science web pages, NASA's Mars mission pages and countless others to feed my almost unquenchable thirst for knowledge. But to have this thirst at the ripe old age of 49 is kind of interesting. I can never remember ever having had such an enthusiasm for learning all those years ago in school. Not even in college either! I'm left thinking that maybe one needs to 'live life' a bit, experience the repetitive dullness of employment, before one realises what is truly exciting and stimulating in life. In that sense, education is rather lost on the young. School and indeed further education seems geared to getting 'a job' at the end of it, without thinking beyond that.

Well folks, listen up! THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN GETTING TO THE TOP OF THE CORPORATE LADDER!

There, I've said it! Tar 'n feather me if you like, but that's what I feel. I can assure you, when I get my Geology degree, I won't be seeking employment with another consulting engineers, to resume that climb up the ladder again (not that I ever got above the second rung previously!). Nope, of more interest to me is research. As I've already said, if I can make some contribution, however small to the multitude of questions, asking how Grand Canyon came to be the way it is, I will die a happy man! If I can write a geology book like Wayne Ranney's, that make this wonderful subject understandable to the interested layman I will be very proud indeed!

That's got to be preferable to meaningless staff appraisals, 'taking ownership of your deliverables' and endless corporate 'tosh' surely?

Each to their own, I guess.

Until next time!

Cheers,
Alyn

End of Course Asssessment looming!

2009-05-15T09:46:00.011+01:00

Greetings Folks!
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So, the pressure mounts! The deadline for the S104, Exploring Science, end of course assessment is 28th of May! It's a HUGE piece of work and I have to say, I am not at all impressed with the Open University's choice of cut off date! They say we should post off our work at least 4 days before the deadline. Well, that just happens to be a Bank Holiday, so there is no postal service that day! The day before that is a Sunday, so there's no postal service then either! So I will have to look at getting it posted on Saturday 23rd at the latest. However, I'm going to be away for the weekend, so that means I'll need to have everything done and dusted by the end of next Thursday night! Arrrrrrgggghhh!!???!!!

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Anyway, that aside, it's going reasonably well so far and I think I'm on schedule to finish it in time. Just about!?! Progress was hampered by the OU's insistence on including an exercise that requires online discussions and contributions to the course forum. This involves online research and also needs the cooperation and efforts of all your fellow students to spark an online debate! Well, having to rely on ones online colleagues was never going to be that straight forward and the 'debate' has been virtually non-existant. Only 7 people have contributed anything at all, out of about 15 who started the couse in our group! That suggests either a major drop out rate or some students simply sacrificing a few marks in favour of getting on with the rest of the questions without this ill conceived hassle interrupting their flow! Maybe a wise choice, I'm beginning to think!?!
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AND, I've still not received my mark for my final tutor marked assignment, so I don't know at this stage what my final mark is for my course work. My tutor has been pretty excellent thorughout the whole course, taking over at short notice after our original Canadian tutor failed to get her work permit renewed and consequently got shown the door. I've already passed the course work anyway, so it's not that important I guess.
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Oh blimey, somebody stop me moaning! That's something my wife and I are doing way, WAY too much at the moment, but I guess that's just a sign of the stress we are under right now! There's got to be an outlet somehow!
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So tomorrow, Ruth and I are going to have a bit of stress relief by going to watch our beloved Bolton Wanderers play Hull City at the Reebok Stadium in what is the final home match of the Premier League season! It's a bit of an 'end of season' affair with nothing at stake for the Wanderers, but poor old Hull are hanging by a thread to their Premier League status! Should be fun!
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Before I go, take a look at this photo from the BBC Science web site which blew my mind this week!

Taken by Hubble telescope, it shows a huge cluster of galaxies some 13 billion light years away! S104 has made me think a lot about the sheer scale of the universe and bearing in mind the vastness of our own galaxy, to then consider a whole cluster of galaxies as shown here, just goes to highlight the almost unfathomable immensity of the universe! When I finish my course, I'll have lots more time to talk about this stuff in more detail!
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Better get on - I've got an assessment to finish!
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Cheers for now!
.
Alyn

Hanging in there!

2009-05-08T14:40:00.007+01:00

Greetings folks!

Apologies for the deadly silence over the last few weeks! It's not that there hasn't been anything to blog about recently - far from it! But it has been a frantically busy, and extremely stressful time, not just for me, but all of my family too in so many ways. Where do I begin?

Well as you know, as it stands I am living in our home of five years in Bolton, in the north west of England with our eldest daughter Anna-Ruth who is now in the midst of her GCSE exams. So Anna has a whole heap of stress to cope with and thankfully, so far, she's taking it all in her stride. Meanwhile, my darling wife Ruth and our youngest daughter Aimee Claire, have moved to Loughborough, in the East Midlands. Aimee has settled in superbly to her new school while Ruth gradually gets to grips with her new role in Nottingham Trent University.

Starting a new job is tricky enough, but with the family split up from Sunday evening until Friday evening each week it obviously means that for Ruth, all the family childcare duties such as taking Aimee to Guides/trampolining/guitar lessons etc etc falls completely in her lap. Ruths mum and dad chip in of course with the school run and stuff like that, but it all leaves Ruth with precious little time to 'chill' or do anything for herself. It's all taking its toll which is heart breaking for me and I feel so helpless, being over 100 miles away!

So it all makes our weekends so precious. Either I travel down to Loughborough or Ruth travels up to Bolton, which naturally costs a fortune in petrol at a time when our finances are stretched while trying to run two homes, albeit temporarily! And then there is the problem of employment! Ruth has obviously started her new job, but I now need to find an alternative position for myself by mid June. Encouragingly, I've been getting positive vibes from my current employers about the possibility of a transfer to one of its other offices in the East Midlands - either Nottingham or Derby. So hopefully something will come of that and give me one less thing to worry about.

Now, just for a laugh, throw into the mix the small matter of me trying to finish my Open University science foundation course! I have now done all the computer marked and tutor marked assignments and averaged at about 83%. Only one blip of 60% has scuppered the chance of a distinction! So given the circumstances of my study, I think it's nothing short of a miracle that I've been able to achieve what I have. It has given me a lot of confidence that when I finally start my MGeol degree at Leicester Uni I will be able to achieve great things. Yes folks, after careful consideration, I have deferred my place at Leicester to the September 2010 start, which was a difficult, but necessary decision. That will give me a year to settle in Loughborough and be properly ready to get cracking! Can't wait!!!!

So there you have it. A brief snapshot of the crazy, mentally and physically draining, mad, mad world of Alyn, Ruth and family! One things for sure - when all four of us are finally reunited in our new home in Loughborough, there will be

ONE HELL OF A PARTY!!!!

So, after getting all that off my chest, I'll get back to geology next time, which will be soon - promise!

Cheers for now,

Alyn.

Hey! Do you speak Geology?

2009-03-06T13:56:00.009Z

Greetings!

After my sharing my thoughts last week regarding the ability or otherwise, of geologists to embrace the fact that they can actually be wrong sometimes, my thoughts this week have turned to that other strange tendency that geologists seem to have - the need to speak in gobbledy-gook!?!

As you're probably aware by now, I went to Grand Canyon last year. (No, really?) Following my return I have had an insatiable thirst for knowledge of anything 'Grand Canyon', but particularly anything that will shed some light on how this magnificent place came to be. I downloaded every single one of the papers from the 2000 symposium on the 'Evolution of the Colorado River' - Click here if you would like to do the same!

Now, I know I should perhaps wait a few years before trying to read academic papers, but the language used in some of them is absolutely unintelligible to anyone other than geological academics. Okay, perhaps little ol' me wasn't part of the target audience when these guys wrote their papers. But back in 1945, Donald L. Babenroth and Arthur N. Strahler wrote a paper on the Geomorphology and Structure of the East Kaibab Monocline . The interesting thing about this paper is the language it is written in! Even for the relative layman like me, it is very readable and understandable. Another paper by Chester Longwell in 1946 entitled 'How Old is the Colorado River?' was similar - straight forward and readable. Surely this is how it should be isn't it? Why should this fascinating subject be submerged in complex, ludicrously long worded, technical terminology, only understandable to a small minority? What on earth has happened in the last 50 years to turn geology into some sort of foreign language?

Two geologists that have inspired me greatly over the last year or so are Dr Iain Stewart of Plymouth University in England and Wayne Ranney of Flagstaff, Arizona. Wayne, as you'll know by now is author of 'Carving Grand Canyon' and co-author with Dr Ron Blakey of 'Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau'. Iain is the presenter of the excellent recent TV series 'Earth: The Power of the Planet' and other superb geology and environmental television series. What these gentlemen have in common is that they both recognise that geology is a fantastically exciting subject that stirs the imagination of a great many people. They realise that while some people might go to Grand Canyon and say "ooh, isn't that lovely" and then hop on a helicopter back to Vegas, rather more people actually stop and wonder "how the heck did this place come to be"? That's exactly what I did and I went in search of a book that might tell me. A book full of long words and technical jargon would've been of little use to me. What I needed was exactly what Wayne's book provides - a detailed explanation of the theories and mysteries in a language understandable to the interested layman. The end result is a thirst for more! Job done Wayne!

Similarly, Iain Stewart inspired me with his series and book mentioned above. I think it was New Year's Day 2007, when I was hopping round the TV channels while staying at my mother-in-law's, that I stumbled upon ironically, the last in the series of 'Earth: The Power of the Planet'. This was basically rounding up the series with a look at the future of planet Earth. The straight forward, enthusiastic presentation style and above all, non-technical language was a sheer delight. Iain presents geology on television with a passion I can relate to. Surely this is how geology should be presented?

Yes, I know, technical papers are not directed at layman. We're talking about different audiences and I appreciate that. But, it seems to me that so often these days, scientific news is regularly misinterpreted in the media, often to an embarrassing degree. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it is because scientific journalists simply don't fully understand the message of a particular paper after getting bogged down by the jargon! Okay, once I get my MGeol degree (how's that for positivity?) I will need to be submitting papers to peer review journals and these will need to be liberally sprinkled with technical language. But I hope there will always be room for a more thorough explanation within my text, in an accessible language that will make it understandable to a wider audience.

Any thoughts? Post 'em up if you like!

Before I go, Iain Stewart makes the point at the end of 'Earth: The Power of the Planet', that the our world doesn't need saving at all! Outraged? Well, there's no need to be! Our dear planet is quite capable of coping with whatever us clumsy, destructive humans can throw at it and is looking after itself quite well, thank you! What actually needs saving is the human being! More on this next time!

Cheers for now,

Alyn

The Great 'Grand Canyon Age' Debate!

2009-02-27T14:08:00.007Z

Hi there!

I was very interested to read a post in Wayne Ranney's blog 'Earthly Musings' some weeks ago, regarding 2008 being the 'Banner year' for Grand Canyon research papers. In his blog he mentioned the geological 'hoo-hah' that was stirred up by the publication of a paper by Victor Polyak, which presented the possibility that part of Grand Canyon may well have been around 17 Ma. Shock horror!?! How could they say such a thing? Outrageous!

Or is it?

Their research into U-Pb dating of speleothems (cave formations) brought forward the possibility that sections of Grand Canyon may have been in existance a lot longer than originally thought. However, I suppose it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that rather than stimulate discussion and open the minds of other geologist to new possibilities regarding the age of Grand Canyon, their research paper seems to have brought a near hysterical response from "the young canyon police" as Wayne called them. Those geologists that are firmly behind the '6Ma age' scenario seem unwilling to entertain any other possibility which seems very strange to me.

While much of the geological terminology used goes way over my head, it is nevertheless interesting to read the reviews of the paper made by Pedersen et al and Pearthree et al (Sept. 2008). There seems to be a 'disprove this paper at all costs' approach rather than create a healthy discussion, but maybe that's just me misinterpreting their reviews. Polyak responds to their reviews with the inference that maybe many geologists don't fully understand cave formations and the hydrology behind them.

Okay, I haven't even started a geology degree course yet and am very much an outsider looking in, but I sincerely hope that when the time comes and I start to contribute to geological debate that I will be able to keep an open mind and be able when necessary to admit to myself and others, "hey, you know, I might just be wrong here!" Surely if one of my geological peers looks at my work, critically analyses it and shows me that I am wrong, that is GOOD for the geological world and me too? Surely we learn just as much by finding out that we aren't quite correct, as we do when proved right?

In Wayne Ranney's book "Carving Grand Canyon", he mentions the tensions in the air during the 2000 symposium on the origins of the Colorado Plateau, that was almost palpable between the 'young canyon' groups and those who had the audacity to suggest that it might be older! Surely, what every geologist or interested party wants, is to find the truth? I like to think that, in the coming years, as my geology studies progress, I will be 'man enough' to take criticism from my peers on the chin and embrace the fact that I might have been wrong.

Time will tell, I guess!

See ya later!

Alyn.

Over the moon!

2009-01-30T14:04:00.007Z

Greetings one and all!

As I was saying last time, 2008 was a funny old year - a few exceptionally good bits and an awful lot of grim stuff. But 2009 has got off to an exciting start with Ruth getting a new job in the Midlands, and now, just a few days ago, I received an email from UCAS to say.....

wait for it......

I have been offered an UNCONDITIONAL place to study Geology

on their 4 year MGeol Masters degree course

at Leicester University from September 2009!!!

How cool is that, huh?

To say that I am over the moon would be something of an understatement! I am almost soiling my underwear with the excitement of it all! It's the 'unconditional' part that has really surprised me a bit, to be honest. I rather thought that any offer would be conditional on me passing the Open University Science Foundation course at least and maybe have to attend an interview. But it seems I must have made some sort of decent impression during the course of last July's Open Day to be offered a place straight off! FANTASTIC! It also means that the pressure to pass the OU course is off, so I can relax a bit more, just enjoy the learning and not get so stressed on the run up to the assignments.

For an idea of what I will be getting up to in the not too distant future have a little click on this, the Leicester University's Geology web page:-

Just imagine the change:- here I am sitting in the same old office, bored rigid, drawing yet another road to yet another housing development or whatever. Now, before me is the chance to get out in the open air to study rocks, fossils and everything else that shapes this amazingly complex and fascinating world. Instead of sitting in an office every day I will be visiting, Arran, Wales, Tenerife, Spain, the Alps and who knows where else! Pinch me someone, I must be dreaming!!!

Lord knows, give me a few years, I might even be taking people on tours like my geologist chum from the other side of the herring pond, Wayne Ranney! He's currently on an amazing 'Private Jet Expedition' covering Madeira, Burkino Faso, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Horn and Panama! Nice work if you can get it!

I can't wait to get cracking, but wait I must! There's the small matter of funding to sort out, which is not as straight forward as it should be. It seems my previous period of study, back in 1978-81, which was funded by a local authority grant affects my entitlement to further funding now! So it may be that I will have to defer my place to the 2010 intake to give me time to save up a few pennies! That would be a bit frustrating but as I've waited this long for the opportunity, another year won't be too bad and knowing that the place is there ready and waiting will give me something to look forward to!

In the meantime, we'll have to sell the house (not easy in the current climate!), get a new temporary job and move. So no stress there then? It will be a weird old year, spending so much of the next 6 months apart from my wife and youngest daughter, but as I keep saying to Ruth, we must focus on the goals and take one step at a time! Everything will fall into place in the fullness of time, you see if it don't!

See y'all later!

Cheers, Alyn

A look back at '08 and forward to an exciting 2009!

2009-01-05T11:27:00.011Z

Happy New Year!

Well, that's that for another year then! Christmas festivities have come and gone and we're now into 2009! As is usual, one takes a look back at the year just passed and for me and my family, 2008 was mixed - a lot of dull, frustrating, annoying, at times depressing and thoroughly average days, broken up by a few exciting events that lifted the gloom!

The trip to Arizona and Grand Canyon was (as I have mentioned many times already!) was the outstanding highlight. Ruth and I also had a great time in August travelling round Britain on the 'Carillon Tour' - a tour of most of the UK's Carillons with Ruths' sister Caroline who is the Carilloneur for Loughborough in Leicestershire. For the uninitiated, a Carillon is a fascinating and rare (in the UK at least) musical instrument, consisting of varying numbers of static bells, played by a clavier or baton keyboard.

A Carillon clavier, this one at Bourneville in Birmingham

The tour took us as far north as Aberdeen in Scotland and as south at Spalding in Lincolnshire. It was a fun and fascinating way to spend a summer and certainly beat sitting on a beach! It gave me much more respect for these things....

Bells! This whopper is also from the Bournville Carillon.

Anyone interested in reading a lot more about Carillons can take a look at the outstanding daily blog we did during the tour, expertly written by my dear wife Ruth. Just click here.

So what of 2009?

Well, exciting stuff in store! In February, Ruth starts her new job in the midlands, which means that Ruth and Aimee (our youngest), will move down to Loughborough, while Anna and I will remain in Lancashire until Anna does her GCSE's in the summer. In the meantime, we'll be rushing back and forth between Loughborough and Lancs at weekends. Splitting up the family temporarily isn't ideal I guess, but as we have always planned to relocate back to my wife's home town at some stage, at least we can do it gradually, rather than try to sell up, move, get jobs, etc, etc, all at once! At least this way the stress load can be spread over several months - well, that's the theory anyway! In between, we'll need to do a lot of decoration of our house to get it in sufficiently good shape to either sell or rent out - preferably the former! Plus of course, the Open University course continues, so I'll have to find sufficient time to continue the studies!!! Phew!

So, exciting things ahead! I'll keep ypu posted!

Cheers for now!

Alyn

A Pre-Christmas Post!

2008-12-22T08:51:00.019Z

Greetings one and all!

Yes I know, postings are becoming rather infrequent these days for which I can only apologise. But hey, the time spent on the OU course is proving to be well spent. We've now covered three computer marked assignments and three tutor marked assignments and with the third TMA still to be marked, my lowest mark is 87%. So that's not too bad eh?

AND! Developments have recently taken an exciting step forward. My wife was recently forwarned about the possibility of a job coming up at a university in the East Midlands that would represent a significant step up the ladder for her and so as soon as it was advertised she applied for it. After being invited for interview a week or so ago, she was offered the position last week! How fantastic is that? This means that our dream of moving to Ruth's home town of Loughborough is now defiinitely on and my own dream of getting into Leicester University to do that Geology degree is back on too!

At the moment, I can think about little else except Leicester Uni and it's geology courses. This weekend I have had to somewhat hurriedly assemble my UCAS application which needs to be submitted by January 15th 2009, in order to be considered for 2009 entry. All that I need now is for my chosen referee to provide me with the all important reference and that should hopefully be enough to gain me a place, fingers crossed.

Reading through Leicester University's prospectus, I can barely contain myself! The course sounds like it is everything I have longed for, for years. Decades even! If I get onto the 4 year MGeol degree, I can look forward to field courses in Arran, Wales, Spain, Tenerife and even Switzerland in the fourth year! On top of that, is the possibilty of doing the third year abroad in . . . . wait for it . . . . Arizona at the University of Arizona in Tucson!!!!!

Oh my! However, as awesome as that sounds, spending a whole year away from my family would be rather too much to bear, so I think I'll have to be realistic and perhaps aim for some sort of field work out there during a summer break maybe? We'll see, but anyway, that is getting way ahead of myself. The great thing is that already it has given me a new lease of life! All of a sudden there is a goal to work for, an exciting future to plan, rather than plod on indefinitely in a job that I'm afraid has bored me to tears for longer than I care to remember.

To be honest, I feel a bit selfish. Since Ruth got the call, offering her the job, I've been excited by the chance I now have of finally getting to study geology. Of equal importance of course is the fact that at last, Ruth will be doing a job where she will be respected for what she is - an extreamely intelligent and gifted woman in her field. I don't think her current employers fully appreciate quite what they have and frankly, don't deserve her! In the not too distant future, I can see us both in high flying academic positions making a real mark in the world! For me, if I can contribute in some small way to help unravel the mysteries that surround how Grand Canyon came to be the way it is, I will depart this earth a happy man!

As I have said many time recently, we only get one crack at 'life' so you've got to make the most of it! Life is just too short to simply waste sitting in front of a CAD terminal all day long. It's now time to take life by the scruff of the neck and GO FOR IT!!

On that exciting and positive note, may I wish you all a Happy Christmas and an exciting and fulfilling New Year!

Cheers!

Alyn

P.S. I'll leave you with a photo or two of a holiday which turned out to be by far the highlight of a difficult year - Arizona and Grand Canyon!

Above: Grand Canyon and the Colorado River - March '08

(Photo by Alyn)

Right: Bright Angel Lodges - the BEST place to stay

in Grand Canyon - we'll be back!

(Photo by Alyn, March '08)

View of the 'Red Rocks' approaching Sedona, March '08

(Photo by Alyn)

Meteor Crater near Holbrook, Arizona.

So big I couldn't fit it all in the photo!

(Photo by alyn - March '08)

The Wig-Wam Motel, Holbrook, Arizona on the legendary Route 66

(Photo by Alyn, March 'o8)

View for the top of Round Mountain, Globe, Arizona, March '08

(Photo by Alyn)

How about some British Geology?

2008-11-21T11:54:00.015Z

Greetings folks!

With my head throbbing due to the new demands being made on the 'grey matter' lately, I think it's time to take a 'timeout' from Open University study and have a little look at some examples of the geology that Britain has to offer. My post vacation obsession with Arizona and Utah, has meant that Britain has been somewhat overlooked in this blob, so time to redress the balance a bit. While obviously smaller in scale, Britain's geology is no less interesting.

For example, it's not only the southwest USA that can point to spectacular arches! Oh yes, here in the U.K. we have some awesome examples too. Okay, granted, we can't really boast 200 plus in one National Park like Utah, but nevertheless we have some spectacular coastal examples, such as in the photo I included at the end of my last blog:- Durdle Door on the south coast:-

Who guessed right? Yes, it's Durdle Door in Dorset, England.

(Photo by 'drumaboy @ Flikr.com and reproduced here under the Creative Commons License)

This arch was formed by the sea eroding though lines of weakness in the Purbeck Limestone which comprises the arch. For more information on the formation of Durdle Door, there is an excellent web site produced by Ian Wilson from Southampton University. To visit it click here

One of my favourite regions in Britain for sheer, spectacular beauty is the Lake District. I spent several walking holidays in my youth clambering up the awe inspiring fells. My favourite peak by far is Helvellyn and at a relatively modest 3117 feet above sea level, it's ascent never the less is still a challenge, especially negotiating the imposing 'Striding Edge' shown here:-

Striding Edge, Helvellyn, Lake District, Cumbria, England.

(Photo by 'micsten' @ Flikr.com & reproduced here under the Creative Commons License)

This magnificent 'knife-edged' ridge or 'arete' was formed as two opposing glaciers started out on their respective journeys down their valleys, carving out the rocks beneath and behind them, until they met, forming this breathtaking ridge. I've managed to negotiate Striding Edge on two occasions and thankfully got to the top safely enough. I believe there are a few people over the years however, who have not! Negotiating the ridge can be a bit scary on a windy day and there have been a few who have a made a rapid descent. Incidentally, the photo above reminds me of a book I have called "Over the Edge" which as I think I have mentioned before, is a somewhat macabre record of the deaths in Grand Canyon. The girl in the above pic is doing what so many have done at various viewpoints at Grand Canyon, with a two thousand foot drop to their sides! After a split seconds loss of concentration - whoops, one messy descent! The drop at Striding Edge might not be quite as great, but it's certainly no less messy if you slip!

I'm sure somewhere I will have stored away, a whole load of photos from my vacations to the Lake District and will have a few of Helvellyn and other beautiful features from the area. I think I'll go and have a 'butchers' and see what I can find! Anything interesting I will scan and post them on my next blog.

So until the next time!

Cheers for now,

Alyn

P.S. Nearly forgot to tell you!! Got my first set of assignment marks for S104! For the first tutor marked assignment I got 100% and the first computer marked assignment I got 87%!?!

Yeah, I know, bizarre innit? And the marks I lost on the CMA were REALLY stupid errors like writing a number from the question down wrong!?! So, a good start, but it's maths next and then chemistry after that, so the going is definitely going to get tougher, but that just means more of a challenge. Bring it on!!!

A beautiful photo of Durdle Door, Dorset, England.

(Photo by Mathew Muzerie @ Flikr.com reproduced under the Creative Commons License)

S104: The Story so Far!

2008-10-20T09:28:00.012+01:00

Greetings!

Sorry it's been a while, but that's what studying does I guess! As predicted, the greatest challenge before me is not so much the level of the work, but simply finding the necessary time to get the studying done. Family life, as anyone with children will testify, sees demands on one's time that are a bit random (to use my daughters favourite word). This makes planning my Open University study rather difficult to say the least. The OU asks you to do a plan of when you will do the necessary studying, but it wasn't long before the plan went completely out of the window. I'll just have to maintain a flexible approach and do what I can, when I can. But what the heck, the kids education comes WAY before my belated attempts but I will get the job done!

So, what's been happening? Well the precipitation measurement exercise went well if a little strangely. We had to design two rain gauges, one open topped and one with a funnel. They had to be constant diameter obviously and flat bottomed, with the funnel the same diameter as the bottle. Easy! Skills learnt through many adolescent years watching 'Blue Peter' came to the fore to produce a masterpiece of engineering.

So a big 'thank you' goes to Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves (whatever happened to them?) I'm particularly proud of the addition of the rim of corrugated card covered in packing tape around the outside of the funnel to keep the funnel top securely in place! Genius huh? Well, we were required to produce two weeks of data and then calculate a daily mean precipitation for each week. Week one produced nothing. Nowt. Zilch. Diddly-squat! A BIG ZERO seven days running! However, week two brought several days of torrential rain, with one day in particular bringing about 35 millimetres of rain. Don't ya just love Britain?

Since then I've finished my first computer marked assignment a week early and got the first tutor marked assignment done in good time too. I made a few classic mistakes on the CMA, like not reading the question properly and worst of all writing a number down wrong so that no matter how perfect my method was, I was never going to get the right darned answer! Doh!?!

So, all in all, it's been a good start. I'm gradually finding the best way for me to study - what works for me and what doesn't, so that's good. I'm determined not to get too stressed about stuff. The main aim is to ENJOY studying science! As my OU course tutor said on our first tutorial a few of weeks ago, "if we don't enjoy it, what's the point?" Absolutely!

Now here's a strange thing! While out visiting a sixth form college (Pendleton College near Salford) one evening last week, who should I meet in the foyer, showing visitors around, but a guy I met at the first course tutorial! It really does seem a very small world sometimes! Only days before we had been working as a team, bouncing ping-pong balls to determine how the rebound height varies with drop height. Fascinating stuff it was too!

Next up is the book I've been looking forward to most: 'Earth and Space'. Included here are earthquakes; volcanoes; plate tectonics and an introduction to GEOLOGY! Way-hey!!! We've been supplied with a small kit of rock and mineral samples together with some fossil plaster casts and a hand lens for examining them. One activity involves placing a small rock sample in vinegar! Now I wonder what that is a test for??? I think I already know the answer! Should be fun!

I'll leave you with a photo of a wonderful piece of BRITISH geology of which I'll speak more of soon!

Cheers for now,

Alyn

Guess where this is!

Clue: It ain't Arches National Park!!

Photo by 'Drummaboy' @ Flickr.com

Back to the American southwest - if only!

2008-09-19T12:14:00.034+01:00

As promised, it's back to geology today and in particular, to the state of Utah in the American southwest. While my family and I were captivated by Arizona during our visit, the next state north from there, Utah is home to some truly stunning scenery and geological marvels as John Crossley's web site highlights.

Dominated by Entrada sandstone, this area has been beautifully sculpted by nature to form over one thousand arches of this layered red sandstone. While many are tiny cavities as small as three feet across, there are others that span huge distances. The largest arch is called 'Landscape Arch' which spans a massive 89 metres.

Landscape Arch in Devils Garden, Arches National Park, Utah

(Photo courtesy John Crossley @ www.americansouthwest.net/)

It seems I need to make that trip back to USA fairly soon as this magnificent arch is unlikey to survive much longer. Much of it's length is less than a metre thick and already has several serious fractures. The area surrounding it is now closed and it is awful to think that someday fairly soon it will come crashing to the floor, leaving just a pile of broken rock! Such collapses are not uncommon as on about 3rd August 2008, one of the most famous and most photographed features in the park, 'Wall Arch' collapsed.

Wall Arch before its collapse

(Photograph courtesy John Crossley, www.americansouthwest.net/)

(Wall Arch following its collapse, August 2008

(Photo by API National park Service)

No-one witnessed it's dramatic demise, but that is geology for you! A formation which to you and I may seem beautiful at this moment in time is merely a small step in the geological process of erosion back down to individual particles again, ready to be deposited elsewhere to begin the whole process all over.

So perhaps we need to enjoy spectacular features like these while they are here and not take them entirely for granted!

Double Arch, the Windows section, arches National Park, Utah.
(Photo courtesy John Crossley www.americansouthwest.net/)

Some features are more 'tunnel' than 'arch', such as this formation, aptly named 'Tunnel Arch'!

Tunnel Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

(Photo courtesy John Crossley www.americansouthwest.net/)

The far side of Double 'O' Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

(Photo courtesy John Crossley www.americansouthwest.net/)

Rock formations in the windows section, possibly the surviving remnants of previous arches?

Arches National Park, Utah.

(Photo courtesy John Crossley, www.americansouthwest.net/)

As well as Arches there are other stunning features to marvel at......

A small canyon, near Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah.

(Photo courtesy John Crossley, www.americansouthwest.net)

Fins near Courthouse Towers in the Windows Section of Arches National Park, Utah

(Photo courtesy John Crossley, www.americansouthwest.net/)

So how did the Arches form?

How on earth did these spectacular arches come to be? The formation of the amazing buttes at Monument Valley I can just about understand, but 1000+ arches in one area? So, a little reading was called for and this is what I found:-

Okay, around 300 million years ago the Colorado Plateau area as Ron Blakey's paleogeographical maps will show you, was ocean. With the passage of time and a great deal of evaporation, a huge salt bed was left behind. These salts were eventually overlain with sand sediments ultimately forming a sandstone layer over the salt bed. However, under pressure salt becomes unstable and the area became subject to distortion and buckling, forming domes and folds. Increasing pressure creates faulting which exposes the formations to the erosional effects of the elements, creating 'fins'. These in turn are eroded away such that in certain circumstances holes are created through them - the start of the formation of an 'arch'.

Okay, that may be a fairly simplistic explanation of their formation, but it at least gives you an idea. Fascinating though, don't you think? Just google 'Arches National Park Geology' if you want more details!

Now, any fellow English persons looking in may well be wondering quite what I have against the geology of good ol' Great Britain! Well, the answer is absolutely nothing and this is something I will start to rectify in future posts!

Stay tuned!

Cheers for now,

Alyn

On your marks, get set.......

2008-09-18T10:31:00.020+01:00

It's 18th September at last!

So what, I hear you cry! Well, today is the day that the Open University, S104 - Exploring Science course website opens 'for business' and that business is the quest for 'knowledge'! I've had brief look at the site already and it all makes everything seem more real if you know what I mean. After months of build up it's really here and I need to get myself organised, pronto! There are no details of my course tutor as yet - I think these details will be given early next week. Poor guy (or gal?), I'm sure he/she will be enjoying his/her last week of peace before his spare time is forever interrupted by the likes of little ol' me asking increasingly stupid questions over the next nine months!

So the long road to what will hopefully be a degree in Geoloogy starts here! By gum, it's exciting and I have to say a little bit scary, but I've already made a tentative start on the course work and it's a fairly gentle start with a look at Global Warming as I mentioned last week. This weekend I will have a crack at the first 'task' which is to design and make a couple of rain gauges to measure precipitation over a 2 week period. One gauge is to be open topped and the other to have a funnelled top. The former will show the effect of evaporation you see, while the funnel topped one will minimise it! So, this will take me back to my 'Blue Peter' days of making stuff with washing-up bottles and sticky tape! I'm sure I will get some cracking data here in the soggy north-west of England where it's done nowt but chuck it down all summer! Sod's Law dictates of course that we will now suffer the driest October 'since records began', but as the course book says, zero rainfall provides just as valuable data as a fortnight's daily downpours! Once Alyn's rain gauges are up and running I might just photograph them and post a pic on my next blog for you to have a laugh at, or perhaps marvel at my ingenuity and dexterity!!

I've also already had a sneak preview of the second course book which covers amongst other things, geology. Now that book looks like it's going to be great fun! We're supplied with a small kit of rock samples, fossil plaster casts, what looks possibly like litmus paper, a hand lens for examining said samples. All exciting stuff! Now if I remember rightly, there's a test you do for a particular rock, limestone I think, that fizzes when vinegar is poured onto it. The acidic vinegar causes a chemical reaction with the calcium carbonate, I think, maybe?? Please don't laugh! I've probably got that hopelessly wrong, but hey, I've only just started! Gimme a break!

One thing I've noticed myself doing already is thinking critically, an essential skill in academic work I do believe. Global warming for example is a subject that creates a huge amount of debate, not least at my mothers dinner table on a Saturday night! I have long argued that it is the long term trends that are relevant, not one hot summer. After only working through a few chapters of book one, I am already wondering over what length of time does one need to judge such things for the true picture to be formed? Hmmm!?!

Let me finish book one and I'll tell you more!

Cheers for now!

Alyn.

Greetings from Wayne and 'Grumpychops' Unmasked.

2008-09-08T12:11:00.011+01:00

And there I was thinking no-one actually reads this stuff! This blog started out quite innocently, as a simple outlet for whatever I feel the need to write about. While I have tried to write as if to an audience of millions, I presumed that realistically only the occasional 'e-wanderer' would actually stumble on this venue and even less actually find it's contents worth commenting on!

By September 5th 2008, I had received two comments on my blog: the first from my step-daughter and a second from someone who shares my love of rocks and rocky places which were nice to receive. However, the third comment arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning UK time and left me shocked, humbled and inspired in equal measure! On Saturday morning my wife alerted me to a new comment on the blog and urged me to quickly go and have a look at it as she thought I'd be quite excited by it! Hmmm!?! Intriguing!

It was with some surprise that I saw the name 'Wayne Ranney' leap out of my monitor and smack me between the eyes! Now, for the uninitiated, Wayne is the author of the book 'Carving Grand Canyon', a book I've mentioned several times already on this blog. Not just 'a book about Grand Canyon', this book takes a look at the complex theories as to how Grand Canyon was formed and tries to unravel the mysteries surrounding it's formation. In short, a superb book! Now I can only presume that Wayne has simply searched to see who might have his book listed as one of their favourite books in their Blogger profiles and stumbled upon my 'humble blog' that way.

What a small world we now live in eh? Little old me, waffling on about a geology book and then the author, thousands of miles away, visits my blog and leaves a message. It made my day, I must say and you can read Wayne's comments by clicking here.

WOW! It's not just the fact that he visited my blog, but that he's actually read some of it! "thanks for all your fine writing" he said! Crikey!

What more can I add except to repeat my reply to his message. Thanks again Wayne for your kind words. I am now inspired to take my 'humble blog' a lot more seriously and concentrate on the geology theme for the majority of the time. The 'moans and groans' that were the spur to start this blog will be confined to the past!

What did strike me as a bit daft though was the realisation that Wayne Ranney was writing a message to 'Grumpy Chops'! So, maybe it's time to lose my anonymity, at least partially and make this blog a bit more personal and friendly? So with that aim in mind, say a big 'Hello' to . . . .

Alyn

There! That wasn't so bad was it? Much more open and approachable than 'Grumpychops' is it not? 'Alyn' is a welsh spelling, courtesy of my welsh mother and has been both a blessing and a curse over the years. I've lost count of the multitude of different (incorrect) spellings of my name that i have been subjected to! Alan, Allan, Allen, Alain, Alun, Alwyn . . . . The list goes on, but Alyn is the name and the one you'll see on this blog from now on!

So that's it for now. Next time we'll be back to geology! Promise!

Cheers for now,

Alyn.

Palaeogeographical maps of the world

2008-09-04T11:49:00.012+01:00

The Earth as it is today.
Taken From Dr Ron Blakey's web site

A while ago I included a link on the blog to Ron Blakey's web site. This includes amongst other great stuff, a series of fascinating maps of the world as it looked at significant points in time. These illustrate superbly the concept of plate tectonics and the drift of continents over huge spans of time.

Today I've added a small slideshow of this series of maps towards the bottom of the right hand column. While being a bit small, it does show how the continents moved around the planet, going back in time from the present back to 600 million years ago and the Late Cambrian period. Clicking on any individual slide will take you to a full size image with a brief caption illustrating its place in geological time.

It's always worth keeping in mind whenever one looks at a particular bed of rock that the environment in which it was laid down was very much different to its current situation. These superb representations certainly help me to grasp how environments change over time. It's amazing to think when looking at a certain geological feature that where you are standing was once ocean or was once subjected to a great out pouring of lava from a nearby volcano!

Incidentally, a series Dr Blakey's images will feature in a soon to be published book written in collaboration with Wayne Ranney, author of 'Carving Grand Canyon' which I've mentioned several times. The new book is entitled 'Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau' and will shed some more light upon the complex story of how the Colorado plateau evolved over time and contributed to the formation of Grand Canyon.

Geology eh? Don't ya just love it?

Enjoy!

Cheers for now!

Grumpychops.

The Earth some 600 million years ago! So which bit became Britain?

Image from Dr Ron Blakey's excellent web site

Don't Panic!!!

2008-09-02T11:33:00.006+01:00

Okay, so I'm panicing!

Well only a bit! You see, last Friday a package arrived containing the first batch of study material for my Open University course, S104 - Exploring Science. I made the mistake of quickly flicking through 'Book 4' which covers chemistry! Blimey! There across the page I was confronted with pages of chemical formulae. You know the stuff: H2 SO4 - that kind of thing, except great, humungus, long ones. All of a sudden my 'O' level in chemistry seems light years ago. In fact it damn near IS light years ago - 32 to be accurate! It's quite shocking to realise, it was the spring of 1976 when I did my 'O' level in chemistry and managed a grade 'C'. In fact I remember my chemistry teacher trying to persuade me to go on to do an 'A' level in the subject, but I instead chose to do Maths which with the benefit of hindsight, was perhaps a mistake!

Anyway, now that I've composed myself a little, I reckon I'm suffering from the same syndrome that other newly enrolled OU students suffer from - 'First Study Package Panic'. That great idea you had ages ago about studying something that really interests you is suddenly happening! It's here and it's starting in just over three weeks! Gulp!

But hey, one only needs to follow the advice given on the Course Guide - read the guide first and prepare properly. Book 1 is obviously the better place to start and this covers a great topic to get things off and running - global warming! Now this is a subject that I love, not least bacause it always gets me arguing with my mum! She is convinced that there is no such thing as global warming, it's all happened before and is nothing to do with human activity. Well, that might be true in part. It has all happened before but I believe that it is the rate at which it is happening that is the problem and that surely has got a lot to do with human activity. So, once I've covered Book 1, I should be ready to take on my mother again in another heated debate on a Saturday evening over a bottle of Cabernet!

Yep, after flicking through the course materials, there is a lot of exciting stuff ahead including home experiments and studying rock samples and fossil plaster casts, so I can't wait to get cracking. So keen am I that I've bought a new pencil case - a lovely 3 compartment one in 'mock Croc'. Oh yes, new course = new pencil case! It's only right and proper in my book! Sure there will be challenges ahead, not least actually finding the time to do the studying amongst the detritus of the everyday working life. Oh to ditch the day job and devote ALL my time to it, but alas, that wouldn't pay the bills. So, I'll see how I go and review my progress regularly.

Meanwhile, if there are any other S104 enrollees looking in, do get in touch and we can share thoughts on the challenges ahead!

I'll keep y'all posted!

Cheers for now,

Grumpychops

Grand Canyon, Arizona - very hot! Due to global warming?

Well, possibly, a bit, but what's certain is that this is the most pathetic excuse for showing ANOTHER photo of the wonderful Grand Canyon!!

(Photo by Grumpychops, March 2008)

More of the delights of the American Southwest

2008-08-29T10:40:00.017+01:00

Forgive me for indulging myself somewhat. After my family's wonderful holiday to Arizona and Grand Canyon I have I'm afraid, become slightly obsessed by everything Arizona and southwest USA. The wet, miserable, dull and drab 'summer' weather here in north-west England only serves to increase my yearnings for more of the magnificent Grand Canyon and southwest USA!

During our March trip I bought a few books as I tend to do. Wayne Ranney's 'Carving Grand Canyon' is superb and well worth reading if like me, you are intrigued by the mysterys surrounding the formation of Grand Canyon. Another excellent book that I picked up over there is 'Geology Underfoot in Northern Arizona' by Lon Abbott and Terri Cook, which takes a look at the geology of the Northern half of the state and encourages the reader to get out there in your car and see the various features for yourself. This book also emphasises to me just how many magnificent geological features there are in Arizona that I didn't have time to visit last March and only increases my desire to return. While we saw and were mesmerised by Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest and Salt River Canyon, we barely scratched the surface of what Arizona has to offer.

There is an excellent web site called 'The American Southwest' run by a guy called John Crossley, who surprisingly resides in Bristol, England. His site covers the National Parks of this region of USA and includes a huge library of photographs. As well as the beautiful photographs and brilliant text guides to each area, he includes maps, hotel guides and some superb panoramas!

I'm delighted to say John has given me permission to use a few photographs from his site on this humble blog of mine. Such as this one....

East and West mitten Buttes, Monument Valley, Utah.

This area was I believe used as the backdrop to many classic Western films in the 1960's and 70's.

Merrick Butte, Monument Valley, Utah

And then there is this extraordinary place, The Arches National park, also in Utah:-

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

There are over 1000 arches of Entrada sandstone in this national park, ranging in size from the 89 metre span of Landscape Arch to small cavities of a mere 3 feet, which is the smallest size for an opening to be actually classified as an arch! John's web site will tell you all you need to know about where to find this place, so I won't repeat it here, but when I make that return trip back over the herring pond, I will definitely check out these breathtaking national parks.

I could attempt to explain how these awesome features formed, but on reflection perhaps I should wait until I do that geology degree and have a more thorough understanding of it all before I do that. Other blogs do all that way better than I could at the moment, such as 'MJC Rocks at 'Geotripper'. He's been running a brilliant series of blogs on the whole Colorado Plateau which has been superb. But then, he is a lecturer at Modesto Junior College! I only hope my future geology lecturers are as good as this guy!

Many thanks again to John Crossley at 'The American Southwest' for permission to use these photographs!

Cheers for now!

Grumpychops.

Return to education

2008-08-20T09:51:00.000+01:00

The last few weeks have been a little crazy, racing around the country in search of Carillons, but that's another story. Suffice to say, it's been an education and that is something that is going to play a big part in my life in the coming months and years all being well.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Geology has been an interest for most of my life and really ought to have been my life's vocation. However, due to the unfortunate combination of a lousy maths teacher and my school's refusal to allow me to drop my 'A' level maths and concentrate on my geography and physics, I failed both maths and physics. That scuppered any hopes of getting into Oxford Poly to do the Geology degree course that I had set my heart on, but at least my excellent grade 'B' in Geography meant I could activate 'Plan B'. Being the cautious type, I did at least plan for the nightmare scenario of not getting the required two C's and only managing the one Geography 'A' level. As a result I embarked on a Higher Diploma in Geographical Techniques at Luton College and my life took a different course as a result.

A working life that started as a Cartographic Draughtsman has evolved into that of a CAD Technician. Yes, still drawing but now with the computer rather than Rotring drawing pens; on a computer monitor, rather than drafting film. They call it progress and I suppose it is of a sort. But like so much of modern life, it doesn't make it any better or more pleasurable. Quite the opposite in fact. Where I used to have the satisfaction of some degree of artistic creativity, that is now all but gone. So not surprisingly my heart yearns for something more, something to feel passionate about, that will stimulate my mind for the next 20 years plus. What frightened me was the thought of plodding through the next 17 years bored senseless, waiting until I retire to a life of gardening and incontinence! No thanks! Not for me, ta!

High time then for a change of direction. To make a start, I have enrolled with the Open University to start their Science Foundation course "Discovering Science - S104 which is due to commence on 29th September. Exciting! This will hopefully kick start the 'grey matter' and re-familiarise myself with the concept of study. As around 30 years have passed since my last period of formal study the next 9 months could prove challenging, particularly as I will be attempting to do it all around usual family/work life! So, if there is anyone out there from UK who has done S104 or S103, it's predecessor, do post a comment and let me how you found it!

For now I will leave you with another reminder of just why I want to study Geology and if I ever work out how to set up this Picaso Slideshow thingy I'll show you a whole lot more!

Cheers, Grumpychops.

The 'Tee-pees' at Painted Desert/Petrified Forest, Arizona. A stunning place!

(Photo by Grumpychops, March 2008)

Lovely Rocks!

2008-07-23T16:52:00.000+01:00

It's becoming a bit of a family joke now, particularly after our epic, life changing trip to Grand Canyon. As my step daughter 'Splodge' commented after my last blog (see below), my love of rocks is a well established fact. Only last weekend, my mother commented to Rufus, "oh, he likes his rocks, doesn't he"? This was after I was telling her the age of my favourite rock sample, a piece - well, actually more of a slab, of mica schist from the Scottish highlands. Now, there's a story to this piece of rock.

Let me explain.....

Let me take you way back to the summer of 1976, in that long forgotten era when summers were long, warm and sunny! Yeah, you remember, that big bright shiney thing that we used to see in the sky every now and again? No? Oh well, don't despair! Anyway, this particular summer my mother and father decided on a family summer holiday to Scotland, which invariably isn't the wisest choice if one is hoping to experience a prolonged period of sunshine. If I rightly recall, my younger sister, being a bit of a 'sun-worshipper', wasn't best pleased with the choice of destination, but for me, even at the tender age of 16, I was more than happy to make do with countryside, forests, hills and ...... ROCKS! Add to that plenty of walking and I reckon you've got the perfect holiday, even when it's with your parents!

This year though turned out to be exceptional. It wasn't just warm, it was hot - damned hot! It was one of those 'hottest since records began' sort of summers and for Scotland was quite unprecedented. On one particular day my father took us on one of his now legendary walks. I must emphasise, they were legendary for all the wrong reasons! You see, my father had the map and chose the route but somehow 'scale' didn't seem to register. More often than not, after what seemed like hours of aimless trudging, one of us would dare to ask "so how far is the car park then?" to which the reply would be "it's just round the next bend, not far."

Bless him! In fairness, they were invariably cracking walks.

Anyway, on this particular walk in the highlands I was to stumble upon a nice shiney rock, glistening at me in the summer sunshine. I can't even remember exactly where we were other than to say it was somewhere in the vicinity of Ben Nevis, but there on the ground, was this....

On closer inspection the rock contained numerous small flakey minerals on the surface and was made up of crystals in striped bands. Being the curious type, I just couldn't leave this rock behind until I found out what it was. The only way to do that would be to take it with me, back to the car and then home. That seemed like a reasonable idea, but what I failed to consider was the effect that such a great slab of rock would have on my puny teenage wrists!

But, get it home I did and I then set about the task of identifying the great lump! This however, was not an easy thing to do. When attempting to identify birds for example, it seems that so many of them fall into that miscellaneous category 'little browny-grey bird'. Rocks are similarly difficult to identify, especially if you know nowt about them and have no idea what to look for. Enter my 'big brother' who had I think by this stage embarked on an 'A' level in Geology, so knew a bit about the subject."Oh that's mica schist", he proclaimed confidently." You see all the shiney bits? They flake off in thin layers."

They did too and he was right as it turned out. The more one looks at this piece of rock, the more fascinating it becomes. As well as the mica, the crystals beneath are laid out in stripes and the whole slab curves in a gentle 'S' shape. Add to that some rust coloured areas on the rear, (which I presume is exactly that, iron oxide?) and it makes for the most exciting lump of rock I've ever seen. After being in the care of my mother for the last 19 years, my chunk of Scottish schist has been reclaimed and is currently sitting on the television stand where our huge widescreen telly used to be before it conked out last week!

Now this is the point when my eldest step daughter gives me that 'look' that says "you are so SAD"! Well, maybe it is a little, but when I look at that piece of rock I see about 500 million years of history before my eyes. I wonder what the world was like back then, when the sediments were originally laid down and what happened 100 million years later when the original rock was metamorphosed to become the schist that it is now!

You see, that's where the fascination lies. It's not just the lump of rock, it's the history story, the complex puzzle and the inevitable questions that mount up as you try to make sense of what lies in front of you. That's what happens when I look at my lump of schist and that's what happened when I visited Grand Canyon. And that my friends, is why I HAVE to study geology. Educational inadequacies (both my own AND my school) were responsible back in 1978 for my working life following a completely different path to the one I ideally wanted, but there comes a time in ones life when those dreams need to be fulfilled. Studying geology has been a dream of mine for longer than I care to remember. It simply has to be eventually and with the support of my wonderful wife, it will be in the not too distant future.

Cheers for now!

Grumpychops.

Holiday in Paradise!

2008-07-03T17:03:00.000+01:00

In my 'debut' blog last week, I did promise not to make every blog of mine a collection of moans and grumbles at life's injustices. As therapeutic as that may be for me, it will almost certainly make for a very dull read for anyone else. That is assuming of course, that anyone else does indeed read this stuff! Doubtless I will need to get things off my chest - I'm long overdue a rant about the abominable treatment of 'Nellie' (my 1964 Morris Minor!) and I by other road users! Arrrrrrgghh!

Don't get me started! I'll save that for another time.

So, to try and enlighten you all as to what sort of things, other than my dear wife, make me squeal with joy, or at least say "Wow!", take a look at this......

The magnificent Grand Canyon - awesome or what?
(Photo by Splodge during tour by Papillon Helicopters)

Firstly, here's a few facts about Grand Canyon, taken from one of the best books covering the geology of the region: 'Carving Grand Canyon' by Wayne Ranney:- Grand Canyon is...

277 miles long

on average 10 miles wide and 18 miles wide at its widest

on average 5,280 feet deep and 6,000 feet deep at its deepest

7, 000 feet above sea level at the South Rim & 8,200 feet at the North Rim

and finally about 4.5 million people visit Grand Canyon each year!

Nothing, but nothing could ever prepare you for the emotional impact when you first set eyes on Grand Canyon. One of the seven natural wonders of the world, its awesome beauty is well documented, but it is the sheer scale that staggers the mind. 277 long miles long is about the same as the distance between Kendal and London roughly. So look at the above photo and try to envisage 277 miles of similar geological features!

If you are visiting Grand Canyon and want to get a handle on the sheer scale of this phenomenal natural wonder, a helicopter tour is I think essential. My family and I went with Papillon Helicopters who were quite excellent. There are many such tour operators offering tours of varying lengths and costs, but whatever your budget, just do it. You will not regret it!

It is said by many that to appreciate Grand Canyon at it's finest one needs to get up good and early and wait for sunrise. We did this twice and it was well worth the effort. Dawn temperatures in March are a little chilly, but a small price to pay given the spendour that unfolds before your eyes. As the sun slowly creeps over the rim, small patches of canyon wall begin to catch the light and the whole canyon magically comes alive.....

Grand Canyon South Rim at dawn, from outside Bright Angel Lodge.

(Photo by Grumpychops)

Now here's a staggering thought - 1.8 billion years of earth history is represented by the rocks exposed in Grand Canyon, the oldest being the vishnu schist at the bottom of the Canyon while the youngest rocks present are the Kaibab limestone at the top at a mere 255 million years old. The layers inbetween tell one of the most complete geological history stories on earth.

Even so, if you were to ask the simple question, 'How was Grand Canyon formed?' the only response to which all geologists will agree upon is that the Colorado River carved the canyon. Exactly how, when and under what circumstances has been the subject of fierce debate for decades and is likely to be so for the foreseeable future. Sadly, much of the evidence that could answer the questions has been long since eroded and washed away leaving huge gaps in the story. Research that is attempting to solve the puzzle continues apace. However, I suspect a complete answer will forever be tantalisingly beyond our reach!

I will delve deeper into the differing theories surrounding the formation of Grand Canyon in a future blog. Stay tuned and in the meantime, I'll leave you with another breathtaking photograph.

Cheers,

Grumpychops.

Grand Canyon South Rim from the South Rim Trail

(Photo by Grumpychops)