teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association
teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association
teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association
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<strong>teaching</strong><br />
EARTH<br />
SCIENCES<br />
From the ESTA<br />
President:<br />
A Handsome<br />
Resource in<br />
Somerset<br />
Environmental<br />
Risk Management:<br />
The Montserrat<br />
Volcanic Emergency<br />
(1995-1999)<br />
Mineral Exploration<br />
Geological Time in<br />
the Classroom<br />
A Results<br />
Spreadsheet for AS<br />
and A Level Geology<br />
Role of Fieldwork in<br />
Undergraduate<br />
Geoscience<br />
Education:<br />
Approaches and<br />
Constraints<br />
Reviews<br />
ESTA Members<br />
ESTA Diary<br />
Websearch<br />
News and Resources<br />
Journal of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION<br />
Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002 ● ISSN 0957-8005<br />
www.esta-uk.org
th <strong>Science</strong><br />
ache<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong><br />
Activities and<br />
<strong>Earth</strong>quakes<br />
Response to the<br />
<strong>Science</strong> and<br />
inquiry into the<br />
Kingston 2001<br />
Book Reviews<br />
Websearch<br />
Browne<br />
Teaching <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s: Guide for Authors<br />
The Editor welcomes articles of any length and nature and on any topic related to<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> science education from cradle to grave. Please inspect back copies of TES,<br />
from Issue 26(3) onwards, to become familiar with the journal house-style.<br />
Three paper copies of major articles are requested. Please use double line spacing<br />
and A4 paper and please use SI units throughout, except where this is inappropriate<br />
(in which case please include a conversion table). The first paragraph of each<br />
major article should not have a subheading but should either introduce the reader<br />
to the context of the article or should provide an overview to stimulate interest. This<br />
is not an abstract in the formal sense. Subsequent paragraphs should be grouped<br />
under sub-headings.<br />
Text<br />
Please also supply the full text on disk or as an email attachment: Microsoft Word<br />
is the most convenient, but any widely-used wordprocessor is acceptable.<br />
Figures, tables and photographs must be referenced in the text.<br />
References<br />
Please use the following examples as models<br />
(1) Articles<br />
Mayer, V. (1995) Using the <strong>Earth</strong> system for integrating the science curriculum.<br />
<strong>Science</strong> Education, 79(4), pp. 375-391.<br />
(2) Books<br />
McPhee, J. (1986 ) Rising from the Plains. New York: Fraux, Giroux & Strauss.<br />
(3) Chapters in books<br />
Duschl, R.A. & Smith, M.J. (2001) <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>. In Jere Brophy (ed), Subject-<br />
Specific Instructional Methods and Activities, Advances in Research on Teaching. Volume 8,<br />
pp. 269-290. Amsterdam: Elsevier <strong>Science</strong>.<br />
Figures<br />
Prepared artwork must be of high quality and submitted on paper and disk. Handdrawn<br />
and hand-labelled diagrams are not normally acceptable, although in some<br />
circumstances this is appropriate. Each figure must be submitted as a separate file.<br />
Each figure must have a caption.<br />
Photographs<br />
Please submit colour or black-and-white photographs as originals. They are also<br />
welcomed in digital form on disk or as email attachments: .jpeg format is to be preferred.<br />
Please use one file for each photograph, to be at 300dpi. Each photograph<br />
must have a caption.<br />
Copyright<br />
There are no copyright restrictions on original material published in Teaching <strong>Earth</strong><br />
<strong>Science</strong>s if it is required for use in the classroom or lecture room. Copyright material<br />
reproduced in TES by permission of other publications rests with the original<br />
publisher. Permission must be sought from the Editor to reproduce original material<br />
from Teaching <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s in other publications and appropriate acknowledgement<br />
must be given.<br />
All articles submitted should be original unless indicted otherwise and should<br />
contain the author’s full name, title and address (and email address where relevant).<br />
They should be sent to the Editor,<br />
Dr Roger Trend<br />
School of Education<br />
University of Exeter<br />
Exeter EX1 2LU<br />
UK<br />
Tel 01392 264768<br />
Email R.D.Trend@exeter.ac.uk<br />
Editor<br />
To Advertise in<br />
<strong>teaching</strong><br />
EARTH<br />
SCIENCES<br />
<strong>teaching</strong><br />
EARTH<br />
SCIENCES<br />
Journal of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION<br />
Volume 26 ● Number 4, 2001 ● ISSN 0957-8005<br />
Your President<br />
Introduced<br />
Martin Whiteley<br />
Thinking Geology:<br />
Activities to Develop<br />
Thinking Ski ls in<br />
Geology Teaching<br />
Recovering the<br />
Leaning Tower of Pisa<br />
Demonstrations:<br />
House of Commons<br />
Technology Commi tee<br />
<strong>Science</strong> Cu riculum for<br />
14 - 19 year olds<br />
Se ting up a local<br />
group - West Wales<br />
Geology Teachers’<br />
Network<br />
Highlights from the<br />
post-16 ‘bring and<br />
share’ session a the<br />
ESTA Conference,<br />
ESTA Conference<br />
update<br />
News and Resources<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
Journal of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION<br />
Volume 27 ● Number 1, 2002 ● ISSN 0957-8005<br />
Telephone<br />
Ian Ray<br />
0161 486 0326<br />
<strong>teaching</strong><br />
EARTH<br />
SCIENCES<br />
rth <strong>Science</strong><br />
chers’ Asso<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
Creationism and<br />
Evolution:<br />
Questions in the<br />
Classroom<br />
Institute of Biology<br />
Chemistry on the<br />
High Street<br />
Peter Kenne t<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong><br />
Activities and<br />
Demonstrations:<br />
Fossils and Time<br />
Mike Tuke<br />
Beyond Petroleum:<br />
Business and<br />
The Environment in<br />
the 21st Century John<br />
Using Foam Rubber in<br />
an Aquarium To<br />
Simulate Plate-<br />
Tectonic And Glacial<br />
Phenomena<br />
John Wheeler<br />
Dorset and East<br />
Devon Coast:<br />
World Heritage Site<br />
ESTA Conference<br />
Update<br />
New ESTA Members<br />
Websearch<br />
News and Resources<br />
(including ESTA AGM)<br />
WHERE IS PEST?<br />
PEST is printed as the<br />
centre 4 pages in<br />
Teaching <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s.
From the ESTA<br />
President:<br />
A Handsome<br />
Resource in<br />
Somerset<br />
Environmental<br />
Risk Management:<br />
The Montserrat<br />
Volcanic Emergency<br />
(1995-1999)<br />
Mineral Exploration<br />
Geological Time in<br />
the Classroom<br />
A Results<br />
Spreadsheet for AS<br />
and A Level Geology<br />
Role of Fieldwork in<br />
Undergraduate<br />
Geoscience<br />
Education:<br />
Approaches and<br />
Constraints<br />
Reviews<br />
ESTA Members<br />
ESTA Diary<br />
Websearch<br />
News and Resources<br />
Journal of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION<br />
Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002 ● ISSN 0957-8005<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
<strong>teaching</strong><br />
EARTH<br />
SCIENCES<br />
Teaching <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s is published quarterly by<br />
the <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong> Teachers’ <strong>Association</strong>. ESTA<br />
aims to encourage and support the <strong>teaching</strong> of<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s, whether as a single subject or as<br />
part of science or geography courses.<br />
Full membership is £25.00; student and retired<br />
membership £12.50.<br />
Registered Charity No. 1005331<br />
Editor<br />
Dr. Roger Trend<br />
School of Education<br />
University of Exeter<br />
Exeter EX1 2LU<br />
Tel: 01392 264768<br />
Email: R.D.Trend@exeter.ac.uk<br />
Advertising<br />
Ian Ray<br />
5 Gathill Close<br />
Cheadle Hulme<br />
Cheadle<br />
Cheshire SK8 6SJ<br />
Tel: 0161 486 0326<br />
Reviews Editor<br />
Dr. Denis Bates<br />
Institute of Geography and <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s<br />
University of Wales<br />
Aberystwyth<br />
Dyfed SY23 3DB<br />
Tel: 01970 622639<br />
Email: deb@aber.ac.uk<br />
Council Officers<br />
President<br />
Martin Whiteley<br />
Barrisdale Limited<br />
Bedford<br />
Chairman<br />
Geraint Owen<br />
Department of Geography<br />
University of Swansea<br />
Singleton Park<br />
Swansea SA2 8PP<br />
Secretary<br />
Dr. Dawn Windley<br />
Thomas Rotherham College<br />
Moorgate, Rotherham<br />
South Yorkshire<br />
Membership Secretary<br />
Owain Thomas<br />
PO Box 10, Narberth<br />
Pembrokeshire SA67 7YE<br />
Treasurer<br />
Geoff Hunter<br />
6 Harborne Road<br />
Tackley, Kidlington<br />
Oxon OX5 3BL<br />
Contributions to future issues of Teaching <strong>Earth</strong><br />
<strong>Science</strong>s will be welcomed and should be<br />
addressed to the Editor.<br />
Opinions and comments in this issue are the<br />
personal views of the authors and do not<br />
necessarily represent the views of the <strong>Association</strong>.<br />
Designed by Character Design<br />
Highridge, Wrigglebrook Lane, Kingsthorne<br />
Hereford HR2 8AW<br />
CONTENTS<br />
106 Editorial<br />
Roger Trend<br />
107 From the ESTA President:<br />
A Handsome Resource in Somerset<br />
Martin Whiteley<br />
108 Environmental Risk Management: The Montserrat<br />
Volcanic Emergency (1995-1999)<br />
Peter Kokelaar<br />
118 Mineral Exploration<br />
Tim Colman<br />
121 Geological Time in the Classroom<br />
Ian Wilkinson<br />
126 A Results Spreadsheet for AS and A Level Geology<br />
Owain Thomas<br />
129 The Role of Fieldwork in Undergraduate Geoscience<br />
Education: Approaches and Constraints<br />
S. Mondlane and B. Mapani<br />
132 Amendments<br />
137 Reviews<br />
138 New ESTA Members<br />
139 ESTA Diary<br />
139 Websearch<br />
140 News and Resources<br />
142 ESTA Conference 2003<br />
<strong>teaching</strong><br />
EARTH<br />
SCIENCES<br />
Visit our website at www.esta-uk.org<br />
Front cover<br />
Montserrat: Dome-collapse pyroclastic<br />
flow of 25 June 1997, near to its<br />
termination in Spanish Point<br />
(Photo Paul Cole)<br />
Back cover<br />
Montserrat: Vulcanian explosion of 6<br />
August 1997; this buoyant-convective<br />
plume of ash reached an altitude of 12km.<br />
(Photo Barry Voight)<br />
105 www.esta-uk.org
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Editorial – At the chalk face<br />
Some readers, particularly those working in<br />
British Higher Education Institutions, will be<br />
aware of the RAE: the Research Assessment<br />
Exercise. This is a huge and complicated process by<br />
which departments in UK HEIs are assessed on behalf<br />
of central government in relation to the quality of their<br />
research activities. Following the RAE, research funding<br />
to the tune of about £5 billion is then allocated to<br />
universities and colleges (by the four higher education<br />
funding councils) on the basis of their RAE performance.<br />
Actually, departments are not required to participate<br />
in the exercise: but if they don’t then obviously<br />
they don’t stand any chance of receiving any of the<br />
research funding. The last RAE happened in 2001 and<br />
the outcome determines the allocation to each department<br />
until the next one: which looks as if it won’t be till<br />
2008. This is clearly good news for some departments,<br />
but not for others... another story.<br />
Briefly (very), at the heart of the process is the<br />
Subject Panel comprising leading authorities in the<br />
field. In 2001 there were 60 panels covering 69 subjects,<br />
but next time there will be far fewer panels.<br />
Some subjects were combined: <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s and<br />
Environmental <strong>Science</strong>s is a good example where two<br />
subjects comprised a single “unit of assessment” for<br />
the 2001 exercise. The ESES Panel was chaired by<br />
Professor Peter Liss of the University of East Anglia.<br />
Similarly, there was a joint panel for General Engineering<br />
and Mineral and Mining Engineering. By<br />
contrast, Education and Geography each had their<br />
own single-subject panels.<br />
To over-simplify the position, many academics see<br />
their main responsibility (as far as research is concerned)<br />
as publishing (in the period leading up to each<br />
RAE) at least four top-quality research-based articles or<br />
chapters in similarly top-quality academic journals or<br />
books, and obtaining as much external research funding<br />
as possible. As I say, this is a gross over-simplification,<br />
but it is a fair start. This “best four” requirement might<br />
seem straightforward, but believe me it is not ... but that<br />
is yet another story!<br />
Following the panel’s scrutiny of each academic’s<br />
research activity, each department gets graded from 1 to<br />
5*, according to the proportion of research-active staff<br />
who are publishing research of international quality.<br />
Five-star is the best and obviously yields the greatest<br />
income subsequently. This number is qualified by a letter<br />
A to D which is a reflection of the proportion of eligible<br />
staff (viz. all the academics) whose work actually<br />
contributed to getting the main grade. You can check<br />
out all of this, including the results for each department,<br />
on the website.<br />
What has the RAE got to do with ESTA and Teaching<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s? Quite simply: a lot. First, we have<br />
been privileged to publish in TES over the years articles<br />
from a wide range of UK <strong>Earth</strong> science and education<br />
academics, including many internationally-renowned<br />
researchers: and long may this continue. Each one of<br />
those articles represents a communication by an <strong>Earth</strong><br />
science or education academic directly to the <strong>teaching</strong><br />
fraternity, rather than to their peers. However, in terms<br />
of RAE ratings, an article in TES does not carry a lot of<br />
weight, although I trust that readers acknowledge that<br />
RAE is not the only thing that matters: here at the TES<br />
we operate on a higher plane!<br />
Second, TES itself is (rightly) not regarded by RAE<br />
panels as a high-status, research-based international<br />
journal. It is a different vehicle completely, and one<br />
which supports a large number of teachers, rather than<br />
a smaller number of researchers. However, there is a<br />
strong case for journals such as TES to be accorded<br />
more recognition in the RAE since they are publications<br />
for the dissemination of research results directly<br />
to practitioners (teachers in our case). This is especially<br />
the case with education. Our journal can provide an<br />
outlet for researchers working in both geoscience and<br />
education which reaches the practitioners at the chalk<br />
(sorry, interactive whiteboard plus data projector) face.<br />
The criteria for the next RAE (2008) are currently out<br />
for consultation and, if past experience is anything to go<br />
by, the importance of dissemination and impact of<br />
research findings on the community of practitioners<br />
will be increased, ...but not by very much.<br />
Third, a request to readers who are geoscience or<br />
education researchers: please consider submitting your<br />
latest research article to TES as well as the high-status<br />
academic journal preferred by the RAE, ideally having<br />
revised it to suit the TES readership. It is likely that<br />
“impact” on practitioners is likely to figure in the RAE<br />
deliberations of 2008, and there is no better way of having<br />
an impact on geoscience teachers than through the<br />
pages of this journal, especially since ESTA membership<br />
is now steadily rising.<br />
Last, if you have any thoughts on the role that TES<br />
and ESTA might play in the next UK universities RAE,<br />
I am sure readers would be interested to hear your<br />
views: please write to the Editor.<br />
RAE 2001 website http://www.hero.ac.uk/rae/AboutUs/<br />
Roger Trend<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
106
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
From the ESTA President:<br />
A Handsome Resource in Somerset<br />
There are many ways of <strong>teaching</strong> <strong>Earth</strong> sciences<br />
but, to my mind, few are as effective as fieldbased<br />
activities. So, when I recently heard about<br />
the East Mendip Study Centre, I was determined to pay<br />
it a visit and see what it had to offer. My welcoming<br />
hosts were Gill Odolphie and Jo Hicks, two enthusiastic<br />
teachers who are equally at home in front of 28<br />
excitable ten-year-olds, as wading through chilly rivers<br />
or describing the finer points of rock blasting. The<br />
Centre is owned and managed by Hanson plc, the<br />
largest producer of aggregates in the world, and it is<br />
located next to Whatley Quarry, near Frome in Somerset.<br />
Close enough to hear the daily rumble of blasting<br />
and within sight of the rail terminal that despatches<br />
thousands of tonnes of limestone to SE England, this<br />
appears at first glance to be a discouraging location for a<br />
Study Centre. But it’s not and here’s why.<br />
Hanson recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding<br />
with English Nature. The two organisations<br />
have agreed to apply appropriate conservation strategies<br />
to Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) on land<br />
under Hanson’s control, and they will work to meet<br />
agreed biodiversity targets as progressive reclamation is<br />
practised. To illustrate this collaboration we need look<br />
no further than the wooded valleys just a couple of<br />
miles east of the Centre. Quarrying activities have been<br />
undertaken in these now tranquil valleys since Roman<br />
times and they provide an interesting archaeological<br />
context to the sites preserved here. Hanson has an<br />
active management plan for SSSIs in this area, which<br />
include the famous De La Beche geological unconformity,<br />
ancient woodland in Asham Wood and horseshoe<br />
bats in Vallis Vale.<br />
The Study Centre is therefore uniquely placed to<br />
access a wide range of field resources and it also provides<br />
a classroom facility with varied displays and documents<br />
mostly geared to the National Curriculum. Whilst it<br />
caters principally for Key Stage 2-4 pupils, sixth formers,<br />
adult extra-mural classes and members of the public<br />
have also used the Centre at various times. Tuition is<br />
provided free of charge and any educational group within<br />
striking distance of east Mendip can benefit.<br />
On the day of my visit a lively class of mixed ability<br />
children from Larkhall, Bath arrived mid-morning<br />
clutching wellie boots, packed lunches and clipboards.<br />
Gill and Jo quickly assessed their level of familiarity<br />
with river systems and then gave a thorough introduction<br />
to the pending fieldwork, with an emphasis on<br />
safety. Back onto the coach for the short drive to Vallis<br />
Vale and then several short practical exercises before<br />
lunch. These included measuring stream profiles and<br />
flow rates, mapping river features and sketching a<br />
meander. The class was even more exuberant after<br />
lunch (too many E-numbers!) but most pupils got<br />
something out of the environmental survey that<br />
involved noting occurrences of pollution, litter and<br />
wildlife throughout the valley. The fieldwork ended in<br />
time to allow the class to return to their school at a reasonable<br />
hour, but for Gill and Jo it was back to the Centre<br />
to prepare for another visit the following day.<br />
The advantage of the Hanson Centre is that it can<br />
cater for a wide variety of skills, interests and abilities.<br />
For example, sixth formers can investigate the commercial<br />
aspects of quarrying, ecologists can document<br />
plant regeneration on reclaimed land and geologists<br />
can work on some of the finest exposures in Britain.<br />
And even if <strong>Earth</strong> science isn’t your bag of tricks you<br />
can simply marvel at the huge scale of the machinery<br />
in the quarry and appreciate the effort that goes into<br />
this operation. There’s something for everyone and<br />
we should congratulate Hanson and their staff for providing<br />
such a facility. If you’re lucky enough to be<br />
within reasonable travelling distance of Frome, I can<br />
only recommend that you arrange a visit. Simply contact<br />
either Gill or Jo beforehand (see below) in order<br />
to discuss your educational needs and let a bit of east<br />
Mendip rub off on your class.<br />
Martin Whiteley<br />
President, ESTA<br />
The Study Centre is open on weekdays (apart from Public Holidays)<br />
and receives school visits by arrangement, generally during term time.<br />
You are welcome to contact the Teacher Wardens:<br />
Gill Odolphie & Jo Hicks<br />
Hanson East Mendip Study Centre<br />
Whatley<br />
Frome<br />
Somerset<br />
BA11 3LF<br />
Tel: 01373 452515<br />
The Study Centre does not have its own website but Hanson does<br />
(www.hansonplc.com). It includes an education section that introduces<br />
‘Material World’, a project designed to introduce primary age<br />
children to the world of quarrying and brick making. It’s fun, informative<br />
and full of downloadable resources<br />
(see our review in TES 26/3 p 120. Ed).<br />
107 www.esta-uk.org
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Environmental Risk Management:<br />
The Montserrat Volcanic Emergency (1995-1999)<br />
PETER KOKELAAR<br />
The eruption on Montserrat during 1995-1999 was the most destructive in the Caribbean volcanic<br />
arc since that of Mont Pelée (Martinique) in 1902. The slow progress and long duration of the<br />
volcanic escalation, coupled with the small size of the island and the vulnerability of homes, key<br />
installations and infrastructure, resulted in a dominantly reactive style of emergency<br />
management. To minimise the disruption, scientists at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory<br />
anticipated hazards and their potential extents of impact with considerable precision. This article<br />
charts the course of the eruption against the progressively evolved management strategies and<br />
considers lessons learned from the crisis.<br />
Introduction<br />
The eruption of Soufrière Hills Volcano devastated the<br />
small Caribbean island of Montserrat. Approximately<br />
60% of the land area, including the most densely populated<br />
districts, was designated unsafe for habitation. Of<br />
the original resident population of ~10,500, 92% had to<br />
move home; many families were relocated two or three<br />
times. Up to 1,600 people had no accommodation<br />
other than basic temporary shelters; by early 1998<br />
roughly 70% of the population had left the island. Most<br />
of the original administrative, commercial and industrial<br />
facilities were destroyed or rendered inaccessible,<br />
along with infrastructure including the airport and harbour,<br />
and prime agricultural land. Also lost was much<br />
of the verdant paradise that underpinned tourism and<br />
the lucrative residence in Montserrat of numerous<br />
migrants from the North American winter. More than<br />
two thirds of businesses were closed by October 1998.<br />
Most insurance companies withdrew cover as the eruption<br />
escalated in August 1997, which was before most of<br />
the losses were incurred; the local financial institution<br />
concerned with mortgages and savings consequently<br />
collapsed. Unofficial insurance industry sources estimate<br />
that total losses will be as much as £1 billion if no<br />
real estate is recovered. The Montserrat economy, only<br />
recently in budgetary surplus, was plunged back into<br />
dependency on UK financial aid. Whereas health problems<br />
were less than in many other natural disasters with<br />
catastrophic onset (e.g. Monsoon floods), the protracted<br />
emergency led to considerable psychological distress<br />
and related health problems for Montserratians. Perhaps<br />
more challenging still will be linking disaster<br />
recovery with sustainable development for the future.<br />
The eruption and associated hazards escalated only<br />
slowly from 1995 through 1997 and from the outset<br />
many inhabitants indicated a strong preference to<br />
remain on the island. Understandably, the Government<br />
of Montserrat wished to preserve life as near to normal<br />
as possible and to avoid jeopardising the long-term viability<br />
of the island community. The UK Government<br />
policy was for people to be supported in continuing<br />
occupation of the island so long as there was a viable<br />
safe area. Given this scenario, a reactive strategy for<br />
emergency management was inevitable. Rather than<br />
immediate and complete evacuation to a safe area, the<br />
management strategy adopted was to react to changing<br />
levels of risk as they were identified. Consequently,<br />
considerable importance was placed on scientific monitoring,<br />
hazard anticipation and risk assessment. The<br />
succession of risk management maps that was produced<br />
reflects this strategy and constitutes a unique case in<br />
emergency management (see below).<br />
There were no contingency plans. Many actions<br />
taken by both the UK Government and the Government<br />
of Montserrat were driven stepwise by events in<br />
the volcanic escalation. Initially, because there was no<br />
recognition of how the eruption might develop, much<br />
of the on-island emergency management involved<br />
solutions for the short-term. Similarly, UK Government<br />
departments attempted initially to deal with the<br />
crisis using normal institutional arrangements. However,<br />
as the eruption escalated it became clear that longerterm<br />
solutions were required and that some aspects of<br />
the handling of the emergency were unsatisfactory. In<br />
1997 the House of Commons Select Committee on<br />
International Development recommended an independent<br />
evaluation of the UK Government’s response to<br />
the Montserrat volcanic emergency. The terms of reference<br />
requested identification of key findings and<br />
lessons learnt. The author was asked to evaluate the scientific<br />
monitoring and risk assessment, and to lay out<br />
the course of the volcanic developments against which<br />
the emergency management could be charted. This<br />
article for teachers originates from the work for the<br />
evaluation study, which was published in 1999 (Clay et<br />
al. 1999). The course and effects of the eruption are<br />
amplified in a research paper (Kokelaar 2002); the reader<br />
is referred to this, and other papers in the volume, for<br />
full accounts with numerous diagrams, photographs<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
and a lists of references. Many references are omitted in<br />
this article, for brevity.<br />
Facets of the history of Montserrat are given (see<br />
Table 1 below) because they are relevant to understanding<br />
the plight of the people and their perceptions<br />
regarding both the handling of the emergency and the<br />
aid provided by the UK Government. It did not escape<br />
Montserratians that while a UK Government Minister<br />
(Clare Short) publicly questioned the aid expectations<br />
of the afflicted islanders, who were citizens of a (then)<br />
Dependent Territory, the same Government spent £179<br />
million in nine months on sustaining what one referred<br />
to as “a glorified circus tent designed to create the illusion<br />
of an empire” – the Millennium Dome.<br />
Geological Setting<br />
Montserrat is in the northern part of the Lesser Antilles<br />
volcanic island arc (see Figure 1). The arc marks a<br />
destructive plate margin resulting from westward subduction<br />
of the Atlantic oceanic lithosphere beneath the<br />
Caribbean Plate. From Martinique southwards to<br />
Grenada the arc comprises a closely spaced double<br />
chain of volcanoes, the eastern elements of which date<br />
from the Eocene. From Martinique northwards an<br />
extinct eastern volcanic chain diverges via Marie<br />
Galante to Sombrero, while Montserrat lies in the<br />
western active chain that extends to beyond Saba.<br />
Montserrat is the summit portion of a complex volcanic<br />
edifice that extends from 1 km above sea level, at<br />
Soufrière Hills Volcano, to about 900 m below sea level,<br />
where the basal diameter is ~25-30 km. The volcanic<br />
edifice probably dates back to the Miocene (~9 Ma),<br />
although the oldest exposed rocks are Pliocene (~2.6<br />
Ma) and the majority are Pleistocene or younger.<br />
Montserrat is predominantly composed of<br />
andesites 1 . Basaltic magma is represented in volumetrically<br />
minor outcrops as well as in common inclusions<br />
in the andesitic rocks, where they mark magma mingling.<br />
Research shows that basalt at ≥ 1050ºC invaded<br />
and mingled with partially crystallised andesite at<br />
~830-850ºC in a magma chamber at ≥ 5 km depth<br />
beneath Soufrière Hills, heated it, and then erupted<br />
with it.<br />
Figure 1.<br />
Location of<br />
Montserrat in the<br />
Lesser Antilles<br />
volcanic island arc.<br />
Figure 2.<br />
Map showing<br />
Montserrat as it<br />
was before the<br />
eruption, which<br />
initiated through<br />
Castle Peak<br />
(lava-dome).<br />
Physiography<br />
Montserrat is a small island, 16.5 x 10 km (~100 km 2 ;<br />
see Figure 2). Its topography is dominated by four main<br />
volcanic massifs, each with numerous valleys and ridges<br />
1<br />
Molten andesite, at around 850˚C, is extremely viscous and<br />
will not flow rapidly like the more familiar basalt of, for example,<br />
Hawaii, where ‘fire fountaining’ and rapid ‘runny’ lavas<br />
are characteristic and form lava-shield volcanoes. Instead it flows<br />
almost imperceptibly and tends slowly to form enormous, steep<br />
and crumbling lava domes. The density of andesite rock is about<br />
2,500 kg m -3 . One cubic metre is roughly the volume of an<br />
entire domestic refrigerator.<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
overlying aquifers. The lesser slopes in the southern<br />
two thirds of Montserrat are on pyroclastic-flow<br />
deposits and lahar deposits from the Soufrière Hills<br />
Volcano and were the favoured sites for habitation (see<br />
Figure 3), including the capital town Plymouth and its<br />
environs, the airport on the northeast coast, and the<br />
numerous dwellings in the so-called ‘central corridor’<br />
linking the communities on the northern flanks of the<br />
volcano.<br />
Montserrat’s climate is maritime sub-tropical, with<br />
winds at different altitudes prevailing in different directions:<br />
towards the west at 1-5 km and 20-30 km, and<br />
towards the east between 8 and 18 km. Average rainfall<br />
ranges from 10 3 mm yr -1 near sea level to >2.5 x 10 3 mm<br />
yr -1 in the hills. Torrential rain is associated with hurricanes<br />
that all too frequently track northwestwards<br />
through the eastern Caribbean. Before the 1995 eruption<br />
the vegetation in the hills was mainly secondary<br />
forest (little indigenous forest remaining), whereas on<br />
the less-steep slopes and volcaniclastic fans there was<br />
mainly bush or cultivated land. It was Montserrat’s<br />
originally lush and exotic vegetation that earned it the<br />
epithet – the Caribbean’s Emerald Isle – recalling the<br />
verdant homeland of the early Irish colonists.<br />
Montserrat’s small size and rugged terrain severely<br />
constrained on-island options for volcanic risk mitigation.<br />
The location of most human activity and infrastructure<br />
in highly vulnerable locations maximised the<br />
impact of the eruption. Had the island been significantly<br />
smaller, total evacuation would have been inevitable.<br />
Figure 3.<br />
Maps of (a) prehistoric fans of pyroclastic and lahar deposits<br />
derived from Soufrière Hills Volcano, showing these as preferred<br />
sites for homes, key installations and infrastructure, and (b) the<br />
extent of areas devastated by pyroclastic flows during 1995-1999.<br />
radiating towards and truncated at a coastline predominantly<br />
of steep cliffs. The massifs each represent eruptive<br />
centres. Soufrière Hills Volcano (pre-eruption<br />
height 914 m), which is the youngest centre and manifestly<br />
active, retained little-modified primary features<br />
in its sector-collapse scar (English’s Crater) and Castle<br />
Peak lava dome within, although these are now mostly<br />
obliterated. Hot springs and fumaroles (soufrières) on<br />
the flanks of Soufrière Hills Volcano (see Figure 2) register<br />
a deep supply of both magmatic heat and gas to<br />
A Brief History of Montserrat Leading<br />
to the 1995 Eruption<br />
In 1998 Montserrat became an UK Overseas Territory,<br />
rather than an UK ‘Dependent Territory’. Although<br />
tragically the eruption had just rendered Montserrat<br />
once more dependent on UK financial aid, the name<br />
change constituted one further step away from the<br />
injustices associated with some 300 years of British<br />
colonial status, commercial exploitation and slavery.<br />
Social injustice is remarkably recent: voting rights for<br />
all adult inhabitants were secured only some 50 years<br />
ago and the unfair system of land leasing and crop-taking<br />
by landlords (share-cropping) was terminated only<br />
around 40 years ago. Power invested in a Montserratian<br />
Chief Minister with a ministerial government dates<br />
only from 1961. Table 1 gives key developments in<br />
Montserrat’s emergence into a free and economically<br />
viable small-island nation. Alongside this are charted<br />
the volcanic activity and volcano-seismic surveillance,<br />
both on Montserrat and on other Caribbean islands, as<br />
they bear on Montserrat’s preparedness for the<br />
Soufrière Hills eruption. Before devastation due to<br />
Hurricane Hugo in 1989, Montserratians had gained<br />
good standards of accommodation, education and<br />
health-care services, and, with UK aid following the<br />
hurricane, they were on the verge of almost complete<br />
recovery when disaster struck again.<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Table 1. Historical developments of Montserrat and the region leading to the 1995 eruption.<br />
DATE OCCURRENCE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY<br />
c. 3950 BP<br />
c. 3000 BP<br />
1493<br />
1500s - early 1600s; likely<br />
1620s<br />
1632<br />
mid 1600s<br />
late 1600s- 1700s<br />
1782-1783<br />
early 1800s<br />
1834<br />
1838-<br />
1866<br />
1897-1898<br />
1902<br />
1933-1937<br />
1936<br />
1951<br />
1959<br />
1961<br />
1966-1967<br />
1967<br />
1971-1972<br />
1976<br />
1979<br />
1981<br />
1987<br />
1988<br />
April 1989<br />
17 September 1989<br />
1991<br />
January 1992<br />
July 1993<br />
mid 1994<br />
end Nov - Dec 1994<br />
early 1995<br />
18 July 1995<br />
English’s Crater forms.<br />
South American Amerindians first settle on island.<br />
Columbus sails along west coast of island (apparently deserted), and names it Santa<br />
Maria de Monserrate after an abbey in mountains near Barcelona (Spain) where a similar<br />
rugged profile occurs.<br />
Castle Peak dome forms in English’s Crater with several pyroclastic layers deposited.<br />
Irish Catholics first colonise as religious refugees from nearby St Kitts, shortly afterwards<br />
joined by Irish Catholic dissidents from Virginia.<br />
English colonial control established. Arrivals of exiles from Ireland (deported by Cromwell)<br />
and transportees (criminals). African slaves imported, mainly to work in sugar plantations.<br />
Population comprises Anglo-Irish plantation owners, poorer Irish servants and increasing<br />
numbers of slaves. Frequent raids by French and Caribs.<br />
French capture island; restored in Treaty of Versailles.<br />
Slave population exceeds 6500.<br />
Abolition of slavery by Act of UK Parliament.<br />
Full emancipation of slaves. Former slave population continues to struggle to establish<br />
independent peasant culture, being compromised by land-lease arrangements (sharecropping)<br />
and political control by whites.<br />
UK tightens control by establishing Crown Colony rule. Governor (appointed in UK) heads<br />
Legislative Council with six members appointed by him.<br />
New hot springs and fumaroles (Gages Lower Soufrière) initiated on volcano flank.<br />
Eruption at St Vincent kills ~1,500 persons. Eruption at Martinique (Mont Pelée) kills<br />
~29,500.<br />
Perret makes observations 1934-1937; Royal Society expedition in 1936 consequent<br />
upon petition following destructive earthquakes in 1935 and concern about possible<br />
major eruption. Gages Upper Soufrière reactivated.<br />
New constitution includes four elected members of Legislative Council.<br />
Universal adult suffrage introduced.<br />
Share-cropping ended.<br />
Political power wrested from white merchant-planter class. Ministerial government<br />
established and led by first Chief Minister. Governor retains responsibility for national<br />
security, civil service and foreign relations.<br />
Galway’s and Tar River Soufrières become more active. Movement of magma upwards<br />
from >10 km depth inferred.<br />
Affiliation with West Indian Federation rejected, effectively reaffirming colonial status;<br />
Montserrat becomes an UK Dependent Territory. Sale of 600 acres of prime land to North<br />
Americans and Europeans initiates relative economic boom.<br />
Eruption at St Vincent.<br />
On neighbouring Guadeloupe, phreatic explosions at La Soufrière lead to evacuation of<br />
72,000 persons; estimated cost ~ £200 million.<br />
Eruption at St Vincent.<br />
Montserrat no longer in need of UK budgetary aid.<br />
Wadge & Isaacs (1987) report on hazards due to Soufrière Hills Volcano submitted to<br />
sponsors, noting Plymouth to be vulnerable.<br />
Lesser Antilles Volcanic Assessment Seminar hosted by Seismic Research Unit (Trinidad)<br />
and attended by Montserrat government representative(s). Wadge & Isaacs (1988)<br />
findings published in an international journal.<br />
Seismic Research Unit prompted to deploy second and third seismic stations at<br />
Montserrat.<br />
Hurricane Hugo totally destroys 20% of homes, with 50% severely damaged; nearly 25%<br />
of population homeless. Plymouth devastated; total damage estimated at £150 million.<br />
11 persons killed. £3 million from UK as emergency aid. Average wind speeds ~240 km<br />
hr -1 (~67 m s -1 ) with gusts over 300 km hr -1 . All three seismic stations destroyed.<br />
£16.8 million capital aid programme approved in UK. New government headquarters, library<br />
and hospital, all built in Plymouth. Seismic stations restored by Seismic Research Unit.<br />
<strong>Earth</strong>quakes occur in distinct swarms. Hypocentres located up to 10-15 km depth.<br />
Governor assists Montserrat Government in initiating upgrade of disaster preparedness.<br />
Three additional seismic stations established. Direct links of two stations to Seismic<br />
Research Unit, via Antigua, restored. Hypocentres up to 10-15 km depth.<br />
Head of Seismic Research Unit gives public interviews to reassure population concerning<br />
the earthquakes.<br />
Data from six seismic stations telemetered to Emergency Operations Centre in<br />
Plymouth, with possible events forwarded to Seismic Research Unit. National Disaster<br />
Action Plan (manual) delivered, with virtually no reference to volcanoes. Potato crops<br />
fail on volcano flank.<br />
Early-mid afternoon: jet-engine-like roaring noises, sulphurous smell and ash fallout.<br />
Population of Montserrat ~10,500.<br />
Sector collapse.<br />
Andesitic lava and ash eruption(s).<br />
Volcano-seismic crisis.<br />
Volcano-seismic crisis.<br />
Volcano-seismic crisis.<br />
Seismic activity escalates above<br />
background.<br />
Start of volcano-seismic crisis.<br />
Increasing seismicity.<br />
Intense swarm of felt earthquakes.<br />
Soufrière Hills Volcano erupts.<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Table 2. Progress of volcanic activity with related emergency responses and effects on the population of Montserrat.<br />
DATE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY RESPONSE<br />
18 July 1995<br />
28 July 1995<br />
21-22 August 1995<br />
mid to late November 1995<br />
1-2 December 1995<br />
January 1996<br />
21 March 1996<br />
31 March 1996<br />
3-4 April 1996<br />
April 1996<br />
May 1996<br />
August 1996<br />
September 1996<br />
End November into<br />
December 1996<br />
February 1997<br />
May 1997<br />
Early-mid June 1997<br />
25 June 1997<br />
27 June 1997<br />
4 July 1997<br />
July 1997<br />
August 1997<br />
September 1997<br />
22 September -<br />
21 October 1997<br />
November 1997<br />
2-5 December 1997<br />
26 December 1997<br />
Early 1998<br />
February 1998<br />
March 1998<br />
20-21 April 1998<br />
21 May 1998<br />
11 June 1998<br />
14-16 July 1998<br />
30 September 1998<br />
October 1998<br />
November 1998<br />
January 1999<br />
12 April 1999<br />
1 May 1999<br />
mid 1999<br />
November 1999<br />
Onset of eruption.<br />
Major phreatic explosions.<br />
Onset of lava-dome growth.<br />
Onset of minor pyroclastic flows.<br />
Onset of major pyroclastic flows.<br />
Pyroclastic flows reach the sea.<br />
First major magmatic explosion; ballistic blocks >1 m<br />
diameter wreck Long Ground.<br />
First Galway’s Wall crisis<br />
Dome material overtops Galway’s Wall for first time.<br />
Dome growth switches to north and escalates.<br />
Increasing dome-collapse and pyroclastic flow<br />
activity in northern drainages.<br />
Pyroclastic flows kill 19 persons and injure 8. Surgederived<br />
pyroclastic flow unexpectedly reaches<br />
vicinity of Cork Hill.<br />
Large pyroclastic flows frequent and encroaching<br />
Plymouth.<br />
First series of (13) cyclic repetitive Vulcanian<br />
explosions and associated radially directed fountaincollapse<br />
pyroclastic flows.<br />
Second series of (75) cyclic repetitive (Vulcanian)<br />
explosions<br />
Galway’s Wall sector collapse and violent pyroclastic<br />
density current.<br />
Heavy ash fall in Central Zone.<br />
Cessation of magma ascent.<br />
Lava dome substantially degraded by collapses; ash<br />
venting frequent.<br />
Emergency Operations Centre activated in Plymouth. On-island population<br />
(10,500<br />
Military contingency evacuation plans completed both for removal to north<br />
and off-island. Long Ground temporarily evacuated.<br />
First major evacuation of 6,000 from southern and eastern areas, which lasted<br />
for 2 weeks.<br />
Long Ground and White’s Yard evacuated.<br />
Second major evacuation of 6,000, which lasted for 1 month.<br />
Civilian contingency evacuation plans (Operation Exodus) initiated.<br />
Government of Montserrat confirms acceptance of budgetary aid conditions.<br />
On-island population ~9,000<br />
Governor declares state of public emergency. Plymouth and southern areas<br />
evacuated finally.<br />
Population in temporary shelters 1,366 (gradually declined until August<br />
1997). Voluntary Evacuation Scheme gives evacuees leave to remain in UK for<br />
2 years.<br />
Risk management zone map introduced (Fig. 5a).<br />
On-island population ~7,500. £25m aid for 2 years agreed.<br />
Revised risk management zone map issued, dated October (Fig. 5b).<br />
Revised risk management zone maps issued dated November and December<br />
(Figs 5c and 5d). Red Alert requiring further evacuations (19 December) largely<br />
ignored.<br />
On-island population ~6,000. Revised risk management zone map issued (Fig. 5e).<br />
Population in temporary shelters 775; some residents still refuse to evacuate<br />
high-risk zones.<br />
Revised risk management zone map issued 6 June (Fig. 5f); increased risk at<br />
airport is explicit. Emergency jetty handed over to Government of Montserrat.<br />
Cork Hill evacuated; airport and Plymouth port closed. Search and rescue<br />
initiated.<br />
Revised risk management zone map issued, requiring further evacuation of<br />
western areas (Fig. 5g).<br />
Revised risk management zone map issued (Fig. 5h), abandoning microzonation<br />
and designating all hazardous areas as Exclusion Zone.<br />
1,160 persons in temporary shelters. £6.5m emergency housing scheme<br />
announced to accommodate 1,000 in north of island.<br />
Evacuation of areas just north of Belham River. 1,598 persons in temporary<br />
shelters. Formal assessment by Montserrat Volcano Observatory presented to<br />
UK Government. UK Foreign Secretary establishes inter-departmental<br />
Montserrat Action Group with Ministerial and Cabinet Office monitoring.<br />
Assisted Passage (to UK) Scheme announced, to aid relocation.<br />
Revised risk management map issued places Salem and Old Towne in<br />
Exclusion Zone (Fig. 5i). Chief Minister visits London securing commitments to<br />
aid development of northern Montserrat.<br />
Frequent ash fall causes extreme nuisance; many remaining islanders decide<br />
to leave.<br />
On-island population 3,338<br />
Scientists meet in Antigua to produce formal assessment for UK Government;<br />
validated on 19 December by Chief Scientific Adviser.<br />
On-island population 3,000. Recommended evacuation of Central Zone<br />
generally not heeded.<br />
UK Foreign Secretary visits Montserrat. Robbery of bank vault in Plymouth<br />
constitutes most significant opportunistic crime of the emergency.<br />
UK Government spend on aid related to the volcanic emergency totals ~£56m.<br />
Scientists meet in UK to produce formal assessment for UK Government.<br />
Evacuees allowed to settle indefinitely in UK.<br />
UK Government commitment of £75m over 3 years to 2001, and indicative<br />
£25m for 2001-2002.<br />
Scientists meet on Montserrat; formal assessment confirms lower risk levels.<br />
Revised risk management map issued (Fig. 5j).<br />
Phased reoccupation of areas north of Belham River allowed. 427 people still<br />
housed in shelters.<br />
Montserrat Sustainable Development Plan published.<br />
Inquest verdict on deaths of June 1997 published (11 January); it criticises<br />
both UK and Montserrat Governments. Montserrat Country Policy Plan agreed.<br />
Revised risk map issued allows Daytime Entry north of Plymouth (Fig. 5k).<br />
Assisted Return Passage Scheme (from UK) begins.<br />
On-island population recovered to ~4,500.<br />
Renewed dome growth.<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Chronology, Nature and Nomenclature of the Eruption<br />
The 1995 eruption of Soufrière Hills Volcano followed<br />
several years of precursory seismicity (earthquakes) and<br />
involved a slowly progressive escalation of volcanic<br />
activity and associated hazards (see Tables 1 and 2).<br />
With the small size of the island, and its population<br />
mainly located on the flanks of the active volcano, the<br />
slow escalation caused several distinct problems in the<br />
emergency management. These are outlined below.<br />
Initial signs of increased seismicity close to Soufrière<br />
Hills Volcano were detected in April 1989, and earthquakes<br />
more obviously located there were registered at<br />
intervals from January 1992 and particularly from mid<br />
to late 1994 (see Table 1). The eruption was not expected,<br />
and none of the detected precursors was obviously<br />
indicative of an imminent eruption.<br />
Most of the Soufrière Hills eruption until 1998<br />
involved slow ascent and extrusion (0.5-10 m 3 s -1 ) of<br />
viscous magma to form a composite andesite lava dome.<br />
However, on several occasions, including two protracted<br />
intervals, magma erupted explosively from the conduit<br />
(see Table 2). From March 1998 until November<br />
1999 there was a pause in magma extrusion, during<br />
which time the dome became divided by a deep chasm<br />
and substantially reduced by collapses. Renewed extrusion<br />
of andesite lava from November 1999 is not dealt<br />
with here.<br />
The eruption in the period 1995-1999 involved five<br />
main styles of volcanic activity. Each characterised a distinctive<br />
phase in the eruptive history, but overlapped<br />
with other styles:<br />
Phreatic explosions. These were produced by the sudden<br />
and/or sustained jet-like release primarily of heated<br />
groundwater, which blasted out mainly old volcanic<br />
rock. They characterised the opening phase of the eruption.<br />
A powerful explosion on 21 August led to the first<br />
evacuation of Plymouth (see Table 2). The heat source<br />
was newly arisen magma.<br />
Lava-dome growth periodically with dome-collapse pyroclastic<br />
flows. This activity was produced by the slow<br />
extrusion of lava, mainly in the range 0.5-10 m 3 s -1 ,<br />
which formed a steep-sided dome or pinnacle that<br />
eventually collapsed to form a hot avalanche. Large collapses<br />
produced blocky pyroclastic flows, which, driven<br />
mainly by gravity, tended to follow valleys. They typically<br />
had an overriding ash cloud, part of which flowed<br />
down slope and was not strongly valley-confined, while<br />
part ascended buoyantly to form an ash plume. Such<br />
dome-collapse pyroclastic flows characterised most of<br />
the eruption during 1996, 1997 and early 1998 (see Figure<br />
4). They constituted the main hazard of the eruption,<br />
their high energy and searing temperatures (many<br />
hundreds of ˚C) rendering them lethal and highly<br />
destructive. They sometimes travelled at velocities up<br />
to about 40 m s -1 (~100 mph) and they caused the tragic<br />
fatalities and injuries of 25 June 1997 (see Table 2).<br />
Magmatic explosions, commonly with fountain-collapse<br />
pyroclastic flows. These followed substantial dome collapses<br />
and consequent depressurisation of gas-rich<br />
magma in the underlying conduit (like removing a cork<br />
from a bottle of champagne). Explosive disruption of the<br />
magma then formed an eruptive jet, part of which<br />
ascended buoyantly as a plume, commonly to several<br />
km, or higher (up to 15 km), and part of which commonly<br />
collapsed back following fountain-like trajectories<br />
to the ground to form fountain-collapse pyroclastic<br />
flows. The first major explosion (17-18 September 1996)<br />
produced a sustained eruption plume, following initial<br />
vent-clearing explosions that showered ballistic blocks 1<br />
m in diameter up to 2 km. from the vent. Two episodes<br />
of explosions (August and September-October 1997)<br />
were associated with fountain-collapse pyroclastic flows<br />
that were directed radially down most drainages.<br />
Catastrophic sector collapse with associated explosive<br />
dome disruption and pyroclastic flows. This was caused<br />
by large-scale volcano-structural instability leading to<br />
sudden edifice failure and depressurisation of gas-rich<br />
magma. It was anticipated earlier in the eruption (end-<br />
November 1996), but occurred 13 months later, on 26<br />
December 1997 (the so-called Boxing Day Collapse).<br />
Failure of old flank rocks caused a debris avalanche<br />
closely succeeded by highly energetic pyroclastic flows<br />
that formed from the explosively disintegrating unsupported<br />
dome; these obliterated St Patrick’s and surrounding<br />
areas, which were already evacuated.<br />
Ash venting. This occurred periodically from the<br />
Figure 4.<br />
Progressive<br />
inundation of<br />
southern<br />
Montserrat by<br />
pyroclastic flow<br />
deposits during<br />
1995-1999. Each<br />
map shows the<br />
extent of deposits<br />
at the end of the<br />
time indicated. The<br />
areas impacted by<br />
pyroclastic flows<br />
are almost entirely<br />
the same as those<br />
anticipated in the<br />
hazards assessment<br />
made by<br />
Wadge & Isaacs<br />
(1987, 1988)<br />
before Hurricane<br />
Hugo damaged<br />
many key<br />
installations in<br />
Plymouth. Despite<br />
the contrary advice<br />
in the assessment,<br />
key installations<br />
were rebuilt in<br />
Plymouth, only to<br />
be lost to the<br />
volcano.<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Figure 5a-k.<br />
Risk management maps based on hazards assessments made by the Montserrat Volcano<br />
Observatory (see text and Table 2). Until July 1997, the maps were used in conjunction<br />
with an alert-level system that changed the advice and/or access status relating to<br />
specific zones (see Table 3). Moving from Zones 4 to 1 or G to A (earlier maps) represents<br />
increasing risk. The May 1996 map (a) utilised field assessment and computer simulation<br />
(modelling) of pyroclastic flow behaviour on the volcano slopes; the October 1996 map<br />
(b) primarily reflected MVO consensus on the hazards of dome-collapse pyroclastic flows,<br />
with enhanced risks from major magmatic explosions (as occurred on 17 September); the<br />
November and December 1996 maps (c and d) reflected concern for a possible collapse to<br />
the southwest of Galway’s Wall, with a major explosion, and the February 1997 map (e)<br />
registered a diminishment of this; the 6 June 1997 map (f) took account of the new<br />
threats from pyroclastic flows travelling northwards; the 27 June 1997 map (g) registered<br />
the aftermath of the 25 June tragedy and continuing volcanic escalation; the 4 July 1997<br />
map (h) constituted acknowledgement of the continued escalation and need for<br />
rationalisation of the management system for simplicity; the September 1997 map (i)<br />
took account of a possible explosion with ten times the intensity of that of 17 September<br />
1996; the 30 September 1998 map (j) reflects the cessation of emplacement of new<br />
magma but persistent threat of pyroclastic flows; the 12 April 1999 map (k) recognised<br />
diminished eruptive energy, although substantial ash fall rendered the Daytime Entry<br />
Zone far from comfortable.<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
actively growing and cooling lava dome, but characterised<br />
the phase when (after mid-March 1998) there<br />
was no substantial ascent of magma. It occurred when<br />
cooling and crystallisation caused abundant gas (mainly<br />
water vapour) to be exsolved and exhaled, commonly<br />
carrying with it ash derived by conduit erosion.<br />
Pyroclastic fallout (volcanic ash and gravel) from<br />
plumes was associated with all five styles of activity and<br />
generally increased as the eruptive activity escalated.<br />
Low-level plumes commonly drifted over the populous<br />
areas on the easterly trade winds, and substantial ash fall<br />
was common over the northwestern part of the island<br />
where most of the post-evacuation inhabitants were<br />
located. Although involving intense nuisance, some danger<br />
of roof-collapse, and possible secondary hazards (e.g.<br />
because of reduced visibility), the effects of the fallout<br />
were of concern mainly regarding long-term health and<br />
not immediately lethal volcanic hazard. The long-term<br />
health effects of respirable cristobalite, a silica mineral<br />
found to be abundant in dome-derived ash, remain cause<br />
for concern regarding lung-scarring silicosis (a miners’<br />
disease) and are the subject of ongoing health studies.<br />
Impacts of ballistic projectiles (bombs) capable of threatening<br />
life (fragments larger than ~50 mm in diameter)<br />
mainly occurred within zones that were already evacuated<br />
according to the hazards of pyroclastic flows. Roughly<br />
half of the houses of Long Ground, 2 km northeast of<br />
the vent (see Figure 2), were hit by ballistic blocks from<br />
the initial explosion(s) of 17 September 1996; some were<br />
larger than 1 m. in diameter.<br />
Emergency Management<br />
Table 2 sketches the progress of the eruption against the<br />
responses in terms of emergency management. Eleven<br />
risk management maps were published as the eruption<br />
escalated (see Figures 4 and 5), each with zones depicted<br />
according to hazards anticipated by the Montserrat<br />
Volcano Observatory (MVO). The micro-zonation<br />
maps were used until July 1997, in conjunction with an<br />
Alert Scheme (Table 3). Risk Management Zones had<br />
their access regulations altered according to the level of<br />
risk as set by the announced Alert Stage. At a particular<br />
alert level certain ‘generic’ restrictions applied to the<br />
various zones. For example, with a change of alert level<br />
from Orange to Red, Zones C and D, previously with<br />
limited access only, become exclusion zones to be<br />
rapidly evacuated (see Table 3). To a certain extent the<br />
restrictions could be (and were) treated flexibly by<br />
administrative officials. If new scientific consensus<br />
found it necessary, information was provided as a basis<br />
for the maps and/or alert levels to be changed.<br />
In the contexts of (1) the human and infrastructural<br />
stresses imposed by evacuations, (2) recognition that<br />
there was public determination not to leave the island,<br />
and (3) the political desire to keep life as near as possible<br />
to normal (albeit quite abnormal), the MVO was under<br />
Table 3.<br />
Alert System<br />
for Montserrat<br />
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY ALERT LEVEL ACTIONS BY ADMINISTRATORS & GENERAL PUBLIC<br />
Background seismicity with no new surface manifestation of<br />
volcanic activity.<br />
Low-level local seismic activity, ground deformation and mild<br />
phreatic activity.<br />
Dome-building in progress, periodic collapses generating<br />
rockfalls and occasional pyroclastic flows. Moderate level of<br />
seismic activity with no sudden changes.<br />
Change in style of activity anticipated within a few days.<br />
Pyroclastic flows common with associated light ash fall. High<br />
level of seismic activity.<br />
Major dome collapse under way, with large pyroclastic flows<br />
and heavy ash fall. Explosive event possible if the activity<br />
continues.<br />
Ongoing large explosive eruption with heavy ash fall.<br />
0<br />
(WHITE)<br />
1<br />
(YELLOW)<br />
2<br />
(AMBER)<br />
3<br />
(ORANGE)<br />
4<br />
(RED)<br />
5<br />
(PURPLE)<br />
All zones occupied. Review and update emergency plans on an ongoing<br />
basis<br />
Maintain readiness of key personnel, systems and procedures. Keep<br />
stock of critical supplies. Local evacuations may be necessary in Zone A.<br />
Zone B and C on standby.<br />
Zone A - No access.<br />
Zone B - Access limited to short visits by residents, officials and<br />
approved visitors with means of rapid exit.<br />
Zone C - Daytime only visits by residents, for approved commercial<br />
activities and agriculture.<br />
Zone D - Day and night-time occupation by residents, high level of alert<br />
maintained.<br />
Zone E, F - Full occupation by residents with national contingency plan<br />
for evacuation in readiness.<br />
Zone G - Full occupation.<br />
Zone A, B - No access.<br />
Zone C - Access limited to short visits by residents and workers with<br />
means of rapid exit.<br />
Zone D - Daytime occupation for essential services and agriculture,<br />
residents allowed access in daytime. Essential services operate with<br />
standby transport and evacuation plans in place.<br />
Zone E - Full occupation with high level of alert maintained. Schools<br />
operate with standby transport.<br />
Zone F - Full occupation by residents with contingency plan for<br />
evacuation. Warn of ashfalls in Zone E and F.<br />
Zone G - Full occupation.<br />
Montserrat Standing Operation Procedures for Red Alert in place.<br />
All schools closed as required. People with special needs removed from<br />
Zone E & F.<br />
Zone A, B, C, D - No access, rapid evacuation of all remaining persons.<br />
Zone E - Rapid evacuation. Warn of potential for gravel, pumice and ash<br />
fall.<br />
Zone F - Warn of potential for gravel, pumice and ash fall.<br />
Zone G - Full occupation.<br />
Zone A, B, C, D, E - No access, rapid evacuation of all remaining persons.<br />
Zone F - Initiate evacuation. Warn of potential for gravel, pumice and<br />
ash fall.<br />
Zone G - Warn of potential for ash hazards.<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
pressure to keep risk zones as narrow and precisely<br />
located as possible, so as to minimise adverse livingstress<br />
effects. Such ‘microzonation’ was in effect minimising<br />
margins of error and involved fine judgements<br />
in decision making. However, for reasons not directly<br />
concerned with the scientific methodology, the system<br />
was changed in early July 1997. Significantly prompted<br />
by the 25 June tragedy, the complex zone maps were<br />
replaced by a far simpler and safer tripartite division of<br />
the island into an Exclusion Zone and a Northern Zone,<br />
with an intervening Central (buffer) Zone (see Figure 5,<br />
Map h). The September 1997 map resulted from a comprehensive<br />
evaluation of the contemporary step-up in<br />
volcanic activity (see Figure 5, Map i).<br />
The Wadge & Isaacs Report (1987)<br />
The study entitled ‘Volcanic hazards from Soufrière<br />
Hills Volcano, Montserrat, West Indies (Wadge &<br />
Isaacs 1987) was commissioned in 1986 on the understanding<br />
that Soufrière Hills Volcano was potentially<br />
dangerous. According to the report, the impetus for<br />
the study came from the Government of Montserrat,<br />
which wanted a full assessment to be made; apparently<br />
there were plans to combine the hazards analysis with<br />
new census data to produce a risk assessment. The latter<br />
never materialised.<br />
The Wadge & Isaacs report discussed a range of eruption<br />
scenarios, provided maps that implied devastation<br />
on various scales up to and including most of southern<br />
Montserrat (as actually occurred), made reference to<br />
the likelihood of an eruption, and advocated local<br />
emergency planning. The study utilised three main<br />
classes of data: (1) the distribution of prehistoric pyroclastic<br />
flow (and other) deposits on Montserrat (see<br />
Figure 3a), (2) age determinations of the pyroclastic<br />
deposits, and (3) computer models of pyroclastic flows<br />
down the (digital terrain) slopes of the volcano, which<br />
predicted extremes of runout distance. The existing<br />
deposits confirmed the extent of impact inferred by the<br />
modelling, and the age data yielded some information<br />
on prehistoric frequency. The focus on pyroclastic-flow<br />
behaviour was highly relevant for Montserrat, because<br />
the favoured sites for the towns and villages, as well as<br />
the airport and farming sites, were on the gentle slopes<br />
of pyroclastic flow deposits derived from Soufrière<br />
Hills Volcano (see Figures 2 & 3).<br />
The report concluded that eruption emergency<br />
planning should allow for three types of eruptions: (1)<br />
a small eruption that would directly threaten Long<br />
Ground, which should be evacuated as soon as the<br />
eruption began, (2) a moderate to large eruption for<br />
which most of southern Montserrat should be evacuated<br />
according to priorities indicated in the sequential<br />
hazard zone map, and (3) a collapsing dome/lateral blast<br />
eruption - a very remote but dangerous possibility<br />
requiring immediate evacuation of the relevant 180-<br />
degree sector of the volcano. It went on to suggest that<br />
some consideration be given to strategies for mitigating<br />
the damage done to Montserrat by the loss during an<br />
eruption of the centralised facilities at Plymouth.<br />
In 1988 a distillation of the report was published and<br />
distributed internationally (Wadge & Isaacs 1988). In<br />
1989 one of the hazard maps was reproduced in a children’s<br />
book in a series on World Disasters (Knapp<br />
1989). The caption (abbreviated) reads: This computer<br />
map shows one way the volcano on Montserrat may erupt. It<br />
shows areas where people need to be evacuated. The government<br />
can also use these maps to show areas where it is safe to build in<br />
the future. Hospitals and control centers should all be placed<br />
away from danger spots. The text states: The latest scientific<br />
techniques have been used to help the government of the<br />
Caribbean island of Montserrat to make plans in case there<br />
should be an eruption in the future. ...Scientists have pinpointed<br />
the likely danger spots so that evacuation plans can be prepared<br />
taking these spots into account.<br />
Evidently, the Wadge & Isaacs report was never<br />
received in a way that allowed it to be used as advocated<br />
in the children’s book. On Montserrat, losses of documents<br />
from the Governor’s office and other<br />
government offices were attributed to Hurricane<br />
Hugo, which struck in 1989. The regional organisation<br />
charged with ensuring disaster preparedness, which<br />
commissioned the report in 1986, was superseded in<br />
1991. Seemingly, institutional memory can be as short<br />
as the period leading to a change of key personnel,<br />
organisational structure or government.<br />
It is conceivable that if the report had been read thoroughly<br />
by interested parties in Montserrat, its findings<br />
on the long-term recurrence probability of pyroclasticflow<br />
inundation of Plymouth, of about 1% per century,<br />
might have been interpreted as acceptable odds justifying<br />
no action on rethinking the island’s infrastructure.<br />
Similarly, a sentence near the end of the report, under<br />
Long-Term Planning, – “Soufrière Hills Volcano is not<br />
a very active volcano and it may be centuries before it<br />
erupts again on the scale requiring mass evacuation.” –<br />
might have been interpreted as a rationale for doing<br />
nothing. The estimation of future-event probability<br />
was necessarily crude. It is nevertheless remarkable that<br />
the report’s recommendations were not recollected<br />
when, in mid to late 1994, earthquakes very obviously<br />
located beneath the Soufrière Hills Volcano were<br />
detected and escalating. Although this escalation constituted<br />
no strong reason to expect an eruption (at the<br />
highest level of probability), evacuation plans, at least,<br />
should have been considered then. Former volcanoseismic<br />
crises of greater seismic energy had not led to<br />
eruption, but the key issue, recognised in the commissioning<br />
of the Wadge & Isaacs study in 1986 and so pertinent<br />
for the region, is one of disaster preparedness.<br />
It is regrettable that the Wadge & Isaacs study did not<br />
register fully in Montserrat or with the UK government<br />
department responsible for the administration of its<br />
Overseas Territory. Full consideration of it would: (1)<br />
have forced authorities in advance to evaluate the priori-<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
ties and possible consequences of their actions or inaction,<br />
particularly with regard to rebuilding key installations<br />
in Plymouth, and (2) have provided them with<br />
enhanced forward-looking capability at the onset of the<br />
eruption. Montserrat was less prepared than it might<br />
have been had the Wadge & Isaacs report found its mark.<br />
Census data were never utilised to produce risk assessments,<br />
which might have transformed the findings into<br />
terms more readily understood by planners and policy<br />
makers. The lessons in this for other communities at risk<br />
from volcanoes are non-trivial. With hindsight, the tragic<br />
losses on Montserrat could have been considerably<br />
fewer if the volcanic hazards assessment had triggered<br />
institutional planning for risk mitigation.<br />
Reflections<br />
The 1995-1999 eruption in Montserrat has been the<br />
most destructive in the West Indies since 1902 (the devastation<br />
of St Pierre and environs, Martinique). By 1998,<br />
when magma ascent paused and it was hoped that the<br />
eruption had ended, the resources deployed by the UK<br />
government agencies for scientific monitoring of the<br />
volcano amounted to more than £3.8 million, including<br />
provision of a helicopter (~£1.2 million). The total<br />
expenditure by then was almost £56 million, which was<br />
disbursed by the Department for International Development<br />
(DFID) of Her Majesty’s Government.<br />
The slow progress of the volcanic escalation coupled<br />
with the small size of the island had several key effects.<br />
The island was sufficiently large to have a safe zone<br />
throughout the eruption, but the majority of the inhabited<br />
areas and associated infrastructure had progressively<br />
to be abandoned. There was never any real need to<br />
evacuate the entire island, although contingency plans<br />
for this were formulated at the onset of the eruption<br />
(see Table 2). Had the eruption escalated rapidly, the<br />
risk management microzonation system probably<br />
would never have been developed.<br />
In terms of emergency management at Montserrat,<br />
the slow escalation also caused some problems with<br />
enforcement of evacuations. Whereas risk could be<br />
assessed and evacuations advised according to robust<br />
criteria, long periods with little change that was perceptible<br />
to the population contributed to several<br />
instances of hazardous disregard of advice or instructions.<br />
One such instance contributed to the tragic<br />
deaths on 25 June 1997. Some survivors commented<br />
that, had they known what the volcano could do, they<br />
might not have exposed themselves to the hazard. A<br />
catastrophic onset to the eruption probably would<br />
have engendered more cautious attention to the<br />
issued evacuation notices.<br />
The challenge for the future in vulnerable areas lies<br />
in ensuring that full institutional preparedness actually<br />
does follow from soundly based scientific appraisal of<br />
hazards and robust assessments of consequent risks.<br />
There are many communities, globally, that require upto-date<br />
hazards assessments.<br />
References<br />
Clay, E., Barrow, C., Benson, C., Dempster, J., Kokelaar, P., Pillai, N. & Seaman,<br />
J. (1999) An Evaluation of HMG’s Response to the Montserrat Volcanic<br />
Emergency, Department for International Development Evaluation Report<br />
EV635, Vols. I (86pp) and II (182pp).<br />
Knapp, B. (1989) Volcano London: Macmillan.<br />
Kokelaar, B.P. (2002) Setting, chronology and consequences of the 1995-<br />
1999 eruption of Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat. In: Druitt, T.H. &<br />
Kokelaar, B.P. (eds) The eruption of Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, from 1995<br />
to 1999. Geological Society of London Memoirs 21, 1-43.<br />
Wadge, G. & Isaacs, M.C., (1987) Volcanic Hazards from Soufrière Hills Volcano,<br />
Montserrat, West Indies. A report to the Government of Montserrat and the<br />
Pan Caribbean Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Project. Reading:<br />
Department of Geography, University of Reading, UK.<br />
Wadge, G. & Isaacs, M.C. (1988). Mapping the volcanic hazards from<br />
Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, West Indies using an image processor.<br />
Journal of the Geological Society, London, 145: 541-555.<br />
Websites<br />
The Montserrat Volcano Observatory<br />
http://www.mvo.ms/<br />
U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards Program<br />
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/<br />
Montserrat Reporter<br />
http://www.montserratreporter.org/<br />
Volcano World<br />
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/<br />
How Volcanoes Work<br />
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/index.html<br />
Volcanic Jump Station<br />
An alphabetic list of links to other sites concerning volcanoes, use the<br />
alphabet tables to hop to a specific letter.<br />
http://www.v-home.alaska.edu/~jdehn/vjump.htm<br />
National Geographic Volcano information<br />
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/98/volcanoes<br />
Discovery On-line<br />
http://www.discovery.com/exp/montserrat/previous.html<br />
Acknowledgements<br />
This work is dedicated to all of the staff and other scientists who have<br />
served the Montserrat Volcano Observatory and hence given vital<br />
assistance to the beleaguered people of Montserrat. Kay Lancaster<br />
patiently and expertly drafted the figures and Helen Kokelaar gave<br />
considerable assistance and support to the author through the entire<br />
Montserrat project.<br />
Peter Kokelaar<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s Department<br />
University of Liverpool<br />
Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK.<br />
P.Kokelaar@liv.ac.uk<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Mineral Exploration<br />
TIM COLMAN<br />
We all use minerals from the moment we get up each day; finely powdered calcite in toothpaste<br />
and copper pipes carrying hot water. The roads are built of local crushed rock, sand and gravel<br />
with tarmac from oil refinery residues. Cars are made from steel made from iron ore from<br />
Australia, Brazil or Sweden and even washing powder contains phosphates from Morocco.<br />
This article is based on a workshop given by the author at the ESTA Annual Conference held at the<br />
BGS Headquarters, Keyworth, Nottingham, in September 2002.<br />
Figure 1<br />
Cartoon: mineral<br />
use in the USA<br />
Prices, demand and exploration<br />
Figure 1 shows the prolific use of minerals by the<br />
world’s richest country. The price of commodities has a<br />
great effect on mineral exploration. For example, the<br />
price of gold was fixed at $35 per ounce in the 1930s<br />
(the Gold Standard). By the 1960s this was very close to<br />
the cost of production, so no one looked for gold. South<br />
Africa produced over 60% of the world’s gold at just<br />
under 1000 tonnes per year. Then in 1968 the fixed<br />
price was removed and the price of gold began to rise:<br />
see Figure 2. When it reached a price of $600 per ounce<br />
in the early 1980s companies started looking for gold in<br />
earnest and production increased rapidly. Now production<br />
is around 2400 tonnes per year and South Africa’s<br />
share has shrunk to 18%.<br />
Mineral exploration as a job<br />
Mineral exploration is one of the most interesting and<br />
varied jobs. It involves geology, physics, chemistry<br />
(sometimes even biology – geobotanical exploration)<br />
coupled with travel to unusual places, diplomacy and<br />
public relations! The exploration geologist is usually<br />
the first person from his/her organisation in the area<br />
being explored and has to explain what they are doing,<br />
and why, to the general public.<br />
Figure 2<br />
World gold price<br />
fluctuations<br />
since 1968<br />
Figure 3<br />
Major cobalt deposits<br />
Where we look for minerals<br />
Generally the best place to find any particular minerals<br />
is ‘elephant country’ i.e. near an existing mine (or<br />
where elephants live!), or in a similar geological situation<br />
to an existing deposit. This means that the ground<br />
will have been well explored in the past so that new<br />
techniques or new ideas may have to be used to find<br />
new deposits. However, some companies deliberately<br />
go to areas which have not had much exploration in the<br />
hope of finding something more easily. The image<br />
below shows the locations of major cobalt deposits<br />
around the world.<br />
Exploration geologists may work anywhere in the<br />
world, apart from Antarctica where the Antarctic Treaty<br />
forbids the exploration and exploitation of any minerals.<br />
One could be at 3000 m altitude in the Andes, baking<br />
in the Australian outback, freezing in Arctic Canada<br />
or literally in someone’s backyard in Cornwall. Rocks<br />
all speak the same language, so the same geological<br />
skills can be employed anywhere in the world.<br />
Some companies, such as Inco (International Nickel<br />
Company of Canada) specialise in one or two metals<br />
– in this case nickel and copper. Others, such as the<br />
major British-based Rio Tinto, are interested in a wide<br />
range of commodities from iron ore to diamonds.<br />
Having identified the area of interest, some kind of<br />
prospecting licence is required to have legal ownership<br />
of whatever is found, subject to the terms of the licence.<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
This is usually from the government of the country,<br />
though in some places, such as America and Britain,<br />
most minerals are privately owned (gold and silver in<br />
Britain are owned by the Crown) and terms with<br />
numerous mineral rights owners have to be agreed<br />
before exploration starts.<br />
There are a number of stages to a mineral exploration<br />
programme, each one getting more detailed.<br />
Geology<br />
The first essential is a geological map of the area. This is<br />
often done in the office using satellite images as different<br />
rocks have different spectral characteristics and so a map<br />
of the rocks can be produced purely from the image. The<br />
exploration geologist then checks the map on the ground<br />
and adds the fine details which cannot be deduced from<br />
the images. This map allows the exploration campaign to<br />
be planned which is based on the assumption that any<br />
mineral deposit will have physical or chemical traces<br />
which extend beyond the deposit itself.<br />
Gossan<br />
Bleached zone<br />
Prospecting<br />
Surface prospecting, or walking over the area looking at<br />
the rocks for any unusual features which may indicate<br />
the presence of mineralisation, is still used today. Figure<br />
4 shows a gossan in Australia over a copper deposit. The<br />
gossan is the oxidised, iron-rich capping of an orebody<br />
at depth. It is surrounded by a much wider bleached<br />
zone of rocks which have altered by the mineralising<br />
fluids – in this case about 3100 Million years ago. Most<br />
of the numerous nickel deposits found in Western Australia<br />
in the 1960s and 1970s were discovered by<br />
prospectors locating gossans.<br />
Geochemistry<br />
Another basic technique is to take systematic samples of<br />
soil, rock and stream mud from the area. These are prepared<br />
by crushing and grinding to powder and are then<br />
analysed for a wide number of elements by a variety of<br />
X-Ray or spectroscopic methods. These are now all<br />
automated and capable of detecting many elements<br />
down to 1 part per million or less. Some elements, such<br />
as gold, are routinely analysed at parts per billion level<br />
in soil and rock and parts per trillion in water. A typical<br />
range of elements would be arsenic, antimony, barium,<br />
cobalt, copper, gold, iron, lead, manganese, molybdenum,<br />
nickel, platinum, palladium, silver, tin, tungsten,<br />
vanadium and zinc. The values of the different elements<br />
can then be plotted in various ways. Figure 5<br />
shows a series of soil samples across an area in southwest<br />
Wales collected by the BGS Mineral Reconnaissance<br />
Programme. The volcanic rock has higher zinc<br />
content and is prospective for mineralisation; a sample<br />
over a fault shows an increase in lead values.<br />
The values can also be displayed using a Geographic<br />
Information System (GIS) which allows numerate spatial<br />
data to be plotted, analysed and manipulated. The<br />
resulting geochemical map may show an ‘anomaly’ or<br />
area of higher values over the hidden mineral deposit<br />
where metals such as copper, lead or zinc have been<br />
leached out of the deposit and risen to the surface soil.<br />
Figure 6 is from the BGS Welsh Geochemical atlas<br />
(British Geological Survey, 2000) and shows high copper<br />
values in stream sediments around the Parys Mountain<br />
copper deposit in Anglesey, extending to the southeast.<br />
Geophysics<br />
Some minerals are magnetic and can affect the <strong>Earth</strong>’s<br />
natural magnetic field. The most important of these is<br />
magnetite Fe 3 O 4 or lodestone. Very sensitive instruments<br />
called magnetometers can measure the <strong>Earth</strong>’s<br />
magnetic field to within 1 part in 1 million. They can be<br />
hand-held or flown in aircraft to measure the changes<br />
Figure 4 (Top)<br />
Gossan over an<br />
Australian copper<br />
deposit<br />
Figure 5 (Above)<br />
Lead and zinc<br />
variation in soil<br />
samples across a<br />
South Wales<br />
transect<br />
Figure 6<br />
GIS at work: high<br />
copper values in<br />
stream sediments<br />
around Parys<br />
Mountain,<br />
Anglesey<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Figure 7<br />
Magnetic anomaly,<br />
Cunderlee<br />
prospect,<br />
Western Australia<br />
Figure 8<br />
Drill rig in<br />
southern Scotland<br />
in the magnetic field. Some igneous rocks, such as<br />
basalt, can contain small amounts of magnetite and thus<br />
be detected using a magnetometer. A magnetite deposit,<br />
such as the huge iron orebody at Kiruna in Sweden, can<br />
cause a very large anomaly. Figure 7 shows a strong, circular<br />
magnetic anomaly from the Cunderlee prospect<br />
in Western Australia. High values are dark, low values<br />
are pale. This has been drilled by Western Areas NL<br />
with a 700 m deep hole to investigate its potential for<br />
copper, nickel, platinum and possibly diamonds. The<br />
anomaly is caused by a circular intrusion of an igneous<br />
rock into less magnetic sedimentary rocks.<br />
Some mineral deposits, especially those with a lot of<br />
pyrite which often accompanies more valuable minerals<br />
of copper or zinc, can be detected by their electrical<br />
conductivity compared with normally resistive rocks.<br />
There are various techniques for measuring this; some<br />
use electrodes to put a current into the ground while<br />
others create an electrical field using copper coils.<br />
Drilling<br />
Once an anomaly has been found which is thought to be<br />
due to a mineral deposit it has to be tested by drilling a<br />
hole. There are many different types of drill, but the one<br />
most commonly used to assess a metalliferous deposit is<br />
the diamond drill which uses a hollow steel pipe with a<br />
‘bit’ on the end studded with small industrial diamonds.<br />
The drill bit is usually from 35 to 60 mm across, so only<br />
a very small amount of rock is taken. These form the cutting<br />
edge which grinds up the rock as the drill pipe is<br />
rotated. A core of rock goes inside the pipe and can be<br />
recovered for analysis to determine what the metal content<br />
of the rock is. It may take several hundred drill holes<br />
to prove a large deposit. Figure 8 shows a drill rig in<br />
southern Scotland and Figure 9 below shows core from<br />
a gold deposit in northern Scotland.<br />
The odds on finding a commercially successful<br />
deposit are small. Generally a rule of thumb is that for<br />
every 1000 prospects investigated, 100 are checked in<br />
more detail including perhaps some drilling, 10 are taken<br />
to an advanced stage but only one becomes a mine.<br />
Further information<br />
British Geological Survey 2000. Regional geochemistry of<br />
Wales and west-central England: stream sediment and soil.<br />
(Keyworth: British Geological Survey).<br />
Websites<br />
BGS G-BASE<br />
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/gbase<br />
BGS Mineral Reconnaissance Programme and other<br />
minerals-related information<br />
http://www.mineralsUK.com<br />
Mineral Information Institute<br />
http://www.mii.org<br />
Western Areas NL<br />
http://www.westernareas.com.au<br />
Tim Colman<br />
British Geological Survey<br />
Keyworth<br />
Notts<br />
NG12 5GG<br />
Acknowledgements<br />
The Cunderlee aeromagnetic image was provided<br />
by R. Stuart, Geophysicist, Western Areas NL,<br />
Perth Western Australia. The mine baby image was<br />
provided by Mineral Information Institute Golden<br />
Colorado USA. This article is published with the<br />
permission of the Executive Director BGS.<br />
Figure 9 Cores from a gold deposit, northern Scotland<br />
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120
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Geological Time in the Classroom<br />
IAN WILKINSON<br />
This article is based on a workshop given by the author at the ESTA annual conference held at the BGS<br />
Headquaters in September 2002. For many, the concept of time is difficult to grasp. Yet even at Key Stage 2,<br />
children are expected to understand long periods of time, such as the activities of the Egyptians 4000 years ago,<br />
the Romans 2000 years ago or the Vikings 1000 years ago. These events took place so long ago that the child<br />
needs help to understand the passage of time. A student having difficulty in comprehending one thousand years<br />
may find it impossible to understand one thousand million years without a little help. Geological time means large<br />
numbers and it is necessary to break down these vast periods of time into more manageable pieces. Scaling is a<br />
useful tool especially when placed alongside a time line.<br />
Tempus fugit<br />
A number of models have been used to scale the 4,600<br />
million years of the <strong>Earth</strong>’s geological history in order<br />
to make it a more manageable concept. Compressing<br />
geological time into, for example, the twenty-four<br />
hours of the day or even to a single hour have been<br />
used. However, this gives the impression that, with the<br />
appearance of humans “a few seconds before midnight”,<br />
geological time came to an end and that our<br />
species is the ultimate life form at the end of the evolutionary<br />
process. This is far from the truth and these<br />
models, therefore, may be misleading.<br />
The solar system is estimated to be about half way<br />
through its life and so the model presented here scales<br />
geological time to that of a middle-aged person. Consider<br />
the <strong>Earth</strong> not as a planet 4,600 million years old,<br />
but as a person 46 years old. What major events have<br />
happened to <strong>Earth</strong> on some of its 46 ‘birthdays’? Of<br />
course to an eight or twelve year old child, it is perhaps<br />
difficult to imagine that anybody could be as old as 46,<br />
but discussion about the age of relatives – parents and<br />
grandparents (and teachers?) – helps to bring this into a<br />
more understandable framework. I would argue that,<br />
for a child, the same mental agility is necessary to come<br />
to terms with 46 years, 460 years and 4600 years, as is<br />
needed to understand 4,600 million years.<br />
Time in the classroom<br />
A time line is the ideal way to demonstrate how life has<br />
changed throughout <strong>Earth</strong>’s history and to help the student<br />
to comprehend the passage of geological time.<br />
Children in Key Stages 2 and 3 will be familiar with<br />
time lines. They will have constructed one for their<br />
own life, early in their educational experience and will<br />
1 2 3 4 5 ....................................... 43 44 45 46<br />
a.<br />
b. c.<br />
Age of the <strong>Earth</strong> in millions of years<br />
1. Creation of the<br />
Solar system and<br />
Formation of <strong>Earth</strong>’s<br />
crust.<br />
10 20<br />
2. The oldest things<br />
known to have<br />
formed on <strong>Earth</strong> are<br />
Zircon crystals.<br />
460 450 440<br />
d.<br />
3.<br />
Millions of years ago<br />
2<br />
The young <strong>Earth</strong> was covered in craters,<br />
rocks and dust, and there would have<br />
been lots of volcanoes. From the<br />
volcanoes came huge amounts of steam<br />
which condensed onto the cooler crust to<br />
form the oceans. This was also a time<br />
when there was a great bombardment of<br />
water-laden meteorites, that added to<br />
the <strong>Earth</strong>’s oceans. The oldest surviving<br />
things that are known to have formed on<br />
the <strong>Earth</strong> are crystals of a mineral called<br />
zircon. These crystals show that.........<br />
Figure 1.<br />
Methods for constructing a geological<br />
time line.<br />
a. A linear timeline divided into 46 units<br />
(“birthdays”).<br />
b. A linear time line stretched along a<br />
4.6m long washing line.<br />
c. An A0 board divided into 46 divisions<br />
(note the linear appearance is lost in<br />
this case).<br />
d. Part of a time line drawn on a computer<br />
(using Microsoft Word, saved in a pdf<br />
format and viewed in Adobe Acrobat).<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Table 1. (opposite)<br />
A geological time<br />
line: important<br />
events in the life<br />
and times of<br />
planet <strong>Earth</strong>.<br />
Ma = Millions of<br />
years ago<br />
also have met the concept in a historical context. It is a<br />
natural progression to extend the idea of a time line<br />
back into geological time.<br />
There are several ways that this can be achieved in the<br />
classroom (or outside area).<br />
● A piece of wallpaper 4.6 metres long could be<br />
stretched around a room, divided up into forty six<br />
10cm squares, each square representing a ‘birthday’<br />
(see Figure 1a).<br />
● A 4.6m length of rope, like a washing line, can be<br />
stretched across a playground (see Figure 1b). A<br />
clothes-peg every 10cm can be used to mark the<br />
‘birthdays’.<br />
● Or, if space really is at a premium, a grid pattern of<br />
46 squares can be drawn on an A0 piece of card (see<br />
Figure 1c), although this does lose the linear appearance<br />
(if time is indeed linear- I leave that question to<br />
the physicists).<br />
Whatever method is appropriate, subdivision into 46<br />
units is useful as these give the idea of the 46 ‘birthdays’<br />
(each birthday represents 100 million years of geological<br />
time). It is helpful if the last division (representing<br />
the last year between the 45 and 46th birthdays) is an<br />
elongate rectangle. A lot happened during that last<br />
‘year’, as Table 1 shows (and there is a need to be selective),<br />
and if it can be divided into 12 ‘months’, so much<br />
the better (see Figure 1c).<br />
Of course, for older students the concept of the <strong>Earth</strong><br />
having birthdays might be considered too juvenile.<br />
However, the same principal can be used. In this case the<br />
scaling can be retained, but the <strong>Earth</strong>’s age can be depicted<br />
along the time line in years from its creation and/or<br />
the number of years before present (as in Figure 1d,<br />
which combines <strong>Earth</strong>’s ‘birthdays’ and geological time).<br />
It is on this time line that the geological events are<br />
placed. These can be attached as blocks of text, but the<br />
visual impact is far better if photographs, sketches or<br />
the children’s artwork can be placed on the line (or<br />
pegged on the washing line at appropriate distances).<br />
The main biological events are shown in Table 1,<br />
although other events can also be added to the time line<br />
to make it as complex as required. Additional events<br />
might be evolution of the atmosphere, major extinction<br />
events, phases of mountain building, construction and<br />
break-up of super continents, etc.<br />
A modern approach might include ICT to draw the<br />
timeline by computer (see Figure 1d). Student’s artwork<br />
can be scanned and attached to the time line, as<br />
can pictures of fossils, rocks, minerals, maps, etc, perhaps<br />
taken from the Web or from clip-art packages.<br />
Hyperlinks can then be used to link the time line to<br />
additional information (e.g. students’ texts). Sophisticated<br />
software packages are not necessary. A pleasing<br />
effect can be achieved simply by using Word files converted<br />
to pdf format and viewed through Adobe Acrobat<br />
software. Figure 1d was drawn using the latter<br />
method and shows a hyperlink to a block of text<br />
describing an event on <strong>Earth</strong>’s second ‘birthday’.<br />
Another hyperlink returns you to the time line.<br />
But what of the future? Our middle-aged solar system<br />
has some way to go yet, and so has the evolution of<br />
life. It is interesting to debate what the world might<br />
look like in another million or 4000 million years. Will<br />
humans still dominate? What will be the effect of<br />
humans on biodiversity? What organisms might evolve,<br />
and what might the atmosphere be composed of? What<br />
is life’s future and how will it all end?<br />
Bearing in mind the article on creationism in volume<br />
27, part 1, of TES, it was perhaps appropriate that<br />
a discussion of life in the geological past was included in<br />
ESTA’s annual conference for 2002. Certainly the conflict<br />
between ‘Scientific’ concepts and ‘Creationist’ doctrines<br />
and the difficulties encountered in a classroom<br />
situation, were discussed during the workshop. I present<br />
here only the ‘scientific case’ and would not wish<br />
to enter a philosophical or theological debate as to how<br />
‘correct’ science or theology may or may not be. However,<br />
this is certainly a subject for discussion, particularly<br />
with the older students.<br />
The Geological time line<br />
The key geological events in the history of life are shown<br />
in Table 1, with brief notes for each. It should be noted<br />
that these events did not fall exactly on the <strong>Earth</strong>’s ‘birthdays’,<br />
but I have placed them to the nearest one. So the<br />
appearance of the dinosaurs 225 Ma (Ma = Millions of<br />
years ago) has been placed, for convenience, at the 44th<br />
birthday. A more accurate date for these events are given<br />
in the notes in Table 1. Of course absolute ages are<br />
approximate anyway and the degree of error and uncertainty<br />
increases with age. There are various opinions in<br />
scientific circles regarding the accuracy of dating methods,<br />
and a number of ‘corrections’ have been made in<br />
recent years. Take the Carboniferous, for example. The<br />
lower boundary has varied between 367 and 353 Ma and<br />
the top has been variously dated between 280 and 301Ma.<br />
This suggests that the Carboniferous was anything<br />
between 52 and 87 million years in duration.<br />
There are a number of critical events in the history<br />
of life, living organisms being those that eat and excrete,<br />
respire, grow, reproduce, respond to external stimuli<br />
and move. Viruses might be considered the most primitive<br />
life form in that they seem to span the prebiological/biological<br />
boundary, although they do not show any<br />
signs of life independent of their host cells. The bacterium<br />
is the most primitive organism capable of independent<br />
life. If we were bacteria, the key events that<br />
took place would be different from those mentioned<br />
here, but from the human perspective, there are perhaps<br />
seven major evolutionary events.<br />
1. The first is the evolution of life itself. Exactly when<br />
and how this took place are matters for conjecture.<br />
However, between about 4000 and 3800 Ma, bacteria<br />
evolved as a result of non-biological evolution,<br />
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122
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
‘Birthday’<br />
Approximate age<br />
of the <strong>Earth</strong><br />
(millions of years)<br />
Approximate time<br />
before present in<br />
millions of years<br />
Notes on key Events in the history of life<br />
0<br />
0<br />
4600<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> formed from a dust cloud with the sun in centre. When <strong>Earth</strong> was about 80%<br />
its present size, it crashed with another planetoid, creating a ring around <strong>Earth</strong><br />
which fused together to form the moon.<br />
1<br />
100<br />
4500<br />
<strong>Earth</strong>’s core formed when dense metals sank to the centre. Eventually the stony<br />
crust cooled and solidified. Little is known about <strong>Earth</strong> (no crustal rocks survive).<br />
2<br />
200<br />
4400<br />
Oldest known minerals to form on <strong>Earth</strong> are zircon crystals in Australia. Inclusions<br />
said to indicate oceans had formed by this time, although this is controversial.<br />
5<br />
500<br />
4100<br />
End of the Hadean (the name of the essentially unknown phase of <strong>Earth</strong>’s history,<br />
not represented by crustal rocks).<br />
6<br />
600<br />
4000<br />
The Ancaster Gneiss (Greenland) are <strong>Earth</strong>’s oldest known crustal rocks (c. 4000 Ma).<br />
8<br />
800<br />
3800<br />
Akilia Gneiss (3850 Ma) said to have carbon traces of life, but this is controversial.<br />
9<br />
900<br />
3700<br />
Banded Ironstone Formations (BIFs) are believed to have beencreated by bacteria.<br />
Oxygen given off by bacteria caused ferrous iron in ocean water to oxidise and<br />
precipitate as a red layer of iron on the sea floor. At times when oxygen was not<br />
being created, grey cherts were precipitated instead. These layers built up<br />
alternately to form BIFs. BIFs provide the earliest signs of photosynthesis. They<br />
began to form about 3700 Ma, but no fossils known. However, photosynthesising<br />
bacteria must have evolved from non-photosynthesising ancestors, which in turn<br />
evolved via non-biological evolution.<br />
11<br />
1100<br />
3500<br />
Oldest fossils – bacteria occur in the Apex Chert (western Australia), 3465 Ma old.<br />
Oxygen was a waste product and would have been poisonous to these early life<br />
forms. However, the oxygen was trapped in the rocks by oxidising iron.<br />
16<br />
1600<br />
3000<br />
Stromatolites formed by blue-green cyanobacteria, microscopic, single celled,<br />
photosynthesising organisms. They formed a mat of calcite removed from the sea<br />
water, which gradually built up to form domes. Blue-green bacteria are still making<br />
stromatolitic domes in Shark Bay (Australia) 3000 million years later.<br />
31<br />
3100<br />
1500<br />
Small amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere. The first eukaryotes appear, the basic<br />
cell type that almost every living thing on <strong>Earth</strong> is made of – protista, fungus, plant,<br />
animal kingdoms (only bacteria – Kingdom Monera- have the simpler prokaryotic<br />
cell). Sexual reproduction is said to have evolved at about this time. Rocks 1000 Ma<br />
old show an increase in diversity of these early eukaryotes, protista.<br />
39<br />
3900<br />
700<br />
The first multicelled animal fossils including the ‘sea-pen’ Charnia, worms, sea<br />
urchin-like creatures and jelly fish, are a little over 600Ma old. Trace fossils in<br />
Australia and Africa are about 700 Ma old (i.e. younger than underlying igneous<br />
rocks dated as 750-800 Ma old). Geneticists have suggested animal life began c.<br />
1000 Ma ago, but there is no evidence for this in the geological record.<br />
40<br />
4000<br />
600<br />
Animals with hard parts (shells and skeletons) e.g. trilobites and molluscs evolved. The<br />
earliest fish evolved soon after. Various dates have been suggested, between 545 and<br />
600 Ma (this is the base of the Cambrian). Soon afterwards, all kinds of organisms with<br />
hard parts began to evolve, including corals, crinoids, brachiopods, nautiloids,<br />
graptolites and microscopic species too- e.g. foraminifera, ostracods, conodonts.<br />
41<br />
4100<br />
500<br />
The first fish with calcareous back bones evolved (rather than cartilaginous<br />
notocords). Comparison can be made to other vertebrates including ourselves.<br />
42<br />
4200<br />
400<br />
Sufficient ozone in the atmosphere allowed plants to evolve from algae and colonise<br />
the land. Invasion of land by plants began with the evolution of non-vascular<br />
bryophytes in the Mid Ordovician, about 460 Ma ago. Cooksonia, the first vascular<br />
plant, evolved in the late Silurian, c. 420 Ma ago. Soon afterwards animals followed<br />
the plants. Animal life has been found on the marshy land associated with early plant<br />
fossils. Worms, snails and, by the late Devonian, the first amphibians (tetrapods) were<br />
the earliest to leave the aquatic realm. Amphibians rapidly evolved into lizards.<br />
43<br />
4300<br />
300<br />
The first tropical rain forests evolved (the coal forests) and began to spread about<br />
320 Ma ago.<br />
123 www.esta-uk.org
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
‘Birthday’<br />
Approximate age<br />
of the <strong>Earth</strong><br />
(millions of years)<br />
Approximate time<br />
before present in<br />
millions of years<br />
Notes on key Events in the history of life<br />
44<br />
4400<br />
200<br />
Lizards evolved into dinosaurs 225 Ma ago. ‘Mammal-like reptiles’ evolved into the<br />
first mammals-shrew-like insectivores- about 210 Ma ago.<br />
45<br />
4500<br />
100<br />
Archaeopteryx, the first bird, evolved from feathered theropod dinosaurs about 140<br />
Ma ago. Soon afterwards (c.130 Ma ago) flowering plants evolved – Archaefructus<br />
was the earliest angiosperm (it had carpels but no flower), but soon afterwards<br />
species related to Magnolia appeared (oldest fossil flower).<br />
45 years 4 months<br />
45,300<br />
65<br />
Mass extinction 65 to 70% of all species, including all the ammonites, belemnites,<br />
flying reptiles and dinosaurs (although birds, the last of the evolutionary line of the<br />
dinosaurs continued to thrive). After this mass extinction, mammals rapidly<br />
diversified occupying land, sea and air.<br />
45years 10 months<br />
45,984<br />
15<br />
Grass evolved. This is, perhaps, the most important flowering plant so far as<br />
humans are concerned as it provides us with wheat, barley, maize, rice, etc. The<br />
first grasslands evolved during a prolonged phase cooling climate. Some primates<br />
started to live on the ground rather than the trees.<br />
About 3 weeks ago<br />
Almost 4600<br />
c. 5-6<br />
The hominid Australopithecus evolved (‘hominid’ and ‘human’ should not be<br />
confused; Australopithecus was not human). There have been several species.<br />
Recently a skull c. 7 Ma old was discovered. This has been suggested to be the<br />
earliest hominid, but at the time of ‘going to press’ there was some doubt of its<br />
relationships and some believe it is the skull of an ape. Australopithecus afarensis<br />
(‘Lucy’) evolved about 5 Ma ago and the last species of Australopithecus, A. boisei<br />
(‘Nutcracker Man’), lived from 2.3 to 1.4 Ma ago.<br />
About 7-8 days ago<br />
2-2.5<br />
The first species of human evolve in Africa – Homo habilis. Fossils of their brain<br />
case shows that the speech centre is only just beginning to develop.<br />
c. 6-7 days ago<br />
2-1.6<br />
Homo erectus is now considered to be two species – H. ergaster and H. erectus. Homo<br />
ergaster evolved in Africa and appears to have evolved into H. erectus about 1.6 Ma<br />
ago. The latter was the first human species to migrate across Europe and Asia.<br />
c. 5 days ago until<br />
‘last night’<br />
1.3<br />
ce ages start, but this was a period of very variable climate-Britain was sometimes<br />
buried beneath up to 1km thick ice caps, sometimes tundra developed, but at other<br />
times it was warmer than today. During warm periods, lions hippo and rhino lived in<br />
Britain, but when the tundra developed, mammoth, wolves and giant elk lived here.<br />
The last glaciation in Britain ended about 10,000 years ago.<br />
c. 2 days ago<br />
0.5<br />
Homo heidelbergensis evolved. The earliest fossils are c. 500,000 years old.<br />
‘Heidelberg Man’ is also known as ‘Swanscombe Man’ and ‘Boxgrove Man’ in Britain.<br />
c.13 days ago<br />
c. 12 hours ago<br />
46<br />
(c. 3.5 hours ago)<br />
c. 1hour ago<br />
c. 60 seconds ago<br />
The last 60<br />
seconds<br />
150 000 years ago<br />
140,000 years ago<br />
c. 35,000 years ago<br />
c.11000 years ago<br />
250 years ago<br />
Homo neanderthalensis evolved in Europe during the “Ice Ages” and fossils are<br />
found particularly in Mediterranean countries. It possibly evolved from Homo<br />
heidelbergensis<br />
Modern humans (Homo sapiens) evolved in Africa about 140,000 years ago,<br />
perhaps from ‘Rhodesia Man’, Homo rhodesiensis.<br />
Humans left Africa c.35,000 years ago to spread over Europe and Asia.<br />
Neanderthals became extinct about 30,000 years ago.<br />
Man became a farmer.<br />
Industrial revolution.<br />
Pollution, radioactive waste, hole in ozone later, acid rain, mass extinction.<br />
The next 40 years<br />
4600-9000<br />
What next?<br />
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124
Issue 40<br />
LANDFILL WASTE<br />
Environmental Impacts 4<br />
Published by the <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong> Teachers’ <strong>Association</strong> Registered Charity No. 1005331<br />
ANOTHER LOAD OF RUBBISH!<br />
Landfill has been a major method of getting rid of rubbish for centuries. Many people including bottle<br />
collectors and archaeologists find that much can be learned from digging up old rubbish. With the<br />
coming of the industrial revolution people found that they had a lot of waste products to get rid of. The<br />
modern plastics industry has developed a mass production of materials that are designed to last, even<br />
as rubbish. The easy way out is to find a hole and bury them. Out of sight out of mind. But as we are<br />
all becoming more aware, a problem buried is not necessarily a problem solved.<br />
Landfill poses many problems for the present and the future<br />
and many of these problems and their solutions are centred<br />
round geology. You may not think of Landfill as a major<br />
Environmental Impact but, to those who live near to one,<br />
the problems and advantages are very apparent. How can<br />
this topic be used in Primary education? A couple of<br />
suggestions are as a practical introduction to materials and<br />
their properties, or, If you have a local landfill site (Contact<br />
your local council to find out), as a geography project into<br />
local studies.<br />
I hope that in this issue of PEST we can give a little<br />
background and stimulate ideas as to how Landfill can be used as a topic for Geography, written<br />
and spoken English and, of course <strong>Science</strong>. Much of the study is best done using an actual local<br />
site. Although many sites are privately run, first approach your local council Environmental Health<br />
Department who will be able to give you information and contact addresses.<br />
The first requirement for a landfill site is a hole in the ground. Most landfill sites are disused<br />
quarries or pits. These are often the remaining holes, left after removal of limestone, sand, iron<br />
ore, gravel or clay.
Issue 40 ● ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS 4<br />
If you lived in an area near a proposed landfill site in a disused quarry would these<br />
be advantages or disadvantages to you?<br />
Remember it’s your rubbish and it has to go somewhere.<br />
1. The possibility of pollution in the local water from<br />
rotting material.<br />
2. Lots of heavy vehicles delivering waste to the tip and blocking the roads.<br />
3. Noisy machinery working on the site.<br />
4. Flies and other vermin attracted to the site.<br />
5. Removal of dangerous holes in the ground.<br />
6. Having somewhere local and relatively inexpensive to get rid of local waste.<br />
7. Papers and other litter being blown into the streets and gardens.<br />
8. Cheap power from burning off the methane.<br />
9. Reclamation of land for sport, grazing, wildlife and eventually housing at<br />
no cost to the local council.<br />
10. Dust being blown off the site into houses.<br />
11. Gasses (methane and carbon dioxide) being given off into the atmosphere<br />
or having to be burned off.<br />
Make two lists. Sort the statements into “Advantages “and “Disadvantages”<br />
Can you think of any others?<br />
Decide what you think.<br />
Have a formal debate in the classroom.
Issue 40 ● ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS 4<br />
Other ways of getting rid of waste materials include REDUCING, RECYCLING and REUSING.<br />
Can you think about how you can REDUCE the amount of material that you throw away as a family<br />
or as a school?<br />
If you have milk delivered it comes in reusable glass bottles. Can you think of other ways in which<br />
you can REUSE things rather than throw them away?<br />
Some things are made of materials that are easy to RECYCLE. These materials include;<br />
GLASS; PAPER; WOOD; WOOL; COTTON; IRON/STEEL; ALUMINIUM.<br />
Can you sort these objects into their main materials and then into two groups.<br />
“Recycle” and “Not Recycle”<br />
Broken window<br />
Car<br />
Saucepan<br />
Drinks can<br />
Newspaper<br />
Book<br />
Old clothes (natural fibres)<br />
Plastic lemonade bottles<br />
Crisp packets<br />
Metal cooking foil<br />
Food cans.<br />
Disposable drinking cups<br />
Mobile phones<br />
Refrigerators<br />
If all these objects are put into a landfill site and dug up by archaeologists in a thousand years,<br />
What would they find? What parts would rot away and help to form soil and what parts would<br />
remain unaltered?<br />
Some waste can be rotted down to make compost for the soil.<br />
Which of these do you think can be rotted down safely to make compost?<br />
1. leaves 2. cotton 3. polyester fabric 4. polythene bags 5. newspapers.
Issue 40 ● ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS 4<br />
More Background<br />
When materials are buried many will decay, forming a range of harmless and harmful or unpleasant<br />
products. If these are gasses they are often explosive. If they are liquid, they may enter the<br />
groundwater, if they are solids they may be dissolved into the groundwater. Thus pollutants may travel<br />
long distances through the ground before becoming apparent. Old landfill sites were opportunist,<br />
using whatever holes were available Modern sites should be prepared more scientifically. The rock<br />
surrounding most landfill sites is, porous (It has internal spaces that can hold liquid) and permeable<br />
(It has cracks or spaces that allow liquid or gas to flow through). There is, therefor, a danger that<br />
liquids (leachate) or gasses will contaminate much of the surrounding area.<br />
To prevent this strict controls are now enforced in preparing and using landfill sites. They are first<br />
sealed with a synthetic membrane or clay lining (or both). It is then divided into cells and waste<br />
materials are added in compacted layers to each cell to a depth of about 2 metres when the cell is<br />
sealed off and another started. When the hole is full it is capped with a dome of clay and then soil<br />
to allow for settlement.<br />
There are other types of landfill site that we sometimes forget for example. Nuclear waste,<br />
controlled toxic waste, and, (We do not often think of this one), cemeteries. They all have their own<br />
individual problems and the effective siting of them all is dependent on the local geology.<br />
Can you think how these factors could effect a landfill site or the choice of location for a new<br />
landfill site?<br />
● Local rock type and formation<br />
● Groundwater<br />
● Rainfall<br />
● Rivers and streams<br />
● <strong>Earth</strong>quakes<br />
(Last year an earthquake in the West Midlands had its epicentre very close to a landfill site)<br />
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<strong>teaching</strong> in the classroom. Copyright materials<br />
reproduced by permission of other publications rests<br />
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To reproduce original material from P.E.S.T. in other<br />
publications permission must be sought from the <strong>Earth</strong><br />
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address below.<br />
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edited by Graham Kitts.<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
although there is no evidence for this in the geological<br />
record. Kingdom Monera must have gone<br />
through a phase of chemoautotrophic (non-photosynthesising)<br />
organisms prior to the first signs of<br />
more advanced bacteria which adopted photosynthesis<br />
about 3700 Ma.<br />
2. Probably the single most significant evolutionary<br />
step, took place when the prokaryotic cell (the cell<br />
plan of bacteria) evolved into the eukaryotic cell (the<br />
cell plan of all other kingdoms- protista, plant, animal<br />
and fungi). It is believed that this came about<br />
when several prokaryotes began to live together in a<br />
symbiotic relationship in a single cell; each prokaryote<br />
undertaking different functions. But the important<br />
point is that the membrane-covered nucleus<br />
containing DNA came into being and sexual reproduction<br />
became possible.<br />
3. The evolution of multicelled organisms was the next<br />
significant advance. It probably occurred several<br />
times before it was successful about 700 Ma. Evidence<br />
comes from simple burrows that were dug by<br />
unknown organisms at this time. The earliest fossilised,<br />
ediacaran, animals (sea-pens, worms, ‘jellyfish’,<br />
etc) appeared about 605 Ma.<br />
4. The appearance of organisms with hard parts is<br />
reflected in the fossil record by the sudden appearance<br />
of common and diverse fossil assemblages at<br />
the base of the Cambrian, variously dated between<br />
545 and 600 Ma. Many of these were advanced<br />
organisms, suggesting that similar, but unfossilised,<br />
soft bodied organisms were in existence prior to this.<br />
It was not just animals that began to secrete a skeleton<br />
or shell. A number of protista did too, including<br />
foraminifera and algae. A shell or skeleton is<br />
required by advanced organisms, not just for protection,<br />
but for support and for muscle attachment.<br />
5. This brings us to another important advance in the<br />
history of life, the first step onto dry land. This had<br />
probably been attempted several times before it was<br />
successfully accomplished. Organisms had to develop<br />
methods to overcome the high ultraviolet rays<br />
(which had been lethal prior to the build-up of oxygen<br />
and ozone in the atmosphere), withstand dessication<br />
and evolve reproductive strategies out of the<br />
aquatic environment. The first organisms to live on<br />
land were probably bacteria, and although it is difficult<br />
to determine exactly when this occurred, it was<br />
during Precambrian times. Some of the oldest signs<br />
of animal life on land are tracks of a centipede-like<br />
creature which were made in muds on the waters’<br />
edge of an Ordovician lake in northern England.<br />
The footprints were preserved as a result of rapid<br />
dessication soon after they were made. It is likely that<br />
green algae living in the shallow waters, evolved into<br />
true plants at this time. Spores of non-vascular plants<br />
are present in Ordovician shallow marine mudstones,<br />
presumably derived from the land, and by the<br />
late Silurian more advanced vascular species had<br />
evolved. A number of different animals followed the<br />
plants onto the land, including worms, gastropods<br />
and, later, amphibians.<br />
6. There have been several mass extinctions during the<br />
history of the <strong>Earth</strong>, perhaps the most profound taking<br />
place 252 Ma (at the end of the Permian time)<br />
when over 90% of all species disappeared. However,<br />
a less severe mass extinction (‘only’ about 60-70% of<br />
all species became extinct) took place 65 Ma. This<br />
was when the dinosaurs disappeared. From our<br />
point of view this was an important event. For some<br />
reason, as soon as the dinosaurs disappeared from<br />
the landscape, mammals took their place and rapidly<br />
diversified into a vast number of different types,<br />
occupying land, sea and air.<br />
7. From our own perspective, the final significant event<br />
is the appearance of humans, including our own<br />
species. The first humans (Homo habilis) evolved<br />
approximately 2 Ma, presumably from Anthropithecus<br />
ancestors, but our own species (Homo sapiens)<br />
evolved only about 140,000 years ago in central<br />
Africa. It was not until about 35,000 years ago that we<br />
left Africa and spread across Europe and Asia, eventually<br />
inhabiting the whole globe. There is a great<br />
deal of uncertainty regarding the relationships<br />
between one species of human and another; ideas<br />
change very regularly, due mainly to the lack of fossils.<br />
However, the table shows a number of species of<br />
human and gives an indication of how the human<br />
race, and in particular our species, is a very recent<br />
addition to the biodiversity of the <strong>Earth</strong>.<br />
These and the other significant events that took place<br />
along the geological time line are listed on Table 1 and<br />
further details by Dr Mark Williams and myself can be<br />
found in Teaching <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s Issue 27/4.<br />
Further Reading<br />
A number of scientific palaeontology books are available, providing data<br />
that can be used on a time line. The majority are for advanced students, but<br />
a brief outline of the fossil record, including a short reference list, is published<br />
by the British Geological Survey:<br />
Rigby, S. (1997). Fossils, the Story of Life. 64pp. British Geological Survey.<br />
The Fossil Focus series is also published by the British Geological Survey.<br />
These laminated A3 cards colourfully explain the anatomy, distribution and<br />
environmental requirements of a number of fossil groups. A list can be<br />
found in the BGS catalogue and by visiting its web site (www.bgs.ac.uk).<br />
Acknowlegdements<br />
I thank Drs Stewart Molyneux and Mark Williams for helpful discussion<br />
and comments to earlier drafts of this paper. It is publish with permission<br />
of the Director of the British Geological Survey (N.E.R.C.)<br />
Ian P. Wilkinson<br />
British Geological Survey<br />
Keyworth, Nottingham<br />
NG12 5GG<br />
125 www.esta-uk.org
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
A Results Spreadsheet for<br />
AS and A Level Geology<br />
OWAIN THOMAS<br />
More and more emphasis is being placed on the use of statistics and other numerical data in assessing<br />
the effectiveness of departments and <strong>teaching</strong> strategies. So much data is available that it is<br />
sometimes difficult to manage. This article describes a spreadsheet which has been developed to<br />
record pupil results in the AS/A level course.<br />
Figure 1<br />
GCSE Scores<br />
English<br />
B<br />
6<br />
Maths<br />
C<br />
5<br />
<strong>Science</strong><br />
AA<br />
7<br />
Potential grade<br />
C<br />
Figure 2<br />
Mean<br />
6.00<br />
Background<br />
Each year the results from AS and A level modules are<br />
sent to the school from the examination boards and<br />
each year heads of departments are expected to analyse<br />
the results prior to the annual review with the headteacher.<br />
In the past this has been achieved using a<br />
paper based system but the sheer quantity of data<br />
means that this is becoming increasingly difficult. So,<br />
in line with many other departments we have tried to<br />
develop a computerised system for record keeping and<br />
target setting.<br />
There are a number of “audiences” for this type of<br />
data presentation. Curriculum leaders and line managers<br />
will request statistical data. Departmental staff<br />
can judge the effectiveness of their <strong>teaching</strong> strategies<br />
and the value added to pupils’ previous performances<br />
but the most important group are the pupils themselves.<br />
They can see exactly how their efforts are<br />
translated into real marks and how those marks<br />
become combined to give an overall grade. Sharing<br />
data with pupils in this way becomes a powerful tool<br />
in improving pupil performance.<br />
This is the first year that this spreadsheet has been<br />
used and so far it has been very useful in focusing students’<br />
attention on the importance of raising the standard<br />
of their results. I have little expertise in using<br />
statistics so the formulae have been based on the<br />
results of students in the previous assessment period<br />
and I am sure that, as time goes by, and more data<br />
become available, the model will be revised and<br />
adjusted accordingly.<br />
NB. The cells of the spreadsheet have been shaded<br />
to make it easier to use. The teacher enters data into the<br />
yellow cells only, the pink cells display data generated<br />
by the computer.<br />
Using the GCSE scores<br />
The first important data to be recorded are the results in<br />
the core subjects at GCSE (English, Maths and <strong>Science</strong>.<br />
Welsh is also part of the core curriculum in Wales but,<br />
because pupils may have Welsh as their first or second<br />
language, the Welsh grade is not used). The three grades<br />
achieved in these subjects are converted to numerical<br />
scores following the school’s system for entry into the<br />
sixth form (A*=8, A=7, B=6 etc). Some of our students<br />
study geology at GCSE level but, because this is<br />
not a prerequisite for joining the AS course, the GCSE<br />
geology grade is not included in the analysis. The result<br />
for science will most likely be a double grade (since<br />
most students will have followed the double award<br />
course), but this is reduced to a single grade for the purposes<br />
of the spreadsheet. Similarly, if the student has<br />
followed the triple science course, an approximate average<br />
is used.<br />
Figure 1 gives an extract from the spreadsheet which<br />
shows that the pupil gained C in Maths, B in English<br />
and AA in double award science. The scores are shown<br />
below each grade and the spreadsheet generates a mean<br />
score; from this a potential grade for the AS course is<br />
generated.<br />
The spreadsheet calculates the mean points score<br />
and this is used to project a potential grade for the AS<br />
course. A potential mark is also generated – in each case<br />
the minimum mark necessary for that grade. There is<br />
always a danger of relying too much on a purely numerical<br />
method for setting targets since such methods do<br />
not accommodate the oft-quoted and frequently reliable<br />
“teacher’s gut instinct”. A teacher assessment grade<br />
is entered at the top of the spreadsheet. If the teacher<br />
feels that the pupil is capable of obtaining a grade B at<br />
AS, the spreadsheet assigns a numerical score of 225.<br />
This is in the middle of the mark range for that grade<br />
reflecting the confidence of the teacher’s assessment.<br />
The spreadsheet then determines an initial target,<br />
the mean of the teacher assessment and the potential<br />
grade.<br />
Figure 2 is part of the spreadsheet which shows that<br />
the potential result is predicted as 180 marks (i.e. a C<br />
grade). The teacher feels that the pupil could achieve a<br />
B grade in the AS course so the computer generates a<br />
Potential AS Score<br />
180<br />
Teacher<br />
assessment<br />
B 225<br />
Initial target<br />
203<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
126
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Module GL1 Module GL2 Module GL3<br />
Potential: 33% 67 33% 67 33% 67<br />
Likely score: 50 57 57<br />
1st sitting: 55 D 66 C 64 C<br />
Difference: act - pot -12 act - pot -1 act - pot -3<br />
Resit? yes no possibly<br />
2nd sitting: 63 C U 66 C<br />
Best Mark: 63 C 66 C 66 C<br />
% Component: 32.31 33.85 33.85<br />
AS Score 195 C<br />
A Lev<br />
Estimate<br />
B<br />
score of 225 marks, in the middle of the B range. From<br />
these two marks the spreadsheet calculates the initial<br />
target of 203.<br />
AS modular results<br />
The targets and scores predicted by the spreadsheet<br />
assume that the pupils follow the following assessment<br />
pattern:<br />
January Year 12 - GL1 first sitting<br />
June Year 12 - GL2 & GL3 first sitting<br />
June Year 13 - GL4, GL5, GL6 first sitting<br />
Resits can be accommodated at any time.<br />
The template for the AS modular results displays the<br />
potential marks for each module: in each case this is<br />
33% of the initial target. Again it is necessary to take<br />
into account the progress and effort made by pupils<br />
during each stage of the course. In the lower left corner<br />
of the spreadsheet a comment on the effort made<br />
by the pupil can be entered. This follows the school’s<br />
reviewing procedure, using the terms poor, satisfactory,<br />
good and very good (p,s,g,vg). These descriptors<br />
are converted to a score and these are then used to<br />
convert the potential result into a realistic estimate for<br />
the pupil’s attainment; the “likely score”. For example,<br />
a pupil with a potential score of 67 who has made a satisfactory<br />
effort will have a likely score of 50. The<br />
spreadsheet calculates this by using a scaling factor, 1.0<br />
for “very good” effort, 0.75 for “satisfactory” and so<br />
on. The effort description for Christmas term is used<br />
to determine the likely result in GL1, the Summer<br />
term effort comment produces the likely results in<br />
GL2 and GL3 (see figure 3).<br />
Figure 4 is a part of the spreadsheet that takes into<br />
account the pupil’s performance. The school monitoring<br />
system uses the terms poor, satisfactory, good and<br />
very good.<br />
When the first module test result is received, this is<br />
entered into the appropriate cell on the spreadsheet (1st<br />
sitting). The computer displays the appropriate grade<br />
and calculates the numerical difference between the<br />
actual result and the potential score. If the pupil<br />
achieved a mark significantly lower than their potential<br />
(greater than 10 marks) the spreadsheet recommends<br />
that the pupil should resit that paper. For differences<br />
less than 2 marks lower than the potential, the spreadsheet<br />
recommends banking the mark (ie. not resitting).<br />
A drop of between 2 and 10 marks generates a resit recommendation<br />
of “possibly”.<br />
A resit mark can be entered at any time during the<br />
course. In each case the spreadsheet will compare the<br />
two marks and display the best mark at the bottom of<br />
this section and the three best marks are aggregated to<br />
give the overall AS result.<br />
A2 Modular results<br />
The AS score is used to generate a target for the overall<br />
A level result. Basically this is the AS grade + 1. The<br />
potential A2 score is also based on the AS component;<br />
1.15 x AS score. Pupils often ask what they need to<br />
achieve a particular grade in the A level course. A chart<br />
at the top of the spreadsheet shows what score is needed<br />
in A2 in order to achieve each grade.<br />
Figure 3<br />
Spreadsheet entry<br />
for one student<br />
across the three<br />
AS geology<br />
modules.<br />
Figure 4<br />
Effort (p,s,g,vg)<br />
L6th Autumn<br />
S<br />
0.75<br />
L6th Summer<br />
G<br />
0.85<br />
U6th Autumn<br />
G<br />
0.85<br />
U6th Summer<br />
Vg<br />
1<br />
127 www.esta-uk.org
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Figure 5<br />
Potential<br />
A2 Score<br />
224<br />
To get: A B C D E<br />
You need: 285 225 165 105 45<br />
Figure 6<br />
Spreadsheet entry<br />
for one student<br />
across the three A2<br />
geology modules<br />
Module GL4 Module GL5 Course Work<br />
30% 70 40% 92 30% 78<br />
69.5 91.9 66.7<br />
71 B 90 B 75 A<br />
30.08 38.14 31.78<br />
A2 Score 236<br />
Overall 431 B<br />
Figure 5 is the part of the spreadsheet which shows<br />
that the pupil has achieved 224 marks in the AS component.<br />
The lower part of the table shows the number<br />
of marks the pupil needs to get in the A2 component to<br />
achieve overall A level grades.<br />
GL4 and GL5 are only available in summer so the<br />
effort comments for Summer Upper Sixth are used to<br />
determine the likely results in these papers. GL6 is the<br />
coursework component and as such it will probably be<br />
addressed over a period of time so the effort grades in<br />
both parts of the year are used to generate a likely result.<br />
Figure 6 shows the spreadsheet entry for one student<br />
across the three A2 geology component.<br />
Adapting the spreadsheet<br />
This spreadsheet was created using the 2002 specifications<br />
but during the last few months the WJEC have<br />
altered the percentages of the AS components. The<br />
spreadsheet can easily be adapted by changing the components<br />
according to the 2003 specifications.<br />
Conclusion<br />
Although this spreadsheet is still under development<br />
and many of the calculations will need refinement, it<br />
has already proved very valuable in showing students in<br />
the sixth form how their efforts over the next few<br />
months will affect their final results. Hopefully their<br />
results will be improved as a result.<br />
Note<br />
You can download a copy of this spreadsheet from the<br />
ESTA website www.esta-uk.org . If you use the spreadsheet<br />
I would be most grateful for constructive criticism.<br />
Owain Thomas<br />
Teacher i/c Geology<br />
Amman Valley School<br />
Margaret Street, Ammanford<br />
Carmarthenshire<br />
SA18 2NW<br />
Tel (01269) 592441<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
128
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
The Role of Fieldwork in Undergraduate Geoscience<br />
Education: Approaches and Constraints<br />
S. MONDLANE AND B. MAPANI<br />
The importance of fieldwork in geoscience education at undergraduate level is closely related to the competence of the<br />
geologist. Despite the constraints involving fieldwork activities, mainly related to safety, funds, availability to all<br />
students, access and logistics, it still must be done, especially so in developing countries where resources are scarce.<br />
Introduction<br />
This paper discusses the role of fieldwork in the undergraduate<br />
geological curriculum and the integration of<br />
these methods with new approaches in geology within<br />
certain constraints in today’s world of geology where,<br />
for example, the Internet and 5-metre space resolution<br />
of satellite images are facts.<br />
For our purposes we define fieldwork as the activities<br />
of observing, collecting, interpreting and producing<br />
a report and geological map in the field. In areas where<br />
a map already exists, fieldwork serves to improve the<br />
map and the current state of geological knowledge in<br />
that particular area.<br />
Field observations involve the identification and<br />
decodification of geological features in order to recreate<br />
the historical-geological processes that have taken place<br />
(Compiani, 1996). Fieldwork is regarded as a fundamental<br />
scientific activity in the <strong>Earth</strong> sciences (Hawley,<br />
1996). Keller (1963) described fieldwork as a scientific<br />
birthright for geologists. Thompson (1982) (cf. Hawley,<br />
1996) regarded fieldwork as an important, essential and<br />
integral part of <strong>teaching</strong> <strong>Earth</strong> sciences. Without fieldwork,<br />
geology becomes an abstract science.<br />
There are at least 100 days fieldwork in the three<br />
years geology undergraduate curriculum in UK whereas<br />
the days of fieldwork in the five years geology curriculum<br />
in Mozambique are 125. In Zimbabwe there<br />
are 73 days of fieldwork in BSc (hons) one year degree<br />
programme in geology. This example shows that the<br />
exposure to fieldwork of students in different countries<br />
varies but is nevertheless quite high. This is in part<br />
related to the costs and logistics but also to efficiency on<br />
maximisation of the field days. There are many ways of<br />
maximising information and skills transfer through<br />
fieldwork, that are related to different approaches in<br />
fieldwork activities. These approaches include the “persistent”,<br />
the “traditional” and the “investigative” methods.<br />
Although, most lecturers’ approach to <strong>Earth</strong><br />
science fieldwork have not moved along with the general<br />
trend in changing approaches to science education<br />
as highlighted by Fisher & Harley (1988), in general,<br />
the aim is still to equip students to be able to identify,<br />
map and produce a geological report for a given area.<br />
Fieldwork can be carried out during term/semester<br />
time parallel with courses being taught at that time or at<br />
the end of the semester. Both approaches are recommended<br />
and have their own merits. Semester time<br />
fieldwork tends not to have enough time to carry<br />
detailed investigations, whereas fieldwork done at the<br />
end of the semester ensures sufficient amount of time<br />
to do mapping. Therefore an integrated approach is the<br />
best outcome, as students will closely associate lectures<br />
with fieldwork during term time, and detailed fieldwork<br />
during semester breaks thereby learning to treat<br />
the geoscience disciplines as a whole.<br />
Methods Used in Fieldwork Instruction<br />
Different approaches to fieldwork will, inherently,<br />
produce students with different skills at solving field<br />
related problems. Two broad types of approach will be<br />
discussed here, namely the traditional and investigative<br />
approaches. In the traditional method, <strong>Earth</strong> science<br />
fieldwork is a vehicle mainly for transmitting<br />
information by the lecturer. Emphasis is placed on<br />
description and acquisition of information/knowledge.<br />
Little opportunity is given for individual observation,<br />
thought and interpretation of the observed<br />
phenomenon. In most cases, lecturers are actually<br />
unaware of the sequence of events in the giving of this<br />
knowledge. They are generally well acquainted with<br />
the area, well meaning and commonly give the students<br />
more information which has been “interpreted”<br />
rather than that which the students have actually<br />
gleaned from the outcrop. As such, the students are<br />
denied the opportunity to “learn” how to be creative<br />
and link geological processes from “outcrop” to<br />
“region” and “region” to “orogeny”.<br />
The other method is the investigative approach,<br />
which generally complements and parallels other scientific<br />
activities. This method requires a more pedagogic<br />
approach on the part of the leader, since fieldwork concepts<br />
have to be developed to enhance the students’<br />
understanding. Therefore a good grasp of previous<br />
knowledge of the area by the leader is required. The<br />
approach is based more on asking than on showing.<br />
Examples of questions posed in such an approach are:<br />
● How does the stratigraphic column look like in the<br />
area? How does such a stratigraphy arise?<br />
● Is the area likely to have mineralization and, if so, why?<br />
● If present, what kind of mineralization would we<br />
expect in this region?<br />
● What indications could we look for in order to prove<br />
the presence or absence of mineralization in this area?<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
These and other questions can be asked to students<br />
at any level of instruction. They can just be refined as<br />
students gain more experience.<br />
The Ideal Approach to Fieldwork<br />
The ideal approach to fieldwork must take cognisance of:<br />
(i) The main objectives of the fieldwork. At this time<br />
it must be clear in the mind of the lecturer what<br />
the students ought to accomplish in the given<br />
number of days.<br />
(ii) Lecturers must decide whether the objectives are<br />
primarily investigative or transmissive and should<br />
set realistic goals for the available time in the field.<br />
(iii) The structure of the activities that will guide the<br />
students and ensure that students have the necessary<br />
skills and knowledge to carry out the fieldwork.<br />
If necessary, short lectures can be delivered<br />
in the evenings during the fieldwork trip to complement<br />
the knowledge of the students.<br />
(iv) The setting of the area, and context of the field trip,<br />
must necessarily enable interaction, and make it scientifically<br />
valid. Here the lecturer must bring out of<br />
the students the basic geological concept that<br />
“structures observed at microscales are reproduced<br />
at megascales”. This will enable students to work<br />
with the concept of scale and time in geology.<br />
Geology as a Field <strong>Science</strong><br />
Without fieldwork, geology becomes an abstract science<br />
and is thus relegated to the realm of the mind only.<br />
Geology however, is by nature both a pure science,<br />
based on observation of the natural laboratory (<strong>Earth</strong>)<br />
and an applied science, where natural resource management<br />
and exploitation is the major activity; for example,<br />
mining, environment, economics, hydrogeology, and<br />
engineering geology among others.<br />
Therefore, fieldwork consists of the true natural way<br />
of a geologist! By nature, when one graduates as a geologist,<br />
he/she will in more ways than one be actively<br />
involved in fieldwork as part of his/her daily work, e.g.<br />
hydrogeology (pump-testing, hydrogeological exploration)<br />
and numerous other fields. It is then therefore<br />
observed that, fieldwork is the very “life” of geology as<br />
a science. Without fieldwork, geology as a science will<br />
die. It must also be realised, that even modelling in the<br />
labs, takes its control parameters from observed natural<br />
outcrops or processes.<br />
We therefore cannot over-emphasise the need for a<br />
very practical fieldwork training for all geologists.<br />
Keller (1963) put it this way “fieldwork is a scientific<br />
birthright for geologists”. This then shows us that geology<br />
without fieldwork, is basically not geology at all, but<br />
simply a “mimicking” of geology.<br />
Equipping Students with Practical Knowledge<br />
In most cases, students would have been exposed to<br />
such terms as strike and dip, on geological maps and<br />
sections. This concept is rarely well understood in the<br />
classroom and is only learned securely in the field<br />
when they learn to measure strike and dip. Only at this<br />
time do they really appreciate and understand the concepts.<br />
With actual measurements, students learn the<br />
art of linking outcrops, and hypothesising what could<br />
have happened. They then proceed to test these<br />
hypotheses and almost always come up with ideas of<br />
reconstructing the geological history through their<br />
own construction of cross-sections. These attempts,<br />
though humble at first, are actually necessary for the<br />
building up of a geologist.<br />
Student ability to take field notes, model 3-D-sections,<br />
sketch and write observations is slowly built up to<br />
such levels that they become confident enough to pro-<br />
Table 1:<br />
Field trip<br />
objectives for<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong><br />
students at<br />
different levels<br />
Action<br />
Observation and<br />
understanding<br />
(motivation)<br />
Years<br />
Formative years<br />
Students in year 1<br />
Little or no<br />
information<br />
Intermediate years<br />
Integration and limited<br />
interpretation<br />
Final years<br />
(Honours/ MSc/PhD)<br />
Integration, thematic<br />
thought interpretation,<br />
concepts of plate tectonics,<br />
terranes<br />
Relate field observations<br />
with lectures<br />
Stratigraphical<br />
observations;<br />
mineralogical<br />
identification and<br />
classification<br />
Mineralogical, processes,<br />
lithological, tectonics –<br />
working model of the earth<br />
slowly being appreciated<br />
Mineralogical, processes,<br />
lithological, tectonics –<br />
working model of the earth<br />
Interpretations and<br />
consequences (thesis)<br />
Production of geological<br />
map and report<br />
Produce a report<br />
Produce a map and report<br />
At this level also cross<br />
sections are produced<br />
Produce a report in thesis<br />
form, map, cross sections,<br />
modelling analysis of data<br />
from a variety of sources,<br />
i.e. thin sections,<br />
geochemistry, geophysics.<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
130
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
duce their own block diagrams, for example. Appreciation<br />
of field relationships of different rock units for first<br />
year students in the classroom is generally poorly<br />
understood. For instance, to geology students the concepts<br />
of a dyke, a stock, a ring complex, a basaltic flow,<br />
a carbonatite stock, a granite and how they actually<br />
occur in the field is normally completely unrelated to<br />
reality. The lecturers may never understand the difficulties<br />
that the students face, because to those who have<br />
seen these relationships in the field several times it is so<br />
obvious it does not need any elaboration. It is here<br />
where understanding of the students’ difficulties must<br />
be exercised. The same problem occurs when students<br />
are shown sedimentary structures and metamorphic<br />
textures in the classroom. Until such a time that the<br />
students observe these geological phenomena in the<br />
field, their understanding of geology is generally poor.<br />
It is also in the field that students begin to appreciate<br />
the fact that geology sub-disciplines are actually interrelated<br />
as a single whole and that <strong>Earth</strong> processes happen<br />
in a related manner.<br />
Table 1 shows the progression of how students can<br />
be led to learn the skills of integrating knowledge<br />
gained in the curriculum with the fieldwork objectives.<br />
As the students gain more knowledge, fieldwork<br />
becomes more involved with various parameters<br />
being included. At the highest level, they begin to<br />
understand the importance of geological data collection<br />
for a specific objective. This level defines in the<br />
truest sense the “knit” relationship between fieldwork<br />
and geology curricula.<br />
Discussion on Fieldwork Integration with Theory<br />
It is not possible to teach many fieldwork techniques in<br />
the classroom because:<br />
(i) There is no way of showing every possible texture,<br />
structure, rock, or process/phenomena to students<br />
in the class. The only way is for them to observe<br />
and appreciate the complexity of the geological<br />
structures, processes and relationships between<br />
various lithological units in given area.<br />
(ii) Theory gives a good foundation to the students,<br />
this knowledge is never really appreciated, until, it<br />
is confirmed by observation. Hence the paradigm<br />
by Read (1966) that “the best geologist is the one<br />
who has seen the most rocks” (cf. Smith, 1996).<br />
(iii) As processes are more emphasised in geological<br />
curricula, it becomes imperative that students have<br />
to be given the opportunity to “see” and use the<br />
skills of interpolation and extrapolation, e.g. in<br />
field mapping, where they have to “fill in gaps”.<br />
(iv) This is the best opportunity for the student to<br />
observe all geological units, minerals, processes at<br />
“true scale”. This opens another window of<br />
thought and integration of data.<br />
(v) Fieldwork is the true “character building” part of a<br />
geologist’s career. With fieldwork, the student<br />
begins to understand that which will be required<br />
of him, once he completes and also it is the time<br />
when the student begins to like the subject and<br />
enjoy it, or for the unfortunate, dislike it.<br />
(vi) Although videos can be used in the classroom,<br />
they lack the actual contact and feel that fieldwork<br />
gives to students.<br />
Conclusion<br />
We have shown here the broad approaches to fieldwork<br />
education in geoscience and have emphasised the<br />
importance of fieldwork for <strong>Earth</strong> sciences. We also<br />
conclude that fieldwork differs in the way it is conducted,<br />
according to the specifications of each university<br />
curricula. However, its objectives are uniquely to equip<br />
students to be able to identify, map and produce a geological<br />
report for a given area. The better this knowledge<br />
is developed in students, the better will be their<br />
understanding of techniques and practices needed<br />
across the breadth of geology professions.<br />
References<br />
Compiani M. (1996) Fieldwork <strong>teaching</strong> in the inservice<br />
training of primary/secondary school science<br />
teachers in Brazil. In DAV Stow & GJH McCall (eds)<br />
Geoscience Education and Training – In Schools and<br />
Universities, for Industry and Public Awareness. pp 329 –<br />
340. Rotterdam: AA Balkema<br />
Fisher, J. A. & Harley, M. J. (1988) <strong>Earth</strong>-science fieldwork in<br />
the secondary school curriculum. Peterborough: Nature<br />
Conservancy Council (now English Nature).<br />
Hawley D. (1996) Changing approaches to <strong>teaching</strong><br />
<strong>Earth</strong>-science fieldwork In DAV Stow & GJH McCall<br />
(eds) Geoscience Education and Training – In Schools and<br />
Universities, for Industry and Public Awareness. pp 243 -<br />
253. Rotterdam: AA Balkema.<br />
Keller, W.D. (1963) Fieldwork: our scientific birthright.<br />
Journal of Geological Education, 11, 119 – 123.<br />
Smith A. J. (1996) Fieldwork in crisis: Current and<br />
future provision – In DAV Stow & GJH McCall (eds)<br />
Geoscience Education and Training – In Schools and<br />
Universities, for Industry and Public Awareness. pp 581-588.<br />
Rotterdam: AA Balkema.<br />
S. MONDLANE 1, 2 and B. MAPANI 1<br />
1 - University of Zimbabwe,<br />
Geology Department;<br />
167 MP, Mount Pleasant,<br />
Harare, Zimbabwe<br />
2 - Eduardo Mondlane University -<br />
Geology Department;<br />
P.O. Box 257,<br />
Maputo, Mozambique<br />
Mondlane@science.uz.ac.zw;<br />
Salmond@Zebra.uem.mz<br />
131 www.esta-uk.org
Journal of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION<br />
Volume 26 ● Number 4, 2001 ● ISSN 0957-8005<br />
rth <strong>Science</strong><br />
acher<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong><br />
Activities and<br />
<strong>Earth</strong>quakes<br />
Response to the<br />
<strong>Science</strong> and<br />
inquiry into the<br />
Highlights from the<br />
post-16 ‘bring and<br />
share’ session a the<br />
ESTA Conference,<br />
Kingston 2001<br />
ESTA Conference<br />
update<br />
Book Reviews<br />
Websearch<br />
News and Resources<br />
Creationism and<br />
Evolution:<br />
Questions in the<br />
Classroom<br />
Institute of Biology<br />
Chemistry on the<br />
High Street<br />
Peter Kenne t<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong><br />
Activities and<br />
Demonstrations:<br />
Fossils and Time<br />
Mike Tuke<br />
Beyond Petroleum:<br />
Business and<br />
The Environment in<br />
the 21st Century John<br />
Browne<br />
Using Foam Rubber in<br />
an Aquarium To<br />
Simulate Plate-<br />
Tectonic And Glacial<br />
Dorset and East<br />
Devon Coast:<br />
World Heritage Site<br />
ESTA Conference<br />
Update<br />
New ESTA Members<br />
Websearch<br />
News and Resources<br />
(including ESTA AGM)<br />
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
To Advertise in<br />
<strong>teaching</strong><br />
EARTH<br />
SCIENCES<br />
<strong>teaching</strong><br />
EARTH<br />
SCIENCES<br />
Your President<br />
Introduced<br />
Martin Whiteley<br />
Thinking Geology:<br />
Activities to Develop<br />
Thinking Ski ls in<br />
Geology Teaching<br />
Recovering the<br />
Leaning Tower of Pisa<br />
Demonstrations:<br />
House of Commons<br />
Technology Commi tee<br />
<strong>Science</strong> Cu riculum for<br />
14 - 19 year olds<br />
Se ting up a local<br />
group - West Wales<br />
Geology Teachers’<br />
Network<br />
<strong>teaching</strong><br />
EARTH<br />
SCIENCES<br />
Fossils Under the Microscope<br />
Amendments<br />
IAN WILKINSON<br />
Some of the photographs in the article by Ian Wilkinson (Fossils<br />
Under the Microscope, TES 27/3 pp78-84) were inadvertently<br />
printed as blurred images, for which the Editor apologises. The full<br />
set of Summary Charts is repeated here.<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
Phenomena<br />
John Wheeler<br />
Journal of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION<br />
Volume 27 ● Number 1, 2002 ● ISSN 0957-8005<br />
Telephone<br />
Ian Ray<br />
0161 486 0326<br />
rth <strong>Science</strong><br />
chers’ Asso<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
Kingdom: Monera<br />
Bacteria<br />
Kingdom: Monera<br />
Blue green<br />
cyanobacteria<br />
Geological range:<br />
Archaean to Recent<br />
Geological range:<br />
Archaean to Recent<br />
Precambrian bacteria<br />
Kingdom Monera is based on the prokaryote cell (they lack<br />
organelles, like mitochondria, and a nucleus with<br />
chromosomes). The most primitive would have been<br />
chemoautotrophs, adapted to the reducing conditions, but<br />
photautotrophs soon evolved. Some of the oldest known<br />
fossils were single cells less than 1 micron long, but others<br />
formed chains of cells (filaments), like those from the Apex<br />
Chert (3465Ma), or star-like arrangements e.g. Eoastrion<br />
from the Gun Flint Chert (2000 Ma). Bacillus-like<br />
Eobacterium are found in the Fig Tree Chert (3000Ma). These<br />
organisms formed Banded Ironstone Formations (BIFs).<br />
Oxygen given off by the bacteria caused ferrous iron in ocean<br />
water to oxidise and precipitated as a red layer of iron onto<br />
the sea floor. At times when oxygen was not being created,<br />
grey cherts were precipitated instead. These layers built up<br />
alternately to form BIFs.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Precambrian blue-green cyanobacteria<br />
Blue green cyanobacteria are found as fossils in<br />
Precambrian cherts, the oldest being from the 3400Ma old<br />
Towers Formation (Australia). Other examples come from the<br />
Fig Tree Chert and the Gun Flint Chert. These single-celled<br />
organisms may occur as single cells or form a chain of cells<br />
called a filament. Cells may be spheroidal, cylindrical or<br />
irregular. They photosynthesised, giving off oxygen as a<br />
waste product.<br />
In some places, vast numbers of blue green cyanobacteria<br />
formed a mat on the sea bed and by 3000Ma they were<br />
removing CaCO3 from the sea water during photosynthesis.<br />
Precipitation of these carbonates produced the first<br />
limestones. Mat upon mat were built up to form domes and<br />
mounds of limestone called stromatolites. 3000 million<br />
years later they are still doing the same thing in Shark Bay,<br />
Australia.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Kingdom: Protista<br />
Kingdom: Protista<br />
Acritarchs<br />
Dinoflagellates<br />
Geological range:<br />
Precambrian to<br />
Pleistocene<br />
Early Ordovician acritarch<br />
Geological range:<br />
Silurian?, Late<br />
Triassic to Recent<br />
Jurassic dinoflagellate<br />
Acritarchs are amongst the earliest protists. The oldest<br />
fossils are simple spherical cysts that first appear in shales<br />
1900-1600 million years old.<br />
Acritarchs are diverse and most abundant in rocks of<br />
Cambrian to Devonian age (c. 550 to 350 million years ago).<br />
The cyst, which is up to about 150 microns across, has a<br />
resistant wall that may be preserved as a fossil. Their exact<br />
affinities are unknown, but it is likely that many were marine<br />
phytoplankton, similar to dinoflagellates and some<br />
Prasinophyceae. If so, the organisms responsible for<br />
producing the cysts probably had a motile planktonic stage<br />
that encysted as a result of environmental stress or as part of<br />
their reproductive life cycle.<br />
Nothing is known of the motile stage, probably because it<br />
was composed of an organic compound like cellulose, which<br />
is less easily preserved.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Dinoflagellates are single celled protistids. They are plantlike<br />
in having cellulose in the walls and chlorophyll pigments<br />
in the protoplasm, but animal-like having a motile phase<br />
with whip-like flagella to provide propulsion through ocean<br />
waters. The hard envelope (theca) comprises a number of<br />
plates and contains the large nucleus and chromoplasts.<br />
Like acritarchs, during periods of adverse environmental<br />
conditions or after reproduction, they have a ‘resting stage’<br />
when they encyst. But, unlike acritarchs, the plates of the<br />
theca are retained in the cyst stage.<br />
Cysts, the only part that is fossilized, are 20-150 microns<br />
across, and may be smooth or ornamented with spines, ridges<br />
and granules. When improved conditions returned, the<br />
dinoflagellate escapes their cyst through a hole (archaeopyle)<br />
in the wall, made by discarding one of the plates.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Kingdom: Protista<br />
Coccolithophores<br />
Kingdom: Protista<br />
Foraminifera<br />
Geological range:<br />
(Precambrian??)<br />
Late Triassic to Recent<br />
Jurassic coccoliths<br />
Geological range:<br />
Cambrian to Recent<br />
Late Jurassic Foraminifer<br />
Coccolithophores are chrysophytes, unicellular and<br />
planktonic, with two flagella for locomotion. Of the c. 2000<br />
species, all but four live in normal marine salinities (three live<br />
in fresh waters and one in high salinities of the Dead Sea).<br />
They require well oxygenated waters and live within the top<br />
50m of the water column in order to photosynthesise.<br />
Between 10 and 30 tiny (3 to 15 microns) calcareous plates<br />
(coccoliths) envelope the organism in a cyst-like coccosphere.<br />
On death, the coccosphere breaks up into coccoliths and,<br />
with diagenesis, these often break up into component<br />
crystals. Coccoliths and their debris comprise over 90% of the<br />
Cretaceous chalk of Britain. Coccolithophores are important<br />
in our environment today as they remove carbon dioxide, a<br />
greenhouse gas, by trapping it in their calcareous (CaCO3)<br />
skeletons on the ocean floor. They are sometimes so<br />
abundant that they form a coccolith ooze.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Foraminifera are sometimes called ‘armoured amoeba’.<br />
The amoeba-like cell engulfs a tiny shell (test) that may be<br />
composed of calcite, aragonite or sand or silt grains<br />
cemented together by a calcite or silica cement.<br />
The test may be a single globular or tubular chamber; a string<br />
of chambers; a coiled arrangement of chambers or a mixture<br />
of these.<br />
They are often found fossilised. Most species are less than<br />
1mm across, but the largest of these single celled organisms<br />
was over 10 cm in length. Foraminifera are confined to marine<br />
and brackish waters and extend into estuaries and marshes,<br />
but are not found in fresh water. Some are planktonic, while<br />
others are benthonic.<br />
They have a complex reproductive strategy so that alternating<br />
generations occur; an organism which was the result of<br />
sexual reproduction, will in turn reproduce asexually.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Kingdom: Protista<br />
Kingdom: Protista<br />
Radiolaria<br />
Diatoms<br />
Geological range:<br />
Cambrian to Recent<br />
Eocene radiolarian<br />
Geological range:<br />
Jurassic?,<br />
Cretaceous to Recent<br />
Palaeogene diatom<br />
Radiolaria are planktonic actinopods, heterotrophic protista<br />
that secrete a skeleton of between 100 and 2000 microns.<br />
The composition of the skeleton may be strontium sulphate<br />
or opaline silica.<br />
The latter, which dominate the fossil record, form two large<br />
groups. Spumularia, which evolved during the Ordovician, are<br />
radially symmetrical, often spherical or discoidal, with radial<br />
spines. Nassellaria, which developed at the beginning of the<br />
Mesozoic, are elongate and axially symmetrical, being<br />
elongate, ellipsoidal, discoidal or fusiform and often spinose.<br />
They live in tropical marine waters especially at depths of<br />
100 to 500m.<br />
They remain buoyant in the water by using fat globules; gasfilled<br />
vacuoles; long rigid, thread-like axopods on spines; and<br />
by having perforated skeletons to reduce weight.<br />
Reproduction is asexual.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Diatoms are autotrophic, unicellular algae. They occur in the<br />
photic zone of oceans, estuaries, lakes and ponds. The part<br />
that is fossilised is the opaline silica shell (or frustule),<br />
which comprise two valves that fit together rather like a pillbox.<br />
The frustule may be up to about 2mm across and some<br />
forms are colonial, forming long chains. There are two large<br />
groups of fossil diatoms: the radially symmetrical Centrales,<br />
which evolved during the mid Cretaceous, and the more<br />
elongate, bilaterally symmetrical Pennales which appeared<br />
in the Eocene.<br />
They may occur in huge numbers on the ocean floor to form<br />
an ooze. In some cases when huge numbers of diatoms<br />
accumulated they formed a sedimentary rock called a<br />
diatomite. One Miocene diatomite in America is 1000m<br />
thick and there are an estimated 6,000,000 frustules per<br />
cubic centimeter!<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Kingdom: Protista<br />
Green Algae<br />
(Chlorophyta)<br />
Kingdom: Plant<br />
Pollen & Spores<br />
Geological range:<br />
Late Silurian to Recent<br />
Carboniferous calcareous algae<br />
Geological range:<br />
Ordovician to Recent<br />
Pollen (top) &<br />
Spore (bottom)<br />
from the Permian<br />
Chlorophytes are ‘Green Algae’, with chlorophyll in their<br />
cells. Prasinophyceae have spherical cells, 100 to 700<br />
microns across, and an organic wall with small plate-like<br />
scales. Range: Cambrian to Recent. Chlorophycae have a<br />
large central vacuole surrounded by protoplasm. They may<br />
be unicellular or multicellular. Eosphaera is an example<br />
from the Precambrian. Some (Dasycladales and Siphonales)<br />
are spherical, cylindrical or branched and secrete a skeleton<br />
of aragonite, which becomes calcite during fossilisation.<br />
Charophycae are plant-like algae (‘stonewort’) that grow up<br />
to 2m high. Amongst the branches are small (500-750<br />
microns) male (antheridia) and female (oogonia) organs. The<br />
former is rarely fossilised, but the latter is an ovoid body,<br />
with a spiral ornament that may be found in lacustrine and<br />
estuarine deposits.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Spores and pollen appeared when the plant kingdom evolved<br />
from its algal origin in the Ordovician. Spores from primitive<br />
plants (e.g. bryophytes, Cooksoni and Rhynia) were windblown<br />
and, if they landed in suitably moist soils, grew into a<br />
gametophyte plant, bearing both male and female cells. More<br />
advanced plants (e.g. clubmosses and horse tails), which<br />
evolved in the mid-Devonian, gave rise to microspores (20-50<br />
microns), that grew into male gametophytes, and megaspores<br />
(200-400 microns), that became female gametophytes. During<br />
the Late Palaeozoic, plants living in drier areas “imprisoned”<br />
the megaspore in a capsule where it developed further,<br />
eventually dividing into a few cells. The single celled<br />
microspores evolved into multicelled pollen grains (the male<br />
gametophyte), which fertilised the encapsulated female.<br />
Gymnosperms (e.g. seed-ferns, cycads and conifers) and<br />
flower-bearing angiosperms reproduced in this way.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
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TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Kingdom: Fungi<br />
Spores &<br />
Fruiting bodies<br />
Kingdom: Animal<br />
Conodontophorida<br />
Geological range:<br />
Devonian to Recent<br />
Fruiting body (left) &<br />
spore (right) of Palaeogene fungi<br />
Geological range:<br />
Early Cambrian<br />
to late Triassic<br />
Platform (top) and<br />
compound (bottom)<br />
conodonts from<br />
the Carboniferous<br />
Fungi are known to have evolved by the Devonian, although<br />
their early history is relatively poorly known.<br />
Spores and fruiting bodies have been found in the fossil<br />
record, but have been little studied.<br />
They have little known biostratigraphical or<br />
palaeoenvironmental value and have generally been ignored<br />
by palaeontologists.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Conodonts are small teeth-like structures, generally 100 to<br />
2000 microns in length, but occasionally up to 5000 microns.<br />
They are made of calcium phosphate. Conodonts may be a<br />
simple, individual tooth, a compound ‘blade’ composed of a<br />
series teeth or a row of teeth attached to a ledge-like<br />
platform. They are found in Palaeozoic rocks, particularly<br />
limestones. Although first described as long ago as 1856, it<br />
was not until 1983 that palaeontologists new what the<br />
conodont animal looked like. These teeth came from the<br />
mouth of a eel-like fish, possibly a distant relation of the hag<br />
fish. But here was a problem. Different species and genera of<br />
conodonts had been erected for the different morphologies.<br />
Only when the whole animal was found did paleontologists<br />
realise that different genera and species were found together<br />
in the mouth of a single individual.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Kingdom: Animal<br />
Ostracoda<br />
Kingdom:<br />
Animal(?)<br />
Chitinozoa<br />
Geological range:<br />
(?Cambrian) Ordovician<br />
to Recent<br />
Late Jurassic ostracod<br />
Geological range:<br />
Ordovician-Devonian<br />
An Ordovician chitinozoan<br />
Ostracods are small crustacea that secrete a bi-valved,<br />
calcareous carapace. The hinge line along the dorsal margin<br />
may be a simple bar and groove or a series of teeth and<br />
sockets. The animal opens and closes the carapace with<br />
adductor muscles, the scars often being seen inside each<br />
valve. The surface of the carapace may be smooth or<br />
ornamented with punctation, reticulation, ribs and spines.<br />
Most ostracods are less than 1500 microns, although the<br />
largest is about 2.5 centimetres long. Ostracods are found in<br />
all aquatic environments from the deep sea to coastal rock<br />
pools, estuaries, ponds and lakes. They have even been<br />
found in trees of tropical rain forests where a small pools<br />
form in the leaves. Although they are not usually regarded as<br />
terrestrial animals, one genus has been found amongst leaf<br />
litter on wet, marshy ground. Fossil ostracods are particularly<br />
useful when making palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
Chitinozoa are flask- or bottle-shaped organisms with a<br />
vesicle and an aperture at the end of a neck. They are<br />
sometimes found attached in chains. They may be smooth,<br />
hispid, tuberculate or spiny. They are usually 150-300<br />
microns long, but may be as small as 30 microns or as large<br />
as 1500 microns. The walls are made of chitin-like material<br />
and generally brown or black in colour. These extinct<br />
organisms are found in marine Palaeozoic rocks (especially<br />
shales and siltstones) and mainly those that accumulated in<br />
shallow, well oxygenated conditions. It is not unusual to<br />
find organisms of uncertain affinity in Palaeozoic deposits.<br />
The Chitinozoa is an example of this. Some palaeontologists<br />
believe that they were planktonic and probably<br />
zooplankton; others have suggested that they were related<br />
to foraminifera, and yet others consider them to be egg<br />
cases of an unknown animal.<br />
I.P.Wilkinson (BGS)<br />
135 www.esta-uk.org
Journal of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION<br />
Volume 26 ● Number 4, 2001 ● ISSN 0957-8005<br />
Your President<br />
Introduced<br />
Martin Whiteley<br />
Thinking Ski ls in<br />
Geology Teaching<br />
Recovering the<br />
Leaning Tower of Pisa<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong><br />
Activities and<br />
Demonstrations:<br />
<strong>Earth</strong>quakes<br />
Response to the<br />
House of Commons<br />
<strong>Science</strong> and<br />
Technology Commi t e<br />
14 - 19 year olds<br />
Se ting up a local<br />
group - West Wales<br />
Geology Teachers’<br />
Network<br />
Highlights from the<br />
post-16 ‘bring and<br />
share’ se sion a the<br />
ESTA Conference,<br />
Kingston 2001<br />
ESTA Conference<br />
update<br />
Book Reviews<br />
Websearch<br />
News and Resources<br />
rth <strong>Science</strong><br />
ache<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
rth <strong>Science</strong><br />
achers’ Assoc<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
Questions in the<br />
Cla sroom<br />
Institute of Biology<br />
Chemistry on the<br />
High Street<br />
Peter Kenne t<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong><br />
Activities and<br />
Demonstrations:<br />
Fo sils and Time<br />
Browne<br />
Simulate Plate-<br />
Tectonic And Glacial<br />
Phenomena<br />
John Wheeler<br />
Dorset and East<br />
Devon Coast:<br />
World Heritage Site<br />
ESTA Conference<br />
Update<br />
New ESTA Members<br />
Websearch<br />
News and Resources<br />
(including ESTA AGM)<br />
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Geoed Ltd<br />
Dee Edwards & Dave Williams have bought the fossil replica business until recently run<br />
inside Open University and are now trading as Geoed Ltd. Geoed Ltd. has 2,000<br />
different replica fossils, including sets for schools, replica skulls, and large items that can<br />
be hired. Details are on the searchable database at http://geoed.co.uk<br />
We have a wide range of other resources, including:<br />
OU/Esso Geol map of the World . . . . . . . . . . .£6.50<br />
OS UK Geology Wall map (paper, folded) . . . .£4.00<br />
OS UK Geology Wall map (laminated) . . . . .£12.00<br />
Sedimentary Environments poster . . . . . . . . .£6.50<br />
SALE ITEMS<br />
Satellite photos (some laminated): UK, Europe, N. America, World, Africa, etc. £5.00 ea.<br />
Some Open University discontinued study units:<br />
S102: <strong>Science</strong> Foundation Course, <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s units: 5/6; 7/8; 26-28;<br />
S236: Geology: Maps, <strong>Earth</strong> materials, Fossils, Historical geology, Surface processes<br />
Send e-mail to fossil@geoed.co.uk for an up-to-date list<br />
All items are supplied VAT-free, and postage at cost.<br />
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136
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Geodynamics (2nd Edition)<br />
by Donald L. Turcotte and Gerald Schubert.<br />
Cambridge University Press, 2002. 472pp., Paperback<br />
ISBN 0521666244, £29.95; hardback ISBN 0521661862, £75.<br />
My introduction to Geodynamics by<br />
Turcotte and Schubert (First Edition)<br />
was when I went to Penn State as a<br />
postgraduate, although I had been briefly<br />
(and mesmerisingly) introduced to it<br />
during my final year as an<br />
undergraduate. Geodynamics seemed to<br />
be the one book that was on the desk of<br />
many flavours of geologist. It was, and is,<br />
a bit of a bible. I’ve always been<br />
impressed at how often Turcotte and<br />
Schubert (1982) is referenced in<br />
publications on sedimentary basin<br />
development. The original version was a<br />
fundamental contribution to describing<br />
and understanding how, from first<br />
principles, the earth behaves. It also<br />
elegantly demonstrated how many<br />
natural phenomena, such as heat<br />
conduction and erosion, can in some<br />
cases be represented by the same<br />
equation. The Second Edition will<br />
continue to fulfil that role.<br />
The book, as the authors themselves<br />
state in the preface, required little<br />
update; the equation sets have not<br />
changed. Many of the chapters (2, 3, 7, 8<br />
and 9) are essentially the same as the<br />
original text, with some minor additions<br />
and insights. In chapters 1, 4 and 6, there<br />
are new sections on mantle convection<br />
and recycling, the origin, structure and<br />
ascent velocity of hotspots and plumes,<br />
and lithospheric stretching and plate<br />
cooling models. Chapter 10 on Chemical<br />
Geodynamics is new and focuses on the<br />
use of isotopes in geochronology and the<br />
isotopic composition of rocks. I found<br />
the sections on geochemical reservoirs of<br />
the earth to be well written and<br />
extremely useful. The book, as in the<br />
original, does not contain an extensive<br />
reference list or refer to many<br />
publications on relevant research.<br />
Perhaps, given the advances since 1982 in<br />
process-orientated research and an <strong>Earth</strong><br />
systems approach, this is an omission. As<br />
an example, what the book does not<br />
attempt is the linkage in geodynamics<br />
between lithospheric behaviour, heat<br />
World Regional Geography<br />
By Lydia Mihelic Pulsipher – Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. ISBN 0716738414. £64.99<br />
Approaching retirement, and having<br />
been brought up in the tradition of<br />
regional geography as described by the<br />
likes of the late Sir Dudley Stamp (not to<br />
forget Prof. Beaver), Preston E. James<br />
(his Latin America is still a good read)<br />
and, later, Jean Mitchell, I was surprised<br />
to find that regional geography is still<br />
alive and flourishing in the United<br />
States. The lack of direction (no pun<br />
intended) for the subject in the United<br />
Kingdom in the last ten years has left<br />
pupils in our schools confused and<br />
becoming less likely to pursue the<br />
subject past GCSE level. Ask a member<br />
of the Sixth Form what they think<br />
geography is and they will not be able to<br />
tell you. Their parents will have<br />
memories of the subject as being<br />
concerned with different places – with<br />
their climates, agriculture, industry and<br />
so on. Modern pupils will at least be able<br />
to confirm that, whatever it is that the<br />
subject is concerned with, it is totally<br />
unlike anything their parents studied.<br />
The content of World Regional<br />
Geography would certainly be<br />
recognizable to the parents of the<br />
current generation of Sixth Form<br />
geographers, though perhaps not to the<br />
sixth formers themselves. The book<br />
stretches itself to include comprehensive<br />
coverage of the world, divided into ten<br />
major regions, each of which receives a<br />
systematic treatment.<br />
Making Global Connections attempts to<br />
flow, rock rheology, erosion and isostasy,<br />
although all the individual components<br />
are detailed. You could argue that is<br />
beyond the scope of one book, but<br />
reference to the literature that does do<br />
this should have been included, and<br />
would highlight how powerful such<br />
process-orientated approaches have<br />
become in <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>.<br />
A minority of the figures throughout<br />
the text are of poorer quality than in the<br />
original, and reading the data in one or<br />
two is impossible. However, many<br />
figures have been redrafted from the<br />
original version and some of the field<br />
photographs that did not reproduce well<br />
have been improved. At first I was<br />
disappointed that some of the black and<br />
white satellite images had not been<br />
replaced by higher quality (colour)<br />
versions. Although the book is still in<br />
black and white, the reduced publication<br />
cost keeps the price low so that many<br />
students, as well as academics, can afford<br />
it. As I write this, the original version (in<br />
use for a Senior Honours class) is dogeared,<br />
full of yellow post-it notes and has<br />
more than one tea stain on it. I have no<br />
doubt that the Second Edition will get<br />
the same use.<br />
Ruth Robinson<br />
School of Geography and Geosciences<br />
University of St. Andrews<br />
set the region in a world setting and,<br />
indeed the globalisation thread that runs<br />
through the book is one of several<br />
strands that makes the book a worthy<br />
successor to earlier regional works and<br />
one that makes it accessible to the<br />
contemporary students in the UK.<br />
One should applaud the attempt to<br />
place current issues in their proper<br />
context, for that is the tradition that my<br />
training gave me. The Geographic Setting<br />
examines, albeit with a fairly broad<br />
brush, Physical Patterns, Human Patterns<br />
over time and Population Patterns. In<br />
Chapter 4 (Europe), the authors examine<br />
sources of European culture. They allude<br />
to the spread of agricultural practices<br />
from the Tigris-Euphrates valleys,<br />
skipping on to honourable mentions for<br />
the Greeks (art, philosophy and<br />
mathematics), the Romans (private<br />
ownership of land, systems of<br />
colonization and language) and the<br />
137 www.esta-uk.org
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
New ESTA<br />
Members<br />
Mrs M J Huggins<br />
Taunton<br />
Dr Ruth Watkins<br />
University of Paisley<br />
Mr David Farbrother<br />
Shrewsbury<br />
Miss Anna Power<br />
Liverpool<br />
Miss Victoria Griffiths<br />
Bath<br />
Ms Belinda Bawden<br />
Lyme Regis<br />
Dr Hamish Ross<br />
Edinburgh<br />
Pembrokeshire Darwin <strong>Science</strong><br />
Festival<br />
Milford Haven<br />
Mrs Jenny Collins<br />
Redditch<br />
Mr Andrew Bakewell<br />
Birmingham<br />
Mrs Ernah Mamutse<br />
Stoke on Trent<br />
Miss Ruth Donoghue<br />
Leeds<br />
Miss Emma Whiteley<br />
Stoke on Trent<br />
Miss Katherine Bone<br />
Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre<br />
Miss Kathryn Humphreys<br />
Wrexham<br />
Mrs Veronica Bull<br />
Chester<br />
Mrs Kathy Taylor<br />
Hemel Hempstead<br />
Nikki Edwards<br />
Welwyn Garden City<br />
Paul Grant<br />
Wimbledon<br />
Fiona Hyden<br />
Bedford<br />
Celia Jones<br />
Leicester<br />
Phillip Murphy<br />
North Yorkshire<br />
Ms Toyin Solanke<br />
West Norwood, London<br />
Miss Claire Plowright<br />
Stafford<br />
Mr Luke Martin<br />
St Austell<br />
Mrs Cindy Murray<br />
Cumbria<br />
Miss Kerry Pearce<br />
Canterbury<br />
Mr Rory Reilly<br />
Canterbury<br />
Dr Susannah Lydon<br />
Derbyshire<br />
Museu de Ciences Naturals de la<br />
Cituadella<br />
Barcelona<br />
Mr Nigel Blackburn<br />
British Schools (Chile) Education Centre<br />
Reviews Cont.<br />
Moors of North Africa. All this occupies<br />
about one half of one page. However,<br />
that is still more than modern British<br />
texts would offer students interested in<br />
the Geography of Europe.<br />
Economic and Political Issues in Europe<br />
focus on the European Union, the<br />
increasing significance of the service<br />
sector at the expense of the old primary<br />
and secondary activities associated with<br />
mining and heavy manufacture, but no<br />
attempt is made to examine this vitally<br />
important switch in any depth. However,<br />
in a section entitled Measures of Human<br />
Well-Being, the readers’ attention is<br />
drawn to “The Chocolate Standards<br />
War.” Fascinating.<br />
The problem of scale is approached<br />
through an attempt to introduce topics at<br />
a variety of scales; at the opposite scale of<br />
the ‘broad brush’ meso-regional scale,<br />
the authors make use of what they call<br />
“vignettes” – relevant stories (gleaned<br />
from the press, presumably). Following a<br />
comment that Yemen is one of the<br />
poorest countries of the Arabian<br />
Peninsula, there is a ‘vignette’ describing<br />
the role of women in modern-day<br />
Yemen, featuring the activities of the<br />
Yemen’s most outspoken feminist and<br />
her attempts to improve the lot of<br />
women in a traditional Islamic society.<br />
Interestingly, the vignettes return to the<br />
subject of ‘the role of women’ on many<br />
occasions and thus provide a likely focus<br />
for debate or discussion.<br />
Studies at regional and local scales<br />
appear as virtual footnotes and range<br />
across a number of topics – from<br />
subsistence activities in arid Nepal to<br />
sustainable development in Cairo; from<br />
the renewed use of Inca terraces and<br />
canals in the Andes to the exploitation of<br />
natural gas in Burma. These brief studies<br />
are rather like Christmas decorations –<br />
they brighten the scene, but are of<br />
limited significance.<br />
In the best traditions of the modern<br />
text, World Regional Geography contains a<br />
myriad of coloured plates and maps; the<br />
photographs are particularly stunning<br />
and the quality is excellent. However, I<br />
found many of the maps to be<br />
overcomplicated and, consequently,<br />
difficult to read: the map illustrating<br />
Environmental Issues: Europe (p209)<br />
contains a huge amount of information<br />
on a small scale map – there are 14<br />
different categories in the legend for<br />
the map, in addition to annotation.<br />
Other maps are perfectly clear and<br />
accessible, though I could not work<br />
out, from the text, the geographical<br />
significance of a map showing the<br />
diffusion of <strong>Association</strong> Football across<br />
the world (p203).<br />
At £64.99, there cannot be many<br />
schools or college students who could<br />
afford to buy this book even if there was<br />
enough in the content to whet their<br />
appetites. The attempt to provide world<br />
coverage obviously has a price to pay in<br />
shallow treatment, though one must<br />
acknowledge the attempts to provide<br />
some depth by use of vignettes, local and<br />
regional studies. The apparent<br />
randomness of these studies, however,<br />
detracts from the worthy aim of depth.<br />
However, the book comes as part of a<br />
larger package, clearly intended for the<br />
American market, including the<br />
possibility of tutorials via the internet,<br />
study guides, a CD-ROM, map study<br />
exercises, blank outline maps, a questionand-answer<br />
system online and so on.<br />
There are guides for instructors, sets of<br />
slides, CD-ROMs etc. The<br />
comprehensive nature of the total<br />
package is truly impressive and even<br />
without registering as either a student or<br />
an instructor, I was able to download<br />
maps to my computer quite easily from<br />
the dedicated website.<br />
World Regional Geography does not seem<br />
likely to occupy a high priority point on<br />
the geography teacher’s shopping list,<br />
given current sixth-form syllabuses and<br />
the great cost. However, if the school<br />
librarian can be persuaded of its value, this<br />
broadly based book full of modern<br />
concepts, could provide a valuable source<br />
of reference for young geographers. Its<br />
value, to this writer, is its insistence that<br />
the regional tradition in geography is alive<br />
and in a form still recognisable to an<br />
ageing geography teacher!<br />
R A Varley<br />
Penglais School<br />
Aberystwyth<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
138
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Websearch<br />
A recent request for help in <strong>teaching</strong> on the Internet was for suggestions for a fun and educational outreach<br />
activity for junior-high students (11-14 years old) that involves fossils and <strong>Earth</strong> history. The purpose of the<br />
activity was to show students what “real” geologists and paleontologists do, in hopes of encouraging them<br />
to pursue careers in science. The limitations were that the activity can’t be more than 50 minutes long, and<br />
can’t be outside/field-based. This brought a number of replies; some are listed here.<br />
The Ohio geological survey:<br />
www.ohiodnr.com/geosurvey/<br />
A 3 day workshop for science teachers entitled “A Festival of Fossils”<br />
that focussed on the development of palaeontology programs<br />
for various school age groups.<br />
www.es.mq.edu.au/mucep/ipc2002/fossil_festival.htm<br />
The UCMP web site at:<br />
www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/museum/k-12.html<br />
www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fosrec/Learning.html<br />
The US government website at:<br />
www.usgs.gov/education/<br />
SEPM, a product of their K-12 committee. The address is:<br />
www.beloit.edu/~SEPM/publications.html<br />
What is claimed as the Oldest Complex Life Form, found in<br />
Newfoundland, is described at<br />
astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/news/expandnews.cfm?id=9388<br />
Adventures in Energy, an educational Web site created by the<br />
American Petroleum Institute, provides an interactive overview<br />
of where oil and gas comes from, the industry’s use of cuttingedge<br />
technologies and environmental practices to find and develop<br />
these resources, and the many innovative products made from<br />
oil and natural gas that you use everyday.<br />
You can access this useful educational resource at<br />
www.adventuresinenergy.com/<br />
A list of the top-selling scientific books at Amazon.com including<br />
those in geology has been compiled at<br />
www.jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/bestbooks.html<br />
A geological newsletter covering northern Ireland – i.e. Northern<br />
Ireland and the adjacent counties of the Republic of Ireland – is<br />
available on line at<br />
http://www.ulstermuseum.org.uk/es2k/<br />
Visit the Natural History Museum site, to see the relationships<br />
between dinosaurs and birds:<br />
www.nhm.ac.uk/dinobirds/<br />
An American university course:<br />
Geology is the science of the <strong>Earth</strong>, and its fundamental principles<br />
are derived from our interpretations of the <strong>Earth</strong>’s age and<br />
history. “Creationism” is technically the belief that the Universe<br />
was supernaturally created from nothing. However, in the United<br />
States, and increasingly the rest of the world, Creationism has<br />
acquired a much more specific meaning, primarily that the Universe,<br />
including the <strong>Earth</strong> and life, was created in six 24-hour<br />
days less than 10,000 years ago, following the stories outlined in<br />
the first chapter of Genesis. Furthermore, Creationism as popularly<br />
defined includes the belief that Noah’s Flood was real, global<br />
in its extent, and about a year in duration.<br />
These beliefs and others taken from a literal interpretation of<br />
the Bible are clearly contradicted by scientific evidence, especially<br />
that of geology. “Scientific Creationists” know this and have<br />
developed an extensive and popular “refutation” of modern geology,<br />
complete with geological evidence for the Flood, claims that<br />
dinosaurs lived with people, denials of radiometric dating, and<br />
catastrophic explanations for the fossil record. This is clearly<br />
pseudoscience and delusion, leading most geologists to simply<br />
ignore Creationism, but the movement has gained in energy and<br />
adherents in the past decade.<br />
The most recent polls say that approximately 45% of Americans<br />
believe that the <strong>Earth</strong> is less than 10,000 years old, and that<br />
Genesis is a literal account of its history. Geologists are learning<br />
that Creationism must be confronted, and this course is designed<br />
to give students the necessary background and tools to do so<br />
www.wooster.edu/geology/geo350mw/geo350mw.html<br />
ESTA Diary<br />
APRIL 2003<br />
Wednesday 16th April<br />
10:00 to 16:30 Mineral collecting and conservation - hammering out a<br />
future? Harold Riley Suite, University of Salford<br />
Wednesday 23rd - Friday 25th April<br />
Geographical <strong>Association</strong> Annual Conference, University of Derby<br />
JUNE 2003<br />
Saturday 7th June<br />
Hunt The Dinosaurs On The Yorkshire Coast<br />
Explore the coast near Scarborough with Will Watts. A Rockwatch event.<br />
Contact Geraldine Marshall, Rockwatch at the GA, Burlington House,<br />
Piccadilly, London W1J 0DU. Phone: 020 7734 5398.<br />
Rockwatchatga@btinternet.com<br />
Monday 23rd - Saturday 28th June<br />
SciTec 2003 Festival Of <strong>Science</strong> – University of Derby.<br />
JULY 2003<br />
Sunday 27th July<br />
11.00 - 3.30pm Rockwatch At The National Stone Centre<br />
Wirksworth, Derbyshire. A Rockwatch event. Contact Geraldine Marshall,<br />
Rockwatch at the GA, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0DU.<br />
Phone: 020 7734 5398. Rockwatchatga@btinternet.com<br />
AUGUST 2003<br />
10th - 14th August<br />
Conference of the International Geoscience Education Organisation,<br />
Calgary, Canada. Website www.geoscied.org<br />
SEPTEMBER 2003<br />
8th -12th September<br />
The BA Festival of <strong>Science</strong> 2003, University of Salford<br />
Friday 12th - Sunday 14th September<br />
ESTA Annual Conference, University of Manchester<br />
139 www.esta-uk.org
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
News and Resources<br />
JESEI’s Brand New Website<br />
The acronym ESTA sounds like Esther. ESTA now has<br />
a daughter- Jessie, or rather JESEI! The letters stand for<br />
the Joint <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong> Education Initiative, which has<br />
a brand new website up and awaiting “hits”. JESEI<br />
receives the support of the Royal Society, the Geological<br />
Society and ESTA, and the financial backing of the<br />
UK Offshore Operators’ <strong>Association</strong> (UKOOA).<br />
JESEI’s actual parentage is complex, since the<br />
materials have been written by members of the<br />
Institutes of Biology and of Physics and of the Royal<br />
Society of Chemistry. They have devised activities for<br />
their fellow science teachers in schools, in terms<br />
which those who have not studied <strong>Earth</strong> science will<br />
understand and hopefully implement with their<br />
pupils. Do have a look at it, and check regularly for<br />
new additions. If you are a geologist <strong>teaching</strong> in a<br />
school, please alert your science colleagues to this new<br />
resource. Some of the activities are well known:<br />
others are new. Try clicking on “Volcano in the lab”<br />
and watch the wax volcano erupt. The activity was<br />
devised by Mike Tuke years ago, but never fails to<br />
attract attention from teachers and pupils alike. A new<br />
demonstration involves creating convection cells in a<br />
huge beaker of Golden Syrup, and watching two<br />
“Hobnob” continents drifting apart! And there is<br />
much more. The address is www.jesei.org<br />
With risk of some repetition, the official press<br />
release for the new website ran as follows:<br />
The Joint <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong> Education Initiative website was<br />
launched at the Annual Meeting of the <strong>Association</strong> for <strong>Science</strong><br />
Education (ASE) at Birmingham University on Saturday<br />
4th January – and was warmly welcomed by all those who<br />
participated. The website contains a wide range of activities,<br />
free to download, especially written to brighten up <strong>Earth</strong> science<br />
<strong>teaching</strong> and to correct misconceptions commonly found in<br />
science textbooks.<br />
Chris King awarded top award<br />
by Geological Society<br />
We are delighted to announce that Chris King has been<br />
awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Geological<br />
Society for 2003. ESTA members and others will wish to join<br />
me in congratulating Chris on this well-deserved recognition.<br />
RDT<br />
The Joint <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong> Education Initiative is a<br />
collaboration between the Royal Society of Chemistry, the<br />
Institute of Biology, the Institute of Physics and the <strong>Earth</strong><br />
<strong>Science</strong> Teachers’ <strong>Association</strong> to produce materials that<br />
chemistry, biology and physics teachers can use in their <strong>Earth</strong><br />
science <strong>teaching</strong>. The initiative has been supported by the<br />
Royal Society, the ASE and the Geological Society. The UK<br />
Offshore Operators <strong>Association</strong> (UKOOA), the umbrella<br />
organisation for the offshore oil industry, has kindly provided<br />
financial support. The website has been produced by<br />
‘Presenting <strong>Science</strong>’.<br />
The challenge was to write material for <strong>teaching</strong> the <strong>Earth</strong><br />
science in the National <strong>Science</strong> Curriculum in a way that<br />
would appeal to teachers and pupils and that explains <strong>Earth</strong><br />
science concepts clearly. This was met by asking chemistry<br />
teachers to write the chemistry materials, biology writers to<br />
write the biology activities and physics teachers to write the<br />
physics content. <strong>Earth</strong> scientists were involved at every stage.<br />
The results are available to all at the website:<br />
http://www.jesei.org<br />
Those who participated in Birmingham were<br />
enthusiastic, with comments such as: ‘The <strong>Earth</strong> science I<br />
have taught has been very dry, these new practical ideas<br />
will help me to brighten it up a lot’, ‘Now I have the ideas<br />
that will help me to bring my <strong>Earth</strong> science <strong>teaching</strong> to life’<br />
and ‘We find it difficult to teach the <strong>Earth</strong> science at our<br />
school because none of us knows much about it - this<br />
website will make a big difference’.<br />
The website will continue to evolve as new material is<br />
added and as feedback is used to make it more ‘teacherfriendly’<br />
and useful. Meanwhile, many of the practical<br />
activities have been incorporated into ninety minute<br />
workshops that can be brought free to science departments in<br />
secondary schools in England and Wales by local facilitators of<br />
the <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong> Education Unit. More details of the<br />
workshops can be obtained from the ESEU Administrator,<br />
01782 584437 or from the ESEU website:<br />
http://www.earthscienceeducation.com<br />
<strong>Earth</strong> science is now firmly embedded in the school<br />
curriculum, and forthcoming developments, such as “21st<br />
Century <strong>Science</strong>” are committed to ensuring that it is taught<br />
well. We all face crucial debates about the <strong>Earth</strong> and our<br />
environment in the future. The JESEI initiative will help<br />
science teachers to prepare pupils for their involvement in these<br />
key issues.<br />
Peter Kennett<br />
www.esta-uk.org<br />
140
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 27 ● Number 4, 2002<br />
Expansion of the ESEU<br />
ESEU = the <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong> Education Unit, administered<br />
from Keele University. We have recently appointed<br />
a further 11 facilitators to improve our coverage of<br />
England and to offer our services to Wales. One person<br />
has been appointed to pioneer the work in Scotland.<br />
The total number of facilitators is now nearly 30, so it is<br />
highly likely that one of them lives within 30 miles or<br />
so of your school.<br />
The ESEU offers workshops to science<br />
departments in secondary schools to help them with<br />
<strong>teaching</strong> the <strong>Earth</strong> science in the National<br />
Curriculum. Workshops are free, apart from travelling<br />
expenses, thanks, again to UKOOA.<br />
If the <strong>Science</strong> staff in your school have not yet<br />
invited an ESEU member to lead an INSET session,<br />
now is the time to show them this note and to<br />
encourage them to get in touch. Most of the sessions<br />
involve hands-on activities, whereby science teachers<br />
usually get slightly wet, or sprinkled with sand or<br />
Plaster of Paris! They often do not realise that there is<br />
more to “the rocks bit” than getting out a lot of dusty,<br />
well scratched rocks, scratching them again and<br />
returning them to the cupboard until next year. Many<br />
of them readily admit that they “find the rocks bit<br />
very dry...” not after our visits, they won’t!<br />
For further enquiries, contact the Administrator,<br />
Bernadette Callan, Department of Education,<br />
Keele University, Keele, ST5 5BG or see<br />
www.earthscienceeducation.com.<br />
Peter Kennett<br />
Death of Hilary Corke<br />
Readers will be saddened to hear of the death of<br />
Hilary Corke in September 2001. Hilary was a<br />
man of many talents and interests and it is mineral<br />
collecting for which TES readers may remember<br />
him. Please visit the website where you can<br />
read the obituary published in the Independent:<br />
www.hilarycorke.com/html/Independent_obituary.htm<br />
Death of Sir John Knill<br />
Readers will also be saddened to hear of the death<br />
of Sir John Knill in December 2002. Sir John was<br />
not only a leading engineering geologist but also<br />
Chairman of NERC and recipient of numerous<br />
awards, medals and honorary degrees. He was<br />
ESTA President from 1995 to 1997.<br />
Examiner Recruitment<br />
The Joint Council for General Qualifications is seeking to appoint<br />
examiners for the Summer 2003 examinations. The request covers<br />
GCSE but mainly AS and A2 levels and there are shortages in some<br />
subjects. If you are interested, please contact the Joint Council Convenor,<br />
John Milner, at Devas Street, Manchester M15 6EX,<br />
Tel 0161 958 3737, Email jointcouncil@jcgq.org.uk<br />
New ESTA “SHOP” Arrangements<br />
A new set-up for new times: where possible ESTA members should<br />
buy direct from suppliers, several of whom have offered discounts to<br />
ESTA members. E-mail is now becoming the standard method of<br />
checking before sending written orders.<br />
BGS materials. These are available at 25% educational discount.<br />
An order on school paper head with ESTA membership number<br />
will be needed to get the discount. Please see the BGS advert in<br />
this issue of TES.<br />
Thematic Trails. Please see their advert with new materials at 15%<br />
discount for ESTA members. An order on school paper head with<br />
ESTA membership number will be needed.<br />
ESTA’s page. This covers ESTA materials and products not<br />
generally available in UK. Several of the <strong>Science</strong> of the <strong>Earth</strong> units<br />
are now rather dated, and also not so relevant to the current<br />
curriculum; so these are now to be offered at knockdown prices and<br />
will then be discontinued.<br />
ESTA will now charge for postage, and members are encouraged to<br />
e-mail (earthscience@macunlimited.net) draft orders, so firm<br />
quotes, including postage, can be given.<br />
ESTA rock kits will be supplied direct by John Reynolds<br />
(jr.reynolds@virgin.net).<br />
A new company (Geoed Ltd) run by Dee Edwards & Dave<br />
Williams has bought the replica fossil business from the Open<br />
University and also sells some maps & posters,<br />
(see our advert in this issue).<br />
The nature of our <strong>Science</strong> is changing rapidly: many traditional<br />
geology courses in Universities have changed or closed, new ones<br />
have started, especially geology with other sciences, such as<br />
Environment. Fewer students take A-level geology, and more are<br />
doing AS-level & Environmental <strong>Science</strong>. Perhaps ESTA members<br />
can suggest new materials which could be usefully stocked to reflect<br />
these changes?<br />
New Adverts Manager: Ian Ray (ianray@ray2003.fsworld.co.uk) is<br />
looking to find advertisers for things members will find useful and<br />
he welcomes your suggestions.<br />
Dave Williams<br />
141 www.esta-uk.org
www.esta-uk.org<br />
142
THEMATIC TRAILS<br />
These guides are full of serious explanation, yet challenge us to question and interpret what we see.<br />
The reader is encouraged to observe, enquire and participate in a trail of discovery – Each trail is an<br />
information resource suitable for teachers to translate into field tasks appropriate to a wide range of ages.<br />
LANDSCAPES<br />
GEOLOGY AT HARTLAND QUAY<br />
Alan Childs & Chris Cornford<br />
In a short cliff-foot walk, along the beach at Hartland Quay, visitors are provided with a<br />
straightforward explanation of the dramatically folded local rocks and their history.<br />
Alternate pages provide a deeper commentary on aspects of the geology and in<br />
particular provide reference notes for students examining the variety of structures<br />
exhibited in this exceptionally clear location. A5. 40 pages. 47 figs.<br />
ISBN 0-948444-12-6 Thematic Trails 1989. £2.40<br />
THE CLIFFS OF HARTLAND QUAY<br />
Peter Keene<br />
On a cliff-top walk following the Heritage Coast footpath to the south from Hartland<br />
Quay, coastal waterfalls, valley shapes and the form of the cliffs are all used to<br />
reconstruct a sequence of events related to spectacular coastal erosion along this coast.<br />
A5. 40 pages. 24 figs.<br />
ISBN 0-948444-05-3 Thematic Trails 1990. £2.40<br />
LYN IN FLOOD, Watersmeet to Lynmouth<br />
P. Keene & D. Elsom<br />
A riverside walk from Watersmeet on Exmoor, follows the East Lyn downstream to<br />
Lynmouth and the sea. The variety of physical states of the East Lyn river is explained<br />
including spate and the catastrophic floods of 1952. A5. 48 pages. 36 figs.<br />
ISBN 0-948444-20-7 Thematic Trails 1990. £2.40<br />
THE CLIFFS OF SAUNTON<br />
Peter Keene and Chris Cornford<br />
“If you really want explanations served up to you... then go elsewhere, but if you want<br />
to learn, by self-assessment if you like, start here. Ideally you should go there, to<br />
Saunton Sands, but it’s not absolutely necessary. The booklet is so cleverly done that<br />
you can learn much without leaving your armchair. Not that we are encouraging such<br />
sloth, you understand.” (Geology Today). A5. 44 pages. 30 figs.<br />
ISBN 0-048444-24-X Thematic Trails 1995. £2.40<br />
SNOWDON IN THE ICE AGE<br />
Kenneth Addison<br />
Ken Addison interprets the evidence left by successive glaciers around Snowdon<br />
(the last of which melted only 10,000 years ago) in a way which brings together the<br />
serious student of the Quaternary Ice Age and the interested inquisitive visitor.<br />
A5. 30 pages. 18 figs.<br />
ISBN 0-9511175-4-8 Addison Landscape Publications. 1988. £3.60<br />
THE ICE AGE IN CWM IDWAL<br />
Kenneth Addison<br />
The Ice Age invested Cwm Idwal with a landscape whose combination of glaciological,<br />
geological and floristic elements is unsurpassed in mountain Britain. Cwm Idwal is<br />
readily accessible on good paths within a few minutes walk of the A5 route through<br />
Snowdonia. A5. 21pages. 16 figs.<br />
ISBN 0-9511175-4-8 A. L. P. 1988. £3.60<br />
THE ICE AGE IN Y GLYDERAU AND NANT FFRANCON<br />
Ice, in the last main glaciation, carved a glacial highway through the heart of Snowdonia<br />
so boldly as to ensure that Nant Ffrancon is amongst the best known natural landmarks<br />
in Britain. The phenomenon is explained in a way that is understandable to both<br />
specialist and visitor. A5. 30 pages. 21 figs.<br />
ISBN 0-9511175-3-X A.L.P. 1988. £3.60<br />
ROCKS & LANDSCAPE OF ALSTON MOOR<br />
geological walks in the Nent Valley. Barry Webb & Brian Young (Ed. Eric Skipsey). On<br />
two walks in the North Pennines landscape, the authors unravel clues about how<br />
today’s rocks, fossils and landscape were formed and how men have exploited the<br />
geological riches of Alston Moor.’<br />
A5. 28 pages, 40 figs. Cumbria Riggs 2002. £2.00<br />
CITYSCAPES<br />
BRISTOL, HERITAGE IN STONE<br />
Eileen Stonebridge<br />
The walk explores the rich diversity of stones that make up the fabric of the City of<br />
Bristol. The expectation is that as the building stones become familiar, so comes the<br />
satisfaction of being able to identify common stones and their origin, perhaps before<br />
turning to the text for reassurance. A5. 40 pages. 60 figs.<br />
ISBN 0948444-36-3 Thematic Trails 1999. £2.40<br />
BATH IN STONE a guide to the city’s building stones<br />
Elizabeth Devon, John Parkins, David Workman<br />
Compiled by the Bath Geological Society, the architectural heritage of Bath is explored,<br />
blending the recognition of building stones and the history of the city. A very useful<br />
walking guide both for visiting school parties, geologists and the interested nonspecialist<br />
visitor. A5. 48 pages. 36 illustrations.<br />
ISBN 0948444-38-X Thematic Trails 2001. £2.40<br />
GLOUCESTER IN STONE, a city walk – Joe McCall<br />
This booklet was compiled by the Gloucestershire RIGS Group as an introduction to<br />
the geology of the city. Four compass-point streets radiate from Gloucester city centre.<br />
The first short walk, Eastgate Street, is, in essence a mental tool-kit for identifying<br />
some local common building stones and their history - a skill which can then be applied<br />
to any of the three following compass direction walks.<br />
A5. 40 pages. 39 illustrations.<br />
ISBN 0948444-37-1 Thematic Trails 1999. £2.40<br />
GEOLOGY AND THE BUILDINGS OF OXFORD<br />
Paul Jenkins<br />
The walk is likened to a visit to an open air museum. Attention is drawn to the variety<br />
of building materials used in the fabric of the city. Their suitability, durability,<br />
susceptibility to pollution and weathering, maintenance and replacement is discussed.<br />
A5. 44 pages. 22 illustrations.<br />
ISBN 0-948444-09-6 Thematic Trails 1988. £2.40<br />
EXETER IN STONE, AN URBAN GEOLOGY<br />
Jane Dove<br />
“Directed at ‘the curious visitor and interested non-specialists’, Thematic Trails Trust<br />
publications incorporate and translate professional knowledge from the academic<br />
literature to which members of the general public don’t have ready access....Exeter in<br />
Stone is a fine addition to the ever-expanding list of booklets on the building stones of<br />
British towns and cities.” (Geology Today). A5. 44 pages. 24 illustrations.<br />
ISBN 0-948444-27-4 Thematic Trails 1994. £2.40<br />
GUIDE TO THE BUILDING STONES OF HUDDERSFIELD<br />
Two walks in central Huddersfield examine decorative polished building stones that<br />
have been brought into Huddersfield from many parts of the world to enhance the<br />
commercial and public buildings of the city. Huddersfield Geology Group.<br />
A5. 12 pages. 23 illustrations. £2.00<br />
COASTAL EROSION AND MANAGEMENT<br />
WESTWARD HO! AGAINST THE SEA<br />
Peter Keene<br />
This ‘case study’ examines the history of coastal erosion at Westward Ho! and the<br />
many strategies for coastal defence adopted and discarded over the last 150 years.<br />
A5. 44 pages. 24 illustrations.<br />
ISBN 0-948444-34-7 Thematic Trails 1997. £2.40<br />
DAWLISH WARREN AND THE SEA<br />
Peter Sims<br />
Within living memory Dawlish Warren in South Devon has dramatically changed its<br />
shape several times. A shoreline walk explains the nature and history of dynamic coastal<br />
change and its implications for both short-term and long-term coastal management.<br />
A5. 48 pages. 44 figs.<br />
ISBN 0-948444-13-4 Thematic Trails 1988-98 £2.40<br />
These titles are selected from over 100 guides published or marketed by the educational charity Thematic Trails.<br />
For a free catalogue e-mail keene@thematic-trails.org<br />
(Tel:01865-820522 Fax: 01865-820522) or visit our web site: www. thematic-trails.org<br />
Address ORDERS to THEMATIC TRAILS, 7 Norwood Avenue, Kingston Bagpuize, Oxon OX13 5AD.<br />
Use an educational address and quote your ESTA membership number to qualify for a 15% educational discount.<br />
Orders for five or more items are post free. Thematic Trails is registered charity No. 801188.<br />
143 www.esta-uk.org
from the British Geological Survey<br />
2003 Catalogue<br />
now available<br />
Contact the Sales Desk<br />
Fossil Focus and Holiday<br />
Geology Guides<br />
Buy any ten Fossil Focus or Holiday<br />
Geology Guidecards for just £10<br />
Titles include Ammonites, Belemnites,<br />
Brachiopods, Corals, The Lake<br />
District, North York Moors, Peak District and many more.<br />
See our Online Shop for a full list.<br />
<strong>Earth</strong>wise Books – Super Savers<br />
£4 each – normally £6.50<br />
Catastrophes – time’s trail of destruction<br />
Suzanna van Rose<br />
Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides, floods fascinate and<br />
horrify us all. In this book, famous natural catastrophes are<br />
investigated and explained in layman’s terms. Order Code CATAS<br />
<strong>Earth</strong>quakes – our trembling planet<br />
Suzanna van Rose & Roger Musson<br />
<strong>Earth</strong>quakes are in the news, even in Britain. This book helps<br />
those who want to get to grips with all aspects of the subject.<br />
Order Code EOTP<br />
Fossils – the story of life<br />
Sue Rigby<br />
Concentrates on British fossils and the story of life on our<br />
islands. Includes details of the great fossil collections of Britain.<br />
Over 100 colour photos and illustrations. Product Code FOSL<br />
Groundwater – our hidden asset<br />
Richard Downing<br />
This book explains clearly how and where groundwater<br />
occurs, how it is used and how it is at risk. Product Code GRHA<br />
UK North & South Sheets “Ten Mile Map”<br />
Special price £15 for any two folded sheets<br />
(normally £9.95 each)<br />
Revised 4th editions of the 1:625 000 solid geology map of the<br />
UK. Order Code Folded UKNSP<br />
The Geology of Britain<br />
By Peter Toghill – paperback<br />
Normally £16.95 – now £15.00<br />
This popular book is now available in paperback format.<br />
Published by Airlife. (ISBN 1840374047). Order Code VTGB<br />
How To Order<br />
Please include the Order Codes, title and price for all items.<br />
Mark your order “ESTA Offers” include your ESTA<br />
membership number, or use an official order form or<br />
letterhead.<br />
Prices quoted do not include postage: please add 10%,<br />
minimum £2.50. No further discounts are available on the<br />
Special Offer prices.<br />
Standard Educational Discount<br />
A 25% discount is available to educational institutions on most<br />
BGS publications (excluding some print-on-demand items and<br />
all non-BGS publications).<br />
Items not listed here can be ordered from the Sales Desk<br />
(please check availability before for sending payment).<br />
Discounts and offers are not available for purchases made via<br />
the BGS Online Shop. No additional discount is available on<br />
prices shown here.<br />
Yorkshire Rock – a journey through time<br />
Richard Bell<br />
Everywhere in Yorkshire there are clues to vanished worlds in<br />
the rocks, fossils and landforms. This book is an accessible<br />
guide to the geology of the county. Illustrated in watercolours<br />
by renowned wildlife artist Richard Bell. Product Code DGYR<br />
Any book, any quantity – £4 + P&P<br />
For other publications visit our Online Shop at:<br />
www.geologyshop.com<br />
Send Orders to:<br />
Sales Desk (ESTA)<br />
British Geological Survey<br />
Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG<br />
Tel. 0115 936 3241<br />
Fax 0115 936 3488<br />
sales@bgs.ac.uk
ESTA TEACHING MATERIALS<br />
ESTA Groups have produced a variety of <strong>teaching</strong> materials with teacher notes and worksheets.<br />
They are all copyright free for classroom use<br />
Working with Soil pack £6.00 + p&p<br />
NEW<br />
PRIMARY<br />
Working<br />
With<br />
Soil<br />
Working with rocks pack<br />
including postcard set<br />
£6.00 + p&p<br />
Contents<br />
● The Map . .inside cover<br />
● Information . . . . . . . . . . . . .pages 1 - 3<br />
● How to Use the Work Sheets . . . . .page 4 - 6<br />
● <strong>Science</strong> Activities and Work Sheets .pages 7 - 16<br />
● Literacy Activities and Work Sheets . .pages 17 - 26<br />
● Numeracy Activities and Work Sheets . . . . . . .pages 27 - 30<br />
Authors<br />
Waldorf the Worm<br />
This pack was wri ten and developed by members of the ESTA Primary Commi tee.<br />
Building stones photos.<br />
set of 16 postcards from this pack,<br />
sold separately £3.50 + p&p<br />
KEY STAGE 3<br />
Devised at KS3 to introduce <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong> to pupils as part of the <strong>Science</strong> & Geography<br />
curriculum. Each contains 3 double periods of <strong>teaching</strong> time.<br />
ME Moulding <strong>Earth</strong>’s Surface: weathering, erosion & transportation (1993)<br />
HC Hidden changes in the <strong>Earth</strong>: introduction to metamorphism (1990, 2001 reprint)<br />
M Magma: introduction to igneous processes (1990, 2002 reprint)<br />
SR Second hand rocks: introducing sedimentary processes (1991)<br />
FW Steps towards the rock face: introducing fieldwork (1991)<br />
ES <strong>Earth</strong>’s surface features (1992)<br />
£2.00 each, or £10.00 for all 6 + post at cost<br />
There are limited stocks of other units less relevant to today’s curriculum<br />
GW Groundwork: introducing <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong> (1990)<br />
PP Power from the past: coal, with colour poster (1990)<br />
E Power source: oil & energy (1992)<br />
WG Water overground & underground (1992)<br />
BM bulk constructional materials (1991)<br />
LP Life from the past: introducing fossils (1990)<br />
offered at £1.00 each + p&p, while stocks last<br />
KEY STAGE 4 and on<br />
Investigating the <strong>Science</strong> of the <strong>Earth</strong>: practical and investigative activities for key stage 4 and beyond<br />
SoE1: Changes to the atmosphere (1995)<br />
SoE2: Geological changes: <strong>Earth</strong>’s structure & plate tectonics (1996)<br />
SoE3: Geological changes:rock formation & deformation (1998)<br />
Routeway: planning & technical problems of building a major road (with posters 1994)<br />
£2.50 each, or £9.00 for all 4 + p&p<br />
Practical kits<br />
ESTA Mineral kit: 10 common minerals, lens, acid DROPPER, etc., boxed, £15.00<br />
Diversity of Life fossil replica kit: 12 representative items, data sheet, boxed, £16.00<br />
ESTA Rock kits: teacher and pupil sets available, details from jr.reynolds@virgin.net<br />
All kits supplied plus postage at cost<br />
Enquiries to earthscience@macunlimited.net<br />
Orders: Dave Williams, Corner Cottage, School Lane, Hartwell, Northampton, NN7 2HL<br />
145 www.esta-uk.org