It's done it again...

Time, that is... I mean, passed rather quickly... It seems to be March already. So, two months gone of the new year, and what's happened? Hmm, let's see...

Well, the winter has been rubbish - warm and wet - hmm... that's climate change for you :O) And now spring is beckoning - snow drops up, and crocuses - and the daffodils are on their way. No pictures, I'm afraid, cos it's dark outside now - and raining, not surprisingly.

The OU year has started too - so well in to this year's courses. First tutorial today, in fact. Lots of sequency stratigraphy - parasequences, systems tracts and the like. Should probably post some diagrams up here of all that stuff..

New Year

Mmm, this is nice, isn't it? It's just after 3.00 in the afternoon, and the storm has arrived in Edinburgh... this is the view from my flat window!

Glad I'm not going to be out, squashed into Princes Street with everyone else, getting wet and blown over by 90mph winds tonight then.... What happened to nice cold New Years? I'm sure I remember at least a couple...

Sequences

So what else is there to do over Xm*s other than get on with my next course? Hurrah!

Been wrestling with sequence stratigraphy for the last couple of days. Sounds very arcane, doesn't it? Actually, though, it's not as complicated as I thought it might be - or maybe that's because I haven't got very far yet! Lots of new terms to learn though - and abbreviations - but I think it's making sense.

Think I'll try and summarise some of the pertinent points tomorrow - so watch this space!

In the meantime - got a signal booster for the Freeview card in the PC, so the reception is infinitely better. And there are some surprisingly interesting films on this Xm*s - which, in itself, is somewhat surprising...

Exam results!

So the results are out at last - what a long time the OU makes you wait! And as you can see, I've not been on here since... oh well... can be a new year resolution... be better at blogging.

Anyway, exam results. Very pleased with mine - managed two distinctions in geology and ecology - hurrah! Got a Pass 2 for the geology summer school, and a pass for the maffs course (they're not graded, but I got 90% - which I thought was pretty good for someone who wasn't really sure about maffs...)

Very pleased with the ecology result, cos that means I only need a distinction in one more 30 point Level 3 course to get a First when I graduate :O) And I've got three more goes at getting one...

Now getting a First didn't seem that important when I first set out doing this degree stuff. In fact, I was really only doing this for interest - then I thought, might as well go for a degree. And now I could possibly get a First, well, that would be nice, wouldn't it?

So, on to next year - already got the S369 stuff and waiting for the oceanography books to show up... So more about all that next time.

Post exam musings

So, that's the exams over for another year. Mmm, not sure how I've done. The S260 exam was lovely - I wanted to take the rock samples home with me - isn't that sad? We had a lovely granite and an oolitic limestone - and a thin section of garnet mica schist.

Ecology was another matter - what a strange exam paper. I got the impression the examiners had just run out of question ideas - as it was the last year of the course. One of the longest running OU courses - 32 years! Anyway, the essay questions were, well, rather vague. Which may be good or bad, depending how you look at it. I certainly managed to shoe-horn every concept I could remember into mine :O)

Anyway, post-exam lull now. Only not making it such a lull. Determined to be better organised next year (not doing as many courses, so should be relatively easy!), so already making a start on pre-reading!

Oceanography (S330) and the Geological Record of Environmental Change (S369) next year, plus associated summer school (back to Durham!).

OMG! Where did the year go?

Ok - so I've been particularly rubbish at this blogging lark... but WTF did the year go?? One minute it was April - and now it seems to be pumpkin time...

Well, I suppose we need a potted history of what's happened since April. Well, let's see....

Um, well I went climbing in Provence (hurrah!) - to the very place illustrated in the banner above, in fact. Lots of lovely limestone - and wine... Then I came back, did lots more studying, and trotted off down to London for my brother's wedding - and then came back and then went off to Durham for the geology summer school. That was much fun - very hot, great beer and lots of rocks - what more could you ask for? Um, then came back, did more studying, then went off to Ireland for round two of the wedding (blessing) - came back, and went off climbing in Burgundy - hurrah! More lovely limestone and wine.... Then had lots of assignments to get in, then lots of revision, and then exams and then.... it's all over now for another year....

Well, that'll be where it went then... oh well.

Malham Tarn

Just back from a week's ecology field trip at Malham Tarn in the Yorkshire Dales. Wonderful place - if a little cold for the time of year!

Exhausting week trying out lots of field techniques from trapping (or not!) small mammals, to freshwater invertebrates (in the rain!), to insects (in the hail!) - and identifying bog plants (in the hail again!), looking at soils (in the sun - hurrah!) and doing lots of statistical tests.

We also got a chance to visit lots of different landscapes. Malham Tarn is on the limestone uplands of the Yorkshire Dales. There's an amazing array of limestone pavements around - this one is at Ing Scar. The limestone was deposited in a marine environment, which was then overlaid by peat. Tectonic movement has pushed the limestone upwards, causing it to fracture into 'slabs' - the peat was subsequently removed by glacial action during the last gracial period, leaving the pavement effect we see today. The crevices - or grykes - in the limestone are home to a unique community of ferns.

We also got to see the limestone from the bottom on a visit to Ingleborough Cave - this is an amazing subterranean environment which, as well as the limestone stalactites and stalagmites, actually boasts some fresh water shrimp in the underground streams.

All in all, a very enjoyable week - have come away full of ideas for my project - which is probably going to be looking at lichen coverage on trees. Got an opportunity to do a small group project while we were at Malham, looking at lichen in the woods there, which has thrown up lots of questions that I can use for my own project. Just got to get it organised a bit now....

Arthur's Seat

The volcano - as opposed to anything you might sit on :O) First geology field trip today - and boy was it cold! Typical Edinburgh-in-spring kind of weather... Very interesting though. I've been up to Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags many times (mostly to climb at the Crags), but walking round the whole area and piecing together its geological history puts a different perspective on it.

This is Hutton's section - the second most important geological locality in the world, according to our tutor (the first being Siccar Point in East Lothian - more of that later). The magmatic sill above is sitting on bedded sedimentary strata below, and has intruded into the strata, causing it to turn up at the edge. This feature showed Hutton that there had to be some kind of force behind such intrusions, rather than lava 'seeping' into cracks between sedimentary beds.

The whole area is filled with the evidence of its geological history. From sandstones and mudstones laid down in warm shallow waters, when Scotland was somewhere near the equator - this picture shows distinct rippling caused by gentle wave action - to basaltic sills and lava flows, and the very heart of the volcano itself. The beds and sills have been tilted by folding and faulting and now dip about 30 degrees to the east. The area has also been eroded by the passage of glaciers during the last glacial period, removing the soft sand and mudstones, and exposing the basalt sills - there are even erratics, smooth 'alien' bolders dumped by the glacier on its passage through.

A very interesting day, and a refreshing new look at an area I thought I knew quite well.