SUMMER PROGRAMME 2021
BGS Committee have decided to continue with the Zoom-based lecture
programme through to June. Should we be in a position to resume field
excursions, we will let you know. Please check this page for updates.
Monday 3rd May 2021
Deferred to a future date
Monday 17th May 2021
Dr Sadhbh Baxter, NUI Galway
WESTERN WONDERS: A VIRTUAL GEOLOGY TRIP
IN THE WEST OF IRELAND 7:30 pm <details>
Monday 31st May 2021
Dr Claire Harnett, UCD
VIRTUAL VOLCANOES AND SMASHING ROCKS:
MODELLING COLLAPSE
7:30 pm <details>
-
21st June 2021
Dr. Norman Moles, University of Brighton
MINERALS OF THE MOURNE MOUNTAINS
7:30 pm <details>
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Claire Harnett is a volcanologist whose research focuses on volcanic instability
by combining a multidisciplinary view of numerical modelling, engineering, and
rock mechanics. After completing her PhD at the University of Leeds in UK, she
moved to University College Dublin in 2019 where she now works as an
Assistant Professor.
In this talk, Claire will discuss how we can use computational models to
investigate volcanic instabilities. She combines fieldwork with laboratory rock
testing to produce models that show how volcanoes can collapse, and how
catastrophic we might expect that collapse to be.
As a teenager Norman searched for crystalline mineral specimens throughout
Antrim and Down including the Mournes. In the 80’s he completed a PhD on a
barite ore deposit in Perthshire and was employed to prospect for gold in
Donegal. Since the early 90s he has been a university lecturer, initially at
Queen’s and subsequently at Brighton, while continuing research on
mineralization including alluvial gold.
In this lecture, Norman will take you on a virtual tour of mineralogical localities in
the Mourne Mountains, revealing the variety of common and exotic mineral
species to be found in drusy cavities, in greisen veins, and in stream sediments
–including gold, of course. The ultimate source of Mournes gold is as yet unclear,
however Norman has a few theories, and will summarise how all the
mineralogical curiosities of the Mournes are related to its fascinating geological
history.
Sadhbh is a lecturer in Earth & Ocean Sciences in NUI Galway, where she
teaches optical microscopy, and igneous and metamorphic petrology.
Connemara and Joyce's Country are her local geological wonderlands, and she
uses them as much as possible in her teaching.
As a result she knows a little about a lot of aspects of Connemara's geology,
and this talk will be a tour (where the sun is always shining) of the best bits of
the geology of the area and its complex geological history.
