Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES)

Engineering Geology and Geotechnics

The fieldwork programme is a major element of the Engineering Geology and Geotechnics degree and comprises some 75 to 80 days spread over the three or four years of the course.

The emphasis is the first two years is strongly towards providing the observational, recording, synthesising and problem-solving skills required of an Engineering Geologist.

The final year project dissertation involves a period of independent field study. Many students use this as an opportunity to be adventurous and to travel abroad and projects have taken place in areas where the School has direct experience and contacts, such as the Western USA, Sicily, Taiwan, New Zealand, Brazil and many areas of France.

Residential Courses

Level 1

Central Spain: this compulsory 12 day trip 70 Km north of Madrid is focussed on providing training in the essential skill of geological mapping as well as general geology

Level 2

North Norfolk: a three day trip considering the glacial geology and geomorphology of a former ice-sheet margin near Cromer. Activities include geomorphological mapping, glacial sediment logging and Quaternary environmental reconstruction.

Bath, Malverns and Cotswolds: a three day trip looking at aspects of periglacial environments around Bath as well as a trip underground to a Bathstone mine. In the Malverns students undertake a number of exercises aimed at characterising rock mass in terms of its strength and engineering behaviour. On the third day geological mapping techniques are introduced on the Cotswold escarpment just outside the village of Broadway.

North Wales: This is a four day field trip to a classic area of British Geology where you will consolidate your geological mapping skills learnt in Northern Spain. Other aspects covered are carrying out discontinuity surveys for rock mass assessment and tunnel design and a site visit to a relevant construction site.

French Alps: This is a techniques based field course run over eight days in the French Alps designed to ready you for the data collection part of the final year project. Structured fieldwork activities include landslide mapping, characterisation of soil and rock masses, forensic investigation of a dam failure and geological hazard identification, reconnaissance and mapping.

Level 3

Hong Kong: this 7 day field trip normally runs in January of each year and is designed to introduce you to the complexities associated with construction in complex chemically weathered terrain. This trip will run for the first time as an Undergraduate trip in January 2010 but has been successfully running for our Masters Students since 2006. Hong Kong has a wide variety of complex construction projects packed into a small land mass allowing us to visit many different projects over the relatively short trip period. Typical projects currently visited are: large diameter bored piling, rock cavern construction, drainage tunnel construction, slope remediation projects, landslide instrumentation projects, deep basement excavation and cable stay bridge construction.

Kent: is a three day trip to study various aspects of the landslides and slope stability geohazards both inland and on the coast

Other Field Work

We lead short trips to places that include the Isle of Wight, Lulworth Cove, Lyme Regis, Horndean and other local sites.