Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES)

Geology

For most of us, staff and students alike, fieldwork is one of the major attractions of the subject.

We aim to introduce you to fieldwork in your first year and then develop your techniques of data collection in the second year. You then undertake you own research project and finally we take you on an integrated, project based field course in your final year.

These form part of an accredited degree course and will provide the practical field-based skills necessary for a career in the geosciences.

Our fieldwork programme is based around three foreign residential field courses. These are supplemented by a range of short outings and day trips which are linked to particular units, some compulsory and some optional.

Residential courses

Level 1

Central Spain: this compulsory trip 70 Km north of Madrid provides training in geological mapping as well as general geology

Level 2

Almeria and SW England: these compulsory trips provide the training in data collection and interpretation. Additionally, they show superb examples of minerals, structures, ore deposits and fossils.

Level 3

Cyprus: see how the oceans are made amongst spectacular scenery in this friendly Eastern Mediterranean island. This is a compulsory trip which shows you the mantle, amazing dykes and pillow lavas, gold, copper and zeolite mineralisation, ocean floor sediments with deep sea faunas, black smokers and reef faunas.

Other field work

We lead short trips to places that include the Isle of Wight, Lulworth Cove, Lyme Regis, Barton-on-Sea, Osmington Mills, Beer and other local sites.