The landscapes of the British Isles with their underlying rocks and fossils present an unusually good sample of Earth’s geological history over the last 550 million years. As a result, British geologists pioneered or ‘colonised’ vast stretches of geological time with British names such as Cambrian and Devonian.
William Smith’s 1817 geological section from North Wales to London, roughly along the route of the Irish Mails, was the first to represent the succession of strata that preserve a good sample of the last 550 million years of geological time. The course takes Smith’s section as a starting point to take an illustrated tour through the history of British life and changing environments represented by these rocks and fossils.
Weeks 4,7 and 10 of the course will be Sedgwick Museum sessions which will limit the numbers who can attend on those days to 30 with two successive groups of 15, one at 2-3 pm and the other at 3-4 pm. There is also the possibility of running ‘overflow’ Museum visits for those who cannot attend these sessions.
Please click HERE for handouts