England and Wales, Spring, 1986
by Don Chesnut ©2005
London
Jim and I flew from Kentucky to England, caught a train to London,
and found two rooms to rent near the Marble Arch underground station.
We spent several days walking all over London on both sides of the
river. We went to the British Museum, Museum of London, Museum of
Natural History, Museum of Geology, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey,
and a bunch of other places. The following is my account of this trip
and links to photographs. Or you may just want to view the photographs in the thumbnail directory (no maps or
descriptions).
Cathedral, Stonehenge and Bath
Jim and I took a Greyline tour of Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and Bath.
Because of the cold, rainy weather and time of the year, there were only five
people on the large tour bus. There were two ladies from Australia, an Indian
tour guide learning about England and Jim and I on the tour.
Coal Geology Conference at Royal Holloway and Bedford College
This was quite an impressive place. We each had a room with a fireplace (and
we needed it). We had a reception in an Art Museum at the college. The college
is part of the University of London; I believe the name for the college has
changed.
Field Trip on the Geology of Coal-Bearing Rocks of South Wales
After attending another coal conference at the University of Keele, Jim and I
went on this very interesting field trip to South Wales.
- University of Keele, Newcastle under Lyme, near
Stoke-on-Trent (between Manchester and Birmingham)
- Gilbert Kelling, our overall trip leader
- Locality 1A: Rhondda Beds, Pennant Measures
(equivalent to our Four Corners Fm.)
- drive to Locality 1B
- Locality 1B, coastal area, South Wales
- on coast
- view of bay
- another view of bay
- inn at locality 1B, Ammroth, we had lunch here,
Gilbert Kelling, leader, in back
- walk along the coastline to examine Lower and
Middle Coal Measures (equivalent to our Grundy and Pikeville Formations)
- cliff wall section
- tough walking on these slippery boulders
- Jim Cobb, it's cold, windy and raining
- fault and drag fold
- easier walking now
- these appear to be toe-sets
- nice ripple marks
- channels or deformed bedding
- sharp basal contact, lenticular bedding of
lower strata, load structures(?); I'd like to see if there are any tidal
indicators here
- looking back at where we started, cold walk
- the bay
- another view of the bay
- examining bedding-plane exposures
- another view of bay
- walking to the next outcrop
- wet exposures
- Locality 2A: Craig-y-Dinas, walking to the
outcrop, these fellows that we passed are getting ready for technical climbing
- technical climbing gear,
fellow is waiting on climbing students
- at the outcrop, leader of this locality is in
the middle, I can't remember his name, nice fellow
- examining outcrops along the creek
- Vale of Neath Disturbance(?)
- same view, Visean to Namurian
strata (equivalent to our Slade to Alvy Creek formations)
- same outcrop
- our field trip group
- outcrops along the creek
- same view
- pretty creek
- a small gorge and some white water
- nice waterfall
- same waterfall
- Jim Cobb near base of waterfall
- waterfall, fieldtrip leader, Han Dexin, Gilbert
Kelling
- another view of the waterfall
- students climbing limb over creek
- same students
- path up Craig-y-Dinas
- same view
- view from path
- another view from path
- top of Craig-y-Dinas
- same area
- same area
- view of old quarry in background
- another series of cascades
- pool at bottom of cascades
- quarry in Sandstone D, Basal Grit
Group, Namurian, quartzarenite (roughly same lithology and same age as our
"Lee" sandstones)
- same quarry
- leader for this locality, I wish I could
remember his name
- Jim Cobb at contact between Millstone Grit and
Carboniferous limestone
- our field trip leader
- sheep
- Locality 2B(?):Millstone Grit and Lower Coal
Measures
- Locality 2C(?): Millstone Grit, Cumbriense
Quartzite
- Locality 2D?, small waterfall in rock exposure
- Locality 3A: first part, German coal geologist
- sandstone outcrop, don't know which stop
- Locality 3C: Old Red Sandstone, Jim Cobb holding
hand samples
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