Starting 19:30

On: 13th September

At: Sandgate Room, Penrith Methodist Church, Wordsworth Street, Penrith. CA11 7QY

Prof. Danielle Schreve. “Wolves and wildcats: mammalian response to abrupt climate change at the end of the last Ice Age”

The rapid climatic fluctuations of the Last Glacial-Interglacial transition produced a major re-ordering of the mammalian faunas of northwestern Europe, resulting in groupings of animals that are frequently referred to as ‘disharmonious’, by comparison to their present day ranges. Using new evidence from British cave sequences, the presentation will examine the capacity of mammalian taxa to withstand abrupt climate change at the end of the last Ice Age and will discuss the implications for refugial areas, extinctions and early human occupation.

Professor Schreve’s biographical information

Professor Danielle Schreve (Director of the Centre for Quaternary Research at Royal Holloway University of London) is a vertebrate palaeontologist and specialist in Quaternary mammals. Her research (see http://bit.ly/2kzpHZO) combines biostratigraphy, evolutionary trends, palaeoecology, taphonomy and the interaction of past mammalian communities with early humans.  As a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, former President of the Geologists’ Association and recent Vice-President of the Quaternary Research Association, she is a keen science communicator as well as an active fieldworker, currently leading investigations into a number of important new palaeontological sites in Britain.

Starting at the slightly earlier time of 10:00

3rd September

Not October as in the previous reminder

Seathwaite Fell Excursion PDF

This arduous excursion will cover a complete section through the sedimentary fill of the Scafell caldera in the type area specifically considering the range of rock types, depositional environments, and the abundant examples of soft-sedimentary deformation. The party will take the Styhead Tarn path and where this levels out after Taylorgill Force we will climb over rough fellside to Aaron Crags and then mainly traverse along the crest of Seathwaite Fell to Sprinkling Tarn. The return will be via Styhead Tarn along paths giving a total distance of six kilometres with a height gain of 500 metres. Information about a poor weather alternative will be posted on the website in due course.

Sunday 13th August

Starts: 10:30

Location: A5086 road at Parkside
Description:

An Examination of the Ravenstonedale Group.

16 members assembled at Wath on A685 for a briefing by leader Noel Pearson who has done considerable research into the Lower Carboniferous of this area. Three separate localities had been identified to represent the stratigraphy, involving various levels of difficulty, but thankfully in dry and bright weather conditions.

1  A short visit to an exposure of bedrock in the track just above Flakebridge Farm allowed examination of an unconformity between steeply dipping Silurian mudstones and overlying low-angle Carboniferous sediments. This is a rare example of being able to stand with the gap between your feet representing a time gap of at least 50 million years.

2  A transfer by car took us to Pinksey Gill. After a brief explanation of the surrounding landscape from an elevated viewpoint, the group followed the stream bed upwards through the shallow water marine beds of the Pinksey Gill Formation and into the Marsett Formation. A change from the varied clastic and carbonate beds was noted with the outcrop of a conglomerate band which has been equated with that of the well-known Shap Wells unconformity, and marking a temporary regression.

3  After a stream-side lunch stop the party moved on to Ravenstonedale village and embarked on a section of the youngest sub-division of the Ravenstonedale Group, the Stone Gill Formation. This involved following the bedrock downstream, eventually into Stone Gill itself, and searching on the way for a variety of fossils, including bands of algal limestone, brachiopods, corals, gastropods and traces of burrows. The disappearance of the stream into underground drainage channels, extensive sections of dry stream bed and the reappearance of flowing water further down the gill was noted, and Noel outlined attempts to trace the sub-surface drainage using introduction of dyes (which were not then recorded at the expected point, clearly indicating a complex system below).

After a team effort negotiating stream crossings and the challenge of a watergate, Noel was thanked for the considerable preparation he had taken and the detailed explanation of the earliest Carboniferous beds in this part of Cumbria.

JR

Railway Footpaths and Old Mining Areas in West Cumbria

This event is now taking place on Sunday 13th August, one week earlier than originally advertised.

Starts: 10:30

Location: A5086 road at Parkside
Description:

Fold Analysis Gawthwaite Moor Saturday 10^th June

Sixteen Members gathered at the Greyhound Inn, Grizebeck where our leader, Clive Boulter described procedures for measuring dip and strike.   In appalling weather the party then set off for Gawthwaite Moor and after traversing some very boggy ground successfully took dip and strike and location measurements in three different areas.   The wind and rain continued relentlessly so the party returned to the Greyhound Inn where Clive described how to plot the data onto stereographic projections, and carry out an interpretation, which every member succeeded in doing.   The original intention had been to take very many more measurements to make a statistically viable recording that could be published in the Proceedings.  The weather prevented this but everyone present had thoroughly enjoyed the day and a request was made that another day be arranged to complete the work.  SB