Category: Show On Website

A message from the CGS website admin.

I am aware of an ongoing issue with certain email subscribers not receiving emails from the website. This issue appears to be limited to BT internet accounts, and those hosted by BT services. Please note that this is not specific to this website. If you have an account the one of the providers below, you may not be receiving legitimate emails from other parties.

btinternet.com
btopenworld.com
plus.com
talktalk.net
yahoo.com

The BT mail servers are marking messages from this website as spam. I am investigating a work around for this website in lieu of a permanent solution.

To help prevent email from being blocked, please add the society email address email hidden; JavaScript is required to your contact list and mark messages from the CGS as ‘not spam’ if they are incorrectly filtered.

Ben
CGS website admin

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

Prof Danielle Schreve spoke to a packed room about her research at Gully Cave in Ebbor Gorge, a NNR in Somerset. This previously unexcavated cave is formed in Carboniferous limestone, on a SW facing slope of the Mendips in a steep sided ravine, and was almost completely filled with sediment and overgrown.

To date, over 120 tons of sediment have been carefully excavated and passed through a half-millimetre sieve to extract all bone fragments. Large mammal finds and artefacts are surveyed in 3D and the cave has been laser-scanned so that a virtual reconstruction is possible.

Thousands of teeth and bones of small mammals have been identified, some of which are extant today but not currently found in Somerset e.g. mountain hare and common vole. Some were of cold climate tundra taxa including the narrow skulled vole, northern vole and various lemmings. The bones of larger mammals, including a complete articulated hind limb of aurochs, were also identified as well as bones of red deer and reindeer, including many broken leg bones with green bone and impact fractures. Does this indicate early humans were after the bone marrow? Some bones are brown which may be due to proximity to fire. Charcoal has been recovered in the cave but as yet no sign of a hearth.

Deeper down, the sediments are sterile and coarser with chunks of broken flowstone. These represent the Dimlington Stadial 26,000 to 13,000 years BP, the last ice advance of the Pleistocene. At 25,000BP, the cave was occupied by brown bears, including a very old individual, sub-adults and several cubs. The bones show signs of being gnawed by a spotted hyaena. Below were discovered numerous remains of reindeer, bison, horse and huge red deer, dating to the middle part of the last glaciation (40-50,000 years BP), as well as a struck flint flake, evidence of the presence of Neanderthals or Homo sapiens.

Prof. Schreve highlighted the importance of the cave for understanding how mammals responded to very abrupt climate change at the end of the last Ice Age and the position of the gorge as a potential, sheltered refugialarea for warm-adapted species during times of climatic deterioration.

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

Keswick Museum have a new exhibition exploring the landscape, people and history of ‘The People’s Mountain’. This includes exhibits relating to:

• How the mountain was made and mined;
• Life in the villages of Threlkeld and Mungrisdale through the centuries and the story of the Sanatorium;
• Farming the land and the Blencathra Hunt;
• Village and mountain sports;
• … and a chance to contribute to the exhibition, choosing your favourite root up the iconic fell and telling them what Blencathra means to you.

The Cumberland Geological Society has been involved with selecting and displaying some of the museum’s rock, mineral and fossil specimens and mine related information along with the production of a north-south geological cross section through Blencathra.

For further information please follow the following link; https://keswickmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/event/life-of-a-mountain-blencathra