GeologyRocks

I shall take you upon that Gus.

I'd also like to visit Lundy Island for a couple of days, to explore the dykes.  I think that will be in the spring now.

John

“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” -  Will Durant

Field trips would be great, if anyone organises or knows of any happening in North Wales I'd be interested in tagging along. Would love to go fossil hunting.

With any luck we'll manage to get down to Cornwall at some point too. 

I'm sure something could be organised in North Wales.  I'd be interested to see what's happening at Parys Mountain but I'll have to persuade the rest of the rabble to go along too and that won't be easy.

 Fossils in North Wales tend to difficult to find unless they're in Carboniferous deposits.  I know of a gully on Tryfan which has brachiopods trapped in lava flows, complete with volcanic bombs which would indicate extremely shallow deposits, probably Ordovician if memory serves me right.  I think there similar stuff on Snowdon itself.

I will see if we can get out to parys mountain sometime, I remember looking at their plans quite a while ago, just can't remember any of the details. Will keep an eye out incase we get any info in our community news letter things too.

Did anything ever happen with wolf mining?? (think that was the company) down your way that was looking at starting up again? Can't remember the mines name off the top of my head either. 

Wolf Mining is the company restarting operations at Hemerdon Mine on the south side of Dartmoor.  As far as I know they're continuing operations by refurbishing the old mill, putting in new roads and drilling to prove the tungsten reserves.  It might be a while before they start producing ore though.

Thanks, couldn't remember what the mine was called.  I'll try and keep an eye on them, I'll be looking for a job in a couple of years and that might be worth a look when they get going.

If you are going to Parys Mountain, Abi,  wrap up warm.  Its a bleak spot! I was there in Jan/Feb 12 month ago, with A level students, and it was bitter.  Nothing much to see now and actually found nothing in the way of specimens.  But in fairness we were only there a couple of hours, and I reckon you'd need a week to explore it properly.

John

“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” -  Will Durant

I am still keen on this gold panning idea near you Gus, so I have it mind for Aprilish.  I'll let you know.

John

“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” -  Will Durant

It's always cold up there, even in the middle of summer, it's just so exposed.  If we go up there I don't think it will be until spring and even then I'll make sure I have my wooly hat.   

I think it must be a year or two since I was last up there and I didn't find much that time either.  There were a couple of big caves that used to have some interesting minerals in them, but it's a bit of a precarious climb to get to them (if you still can that is).  

Are there any other interesting places around Anglesey/Gwynedd that you could recommend? 

The spoil from the Great Orme copper mines is easily accessible and yields some nice copper carbonates (malachite and azurite mainly), chalcopyrite crystals, green-stained calcite crystals and Carboniferous limestone fossils.

Llanberis Mine, just east of the village and visible from the road, has spoil tips which contain chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite (weakly magnetic).

The minor road which runs parallel to the A5 up the pass from Bethesda crosses a stream at one point where the slates contain plenty of pyrite cubes and the slate tips at Penrhyn Quarries show hematized quartz crystals and salmon-coloured calcite in places.

On Anglesey, near Marionglas, there's a footpath which goes up to a poorly-defined limestone pavement which has nice rusty-coloured carboniferous corals.

There's also a small mine near the coastal footpath near Bull Bay where I found some nice octahedral chalcopyrite crystals in a clay mineral called Dickite.

Parys Mountain yields specimens of pisanite etc if you're prepared to search amongst some of the larger boulders in the opncasts but be careful, some are unstable.

Sorry John for not including you in the reply above - if you can get down here at Easter I'm sure we can organise something.

Don't worry.  I found that post really interesting - and besides Abi is there and I'm not!

 Once Necia has all her dates in for the early plant shows I go to help her) I will  sort out as many possible dates as I can.  I'll post it here as as well in case any of these armchair geologists want to stir their stumps.  Personally by March I am usually suffering badly from SHS - Static Hammer Syndrome!

John

“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” -  Will Durant