A NEW 'ER i o. 26 - APRIL 1981 .

Editorial. In this season when the bulbs spring brightly upwards and the clocks leap forward, geological field events The reach the final stages of their long winter planning. The major field event of the year is is the weekend v±slt to Anglesey in May, and members are asked to Black note that bookings need to reach the new field secretary by April 16th. Counfry A report on the Annual General Meeting will appear in the next newsletter. Anne Harrison has taken over Geological from Tim O'Mara as field seer*ry, since `rim had found that by now he had time either to attend meetings or to help organise them, but nut both, and he prefeited Socief to attend meetings. There is another programme of guided walks this year, in co--operation with the Countryside Commission. Details are given in the newsletter. Last year these walks provided the society's biggest profit.

Forthcoming Meetings Apri:t 6th, jjonda , Meeting before field trip. April 12th, Sunday . Field trip to the Malvern Hills. Leader Mr. S.McNicol of Wolverhampton Polytechnic. To include Hereford Beacon, Gullet quarry, Hollybush hill and other exposures towards Lodbury. This meeting will concentrate on the Silurian rather than the lialvernian. Depart Dudley loam. and British Camp llam. Ma 15 ,h. 1-'ra.day to May ay 17th. Su nd . Weekend field trip to Anglesey. Leader Dr. D,E,.hates of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Itinerary and other details on the next page.

May . 18th. Monda r. - Members' Night. Talks by Paul Shilston. and Geoff Thompson. Details of both on the next page.

Meetings are held at the Allied Centre, Green Man Entry, off Tower Street, Dudley. (behind the Malt ShovelPub) Indoor meetings will commence promptly at 8prn. with coffee and biscuits from 7.l5pm. Yield meetings will depart from outside the Allied Centre. Chairman Non -members welcome . A. Carrier E3. Sc., M. CAM., Dip. M. , M. Exist. M, Vice Chairman To members and visitors on field trips:- F. G. Oliver B.sc,, Pit. D,, The Society does not provide personal accident cover F.G.S. for members or visitors on field 'trips. You are strongly i-b a. Treasurer M. J. wooer, r3, sc„ M. Sc., urged to -take out your own personal accident insurance M.1.Geo!,, VG.S. cover to the level which you feel appropriate. Schools Hon, Secretary P. D. Shilsion MA. (.Eng., and other bodies attending field trips :should arrange FJ,E.E., M.E. Meeh.E. their own 1st u :ce cowl^ :9f3i =k :;titter of course. Carrsert alion Secretary C. Mitchell T. ENG. (CEI)„ F.S. C.E.T., F.S.S. Field Secretary 1, J. U'Mara E3. A. Future TroEramme. Paul Shilston wil l give a commentary April 12th. Details •on front page. on his holiday slides, which include , hot springs and the inside of craters. g a y .5th - 17th . Weekernd in Anglesey. From Glenrafonn Hotel, 2)Trilobites from a new:Ly discovered Benllech Bay.,Cost depends on the site within the Ddolhir beds of the number in the party, but will be Corwon area of north Wales,(Ashgilliau, about £35 per person for the Upper Ordovician) . whole weekend including meals. Geoff Thompson will discuss these with There are two single rooms, and reference to the high proportion of these will be allocated to the complete specimens found, including first applicants,. well preserved specimens new to Wales. Applications to. Anne Harrison, The present research is being .undsrtake^n 67 Woodbourne, Norfolk Road, by Geoff Thompson and Dr. D,Price of Edgbaston, B15 3N. the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge, L 1 l `IP el . 021 --454-6 F 6. by April 16th, Specimens wil be displayed. at the latest, with £10 deposit June Sunday Field trip to the per person Cotswolds, See, stop press, page 6. There will be no preliminary meeting. Dr. Bates has suggested June 29th. Ionda^. evening field trip as preliminary reading:- to a site of local interest led by l.Geology Explained in North Alan Cutler, Wales, By Challinor and Bates, July 2th. Sund . Visits to Chatterley published by David& Charles, Whitfield Mining Museum and Gladstone 1973. Pottery Museum. There will be a coach 2.Geologists' association guide if there is sufficient demand. to Anglesey, obtainable from Geologists' Association, Burlington Louse, Piccadilly, London, W1V OJU, Price £2-25, Geological gied walks Run jointly (There is another new guide, to by the Countryside Commission and B.C. .^ the Licyn, at the seine price) Doulton' s Claypit: - June 7, July 5, Aug.2, Sept..6. Places to be visited to be Meet at Chain Shop, Mushroom Green, selected from:- Quarry Bank, in the car park, Upper Palaeozoic, Since these are the first Sundays (arboniferous, Lligwy Bay in the month, visitors will be able Old Iced Sandstone, is to see the chainshop in operation, Ordovician, (See Dec. 1930 newsletter) Carmel head thrust zone, Cotwall Enid: - Ordovician shalea and June ll^., July 12, Aug.9, Sept. 13. Precambrian, Meet in car park at CotwallEnd Parys mountain, ;mineralisation i ature Centre, „ and igneous rocks. Wrens Nest:- l'1ona Complex, June 21, July 19, Aug,16, Sept.20. Newborough pillow lavas and Meet by the King Arthur Public House cherts, blue schiats. at the corner of Priory Road and The north coast, Gwna melange Birmingham New Road. and Ordovician rocks. All meetings at 3pm. on Sundays. Holy Island, structures and Charges, adults 50 pence, children 20p, low grade metamorphism. i'4a 1'th Monda .Members' Night. B. C.G.S. Committee Meetings:- General. Apr.13,June22,Sept,,'7, Nov.9. This meeting provides an opportunity for members to talk on their Conservatlon..Apr.27,Julyl3,Sept.28, 1ov. 2 ', favourite topics. All at 8pm. a)Volcanic features of Iceland and of the Canary Islands. _ 3 - w ield ri12 to the L ±ckey Hills, exposures, so we made our way back t^' November 2nd. 1980, Leader Mr.. the wain road and then followed the 1'l. Hardie. footpath north back over the ridge. It was a fine morning for the walk T'hie was the first time that the although Lill Hardie's brisk pace Lickey Mills had featured on the made one or two of us realise how B.C.G.S. programme, and although unfit we were. The last exposure Lickey is not Black. Country, the before lunch was of Bunter Pebble area is certainly local. There Beds just south of 1ednal Road, where are structural links with the they form a small escarpment adjaeput Black Country-3outh Staffs. to the Keele Beds, coalfield. The outcrops lie at the south east end of the main In the afternoon we set off across stru otural axis, and some of the the golf course where small bench major faults lie parallel to it, features were clearly visible on the greens. Although only poor exposures, We met at the Golf Course Club they a're due to sandstone bands in Mouse, Rubery, where we were the o1ay of the Keele Beds. Leaving given a short Introductory talk the golf course, we entered the woods by our leader Dill Hardie from and by walking along a stream were Birmingham University. We moved able to see the sandstone and red off on foot for a short distance Keele clay exposed. These were seen into the 12ednal Gorge, where we most clearly by those who walked in examined Cambrian Quartzite in the stream rather than along its banket an old quarry. The quartzite had Further up the stream we saw the quite a noticeable pink tint, in junction of the Permian Clent Brescia contrast to its usual white with clay which is Carboniferous. We colour. The colouring is derived were taken to see several other from adjacent red bed formations. exposures of Cleht Breccia, which We then followed the road to contains angular fragments and was 33arnt Green along the bunter probably laid down in a flash flood. outcrop, which was not visible, It has a characteristic purple colour to another old quarry again in and forms a conspicuous escarpment. the quartzite. In this quarry a Away from the stream in the woodland, spectacular overfold was seen the boundary between the breccia and together with noticeable bands the clay is not easy to identify as of darker colouring caused by the it is obscured by glacial draft. presence of felspathic ash. We Several members of the party wrongly moved further along the flank of identified the boundary as a few feet the ridge at a brisk pace to above its true level. Kendal End Farm where a somewhat Mr. Hardie's energy seemed endless and insignificant exposure of the the afternoon passed far too quickly. Precambrian Volcanics was inspected. His detailed knowledge of the Lickey Although the outcrop is small, area was clearly apparent as he pointed it makes an interesting addition out the geological significance of to our table of local formations. almost every detail of the path we Within the Precambrian, a small followed. Those of us with little faulted block of Wenlock Limestone experience of field geology marvelled occurs, and it was possible to at the amount of information he was find the familiar grey-buff able to give us, and which must have limestone adjacent t' a a now partly taken years of field study to acquire, filled excavation. We were all most gx'ateful to him for Further west in the farm grounds giving us such an interesting and the change In topography was seen enjoyable day. A. 0. & A. H where the softer 1^eeie Beds occur. Unfortunately there were no good Field trip to the Wa=lsall Area. beds.Pinfold Lane quarry was visited at the base of Barr Beacon escarpment January 18th. 1981. Leader Mr. the where a good section of hunter pebble Mark Chamberlain. beds resting on Iiopwas 13reccia was seen. Despite the rain and cold weather, The junction between the two litbologles a great variety of geology was is thought to be an unconformity seen in a relatively small area.. although there is no solid evidence ' Tdii, ._ Lfst o:Lto we vJ.ii Lud Yd ¢'.,Liss aL ef is for the marked the Hay Head quarries where distinction between the two rock types. after wading through mud we found The Hepwas Lre Wcia consists of clays, a few overgrown exposures of Barr siltstones, angular pebble beds and Limestone, which is Silurian in sands, which are all thinly bedded age, and shows thin shale partings. and have the same orange-red colour. The Barr Limestone is the only This mixture of lithologies indicates outcrop of its kind, but is thought that the deposit is not a uniform to be the equivalent of the aeolian type of deposit such as that Woolhope limestone found in the so oomthonly seen inthe Permo.Triassic Welsh Borders. Although largely sequeDee. Structures such as srm*ll quarried away, it is about .Q feet scale cross bedding and channel fi'ls thick with a gentle dip towards indicate a riverine environment. the north west. The characteristic The Bunter Pebble Beds consist of sands fossil of the Barr Limestone is packed with rounded pebbles of quartzitg the trilobite Bumastus burriensia, sandstone, conglomerate and tourmaline, but it was not found by any member The roundness of the pebbles indicate of the group. that they have travelled a long Further down the line of quarries distance, unlike the angular pebbles at Ray Head exposures of overlying of the Hopwas Brecci.a, and the presence Wenlock Shale were seen, but the c.f tourmaline indicates that they may main point of interest was the have been derived from the south-west two volcanic ash bands within the of ngland. The Bunter Pebble Beds are shale itself. The ash bands are thought to have originated from a only a couple of centimetres northward flowing delta fan, blown thick, and stand out because of across a flat monotonous desert their pale crearn colour. They landscape in Permo-Triassic times. have been altered to a clay-based Paw End railway cutting is still in material known as bentonite, which use and not accessible, but the is a type of !''ullers' Earth, and north-westerly dipping Wenlock Limestone is extracted in commercial was seen from a canal bridge. This quantities in. some places in limestone contains rounded masses of America. It consists mainly of unbedded reefs, known locally as the clay mineral montmorillonite. crogha? ].s : These are packed with corals The structure aroud is such as Hal.ysites, and brachiopods, basically a faulted anticline, and it was a pity we could not see with the Eastern Boundary fault them in more detail. We were able to complex running through it. The collect fossils in a more accessible fault zone was crossed as we made part of the railway cutting off Bosty our way towards Barr Beacon. The J ane. Atrypa, solitary horn corals only evidgnce we could see to and crinoid fragments were the typical mark the fault was the contrast fossils. in soil colours, between the Finally in the nearby Linley quarries light Barr Limestone colour and we saw the limestone mine entrances the darker coal measure material. which spread underground as far as Barr Beacon lies on the eastern Walsall town centre 3 miles away. flank of the anticline, and There are also exposures of coal consists of Pormo . Triass is measure sandstone lying unconformably Hopwae Breccia and Bunter pebble on a] lurian nodular limestone. The coal measure , andetome contained empty roads, and barren boulder strewn cross bedding and a channel fill landscape contrasted strongly with far in the nodular bads. away England. , 14y thanks go to the group who lariloche, the main centre in the Andes braved the mud and the cold, wet lake district, is an international ski weather, and patiently listened resort in winter. Its scenery is to me. overwhelmingly lovely in the Swiss mountain and lake tradition but much larger, and its luxuriant vegetation ;S outh American Journey . comes to a stop about two miles east of the town. Six weeks were spent travellin& December 8th. 1980. around the Andes and three of the This talk by Sheila and fleil Pitte national parks. was the first to be held at the Journeys were then made through the Allied Centre. It was about the Andes by different routes into southern achievement of a lifetime' s Chile and the Pacific coast at Puerto ambition to spend one of our Montt; where the southern end of the winters in SouthAmerica. The longitudinal valley becomes submerged. serious planning of the journey The spectacular volcanoes of the area, took a year and m half,, and made famous by Darwin, are surrounded, included the acquisition of many by fjords, lakes and fertile dairy maps from various countries, and country. the learning of Spanish. A large collection of books and reaps were The final sea voyage was made from on display, including unusual Buenos Aires on the round South America geological maps and Ads iralty container service, via the Strait of charts. There were also some Magellan with its menacing rocks and geological specimens, including islands. Visits were made to the Pacific a thin section of a basalt from coast countries of Chile, Peru, and the continental divide in Ecuador where a 13th. wedding anniversary Patagonia. coincided exactly with the equator itself. Brief visits wore made to Los Angeles, The talk began with a description San Francisco and Van.couv'er, then of the route, which was over Canada was crossed by train via the 30.,D00 miles and all by land or Fraser River route, and past the water transport except for the dazzlingly brilliant snows, frozen last day's flight to London, lakes and rivers of central Canada, It had boos intended to divert from Tierra del Fuego to the The Canadian winter was matched by the Falkland Islands and Antarctica Bub-zero weather of Dudley, and must for 2.8 days, but a few days before have frozen the willing hands of the this the ship was wrecked so it many members who joined in helping to was not possible. There were no load up the the Pitts car before __ P®,__ other problems. The journey was thawing out at home. then illustrated with slides. From Italy the ship called at Museum and Art Galler , southern European ports, then Birmingham o L crossed to io de Janiero in Geolof `cal Collect Brazil, where there were views The curator, Mr. David Waller, would of the lovely harbour, Sugar Loaf like members to know of this collection, and Corcovado with its Christ which is not on public view. He would statue. Buenos Aires and the nearby like members to use it, and is also areas of Argentina were then shown, keen to see members with questions about and the crossing of the pampas, identification. Weekdays are the best' with their familiar breeds of times for him, but he, is willing to r ako British cattle. On the final- bus other arrangements if members will journey towards the Andes in contact him, northern Patagonia, the aridity, pert Errors Enc ou rage tlo des Further Geological Boll days Members. 1. Snowdonia National Park Study Centre, The advent of April fool's day July 5-11. Geology and scenery. has encouraged Faun. Shilston to Apply to Miss L. Sun.deriand, Vaughan send in the following genuine College, St.Nicholas CfrcL,i, mistakes, reported in the Leicester LE1 4LB, Full board. £91: Geological Curators' journal. Museum Exhibi t. 2. Shoreline Holidays, 23 Downs View, ^A first class y example oginaccurato Bude, Cornwall.. EX23 8RG. labelling was discovered in 1971 Oct, l7--2k. :68. Directed by Dr. in Durham. The object was exhibited Freshne y and Dr. Taylor of I.G.S. in a South Shields. museum as a 3.'' `F he Evolving Earth, 25 - Aug,lst. F oman seatertius coin, minted Ides. £75, Non-res, £1 E.5. Apply between AID 135 and 138. Secretary, Summer school for adult Miss Fiona Gordon, aged nine, students, Rewloy House, 3 Wellin&ton pointed out that it was in fact Squax°a , Oxford OX1 2JA,. a plastic token given away free by a soft drinks firm In e reh.ange 4,Geology of Arran. Sept. 19 -26, £79 for hot bie labels. When challenged full board. Apply to Staff Tutor in to provide evidence, she said, geology, Dept. of Extra-mural Studies, "I knew because the firm's trade 32 Tyndall e Park load, Bristol BS$ 1HR. mark is printed on the back." 5,Geoj.ogy of the S.W. United States, A spokesman for the k oman Fort Advance notice for Oct. 1982. Off- museum said, "The token was season travel, should not exceed £325 designed as a Roman replica. The for 2-3 weeks' field excursion. As no.1 trouble was that we construed the letter '1^' on the coin to mean 6.Gteology of Iceland. d une 1 to 12. ' oma , . In fact it stood for the £495. Tour right round Iceland with soft drink manufacturer'Robinsons', geological guide, including famous Wron Tdenti icaion.t wwaterf'aJlshot springs, lava fields, N,Iembers of a scientific mission glacie.rs,' Skaftafell national park. Explorers' from Madrid who have been examining Travel Club, 85 Queen St. the skeleton of a dinosaur Maidenhead, Berks. SL6 1LP, discovered near Tetuan, Morocco, have come to the conclusion that the remains are really those of A1.dr 3i,^ district plan 1 981. a hay-making machine abandoned by This has been received, and members are a Spanish farmer in 1917. welcome to consult it, via Paul Shilston, Although the original investigators were in error in mistaking the curved iron tee-L4 of the rakes for the ribs of a species of Held secretary, Anne Harrison, 67 dinosaur known only in the Rocky Woodbourne, Norfolk k oad, Edgbaston, mountains, they were clearly right Birmingham D15 3PJ. Tel. 021 - 454- 64)6 in giving a transatlantic origin lion.Sec. Paul Shilston, 1 6 St. Nicolas to their discovery, for it bears Gardens, Kings Norton, Birmingham the name of a well-known Canadian L38 3TWW. Tel. 021-459-3603. manufacturer of agricultural John Easter, Tel. Kingswinford 4916, will machines. also give information about meetings, Since these stories are genuine Editor, Sheila P1tts, 4 Siskin Road., despite the date, there must Pedmore, Stourbridge, , surely be hope for us all, DY9 71I1J, Tel, Stourbridge 4107.

STOP PRESS ;- Cotswold field trip. June 1.L. j.th. Leader ,Mr. Walker, meet at Coaley l= eak picnic site, grid ref. SQ 792 011 at mid-day. Visit l^cdborough Common,Selsley Common,Sandford'a Knoll ,Frocester Hill, All Middle Jurassic. LOCAL GEOLOGICAL SITES .

2. CA I AL CUTTINfl BRLWTN's BRZD4 E, NETHE.RTON . Grid. Ref SO 936 876,. Location : Brewin' a Bridge, R igltbridge Road, near Netherton.

M NW

J1 0JIW WALL r • \ i lll,. rt?

t 1 ^I j ^ ^ r r ° r '% BANAL -TOWPATH

0 1 0

B. Basalt/do1er1te intrusion. F. Fault zone. 7. Coal mea8ures, basement conglomerate, 6. .ed Downtonian, sandstones & mudatones. 5. :Hone bad — oaloureous. 4. Shales & mudetonea. Perneside shales. 3. Sandstone. 2. Marie, mudetones, shales. 1,• Downton ; antle eandetone.

Deeoription o The major part of the exposure shown the Downton Series (Devonian Period) comprising :Downton Castle Sandstone, Temneeid.e Shaleo, and Red Downtonian Marie, which were laid down under deltaic or coastal conditions. These are followed by the basement conglomerate of the Coal Measures. At the NW end of the exposure there is a fault zone, followed by an intrusion of basalt/doh ex .te.