Earth Science Teachers' Association Annual Course and Conference

Friday 17th - Sunday 19th September, 2010

Hosted by the Department of Geology
University of Leicester

New! Saturday Timetable

Primary INSET

Run by the ESTA Primary Team.

EARTH SCIENCE TO THE CORE - making materials ‘fun’!
A day of practical activities to demonstrate how Earth Science can be integrated across the curriculum - aimed at non-specialists.

• Minerals
• Rocks
• Soils
• Rivers/Coasts

Course fee includes: Lunch, tea/coffee, Collection of 15 rock samples, Other teaching resources and exhibits, 1 year subscription to Teaching Primary Earth Science (worth £5). Further details.

KS3/4 INSET

Run by the Earth Science Education Unit (ESEU).

Experience a range of hands on workshops that will not only provide lots of classroom activities but will also boost your own background knowledge in Earth science. See how to use these activities to develop the thinking and investigational skills of your students.

• Spot that Rock
• The Dynamic Rock Cycle
• Earth Science Out of Doors
• Plate tectonics

Main Conference - Geology & Society

Forensic Geology session - sponsored by the Mineralogical Society

confirmed Keynote Speakers

Geoforensics in Policing & Law Enforcement

Geologists may assist the Police to investigate certain types of crimes to determine what happened, where and when the particular crime occurred, such as murder, assassinations, rape and fraud. Furthermore geologists may help the Police search for objects buried in, or concealed on, the Earth’s (ground) such as unmarked murder victim’s graves and other burials including firearms, drugs, weapons, explosive devises, jewellery and money. This is possible because many the basic fundamental principles of geology in association with geological techniques and methods used to map and investigate the ground surface are applicable to police investigations. There are a number of geologists who currently work with, or have recently worked with the police, other law-enforcers, environmental agencies and humanitarian organisations to help bring some types of crimes to successful conclusions. This lecture provides an introduction and overview to the history and development of Geoforensic (known also as Forensic Geology or Forensic Geoscience) and it shows how geology has been, and continues to be used in association with Policing in both criminal and civil investigations, in the UK and world-wide. ** Note that due to the subject matter of this talk it will inevitably contain a few images of human remains. These are shown for scientific (geological) purposes, not for shock value and the faces of any remains are not shown **

Laurance Donnelly is highly qualified geologist with 20 years professional experience in the UK and throughout the world in the fields of geohazards, mining, mineral exploration and geotechnical engineering. For the past 16 years he has been involved with numerous covert Police investigations, forming part of a multi-disciplinary Police investigative and search team and advised numerous Police forces on either ‘search’ (for graves) or ‘trace evidence’ (the analysis rocks and soils to determine if there was an association between an offender/suspect and a crime scene or victim). This has been undertaken for high profile crimes which include murders, rapes, missing persons and fire-arms incidents. He has professional links with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee, Department of Forensic Anthropology Facility. Known as ‘The Body Farm’, (also an FBI Training Facility) situated at Knoxville, in Tennessee, USA. He has visited The Body Farm to develop research on the influence of geology on human decomposition and to help locate homicide graves. Recently he visited Colombia, South America, as part of a USA & UK team of forensic geologists to deliver a series of lectures on Geoforensics to an audience of judges, lawyers, police officers, forensic geologists and other forensic scientists. He has published over 180 scientific and technical papers, articles and books been involved in several UK and international TV and media documentaries on geoforensics, geohazards and mining hazards. His contribution to geology has been recognised by his peers and is the recipient of prestigious international awards from The Geological Society of London and The Geological Society of America. He is the Founder & Chair of The Geological Society of London Forensic Geoscience Group, Officer of The International Union of Geological Sciences Working Group on Forensic Geology, registered with the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) as an Expert Adviser and Board member of The Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology & Hydrogeology (QJEGH).

Additional information:

• Talk synopsis with pictures
• A paper on geoforensics by Laurance
• The geological search for a homicide grave
• Murder most foul
• Predicting the unpredictable
  

Feeding Stonehenge: what isotopes can reveal about the origin of people and their food

The strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel provides information on the origin of individuals and their livestock.  This talk will describe the application of isotopes to burials in the Stonehenge area and look at the way in which we can assess sources of food for eating/feasting at Stonehenge.

Jane Evans is an isotope geologist by training and specialized in rocks that had been altered during low-temperature burial events.  In the late 1990’s archaeologists started showing an interest in isotopes as a tool for looking at archaeological problems.  This provided Jane with the opportunity to work on even lower temperature problems with a burial depth of about 6 feet.  Her current role is to provide the collaborative support for archaeology at the NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory in Keyworth, Nottingham.  She works with a large number of archaeologists studying such problems as the origin of Bronze Age glass, the source of metal for Romans coins, where the ancient Egyptians sourced their eye makeup (kohl) and, in particular, how to study human and animal movement from the isotopes preserved in their tooth enamel.

Recent pop-science articles in Planet Earth About Jane's work:

• Tooth analysis uncovers origin of Stonehenge cows
• Bronze age cattle travelled long distances
• Finding the wisdom in teeth
• Decapitated bodies in Dorset are Vikings
  

Geology in the Modern World - confirmed Keynote Speakers

Enter the Anthropocene

The author of “The Earth After Us”, will discuss whether, as a result of the effects of human activity on the global environment, we are entering a new Geological Era.

The Earth’s 4.6 billion year history has seen many transformations.  These changes, as recorded in strata, have been used by geologists as signposts as they have constructed the Geological Time Scale.  For example, the beginning and end of the Mesozoic Era are essentially defined by major extinction events, rendering the strata of the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic easily distinguishable by the fossils that they contain.  More recently, the physical, chemical and biological effects of humanity’s actions are now being translated into geological signals preserved within sedimentary deposits accumulating today.  These signals – of changes in climate, in ocean chemistry, in biodiversity - may now be sufficiently clear and distinctive to suggest that conditions typical of the Holocene Epoch have terminated, and that we now live within an epoch in which surface geological processes are dominated by human activity:  the Anthropocene.

Jan Zalasiewicz is a senior lecturer in geology at the University of Leicester, and was formerly with the British Geological Survey. A field geologist, palaeontologist and stratigrapher, he teaches various aspects of geology and Earth history to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and researches fossil ecosystems and environments spanning more than half a billion years of geological time.

Sustainable Development and Geoscience:  Contradiction, Rhetoric or a Positive Paradigm?

Sustainable development is an overused and somewhat corrupted term.  It has lost some of its credibility because of misuse or inappropriately motivated programmes that are, in effect, public relations exercises that lack substance.  This is a real shame as the ‘paradigm’ of sustainable development is an incredibly powerful and forward-thinking one.  A dynamic balance between economic activity, society, the physical environment and governance is the essential challenge of sustainable development: an extraordinarily difficult challenge to deliver.  This talk will examine the theoretical basis for sustainable development and give examples of good and bad practice with reference to geosciences; in particular mining and institutional strengthening.  Examples will be drawn from the presenters own research and professional practice  in the Southwest Pacific and Afghanistan.  In the author’s opinion, the real test of sustainable development is the measure of lasting, measurable and demonstrative positive change for regions, communities, industry, science, infrastructure and nations.  Some of the best examples of ‘real’ sustainable development are within ‘Fourth World’ indigenous societies who hold the ‘Brundtland concept’ of passing on an improved environment to grandchildren as a fundamental tenet of life. But is the same concept possible within a ‘modern’ industrial world or, more specifically with respect to extractive industries: how can geosciences assist?

Mike Petterson was born and brought up in the coalfields of Co Durham, (perhaps seeing at first hand unsustainable development with respect to coal mining) and studied for his undergraduate degree (Geology)  and PhD (in island arc crustal evolution and accretion within the Himalayan collision in northern Pakistan) at Leicester.  After a PGCE at Keele University Mike taught geology, geography and science at a Comprehensive school  before chickening out and joining the British Geological Survey (BGS).  With BGS Mike worked on a range of mapping and applied geology projects within the UK and across the world, ending up as Head of Minerals and Geochemical Baseline studies and finally an Assistant Director.  In 2009 the pull of a Professorship at Leicester was too much – and Mike jumped ship to join the dynamic team presenting to you at the ESTA conference. More about Mike.

Carbon

The Sixth Element

Carbon is key to life on Earth.  Not only is it vital in most biochemical cycles, it is also part of the climate regulation system that has helped to maintain Earth’s surface temperature for the last billion years.  Perturbations in the global carbon cycle have been associated with mass extinctions and ocean anoxic events, although the ultimate cause of these, whether they are meteorite impacts, methane hydrate release, or flood basalt eruptions, is not yet known. What does appear undisputed, however, is that during these perturbations, vast masses of carbon are released into the atmosphere-ocean system. That which sustains the Earth system, thus also threatens it.

This love-hate relationship extends to our present. We depend on fossil fuels to support our civilisation - each year we are burning approximately 1 million years of coal and oil accumulation - but we are also aware that this is increasing the carbon content of the air and seas and, inexorably, changing the global climate and sea composition. A simple spreadsheet will be demonstrated that highlights the scale of the task ahead of us if we are to move away from fossil fuels for our primary energy generation, notwithstanding the development of economically viable carbon capture and storage.

Andy Saunders is Professor of Geochemistry at the University of Leicester.  His main research interests include the origin of large igneous provinces – flood basalts – and their impact on the Earth’s climate.  Key questions include: what is the timing and duration of flood basalt volcanism?  How much gas –especially CO2 and SO2 - do they release? This has required some understanding of the carbon cycle, especially at the Permo-Triassic boundary, but also at other critical periods of Earth history, including the present.  Put another way: do flood basalt eruptions equate to SUVs and their ilk?

Gas hydrates : energy resources, geohazards and climate change 

Natural gas hydrates are crystalline ice-like structures formed from a cage of water molecules containing gas, typically methane.  These occur naturally around the world along continental margins and in permafrost regions where there is a supply of methane, water, and where pressure and temperature conditions are suitable.

There is a growing realisation this huge methane reservoir is in constant flux, absorbing gas from below, releasing gas above, and continually equilibrating to changes in pressure, temperature and geochemical regimes.  Implications of this vast and dynamic methane reservoir on the global carbon cycle, long-term climate, seafloor stability, and global economics and energy policy, are only now being widely investigated.

This talk explores the unusual nature of gas hydrates, how we study them both in situ and in the laboratory, and what their role may be in terms of energy, hazards and climate change.

Mike Lovell is professor of petrophysics at the University of Leicester. In 1984 he became involved in ocean drilling and this led to studies of gas hydrates in the laboratory and in situ. Mike’s research interests are varied and include the physical properties of ocean crust and hydrocarbon reservoirs. More recently he has returned to acoustics to investigate bio-inspiration in better characterising reservoir rocks. In addition he is keen on emphasising the importance of linking geology to petrophysical evaluations, and believes that field-based petrophysics teaching can often deliver a better understanding of petrophysical concepts and techniques.

ESTA AGM

 Download - Agenda and form for nomination to ESTA council

The Anglo American Conference Dinner at the National Space Centre

Thanks to the generous donations by our sponsors the dinner will be held at this award winning location.

As well as a dinner within the Planets gallery, the evening will include a drinks reception in the Rocket Tower, space simulator rides, a 360° film show in the Space Theatre and free access to all the galleries including the Earth from Space, the Planets, and Exploring the Universe.

The National Space Centre is the UK's largest visitor attraction dedicated to space and space exploration. Some high points include:

The ESTA conference is sponsored by: