GeoBlog
Our GeoBlog gives you some insight into the activities in Geology including research as well as teaching from both staff and our students.
IAVCEI 2017 pre-conference field trip – pyroclastic density current deposits from the May 18, 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption
MPhil Researcher Gregor Hahn reports how the Whittaker Award in Geology last year helped fund a place on the 2017 pre-conference IAVCEI field trip to examine pyroclastic density current deposits of the famous 18th of May 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens.
Determining the distribution of melanin in river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) using histological sections
PhD Researcher Chris Nedza was awarded the Whitaker Award in Geology last year to assist his studies into melanin in river lamprey. Here he writes about how this funding has helped his research...
Palaeodiets "under the microscope" at Yorkshire Fossil Festival 2017
Over the weekend of the 22-24th of September geology and palaeontology enthusiasts descended on the seaside town of Scarborough for the annual Yorkshire Fossil Festival.
Leicester geologist and New Zealand colleagues discover evidence for gigantic volcanic eruption in Antarctica
Professor John Smellie has returned from another field season in Antarctica, this time working with the New Zealand Antarctic Programme on a large volcano known as Mt Morning.
World’s largest penguin rookery at risk from volcanic eruption
Leicester Geology volcanologist Professor John Smellie reports that the world’s largest penguin rookery is at risk because of the effects of a volcanic eruption on Zavodovski Island, one of the remote South Sandwich Islands.
Bristol blows its top
Professor John Smellie, a volcanologist in the Geology Department, working with Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey, is using satellite images to document an eruption on one of the world’s most remote and least visited volcanoes: Mt Sourabaya, on Bristol Island in the sub-Antarctic South Sandwich Islands.
PCSB Lake District Field Trip 2016
Aside from stalling a few times on the M6 we made it up to The Lakes in three rattling minibuses, generally all in one piece! Like us, you might know a bit about walking in the Lake District – the land of a thousand weathers, many pubs, a few sheep and some big hills! Like us, you probably don’t (or didn’t) know much about the geology that forms the Lake District; why it has both big hills and the expansive eponymous lakes.
Expedition 357: Atlantis Massif Serpentinization and Life
Staff from the European Petrophysics Consortium based at the University of Leicester have been working as part of a team on the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 357: Atlantis Massif Serpentinization and Life. As the latest phase of this exciting expedition, the Onshore Science Party (OSP) is drawing to a close, Laurence Phillpot reflects on his OSP experience at the Bremen Core Repository at the MARUM in Germany.
Leicester hosts BSRG Petrophysics Short Course
Over the weekend of the 5-6 December 2015, 12 PhD students and 2 Research Associates arrived on the Bennett Building steps at the University of Leicester to take part in a BSRG (British Sedimentological Research Group) Petrophysics Short course led by the European Petrophysics Consortium (EPC Leicester and Montpellier). The course, sponsored and part funded by UK-IODP (International Ocean Discovery Programme) and the London Petrophysical Society (LPS) involved teaching basic research-focused petrophysical analysis before letting attendees loose on IODP datasets. Attendees travelled from 9 institutions across the UK from as far away as Aberdeen in the north to Bristol in the south, and with backgrounds covering a range across the subjects of sedimentology, geochemistry and fluvial systems. This diversity created an exciting dynamic for all involved, and some interesting opportunities for collaboration and networking for the participants.
Exploring the Sierras
PhD student Joe Emmings recounts his visit to southern Spain with the second-year University of Leicester Geology undergraduate students. Joe was one of four postgraduate demonstrators on the Spain field course working alongside the leaders, Dr Tom Harvey and Dr Sarah Lee to provide valuable field training and experience for our students.
