Lecture: Geological Evolution of Gower, South Wales
Speaker:
Entry Fee
Members: Free
Visitors: £5.00
Date and Time
19:30 -
Location
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN
Lecture Description
The Gower peninsula, west of Swansea, was deservedly designated Britain’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956. Its magnificent landscape ranges from the suburbs of Swansea in the east, through cliff-lined sandy bays along the south coast, to the vast sweep of sands and tidal island of Worms Head at Rhossili in the west, and the salt marshes and mud flats of the Loughor estuary in the north. Inland, an agricultural patchwork of fields is interrupted by open common land and hilly moorland. Most of this scenic splendour can be explained by the underlying geology, a tightly folded succession of Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous rocks. The final details of the landscape were shaped by glaciations in the Quaternary, in the last of which, about 20,000 years ago, the ice reached a southern limit across the peninsula, displacing people who had set up home here. This talk will outline the geological evolution of Gower, relating the landscape to the underlying geology and interpreting the succession of geological events in terms of changing environmental conditions through 400 million years of the Earth’s history.
The talk will be in advance of a West Country Geology field meeting to Gower on 19th October.
Attending via Zoom
This is a hybrid meeting: you can attend in person or join online via Zoom.
Bath Geological Society Members: Free of charge. Joining instructions and the Zoom link are sent to members by email prior to the lecture.
Visitors & Non-Members: (including members of the Geologists' Association and affiliated societies) Please book via Eventbrite to receive Zoom access (see the Entry Fee details above).
How to join: Click the Zoom link provided in your email or Eventbrite confirmation. You can join using the Zoom desktop or mobile app, or directly via your web browser without installing any software. The virtual waiting room opens approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled start time, and attendees will be admitted before the talk commences.
For any queries about joining online, please contact [email protected].