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| Fossil fish at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences |
During my trips to South Elmsall Quarry and Alton Towers, I had encountered Permian dolostones and Triassic conglomeratic sandstones that had been laid down in marine and fluvial environments respectively, when Britain was part of Pangaea and experienced a very hot and arid environment.
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| Permian and Triassic Rocks |
Putting
myself in the position of a Tour Guide, the level of technical language needed is actually quite
high, which reinforces my previous thoughts about producing a specialist English
language course for geological tour guides
As any good professional knows, it takes great time and effort to develop expertise and there are certainly no short cuts available for anyone who is not a native speaker, but who wants to be able to communicate effectively with people from all over the world.
Continuing with my ideas for Geotourism, my next day out with the Heart of England summer school was in Cambridge, a low lying city set on the Gault Clay, which has been exploited along the length of its outcrop to make good quality bricks.
As any good professional knows, it takes great time and effort to develop expertise and there are certainly no short cuts available for anyone who is not a native speaker, but who wants to be able to communicate effectively with people from all over the world.
Continuing with my ideas for Geotourism, my next day out with the Heart of England summer school was in Cambridge, a low lying city set on the Gault Clay, which has been exploited along the length of its outcrop to make good quality bricks.
Very
briefly, I visited the Sedgwick Museum more than 20 years ago, when attending a
conference held in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University –
to discuss the merits of the collections of building stones that are held by various institutions.
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| The Jurassic Sea |
I really liked its old fashioned displays and, this time, I was able to spend an hour taking photos of some of the specimens that make this place such an important place in the development of the geological sciences. Row upon row of traditional glass cabinets are crammed full of fantastic specimens - something to spark an interest in palaeontology or for serious research.
As a professional geologist, I am more interested in petrology than palaeontology, but you can't fail to be impressed by the wide variety of fossils - and some spectacular minerals - that can be seen here; at least two groups of teenaged summer school students, of various nationalities, and a variety of other visitors also appeared to share my views.
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| An artist's impression of ancient life forms |
