Science and Sustainability:The Rocks and Fossils of the University Campus
On your way home on Tuesday 7th October 2014 you may have noticed groups of students peering inquisitively at the buildings and pavements around the North and Central Campus. Some were even to be seen posing strangely in front of various items of statuary around the site.
Not entirely mad: the students were taking part in the Herdman Society’s ’Great Geo-Treasure Hunt’ for 2014; an event organised by staff and postgrads from the Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences to help encourage cohesion between students (from different degree programmes and different levels of study), help students gain confidence in the, perhaps esoteric, language that they need to use to describe and understand rocks and, hopefully, to encourage them to think about the ethical use of global resources.
Fossils, minerals and rocks: we have a superb geological heritage on our doorstep. The University campus and adjacent buildings have been constructed from a wide range of material from the UK and much further afield. In the early days, in addition to red bricks, the architects made walls from red sandstones from local quarries and imported flagstones from the Pennines. Fancier stonework utilised Portland limestone from Dorset and the occasional plaque was made from granite, likely from Scotland. The buildings constructed between the 1930’and 1970’s have claddings that include highly fossiliferous limestones, most probably from North Wales, and chunks of coarsely crystalline rocks that formed deep within the earth’s crust. The subsequent concrete and tile constructions contain little of note but the most recent phase of building and paving around the campus has brought a wide range of exotic rock material, (at what cost?), from Asia and elsewhere. We understand that the sustainability audit approved the purchase of ‘York stone’ in the knowledge that it was from India!
The treasure hunt fostered map-reading skills. The students were provided with a map annotated with 26 precise locations and were provided with a list of 26 rock descriptions: all they had to do to win was to match each location with the most appropriate rock description. The event attracted about 70 participants including a significant number of the large first year cohort. Each of the nine teams included at least four first year students along with several with more experienced colleagues. There was a lot of friendly argument and debate as they scattered around the University site.
The ready identification of fossils, sedimentary structures, minerals and tectonic features are key skills for our Geology, Geophysics and Geology-and-Physical-Geography students. When they graduate a very large proportion of them stay ‘within the subject’ with over 75% of Liverpool graduates in these subjects in 2012 and 2013 gaining employment or going on to further training in degree related areas including the petroleum industry, mineral exploration, engineering and environmental occupations. These graduates are also recognised by other graduate employers for their key skills and independence, developed in large part during their extensive national and international field work experience.
The recruitment of a large first year cohort in the geological disciplines follows increasing external and internal visibility of our degrees and our research, increasing performance in the National Student Satisfaction Surveys and the return of Geology to a ‘top 10’ position in national league tables. Events like the treasure hunt can only help to further goodwill within the department and continued success for our students.
Finally - next time you are on your way home through the campus why not go looking for the fossil corals, products of ancient volcanoes and plate tectonic collisions that make up your local geological heritage. For the record: the winning team scored 19/26!