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IRELAND BRANCH O.U.G.S. Organiser: John Leahy. John has BSc honours, mostly in Earth Sciences, from The Open University, and a diploma in Geology with University College Cork. Ph.: will be available to members through the OUGS web site E-mail: ireland@ougs.org |
The Ireland Branch is part of the Open University Geological Society John Leahy's photograph from the Iceland trip, winner of 2005 Moyra Eldridge Photograpic Competition is now on the OUGS web site. Our Former field trips: gives a taste of Irish geology by describing some of the sites of interest that we have visited.
IRELAND
In a very broad sense Ireland consists of a central plain of Carboniferous Limestone rimmed by mountains of Lower Palaeozoic age or older. Only to the northeast lie younger rocks notably the Tertiary basalts of the Giant's Causeway.
DIARY DATES.May . Date to be advised, Trip to Tara Mines. Go underrground in the largest lead and zinc mine in Europe. Contact John Leahy
New and lapsed members are welcome to pay their subs to Phyllis Turkington
A.G.M. Took place and John Leahy was re-elected as Organiser to be backed up by a team.
April 26th to May 02 2011 Severnside Branch have a field trip to Dingle and Portmagee . Some members of the Ireland Branch may be interested in joining in.
September 9-11. Walton Hall Branch have a field trip to the Giants Causeway and the North Coast led by 2 of our members. Members of the Ireland Branch are welcome for the weekend or as day visitors. Book here through Walton Hall branch
There are other field trips run by the Irish Geological Association which may be of interest to Branch members
History of the Branch
Ireland was originally part of North West Branch but the sea between the islands prevented attendance on field trips. The Ireland Branch was set up in the last century when John Leahy agreed to take on the role of organiser in Ireland ( he is older than he looks !) John took S102 the year it was first presented in the Republic (1993) and went on to study Geology with the OU. He has now graduated. Several other existing members joined him to form the Branch notably Phyllis Turkington. Phyllis who was elected organiser at the AGM has moved up to the National Committee. Thanks Phyllis for all your good work. John has agreed to step in for the remainder of the year, however he would prefer someone to take over at the A.G.M.
DUBLIN
Dublin lies on the east coast of Ireland where the Carboniferous Limestone breaches the mountain rim and reaches the coast. The city is built on, and in part with, Carboniferous Limestone. The limestone extends northwards about 25km before encountering the Lower Palaeozoic sediments and volcanics of the Balbriggan inlier. Navan, where the largest zinc mine in Europe is hosted in the limestone, lies 45km to the northwest.
To the south of Dublin the limestone is fault-bounded. Beyond the fault at an oblique angle running roughly northeast - southwest, is the largest granite batholith in these islands, the Leinster Granite. The granite lies within Ordovician and Silurian sediments and beyond them to the east, at Bray, are Cambrian sediments. Close to the Granite there is a narrow contact metamorphic aureole and in Killiney impressive andalusite schists may be seen. Within the Lower Palaeozoic rocks there are many occurrences of economic minerals, probably the best known being the volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit at Avoca, where copper was mined until 1982.
OUGS Irish Branch Library: The AGM decided to disperse the library as no one has borrowed any books. John will bring it along to any future outings. We will have an expanded catalogue available for people to express an interest. Some books were listed in the last Newsletter.
Newsletters 12/2001 2/2003 Newsletters 05 & 06
Newsletters are edited by Susan Pyne