Ian Chisholm took ten of us around the Precambrian of Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire and gave us a superb overview of the unusual rocks there.    The Precambrian basement rocks are largely volcanic ashes and tuffs, with some igneous rocks, but they contain the early Ediacaran fossils such as Bradgatia linfordensis first found here in the 1960s.     We also looked at the Swithland slates which contain Lower Cambrian worm burrows, which only show up on slate headstones and therefore necessitate a churchyard visit.     New Cliffe quarry at Markfield shows a superb unconformity and gives a good idea of Triassic environments in the Midlands.

Thanks to Ian for his impeccable preparation, particularly the excellent booklet which he produced.

Article about Charnwood Forest, using Ian's information.

Planning will be taking place soon for next year's programme.     There are some good locations for field trips that we have not visited for some time, so we would welcome your preferences.     If you know anyone who might like to come to speak to us on a geological topic, please let Alison know.

Park at the lay-by at Treak Cliff Cavern (SK 136 832) at 10:00.
A visit to the cave will cost extra but shows many geological features.     Walk of about 2 km to see the Mam Tor landslip.     Walking boots and packed lunch needed.     Finish at about 16:00

All structures, including buildings, roads, sewers, retaining walls, slopes, tunnels etc. are built on or in the ground.     Consequently, the ground forms an integral part of the completed structure.     In view of this, it is evident that if the ground fails, the structure will also fail.     Thus its importance as a structural element cannot be under-estimated.     However, whilst you can design the structure you cannot design the ground, so you are stuck with what you have got.    Therefore, any ground investigation is required to evaluate what will happen to the ground as a consequence of the development.     This is research, not design, thus the geotechnical engineer must evaluate all potential problems before they arise and assess their effect on the proposed works.     In this context, it is not only the completed structure that requires consideration, but also the whole construction process.     The most important part of ground investigation is, therefore, the experience of the people involved in the work, as the ability to foresee all the potential problems becomes paramount.

An interesting take on this was provided in the introduction to 'A short Course in geotechnical site investigation' (Simons, Menzies and Matthews), which states that:

"Bad geotechnical design is where you put the wrong soil parameters into the wrong analysis and get the wrong answer…… good geotechnical design is where you put the wrong parameters into the wrong analysis and get the right answer!"

This is because in good design we assess how wrong our parameter determinations are and how wrong our analyses are and make compensating corrections based on precedence.