Environmental News

Environmental Headlines: sourced from Science

Daily and BBC Science and Environment.

The biggest environmental story recently is that Hur-

ricane Sandy caused $50 billion worth of damage to

the east coast of the United States, claiming at least

106 lives and leaving nearly a million people without

power. Wall Street was closed for two days, and

more than 12000 flights were cancelled. This was

the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, starting in

Jamaica as a Category 1 hurricane on October 22nd;

Sandy rose to a Category 2 hurricane in the Carib-

bean Sea, before weakening to Category 1 after

hitting Cuba, travelling through to New Jersey on the

29th, affecting at least 24 states. The effect on the

populations of the areas affected is expected to be

long lasting.

Official data has proven that fish caught off the east

coast of Japan are still highly radioactively contami-

nated, as a result of the Fukushima Dai-ichi power

plant accident. Marine chemist Ken Buessler links

the contamination to two sources; the continuing

leakage of polluted ground water from underneath

the power plant, coupled with established contami-

nation in offshore sediments. This issue is long term

and will require constant monitoring.

A study in Science has found evidence suggesting

that wings evolved in dinosaurs at an earlier stage

than more previously thought, suggesting that wings

are linked to reproduction, possibly as a part of

courtship displays.

A new year, a new committee

As well as welcoming a new

year of students to the society

this term, the committee has

also changed! This years

committee are:

President – Kishan Patel

Vice president – Felicity Tolley

Secretary – Sarah Evans

Treasurer – Rebecca Gerrard

Social Secretaries – Helen

Wolstenholme and Jennifer

Hoare

Sports Secretary – Joe Aslin

BUGGS Newsletter Welcome to BUGGS first newsletter! Here you

will find a treasure trove of information about

what’s going on in the department, what’s hap-

pening around the world and what you have to

look forward to in the months to come.

Geology News.

Curiosity in Geology

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission set

down a large, mobile laboratory — the rover

Curiosity — at Gale Crater. Curiosity landed on

August 6th and since then it has been carrying

out chemical analyses, engineering feats and

all sorts of other experiments. However the

most important and relevant to us is the geo-

logical information they have been processing

through rock specimens and soil samples. The

area within the Gale Crater in which curiosity

has landed is at the foot of a layered mountain,

in an alluvial fan where water-transported sedi-

ments lay. Samples are studied with Curiosity's

arm which like a geologist has a hand lens;

capable of seeing a human hair. Also on the

robotic arm, is an X-ray diffraction and fluores-

cence instrument called CheMin which exam-

ines samples gathered by the arm. It is de-

signed to identify and quantify the minerals in

rocks and soils, and to measure bulk composi-

tions

The first image that was sent back was an in-

triguing geological "unconformity" (see photo).

Curiosity's mission to explore geology will re-

veal more information of fluid driven processes

and more.

The layered, geological history of Mars is revealed in this

detail showing the base of Mount Sharp, the Curiosity

rover's eventual destination. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/

MSSS

Bris to l Univers i ty Geology and

Geosc ience Soc iety

BUGGS

BUGGS Sports

Once again this year the Ge-

ologist, Geoscientists and the

Palaeos were ready to show

the rest of the university what

the Earth Science department

had to offer. The BUGGS

hockey and football teams were

ready to show off their skills in

the University intramural

league. Team captains for this

year are Harry McHugh for the

hockey and Ben Smith for the

football, Congratulations to you

both.

Here’s what they’ve been get-

ting up to so far…

BUGGS football kicked off their sea-

son with an impressive 2-1 win over

Clifton Hill House A team to avenge

last year’s defeat. Rob Gooding picked

up Man of the Match for some rock

solid defending.

In the second match of the season

BUGGS took on Las Nuevas Mara-

donas. Some poor marking led to a 2-

0 deficit, but a Man of the Match

winning moment came when Tom

Wilkes curled a stunner into the top

corner.

HB legends were next up, a team who

claim to have been undefeated for

two and a half years. An awesome top

corner effort from Jamie Howourth

saw BUGGS take the lead before an

admittedly sublime volley allowed HB

to level the scores. HB scored again

after the break but their celebrations

were cut short when Tom Wilkes

The latest BUGGS Hockey and

BUGGS Hoodies

It was that time of year again.

The nights were closing in, Jack

Frost nipping at your nose and all

that so BUGGS thought what

better way to combat the winter

weather than with a wonderful

BUGGS hoody?! The countdown

was on now, who could come up

with the best hoody designs?

The six that came up trumps

were designed by Matt Llewellyn,

Jess Ecott, Matthew Nigel

Lawton, Elly Sturgeon, Pete

Duebel and Kishan Patel.

It went to the vote and in the end

Kishan’s design won the compe-

tition! Congrats to him.

Orders will be set up online over

Christmas so that we can all be

toasty when they arrive in the

New year.

Next Up was a hard fought game

against the University 5th team, who

pay for the questionable advantage of

an actual referee (and I use that term

very lightly). BUGGS took the lead in

the first half through Will Goodwin,

but unfortunately the individual ef-

forts of a few Uni 5th team players

saved a disjointed team effort and

BUGGS were disappointed with a 2-1

loss.

The following two matches were

called off due to the rain and BUGGS

entered the match against Nice Fridge

FC eager to get back into the swing of

things. Will Goodwin managed to get

a hat trick, finishing with a penalty in

the second half. Several injuries to

defenders broke the game open to-

wards the end and a flurry of goals in

the last ten minutes somehow re-

sulted in a 6-5 loss, with Jon Hanson

and Dean Connor scoring for BUGGS.

BUGGS had to wait 3 weeks for their

next fixture against Fusion. A good

turn out from BUGGS was matched

with only seven players from the

chemists who were forced to forfeit

the match. The captains agreed on a

friendly game in which BUGGS leant

Fusion two players with characteristic

sportsmanship. The friendly atmos-

phere resulted in a goal fest with too

many scorers to name however a

traitorous sports sec managed to

open his account in negative figures,

scoring whilst playing for the other

team.

The next game was a close fought

encounter with Wills Hall that re-

sulted in a tough 1-0 defeat for

BUGGS despite some aggressive play

and sharp defending. BUGGS were

then unable to put together a team

for the match against Galenicals and

were forced to forfeit, placing us 6th

out of 8 in the league but having

played far fewer matches than some

other teams. Whilst recreating last

year’s result and reaching the final

looks difficult, it’s in no way unachiev-

able and some good turnouts could

see BUGGS claw back some points in

the new term.

BUGGS Hockey came out fighting in

the first match of the season hoping

to recapture the form that saw them

reach the final last year. BUGGS

started the game keeperless but

positive against the interestingly

named Bulldogs. Some strong attack-

ing play resulted in Hamish Jollands

clawing back a goal before sustained

pressure allowed George Carter to

bring the scores back level. Unfortu-

nately, the lack of a keeper again told

and the Bulldogs brought home an-

other 2, ending the match 4-2.

BUGGS Socials Kilve

Fresher Field Trip

I’m sure all the freshers (and all

the other years will remember

too!) that the first field trip was

definitely one to remember. The

week 0 trip to Kilve Court was a

chance for all the first years to

get to know one another and

learn a little bit about the course

they were about to begin! This

years field trip was lead by Mike

Kendall, Dave Sherman and

John Schumacher and Simon

Kohn along with three of your

trusty BUGGS reps- Kish, Joe

and Jennie.

Over the course of the weekend

the fresh learnt some basic

geological skills, such as strike/

dip measurements, how to use

a hammer, the dangers of using

a hammer in SSSI's- very im-

portant. Also Mike giving a

health and safety talk - trying to

scare fresher's, let's not forget

the most important skill that was

taught…BEER PONG. This

classic strategical game made

many a fresher regret playing,

especially the next day when

getting on those awful coach

journeys.

All in all, it was good to see the

fresh faced first years be inau-

gurated into the department so

I’m sure we can all agree that there

is nothing quite like a BUGGS

social. The highlight of the BUGGS

social calendar has to be the first

Social of the year – ROCKtober-

fest! We met our “geology families”

for the first time, chucked on our

bright blue t- shirts and traipsed our

way to the legendary venue we call

lizard lounge. It was safe to say that

by the end of the night, there wasn’t

many blue t-shirts still intact – nice

to see the tradition of shirt ripping

continues!

Now that we’d experienced the

awesomeness that was a geology

night out, it was time for round two, a

night appropriately named “Rocky

Horror” This time it was the turn of the

guys to pull out their favourite skirts

and pile on the make up! It was a

night full of dancing, fun and the

occasional drunken escapade. We

filled Po Na Na with a mob of corsets,

stockings and false eyelashes. All of

which were the guys. I have to admit

you all enjoyed it a bit too much… The

best dressed that night (and most

brave) was Richard Higham.

Now came the rain and Whiteladies

road turned into a river. Yes, this was

the night of the pre-historic crawl. It

takes more than a few puddles to

scare us Earth

scientists off! We pulled out our finest

leopard print and headed once again

to the wonderful lizard lounge. Once

again there antics galore and the

night was far from boring. There was

even a couple of dinosaurs and they

met their match when they bumped

into a comet (in the form of Anna

Williams) – one of the best costumes

yet!

The year concluded with the

Christmas social. A night where

Santa's little helpers and the odd

reindeer convened for one last get

together before heading home for

Christmas. Safe to say the cold didn’t

keep many away and it was a brilliant

The evidence…

Email: buggs@live.co.uk

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/BUGGS/

Br is to l Univers i ty Geology and

Geosc ience Soc iety

Upcoming Events

• BUGGS on tour

After the terrible times of exams are over, what better thing to do than to jet off to Berlin for

a well deserved rest! For more information speak to any of the committee members or check

out the facebook page

• Lansdown lecture series

The Lansdown lectures are a chance for students and lecturers to learn more about what

the individuals in the department do over a quiet pint in the Lansdown pub. After two success-

ful lectures already this term we will definitely be organising more in the New year. Keep an

eye out for the posters!

Merry Christmas!

B U G G S w o u l d l i k e t o w i s h a l l

E a r t h S c i e n c e s t u d e n t s a v e r y

M e r r y C h r i s t m a s a n d a H a p p y

N e w Y e a r ! W e c a n ’ t w a i t t o

s e e y o u a l l a g a i n i n J a n u a r y !

BUGGS Newsletter Issue 01 December 2012

BUGGS