Third Year Geoscience Field Trip (Stromboli/Etna)

EART30042 Third Year Geoscience Field Trip (Stromboli/Etna) 10 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 6 Margherita Polacci Unit coordinator Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 5.0 <div> Before the field course in Southern Italy students will prepare an essay from a list of subjects relevant to the field sites. The essay will be marked and form part of the overall assessment. Essays will be compiled together to produce a field guide for the trip. We will hold two pre-field trip meetings, an initial meeting where we introduce the field area and allocate essays, and a second meeting where details of field gear requirements, safety and logistics are discussed. A significant physical effort is required to ascend Stromboli, an option during the course, and a decision will be made in the second meeting on who will ascend. A field notebook will be provided to each student and each day this will be completed during the course of excursions with observations, questions and sketches. The final notebook and field guide will be available during a written exam at the end of the course, and the exam will form part of the assessment. Engagement through team-working, asking questions and offering answers during the field course will be encouraged.We will fly to Naples and spend two days examining Campi Flegrei and Vesuvius, their history, deposits, processes, hazards and risk mitigation strategies. We will take an overnight ferry to Stromboli, and after a tour of the island ascend in the afternoon to the summit craters with a guide. Field observations of the deposits and gas emissions will be conducted the next day with a visit to the local monitoring centre. We will then travel to Vulcano and ascend to the summit before exploring the habitation and assessing risks. Next day we travel by ferry to Milazzo and transfer to Catania, where we visit the INGV Etna Observatory and conduct the final exam. We then fly from Catania to Manchester.Throughout the course we will examine the underlying tectonic setting and eruption history.Each visit to a volcano will involve an exercise with specific questions and observations that need to be collected, with evening reports on these observations.</div>This course unit detail provides the framework for delivery in 20/21 and may be subject to change due to any additional Covid-19 impact.  Please see Blackboard / course unit related emails for any further updates. <div> Before the field course in Southern Italy students will prepare an essay from a list of subjects relevant to the field sites. The essay will be marked and form part of the overall assessment. Essays will be compiled together to produce a field guide for the trip. We will hold two pre-field trip meetings, an initial meeting where we introduce the field area and allocate essays, and a second meeting where details of field gear requirements, safety and logistics are discussed. A significant physical effort is required to ascend Stromboli, an option during the course, and a decision will be made in the second meeting on who will ascend. A field notebook will be provided to each student and each day this will be completed during the course of excursions with observations, questions and sketches. The final notebook and field guide will be available during a written exam at the end of the course, and the exam will form part of the assessment. Engagement through team-working, asking questions and offering answers during the field course will be encouraged.We will fly to Naples and spend two days examining Campi Flegrei and Vesuvius, their history, deposits, processes, hazards and risk mitigation strategies. We will take an overnight ferry to Stromboli, and after a tour of the island ascend in the afternoon to the summit craters with a guide. Field observations of the deposits and gas emissions will be conducted the next day with a visit to the local monitoring centre. We will then travel to Vulcano and ascend to the summit before exploring the habitation and assessing risks. Next day we travel by ferry to Milazzo and transfer to Catania, where we visit the INGV Etna Observatory and conduct the final exam. We then fly from Catania to Manchester.Throughout the course we will examine the underlying tectonic setting and eruption history.Each visit to a volcano will involve an exercise with specific questions and observations that need to be collected, with evening reports on these observations.</div>This course unit detail provides the framework for delivery in 20/21 and may be subject to change due to any additional Covid-19 impact.  Please see Blackboard / course unit related emails for any further updates. <div> The unit aims to: enable students to analyse and interpret field observations in a variety of volcanic contexts to assess volcanic processes, hazards, risks and effective volcano monitoring and communication.</div>  On the successful completion of the course, students will be able to:<ul> <li> Explain the current activity of active Italian volcanoes and their eruptive history</li></ul><ul> <li> Interpret volcanic deposits in light of the eruptive process and vice versa</li></ul><ul> <li> Compare and contrast different volcanoes and eruptions</li></ul><ul> <li> Explain and justify field observation strategies and safety procedures when working in volcanic environments</li></ul><ul> <li> Explain how volcano observatories work, the pressures they are under and how they respond in emergencies</li></ul><ul> <li> Explain how gas flux measurements are conducted and the uncertainties involved</li></ul>  Three pre-fieldtrip lectures.L1: Geological context of the field area, part 1; allocate essays.L2: Geological context of the field area, part 2; Field gear requirements, safety and logistics.L3: Class-level review and feedback on the essays. Final update on logistics details before departure. Proposed field itinerary (subject to change depending on logistical arrangements and status of volcanic activity at the time of the trip):Day 1. Outward flight to Naples. Excursion to the Scavi of Pompeii.Day 2. Vesuvius. Examine the deposits of the AD 79 eruption at the Scavi of Oplontis and interpret eruptive processes. Ascend the Vesuvius summit crater and assess volcanic history in the rock record, monitoring, hazards, and risk mitigation strategies.Day 3. Campi Flegrei. Visit the Serapeum and interpret geodetic deformation history. Visit the deposits from the Campanian Ignimbrite. Overnight ferry to Stromboli.Day 4. Tour of Stromboli island with observations of Stromboli lava and tephra deposits and gas emissions.Day 5. Visit to the local monitoring centre and evening ascent to Stromboli summit crater with approved field guide pending risk assessment based on state of activity and local rules.Day 6. Ferry to Vulcano. Ascend to summit crater, describe the current state of activity, and assess risks. Identify and describe deposits from the Breccia di Commende eruption.Day 7. Ferry to Milazzo and transfer to Catania. Tour of INGV Etna Observatory, including the situation room. Conduct the 2-hour final exam.Day 8. Return flight from Catania to Manchester.  <div> Pre-field course lectures provide students with background and geological context to the volcanoes that will be visited, and information about field gear requirements, safety and logistics. The course co-ordinator and teaching team will be available during the lectures to answer questions. Particular attention will be given to the significant physical effort required to ascend Stromboli, students will have the option to discuss whether or not they wish to ascend.Students will consolidate learning from the pre-field trip lectures by researching a key aspect of the field trip and preparing a short essay summarizing published literature on this topic. A recommended reading list will be provided for each volcano to be visited. Formative feedback on the essays will be provided in the form of class-level verbal feedback and individual written comments on TurnitIn. The final essays will be compiled to form the field guide for the trip. Each student will be the field expert in a particular area, and will have the opportunity to demonstrate this expertise in the field by introducing their field area in daily briefings to the other students.In the field: each day will be spent visiting up to three field sites. Students will record their observations and experiences of active volcanoes, volcanic deposits and interactions with local scientists in field notebooks. Visits to local volcano observatories will allow students to observe the collection of a variety of data collection streams in real time. Students will learn through working in teams to interpret volcanic deposits; recording observations, sketches and interpretations in field notebooks, and discussing their findings with the teaching team. Learning during the field course will be assessed in a final 2-hour written exam. Students will have access to their own field notebooks during the exam.The field course builds on students’ prior learning in petrology, geochemistry, chemistry, lithospheric processes, tectonics, and mapping, and these links and connections will be emphasised throughout the course in order to provide a holistic learning process.</div>  1 Written exam 50% 2 Written assignment (inc essay) 50% Pre-field trup essay - Written feedback and mark on initial version, and on final revised version.Final exam - Written feedback at end of field course EART30282 Volcanology Co-Requisite Compulsory BSc(Hons) Env & Resource Geol BSc(Hons) Env & Resource Geol Third Year Optional BSc(Hons) Geochemistry BSc(Hons) Geochemistry Third Year Optional BSc(Hons) Geology BSc(Hons) Geology Third Year Optional MEarthSc(Hons) MEarthSc(Hons) Third Year Optional N Useful supplements to class material include...Francis and Oppenheimer, "Volcanoes", OUP (Second Edition)Haraldur Sigurdsson, Bruce Houghton, Steve McNutt, Hazel Rymer and John Stix, The Encyclopedia of Volcanoes, AP (Second Edition)  Assessment practical exam 2 Fieldwork 60 Lectures 3 0 35