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WINTER NEWSLETTER
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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: [email protected]
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