€UROCKTHE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER OF THE OPEN UNIVERSITY GEOLOGICAL SOCIETYMAINLAND EUROPESPRING 2015

DEAR MEMBERS,this year our AGM was organised in Verona byEmmanuel Kavanagh. Thanks to him we had freeaccess to the Natural History Museum 'Museocivico di Storia Naturale'. Indeed, whenEmmanuel first met the curator and handed theOUGS Journal over to her, she showed a greatinterest in our society – so that on the Sundayafternoon, when we all gathered in the main hall,we spotted a poster directing us to the conferenceroom with the cover of OUGS journal. A copy ofthis poster was even put on the front door of themuseum, so that every visitor saw that we had ourAGM there. This gave us a nice feeling of wel-come. Furthermore the curator offered us theirown journal explaining that in the future they wishto exchange journals with our society.

Verona has been built along the Adige River andat the foot of the Lessini Mountains, where the Poplaine meets the Alps.

IN THIS ISSUE

AGM Minutes....................................................2

BO Report 2014.................................................3

KT-boundary and more......................................5

My favourite rock sample..................................9

Field trips 2015................................................10

Last but not least..............................................11

Thus we could enjoy the fairly mild Italian wintersun while visiting the historic city, and had a reallygood day exploring the geology of the nearby hillscovered with snow, with our enthusiastic leader, DrGuido Gonzato. One of the most thrilling places wasan outcrop of the K-T boundary.

During this weekend we took the opportunity to dis-cuss this year’s programme. So far, a trip in theVosges is planned for the end of June, the same weekas the International Mineral Fair in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, which is the biggest of its kind onMainland Europe. We will have access to the fair onthe Friday, when the place is less crowded than whatit will be during the rest of the weekend, and it alsogives participants the possibility to spend an extraday if they wish; one day is too short to explore thewhole exhibition and free conferences are held dur-ing this event.

The autumn trip will be organised by Marion Seitzand Karin Bassler in the Black Forest in southGermany. Finally, the next AGM will be organisedby Mike Molloy in Munich on the last weekend inJanuary 2016.

For now, I wish you an enjoyable reading of thisspring edition,

Elisabeth d’Eyrames

Meeting opened at 15:00h

Present: Elisabeth d'Eyrames, Mike Molloy, MarionSeitz, Terry Warrington, Gisela Lunkwitz, JuceEvans, Brigitte Revol MacDonald, Bernard Skillernede Bristowe, Emmanuel Kavanagh, Federica Annic-chiarico,

Points on the agenda:1. Welcoming address

Elisabeth d'Eyrames, chairperson of the meeting,welcomed members, thanked Emmanuel and Feder-ica for organising the AGM, and thanked Juce fortaking the minutes.

2. Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence had been received from Neiland Eileen Lawley, Dave Kopsch, Peter Whiteley,Stefan Mohr, Fiona Till, James Jones, Karin Basslerand Ole Nielsen.

3. Minutes of the AGM held on 2 February 2014,Zurich

The minutes were unanimously approved.

4. Matters arising from last minutes

Members unanimously approved the minutes of theAGM 2014. No questions were raised.

5. Branch Organiser's annual report

Elisabeth d'Eyrames, Branch Organiser, mentionedthe key points of her annual report. She also indi-cated that 9 out of the 41 members were present atthe AGM. She stated that no news had been heard onthe use of a forum since the matter was discussed atthe EC in 2014.

Members unanimously approved the Branch Organ-iser's report.

6. Treasurer's report

Mike Molloy, Treasurer, mentioned the key points ofhis report. He supplied additional details:

• OUGS ME is breaking even or recording a profit;

• a balance of 500 to 600 Euro can be considered as"healthy", as decided at last year's AGM.

Members unanimously approved the Treasurer's re-port.

7. Librarian's report

Terry Warrington, Librarian, stated that the branchhas a library of 60 books, with 1 book added in2014. The list can be found on the OUGS ME web-site and new books are advertised in the newsletter.Terry has received 1 request for a book. Terry men-tioned the EC decision to allow members to keep abook if they write a review. He asked if this optioncould be considered for OUGS ME. Brigitte sug-gested that the location of rare/old books should berecorded. This matter will be discussed next year.Bernard suggested that OUGS ME could produce alist of European field guides for use by BritishOUGS branches.

Members unanimously approved the Librarian's re-port.

8. Webmaster's report

Gisela Lunkwitz, Webmaster, had no details to re-port. Marion thanked Gisela for a good website.

Members unanimously approved the Webmaster's re-port.

9. Newsletter Editor's report

Marion Seitz, Newsletter Editor, stated that 43 pageshad been published in 2014, meeting the requirementto publish more than 40 pages. Articles are publishedon matters of interest or to introduce new members.Members are requested to submit articles on theirfavourite rock, with details of where they found therock and why they like it, as well as subsidiary geo-logical data.

Elisabeth considered that the newsletter should in-clude non-commercial information and opportunitieswhich could help OUGS members to improve andexpand their knowledge and skills, including profes-sional skills in view of a career change.

Members unanimously approved the Newsletter Edi-tor's report.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Verona, 1 February 2015 / Minutes

10. Committee elections

All current committee members stood for continuedoffice, were seconded and unanimously re-elected.

11. Programme for 2015

Elisabeth stated that a week in the Vosges will be or-ganised end-June. Dates will be made available onthe website. An autumn trip is planned to the BlackForest, however, no leader has as yet been found.This trip will cover approximately 5 days and will beadded to the events list.

Other options were raised by Elisabeth such as a tripto Tenerife and the Auvergne region of France. Mikeraised a possible trip through the Alps. Complica-tions such as the need to obtain a leader, to covertheir expenses and to define dates, currently exist.

12. Choice of venue and date of next AGM 2016

Elisabeth suggested holding the next AGM at aChristmas market. This suggestion was not adopted.Mike offered to organise the next AGM in Munichon the last weekend of January 2016; this suggestionwas adopted.

13. Other business

Mike Molloy stated that 2015 would be his final yearas branch Treasurer. He will be replaced by TerryWarrington if proposed and accepted. This proposalhas been cleared with John Gooch. A new accountwill be required and existing funds will be trans-ferred.

Elisabeth mentioned that James Jones had suggestedcreating an OUGS ME forum. This matter had beendiscussed at the EC last year, with no follow-up sofar. Meanwhile a forum could be included in theOUGS ME website, as this option was discussedwhen the new website of our branch was designed;Information will be provided by e-mail.

The issue of meeting the expenses incurred of com-mittee members attending meetings was raised. Lastyear, a decision had been reached at the OUGS MEAGM to cover these expenses. Mike stated that thisdecision must be made on an annual basis dependingon available funds and other priorities.

The meeting closed at 16:00h

Juce Evans

The first event of this year was the AGM weekend inZurich, followed by a week long trip in the Alps lastJune, and in October a weekend in Luxemburg

Although most of us don’t live too far from the Alps,it was the first time that our branch organised fieldtrips in these mountains. Last February, in the heartof winter, 17 people attended the AGM weekend andtook part on a field trip in the Zurich area. This tripwas lead by Dr Marcel Frehner (Geological Instituteof the ETH Zurich [Swiss Federal Institute of Tech-nology]), who deciphered panoramas for us by un-derlining the contours of nappes and erosionpatterns.

We had also the chance to see the famous Glarusthrust, which puzzled the geological community inthe nineteenth century, as did at the same time theMoine thrust in the Scottish Highlands. The wholearea in Switzerland, where this thrust outcrops, isnow a UNESCO world heritage site.

That weekend was also a great opportunity to meetup with members of our branch and demonstrate ourenthusiastic leader what OUGS was all about.

The second trip to Alps was planned for the end ofJune and lead by Dr Françoise Chalot-Prat (CRPGNancy [Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques etGéochimiques]), who since also became a memberof OUGS. This trip, designed for students of theUniversity of Lorraine, aims at explaining the differ-ent phases of the alpine orogenic cycle by studyingoutcrops at five different locations.

Starting in Frejus and the Massif de l’Esterel, whereoutcrops indicate continental rifting, we drove thennorthwards to the Esclangon Massif. There, theNappe de Digne overlays syn-sedimentary molasseformations illustrating thus the collisional stage of anorogenic cycle. After that we headed to the Queyrasto study tectonic, magmatism and metamorphism re-lationships in an oceanic plate subduction setting.

BRANCH ORGANISER’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2014

The forth day was special as we hiked on the ophio-lite of the Chenaillet Massif: an exhumed slow-spreading mid-ocean ridge. The last day we exploredthe Sesia-Lanzo, Ivrea and Balmuccia Massifs inItaly, with outcrops of lithospheric mantel in a conti-nental plate subduction setting. Eventually we allgathered in a nice trattoria in Varallo and enjoyedour last evening together. The write-ups of this triphave been edited in our newsletters and, after havingread them, our leader Françoise stated how happyshe was to read such good reports, illustrated bygreat and pedagogic photos, “it’s remarkable, superstudents”.

The autumn trip gathered eight people and tookplace in Luxemburg. Sylvain Dechamps (Universityof Liège) led us through the quarries of Jurassicsandstone in Tontelange and Differdange. We wereagain very lucky to find a really good leader whowas very keen to give us, whatever our background,an understanding of the local geology, and to sharewith us his enthusiasm for Jurassic formations. Thewinter edition of our newsletter covers this day ex-tensively.

That weekend we visited also Idar-Oberstein in Ger-many, which is a hub for gemstones, and has a his-tory of mining. The visit of a former mine and of themineral museum was a fascinating experience that isalso shared in the last newsletter.

We had only three events this year; they were allgreat successes regarding the quality of the leaders

and the interesting discussions of geological topics,all in good company.

Since last January five new members joined thebranch, and one has left OUGS, so that the totalnumber is now 41 members, 6 family members andseveral friends of the branch. The members live dis-persed as follows: 14 in Germany, 9 in France, 4 inSwitzerland, 3 in Belgium, 3 in Spain, 1 in Cyprus, 1in Luxemburg, 2 in the Netherlands, 1 in Italy, 1 inMalta, 1 in Sweden and 1 in England; a map on ourwebsite shows more precisely their location.

During the three last years the number of membersjumped from 30 to 41. Most members who joined re-cently are OU students and most are used to socialnetworking and thus contribute to our MainlandOUGS group on Facebook. This year this site hasbeen used to share photos, information on trips, geo-logical events or other geological related topics. It isa very friendly place where members of our branchconnect.

Lastly, I want to thank Dave Kopsch for organisingthe AGM in Zurich, Elizabeth Langdon-Smith fororganising the trip to Luxemburg, Marion Seitz andStefan Mohr for administering our Mainland OUGSgroup on Facebook, all the contributors to ournewsletter, all members who participated in theevents and shared their ideas, and naturally Marion,Gisela, Terry, Dave, Mike, our dynamic committee.

Elisabeth d’Eyrames

See the next edition of our newsletter for a brief introduction of the committe members.

As part of the OUGSME AGM weekend, we weregiven the opportunity on Saturday to visit someof the outstanding geological features to the northof Verona, in the Parco Naturale Della Lessinia. Our guide for the day was Guido Gonzato PhD.

Since the ten members present were accommodatedaround Verona and not in one central location, it wasdecided that the day would start by meeting in theFamila Supermarket car park on the northern out-skirts of Verona at 08:30h. Expectations were high asit was a glorious sunny morning, with not a cloud inthe sky. Then came the first hiccup, Famila has threecar parks! Mick, Gisela, Emanuel, myself and Guidomanaged to find each other, but no sign of Elizabethor Juce and their respective car occupants. But thenthey appeared, and hiccup number two, unfortu-nately they were not quite in the right place, Eliza-beth having turned one road too soon, and decided togive the Italians a taste of French driving skills byreversing back out onto the busy main road. This ofcourse produced a chorus of Italian car horns andsome arm waving. Juce on the other hand only hadto cross the dual carriageway being on the wrongside. This she managed without an accompanimentof horn tooting or arm gestures. Now we were finally all located in the same car park, the day’s tripcould begin.

The first stop of the day was at a roadside locationsome 20 km north of Verona and by now some 800metres higher, to find snow had fallen overnight tocover the ground and, with the sun shining, makingeverything pristine and white. Here we found the KTboundary, a unique visual example of a catastrophicperiod in the Earth’s history.

In some parts of the world this geological feature ispreserved in Geoparks or sites of Special ScientificInterest. Here it is at the side of a normal villageroad, at the bottom of a private garden and retainedbehind a modern concrete wall, as seen in figure 1.Clearly visible in the near horizontal bedding of theCretaceous and Tertiary rocks, is a dark band some 2 cm thick, of material having no sedimentary fea-tures and containing iridium levels some 1000 timesgreater than the rocks either side (figures 2 and 3)

This boundary defines the end of the Mesozoic Era66 Ma ago and the start of the Cenozoic Era, andmarks the event of mass extinction, which is consid-ered to be the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs inaddition to that of a majority of the world’s Meso-zoic species.

The cause still creates debate within the Geologicalcommunity, but the Alvarez Impact Hypothesisseems to be winning. This suggests that an asteroidstruck the Earth at this time, in what is now the Gulf

KT-BOUNDARY AND MORE

Field trip to the Lessini mountains

of Mexico and is known as the Chicxulub Crater,some 180 km in diameter. Several other craters havealso been found with impact dates around the KTboundary time, and present speculation is that thiswas a multiple impact series and not just one indi-vidual event. Iridium levels high enough to be foundin the dark dividing band can only be found in Aster-oids and Meteorites, which helps support the impacttheory.

On to the next location, a roadside quarry some 10 minutes away by car (figure 4). Clearly visibleare the horizontal beds of Scaglia Rossa. This is apink nodular marly limestone with some nodules andlayers of flint within the beds. The limestone surfaceis very smooth due to the quarrying.

Figure 5 is an example of the flint nodules, althoughfrom a different location. It is a typical example ofthe flint found within the limestone.

To digress a little: what is flint? A rock or mineral –a question sometimes asked. The answer: a rock.Sponges appear to have contributed most of the sil-ica that now appears in the limestone as flint. Therelatively soluble opaline silica originally distributedthrough the limestone has since been dissolved bypercolating water and re-deposited in the insolubleform of flint; this flint is now found as scattered nod-ules of knobbly shape and mostly concentrated inlayers parallel to the bedding planes.

The limestone was formed in a deep-sea environ-ment and in the lower beds the levels are separatedby thin clay layers. This makes the quarrying ofslabs around 3 to 5 cm thick a relatively easy processand many are used locally in buildings, especially asroof tiles on the houses. This makes a very impres-sive roof covering, not likely to be disturbed bywindy weather as sometime happens with slateroofs. As seen in figure 4, there appears to be an ap-proximately 10 metre layer of earth, dark brown incolour and having no sedimentary features, lying ontop of the limestone beds. This layer is in fact vol-canic tuft – an incoherent rock formed by sedimenta-tion of products from submarine volcanicexplosions. At the very top right sits a large basaltboulder formed by an entirely different volcanicprocess, that of cooling lava, and was possibly trans-ported to its present position by much later volcanicevents.

Then it was on to the Ponte di Veja (figure 6), possi-bly one of most beautiful natural bridges of Europe.

The bridge, or what was originally the roof of a hugecavern, is formed of beds of Rosso Ammonitico, red-dish in colour and is a fine-grained nodular lime-stone produced by slow sedimentation in anopen-sea environment during the late Jurassic orearly Cretaceous. It is named after the ammoniteswhich are quite commonly found in this limestone. Itis thought that the cavern collapsed somewhere be-tween 60 to 150 thousand years ago. The bridge,being structurally more stable, survived the collapse.We made our way under the arch (figure 7), travel-ling both downwards and backwards in time, Guidoshowing us on the way down the different lime-stones being formed by varying sea environmentsthat occurred.

We finished at a depth perhaps 400 metres below thearch and some 140 Ma ago. Another unusual featurethat was seen and pointed out by Guido was thelayer of snow that covered everything. This was notnormal for the time of year, he assured us.

So we began our ascent to the Trattoria Ponte diVeja, where lunch awaited us, but one more geo-graphical feature was to be seen on our way. Someof the caves around Ponte di Veja contain yellowochre which was excavated and exploited as pigmentuntil the second half of the last century. Ochre ismade of iron oxides and hydroxides and fills somepalaeokarst cavities (figure 8). These caves formedmillions of years ago when the Monti Lessini firstemerged from the sea between the early Oligocene(33 Ma) and middle Miocene (11 Ma).

Lunch was a leisurely affair with everyone enjoyingthe local food, wine (beer for the Bavarians) and thewarmth emitted from the Trattoria’s radiators. Thelocals were then treated to the sight of an English-man alias Dr Bernard J. Skillerne de Bristowe on hishands and knees explaining to the rest of us how thenodular marly limestone is formed (figure 9), withthe aid of the fine example used in the constructionof the Trattorias Bar.

This limestone starts life as a normal fine grainedlimestone, but then it is fractured by submarine vol-canic eruptions. As things quieten down it falls againas sediment which solidifies as a single rock unitonce again but now it is all knobbly with dark linesaround the fractured and broken pieces, then whencut and polished as in the bar the nodular effect isvery pronounced. I apologise if this geographical

process is not totally correct, but the wine was verygood and my notes a little sketchy.

Guido then suggested, to finish off the day weshould travel some 20 km to visit the excellentMuseo Geopaleontologico and Covolo Di Camposi-vano. After travelling along some very twisty andsteep mountain roads for nearly two hours we ar-rived at our destination. Now the conclusion was thatthe Italians in this area calculate distance as the crowflies and not the true distance over the ground. Un-fortunately you have some large rocky features inthe way, known as mountains, which explains why ittakes 120 minutes to travel 20 km, at an averagespeed of 10 km/hr. This meant Juce had no problemin her flower power Twingo with four adults aboardmaintaining this sort of speed!

The Covolo Di Camosilvano (figure 10) was at onetime a huge natural underground cavern but at somepoint in the past the rocks above and to the side col-lapsed, leaving about a quarter of a sphere remain-ing, measuring 70 m wide, 35 m high and 50 mdeep. Evidence has been found of human occupationsome 50,000 to 70,000 years BC. These artefacts andother local finds can be seen in the adjacent mu-seum, along with a splendid collection of fossils andminerals from the surrounding area.

So the day drew to a close, all that remained was tothank our guide for the day, Guido Gonzato, in pass-ing on his knowledge of the Lessini Mountains withus. This was a day full of spectacular scenery, uniquegeological features and memorable events.

To bring the day finally to a close we all met up inthe Pizzeria Napoli in Verona to enjoy, what else: buta Pizza of course, nearly forgot, some very good Ital-ian Beer too.

Text and figures: Terry Warrington(bar figures 1,3,7,9: Marion Seitz)

I can’t remember when I was bullied into writingthis article by Marion, I believe she intends to in-clude something similar in all future OUGS MENewsletters, so watch your backs.

To call this sample my favourite is not quite correct,but it is certainly fairly unusual. It is a piece of car-bonatite from the Auvergne.

Geologic infoCarbonatite is pretty rare, it is an igneous intrusiveor extrusive rock which is found only at placeswhere continental rifting is taking place, or hadtaken place, but where the rifting was interrupted.

This is case in the Auvergne, which together with theRhine Valley and the Eger Valley, forms what isknown as the European Cenozoic Rift System. Theonly region where carbonatite is being erupted todayis in the East African Rift Valley.

It may at first sight look like a lump of chalk. This isdue to its chemical composition, which is defined asconsisting of greater than 50% carbonate minerals,such as natrolite, sodalite and apatite. Most carbon-atite deposits found today were originally intrusive.This is because lava flows react rapidly when theycome into contact with moisture in the atmosphere.

The original, dark coloured lava starts to turn whitewithin hours, leaving a soft endproduct, which tendsto erode rapidly. Carbonatite is often confused withmarble.

Where I found itI saw my sample at the side of the path we wereusing in the Auvergne to reach the cone of a smallvolcano. I considered it slightly too large for my col-lection and ignored it initially.

On the way back, I noticed it again and picked it up.This was when I discovered the pyrite phenocryst, atthe top corner of the sample. I was initially highly ir-ritated by the fact that the face of the phenocryst is apentagon, whereas pyrite usually occurs in a cubicform. However, it sometimes forms a so called ‘do-decahedron’. A ‘dodecahedron’ is a 12-sided polyhe-dron, where the individual sides are pentagons. Ithink the phenocryst makes the sample even moreunusual, otherwise it would not have survived tograce my rock collection, as I already had a simplesample, found during the very first excursion makeby OUGS ME. That trip was to the ‘Kaiserstuhl’ inthe Rhine Valley, following the inauguration ofOUGS ME in Basel in 2000.

Mike Molloy

MY FAVOURITE ROCK SAMPLE

Carbonatite from the Auvergne / Mike Molloy

Thank you, Mike, for writingthe first story!

So – who’ll be next?

Your story can be likeMike’s, or completely differ-ent. What kind of rock orfossil is you favourite?Where have you found it(which fieldtrip, which loca-tion)? Why do you like it?

Send your story to newsletter@ougseurope.org

OUGSME Spring Field Trip to VosgesJune 21 to 27, 2015

Four days field geology, including:

• The Rhine Graben; understandingthe relief and the evolution of the rift

• The Variscan basement: Carbonifer-ous volcanism of the Bruche vallée,Devonian sediments, Granites

• Garnet peridotite massif of LaCharme; results of recent studies.

• Geology of a former silver mine inrelation with brittle regional tectonics;structure and petrography of the seams.

For further details and the booking form, see lastpage of this newsletter.

UPCOMING FIELD TRIPS

2015: Vosges and Black Forest

OUGSME Autumn Adventure Field Tripto the Black ForestNot all details are confirmed yet, but the mainpoints are as follows:

October 15 to 19, 2015

This is a long weekend trip, with travel to Stuttgarton Thursday 15th October. There is a morning pro-gramme planned for Monday 19th allowing for areturn journey during the afternoon.

The general theme is likely to be “hard rocks” be-cause the Black Forest’s bedrocks are among theoldest in Germany and thus very intriguing. Theirformation began about 250 million years ago.

At the beginning of the Cenozoic era 65 millionyears ago, today's mountain range was formedwhen the bedrock was pushed up to a height of1000 metres. At the same time, today's upperRhine valley was formed. Today, granite andgneiss are still the characteristic rocks of the southand south-west of the nature park and will be oneof the focal points of the trip.

Cost will be IRO 300 Euro.

To register your interest, just send an e-mail to Marion Seitz (marion@seitz.org) or Karin Bassler (karin@bassler-stuttgart.de)

Branch organiserElisabeth d’Eyrames E-mail:mainland.europe@ougs.org

TreasurerMike MolloyE-mail: monaco.mick@freenet.de

LibrarianTerry WarringtonE-mail: tywang@t-online.de

WebmasterGisela LunkwitzE-mail: gisela.lunkwitz@alice.de

Newsletter editorMarion SeitzE-mail:newsletter@ougseurope.org

Non-office-holding member Dave KopschE-mail: ougsmedk@ggaweb.ch

Further details can also be found on our website:www.ougseurope.org

Please send articles and photos for the next newsletter by 15 May 2014

NO MORE POST-EXAM FIELD TRIPS...If you’ve been a member or friend of the MainlandEurope branch, you’ll know that each year for thelast twelf years or so, we have had a “post-examfield trip”.

This was due to the fact that, as a branch that ismade up of members living far apart from eachother,having daytrips or even weekly meetings is simplynot possible. Whenever we travel to meet up, it hasto be worth the effort. Therefore, all our trips tend tobe at least three days long, if possible even longer –which led to the traditional week-long trip during autumn.

To take one week off work or study has usually notbeen feasible for our members during summer (because of school holidays etc), and during springwe managed so far with a trip over an extendedweekend. Having longer days in spring is a definite advantage.

Considering that most of our members have beenOU students and therefore have had exams in October of any year, we have had our week-long trip

just after the exam period, i. e. at the end of October.That way, most members could join the trips. Havingshorter days in autumn (i. e. there is less time tospend outside looking at outcrops) has been balancedby spending more days together and in the field.

However - now that the OU has switched the mainexam period from October to June, there is just nojustification anymore to call our October trip “post-exam”. And yet – of course we still want to upholdour tradition of having one week (more or less) inautumn. Therefore we’ve come up with a new namethat sums it all up. From now on, our several-days-lasting trip in the autumn of a year, where we meetour fellow OUGS ME members and friends, andwhere we go on a geological field trip, will be called

“OUGS ME AUTUMN GEOLOGICAL

ADVENTURE”!... or maybe just “Autumn Adventure” or even“OUMEAGA”.

The first “official” Autumn Adventure is this year’strip to the Black Forest.

All entries for this year's Moyra Eldridge Photographic Competition are now available on the OUGS website. Please go to www.ougs.org/photo_competition and choose an entry for the Popular Vote.

Click the link above to view the competition rules and to see the previous winners.

Instructions for viewing this year's entries and participating in the Popular Vote are in the Members area.

OUGSME Field Trip to Vosges Sunday the 21st of June to Saturday 27st June 2015

Programme: 4 days field geology, including: * The Rhine Graben; understanding the relief and the evolution of the rift. * The Variscan basement: Carboniferous volcanism of the Bruche vallée, Devonian sediments, Granites. * The Ophiolite of Thalhorn * Garnet peridotite massif of La Charme; results of recent studies. * Geology of a former silver mine in relation with brittle regional tectonics; structure and petrography of the seams. Different leaders will join us; Françoise Chalot Prat who led us through the Alps last year will be one of them, Maryse Ohnenstetter from the University of Lorraine with 2 of her PhD students, and Etienne Feuchter who has designed several online fieldtrip guides, but only in French. 1 day at the International Mineral Fair in Sainte Marie aux Mines. http://www.sainte-marie-mineral.com/english/ We will visit the fair on Friday, before the fair opens for the larger public. And of course taste Wine from Alsace. Accomodation: We will stay in a self-catering 'gite' next to the col du Bonhomme, (N48 15261 ; E 7 08277 LE BONHOMME, LA GRANDE FERME in google maps ) with "organised meals" such as barbecues etc. But any one who wishes to do its own cooking is welcome. Rooms have either a double bed or twin beds (no dormitory); it is a comfortable place. As it is rented for the whole week it is even possible to arrive a day earlier and leave on Sunday. The estimated cost per participant is Euro 280,00. This includes:

• accommodation for the week in shared rooms (max 2), there are only a few single rooms, • food, • transport

Is not included, two dinners in a restaurant (first and last night), entries of the Gottes Gabe mine and of the mineral fair.

Transport: It is possible to organise a pick up from the Mulhouse-Basel airport, Strasbourg airport, or train station (Strasbourg, Colmar)

BOOKING FORM Please return the completed booking form by e-mail to Elisabeth d’Eyrames: efdeyrames@gmail.com

We have transferred a non-refundable Deposit / Fee 100.00 � (per person) to the OUGSME bank account:

Recipient: Elisabeth Will OUGSME Bank Credit Agricole Franche-Comté

For international transfers IBAN: FR76 1250 6390 0156 0455 3453 681 BIC: AGRIFRPP825 For national transfers RIB 12506 39001 56045534536 8 Name and Address:........................................................................................................Tel:................................. Email:.................................................................................… Membership No:…………….. Who to contact in an emergency:................................................................................Tel:................................. Any special requirements: …………....................................................................................................................................................

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