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This blog is written by the Environmental and Geographical Sciences team at the University of Northampton. This will keep you up to date with both student and staff activities.

The Environmental and Geographical Sciences team includes staff with interests in biological sciences, conservation, ecology, environmental sciences, environmental statistics, geography and waste management. We offer a range of degree programmes and have a number of postgraduate research students. For more information about studying with us please visit http://www.northampton.ac.uk/.

Tuesday 11 September 2018

Dr Joanna Wright leads a field trip at the British Science Festival


Dr Joanna Wright has recently led a fieldtrip at the British ScienceFestival.  She took British Science Association Members to look at the geology and for dinosaur footprints around Scarborough.

This area of the coast has become famous for dinosaur footprints in the last couple of decades.  In addition to dinosaur footprints there are also many plant fossils and burrows.
Footprint of a medium-sized meat eating dinosaur

These rocks were deposited by a delta during the middle Jurassic, about 165 million years ago.  Maybe the plant-eating dinosaurs browsed among the lush vegetation and the meat-eating theropods lay in wait for them.

The group then went south of Scarborough to look at the Holbeck Hall Landslide, which happened in June 1993.

The Holbeck Hall Landslide - slope stabilisation solutions
The landslide was a result of some very heavy rainfall causing the slope underneath the hotel and its gardens to fail.  It was not due to cliff erosions. It destroyed the Holbeck Hall hotel but it has now been landscaped and the toe of the landslide has been protected against the sea to reduce the likelihood of more slipping.  However, some holiday chalets nearby (seen under tarpaulins on the right-hand side of the photo) were damaged due to slope slippage and the failure of a retaining wall in March 2018, and there are currently slope stabilisation operations between the funicular railway and Scarborough Spa.

The Holbeck Hall Landslide

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