Grace Davis started work at the British Geological Survey in July 2017, in this weekly series she shares what she gets up to as part of the Comms team at the BGS...
Anyone need a tour guide? I’m getting to be quite
well-versed in what happens where at the BGS, as (just like last week) we had tour
group visiting us on Tuesday. This time our guests were a lovely group from the
U3A – that’s the University of the Third Age. They held a science seminar in
the local area and hosted part of it at our site in Keyworth. I joined the
group in the afternoon to help show them around and, despite the torrential
downpour we had to paddle through, they had a whale of a time! The rain didn’t
even put them off doing the geological walk: armed with macs and maps they
braved the outdoors to find out more about this interesting and beautiful part
of the site.
The walkway can be found running through the Keyworth campus
and is open to everyone. I first saw it on the day of my job interview; it
stood out despite my mind being full of nerves and the fear that I’d worn the wrong
shoes. My now-colleague Jo Thomas walked me along it, explaining that the paving
stones were laid out to represent the different geological time periods –
starting way back in the Precambrian period, some 2500 million years ago, and
stretching forward to the Quaternary period. The stones are gorgeous mix of
colours and textures, brought here from all over the UK. Alongside the paving
stand various large rocks and boulders, set into the ground. There is also the
large feature wall on the front of the James Hutton Building, commemorating the
work of the eponymous 18th century geologist. The wall is a stylised
representation of Siccar Point on the Berwickshire Coast, location of the notable Hutton's Unconformity.
If you’d like to come and see this remarkable walkway for
yourself then please do! It’s generally open Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to
4:30 pm and you can pick up a free leaflet from Reception. To find out more
about the walk visit our website here. And if you see me (with or without a
tour group in tow), do stop and say hi!
The walk isn’t the only thing open to the public at BGS
Keyworth; you can also visit our lovely shop which is full of jewellery, home-ware,
books and more – all with a geological theme of course (an alarming portion of
my pay check may well find its way there; even now I can hear the gemstone
jewellery whispering my name…). You can also visit our free art exhibition,
Impossible Views, hosted in partnership with QuarryLab, a North Notts organisation which supports local artists. Bringing this post full circle (it's almost like I plan this), one of the artists' work features some great sketches of Siccar Point, so be sure to check it out! The exhibition's run has been extended and
will run at our Keyworth base until January 2018, open every Friday from 9:30
am until 4:30 pm.
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