Where: Copt Point, Folkestone, Kent
When: Saturday 19th May
Time: TBA. (low tide is at 15:32)
Meeting place: There is a public car park
at the Warren, near the visitors centre.
What to bring: Suitable footwear for walking on
the wet rocks, bags and labels for your finds, waterproofs (you never know,
you might not need them), and as usual, plenty of food and drink.
What you’ll find: Fossils can be found among the rocks
on the beach below the clay cliffs at Copt point. The clay cliff is made
of Gault clay and is full of fossils.
When the tide is out a rocky shelf made of Lower Greensand is exposed. Before you get to the rocks, look among the pebbles and gravel on the shore for fossils – including shells, belemnites and fossilised wood, you may even find some iron pyrites.
More fossils can be found among the rocks on the shelf. Care must be taken when walking on the slippery rocks. The fossils you can find include many types of ammonite, small crabs and prawns and a variety of bivalves.
Most of the fossils you will find are made of black phosphate, but some are made of iron pyrites and will need cleaning and varnishing.
I am hoping that Dr Peter Sutcliffe, from Kingston University, shall be on hand to help identify our finds. Unfortunately, due to the foot and mouth outbreak most of the filed trips that Dr Sutcliffe had organized for his students have had to be rescheduled. I have been given the names of some other contacts, so hopefully we will have at least one expert joining us. If not make sure that you keep all finds that interest you and they can be identified at the next meeting.
Useful Information
If you require any details of tide times try logging onto
www.tidestimes.com
For more information on fossil collecting try www.ukonline.co.uk/conker/fossils
For detailed maps of Folkestone try www.multimap.com
For any dino-data go to www.dinosaursociety.com
If you are intereste din joining the trip then get in
touch with Mr Terry Richer,
11 Burleigh Road, Sutton, Surrey. SM3 9NE,
Tel: 0208 644 0278