INTRO

 

“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” - Will Durant

Welcome to RockSoc, the official blog of the OSGS! OSGS means Otago Students' Geological Society, which is this new club based at the University of Otago. Let me tell you a little about it.

The University of Otago is located in Dunedin, in the south of New Zealand. This is a country of great diversity. We have active volcanoes, geothermal hotspots, massive fault zones, glaciers, island chains and many landscapes in between. All of this has been shaped by geological processes originating in the deep Earth. Since those processes are still going on, it's no surprise to see a keen interest in geology at Otago.
 

Our group, the OSGS, is for Otago students studying this subject. People from any level within university are welcome to join. I happen to be a first-year student following my lifelong passion; other members are completely new to the science of geology while still others go all the way up to PhD level.
 

What do we do? As you might expect, there are regular field trips to explore some of New Zealand's natural wonders. So far this year we've been to the Catlins and to Wanaka, which I'd like to point out on this map:

Picture credits: Tom Czertowicz, Jess Hillman and Google Maps.

Some of the other members will fill you in on these trips in the next few posts, but trust me, they were fantastic! We also hold events such as pub quizzes, movie nights and more, all with a geoscience theme. To tell you absolutely everything here would take too long.
 

Luckily this blog has a whole team of club members with stories to tell and things to discuss. At the OSGS we're always making plans, finding new ways to reach out to the wider student community. This is a place to document what we get up to. Along the way there'll be some snippets of science and a few good laughs. This is RockSoc.