The Larmor Society

IA Geology

The people who specialise in geology always seem to love it, and most of them hadn't done geology before arriving in Cambridge.great! Although we're probably biased, neither of us had done any According to our uber-keen former President, Michelle:
'IA Geology was very interesting, and different to every other subject, involving lots of aspects of different sciences and (not much) maths. Of course, we can't really get away from the rocks, but as well as that there are fossils, volcanoes, earthquakes, minerals, and all the stuff you thought was really cool when you were in school, but hadn't realised was called 'geology'. Also, one of the main things about geology is the field trips. In IA, there is a field trip to Arran, for one week. During this, you look at some pretty rocks, get wet (if it rains) or tanned (if the sun shines) then retire in the evening to the bar to carry on the conversations. The department is the friendliest in Cambridge - there's less distance between students, postgrads and lecturers when you spend the day all stood on the same rocks in the gale force winds!'

Subjects that go with Geology:

That's the brilliant thing about geology - ANY 1A subject works well with it. It's a good subject for biologists who are interested in evolution and palaeontology (you'll get REAL fossils to work with). There are topics which complement physics, chemistry and, of course, the minerals part of Materials and Minerals. Possibly the most important thing about geology however, is the fact that it will give you a grounding in how the Earth works on so many different scales - it complements all your science. And it's loads of fun too!

Which textbooks?

It's honestly not really worth buying any textbooks for 1A geology, unless you're thinking of carrying on with the subject. There are lots of books you might want to look at for specific topics, but the college library has them all and you won't use them enough to make it worth the cost.