Introduction

Tshimane and Emmanuel discussing contact relationships within the Wolkberg sequence around Legalameetse, near Tzaneen, Limpopo.

The Council for Geoscience (www.geoscience.org.za) established the Field School in 2006. The aim of the Field School was to provide young geoscientists with adequate knowledge and skills to ensure their growth and development as a professional geoscientist. The Field School was situated in Polokwane, Limpopo (South Africa) and focused on mapping of Archean and early Proterozoic sequences within the Limpopo Province. This included the Archean Beit Bridge supracrustal Complex and its intruding Sand River Gneiss and Messina Suite (near Messina); and the early Proterozoic Wolkberg Group (near Tzaneen).

Soon, the emphasis of the field school changed from being only focused on the training of young geoscientists, to training "on-the-fly". This meant that young geoscientists would be exposed to the various skills needed to be a geologist, while participating in the production and completion of geological mapping and research projects. The first of these was the completion of the 1:50,000 mapping exercise of the Messina Sheet (Field School class of 2009).

More recently, the Field School has shifted to the Gariep Belt, within the Kibaran-aged Namaqua-Natal Mobile Belt. Over successive years, beginning from 2009, the participants of the CGS Field School systematically completed mapping projects in the Gariep Belt with the aim of producing a detailed geological map of this orogenic zone (as exposed in South Africa). The class of 2014 will now aim to complete the final piece of the puzzle when they travel to the far north of the Gariep Belt (near Sedelingsdrift, Richtersveld National Park).

This blog will try to highlight and share some of the experiences of the CGS Field School, and follow the progress of the class of 2014 as they attempt to complete the geological mapping of the Gariep Belt and learn some of the geology of South Africa.