Grants to Support Knowledge Exchange - Ciaran Vass

Ciaran Vass, 2024 Grant to Support Knowledge Exchange recipient shares his experience.

Thanks to the generous support of the IOM3 Grant for Knowledge Exchange, Eleanor Bower, Laura Kelsall, and I from the University of St Andrews successfully completed our mapping project as part of our BSc Geology dissertation. Our fieldwork took us to Arzon, a coastal village in the Morbihan region of South Brittany, France, where we investigated the migmatite core complex and its surrounding units.

The funding was crucial for the success of our three-week project, covering travel and accommodation expenses, enabling us to achieve our research objectives. During the project, I focused on the meandering granitic dykes that intersect the migmatite. Several leucosomes from the migmatites fed into these dykes. I observed two prominent dyke orientations, with the dominant one trending towards the granitic complex located to the north of our study area. Future analysis, including thin sectioning of several samples, will hopefully shed more light on the relationship between the leucosomes, dykes, and the granite.

The trip provided us with invaluable independent mapping and field experience, turning out to be an incredibly rewarding and memorable time!