In collaboration with Galway City Museum, Corrib Beo invites you to the fifth talk in its Lunchtime Talk Series. Join guest speaker Dr Benjamin Thébaudeau for a talk entitled: A UNESCO Global Geopark for Connacht – how local rocks influence our natural and cultural heritage, with reference to The Joyce Country and Western Lakes region. The talk will explore how the rich geodiversity of the region translates into a multitude of habitats, large parts of which are protected within the European Union NATURA 2000 network.

The Joyce Country and Western Lakes region, located in the west of Ireland to the north of the Connemara region in the counties of Galway and Mayo, is well-known to geologists, particularly in Ireland, Britain, and North America, for having the most complete record of the Ordovician to Devonian Grampian-Taconic orogeny. Notable outcrops include Connemara Marble, the Lakes Marble in Cur Hill and the pillow basalts of the Lough Nafooey Arc. The region also has Ireland’s only fjord at Killary Harbour, and many other glaciological features including the karst and epikarst landscape on the shores of Loughs Mask and Corrib, and a very rare marl lake at Lough Carra.

About the Speaker:
Dr Benjamin Thébaudeau is the geopark geologist for the JCWL Geopark project based in Tourmakeady, Co. Mayo. He has a background in Physics, a MSc in Geophysics and completed a PhD in 2013 at the Department of Geology of Trinity College Dublin. His current post in the project has to do with the telling of the geological story as well as linking it to the wider heritage of the region. Beside the production of outreach and education resources both printed and digital, he is also visiting schools and delivering presentations to local interest groups in the wider area. Part of the current education offering from the JCWL geopark is a Geopark Ambassador course delivered by Benjamin. Geopark

Admission is FREE but attendees are encouraged to register on Eventbrite.