We turned in our 3rd and 4th projects tonight at 4pm. Then we had dinner.
Nearly everybody in my class is going to the town rodeo tonight, but I am opting not to. My awesome roomie also doesn't want to go, so that's cool that I don't have to be the only one not going and hanging out alone in the dorms.
I told my field partner the only way I'd go to a rodeo is if I were protesting it.
Meh
Friday, June 20, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
I just heard a crash of thunder outside my dormitory room window and it filled me with glee. I love thunder and lightning!!
The past few days have been crap.
Our field area at Lime Gulch was enormous, had HUGE peaks to climb, which we did cuz we rock, and confusing metamorphic/igneous contacts to map.
The area we started today, with no break in between, is large, but (smaller) rolling hills, and packed with confusing metamorphic Archaean and Proterozoic gneisses and TONS of quartz and granite dikes.
The cool things about the area however, are that the metamorphic gneisses are 3.5 billion to 1.7 billion years old - so old, no life existed on earth except bacteria mats and mounds (stromatolites), and the mineralogy of the planet was such that basalts didn't exist yet - the material in the mantle was still too primitive (far too low in silica).
Also, there are HUGE FUCKING GARNETS in the gneisses/schists.
Pictures to come later.
Mostly, we just mapped a shitload of dikes today.
Anyway, it's cool to me...
Oh, AND my digital CAMERA broke today. No more photos of rocks for you guys. The zoom is jammed/broken off it won't even turn on it says "error", but at least I can get the pictures I took before it broke today off of it. I didn't do anything to it either, I took photos this morning of the mountains and then after I took photos of some garnets and put it back in my pocket, it broke. Did nothing! Gah. Oh well.
Tonight they're serving VEAL in the school cafeteria, so I'm not going. I think most people I talked to aren't going to eat it, but I wouldn't want to see anybody else in my school group eat it, it would alter my opinions of them, as strange as that sounds... and I just plain don't want to see it.
The past few days have been crap.
Our field area at Lime Gulch was enormous, had HUGE peaks to climb, which we did cuz we rock, and confusing metamorphic/igneous contacts to map.
The area we started today, with no break in between, is large, but (smaller) rolling hills, and packed with confusing metamorphic Archaean and Proterozoic gneisses and TONS of quartz and granite dikes.
The cool things about the area however, are that the metamorphic gneisses are 3.5 billion to 1.7 billion years old - so old, no life existed on earth except bacteria mats and mounds (stromatolites), and the mineralogy of the planet was such that basalts didn't exist yet - the material in the mantle was still too primitive (far too low in silica).
Also, there are HUGE FUCKING GARNETS in the gneisses/schists.
Pictures to come later.
Mostly, we just mapped a shitload of dikes today.
Anyway, it's cool to me...
Oh, AND my digital CAMERA broke today. No more photos of rocks for you guys. The zoom is jammed/broken off it won't even turn on it says "error", but at least I can get the pictures I took before it broke today off of it. I didn't do anything to it either, I took photos this morning of the mountains and then after I took photos of some garnets and put it back in my pocket, it broke. Did nothing! Gah. Oh well.
Tonight they're serving VEAL in the school cafeteria, so I'm not going. I think most people I talked to aren't going to eat it, but I wouldn't want to see anybody else in my school group eat it, it would alter my opinions of them, as strange as that sounds... and I just plain don't want to see it.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Bday at Yellowstone
Sorry it's been a few days - was in Yellowstone park, and then had no time in between getting back to the dorms and celebrating my birthday at the local bar and starting in a new field area today with a new field camp instructor to blog.
I still don't really have time, cuz we just started a new area today, which was huge and had HUGE relief, and was complication metamorphic and igneous rocks not nice straight-line sedimentary rocks, and it was HOT out today, so I'm exhausted.
Yellowstone:
Camping was cold, beer was fun, seeing lots of elk and bison was cool too. Also, saturday afternoon I did yoga with a classmate in the meadow covered in rhyolite glass shards on the coast of the river right next to our campsite, while my professor and another classmate fly-fished in it. My hands = ow, during downward dog.
We lost one professor, and gained another. Not a total loss, these two teachers sharing field camp instruction this summer are my two favorite geology professors I've had, so it's a dream team to me, but it was still sad and I almost cried when I hugged him goodbye when we left the campsite. In a small geology department like ours, you get very close and attached to your teachers and classmates.
Oh yeah, and it was my birthday on father's day (and my twin's), and upon arrival back at our dorms I opened a box from my mom full of chocolate vegan cupcakes she sent for me and all my classmates. <3>I have Doctor Who to catch up on now.
Anyway, meanwhile, here's some photos from Yellowstone of things we saw. Personally, I thought all the rhyolite was cooler than the geysers, but it's mandatory to see them, right? Pictures include silly photos with bison, Old Faithful, the Terraces, and Artist Point. Enjoy!
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