Rhinoceri in Science.
From Naldrett, A. J. : A Model for the Ni-Cu-PGE Ores of the Noril'sk Region and Its application to Other Areas of Flood Basalt (Economic Geology v. 87, no. 8) -
'Early in his play
Rhinocerus, Ionescu (sic) has the Logician remark "... good logic cannot entertain the possibility that the same creature be born in two places at the same time... . Or even successively." However, geologists always count on there being more than one rhinocerus around; their main problem is to identify the habitat in which these are likely to occur.'
Oh the stuff you can find in papers...
Broken Hill, 2.0
Just a few more photos from Broken Hill:
Morning 2 had this really pretty set of lens clouds everywhere! As there aren't any prominent mountain ranges parallel to the banks of cloud I'm not entirely clear why there should be lens clouds. I think there are phenomena in winds aloft that can produce lens-like clouds. Can there be wind shear conditions where, at the interaction surface between the opposing flows, small wave-like undulations can occur? An interference pattern of sorts?
This one is looking down one of the drainages coming out of the field area on to the Mundi Mundi Plain, which is that broad flat red sheet filling the horizon in the pictures from the previous post. The Mundi Mundi Plain is a very old surface in parts, which makes it exceptional hunting ground for meteorites. My supervisor has found several there, but I haven't found any. You'll notice how much green vegetation there is covering the raised ground around the creek bed. There has been much rain this season and everything flooded as recently as January.
This is what students pay to learn how to do in geology field courses. The really tricky bit is trying to teach them to lean in closer, closer, closer... They are looking at some metamorphosed sediments from 1.6 billion years ago in which you can still see the original bedding.
And this is the sort of instrument a geologist-student uses to record obervations and hands in to get marks. There is an aerial photo of the field area on which a sheet of mylar is attached. As you scour the area, you record your observations, drawing lines between different rock units, indicating changes in fracture orientations, determining bedding and fold orientations, and colouring in the various rock units that have been determined in the field. Remember all that time spent colouring in things? Time not wasted!
Back from Broken Hill
Got back friday. The outback was great, green, cool overnight, windy sunny cloudy wet dry depending on the mood. Great for pictures:
