I have been a bit lax with the photo’s of the week lately. Sorry about that! Here is a nice one from last year’s field season showing a cute little marmot sitting on an erratic with a great vista behind him. Cheers, Matt
The Mysteries of Maqarin
We all know that cement is a man-made substance and therefore cement is always synthetic right? Wrong! In the unusual case of Maqarin, Jordan the stars aligned to produce natural cement and many of the “synthetic” minerals found therein. The Maqarin site has been the subject of an intense geological investigation by a consortium of over 100 researchers for years in an attempt to try an ...[Read More]
Geology Photo of the Week #38
This photo is a bit of a change of pace. This past weekend I was at the cottage (Garden Island, just outside of Kingston, Ontario) and was lucky enough to get pretty close to a Northern Water Snake that slithered over our swimming area. It later approached my girlfriend with a fish in his mouth as well…maybe it wanted to share? I dunno. Of course, this wouldn’t be a photo of the week w ...[Read More]
Interview with Dr. Pascal Audet
Today’s post is a special treat! An interview style post with one of the newest professors in the Department of Earth Science at the University of Ottawa: Dr. Pascal Audet. What is your background? e.g. What was your undergrad in, PhD. I graduated with a degree in physics from the Université de Montréal. By that time I knew I wanted to work in applied physics and I had always been cur ...[Read More]
Guest Post – Mike Power – Using surficial geochemistry to detect buried mineral deposits
Finding the next big mineral deposit is a dream of many geologists past, present and future. However, in the past hundred years or so, many of them close to surface have already been found and developed. This is because they can be found relatively inexpensively by traditional methods such as geochemical surveys, shallow geophysics, drilling, and a lot of luck. In the 21st century, mineral explora ...[Read More]
Geology Photo of the Week #36
The highlighted photo for this week comes from my last trip to New Zealand for the AMS12 conference a few years ago. They were taken at the end of a hiking trail in the Mount Cook area, it is behind the clouds looking straight ahead but you can kind of make out some small glaciers in the distance. However, the interesting stuff is all in the foreground. These pictures highlight two really interest ...[Read More]
Geology Photo of the Week #35
This edition of the photo of the week highlights something I feel that I should have explained a long time ago: my banner photo. The banner photo above is more than just a pretty picture. It actually illustrates, very beautifully, a truly interesting phenomenon that can be encountered in Arctic watersheds. I speak of the aufeis, pronounced oh-fyse, which is the giant sheet of ice covering the rive ...[Read More]
Back in Colborne Quarry!
It finally happened! After 10 years of being denied access to one of the all time best fossil collecting spots in North America myself, and a few other lucky geologists were allowed into the quarry with unrestricted access for the day last Thursday! The last time I visited Colborne Quarry was before I had started my undergraduate. Shortly after that visit all collecting access to the quarry was s ...[Read More]
Geology Photo of the Week #34
My apologies for the slight blogging hiatus over the last little while. I have been preparing for a conference and then attending and so I had to put blogging on the back seat for a few weeks to prepare properly. However, the conference is done, my talk is given so now I can get back to blogging…at least until the next one…which starts on Tuesday (tomorrow). Luckily, I get to just watc ...[Read More]
Tools of the Trade
It is already May!! Crazy. Everyone in the department is incredibly busy right now trying to get all of those things on their winter to-do list checked off before it is time to head out to the field once again and re-fill the to-do list for next winter with sample prep, analysis and some interpretation. It is also time to start thinking of preparing for the field. Some of you hard rock folk might ...[Read More]