To finish off the field school, everyone gave a presentation. The geophysics groups gave one on a particular scientific question, while the geochem people talked about what they had been up to. These were generally pretty cool, especially the geochem. This was mostly because I had no real idea what they had been up to, […]
Tag: science
This morning we had a very interesting talk from two consulting geophysicists, who formed a company named MeerCAT. (I can not find a website for some reason, but will try and add it if I come across it. The closest I have is a (LinkedIn profile)[https://za.linkedin.com/pub/lindsay-linzer-nee-andersen/6/b60/b79].) Something slightly unusual about this consulting company is that […]
Day 16 – GPR, or mowing the pavement. This morning was an interesting overview of the uses and limitations of ground-penetrating radar (GPR), which looks like a really useful tool. This was given by (Red Dog Scientific Services)[http://reddoggeo.com/]. I can think of a couple times it would have been useful for the geotech work I […]
Day 14 – Pilanesberg Today was an opportunity for the tourists to see somewhere new, including some animals, with a visit to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve. Since I have done a fair amount of game-viewing, I decided to give it a miss. Instead I met some old friends, and had a generally lovely day (including […]
Part two of the field component of the field school. Again, this is a collection of pre-written posts. AfricaArray Field School – Day 10 We had a bit of a rest day today, in order to collect samples to determine their physical properties. For some reason, each group needed ten samples of each lithology, of […]
So connectivity for me was particularly poor out in the Dome, but I did write what happened, so here is the day-by-day, as I typed it up in the field. This is a long entry, so I will probably break it up into two. I will not put any photos in, because most of the […]
This morning we started off with a discussion about the work happening here are Wits (and across the continent) regarding broadband seismology. This is really the “Array” part of the AfricaArray Field School. There are 50-odd permanent seismic stations across sub-Saharan Africa, which are used to investigate the structure of the earth. These things are […]
I got a bit caught up in other things last night, so this is a day late. In any case, on with it! The day started with “Safety” Sue’s lecture about, well, safety. Most of the stuff is common sense, and a lot of it is relevant to how industry tends to do things. Things […]
Today started with a short lecture about the petrology and geochemistry of the Bushveld Complex. I was a bit out of my depth, since the last time I used a petrographic microscope in anger was in about 2010. Luckily the bit of prac tutoring that I did last year helped me at least remember what […]
This morning we got visitors’ cards, which led to a large amount of laughter, especially regarding the photos that people were having taken. Unfortunately, this took longer than planned, so we were running a bit behind for the rest of the day. After getting cards, we had a basic introduction, before some sneaky geochemists who […]