When bears attack

Posted on July 23, 2008 by Chris Rowan

We’ve discussed before how geologists’ pursuit of the critical outcrop sometimes puts us in somewhat sticky situations, but in this story, rather scarily, its not so much a case of geologists ambling into danger as danger ambling towards them.

At least 30 hungry bears have trapped a group of geologists at their remote survey site in Russia’s far east after killing two of their co-workers last week, emergency officials said on Tuesday…

…Rampant fish poaching in the empty tundra of Russia’s farthest reaches sends hungry bear populations into populated centres every year, attracted to the food-rich garbage humans leave behind.

Officials said a helicopter ferrying officials and hunters could not fly in bad weather, but an all-terrain vehicle was on its way to the camp, where it would await government approval to shoot the bears.

I have a colleague who has done fieldwork in northern Canada and had his fair share of bear encounters whilst he was there, but his stories mainly involve just the one individual, which is apparently frightening enough. You can steer clear of or possibly intimidate one, but 30? It sounds like the plot of some cheap 50s horror movie. Hopefully these guys can get out without further casualties.

Categories: fieldwork, geohazards

Back

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Chris Rowan

So, I’m back in Johannesburg, after a very interesting trip which took us all the way from Archean congolomerates in the stable continental interior to diamond-bearing Tertiary alluvial gravels on the West Coast. Plenty of stuff to talk about, then – I’m just still suffering from the usual post-field slump, where I sit at my desk, feeling a little bit frazzled from all the travelling, and try to remember how my computer works. As my brain spins up into a more productive state, here’s proof that I didn’t just take photographs of interesting outcrops.

SAWestCoastSunset.jpg

FlowerPegmatite.jpg

That’s right: sometimes I take pictures of interesting rocks framed by nice sunsets or pretty little flowers!

Categories: bloggery, fieldwork

Electronic field notebooks: useful, or pain in the posterior?

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Chris Rowan

The UJ mapping class this year were piloting electronic field notebooks, with each group being given a PDA in which they could enter a locality, a description, and any structural data they were measuring. Especially with the structual data, this may seem like a useful innovation which saves hours of tedious data entry when you’re back home. Still, I remain to be convinced that using an electronic notebook is automatically a good thing; the batteries don’t run out when you’re using pen and paper, and there’s also the fact that fieldwork is not kind to delicate electronics (for example, whilst I’m sampling for palaeomag, there’s a lot of mud flying about, including all over me, and I doubt this interacts too well with computery stuff)
I’d be interested to know if anyone else has experiences in using such devices in the field, either in an educational or research context, and what your thoughts are on their usefulness (or lack thereof). Does the extra functionality make it any more useful than a basic (and more rugged) GPS?

Categories: field gear, fieldwork, gifts and gadgets

Are jeans sensible fieldwear?

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Chris Rowan

One thing I noticed amongst the students on last week’s trip was that a fairly sizeable proportion of them were regularly wearing jeans in the field.

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You are unlikely to see British third year geology students opting for denim in such large numbers, because it is likely that one of the things they learn on their first year excursion, which commonly takes them somewhere in Scotland, is that wet denim is extremely good at both weighing your legs down and sucking every erg of heat from your body. The friendlier climate at these latitudes may mean that the offenders in the above photo have not had to endure this lesson, but surely they would have experienced the clammy stickiness caused by wearing jeans when the temperature is high, especially when scrambling up and down hills in the heat of the day. Perhaps I’m alone in my opinion that jeans are, in general, highly impractical field wear*, so I open it to the floor. Should any self-respecting geologist be wearing jeans in the field?
*For the record, I usually wear shorts. But then, years of playing rugby in the depths of winter mean that my legs scarcely feel the cold.

Categories: field gear, fieldwork

Off again

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Chris Rowan

Well, after just enough time to get all my laundry done and sort the chaff from my e-mail account, I’m off on another field trip. This time I’m heading to north-west South Africa for a week and a bit with the 4th year students. It should be fun – if possibly a little chillier than balmy Barberton (to my English seasonal tastes, there’s something faintly wrong with being able to wear just shorts and t-shirt less than a month after the winter solstice).
So apologies for the extended hiatus – although hopefully I’ll have some cool photos to show off when I get back. In the meantime, fell free to continue the geological variant of Mornington Crescent – I’m finding it entertaining, even if no-one else is. There’s also a couple of items for discussion popping up in the next couple of days: one frivolous, one less so…

Categories: bloggery