Earth Sciences125
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‘Troubled Waters’ Wreaking Havoc, from Minnesota to Mexico
On October 5th, ‘Troubled Waters’, a documentary produced by the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum, was screened for the first time on the U’s main campus in St. Paul.
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Study Affirms Gulf Oil Spill’s Vastness
First Independent Measure of Well Employs New Imaging Method
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Pricker Bushes, South African Barbeque and New Friends
On Friday, we decided to revisit an area we had already been to. This section covers the contact between the Bushveld rocks (green, colors as seen on the map) and the leptite (purple), granophyre (yellow) and granite (pink) rocks that we are interested in. What the map doesn’t show is topography. Pink granite can be very resistant, meaning it…
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Rock Hunting Before River Closes In
On Tuesday we drove to the Steelpoort River Valley, about a hundred kilometers away. Work on a new dam and road has begun since we were here last, in 2006 and 2007. Once it’s finished, the dam will flood much of our field area, submerging some of the rocks we are studying. It’s a good thing…
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Geology with a Taste of Safari
We started the morning with breakfast and shopping for lunch provisions. We bought a large bag of oranges grown in the groves that surround this region for the equivalent of $1.50, along with cheese and, of course, biltong. The butcher offered many kinds of biltong, from the shaved, proscuitto-like variety to the serious cowboy jerky…
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Rock Collecting While Watching for Crocodiles, Leopards
On Saturday morning, Ed and I left Pretoria for the next phase of our trip: field work near the Loskop Dam in Mpumalanga Province where a large volcano once existed about two billion years ago. No one has been able to find where this ancient volcano stood but lava flows in the area suggest there…
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Singing, Clapping, Smiling over Geology in S. Africa
After a morning lecture about the Bushveld Complex and the processes of concentrating ores in magma bodies, Ed and I had to go to the University of Pretoria for Thursday afternoon. I was invited to give a lecture and we were able to have some very interesting conversations about Bushveld research with the people who…
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Diamond Mine Field Trip on Despite Strike
We woke up Wednesday morning to find out that all unionized government workers, including public school teachers, were on strike. All schools were shuttered and we worried that no one would show up for our workshop. But we arrived at class to find all of our teachers present. They told us this was a once…
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Getting Underneath South Africa’s Mineral Wealth
Our teaching workshop continued Tuesday with a lecture about mineral resources and their economic importance. South Africa has abundant platinum and gold but also lesser-known elements like vanadium, chromium, and manganese. Vanadium and chromium, important to the steel industry, are found predominantly in the Bushveld Complex where our research is focused. Chromium gives steel much…
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