wow we have had a bit of a post drought!! ive been very busy in the field so i have an excuse.

now to a bit of catch up... I said in a previous post that im currently working for a consultancy called Umvoto, based in Muizenberg, Cape Town. They basically specialize in anything to do with ground water or the environment in general.

ive been in the field for them twice so far and am going to head out to Oudtsoorn to help supervise some drilling. The first bit of field work involved a lot of 4x4ing (of which i previously had dangerously little experience) and trekking around the mountains pretty much avoiding paths of any kind. The reason for all this madness was to get water samples for a study on the brandvlei spring which surfaces near where we took the samples. the water comes out at like 40 degrees C which means it has circulated to a depth of a bout 2km DOWN! quite a way for the water to travel :) There is some kind of structural control on the spring.

anyway here are some pics

This pic is of one of the more timid parts of the 4x4 trails. im not lying when i say these trails were REALLY scary to drive on. Oh well, whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger :) This is especially the case in this example as i now have a rudimentary understanding of 4x4 driving :)

At this point in the trail we decided to walk :) i could definitely see us getting stuck!


Finally some of the views were really amazing
More info and pics on my experiences in Namaqualand and the ass crack of a town called kliprand :)

keep well

How to get samples from those... extreme places

Well, tis I... ZERO ;)
my thoughts are to be at the disposal of any geologist world wide and compliant I will be...
remember:

R.O.C.K.S. (Rarely Other Careers Key into Success)

Here's us gathering samples during a field trip...

First we need to get to the right place... what better way than...

Tag: Extreme rock-jumping

Method: Leap from peak to peak in fastest possible path. Putting yourself in prime position for sample gathering

Conclusion: Went well, except had to leave bag and clothes behind as got to hot (or should we say... extreme)

Next we get into sampling...


Tag: Extreme Sampling

Method: Buldging muscles and swing motion, using gravity as the primary force to retreive sample. Activation Energy produced by rapid horizontal bursts upon the sample, bringing transport in motion

Conclusion: ABORT, near fatal encounters: cuts and rolling persons instead of boulder.


Suggestions: Throw sample off top of cliff and retrieve at bottom...

Tag: extreme "Hauling"

Method: bear-like growl accompanied by violent jerks of arm to produce maximum distance

Conclusion: Had problems finding samples retrieved at peak and arm rendered useless for a couple hours...

thanx scott. i guess this is the only way of communicating with you guys either in thailand or doing hydrological things! btw i will be letting everybody know how to lose 6kg in 5 days if they want. so to keep the pics going, here's some weird fog coming in around table bay, it just looked strange so i thought i'd show you guys. note scotts giraffe working the docks.

and yes, a good way to spend the holidays is to study some geology for a phantom exam!

Hi everyone

well all the contributers of this blog are now finished exams! well except for one, Taufeeq had to keep to his extreme geology ways and so he got extremely ill during exams! i saw him a few days afterwards and he looked terrible! no offence man ;) So he still has to write one.


Another contributer is currently on a ship near Thailand looking at rocks from the bottom of the ocean! Jackie this is the only way i can think of communicating with you :) Post something about your experiences abroad!

Nils is tired of geology so hes been looking for a job at a restuarant. good luck man. Im doing an internship at a local hydrogeological consultancy called Umvoto. Today was my first day and well... i read a whole lot. things are looking up though. ill give a more detailed description of what my jobs entails once i know myself :)

scott out

Okay this has nothing to do with geology but i still thought it was pretty cool. I helped Nils move a couch into his new flat. it was too big so we had to pull it up!! We tied the one end of the rope around a friends waist and he acted as an anchor, holding on to whatever he could!



This is me busting my gut to get this dam thing up to the balcony
Success!!
After we finished pulling it up the first thing we did was sit down on it and drink a beer while gazing at Table Mountain. good times

If anyone needs helping moving a couch just get in touch :)

EXTREME MINING?!

so as things turn out, most of our fellow geologists end in the mining industry... so we decided to include some extremes of mining. as you can see we were off in a very tight spot looking for manganese deposits. eventually these two blokes suffered a mild claustrophobic episode, which haulted our manganese search. so perhaps mining's not for everyone, but in extreme geology you're well looked after, so we sent these guys off to an open pit mine in namibia!

Other Extreme Geologists?

To all the extreme geologists out there doing extreme things - if you think you have a pic which warrants a spot on this blog, email it in! Email it to any one of the bloggers - my email is jackiegauntlett@gmail.com

Once again, us extremists can be found on the very unstable (read extreme) slopes of good ol' Table Mountain. This time one of us wasn't very lucky...mass wasting can be a real pain. But alas, after doing some hardcore boulder hopping and scrambling the obstacles were behind us and we could continue or escapades!

hey there all you aspiring extreme geologists, just a quick update on the freestyle sky diving course... our preparations are almost complete and registration details will be available soon. recently we sent scott maclennan and mpumelelo from our gauteng branch to the namibian waste lands to perform their maiden jumps, and im happy to say that all went well... see for yourselves!

Hello world (or should i say the one or two people at the most who are reading this)

Taufeeq and i are planning a trip this uncoming sunday to do some more extreming and maybe find something intelligent to talk about. Till then heres an old picture Taufeeq took from signal hill, i think.

For those of you who dont know, this is Table Mountain

a few more pics

here are few more pics. These featuring Taufeeq this time, an up and comer in the extreme geology scene

Here are some freestyle climbing pics. Freestyle climbing is a different style of extreme geology where the athlete can get a really good look at the rock. Pictures courtesy of Taufeeq Dhansay



any just for a sense of scale...
Look at the middle of the picture... he's pretty small from this far away :)
These guys are pretty crazy

keep strong

Hello world

You are witness to a momentous event today!

This is the first extreme geology blog.

My name is Scott Rock for brains MacLennan. This week ill discuss a field trip around the Cape Peninsula where some very radical geology was discovered.

Firstly i would like to introduce my partner in crime, Taufeeq Dhansay. He is the co creator of this new revolutionary extreme sport. He too is studying geology at the University of Cape Town. We are currently third year students and when we aren't looking at rocks we're running around campus late in the afternoon (so that no one can actually see us) jumping around looking pretty simple.

The field trip around the cape peninsula started at the Atlantis dune field north of Cape Town. Taufeeq had a sore neck so i had to do all the extreming which included rolling down huge dunes!

We then drove south along the peninsula where we measured the wave period and looked at the pebbles that are on the beach, that as it turns out are made up of the same rock you find in Cape Town proper. i then jumped around the parking lot and succeeding in tearing my pants when i landed in the road.

to be continued.......
ps. photographic evidence of our extremeness to follow

Scott