The Lost Geologist

Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten! Feliz Navidad!

2011-12-24T16:11:00.002+01:00

Allen ein fröhliches und besinnliches Weihnachtsfest!

A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, enjoy the free days!

Feliz Navidad a todos mis amigos en todo el mundo y especialmente en sudamerica y Peru!

Papers that I am reading

2011-11-12T15:53:00.000+01:00

I'm reading plenty of papers these days about carbonate concretions, dolomite formation in terrestrial environments and paleosols. Here's of a collection of the papers that I personally find most interesting and informative. There is currently a lot of cool stuff happening regarding dolomite formation in low-temperature environments. These articles are on the cutting-edge in my opinion. Of course it is but a tiny collection...

Precipitation of low-temperature dolomite from an anaerobic microbial consortium: the role of methanogenic Archaea (Kenward et al., 2009)
Microbially mediated carbonates in the Holocene deposits from Sarlieve, a small ancient lake of the French Massif Central, testify to the evolution of a restricted environment (Breheret et al.; 2007)
Pedogenic origin of dolomite in a basaltic weathering profile, Kohala peninsula, Hawaii (Capo et al., 2000)
Microbial precipitation of dolomite in methanogenic groundwater (Robets et al., 2004)
Presence of sulfate does not inhibit low-temperature dolomite precipitation (Sanchez-Roman et al., 2009)
The role of biomineralization in the origin of sepiolite and dolomite (Leguey et al., 2010)
Origin of magnesium in clays from the Amargosa desert, Nevada (Khoury et al., 1982)

The joy of research

2011-11-10T17:11:00.000+01:00

The joy of research. During the last couple of weeks I have been compiling data from the literature into a big table in order to identify specific factors for mineral formation in the environments that I am investigating. It has been a cool task that was greatly advanced by my recent and on-going cold that has me stuck at home doing not much useful but reading papers and typing Mg/Ca ratios, pH, salinities and many other factor into that table. Today I read 3 whole papers which I included into the table and I have been reading 2...no 3 others for general understanding of the problem at hand. It hit me today while cross-reading through those other papers. It was just a single sentence but...there is no similiarity or single governing factor to solve what I am trying to do. A break-through of understanding the problem. There is more than one road to Rome. What a feeling to breach through and advance the personal knowledge of understanding, and what disappointment to realize that I can compile and analyze as many papers, data and experiments as I like, and yet - dispite it being fun and informative - will not solve the problem in the way we (my supervisor and I) thought. What a weird feeling to score such a victory and still notice that it will not help. Back to the start. I need a new idea. Still feels kind of cool.

Stuff I should know: ichnofossils, palaeosols, calcretes, and the dolomite problem.

2011-08-30T22:21:00.000+02:00

I'm an economic geologist and sedimentologist by training. I search valuble minerals. But guess what keeps my mind going around and around? Issues that, at first hand, have nothing to do with mineral wealth. Today, another day in another open pit mine, and I am longing to be an expert in trace fossils (ichnofossils), soil science and palaeosols, calcretes and palustrine carbonates, diagenetic concretions, and the dolomite problem. And you ask, do they have something to do with mineral exploration and resources?

Well - yes. They do.

Am especially puzzled by the over-whelming amount of what I interprete to be trace fossils of some kind. Though I am no palaeontologist, especially no ichnologist (is that the right word even?). I should take some palaeontologist and soils scientist to the mines. They'd be amazed. Well, I am.

:-)

P.S. If you can recommend some superb trace fossils for dummies articles or books focusing on fluvial-limnic-lacustrine-palustrine-something depositional environments - let me know.

White bentonite - most delicious rock on earth!

2011-08-19T16:02:00.000+02:00

The last post demonstrated how we use big machines to dig deeper for science. Let me introduce one of the fruits that we could reap because of it: white bentonite. It is the lower most bentonite bed in the region. Roughly 2 - 5 cm thick and very, very pure montmorillonite. If it would be thicker and if it would not be coverered by 40 cm of sandy dirt it would be a real treasure. Mine workers are known to eat it when having problems with their stomach, i.e. pyrosis. A table spoon of white bentonite and it will pass after some minutes. The best way to describe its physical appearance is white chocolate. It's nearly in-distuigishable visually. We've been literally eating our way upwards in this pit. White bentonite has no taste but a pleasent consistency in the mouth - just like chocolate. It shows a conchoidal fracture and has a waxy feel.

Cream-white bentonite. Yummy!

P.S. Please bear with me for the superficial postings. Being a PhD and a teaching assistant eats all my time and most of the creativity. Writing high-quality post is unfortunately a time-consuming task. I don't have much time.

That's the one I want for Christmas!

2011-08-18T12:37:00.000+02:00

I've been sharing this image on facebook therefore I thought that I ought to show my loyal readers, as well. Thuesday I've been in the field north of Munich in one of the active bentonite pits that are currently in production. The big machinery just left the pit that morning but we still were fortunate enough to have the small excavator working in the pit which was of great help digging some holes for us to reach the lowest member of the bentonite. It's pretty awesome to direct the big machinery and tell them where to dig for you! I wish I'd always have one at hand for every field trip!

Digging deeper for science!

Images from PhD work

2011-07-29T18:53:00.000+02:00

Just some photos taken during work which I am burried in. I am sorry for the lack of posts but writing interesting and quality stories takes a lot of time which I don't have much off. The PhD and teaching assistant position are full-time jobs. Volcanic ash, bentonite and carbonate concretions are piling in my office. That's all I can say. :-)

Friends from the industry.

A trace of history.

Industrial Minerals Excursion to Upper Palatinate: Part 1

2011-06-10T22:16:00.000+02:00

On May 27th I joined the first of two field trips this semester about industrial minerals in Bavaria. We saw several active open pits. The first location is an active clay pit (Fig. 1). Here relatively pure kaolinite and lignite that are closely inter-calated are being mined to produce chamotte. The clays and lignite are of pliocene age and were deposited in the glacial out-wash valley of the ancient Naab river. The mine is host to a large pond of acid mine drainage in the centre that is pumped out and neutralised with burned lime. Contrary to many acid mine drainage problems this is caused by the high organic content of the clay and lignite. The humic acids are also respondsible for the colors.

Fig. 1: Clay pit with acid mine drainage in center. Dark layers are lignite within kaolinite.

One of the pecularities of this clay pit are siderite concretions (Fig. 2). Peculiar as such as these clays are already very iron poor by nature. Siderite concretions are fairly common and can be the size of a football. What strikes in the field is that these concrections almost always have a small piece of coal or wood at their core. Not visible to the naked eye is that the clays are strongly iron depleted in the vicinity of the concretions. Sulphure isotope data points to the source of formation. Bacterial activity is to blame!

Fig. 2: Yellowish-brownish siderite concretion around wood chips in kaolinite.

The coal is not boring either. Below (Fig. 3) you can see a well preserved fossil leaf about 3 to 4 cm long. I have no idea what exactly this is but the pliocene coals of the region are known for their well preserved and rich plant fossils.

Fig. 3: Leaf on pliocene coal.

And finally a brief look (Fig. 4) into the oven! The sieved and prepaired clay is calcined at ca. 1200°C for a period of roughly 6 hours. The lignite supplies about 1/3 of the required energy, the remaining 2/3 supplied by natural gas. Fine-spread lignite within the kaolinite clay generates a high-porosity chamotte. Clay with few or no coal burns to a dense, low-porosity chamotte.

Fig. 4: Readily calcined and still glowing chamotte exiting the oven.

Thanks to my PhD supervisor for leading this interesting field trip and to

Rohstoffgesellschaft mbH Ponholz for showing us their mine and plant!

Construction site ahead

2011-05-31T23:32:00.000+02:00

Now that I began working and started my PhD I am also pondering to re-work my blog. A couple of people know anyways who I am and I would like to return to my roots and blog more personally of what I do. So it might look a bit chaotic here occasionally in terms of layout and design in the next couple of months (work and PhD eat my time). Perhaps I move to my university website. Or not. Though I will keep making posts also - if my sanity is not affected by all the other things that I should be doing (microscopes, XRD training, reading, writing grants proposals, classes and whatnot). There actually is at least one night post in my head about last fridays field trip to some fantastic open pits and industrial minerals (kaolinite, quartz, feldspar, clays). If time is short I might just post photos...

PhD - Teaching - Bentonite

2011-05-20T12:55:00.000+02:00

Finally things are close to developing a routine at my new university, job and research institution. The last three weeks were almost exclusively consumed by bureaucrazy, organisational issues, orientating in a new city, moving in and unpacking (still in progress), and and and. Since May 2nd I assist in teaching 2nd semester students the basics of geological map recognition, interpretation and use which turned out to be more fun than expected. Also I am going to supervise a little the microscopes of the Chair of Engineering Geology and once I get some time I will be learning how to do X-ray diffraction measurements.

Yesterday was an important day because I - finally - managed to delineate my planed PhD topic and mailed the dean my official application to be put on the list of PhD students of the university. As I meet all criteria this should only be a formality and I expect to officially be a PhD by next week!

My PhD research will be focusing on the formation mechanisms of bentonites, comparing different types of bentonites from different deposits. I am curious to learn how it all works and am quite glad to be have found a topic within the scope of economic geology and industrial minerals that I consider to gain significantly in importance in the decade. Naturally I hope to also extend my knowledge here and work/research on some other issues.

If any of you should have access or contacts to bentonite (or related like hectorite, etc.) deposits, beds or miners/explorer I would be happy to hear from you. Unfortunately I cannot offer much other than my lasting gratitude and proper acknowledgements. Though I might make this into another post with more details...

PhD in sight!

2011-05-19T16:11:00.000+02:00

Work is consuming all my time but today was an important day: I officially applied to be placed on the faculty list of PhDs! A matter of days and I am officially a PhD student and not only a teaching assistant. Wohoooo! :-)

Week One

2011-05-07T12:46:00.000+02:00

My first week at work has passed successfully. Most of my office time was invested into finding a place to live but that has been brought to a success yesterday and I can move-in monday or thuesday. Perhaps I got to sleep one night in the office but I'll happily do that knowing that I have a place to go to. Assisting in the lectures is also quite fun I noticed. This semester it will mostly be in the 2nd semester course of "Maps and Profiles" teaching how to read and use maps, especially geological maps, and interpret them. At the end of may I will be acompanying a one-day field trip to one of the best known Kaolin deposits in Germany. It is mined by various companies and has huge open pits. I figure that it might also be my first geological contribution to the blogosphere in a long time. Otherwise, I like the city. It is wonderful. Hopefully after I moved in I can also invest some time in getting to know the nice sides and finally meet some people. Oh and I hope I finally get my contract and ID so that I can login online and do all the useful stuffs at university...

First days at work

2011-05-03T22:33:00.000+02:00

WOW! I began working on monday at university. I live in a new large city. Everything, literally everything, is new. Met a lot of new colleagues and professors who are all very kind. Bit chaotic situation and unorganised but I have my own office room (still needs more furniture) and keys for all the rooms. Hehe...contract still floating around missing and I still live in a small guesthouse. No room nor flat, yet. This is really tough here. No science done yet but the PhDs/assistants have a monthly and very fun bar meeting. Been tossing around ideas today with my PhD supervisor and had some of my own. Perhaps with one of two of those ideas you my dear readers and followers might be of very practical help. But I will reveal that once it is more thought through. We also plan one or two trips to the USA sometime this or next year. It might be a chance to meet some of you geobloggers out there! But we have no route planed, yet. Just some states that we will certainly see. Till soon! Sorry for any spelling mistakes - currently I practically live in a bar next to the guesthouse and I ain't feeling like spell-checking. :D

The Horrors and Pleasures

2011-04-24T16:08:00.001+02:00

Well, I can reveal it. I am going to move to Munich sometime in the next days. It is an exciting development. A job and PhD waiting, a cool and interesting city, wonderful landscape and great geological places near-by. Just one small thing is stressing: I have no place to live that I can possible afford to pay with the small salary. Munich is the most expensive city in Germany. I don't even have a hotel room. Sadly I have no friends or relatives living in Munich either. Oh boy...but this is the life of a young geoscientist. Haha! Prices are obscence with some rooms of only 9 to 10 sqm costing 600 EURO!

On the pleasure side: I am going to work on the genesis of bentonites within the context of economic geoloy. There are large bentonite deposits in Germany but we will be focusing our efforts on deposits overseas. Am not quite sure how much I can reveal with a good conscience, yet. But it seems promising and will include a few travels abroad that I am looking forward to a lot. Stay tuned.

Oh BTW: HAPPY EASTER to everbody!

It's alive, it's alive!

2011-04-13T14:30:00.000+02:00

The dinosaurs probably got extinct more than once in the time of my online absence from blogging, however, this blog ain't dead - just in temporary hibernation that may end soon. Life threw a couple of more rocks at me that I had to handle in style suitable for a geologist. As things are going I have a job! Wohohooo!!! I didn't sign, yet, so I will delay the official celebration until later but as things are developing I will be moving to a large, wonderful city in Southern Germany soon to work at a reknown university and also persue a PhD related to industrial minerals. This also means that I finally have something to blog about and will be doing my own research - and behold: they will use me as a teaching assistant on the first year students! No idea who should be more scared: me or THEM! Haha... Stay tuned. The next weeks might be full with work here to move and organise but I promise once I get the time I will let you know and restart the geoblogging. :-D

Merry Christmas - Feliz Navidad - Frohe Weihnachten

2010-12-23T20:43:00.000+01:00

It has been a quiet year here on the Lost Geologist in 2010. It is yet unsure what is waiting next year but things here are going through a big personal and professional transition.

To all my loyal readers and commentators, and everybody else, I would like to extend my greetings and the wish that you all may have a

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2011!

Where life may take you...

2010-11-28T17:17:00.001+01:00

The last few weeks have been an emotional roller-coaster ride par excellence both privately (that I won't be sharing here in any further detail) and professionally switching from the deepest possible misery to wonderful offers. Life has a twisted humor to send it all in happening at once. Things are stabilising by now and especially the professional aspects are offering some great chances to look forward to. As a matter of fact I do have three very different but nonetheless very interesting offers that may wet not just my own appetite for more. A fellow geologist and friend of mine has offered me to come to work in Mexico as a junior geologist for the company he works for and participate in their greenfields exploration programm (know what it means? if not, ask) for silver and gold. What a jaw dropping offer that came out of the blue! Right ahead of that on the same day to follow came a totally different offer that materialised as a fall-out follow-up of attending the GeoDarmstadt 2010 meeting this october and the contacts I made there. There is a very cool offer to start a PhD in southern Germany. A fully industry sponsored project about clays and industrial minerals that is appealing very much to my personality of digging into stuff deep - especially because even the "experts" don't seem have a clue what's wrong. Last but not least I was kicked-out of the application process for the trainee-programm of an international refractories producer - only to be suddenly asked now if I am still interested in the job to become their new research engineer and manage their pilot studies. Cool. As I can't do it all there will be an important decision day soon. I am leaning towards the PhD on industrial minerals because I always wanted to get a chance to do exactly what I want and this is the chance. Some never get it. Also, there probably are tens of thousands of precious metals experts. In the end I would just be one of many. But with that PhD I'll probably mutate into somewhat of an exotic freak (which is a bit of scary but aren't the dangerous things often the most fun?). Besides the lab they'd probably be sending me around the globe (Latin America, Asia, Australasia) to dig into special dirt and cross-check the lab results.

OK. So far for the news here.

Book Recommendation: Lagerstätten und Bergbau im Schwarzwald

2010-10-24T14:51:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago I ordered a book about historical mining in the Black Forest region in SW-Germany. The book is titled "Lagerstätten und Bergbau im Schwarzwald - Ein Führer unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der für die Öffentlichkeit zugänglichen Bergwerke" roughly translated to "Mineral Deposits and Mining in the Black Forest". As is obvious by the title a selected number of various historical mines from the Black Forest are featured and described in terms of their history, importance and geology. All descriptions are greatly enhanced by a good number of high-quality sketches, maps and color fotographs of veins, ore or mine workings. Although primarily aimed at amateurs and mining enthusiats with no professional background the book is also a wonderful piece of work for any geologist or mining engineer in my personal opinion. It offers a short but very good overview of the existing and accessible mines. The authors (Dipl.-Geol. Dr. W. Werner and Dipl.-Ing. V. Dennert) both work for the Regional Geological Survey (LGRB) and the Board of Mines of Baden-Württemberg respectively and are experts in their fields. Dr. W. Werner used to be one of the supervisors of my diploma mapping project. I can highly recommmend this book which sadly is only available in German and can be ordered directly from the Regional Geological Survey (LGRB) for a small price. Below the cover image you will find the German descriptions taken from the website of the LGRB.

Cover with historcal mining scene from the book.

Der Schwarzwald ist nicht nur landschaftlich etwas Besonderes. Aufgrund seiner geologischen Entwicklungsgeschichte birgt er auch eine Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Bodenschätze.

Im vorliegenden Buch wird das Wissen über die Bergbaugeschichte und die Lagerstätten des Schwarzwalds zusammengefasst. Hierbei werden die Reviere, in denen Besucherbergwerke der Öffentlichkeit Einblick in den „unterirdischen Schwarzwald“ gestatten, besonders berücksichtigt. Die günstige Verteilung dieser insgesamt dreizehn Besucherbergwerke erlaubt es dem Reisenden, sie gleichsam als Trittsteine durch die vielfältige Geologie und lange Montangeschichte dieses schönen Mittelgebirges zu nutzen.

Gehen Sie mit auf eine ungewöhnliche Reise...(Source: LGRB)

Memories of Peru: Damaris - Tusuykusun

2010-10-23T17:43:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I discovered a wonderful piece of Peruvian music thanks to a well-made documentary on German TV. It brought back a lot of great memories of my pre-professional practise in exploration and various other visits to Peru between 2005 and 2008. Peruvian geobloggers: I didn't forget about you! The song interpreted by Damaris is sung in Quechua, the local language of the Inkas, with some occasional Spanish words or sentences. The title "Tusuykusun" can be translated as "Let's dance". I thought I share. It can also be found on Youtube HERE.

Experiences from GeoDarmstadt2010

2010-10-19T14:25:00.002+02:00

Recently, October 10th - 13th, I attended the geological congress GeoDarmstadt2010 jointly hosted by Geologische Vereinigung (GV) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften (DGG). There were a number of field trips to places in Germany before, during and after the meeting. Unfortunately my private budget didn't support the idea of attending those also. Nevertheless the meeting was another interesting experience. Being more interested in economic geology and sedimentology the 2nd and 3rd day were the highlights for me. A number of session on topics and research on mineral deposits in Germany was supported by some excellent presenters. Gladly also my usuall shyness to approach people got less the longer the meeting lasted and I got the chance to actually shake hands and talk to a few reknown researchers working on sequence stratigraphy of carbonates (Wolfgang Schlager of Amsterdam University) and on strategic aspects of economic geology (Friedrich-Wilhelm Wellmer former President of the BGR). Besides meeting famous people I also made a few new contacts that might be helpful in my beginning professional career after graduation. I don't feel like stretching my hopes here that's why I will refrain from apraising these until I know something more concrete. Also, I met our fellow blogger Lutz from the well-known Geoberg Blog or Geonetzwerk. Attending the sessions on public outreach was also a rewarding experience. Our friend was active with two presentations about the aforementioned Geonetzwerk and later on about the usefullness of geoblogging which had some mixed respondses from the audience. Blogging did not reach the minds of people here, yet.

Last but not least some fotographic impressions from the meeting and Darmstadt:

Entrance to the meeting and conference center Darmstadtium

A part of the poster session while sessions are taking place.

Sessions about public outreach activites and the Geonetzwerk.

Wonderful architecture in Darmstadt right opposite the conference center.

"E&G - Quarternary Science Journal" - online and open access!

2010-10-18T20:50:00.001+02:00

Interesting news for all you interested in quartenary science and open access! "E&G - Quarternary Science Journal" by the German Society of the Quarternary (DEUQUA) is now available online as an open access publication reaching back till the very first issues in 1951! The publication mode has recently been changed with the cooperation of GEOZON a publisher derived from an open access project of the University of Greiswald, Germany. I almost forgot to mention all of this because I totally forgot about the email I received from them a couple of weeks ago. During my visit of the GeoDarmstadt 2010 geological congress in Darmstadt - jointly hosted by Geologische Vereinigung (GV) and Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft (DGG) - I had the chance to talk to a representativ of DEUQUA and gather plenty of informative leaflets about the new publication system. Hope this is interesting for some of you out there!

The Lost Geologist is now a real geologist!

2010-09-25T14:26:00.001+02:00

Yesterday was my last important day at university - my final of the four oral diploma exams! The last hurdle I had to take was an examination in palaeontology. It was one of two final exams that one may chose freely. In hindsight it was a very good decision dispite my extreme nervousness in the last days and week. I never considered palaeontology to be my strong side but there was no going back anymore. The exam lasted maybe 40 minutes and felt, surprisingly to me, quite comfortable. That is probably because it started with a questioning about reef-building organisms and corals - my favorite part of palaeontology. With that good starting feeling the rest of the exam was not easy but doable without any big problems. I have a good grade in all four final exams now and a very good average. My final average may be a bit different because I do not yet know my official grades of my diploma mapping report and my diploma thesis, yet. Anyways, all that remains is some paperwork about my official graduation and receiving my certificat (which usually takes 2 to 3 months) that allows me to carry the German academic title of Diplomgeologe. I am a real geologist now from top to bottom! Mission accomplish!

I will be taking some free days in october to visit friends. Also in the middle of october is the largest geological congress for some years in Germany. The GeoDarmstadt2010 congress. I will be attending hoping to meet some interesting people, learn a bit here and there and looking for some PhD or job opportunities for a young geologist like me. Now that my nervs calm down slowly and there are no more acute worries blogging might pick-up a little pace again, too. We will see.

Book Recommendation: Mississippi Valley-Type Deposit Model by USGS

2010-09-13T00:08:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I recommended a USGS publication regarding Cu-Porphyries. Another of the recent USGS publications on mineral deposits is the Deposit Model for Mississippi Valley-Type Lead-Zinc Ores. Notably one of my most favorite kind of mineral deposits and that makes me quite existed to study this one more in detail. Perhaps we might see more of these thorough reports of the USGS in the future. A short summary can be found below the front cover image. To find the downloadable PDF file go HERE.

Front cover: Image source: USGS

This report is a descriptive model of Mississippi Valley-Type (MVT) lead-zinc deposits that presents their geological, mineralogical and geochemical attributes and is part of an effort by the U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program to update existing models and develop new models that will be used for an upcoming national mineral resource assessment. This deposit modeling effort by the USGS is intended to supplement previously published models for use in mineral-resource and mineral-environmental assessments. Included in this report are geological, geophysical and geochemical assessment guides to assist in mineral resource estimation. The deposit attributes, including grade and tonnage of the deposits described in this report are based on a new mineral deposits data set of all known MVT deposits in the world.

Book Recommendation: Porphyry Copper Deposit Model by USGS

2010-09-12T02:51:00.001+02:00

The USGS has recently posted a very thorough Scientific Investigations Report about Cu-Porphyry deposits that is available for free download as a PDF. From the first few looks that I have taken inside it is most certainly a perfect start for any student or geologists who needs to know a bit more about Porphyries than you got to hear in the 15 minutes presentation in class. I am already loving it! Go HERE to visit the website and for download. The site gives a good content description that you can find below the front cover.

Front cover. Image source: USGS

This report contains a revised descriptive model of porphyry copper deposits (PCDs), the world’s largest source (about 60 percent) and resource (about 65 percent) of copper and a major source of molybdenum, gold and silver. Despite relatively low grades (average 0.44 percent copper in 2008), PCDs have significant economic and societal impacts due to their large size (commonly hundreds of millions to billions of metric tons), long mine lives (decades), and high production rates (billions of kilograms of copper per year). The revised model describes the geotectonic setting of PCDs, and provides extensive regional- to deposit-scale descriptions and illustrations of geological, geochemical, geophysical, and geoenvironmental characteristics. Current genetic theories are reviewed and evaluated, knowledge gaps are identified, and a variety of exploration and assessment guides are presented. A summary is included for users seeking overviews of specific topics.

Back in Town

2010-08-31T00:57:00.001+02:00

There has been little news here. Mainly due to me being on vacations until a few days ago and spending a nice time on the Balearic Islands, essentially Mallorca. It looked like it has some great geology but I purposefully avoided touching any geology on my relaxation trip which was of course too short. Anyways, the weather and sea-side were fantastic and I wanted to let everybody know that I am back in town now. As you could read in my previous post weeks ago my thesis is done and has been handed-in to the examination office. My two supervisors have yet to file their report. In the meantime I organised my final oral examination for the end of september. Then it is complete "freedom"!

That means that I also began writing and sending job applications and the first replies are coming in. Nothing cool or concrete, yet, though. With my specialisation I might need to search a bit until I find something that I both know how to do and like to do. Outside the industrial minerals (limestone, dolomite, gpysum/anhydrite, cement, aggregates, etc.) the German scene of exploration or mining companies is rather minute with only a handful of companies worth mentioning. Let's hope either someone in the industrial minerals (which is very strong in Germany) or in ore geology (which is, ehm, microscopic in Germany - we import felt 100% of metals) is in need for a just finished geologist. Or maybe I still stumble across a juicy PHD theme...

If you have some adivse it is naturally very welcome! Perhaps I might also add a CV-like section to my blog.

My Thesis: Freshly printed and smelling lovely.

2010-08-03T19:05:00.002+02:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me proudly present my freshly printed thesis!

The title:

"Mikrofazies, Diagenese und Geochemie des Hauptrogensteins aus dem Pfirter Jura"

- roughly translated to -

"Microfacies, Diagenesis and Geochemistry of the Hauptrogenstein from the Jurassic of Ferrette".

In the image above are the five freshly printed copies of my Diplomarbeit (diploma thesis or master thesis in english). They still smell like print. Lovely! Below, my personal copy of my forgoing Diplomkartierung (something like diploma mapping project). Thus the thesis voyage is finally complete! I so can't wait to go to the examination office this week and officially hand-in the thesis. My supervisors seem pleased. So I am not in worries of my grade. The mapping report has already been examined. It got a good grade. But I have a feeling my thesis might be better. I listened to some of the criticism my mapping report got.

So what's left to do? One thing: The last and ultimate of the four oral diploma examinations. All I need is a time and place.

But first it is vacation time!!!!!

Where on Google Earth Nr. 209

2010-07-07T15:03:00.002+02:00

Matthew scored the victory on the last WOGE by finding the Messel Fossil Pit, the only site thats part of the World Heritage solely because of its fossil content. It was also the site of discovery of Ida, the "primate-like" fossil that a while ago made the news and caused some controversy. Matthew doesn't have his own blog nor website so he asked me to host WOGE 209. Naturally I will not participate because I would have an unfair advantage. Below is the image he sent me:

Matthew did not let me know if he wants it to be with or without the Schott Rule. I decided that I DO invoke the Schott Rule. Former winners have to wait until posting for 1 hour for each WoGE they got right.

Matthew, if you disagree I will revoke this. Please let me know.

Posting time is July 7th, 3 PM CET ( 1PM UTC).

Matthew has let me know that he wants to post an additional image because it is more than a week now without a reply. Here it is:

Where on Google Earth Nr. 208

2010-07-02T01:08:00.000+02:00

It is some time since I last won. I am sorry it took a week until postig the next WOGE. Thesis is stressing me a lot and I needed some time to pick a target.

For any new players to Where on (Google) Earth, simply post a comment with latitude and longitude and write something about the (geologic) features in the picture. If you win, you get to host the next one.

I do invoke Schott’s Rule: former winners have to wait until posting for 1 hour for each WoGE they got right.

Posting time is July 2nd, 01:07 AM CET (UTC: 23:07)

Accretionary Wedge: The Geo-Image Bonanza

2010-05-19T13:59:00.000+02:00

Chris and Anne from Highly Allochthonous have asked us to chose our favorite geo-images for the current edition of the Accretionary Wedge carnival. Similiar to Suvrat I chose a microphotograph of carbonates. The image below is from my on-going thesis about Jurassic carbonates. I have chosen this image because it beautifully unites simplicity and complexity and allows me to tell the story of these rocks - with just a single image.

Microphotograph of Jurassic carbonate and diagenetic history, crossed nicols.

What you see in the image above are primarily tangential ooids that formed in a shallow-marine, highly energetic depositional setting like a ooid bar or tidal delta with lots of wave and/or current activity as can be observe nowadays on the Bahamas. The good preservation might indicate primary calcitic composition of the ooids. The partially visible peloid in the lower right is probably a micritized ooid. The laminae are still barely visible. Intensive flushing of the ooid sand probably caused rapid and early cementation by marine-phreatic isopachous rim cements. They are not so well preserved. I think these were primary aragonite that was later neomorphosed to calcite. The early cementation clearly pre-dates the compaction and formation of micro-stylolitic contacts between the ooids. White rim cement is trapped inbetween two ooids on the lower right corner. Also note the brownish stylolite there. Probably during burial the pore space was filled by poikilotopic cement.

The combination of a high-energy depositional environment with intense cementation makes these rocks a good material for construction or the production of lime. The well cemented grains will not disintegrate during the calcination process.

Blogging Hiatus

2010-04-28T23:17:00.002+02:00

Most of you probably already noticed the decline in blogging activity here during the last few months. It is mainly caused by a lack of creativity which is in turn being drained by my thesis and worries in the form of technical and organisational problems or about what to do in the time after receiving my Diplom/Master. I've been looking for PhD positions in Central Europe related to Economic Geology and/or Sedimentology but until now without success. Also on friday will be the first of probably a number (I hope) of job interviews. To save my energy for my thesis and job/PhD hunting I decided to temporarily stop blogging. I will be around though commenting elsewhere and might post very occasionally. Thanks for your understanding.

Sediment2010

2010-04-15T15:26:00.000+02:00

June 25th till 27th will be the time for the Sediment2010 meeting of the Central European Section of the SEPM (SEPM-CES) and the newly established Sedimentology Section of the Geologische Vereinigung (GV). The goal of this meeting is to provide a focus on the current sedimentological research in Germany and neighbouring countries.

The meeting will be located in the city of Potsdam, close to Berlin. There will be a number of short courses and field trips around Berlin.

Just an hour ago I submitted by own abstract for a poster presentation about some of the results of my Diploma mapping project. So you might be able to find me there in person. The extended abstract deadline ends today. Perhaps you want to submit something still?

The website and programm can be found here.

First Contact with the Electron Microprobe

2010-04-09T00:33:00.000+02:00

Today was my long awaited first appointment with the electron microprobe. Already a month ago I had arranged this session to exemplify on three selected samples the distribution and source of arsenic and other important elements. It was a good but exhausting day spent in the lab together with the research assistant of the mineralogy department who is in charge of the EMP. We confirmed my hypothesis as to the source of arsenic with some pretty clear readings dispite working on grain sizes at the lower limit of the possible with our device. The smallest measured grain has a diameter of perhaps 3 to 5 microns. We also discovered an accesory mineral in the limestone samples that has not yet been previously described to be present in them. It is not necessarily something one might expect in a limestone. I prefer however to not yet reveal it, both because I work on an industry project and because it might be worth, together with a few other facts, to be published after my thesis is completed and graded. We also managed to shoot a hole straight through one of the not yet further identified mica chips. Fun with an electron beam that was not planed. From now on I really love that machine. If it wouldn't cost a fortune and if it wouldn't be almost the size of my room at home I would love to have my own. Below is a picture of the room and machine in action.

Microprobe and computer hardware at the FU Berlin.

Happy Easter - Frohe Ostern!

2010-04-04T13:39:00.000+02:00

I want to wish all my readers, geobloggers and all people a wonderful holiday and Happy Easter!

Allen Lesern, Bloggern und allen Anderen wuensche ich ein frohes und gesegnetes Osterfest!

Calamine deposits and geobotanical exploration aids

2010-03-31T20:14:00.002+02:00

Introduction

Calamine deposits, which are known in Germany as Galmei deposits, are a type of non-sulfide zinc deposits that is fairly widespread throughout Europe. Contrary to today's main source of zinc in the form of zinc sulfides Calamine deposits are, in the extreme case, free of sulfides and have reduced concentrations of lead. Usually they contain zinc in the form of carbonates, oxides and silicates. Some of the most common non-sulfide minerals are Smithsonite, Hydrozincite and Hemimorphite in supergene and Willemite in hydrothermal deposits.

The most common formation mechanism for calamine deposits is the supergene weathering and oxidation of primary sulfides. In opposition deposits containing Willemite are seen by a number of researchers as an indication of the hydrothermal formation of calamine deposits. These are classed as hypogene deposits. The calamine deposits form either by direct replacement of the sulfides, wall-rock replacement of carbonates or residual and karst-fill deposits (Figure 1). They most commonly occur in carbonate host rocks.

Figure 1: Models of formation for supergene non-sulfide deposits (Hinzman et al.)

Known calamine deposits in Central Europe are, i.e. in Eastern Belgium, the Aachen district in Western Germany, the Brilon Galmei district, some supergene mineralization in the MVT deposit of Wiesloch and a number of deposits in Poland – just to name a few. The Belgian town of La Calamine (Moresnet) gave these kind of deposits the internationally known name.

Geobotanical exploration aids

Besides a number of exploration aids that I might discuss in another blog post I would like to concentrate here on a more unusual aspect – namely geobotanical exploration aids for non-sulfides. Although these may be rather minor aids in today's world I chose to discuss these. I simply like pretty flowers. The calamine deposits in Eastern Belgium and Western Germany have indicator plants growing on zinc rich mine dumps and soils. Viola calaminaria (Figure 2), Viola guestfalica and Thlaspi (Figure 4) calaminare are known to occur as useful indicator plants in Western Europe. Viola guestfalica (Figure 3) is endemic to the region of Blankerode in Germany. They can be used as exploration aids in the search of zinc rich soils and heavy metal contaminated mine dumps.

Figure 2: Viola Calaminaria (from Vito Coppola et al.)

Figure 3: Viola guestfalica (from Burkhard Beinlich und Walter Köble)

Figure 4: Thlaspi calaminare (from Wikipedia)

References:

Vito Coppola, Maria Boni, H. Albert Gilg, Giuseppina Balassone, Léon Dejonghe (2008): The “calamine” nonsulfide Zn–Pb deposits of Belgium: Petrographical, mineralogical and geochemical characterization, Ore Geology Reviews, 33
Maria Boni and Duncan Large (2003): Nonsulfide Zinc Mineralization in Europe: An Overview, Economic Geology, 98
R.R. Brooks (1979): Indicator Plants for Mineral Prospecting - A Critique, Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 12
Murray W. Hitzman,Neal A. Reynolds,D. F. Sangster, Cameron R. Allen and Cris E. Carman (2003): Classification, Genesis, and Exploration Guides for Nonsulfide Zinc Deposits, Economic Geology, 98
http://www.schmitzens-botanikseite.de/galmei2.htm
http://www.egge-weser-digital.de/htm-inhalte/19080082.html
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galmei-Hellerkraut

Accretionary Wedge #23: What I do - or want to do.

2010-03-27T00:04:00.003+01:00

This is a contribution to the 23rd Accretionary Wedge blog carnival hosted by Geology Happens.

I work on the microfacies, diagenesis, geochemistry and raw material properties of Jurassic shallow-marine carbonate rocks. Unfortunately that is about as much as I can openly discuss about my work details because the project is sponsored by and part of a German constructon material supplier. But that does not matter. There are plenty of issues that I love. Let me tell you about a few of them.

Shallow-marine carbonates: Even though my thesis is related there are issues I would far more enjoy. These are the recent shallow-marine carbonate environments. I enjoy watching images and aerial fotos of reef systems. The Great Barrier Reef, the reefs of the Red Sea or the Bahamas. Just to name some of the better known ones. Nevertheless I am most curious about the non-skeletal carbonates like Ooids. Their deltas and formation is still a not completely solved puzzle and a variety of conclusions on their depositional environment can be drawn from their different internal structures. For example radial or tangential ooids. Yes and, maybe it is just a good excuse to some day actually go to see the Bahamas or the Red Sea.

Calamine Ore deposits: There used to be a number of Calamine (Galmei in German) mines in the Aachen region and around Brilon in central Germany. I would very much like to work on these kinds of deposits to find out about their mineralisation history, the palaeoclimatical controls on weathering and supergene ore formation. There is a lot of recent interest into these because of the lack of sulfides in these which makes it more environmental friendly to mine and smelt the ores.

Phosphate deposits and terrestrial evaporites: Both of these I want to work on because I know little about them. I know their uses for fertilizers and the chemical industry but their formation is a mystery when considering the details, aside of the general parts I assume every geologists knows. Sedimentary phosphorites are the most common source and directly linked to the activity of life. They are peculiar. Rare. Geologically speaking. Island or Guano deposits are small, rather recent bird droppings. Last but not least some carbonatites and pegmatites rich in apatite. Nice, shiny minerals.

Tantalum and Niobium deposits: I don't even know why I like these so much but I would really love to work on some tantalite placers in Namibia or elsewhere. This would almost have been my Master thesis topic - if financial issues wouldn't have killed it. *sniff*

So I now told you what I want to do. Some of it. Because what I do now I cannot talk about. Now all that is missing is to find someone to support all of those interests or winning the lottery that I don't play.

I am a Carbonate and Economic Geologist - when I am not being lost or travelling. :-)

Accretionary Wedge #23

2010-03-19T19:07:00.000+01:00

The Accretionary Wedge #23 is about to take place on Geology Happens. This time it is about sharing your current findings and discoveries. Take a look at the complete announcement! Entries are due march 26th on Geology Happens. I encourage you all to participate!

Geonauten blog

2010-03-08T12:19:00.000+01:00

A German language blog which I should have added to my blog feed long ago is Geonauten. The visually very appealing blog focuses on volcanoes but also deals with other issues of geology. It is managed by a team of four geology enthusiasts who have a background in engineering and geology. Some of the highlights are their documentaries about travels and trips to geologically interesting places. Recommendable!

Some small re-constructions

2010-03-07T00:38:00.000+01:00

As you may notice I am trying to implement a few, small re-constructions of the blog layout. I always wanted to add a few stand alone pages. As it seems - now I can.

Geologists - Stargate Univers

2010-03-03T23:24:00.001+01:00

Today I saw the 3rd episode of Stargate Univers on German TV. I was looking forward to it, especially because of the geologist's character. The problem was to find a substance to filter CO2 from the air. They travel to a desert planet to search for limestone (CaCO3) to act as an air filter. But one thing at a time.

Upon arrivel the geologist looks down and takes some grains of sand into her hand. She attests it to be Gypsum (CaSO4+2*H20). The next sentence she utters ruins my evening. She says that is good because Gypsum is 36% Calciumcarbonate (CaCO3). I am shocked. Numbers aside, there is no carbonate whatsoever in Gypsum!

She says Gypsum is Calcium-Sulfide...ehem...Sulfate is the word!

Next she explains they need to find limestone. They use a funny red liquid that has to turn clear, they do not explain what it is, to show that the sand is limestone. Sounds complicated - bad geologist: Don't they have any weak acid? 5% or 10% HCl would be a much quicker and water (one drop instead of half a liter) saving method to determine limestone. Even without any acid a good geologists should be able to identify Calcite - especially in contrast to Gypsum.

Then we learn that they need to find a salt lake to discover limestone. I am confused. Although there are terrestrial and sabhka carbonate deposits, looking for those in the middle of a Gypsum desert seems not very promising. Salt lakes have a higher potential for finding evaporites or brines to use. The brines of a number of salts could theoretically be used to absorb CO2. Apparently the Stargate Univers geologists is completely unaware of that potential and fixed on limestone.

The geologist and some other guy rebell and go to some other planet through the gate. I assume they get stranded there for eternity. A good punishment!

Also, even with a couple of cubic meters of limestone they will first need to exert a lot of their precious energy to remove the CO2 from it to gain CaO which they need to dissolve in water (also rare on the spaceship). It would be much more practical to get a some of the natural brines from the salt lake. There seems to be an underground brine source even. They would no longer require massive amounts of energy or processing.

And then - if there is so much energy as to burn lime why not use the waste heat to drive the crystal water from the gypsum? Wouldn't it be an ingenious method to also replenish the small water supplies?!

Oh well - I shouldn't have paid attention to the geologist there. Sigh.

Back to blogging

2010-02-27T11:55:00.000+01:00

I'm back online. It was possible to make a complete back-up of my harddrive before formating and reinstalling Windows. Mental note: never leave a USB-Stick or MP3-Player in the ports when switching-off or re-starting your computer. It might drive your operating system into suicide.

Temporary Absence

2010-02-23T18:57:00.000+01:00

Dear readers, followers and friends. Due to a severe and complete crash of my computer I will be without internet access for the next days (I hope) or weeks (I am afraid of). It is now in the hands of professionals who, I hope, will at least safe my thesis data (or better, the entire computer). Don't be surprised if my respondses to emails or comments are slow or don't happen at all. It is beyond my control right now. I will try to answer all your emails and comments as soon as possible under this difficult situation. Thank you.

Tools and Tricks: Dictionary of Applied Geology

2010-02-21T22:03:00.000+01:00

Thanks to my friend Kathrin I discovered a lengthy and 4-language dictionary of applied geology published online in the free access journal Freiberg Online Geosciences. In the 2001 edition a dictionary in German, English, Spanish and French is presented that has been compiled by Freiberg hydrogeologists. Consindering that I used to study for several semesters in Freiberg it is rather embarassing that only now I come across this interesting dictionary. All 4 language versions and one index can be freely downloaded as searchable PDF-files.

Here are the direct links to the files:

Index file
German version
English version
French version
Spanish version

I also recommend actually checking out their website. It features a number of papers on investigations of Freiberg geologists.

Tools and Tricks: Image analysis software for the geosciences

2010-02-06T18:53:00.002+01:00

Trying to find an easy way to do modal analysis on fotomicrographs of thin-sections I found two very useful and free programms to assist in such efforts. These programms are JMicroVision and ImageJ. Both of them are Java based and should function on any ordinary computer. I've been testing both of these in the last weeks and they have their uses. JMicroVision has been developed by Nicolas Roduit of the University of Geneva with image analysis of petrographic thin-section in mind and allows to do various tasks easily, like point-counting, area counting, grain-size measuring or pore classificaton to just name a few. ImageJ originated in the field of biology and medicine, was developed by Wayne Rasband from the National Institute of Mental Health, Maryland, and thus lacks a little the easy to find path as the other programm though offers a lot of tools and plugins that make-up for that short coming. What I found to be an enormously interesting feature is the possibility to make 3D images from serial fotographs or other well aligned image sources which sounds like a great tool to make 3D images from serial thin-sections of fossils. The biggest short-coming of both programmes I discovered to be the image analysis of contrast poor limestones which I am working. Neither programm manages to adequately seperate components and cements. So I have to stick to old-fashioned point-counting. Utilising contrast and color-richer sandstones or crystaline rocks easily gives great results though!

Being relatively new to the computer aided image analysis I recommend to check-out the respective websites yourself. I am sure to some of you these will be a value!

Ooids and De-Dolomite

2010-02-03T20:00:00.000+01:00

Today in the lab I finally finished the thin-sections that I will be investigating as part of my Diploma thesis. I gave them their final touch with a mesh 1200 powder. There is a simple polarisation microscope in the lab allow a quick quality check. I took an ordinary digital camera and held it to the eye-piece. These are some selected results of that. The thin-sections were not yet cleaned, occasional dark spots are left-over polishing powder. No deeper interpretation, yet, I have still to begin with that.

An Oolite in thin-section at low-magnification. Lots of ooids within sparitic cement.

An ooid in high-magnification.

Blue-dyed epoxy has filled the open porosity. Here, rhomboidal dolomite has been dissolved. Undissolved examples directly above.

Geoblog: Piedras en los bolsillos

2010-01-16T12:50:00.000+01:00

A good friend mine from Peru working on environmental geology and geologic hazards is running a blog on her research. All posts are related to the research, especially land slides in all their forms, focused in the larger Lima region. Lots of insightful images and maps complement her posts. Take a look at Piedras en los bolsillos which means as much as "Rocks in the pockets". This blog is written exclusively in Spanish.

A new German Geoblog

2010-01-16T12:21:00.001+01:00

Gunnar from the Amphibol-Blog has turned my attention to a new, German Geoblog. I am happy to mention it here. The number of German geology related blogs is rather low. The author, a geophysics student, calls him- or herself Stryke and writes exclusively in German on a variety of issues. The name: And the Water seems inviting

Also I added this new blog to my feed of German Geoblogs that you can find on the navigation bar on the right.

Arsenic, Geology and Public Health

2010-01-14T19:07:00.003+01:00

I am by no means an Environmental Geologist nor am I particularly active on the side of Medical or Forensic Geology. Nevertheless I discovered much to my pleasure the fascinating thematical width of geology. Specialising myself in Economic Geology and Carbonate Sedimentology has lead me to consider human health effects of natural rock, soil and water contaminants. In my case arsenic.

Arsenic is a common constituent of metallic ores and used in a variety of applications. However, even in areas that are not mineralised in terms of ores high arsenic values can be encountered. Arsenic poisoning can be acute or chronic. In the geological context acute arsenic poisoning is rather rare and the actual risk lies within chronic arsenic poisoning or arsenocosis. Arsenocosis leads to skin problems, skin cancer, cancer of internal organs, diseases of blood vessels, legs and feet (Black Foot Disease). The most common source of arsenic poisoning is low-level arsenic intake from contaminated drinking water. One of the most severe cases of wide-spread arsenocosis can be found in Eastern India and Bangladesh where groundwater has replaced surface water as the main source of drinking water. Elevated As content now affects millions of people. Even As levels as low as 0,005 - 0,01 mg/l have been found to have negative effects on human health.

Mesozoic limestones in Alsace contain elevated As levels between 20 and 77 ppm. Mineralised faults reach As level as high as 2738 ppm. The global average for limestones is around 2 to 3 ppm. Limestones in southern Alsace function as karst aquifers and are important sources of potable water extracted locally at various springs both natural and artifical. Several studies of the French Bureau de Recherche Géologique et Minière (BRGM) have investigated the As contamination in my thesis area. Groundwater from both natural and artificial springs can contain as much as 5960 µm/l of As. Average values are significantly lower though they still exceed values considered harmless. Studies showed the strong connection to faults and deep, chlorine enriched waters making their way to the surface along them.

The recommendations of the BRGM have, to my knowledge, largely been implemented. Highly contaminated springs have been closed and replaced with springs containing only small amounts of arsenic. The irregular and sometimes unpredictable nature of the karst aquifers causes some springs to be exceptionally contaminated - in connection with local faults. Medium contaminated springs have been recommended to receive water treatment by coagulation to remove As with FeCl3.

In the end these aspects also influence my work. Limestones with elevated As are unsuitable for usage in foodstuffs and animal feeds. However, and I will try to elaborate on this aspect a little in my thesis, with the proven connection to deep seated faults and the studies of the BRGM, it may be possible to delineate areas of limestone with only low As content, which seems to be decreasing rapidly away from major faults and also with decreasing amounts of insoluble residue (Fe- and clay minerals).

Finally, the influence of natural contaminants on human health can be found where one might not expect. Even in projects unrelated to mineralised areas. It has to be considered especially where it seems unlikely to occur - when the groundwater pumps where installed in India and Bangladesh no one considered Arsenic.

References:

Takahiko Yoshida, Hiroshi Yamauchi, Gui Fan Sun, 2004. Chronic health effects in people exposed to arsenic via the drinking water: dose–response relationships in review. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. 198 (2004) 243– 252

SANJUAN B., DAESSLE M. (1997) Caractérisation des aquifères contaminés par de l'arsenic dans le Haut-Rhin. Rapport final . Rapport BRGM R39799. Download here.

First news for 2010

2010-01-08T12:13:00.002+01:00

Without noticing it on time the two year anniversary of my blog passed yesterday on January 7th. The last two years saw 238 blog posts, with the first year of blogging more active than the 2nd which I blame on being more busy with my thesis related works. I didn't have the opportunity to compile an anniversary post or series, my excuses.

I now have an office at university in which I can work on my thesis. Good that I asked for it because there was just one free room now that one of the interim professors left. Well, till april I can call it my office when I need to move out again for the new teacher but I hope to have more regular writing motivation being at university. I will "move-in" with my stuff sometime next week.

Also I have started in serious searching for possible Jobs or PhD positions related to my main interests of ore and mineral deposits, carbonate sedimentology and phosphorites/industrial minerals exploration. Hopefully, by the time I graduate with my Diplom/Master (probably sometime in May or June) I will have one or two interesting positions to chose from.

End of the year reflections.

2009-12-20T16:04:00.000+01:00

The holiday season is very near and christmas just waiting around the corner. December has been pretty quiet here and will most likely continue to be so for the rest of 2009. In the year that is now passing I have been and still am very busy with my graduation work. All geological travel this year was directly related to it either for my diploma mapping project in the beginning of 2009 or thesis fieldwork closer to the end of 2009. The mapping project as been brought to a successful end and even though I am still waiting to receive my official grade both examiners have hinted that there is nothing I need to be worried about.

As my planing goes I will travel to the Southwest of Germany in January or February again. The regional geological survey offered me to examine two new cores of Jurassic limestone for my thesis. This will be a welcome supplement to highlight the regional aspects of my study which is so far focused on Eastern France. The coring will be done in January. So they'll be very fresh. The core locations are directly based on my diploma mapping work by the way.

I realise the activity here has been a bit low in the recent weeks or months. That is mainly due to my thesis stress which simply doesn't leave me with enough peace of mind to author high-quality blog-posts on geology. I tried filling the gaps with some interesting news and geological tools. Also, being engulfed in my thesis, I hardly find the time to read or write something that has not to do with my thesis. Because my thesis is company sponsored there are also some aspects and results which I cannot openly publish online. I hope you understand.

Next year, with the thin-section completed, I hope to make a few good posts on microfacies and diagenesis of limestones. The half-done sections already seem to promise good photographic illustrations. We will see.

As this will most likely be the last post for this year I already want to wish everyone of my readers a wonderful christmas time and a happy new year!

Instructional video on how to use a Geologic Compass

2009-12-10T23:56:00.000+01:00

In my last post I showed you a geologic compass in the Freiberg version. Below is a link on how to use a geological compass in the field. The compass used in the video is a Breithaupt model but usage is basicly identical. The only difference is the location of the dip scale which is not located on the sides of the joint but on the inside above the compass circle, as you will see in the video. Unfortunately there is no such video in English language. The video here is exclusively in German.

How to use a geological compass (Gefügekompass)

Early Christmas Gift

2009-12-04T19:01:00.002+01:00

Wednesday I ordered with my first, own, hard earned money (the Internship wages don't count as I was just standing in the way and being useless really) a high-quality geologist compass, a UV lamp and some boxes for thin-sections. To my great surprise the parcel arrived today already! Usually it takes up to two weeks! So today I had a bit of an early geologist's christmas feeling that resulted in running around the house and examining everything with the UV lamp and the compass (in lack of any near-by outcrops the kitchen was measured). I can now confirm that the walls are indeed all standing vertical and are well aligned. On the foto I added a simple description. The compass is a 360° compass after Clar, Freiberg Modell, that I learned with and still consider one of the best. Neither the Brunton (which broke after 1 day of use), nor some Breithaupt Models (which lacked some marks) or the recently used, cheap imitation (which resulted in daily injuries of my fingers because of the extremely sharp edges and lose screws) of the Freiberg version were able to convince me. This one should last a lifetime though.

I will post some instructions on how to correctly use it sometime soon.

Tools and Tricks of the Trade - the GPS

2009-12-02T15:19:00.005+01:00

Ahead of fieldwork for my thesis I asked what kind of GPS device is recommmendable. A number of fellow geobloggers replied with valuable advise. I actually went and bought a GPS ahead of fieldwork. Now I am a proud owner of a GPSmap 60CSx. The device has fullfilled all expectations in terms of durability, endurance and accuracy under not perfect conditions. The batteries last for 3 days of work or more. Dropping it on rock doesn't cause a scratch and signal reception under dense tree cover is excellent. As a matter of fact I still had a signal when entering underground caves. Well, at least for the first two or three meters. But I don't want to make a commercial here. Fellow geobloggers will know, non-trained readers might wonder though what I do with a GPS device. The idea is pretty simple. It allows to rapidly map and document geological relationships in the field with sufficient accuracy. Mapping lithological borders i.e. becomes a piece of cake. Find the contact in 3 or 4 locations, take a measurement of Easting and Northing, if possible also take a dip measurement with your geologists compass, and you are done. At least in principle. You don't necessarily need the expensive GPS device I decided to buy. A price of 260 Euros is not cheap. There are cheaper alternatives or even more expensive ones with a great variety of additional gadgets.

The GPSmap 60CSx operating inside

Using a GPS is easy. If you do not get training at University the documentation should allow you to catch on easily. The basic steps are simple. When the accurate position is your main or only interest, as it may be for most geological fieldwork, there is not much to do. After activating the device give it a moment to acquire a satellite signal. Depending on the location and ground conditions this should not take longer than 1 minute with a good device. Next select the position format and map datum. Usually these are hidden in the units or settings options of your device. In the most simpliest sense the position format determines the way how you write down your coordinates. As the Earth is an irregular globe your need a projection to realistically depict the surface in a flat, 2D map. One of the most common formats is the UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) format that devides the surface into boxes. The map datum is the reference system. Because our planet is not a perfect globe you need a different model of the surface depending on your position. A model that best fits the real shape of the planet. A commonly used datum is the WGS84. Depending on your location you may wish to use another format and datum. In Germany you will still frequently encounter the Gauss-Krüger-coordinate system combined with the Potsdam-Datum or the Bessel-Ellipsoid (Bessel 1841). It fits the Geoid in Europe exceptionally well.

Having decided on your position format and map datum you can start mapping. Either simply noting the coordinates into your fieldbook or saving way points for download in the evening. When using way points remember to always save the way point and not to forget one. When working on large areas way points will make it easier to track back your movements.

ByeBye Twitter

2009-11-29T15:54:00.000+01:00

I have been on Twitter since June. Even though a lot of other geobloggers are also active there and even though there are quite some people following me, and me following them, I see no point in it. Never have and after several months of giving it a chance it is time to quit. The only thing it successfully does it waste a little more of my time while reading tweets. Time better invested in either blog posts or working on my thesis. No worries though. The blog will not be affected by it. I just decided to declutter my online life a bit. Twitter is the 2nd activity to go. Last week I stopped using and deleted my account for one of the various social networking sites I used to be registered on. Now I need to learn how to effectively use the won time. I think I forgot some real life competence. Should be fun to re-learn them!

Fun with a Triangle

2009-11-21T01:55:00.000+01:00

Today I got the results of the geochemical analysis of the samples that I took during fieldwork in France. Plotting the CaCO3 (top), MgCO3 (left) and Impurities (right) into a triangle gives a...well...boring but good result. Totally depending what you want to do with these rocks. But what else to expect from shallow-marine non-skeletal pack- and grainstones? I hope you can recognise the tiny dots at the top.

Mineral Deposits Studies Group (MDSG): Annual Meeting - University of Glasgow

2009-11-08T00:34:00.000+01:00

The 33rd Annual Winter Meeting of the Mineral Deposits Studies Group (MDSG) of the Geological Society will be held from the 5th to 7th of January 2010 at the University of Glasgow. The MDSG is a group within the Geological Society of London. It focuses on the study and promotion of research on mineral deposits and mineralisation processes. The 2010 meeting is sponsored by the Society of Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits (SGA). Although the full scientific programm will only be available after the abstract deadline three known geologist will be presenting as keynote speakers. These will be Prof. Jake Lowenstern talking about Magma intrusion, degassing, and hydrothermal setting of the Yellowstone Caldera, Prof. Dick Tosdale presenting Tectonic transitions in the porphyry-epithermal environment and Prof. Gaston Giuliani updating about Academic and economic geology of precious colored gemstones : an update. The size of this meeting is rather small in nature. The 2008 meeting has seen around 100 delegates from various countries, mining companies, students and academics.

Considering my absence from the last two conferences including symposia on mineral deposits I feel very tempted to drop-by in Glasgow for a couple of day this winter - time and especially money permitting.

Are any of you Geobloggers situated close to Glasgow? Any additional reason to go would be great.

New Geoblog: Chiemgau Impact

2009-10-26T15:38:00.000+01:00

Robert has taken-up the task to author a new blog devoted primarily to the discussion of the controversial Chiemgau impact in historic time. The issue has created some debate within the geological community in the past due to contradictory evidence. Hence also the blog name: Chiemgau Impact? The blog was added to my German Geoblogosphere feed as one of the few German written blogs on geology.

Thanks to Ole and his blogging effort that alerted me to this new blog.

Dispatches from the Field #4

2009-10-22T18:03:00.001+02:00

The Final Days

The last days of fieldwork were dedicated to sampling outcrops, measured sections and other outstanding features. In total I collected around 45 samples for thin sections and another 35 sections for geochemical investigations. The geochemical samples are, of course, the counter-parts to the respective samples for the thin-sections to allow direct comparison. Sampling required a lot of manual work with the hammer and chisle. Many locations have a very hard limestone that required intensive hammering, this way taking 4 samples could easily consume more than an hour until a largely unaltered sampled could be obtained. Also, an advise for anyone hammering away in quarries and outcrops, use a helmet! Mine proved to be a valuable addition to my equipment as it was hit two times by falling rock - that otherwise probably would have required a visit to the local hospital. Having survived sampling and last minute observations I headed to Northern Bavaria to drop-off the geochemical samples in the office of my financing company. They will hopefully be able to provide the results in a few weeks. Now I am heading home. Fieldwork is over!

Urgent call for Participation in the Geoblogosphere Survey 2009

2009-10-12T19:15:00.001+02:00

Lutz has alerted me that, dispite the wide-spread news about the Geoblogosphere Survey 2009 the participation be you, the bloggers, is very low! The Geoblogosphere encompassed more than 200 blogs but only around 50 have participated in this community effort. Please go to the Survey and fill out the short form. I could do it, and I am in the middle of a fieldwork campagne for my Master degree with horribly bad internet connection. It takes only a few minutes. It is available in several languages, as well!

Dispatches from the Field #3

2009-10-10T19:37:00.001+02:00

The internet connection here has gotten really...a matter of chance...each day. So here is the summary of the last few days.

Day 8 to 12:

In the last days I managed to document all profiles in the useful outcrops. The weather has unfortunately worsened and the last three days got me soacking wet every time. I did manage to begin measuring the outcrops for dip, palaeoflow (not much to see sadly) and faults. The compass only arrived thursday, my supervisor had forgotton to bring it. Well, I do get to see every spot at least twice this way. Though it does not really lift my spirits. I found a tiny veinlet with pyrite, chalcopyrite and calcite in the quarry today. The next one and a half hours I spend looking for more and examing the really tiny crystals in more detail. I'm still an ore geology guy by heart I noticed, and how hard it was to leave them and get back to documenting the boring quarry with its very monotonous succession. I am very much looking forward to going home. I can feel that I am doing the 3rd or 4th choice kind of project. I want my ores...

SedLog: A tool for drawing graphic logs.

2009-10-08T17:04:00.000+02:00

Today's work literally got drowned by continued rain. The unvoluntary idle time could not be filld entirely with continuing the map thus I spent some time surfing the digital waves, and behold, what did I find?! Something certainly not only useful for my thesis project, but just as well to anyone else out there needing to compile sedimentary graphic logs. I stumbled upon an article (SedLog: A shareware program for drawing graphic logs and log data manipulation) published just recently in Computers & Geosciences by Zervas et al. It appears to be great and easy to use tool that I downloaded. Runs fine on my Win XP. The tool has its own webpage here.

Geoblogosphere Survey 2009

2009-10-05T19:17:00.000+02:00

Lutz has kindly asked me to to highlight the Geoblogosphere Survey 2009. Please go here to take the survey. I already did and it only takes a few minutes and is easy to answer! The survey is open for participation until 1st of November.

Dispatches from the Field #2

2009-10-05T18:39:00.002+02:00

Mapping complete and fighting with making a good profile

Day 5:

Today was a good day. Dispite sleeping-in late and getting lost on the road - it's really confusing to drive on these tiny French roads - I did what I wanted. The point making my day good was that I found a couple of locations with big calcite veins within 50 to 100 m of where I was expecting to find some clue for a big fault that I had been hypothesing upon the day before. Left and right side of the veins are off-set by at least a few meters. Great! There also is an old quarry that I discoverd today in which can be seen some nicely folded and layered limestone beds. The base of the formation of my interest - I think. It seems like the very old geologic map that I am basing my work on is correct in all its details. Tomorrow I will inspect the last two places of my field area. If there are no unexpected surprises here mapping will be done tomorrow and I can draw the working version of the map. Three days for 2 square km sounds pretty good. If all goes well tomorrow I might also begin with the first profile and selecting some preliminary and random samples. The only downside so far has been that the Mumienbank, a wonderful oncoid bed that would enable a rough stratigraphic positioning, seems to gone. Only some occasional float from the lower most part of the oncoid bed or the underlaying grainstones can be found here and there. To end the day with a positive expression: After taking a few dip measurements it will by a piece of cake to construct the Isoline Map! The morphology here delivers very good clues on where the hard limestones begin even when the lower contact is not exposed.

Day 6:

Today went well. Found another few spots with calcite veins just in the right location for fault lines. The morphology also screams "fault"! The entire area is mapped now and I think I found all useful outcrops as well. The evening was best, when putting everything onto the map and get confirmation that all veins, silified rock and similiar stuff is really where I suspected that it should be. Good!

Day 7:

A slow day. Wasn't really motivated. I managed to speak to the owner of the active quarry and I can come friday to pick-up the keys so I can access it on the coming weekend. I hope two days will be enough to make the profile, measure it and take enough samples. Aside of that I spent a very long time in an old quarry trying to make sense of it. The bedding is really a mess. Most of it is simply an extreme version of stylo-bedding in my opinion. I grouped these stylobeds into a "bed" when they were identical macroscopical. I got 12 beds this way in a 20m high quarry wall. Still, lazy, I hope the other places will go quicker than all day long.

Dispatches from the Field #1

2009-10-04T21:37:00.002+02:00

After some internetless time I found some way to access it. The connection is horribly bad, so no pictures unless necesarry. Some stories about my Diplom degree fieldwork.

Getting there and first impressions

Day 1:

Having spent the last two days packing everything that I might possible need I left home around lunch time. The traffic on the highways was a disaster and one construction site followed the other. I only arrived around 7pm at my half-way stop in Hessen. The pension was nothing special, actually the room was stinking terribly like cigarette smoke and it was awfully noisy. I don't think I slept more than 3 to 4 hours till the next morning. Luckily I did manage to get a nice Tagliatelle a la Pirata at a local restaurant. I didn't feel like eating in the pension.

Day 2:

Construction sites the 2nd day. Today also accompanied by traffic jams for a long way! Drinking awfully much Cola to fight my sleepiness I arrived in Bad Krozingen, a nice thermal bath, around 5pm. Here I spent the night in a, this time, very nice pension. Too bad I had no time for vacation!

Day 3:

Not entirely rested I met the quarry manager and the chief geologist of the company I am doing my thesis at. After an organisational meeting and talking about how to drive we took-off and drove some 90km south-west to the southern most end of Alsace. On the road we found out that the French don't understand the same under "Fast Food" as we do. The Kebab took forever. But it gave us time to talk. After having arrived on the site of interest we took a short hike to the next outcrop, a former quarry, and discussed some of the work that would be ahead of me. I took a short walk after that to see some more of my work area and then drove to my room. It's very nice by the way. Sadly, very bad WLAN internet and only three TV channels - all French! The shopping tour in the local supermarket also made me realise that I am very out of place here with my virtually non-existing French language skills. Feels very embarassing when I can't even ask what they are selling at the meat, cheese or fish stand. Very exhausted I fall to sleep in my bed later on. Finally a really good night!

Day 4:

I drove to an active quarry to ask the owner for permission to access it to do my stuff there. He ain't there. Need to come back on Monday. Good the guy at the door also spoke Alsatian dialect - something inbetween French and Swiss-German. Then I drove horribly long till I found a parking place for todays checking-out of the field. The hill is very steep! Impossible to walk lines. Will just follow the forest tracks and check if the geologic map from....very, very old...matches reality somehow, as agreed with my supervisor. Then I will pick sites for profiling and sampling. Today I already found two or three potential sites. One is small and the other a German bunker from WW 1 that has been built into an artificially extended cave. Carrying the flashlight and helmet all day came in very handy. First impression: Very confused. Too much vegetation. Worse than in the Amazonas. Sigh. Did I mention this hill is a huge, overturned fold that has consecutively been faulted, up- and down-lifted? It has, well better said had, a stone age fort on top. Together with the WW 1 bunker all kinds of imaginable rocks now all lay happily united and scattered all over the hill. The steep slopes do the rest to spread float to every possible and impossible corner. Did I volunteer for this????

Time for Fieldwork!

2009-09-27T16:47:00.000+02:00

Thuesday will be the day I head due South to France. Starting October 1st I will be doing a little bit of mapping, measuring sections and taking plenty of samples for my Diplom thesis. The long-term weather forecasts look promising and with some luck I will be enjoying two weeks of perfect outdoor weather in the Alsatian Jura in the eastern-most part of France. I will be delving into the realm of shallow-marine carbonates, in particular oolites and oncolites. Internet access will be severely limited, in contrast to the last time I was on fieldwork. There should be enough material to make a few nice posts about fieldwork, carbonate sedimentology or karstification, I hope. It will be quiet here till mid-October.

The Lost Geologist interviewed on the Reef Tank

2009-09-26T12:27:00.000+02:00

As I announced a few days earlier I have been sent some Q&A by Ava from the Reef Tank. The resulting interview on my own activities and their connection to marine geology is now up and available on their site. Here is a link directly to their blog. You can find me right on top at the moment. I hope you will find it interesting to read and I would welcome any feedback and so, I am sure, would Ava.

Upcoming interview on The Reef Tank

2009-09-23T22:09:00.001+02:00

I've been asked by Ava from The Reef Tank if I would be willing to answer a few question about marine geology and my connection to it. It seems to be a very interesting site not only for aquarist but as well for those interested in reefs and the marine. Currently they are trying to build a new section on marine geology. So I gladly answered the short Q&A. The interview will most likely be published within the next few days on their site. I'm curious about the responds.

New Geology Feeds on Economic Geology and Sedimentology

2009-09-20T20:19:00.003+02:00

The "Fachzeitschriften" feed for geology journals has been removed from the sidebar because I thought that it is too cluttered with all the geology related journal feeds in one place. On the very end of the sidebar I now included two different feeds focused on "Economic Geology" and on "Sedimentology" respectively. This move also reflects my personal focus on these issues and will enhance finding relevant information more easily, I hope. The previous feed of all journals has not ceased to exist though. If you wish to use it click here to access its page but I will no longer be maintaining it on a regular basis.

The "Economic Geology" feed includes Chemical Geology, Geofluids, Journal of Geochemical Exploration, Mineralium Deposita, Ore Geology Reviews and Resource Geology. It is the journals that offer a feed for new articles and which I regularly check for news.

The "Sedimentology" Feed includes Basin Research, Facies, International Journal of Earth Sciences, Marine and Petroleum Geology, Marine Geology, Palaeogeography-Palaeoclimatology-Palaeoecology, Sedimentary Geology and Sedimentology. I tried limiting it to journals that have articles on sedimentology frequently.

If you have any suggestions for adding journals to these two feeds feel welcome to contact me.

GPS - which one do you recommend?

2009-09-18T00:08:00.003+02:00

I am pondering for some time now to get my own GPS device. For the upcoming field work (starting Sept. 29th) I will definitly need one, and no one seems to be able to lend me one. Our 10 or so university GPS are all broken. What GPS would you recommend for geological field work and mapping? I figure I need one that is quite accurate even under light tree cover, and also one that is able to display different projections, like UTM, Gauss-Krüger and other widely used methods. Do they still use Lambert in France? Most of my work I do in Europe - Germany, France and Switzerland and other central European states.

What do you think about the Garmin Colorado 300, the GPS 60 or the GPSmap 60 series? Price is really an issue for me.

8th Freiberg Short Course: Metallogeny and Exploration of Uranium Deposits

2009-09-16T19:01:00.004+02:00

If you are interested in Uranium, its metallogeny and exploration, then I can recommend this years 8th Freiberg Short Course on Economic Geology at the Technical University of Freiberg, Germany. The almost one week long course will be presented by Professor Michel Cuney and others. All relevant kinds of Uranium deposits will be discussed and presented, including a field trip to the Uranium Ore collection of the WISMUT AG in Aue, the site of the former Uranium mining operation in communist times. One of the local organisers and presenters will be Dr. Thomas Seifert, an able and friendly mineral deposits expert of the Freiberg University whom I remember from various classes that I listened to in my Freiberg time. The course will be held from December 7th-12th in Freiberg.

Freiberg is not so far, perhaps 3 hours by train. If I will attend the course myself is still unclear, as I will be in the middle of my diploma thesis in december and probably stuck in a big pile of work.

Congress season

2009-09-09T13:00:00.007+02:00

UPDATE: Unfortunately I got a very bad throat infection, high fever and lymph nodes as big as golf balls and hard as granite. My doctor ordered me to stay at home. Such a big disappointment! I was looking forward to meeting a lot of interesting people...

It has been going around in the Geoblogosphere that congress season has begun. I will be using the opportunity of having a lot of free time to attend the The 87th Meeting of the German Mineralogical Association at the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg. The meeting from the 13th till 16th of september will be covering a wide range of mineralogical and geological issues, also including archeology. My personal main interest will of course be to attend the symposia on mineral deposits and exploration in which will be presented a number of, I hope interesting, topics of mineral exploration in Germany. The most recent programm can be downloaded here.

Finally!

2009-09-08T18:19:00.005+02:00

Finally my diploma mapping project and report are completely off my desk! Monday I handed in the report at the examination office and today I gave a copy of it, and the map, to the two supervisors. Whatever comes now - it's out of my hands and I can't change it. And that's good! No more worries! I hope to have the results and grade within a few weeks, before I go to field work on my diploma thesis in France. I hope to also find a bit more time for blogging in september, now that my desk is empty again.

Gastropod fossils from the Hauptrogenstein

2009-09-01T20:36:00.010+02:00

In my previous post I promised Aydin to post a few fotos of gastropod fossils that I came across during my mapping project. So follow-up on my promise here are four examples of fossil snails that one may come across in the oolithic Hauptrogenstein. My palaeontology isn't so great, and this was a mapping aimed at lime production, so we didn't bother so much about what these are exactly. If you can share some clues, feel free to contribute.

Sample from the Mumienbank, the top bed of the Middle Hauptrogenstein.
Oncoid with a gastropod nucleus. Probably a nerinea.

Detail from a polished slap of the Middle Hauptrogenstein. Somewhere from the "cross-stratified, oolithic complex" or coral-bearing Hauptrogenstein. Shells are 3 to 4 mm in size. Unidentified.

Gastropod sample from the coral-bearing Hauptrogenstein in close association with abundant coral debris (not recognisable in foto). A nerinean?

Wonderful 3D preservation of an archaeogastropoda(?) in close association with well-preserved, probably in-situ occurence, of branching corals (see below).

Branching-coral associated with the above mentioned gastropod fossil. Possibly encrusted with coraline algae?

One end, one beginning and very vague ponderings about the future.

2009-08-25T21:04:00.003+02:00

Today I had a last moment battle with finishing my diploma mapping report while trying to get it printed. That problem is solved and tomorrow I can pick-up several copies of the report. So, basicly, I am done and will hand it in to the examination office probably first week of september. Done.

At the same time I am starting the next project - my actual diploma thesis (about the same as a Master thesis). The planing for the field work has already begun and I found a cheap but practically located place to stay in the south-eastern most corner of France. Field work will be two weeks in the first half of october. There are some issues that need to be resolved, still, but in generall it's all settled.

I don't know if I can really reveal what exactly I will be doing, where exactly and for whom exactly but it is safe to tell you that I will again be working on limestones. As the planing is now I will be comparing the carbonate depositional environment to the quality of the limestone. The theme is cooperation with a large, German manufacturer of construction materials. Plus some other stuff. By the end of my thesis I will probably run away screaming from any limestone I see...haha...

So the end of the end seems near. Sometime first half next year, the latest, I will in the happy posession of a diploma degree in geology. If you followed my blog you may have noticed my contacts with the Industrial Minerals, Economic Geology and Sedimentology. There are some important decisions to be taken by me in the next six months. I need to decide if I want to find a good job and work in the industry or if I rather try my luck and find a nice PhD position. Especially the later also means to find a topic I really love and find enough motivation for to survive 3 to 5 years of investigating. Don't ask what I have in mine. My head is full of vague ideas about carbonate-hosted Pb-Zn or supergene Pb-Zn deposits, tantalum-niobium deposits, phosphorite deposits, shallow-marine carbonates and some exotic stuff.

Of course this will also affect my blogging. Most important I need to find out what is good to blog - and what to leave out of here.

I will see, and you, perhaps, too.

Book recommendation: Paleokarst

2009-08-24T18:22:00.009+02:00

Occasionally I recommend books that I personally like. In the previous book recommendations I wrote about Carbonate Sedimentology by Tucker & Wright and Microfacies of Carbonate Rocks by Flügel. Today I have a slightly different theme that also related to carbonates. The title of today's book is Paleokarst by James & Choquette (Eds.). I have at several times consulted this book in the course of my diploma mapping project and, sadly only at one occasion, cited from it. It's a very interesting book when you are interested in how to recognise karstification in ancient environments and when you need to distinguish Paleokarst from modern Karst. The volume is a collection of papers and reports of the 1985 symposium on "Paleokarst Systems and Unconformities - Characteristics and Significance". Published in 1988 this book is, dispite its age, in my opinion a good collection to introduce the interested reader into the Paleokarst and Karst field. Some basic knowledge of carbonates and karst is totally sufficient to understand this volume. The book itself is two parted: At first there is a discussion in several papers of general karst and paleokarst features, such as caves, meteoric diagenesis or even carbonate-hosted lead-zinc deposits. At second examples of paleokarst terranes are presented dealing with different aspects. The book is supported by a great number of black-and-white sketches and images. Personally I do prefer good black-and-white grafics over fancy grafics that are too full to recognise what's really important. So I do not consider this to be a negative point. Sadly this great books seems to be out of print and is no longer on stock. It might be hard to find - luckily I seem to be the only one in my university library who uses the only copy.

In short: this book covers a wide range of karst features of both ancient and modern context and touches issues of different fields, such as but not limited to caves, diagenesis, ore deposits and paleoclimate.

Paleokarst front cover

Who can share research and work experience on aggregate and industrial minerals?

2009-08-08T18:33:00.005+02:00

As my choices for my diploma thesis have boiled down to diving into the world of shallow-marine limestones (again) used for making burnt lime with a large German manufacturer of construction materials I am wondering how many geos and perhaps mining engineers we have in the geoblogosphere who can share some experiences. Mining for metal ores and precious stones has a much wider exposure than the industrial minerals, however, in Germany, if you want to work on mineral deposits (in the wider sense) industrial minerals and aggregate will be your first choice right after coal or salt.

I've been wondering. Please excuse the very vague questioning. What are the pros and cons in your opinion and what do you think about the career aspects in these fields of mineral production? I am still pondering to also persue a PhD sometime after my graduation. What affect will my focus on limestones (by necessity) have on the chances of persuing a PhD related to metalic ore deposits?

Any shared experiences are highly welcome!

Check-out WoGE #169!

2009-08-08T18:30:00.002+02:00

I am not sure how many people normally come across Peter's photography collection where he is also hosting the next WoGE everytime he wins, therefore, I thought it to be a good idea to point you all to WoGE #169 (click here). Maybe we can re-instill a bit more life into the contest and increase it's exposure.

Where on (Google) Earth #168!!!

2009-08-05T01:06:00.004+02:00

Recently, I was able to finally resolve the long, long waiting WoGE #167 chosen by Rod and posted on Ron Schott's Home Companion. The Rules are simple: Identify the location shown, give latitude and longitude and post some information about the geological significance of the location shown. If you win you get to host the next WoGE! If you don't happen to have a blog you can chose who may host your next WoGE.

To speed-up the next WoGE I will not invoke the Schott rule. Anyone may reply the moment they can identify and describe the target. Perhaps the veterans who already won several times can wait for a few hours before posting in order to give the new participants a chance.

Below you will find the new WoGE #168. Good luck in the hunt!

Click image to enlarge!

Oncolite Rudstone from the "Mumienbank"

2009-07-23T16:18:00.004+02:00

I am not getting ahead fast with my diploma mapping report and it keeps being a pain in the...well, you can imagine - a lot of headache. So there isn't much around that I have time or nervs to make some serious posting about. For your entertainment I decided to share another polished slab I made that will be part of my report. It is a piece of the "Mumienbank" - an oncolitic Rudstone from the Jurassic limestones that I am working on. You can observe some lovely oncolites, nucleus and laminae intact, bored and re-filled, some deformation on the grain contacts that are partially filled with some iron minerals (the black stuff) - guess haematite or stuff. Didn't yet have time to look at it with a binocular or microscope but the black stuff is actually quite shiny in the sun.

Oncolite Rudstone of the "Mumienbank"

Flowstone, cut and polished

2009-07-10T23:02:00.003+02:00

Another of the samples I cut and polished: This flowstone originates from an exposed karst cavity. The sample is taken from the floor of the former cave that is now infilled with flowstone and other sediments. These deposits form where water flows over rock walls or floors. Looks pretty cool, no?

Flowstone deposit. Upside is down.

Two polished carbonate slabs

2009-07-09T18:38:00.007+02:00

There is no time to write great posts these days because of my continued work on my diploma mapping report. Though I can share some stuff. Today I cut and polished a number of samples to enhance the illustration of my report. I didn't manage to polish them all but a few samples are done and I want to share two of the more spectacular ones.

First, I cut and polished a sample I already discussed here. Back then I thought it to be a carbonate tempestive with an erosive base. Right now I am not that sure. Either way the cement is entirely sparitic from the shells upward. Below one can also find micritic and sparitic cement. Very few ooids are cut and truncated by shells. So maybe it is still a storm layer or a very proximal debris flow of carbonate sand. You can find a wild mixture of grains from shells, snails, foraminifera even, ooids, coated grains, aggregate grains, etc.

Event layer? The upside is up in the image.

Second is a cut sample of an oncoid bed that I also discussed earlier. These wonderful and easy to recognise oncoids show a great, irregular laminae, one as a gastropod as a nucleus and two of them are obviously bored with internal boring sediment. I am not so sure how to interpret the contacts between the oncoids. First I thought them to be slightly deformed by each other. Meaning they would have been still soft enough for that to happen. Some partial laminae seem to have broken off. But then some contacts look a little like pressure solution seams and the laminae are abrubtly truncated. The matrix is a carbonate mud with shells, snails and other stuff that I didn't bother to check out, yet.

(My excuses, I accidentally messed-up the scale. The scale in the oncoid image is suppossed to be 4 cm not 6 cm.)

Bored oncoids with snail nucleus

Finally some pages...

2009-07-06T23:09:00.002+02:00

I don't quite know what changed but today I finally managed to overcome my week-long writing blockade and succeeded in writing 3 and a half pages of outcrop descriptions. That's six outcrops described in detail - without images and rose diagramms, yet. Cross your fingers for me that I manage to keep up this daily routine and perhaps even increase it a little. Once I caught-up on my writing some good ideas to blog about will most likely return, too.

Why it is so quiet here...

2009-07-02T14:31:00.003+02:00

Studying at an under-funded university that abandoned their department of economic geology just when I got here is highly unsatisfactory. Sadly changing places again is out of the option - I do not want to lose another semester or two or three. I don't even want to think of the financial problems that would come with that.

The recent lack of posting is somehow related to that. I am fighting with my motivation to get the diploma mapping report done. Gladly I do not have problems with the material itself but working without having any goal to work for is a fairly demotivating task. Unfortunately the only professor interested in and willing to help me with a thesis in economic geology (something with ore!) has no funds to work with. Remember we don't have a department anymore, thus no funds, no research, etc. I applied in the industry but only got two offers that are even worth considering as a thesis. None of them will bring me any closer to what I really want. Actually they'll be leading me right in the other direction. Limestones are nice and it's a resource but, well, where is my ore?

Please excuse the current lack of posting. It might continue for a while until I find something worthwhile to do.

What's your daily writing pensum?

2009-06-21T16:02:00.002+02:00

For all those of you who have to write papers, reports, thesis or your PhD. You may know I am currently writing my Diploma Mapping Report. The maps are done and with my supervisor (who liked them very much) since early June. Since then I should have been writing the report. But I didn't have much progress. Gladly I am still out of problems reach concerning my supervisors and I would like to keep it that way.

I want to set myself some strict goals, i.e. a numer of words or pages I must write every day no matter how stupid it looks like. This is mainly to get some content down and would probably be a good morale boost to see that there is something, even if quality may, yet, be lacking.

So I am curious about how you do it:

How do you get yourself to write that paper or report that you really don't feel like writing?

What is the average span of words or pages a day that you consider good?

I believe the trouble is that it is the first time I am working completely alone. Before I always had at least one fellow student or friend as co-worker. Telling your friend that you will be done with chapter X by monday makes quite a difference for writing. No one wants to disappoint his friends, right?

Also I was unlucky in terms of writing location. I didn't manage to get a room at university to work in. We simply don't have enough for every student. The library came to mind but offers too much distraction both in terms of other people looking for books and in the form of said interesting books. Additionally I don't feel like carrying all my books, papers, samples and notebook to it every day.

There is no other location at my university that I could use. So I am stuck in my own, small room at home.

What is your advice?

Geology Rocks! A true rock song!

2009-06-16T15:16:00.003+02:00

Thanks to cottontree from the Geoversum geology forum for posting a link to this incredible rock music video! Geology Rocks! :-)

Geology Rocks Video on Youtube

Accretionary Wedge #17 is up!!!

2009-06-15T11:45:00.003+02:00

The Accretionary Wedge #17: Let's do a Time Warp is up on Outside the Interzone from Lockwood! In this geologic web carneval we will be actively travelling though time to investigate some of the most intriguing events of Earth, otherworldly and pre-univers history. It promised to be an exiting trip with a reasonable chance I suppose to meet Jurassic critters (don't feed them!) and other strange forms of life and more importantly - rocks! So now head over to Lockwood before there are no more free seats! There are plenty of participants!

The Accretionary Wedge #17: The Time Warp!

2009-06-13T13:17:00.006+02:00

One of the main problems in ore geology just like in most other subdivisions of geology is that we always and only see the final result. We are never there watching it from start to end. A very displeasing obstacle to really understand what happened.

But now - thanks to Lockwoord from Outside the Interzone - I have the tool I need to solve what bothers me: A Time Warp generated by the lastest edition of the Accretionary Wedge!

There are plenty of places, events and processes that would be fantastic to watch with my own eyes as they unfold. I'd really love to see if Snowball Earth really was a snowball or sample the very first living cell to probably roam the oceans. Also a small detour to early Mars while it was still warm and wet and friendly to life would sound like a great destination.

But actually I want to go elsewhere. I want to watch an ore deposit form. I want to see it from start to end. To narrow it down I want to be there while the Silesian Mississippi Valley Type district forms. This is not only the largest MVT Pb-Zn district of the planet with 730 Mt of ore but also there is evidence that the largest district of its kind was formed in an increadibly short amount of time! In the hypogenic karst cavities of the Silesian deposits you can find speleothems (see image) growing up and downwards. The point is they don't grow vertically up and down - they show indication of growing into the direction of fluid flow! You heard it right. These dripstones are made from Galenit, Spalerite and other ore minerals growing inside a pipe that the hydrothermal fluid must have been rushing through. There are estimates that the entire ore district formed in less than 50.000 years with some investigators arguing the time of formation could be as little as 5.000 years or less. Certain parts must have literally formed in the course of days and hours with giant streams of hydrothermal metal-rich fluids moving through the cracks and fissures of the host-rocks.

Sulfide speleothem from the Olkuze mine
(Source: Scanned from Conference handout SEG workshop on the Geology of Pb-Zn Ore Deposits, Lima, Peru, 2008. Image from chapters of David Leach)

That would be so cool. To sit right in those caves in a dry spot and literally watch galenite and sphalerite stalacties and stalagmites grow over night.

Not to forget I also want to take a look above ground. You may know there is a relationship between the palaeogeographic position, the palaeoclimate, mountain building processes and the formation of large carbonate-hosted MVT deposits. A hydrological test with tracers would be cool. Seeing where does the water really come from. What is the real flowpath? How are the precipating ores replacing the surrounding carbonates? I want to see and feel it first hand on.

Thats why I want a time warp.

200th Post!

2009-06-12T13:02:00.003+02:00

Woohohohooo!!! This is the 200th post since I began blogging one and a half years ago! Time moves so fast, doesn't it? I should have planed this ahead to have a fascinating celebration post ready - as you can see I didn't. Shame on me....

However, instead I can tell you that I am planing to continue blogging for at least another 200 posts (thats probably sometime around the new year of 2010/11).

Also I've been pondering for a while to make major re-construction of my entire blog. I would like to write more focused and more in depth on what really interests me. Additionally I want to move to a more professional look. I don't quite like the options blogger provides. For now all of this is still brewing in my head while I am working on my diploma mapping report and searching a cool diploma thesis topic.

Last but not least I like to thank all the loyal and active followers of my blog. Your thoughts are always a great enrichment of this blog. Thank you!

P.S. I'm on Twitter now but I didn't quite figure out what I am supposed to do there, yet.

Another blog: Ancient Shore

2009-06-11T19:34:00.002+02:00

Yesterday while surfing the web I came across this nice to read blog by Graham Young called Ancient Shore. Graham is writing from Canada, it's geology and his impressions - usually always somehow connected to the sea-side and the shore. I like the narrative writing style of his. Check it out!

Cool samples from fieldwork #04

2009-06-10T22:20:00.003+02:00

This samples that I took during fieldwork is an ideal example of the Humphriesi-Oolite from the Middle Jurassic. The Bajocian Humphriesi-Oolite is an iron-ooid rich sandy limestone with ooids of up to 2 mm in diameter. According to the available literature it has been mined as an iron ore in the Dark Ages but lost its significance since then. Sadly there is not a single outcrop of this in my entire mapping area. This sample is one of the few good pieces (mostly it looks more like a boring marl with few ooids) of float that can be encountered occasionally. It can be confused with the Aalenian Murchisonae-Oolite which, however, has much smaller oolites and is sparry, marly and can often be found as small plates, unlike the Humphriesi-Oolite.

Iron-oolite with red-brown ooids of up to 2 mm

This sample is cool because the ooids are so wonderfully preserved and can be easily observed even without a magnifying glas!

Gold!

2009-06-09T21:22:00.001+02:00

Lutz from the Geoberg.de-Blog reminded me that there still are some treasures in Germany to be found. Even if they are not as luxurious as the media may be believing. I'm not even half as excited but it sure sounds interesting. Although it is not big news to those working or researching on ore deposits in Germany and especially the Ore Mountains around Freiberg I suppose. Apparently the news has leaked out again that precious metals like Gold can actually be found in the Ore Mountains. Such a nice story for the newspapers...

Back from relaxing

2009-06-06T15:25:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I came back from relaxing a couple of days after completing my diploma mapping project maps. I really needed a break. The first three days I was completely exhausted and could physically feel some stress falling off. Now I have a bit more energy again to write the report to accompany the maps. To my great relief my supervisor found nothing to complain about and is very pleased about my work done so far. Nice! From his mouth that's a very big "job well done"!

Also for the real news: I just mailed my poster abstract to contribute to Geodresden 2009. It is this year's meeting and congress of the DGG (German Geological Association). So my very first conference presentation is on it's way! Woohohooo! Now I have a few months to make a cool poster and hopefull some additional and enhanced thin-sections.

My poster will be about organic microfossils from certain metamorphic rocks I worked on a year ago. I might post more about it closer to the meeting.

One step closer

2009-05-28T14:31:00.002+02:00

Finally! Yesterday I finally wrapped-up my maps and mailed them to my supervisor! I'm a big step closer to completing my diploma mapping project. Yes, writing the report remains but a big worry is off my head now and I have my mind free now to write something good. The maps were driving me insane recently and I am so glad they are finally gone. Time to take a few days off and then return with full strength for a month of report writing and interpretating. A few days off will also benefit my blogging now that I have less to worry about.

What the Lost Geologist is busy with...

2009-05-23T19:26:00.006+02:00

My university is a wonderful place. Really is! We have all kinds of wonderful stuff - except the really useful one. Instead of finding a way to let students use Corel or other specialised software to do important things they found a better way - let the student figure it out by himself (I won't even start with all the other things that don't work - I'm in a good mood still!). That's why I am currently developing a tennis elbow while playing around with various free graphic softwares to design a good, vertical profile of my mapping area.

Screenshot of what I do

I'm busy for two days now with what you can see above. By now I believe I am too perfectionist and should just have scribbled something on a piece of with some pencils. *sigh*

When I am done with it, then it'll deserve a place in an art gallery!

What happened to the Accretionary Wedge?

2009-05-21T13:37:00.002+02:00

Did it already fall to the fate of complete subduction? The site lists #17 for March but I haven't seen nor heard anything about it ever since. Was there one for April? What about May? Or am I just becoming blind and didn't notice? Maybe I'm not the most active contributer but I loved ready each edition.

What happened?

More about RSS feeds for geoscience journals

2009-05-20T12:35:00.008+02:00

Brian from the Clastic Detritus blog wrote about RSS feeds for geoscience journals. I'm glad I could help out with a few more feed adresses. I figured I might just as well share my article feed that I compiled recently of all the journals that I browse for something interesting. Below is a list of the 28 journals I have on my feed. Not all journals seem to have RSS feeds. Those I check manually, i.e. Economic Geology. Blogger doesn't allow me to include the article feed in a blog post so I will add it to my side-bar. You need to scroll down a bit. (I need to do some side-bar cleaning I believe)

P.S.: I forgot to also list the individual RSS feeds. Will update that later today (or tomorrow).

Chemical Geology
Earth-Science Reviews
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Journal of African Earth Sciences
Journal of Geochemical Exploration
Journal of Geodynamics
Journal of South American Earth Sciences
Journal of Structural Geology
Lithos
Marine Geology
Marine and Petroleum Geology
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Sedimentary Geology
Tectonophysics
Ore Geology Reviews
Journal of Petroleum Geology
Basin Research
Sedimentology
International Journal of Earth Sciences
Mineralium Deposita
Facies
Journal of Geosciences
Geofluids
Palaeontology
Lethaia
Terra Nova
Resource Geology

Cool samples from fieldwork #03

2009-05-16T00:31:00.002+02:00

Another great find from my work is an extraordinary large calcite crystal that I managed to recover from one location. Outcrops are really worth checking out in the really unaccessible parts. This one required some climbing and I do have to admit that I did not have the courage to return to the location a second time. I suppose this one formed either by diagenetic processes or karstification in general. Didn't get around, yet, to review my notes on this location. It is a really cool find though! From the same location I also managed to recover a few very tiny fluorite crystals within a boxwork of calcite blades. Perhaps I managed to make fotos of those, too.

Large calcite crystals

By the way: Please excuse the lack of substantial blogging. The diploma mapping report and maps are keeping me occupied more than I want them to.

Cool samples from fieldwork #02

2009-05-13T00:34:00.004+02:00

Here is the biggest belemnite I ever found! Dispite the fact that both ends are missing this is an interesting find especially because of its large size of about 15 cm! I will need some expert advise to correctly identify this one - can't know everything. Poor palaeontology prof will imagine he didn't teach me anything...

Jurassic (Bajocian) belemnite from SW-Germany

Cool samples from fieldwork #01

2009-05-10T18:54:00.005+02:00

During fieldwork I came across a number of really cool fossil and rock samples. For my report I need a couple of good images to illustrate my finds and conclusions. So I had a small foto session today and made some fotos. One of my coolest finds is a plate covered with a lot of crinoid stems and arm fragments that I identified as Isocrinus nicoleti. Since my palaeontology is not so good I will get another opinion from one of the experts at my university though. Anyways, enjoy some nice fotos!

Plate with crinoid stems

Close-up of large stem and arm fragments

Close-up and cross-view of stem fragment. Note the typical star-like appearance.

Should I...?

2009-05-07T22:28:00.005+02:00

...or should I not? Perhaps you remember some early post of mine about a seminar paper discussion chitinozoan finds in phyllites of the Erzgebirge. At the end of september this year there will be a conference - GeoDresden2009 - of the DGG (German Geological Association) in Dresden. Beautiful town by the way! The theme of my seminar paper would fit perfectly to the regional theme of the conference in my opinion though I am a litte...actually very nervous about attending and having a poster. I never did that before and I don't know if my little "investigation" is thorough enough and of sufficient quality. There are only 5 thin-sections and only one of them has a handful of microfossils in them. Being burried in work for my diploma mapping and hopefully in 1 month in my thesis I won't have time to go back to the samples and make new sections. So I basicly need to use what's in my seminar paper unless I get a hold of some old papers I've been looking for for months. Deadline for submission is May 31st.

Any advice?

Geoblog: Carbonate Sedimentology

2009-05-01T10:57:00.003+02:00

I didn't realise it until now but there is a new geoblog out there. Neuwendao is blogging from China about his research interest in carbonate sedimentology, its sedimentation and diagenesis as he describes it. The Carbonate Sedimentology blog was born April 18th and I am keen on seeing more from this new geoblogger who apparently shares a common interest of mine with carbonates.