Today at 54 m depth we reached the base of the Tamengo Formation and started drilling the Bocanina Formation. Both units contain a rich fossil record with ages varying from 555 Ma (top of Bocaina) to 541 Ma (top of Tamengo).
Professor Detlef Walde found the first Corumbella specimen in the Sobramil site, and named the new fossil the “beauty of Corumbá”. We are honoured to have him today visiting our drilling site.
Drilling water must be collected every day, including a control sample for biomarkers studies. This is one of the tasks of Juliana Leme, the head Paleontologist of our team.
Kamilla Amorim is back to Corumbá to describe the drill cores of GRIND Brazil. She has been here several times in the past years working on the outcrops of Ediacaran units in the region. She is the main author of a recent comprehensive review paper in Sedimentology about the Tamengo Formation.
We are happy the rig arrived safely in the drilling site. The drilling crew is formed by Ozei, a seasoned driller for mining companies, Cassio and Galego. They will be our company for the next month. Our camp is in the background. We are all set and excited to start drilling!
Today we reached 515.2 m and the end of the hole. Melanie packed balloons back in 2019 when we drilled the first four holes and we’ve kept them for this moment!
Wilhem and Petrus are two UNam students who have joined us at the drill site for the past week. They’ve kept track of inventory, investigated the cores, kept track of inventory and stacked boxes. They’ve been a fantastic addition to the team – thank you!
We ended Saturday on a cliff hanger - a karst horizon of unknown thickness and high risk for losing drilling rods. However, today we made it through this zone into lovely grainstones on the other side. The stratigraphic story continues.
Today we reached 335 m and had senior geology students from the University of Namibia visit the drillsite. We discussed the drilled stratigraphy through the Nomtsas Fm and underlying Spitskopf Member!
Yesterday was difficult with the start of the hole caving in and karst, but we've sorted these issues and today we reached 122 m and gone through 3 ash beds!
