Elkan Utoni (GSN), Ester Kapuka (GSN), and Marjorie Cantine (US) are three of the team working this week from the Geological Survey of Namibia and the US.
One of the spectacular features of Namibian Ediacaran stratigraphy is the abundant ashes which allow accurate and precise dating of the core. Here is one such ash.
The sunsets on Hole 1C! It was tough day at the office with only 56 meters drilled before hitting a cavity. Luckily we had the option to move to a new drill site.
From the hill next to our first drill site and homebase, Tierkloof, you can see Swartpunt, our third drillsite, in the distance. The drill rig has been moved already, the drillers and our office will follow tomorrow. Drilling at Swartpunt will start around midday on October 22nd.
Today we took a field trip to the hills south of Swartpunt to collect ash beds and measure a stratigraphic section. We found Namacalathus in amongst the thrombolites just below this ash (see next picture).
At Swartpunt South we have passed the 400m mark. Catherine and Melanie have travelled to Rosh Pinah to do weekly database updates and check e-mails. Unfortunately there is a power outage in town and internet is down due to a sudden sandstorm. Crossing our fingers to establish a connection at some point before we have to return to our camp…
Elkan has joined our team at the second drillsite here at Swartpunt South. He is entering lithological descriptions into the Drilling Information System, just as Simone has done the previous week. He picked the right task for this week- in the office it's 33 degrees, outside we are enjoying 46 degrees celsius.
Here is the Swartpunt South drill site on a Sunday. The drillers have the day off and we're catching up with logging, DIS updates, and it's washing day!
Here is Onesmus posing with a 3 m core at 185 meters. Simone Kasemann and Catherine Rose took a break from the DIS and logging and went to investigate the facies of the basal Huns Fm.
Today we drilled 123 m reaching 158 m by the end of the day! The drillers were very pleased with this progress but Catherine was struggling to keep up with the logging. Core boxes just kept appearing!
This morning we've moved the drill to our new site at Swartpunt South. The drillers have moved their tents to look after the drill but the scientists will remain at the Tierkloof site with our elaborate little field village. The commute from "home" to "office" takes only 15 minutes with limited traffic!
