Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Sun Dogs
The sub-arctic sky produces some beautiful sights. There have been the atomic bomb sun rises, the etherial shimmering of the northern lights, extremes of night and day. Today I chanced uppon a pair of sun dogs and 3/4ths of a circum-solar rainbow. Ok it was caused by ice crystals high in the sky.
Monday, March 12, 2007
The Seasons of a Geologist
It is winter
It has been winter for a rather long time and will be winterish for some time more. Every thing is still white; the lakes are all covered in ice, with the occasional traffic. There is a lot of traffic in and out of camp as we host crews for the winter road and others. The newest development is the hauling of the 20 year old core form the neighboring camp of Nicolas Lake to here so it can be relogged and all sorts of other fun stuff. 900 down 3 or 4 thousand to go.
It is the core hauling that is the origin of this posting, the work it self is hard and dull, dig out boxes, label, wait for truck, warm up in truck and repeat. I had my camera with me that first day which I used to produce a self-portrait of a geologist in winter. Which is best compared with the other season out here Bugs, or as the optimist would have it summer.
The geologist of winter, note the thick beard, and emerging glacier from the sinus cavity. The ice extends much of the way up to the brain.
The geologist of the other time of year and the frequently found cloud of mosquito’s black flies and occasional orbit of horse flies. Missing from this photo is the less then frequent enough fighter escort of Dragonflies.
I will return with word on my adventures on night shift, and the joys of crushed rock
It has been winter for a rather long time and will be winterish for some time more. Every thing is still white; the lakes are all covered in ice, with the occasional traffic. There is a lot of traffic in and out of camp as we host crews for the winter road and others. The newest development is the hauling of the 20 year old core form the neighboring camp of Nicolas Lake to here so it can be relogged and all sorts of other fun stuff. 900 down 3 or 4 thousand to go.
It is the core hauling that is the origin of this posting, the work it self is hard and dull, dig out boxes, label, wait for truck, warm up in truck and repeat. I had my camera with me that first day which I used to produce a self-portrait of a geologist in winter. Which is best compared with the other season out here Bugs, or as the optimist would have it summer.
The geologist of winter, note the thick beard, and emerging glacier from the sinus cavity. The ice extends much of the way up to the brain.
The geologist of the other time of year and the frequently found cloud of mosquito’s black flies and occasional orbit of horse flies. Missing from this photo is the less then frequent enough fighter escort of Dragonflies.
I will return with word on my adventures on night shift, and the joys of crushed rock
Friday, February 23, 2007
Flight Part II
The short Version:
I had planed round up many photos form differnt flights but I have gone for the DC3 Movie instead. For full effect crank the volume this bird is loud. Lets hope the youtube thing works
I had planed round up many photos form differnt flights but I have gone for the DC3 Movie instead. For full effect crank the volume this bird is loud. Lets hope the youtube thing works
ICE
Winter is still going strong and with that in mind it is time pay homage to what wonder material that causes pain, joy and cursing across this country. No not Chocolate. Ice, the pavement of the north, the unfortunately the meduim that hockey is played on, the cause of car and plane crashes, and some thing to put in your drink if you have the luck of having access to drink. You can even make glaciers out of it, scare people with images of calving ice burges and call it global warming. Specal note in southern Iran they have glaciers of salt,
But that is neither here nor there. For this set of images I am digging into some older ones form December 2006, down in the Okanagan valley, we had a wonder cold snap and Mission creek froze over in larges streches and produces an array of odd and beautiful features.
Mission Creek, the Moon, Pool, the water in this is accutally above the normal stream surface and some how froze it self into a pool.
A very close look at some Ice on Mission creek, the humidity form the running water caused things to constantly recrystalize producing large clear ice crystals
Looking up stream from by the Moon Pool
I have mentioned the Ice Road that is in place right now, I dont as yet have any photos from it or of it, what I focused on is my pet glacier. The shop I log core in has a second half where core is cut for sampling. Rock saws need water to work so naturaly there is a large amount of run off and after sever months of cutting at continuous sub zero temperatures a large amount of ice builds up. Because it tends to be at least be low -10C and often in the -20's the water from the saws cools quickly. this net result is that the water and cuttings mix seems to exist some where between a normal stream near the discharge point and something like a very runny pahoehoe lava flow on down stream end.
Unfortunately that glacier is not house broken and so it tried to eat some core boxes. It took three people a day to chip out the boxes which where three deep under the ice.
Our nothern pahoehoe,
With there being a beter part of 1 m worth of ice in some places form this saw discharge and with the ice sheet being on a small hill I wonder when it will start to creep producing mini cravaes to get your boots stuck in, possibly shearing the pine timbers burrined in the ice into tooth picks. Alternately this hole lawn sized sheet of ice could be cover with a mylar blanket and nomex foam to protect it from the heat of summer and once the temperature drops below zero again the cover could be removed and the Ice sheet could be fed its diet of water and rock flour, so that in the years to come a glacier could be grown on site. This glacier could then be coaxed into growing over the then abandoned mine workings providing a nature remidiation for the complex,
But that is neither here nor there. For this set of images I am digging into some older ones form December 2006, down in the Okanagan valley, we had a wonder cold snap and Mission creek froze over in larges streches and produces an array of odd and beautiful features.
Mission Creek, the Moon, Pool, the water in this is accutally above the normal stream surface and some how froze it self into a pool.
A very close look at some Ice on Mission creek, the humidity form the running water caused things to constantly recrystalize producing large clear ice crystals
Looking up stream from by the Moon Pool
I have mentioned the Ice Road that is in place right now, I dont as yet have any photos from it or of it, what I focused on is my pet glacier. The shop I log core in has a second half where core is cut for sampling. Rock saws need water to work so naturaly there is a large amount of run off and after sever months of cutting at continuous sub zero temperatures a large amount of ice builds up. Because it tends to be at least be low -10C and often in the -20's the water from the saws cools quickly. this net result is that the water and cuttings mix seems to exist some where between a normal stream near the discharge point and something like a very runny pahoehoe lava flow on down stream end.
Unfortunately that glacier is not house broken and so it tried to eat some core boxes. It took three people a day to chip out the boxes which where three deep under the ice.
Our nothern pahoehoe,
With there being a beter part of 1 m worth of ice in some places form this saw discharge and with the ice sheet being on a small hill I wonder when it will start to creep producing mini cravaes to get your boots stuck in, possibly shearing the pine timbers burrined in the ice into tooth picks. Alternately this hole lawn sized sheet of ice could be cover with a mylar blanket and nomex foam to protect it from the heat of summer and once the temperature drops below zero again the cover could be removed and the Ice sheet could be fed its diet of water and rock flour, so that in the years to come a glacier could be grown on site. This glacier could then be coaxed into growing over the then abandoned mine workings providing a nature remidiation for the complex,
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Quick Up date
No fancy Pictures today, but some news.
We have a road into camp, It is now possible to drive to Yellow Knife. Because of the road we have some new guests who are working for a security company and a road building company. This is keeping camp life nice and fresh. Also good news the sun is back, we have days now that are close to average length for more southern latitudes, with the being up before 9am, I cant say off the top of my head when its coming up but its a great improvement over the 10:25 am sun rise that was seen on the 21st of December.
One of these days I will fix up Fligh Part II, I want to put a video in it so I will have some new tricks to learn.
Lastly the road is a winter road, driven over the countless lakes in the north we are only 28 portages from Yellow Knife, for once town seems close.
Quotable sillyness
" Jesus walked on water, we drive on it" A possible slogan for a winter road company.
We have a road into camp, It is now possible to drive to Yellow Knife. Because of the road we have some new guests who are working for a security company and a road building company. This is keeping camp life nice and fresh. Also good news the sun is back, we have days now that are close to average length for more southern latitudes, with the being up before 9am, I cant say off the top of my head when its coming up but its a great improvement over the 10:25 am sun rise that was seen on the 21st of December.
One of these days I will fix up Fligh Part II, I want to put a video in it so I will have some new tricks to learn.
Lastly the road is a winter road, driven over the countless lakes in the north we are only 28 portages from Yellow Knife, for once town seems close.
Quotable sillyness
" Jesus walked on water, we drive on it" A possible slogan for a winter road company.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Ski Doo
Work was some what slow today and with winter in full force and a newish toy on site there was a need to kill time. The means of the temporal execution was that of a snow mobile with the reason for the ride a visit the Drill.
The ride went well with only the small of my back and my face getting cold. It was If memory is correct the first exercise in driving a Ski Doo by the author. A well iced over beard was seen at the end of the trip and because it was a beautiful sunny day photos were taken along the way.
Speaking of sunny days the sun is now up before 10 am, and there is twilight till 5pm, it is an almost enjoyable paring.
The ride went well with only the small of my back and my face getting cold. It was If memory is correct the first exercise in driving a Ski Doo by the author. A well iced over beard was seen at the end of the trip and because it was a beautiful sunny day photos were taken along the way.
Speaking of sunny days the sun is now up before 10 am, and there is twilight till 5pm, it is an almost enjoyable paring.
Flight Part I
Now that the winter road is under construction it is possible to reach Yellow Knife by land using the term loosely, as much of the route is over water. The bulk of the goods for the daily operation of the camp and transport of the crew and staff takes place by air. The weekly flights are of Cessna Grand Caravans or DH Twin Otters. One one or two occasions a DC3 was brought into catch up on supplies or equipment that would other wise not be possible
So here is Flight part one Images of and from aircraft that keep this place running
Heading out on to Yellow Knife Bay, in a float plane, July 2006
DC3 Landing Discovery
Looking Up at flying dinosaur A DC3
Dehavlin Twin Otter Landing at our air port
Now that the winter road is under construction it is possible to reach Yellow Knife by land using the term loosely, as much of the route is over water. The bulk of the goods for the daily operation of the camp and transport of the crew and staff takes place by air. The weekly flights are of Cessna Grand Caravans or DH Twin Otters. One one or two occasions a DC3 was brought into catch up on supplies or equipment that would other wise not be possible
So here is Flight part one Images of and from aircraft that keep this place running
Heading out on to Yellow Knife Bay, in a float plane, July 2006
DC3 Landing Discovery
Looking Up at flying dinosaur A DC3
Dehavlin Twin Otter Landing at our air port
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