Back to the city in time for NADAM!!

Been back from the outer outer for a day now.  We had 15 days and thousands of kilometers behind us by trip's end in the central Gobi-Altai; with enough brain power to give NASA the day off (I like figurative exaggerations). I learned so much and every once in a great while some of my own techniques proved to further the conversation or add to the greater picture the group was painting.  Phew, coming off totally stale in such a highly respected group was a big point of concern beforehand...

We are back just in time for the Mongolian national festival of Nadam, sort of an intra-national annual Olympics for the three major traditional sports of the country: Horse racing, Archery, and Wrestling.  Should have some good pics after it ends next wednesday (finally bought my own camera today!!).

As always I think photos with one-liners are the best way to get the experiences from the field across.
Enjoy!

Post sandstorm convection, radical!



Sometimes shallow rivers have deep parts...
I'll note that this is two cables being linked together
by a 20mm crescent wrench, which successfully
withstood the extraction.

A young family collecting camel dung to heat their home
(as you might have noticed,
not many trees or other burnables around)
but also checkin out what these crazy hammer carrying white guys
are doin in the desert
She is 3 and the boy is 5 - too small to see, but she is wearin
Abercrombie pants HA!!

Local herder movin his goats and sheep through the vast gobi sunset.

(L to R) Jim, Dendev, Zaya, Baigal, Me/Brando, Brian, Kurt, Badam

First chance to get wet in 4 days...watch that last step!

Alright rocks... where were you on the night of the fault in question?

Brando, a bit put off that he got ousted from his cush
backseat just to make room for another dang geologist

Sweet ball and pillow deformation.

Now seriously...we are where again?

Cretaceous bivalves

Cretaceous crawdad. Cajun anyone?

No ungulate deserves braces, dentures or deodorant
more than the camel.

Brando walkin the 1957 Gobi Fault rupture
on the north side of Ih Bogd Mountain, awesome.

Jim and Kurt really like camels...

Baigal and I takin samples and measurin section.

Brando resisting every instinctual bone in his body as the camels
pass through the valley.  Good dog.

Forget Texas, don't mess with Mongolia!

Sometimes really shallow rivers, that appear to have nice
gravel bottoms, are underlain by very deep slick mud.
Again the 20mm wrench trick does the job.

The rockstar driver/mechanic, Dashka.
This guy drove all night to get us fuel from a distant town
when we were stranded in a province with no power to run the
gas pump; only to drive 8hrs the following morning
to keep us on schedule.
He changed 3 flat tires (including a full tube repair and rim switch
using the weight of a van and two screw drivers to pop the bead).
He disassembled and rebuilt a leaking powerstearing unit
on the bank of a river while most of the camp slept.
Routinely, he provided comic relief, belted out some sweet songs
and apparently cleans house when all the drivers sit down
to play cards.  He is the Man!

The Fleet (foreground to back): Dashka's rally Buggy,
the tire troubled Tundra, the AC-less sweat box, and finally the
car I like to call the Serbian Love Wagon
(a truly hilarious vehicle to see motorin through the gobi).

Nothin like trompin through the desert workin your butt off
and comin back to a camp with refrigerated beer and
grand meals prepared.
Huge thanks to our cooks and logistics team!

....................................................................................................
Skydivin and Nadam are next on the agenda, I'll post some pics of both soon!!
Ciao-

Update strait outta the Gobi-Altai

Long time no Post...
Goin on 10 days straight of field work and lookin at 8 more minimum; but our seismic crew is mobilizing early which may mean that I have to stay and map the profile swaths with Kurt with no return to UB...Awesome!
Sorry no pics this time, the satellite connection is based on bytes sent and gets pricey with photos. :((
I'm lovin the field life and every time these guys speak, I learn.  It is absolutely amazing to witness how much information can actually be observed from an outcrop when you have the experience they have, truly the sort of detail you could never gain in school... intuition is an amazing tool.  For sure, my bar has been raised and my brain turned to sponge - best way to be I say :)
I will post some amazing photos and stories whence I return to the city, but for now I'll have to be minimalistic in my communicae.

Brando is lovin life, gettin worked by the 10-15 hour hikes and eating mutton and beef scraps like it's his job!!! The Mongolians really take to him once they realize how docile he is and continually call him over just to giggle while he eats out of their hands :)

Latest coordinates are (in decimal degrees, which you should be able to just type into google earth):
N 45.43628
E 101.82476
we are just north of a large rectangular looking basement block that is bounded by two significant east-west trending sinistral strike-slip faults.  We found several hundred meters of lacustrine oil shale today (think Green River Formation), which we will formally measure tomorrow!  now we cross our fingers and hope that the seismic results show it at depth in the basins within our block....lots of work yet to do!

Hope all's well and that the great blue sky shines over your heads,
Ciao!

Monument to the fastest horse in Avainkheer

Gearin up

Next trip to the field is on the horizon.  There will be many of us out there this time.  Four of us from Petro Matad, two consulting PhDs from the US and UK, a seasoned PhD from here in Mongolia and our support crew.  This is going to be outrageous.  We are headed to the Gobi-Altai from June 19-July 4th and will cover a much larger area than I did a few weeks ago.  We will be conducting a series of stratigraphic studies and collecting various types of samples to help refine our chronologic understanding of the Permian through Neogene rocks in these basins.  Further, we will be investigating the detailed geology along several proposed seismic lines (the first to ever be conducted in this region). The caliber of academic fire-power converging on this effort is incredible, many of these guys have each spent more time mapping geology than I've spent breathing.
...I wonder if saplings in a forest feel small.

OMG

Until this last trip, my only experience in the desert was throughout the southwest US.  And there, my immediate and recurring attraction to such an environment has always been the natural separation from the "real" world.  The complete loss of industrial timescales, a sense of place within the order of your surroundings and the fantastical perceptions thereof; driven by heat, exertion/dehydration, silence, sun and, of course, dramatic natural landscapes... (Chemicals need not be included).  The Gobi has proved to fulfill all those attributes, multiplied twice over.

We began in an area on the southeast side of Zuun Bogd Uul (East King Mountain).  We were searching for a reported occurrence of Bitumen (Dead oil) trapped in a Cretaceous lava flow... (oil in volcanics, as you might imagine, is quite uncommon).  We did find something that appeared to fill old gas vesicles in the basalt with a black plastic luster and concoidal fracturing (maybe gilsonite would be a better term).  But, it is very very hard (Bitumen should be at least quasi pliable) and not affected by attempts to heat it over a flame...  However, it was the only thing in the reported area that even closely resembled an organic origin. Such is the way of field checking old work, never know what you'll find, more detailed testing of the samples is yet to be done, confirming/denying the organic origin.  

The Eastern King

This little guy is happily posing for a photo in the sun and by chance offering scale
for one of these "bitumen" occurrences (just right of his left arm).  I'll also note
that Brando has taken a wild fascination in these animals... and while they are quick,
he is quite good at catching them.

Brando, packin' samples... :))

From there we headed off to walk some of the sedimentary section and  look for organic source rocks of the oil we'll be exploring.

Top, Zia (Mongolian Geologist/guide) and I; Bottom, Me and Dashka (driver/cook/mechanic/Dog spoiler)
He fed Brando so much mutton and beef I barely used any dog food the whole trip...

Pictures are worth a thousand words I hear:

Admire the similarity... (Sorry for the structure pun)

All deserts have water, this is a nice obstacle to try and cross in a Land Cruiser...

B-dog sniffin out a potential source rock

B-dog sniffin out a lil'...well, you get the joke. lol

Drinking water anyone?

Maybe not, on to the next well.

But where is the next well?  We went on to Zia's grandmother's ger to ask where a good drinking water well might be.  He had not visited her in over 3 years. This was my first experience at a true countryside family dwelling, unfortunately I was so focused on observing the surroundings and tasting the customary dairy treats offered to travelers, I didn't take any photos.  We got directions and handed off some apples and juice (things not found easily for them) and continued on.

To catalog the entirety of the past week would require more time and skill than I have.  I can only dream of what will be made of the much longer and detailed field sessions to come.  I am slowly building a Mongolian vocabulary, spending long hours in the field with a Mongolian is a good way to build that arsenal. Maybe by year's end I'll be able to order my own food or direct a taxi, but for now it's pointing at the menu pictures and walking long ways with my best friend.

Goodnight.

In The Gobi Altai for first look at the Field!!!!

First Recon Trip to the blocks I'll be mapping...
Task #1 come back with sample of reported Bitumen outcrop, hmmm scavenger hunt anyone?
Google Earth the coordinates
44 44 50N    102 01 50E  Should get you to our camp outside the town of Bogd, Mongolia.
Back on Wed.
Cheers :)))

Back from the countryside

Finally back to a computer and with time to twist-off and communicate!
The first week of work and life in UB has been both wonderful and action packed.
We are burning rubber and trying to get the first fieldwork session underway in the upcoming week! :))

This past weekend the company trucked off into the countryside and stayed at a Ger camp (yurt is an unused word here). Hope you enjoy the photos.

This was a company retreat so there was a good mix of the usual team building silliness and nocturnal "free" time (Mongolians take pride in their EXCELLENT vodka).  And don't be foolish and ask for a mixer, this stuff is served warm and by the glassfull...bottle after bottle after bottle- YIKES!
All in all it was a great way to be introduced to both the landscape and my new co-workers.
Especially after our apres shenanigans, we are also now close friends.  :))

Odbaatar and Saruul hamming up their paired dance session team-builder. 

A fun drinking game that demands kissing...Male or Female.  :O
A wonderfully quick way to become part of the team ;) 

Tamra, Tiffany, Odbaatar, and Nansa (L to R and foreground) Bolor on far right

 Brando makin' Mongolian friends too!

Leaving the confines of the city and seeing the natural beauty of this country was surreal.  The landscape around UB rings eerily of the Rocky Mountain west (maybe a common thread to the whole intra-continental deformation thing).

(L to R: Doug(our CEO) Nasa, Oyun, Tiffany, Tamra, Me) And apparently I can levitate...

One wonderful thing about placing yourself far outside the comfort box is that every moment is a learning experience, and I love learning.  The more I uncover about my cultural and natural surroundings, the more this foreign world seems familiar.

We are human and the rocks hold a story...just don't let your brain get in the way.