A return to the canal! Today was much like yesterday, but this time we were prepared for our crumbly rock adversary and were able to pull out some pretty impressive leaf fossils without shattering them in the process. We mostly achieved this by removing 10-30 lbs blocks just for a single fossil. Once in the lab, we have precision tools that can cut out only the necessary sections without much risk to the fossils themselves.
I was also put in charge of photographing rock contacts, small-scale bedding features, and micro faults within our site, which was a nice change from excavating under the hot sun. It was fun to be able to use my geologist's eye to pick out important features, take notes, and record GPS coordinates to go along with the photos. At one point, our "safety officer" from the Canal Authority came by with the expansion's official photographer and took pictures of us at work to document this history in the making. Of couse, I was working on photographs myself at the time, so he got some really nice pictures of me taking pictures. Who doesn't love those?
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| It was SO much bigger when we started! |
Our crowning achievement of the day was successfully removing a ~300 lbs boulder full of incredibly preserved plants from one of the walls of our site. We had to slide it down inch by inch to get it onto level ground, then used some plywood and two wooden beams to get it to the truck. By placing the boulder on the plywood, then using the beams as a track along which to slide the it, continually moving the rear beam to the front to keep the track going, we were able to just barely get it there. Apparently this is what the Egyptians did when moving materials for the pyramids, claims Aaron. To actually lift the rock up to the level of the truck bed, we were forced to chisel away some of the material from its underside, which was a very slow and careful process since the fossils of this site are so fragile. Once we had whittled it down to maybe 200 lbs, two of us were able to lift it, with another spotting us, and hoist it onto the bed. It was a lot like lifting one of those awful TV sets from the late 90s/early 00s, with absolutely nothing to hold on to and too bulky to really be able to get your arms around it. That, as much as the weight, is what made it such a difficult and time consuming project. But damn did it feel good when we were all done!
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Fun extra: 1) we were working below the canal level, and
2) this box on water transports cars. |
I was also put in charge of photographing rock contacts, small-scale bedding features, and micro faults within our site, which was a nice change from excavating under the hot sun. It was fun to be able to use my geologist's eye to pick out important features, take notes, and record GPS coordinates to go along with the photos. At one point, our "safety officer" from the Canal Authority came by with the expansion's official photographer and took pictures of us at work to document this history in the making. Of couse, I was working on photographs myself at the time, so he got some really nice pictures of me taking pictures. Who doesn't love those?
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