Wednesday, July 21, 2010

There's oil in them thar' hills!

So, I made a trip to Canada, see post below, to study the McMurray Formation. The McMurray Formation hosts the single largest petroleum accumulation on the planet. However, the oil is more like tar and less like gasoline, making it a marginally commercial deposit.

Here I am at the base of the outcrop. The rocks I am walking on look and smell like fresh pavement. The sandstones are dark because they are stained by and full of oil.
This is a view from the top of that same slope. As you can see it is beautiful. If this doesn't make you want to be a geologist at least a little bit you have no soul.
So what do I do? I make observations like, what is the grain size of the sandstone, what are the bedding attitudes, what is the oil saturation, is the evidence of paleontological activity (burrows, tracks, fossils)? From this we can tell what type of deposit it is (this deposit was a 50 m deep, meandering tidal channel). We can also determine which rock properties control where the hydrocarbons reside.

The tar sands are mined in big pits, this is me and Dr. Pete Flaig, by one of there monster dredges. The cables on this thing are about 4 inches in diameter! They are massive operations in the middle of nowhere.

Who likes Dinosaurs?

This is a Darrin post....just in case the dinosaur pictures didn't give it away. I went to Calgary and Ft. McMurray in Alberta, Canada about a week ago. I had a free Saturday so I went to an amazing dino museum called the Royal Tyrell Museum. These are just a couple of pictures.
A Tyrannosaurus....
Gallimimus....
and this is the biggest dino I have ever seen. I am standing by the foot.
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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

8 months

Addilyn is 8 months (I'm a little late again). She had her weight check and gained almost a whole pound...big deal in this house. She is now up to a whopping 14 lbs. 2 oz. Her big accomplishment this month was pulling herself up. She did it one day and hasn't stopped since. She is now getting into everything! She is doing pretty good getting back down once she gets up but has had a few bonks. She is a tough cookie though. She also started moving around a little once she pulls herself up. She is still loving food and gets so excited when she hears the cheerio box. She hates getting her face wiped off after eating though. She really likes her bouncer and has grown enough where she can really touch and bounce high. She still loves swimming and baths. She does great playing in her room and loves to get into all her shoes. She still mainly army crawls but occasionally gets on all fours and really crawl.
8 months!


In her cute 4th of July dress that Grandma Burton got her!
Ready to watch the fireworks. It was a tradition growing up to get twizzlers, orange pop, and cheese popcorn for the fireworks up north. We kept the tradition going and as you can tell she was very excited to have them all within her reach. She liked the fireworks and just sat on my lap staring at them.







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