Geologische Exkursion!

Today was exciting and rather unusual – I went on a German geology field trip! I wasn’t sure how it would go, because:


#1: The last formal geology instruction I had was in Grade 7.
#2: Well, it’s all “auf Deutsch.” ;-)

However, I wasn’t totally unprepared going in. I made a list of helpful vocabulary that I studied a couple of weeks before, which really paid off. There was also a certain Calgarian who sent me numerous geology links and then stayed up late to go over them with me during Skype dates. :D

But it was amazing! I actually understood a LOT. In fact, I think I got more than I usually do in my GIS lectures, and I’m more familiar with the material there. It really helps when you get to go see the phenomena in person, and are given a bunch of helpful diagrams. I also met some really wonderful students who were more than happy to explain a couple things if I got lost.

Getting off the bus.

Walking between sites.

It took us 2 hours to get there, and once we arrived, we discussed different rock formations in Austria and Styria, using brightly coloured geologic maps. Our professor was really friendly and encouraged lots of discussion. We then headed up to the first area of interest. HCl was never more expertly applied as we discovered which parts of our sample fizzed. ;-) We also found some “Schnecken” at our next stop – snails. Here, too, we tasted some mudstone – yes, I’ve finally done it! A fine sedimentary pâté...haha...;-)

The first site.

My drawing of the first site.

The second.

Schnecken!

Notes + mudstone.

 

Third site - calcareous sedimentary rock layers.

At 2pm, we headed back to the bus, where we drove to a small town nearby to have lunch and see the museum. The museum itself had a lot of interesting samples, and we went through each display in detail. At 5pm, we headed for home. The only regret I have was that I didn’t have a window seat, and couldn’t adequately capture the plunging valleys and impressive peaks on camera! Well, guess I’ll just have to wait till I’m home. J

Another forest pic.

A cave we visited - sandstone is in the area.

Fossilized snails.

The black band is the K-Pg boundary (formerly K-T),  showing the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, which wiped out non-avian dinosaurs.

Mine about 20 minutes from our excursion point.

Hehehe...:-D