Just Geology

You may be convinced that this whole "study" abroad thing is really just an excuse for me to be on a glorious four and a half month vacation. I mean, that's really how I feel, however, I really do have classes, and I really do go to my classes. Most of the time. It really does get annoying, especially since some of my classes are quite demanding in the time department. Like, geology, which demands I show up at 9am on a Saturday for a field trip. The forecast called for cold and rainy with a chance of snow, and on occasions it really did feel that way.

Cloud of doom looming

But it was actually quite bearable most of the day. 

Anyway, I'll just give you a quite summary of the rocks here in Dunedin. The oldest rocks are the Otago Schist, which is also called Haast Schist. It is a metamorphic rock (I think it used to be a sand stone a bagillion years ago or something), and therefore looks mad sweet.

Please note the foliation and quartz veins. If you don't know what that means, don't feel bad, because I don't really know either... and I'm going to be tested on it.

The schist was our first stop, since we were working our way up the stratiographic sequence. We actually went to this gorgeous beach, and you all know how I love beaches. 

From the schist forward in time, there is a limestone and a bunch of different sandstones and mudstones, which formed over time as the ocean advanced and receded with various periods of glaciation. I heard a lot about fossils and got to touch a lot of sand (which, really, I feel was unnecessary, sand always feels like sand). I also had the opportunity to ask a complete stranger if she wanted some acid ("Hey, do you want some acid?"). Relax Mom, it was HCl to check for the presence of calcite. 

Anyway, here's the part where I just plop in pictures and describe what's going on:

The waves were giant at the beach.

Like any trip outside a city in NZ, there were many sheep. Also, its lambing season. I love spring.

A moment of sunny "warmth."

A demonstrator, some wonderful outcrops which could be limestone, and a group of eager first year geology students at the top of the hill.

Here we are at a working quarry. I only put this picture in so you would know we really were on a school field-trip. And that the proper safety percautions were being taken.

And here are me and Sara, being appropriately academic and definitely paying attention to the wonders of quartz gravels underlying the Abbotsford Mudstone.

Sweet as cliffs. If only you know how hard the wind was blowing and how much I really thought someone was going to be blown off a cliff into the ocean. 

And the most geological germane part of the whole day. The awesome [like] 17 hand horse we saw at the last stop of the day. 

So basically, for those of you who are geologically savvy, you may be wondering why all the rocks I've been talking about, minus the schist, are sedimentary. I have mentioned in the past that Dunedin is built on an old volcano, and it really is. The youngest sedimentary rocks are triassic (a stab in the dark because I'm too lazy to look it up), and then the volcano began to erupt. So the Dunedin volcanics overlie the the Dunedin sedimentary sequence. It's all very exciting and definitely a step up from Fall Brook, for those of you lucky enough to remember said field-trip in 8th grade earth science.

Also, a big thanks to Sara for all the pictures, without which this would have been the most boring post ever. Actually, this post wouldn't exist since I didn't do one for the Volcano FT.