Geology field shenanigans

camwyn:

elodieunderglass:

naamahdarling:

rj-abacura:

pasiphile:

wiwaxia:

wiwaxia:

All true. All witnessed. No regrets.

• Respected professor shakes fist at mountain and dares it to erupt
• 17 inappropriate ways to wear a hi-vis vest
• Everything is 20% muscovite
• The double-backwards hammer flip
• Putting a fawn in a backpack and carrying it round all day
• Food tastes of dirt because too much actual dirt in mouth
• Spontaneous outdoors group nudity with sheep skulls to protect modesty
• Reversing sheep out of canyons
• Doing makeup in the mirror on your compass
• Bandaging an arterial bleed with a handkerchief
• If I can take it up a 4wd track, then it must be a 4wd!
• Puppies ate my rockhammer and the house-cow ate my bra
• Where’s [phd student]? *everyone just silently points up*
• Killing a stoat with a rockhammer in front of fifteen second years and scarring them for life
• Transit van mosh pits
• “Why are you yelling? I burned my pubes, isn’t that punishment enough?”
• The underwater naked strike and dip
• Tent flooding ending in six people sharing one double bed
• Dessert sandwiches
• Unexpected bulls in unexpected places
• Spontaneous a capella outbreak of “Wonderwall” followed by “… *tiny voice* but I hate that song?”
• Butt-shuffling down hills that are too steep
• Being the *second* person across the wasp-infested log
• Back-rub circles
• Handlens unscrewing and falling apart in the middle of a river
• Field selfies #geology4lyfe
• Fault gouge smeared over face
• “That’s not yoga, THIS is yoga!” *falls on face*
• Accidentally mapping river gravels for two hours and getting lost
• *rock falls out of cliff* *twenty people silently take one step left in unison*
• I AM THE GOD OF STRATIGRAPHY!
• Duct-taping your boots back together every morning
• Not enough coloured pencils
• Sharing water bottles
• If I throw my rockhammer at this, will it stick?
• “I swear, I can SEE Milankovitch cycles!” “Okay I’m cutting you off.”
• Cross-sections: kink or busk?
• “You know when you’ve got to The Knob because you don’t see any action for three hours.“ 

katie this is importantwhen you say fawn … like a deer? really? COOL

Yes, a deer. A three-day-old baby deer. It was a terrible idea. When the students rocked back up to the field station with it, we told them off for stock rustling, took it to the farmer who was like, what the fuck am I going with that, I’ll have to cut its throat and use it for dog meat, and we were like, uh, no, so we took it to the SPCA, who were DELIGHTED. 

I THOUGHT A “FAWN” WAS SOME KIND OF OBSCURE GEOLOGICAL TERM I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND

YOU PUT A BABY DEER IN A BACKPACK

More geology field shenanigans!

• Respected professor claims our hydrochloric acid solution is less acidic than coca cola. We dare him to drink it. HE DOES.
• Hiking up a mountain on crutches. “YOLO!”
• Painting Cambrian-age trilobite fossils with nail polish.
• Creepy abandoned fishing villages. So many creepy abandoned fishing villages.
• Student finds brachiopod fossils in an outcrop behind said creepy abandoned fishing village. Respected professor gasps and squeaks “Brachiopods??!?” and goes tearing off up a hill to find them.
• Students collect so many rock samples that we can no longer see the floor of the 15 passenger van. The van floor begins to develop its own stratigraphy.
• Racing the roadside moose in the 15 passenger van.
• Respected professor takes both hands off of the wheel of the moving van to get a picture of the moose. Panic ensues.
• Mapping an island with nothing but a Brunton compass, a field notebook, and the largest bottle of fireball whiskey money can buy.
• Respected Professor singing along to “Man-Eating Trilobite”
• Entire class goes to local bar and won’t stop singing local drinking song for about a week.
• That one vegan student that survives off of french fries for a month.
• Stealing rock samples from National Parks
• Straddling the moho
• Licking the moho
• Peeing on mantle peridotite just to see if it fizzes
• Using the same pocket knife for everything. Eating. Scratching rocks. Removing splinters. Seriously, it’s gross.
• Hiking down a river only to discover the water level is MUCH HIGHER than anticipated
• Nearly drowning in said river but damn it you kept your electronics DRY
• “It’s not safe to drink the water. So everyone gets 2 beers per meal”.
• Fitting the entire class into a single hot tub
• Every lobster is named Jack Daniels. It is known.
• That one “Chinese Canadian Fusion” restaurant

*DID* IT FIZZ?

my husband was once Responsible Adult on a geology field course and the highlight was when I was calling him and it was like

Dr Glass: Oh, an undergrad’s just thrown his compass into the sea.

Me: is that… part of the exercise?

Dr Glass: *nonjudgmentally* well…

(an unearthly, animal roar is heard over the phone)

Dr Glass: Ah, now he’s going into the sea.

Me: …To get the compass?

Dr Glass: I think he just wants the sea to take him.

(a peaceable, nonjudgmental silence follows, with distant splashing)

Dr Glass: Well, I think I’ll go get him now.

I wanna know the lyrics to “Man-Eating Trilobite”.