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Etendeka Large Igneous Province In November 2009, I joined a large, international
group of geoscientists to the Etendeka volcanic province of Namibia,
following a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, which honoured Kevin
Burke and Lew Ashwal for their 80th and 60th birthday, respectively. During
this short, but amazing trip we collected paleomagnetic samples of the 132 Ma
old Etendeka Large Igneous Province, which was erupted as enormous basalt
lavas. Only a small portion is found in Namibia (where you can still follow
individual lavas over tens of kilometers), the bulk is found at the other
side of the South Atlantic in Argentina, formed by the Parana volcanics. The
Etendeka Large Igneous Province formed during the earliest stages of South
Atlantic opening, and we tested whether the paleomagnetic poles of Parana
coincide with the Etendeka, as they should. This site shows the team, the
work, and the zoo we've been working in. The crew
Morgan Ganerød, Norwegian Geological Survey (NGU),
Trondheim, Norway
Trishya
Owen-Smith, MSc student at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits),
Johannesburg, South-Africa
Cynthia Labails, NGU Trondheim, Norway
Lew Ashwal, Wits
university, South Africa
Sue Webb, Wits University, South Africa
Everett,
from the Geological Survey of Namibia, Windhoek
Roy Miller, Geological Survey of Namibia, Windhoek,
the specialist on Namibian geology who showed us around and explained what we
saw.
Sergey Medvedev,
Physics of Geological Processes, University of Oslo, Norway, master of water
affairs in the field.
Trond Torsvik, PGP Oslo, Norway
Stephanie
Werner, PGP Oslo, Norway
Tom Jordan, University of Southern California, USA
Carmen Gaina,
NGU Norway
...and me The activities
No paved roads
in this region...on our way to the camp
Or no road at all, and just cruising through the
scrubs
Crew deciding
where to drill
Beautiful basaltic feeder dike (black wall),
crosscutting a Cretaceous dune field (reddish colour)
Main purpose was
to collect paleomagnetic samples of the lavas, which I am doing here...
Field lunch
Walking back to
the cars after a day of sampling in 40 degrees Celcius...
Morgan, getting on that
Great field
outfit :)
Lew, helping Morgan out
Moving to the
next offroad site...
With consequences...7 flat tires in 3 days
Site...
Trishya going at it
and some more...
And doing the admin
Local village
Amazing landscapes...
View from an
average site
Wildlife
Africa's wildlife is fantastic, and Namibia was no
exception... Baboon with kid
Single elephant
bull
Giraffe
The jackal...
Korhaan...they sound like frogs :)
Female Kudu
Male kudu
Mad Russian,
chasing a giraffe (and creating a stampede among zebras that lasted for 15
minutes)
Gemsbok, or Oryx
Oryces with
calves
Ostriches
Pufadder, pretty
poisonous fellow
Springbok
Steenbok
...and zebras. It was great fun sampling in the zoo
:)
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