Notes from Montana
M. Schweitzer's Field Notes

July 10

Today will be a fun day. We will go back to the turtle site to finish a top jacket on the one we made  yesterday, and then go back to the little thescelosaur foot and do the same. Then, John and Denver want to go back to the triceratops skulls. Their location and other information will be useful for both of their research projects, and while we won?t collect any bone, there are pieces there that will provide them with information.

It is very chilly this morning, and windy. I have both a sweatshirt and light jacket on. Unusual for this time of year here, as usually we have exactly the opposite problem. But we have learned to be grateful for the cool. It won?t last, and in a few days it will be back to boiling.

The morning remained cool and windy, and we walked to the turtle with sweatshirts on, despite the heavy packs. We carted in burlap and water and bags of plaster to finish the jacket. It was as we had left it, so we spent a little while undercutting the pedestal of sediment it rested on to make it rest only on a small point of mud. That made it easy to flip, and soon we had mixed the plaster goo, dipped the burlap, and smoothed out a nice, solid cap for the jacket. We looked around a little bit more, then headed to do the same for the small foot from yesterday. The crew took off in different directions?John and Denver to take more stratigraphic data and to try to identify which of the three bands of coal they could use to mark the K-T boundary. Liz and Malorie, who joined us yesterday afternoon, went exploring, and Mark and I set out to flip and top jacket the foot. It alternated between really HOT in the sun, and cool when the clouds came up. They had been building all afternoon, and just as we were ready to apply the plaster it began to rain?.it was COLD! The icy drops were driven right into our skin by the winds coming at us from all directions. We ran up the gully to try to find shelter, leaving bones and packs and equipment. It was FREEZING. Unfortunately, the walls of the nearby ravines and gullies went straight up, with no overhangs, and we had no recourse but to stand their and shiver as we got totally soaked. But, it was over as quickly as it began. The sun came back out, but it wasn?t all that warm?. We hurriedly undercut the jacket from yesterday, taking more sediment than we would have had it been in a more stable sandstone. We mixed the plaster, dipped burlap, and soon it was done?and we were warming up slowly. We walked out a few outcrops while the jacket dried, and checked with Liz and Malorie, who had found a jumble of small turtle bones, gar fish scales, and a very large bone that looked like it might be from a triceratops skull. We couldn?t identify it, but it was intriguing, and high in section. Their site proved to be a microsite, with lots of different types and sizes of bone from many different animals weathering out together. We didn?t jacket any for removal, but marked it for the future.

Then came the fun part, watching Denver carry the really heavy foot jacket up the steep ravine on his back. The jacket was just about at the upper limit of carry-ability. We have a special pack for this, and we strapped the jacket on to the frame, then strapped the frame to Denver. All I can say is I am glad *I* didn?t find this set of bones. This is where the ?you find it, you carry it out? field rule is just not convenient. I have found over the years that dinosaurs never pick convenient places to die. In this case, that was at the bottom of a steep channel of popcorn muds that had just gotten slightly more slippery in the short-lived rainstorm. It was not appreciated when I pointed out about half-way back that that is why most of us HAVE graduate students?..Denver didn?t laugh.

We also went back to the triceratops sites again, to mark the data. It turns out that tho they were badly weathered, at one site there may have been one or two diagnostic bones, so John collected those. On the way back, after marking the last one, Mark led the way out and right ahead of me, he took a leap up a small ravine, stumbled, and fell. But he was right back up again instantly with a few words that I won?t  repeat here. When he held still long enough, I realized the problem. He had set his hand down to catch his fall?.in the middle of a large juicy patch of prickly pear cactus! Oh, that hurt?so that delayed us while we picked out the larger spines. Finally, we were heading to town for gas, then back to camp.

I wanted and needed a shower so badly! So even tho it was almost 8 pm, and it had not been warm enough to heat the water, I couldn?t stand it. So, I braved the outdoor shower, attached to the road-facing back of the trailer. The wind was whipping through the tarps, flipping them up now and then, and making the inside  even colder. I did get through the first several layers of sand, dirt, plaster and sweat before the cold got to me. I have never been one to suffer in silence?.no one wondered where I was anyway?.!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july10-1.jpg!

Clean, and slightly thawed, we were treated to a spectacular dinner of grilled shrimp, Greek salad with feta and tomatoes, whole artichokes and rosemary bread. I always eat better in the field than usual, which seems odd, given the conditions we work in. I am amazed at what Laura can pull off. It was later than usual by the time everyone ate and dishes were done. We were standing around talking as the stars popped out one by one and got progressively brighter?.it was so beautiful, the velvet sky and pinprick diamonds. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the sky began to get brighter and brighter. There are no cities out here to contribute to light pollution, and I could not figure out what was going on (the opening scenes of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind crossed my mind!). Suddenly, it looked like someone had turned on a giant spotlight, and aimed it at the sky, just a straight tunnel of light from ground to sky. I just watched as another and another appeared?it was a spectacular night time display of Northern lights! Brighter than I had seen them in ages, they danced and moved and swayed for almost 40 minutes. There was no color, tho sometimes there is, but these were just white. It was eerie and majestic and wonderful to watch. It is so easy in the city to forget what it is like to just sit and watch this incredible nature. I am grateful every day for the opportunities I have. It is easy to remember what is really important when I have time to just sit and watch.

Posted at 02:16PM Jul 26, 2007 by tppeake in General  |  Comments[1]