Sometimes it rains, sometimes it rains more....

November 21, 2014

I have now been on New Zealand soil for 21 days and a total of 4 days has been spent drilling.  You would think the morale of the group would be down but it hasn't been at all.  People are taking the down time to explore the westcoast, do needed field work, and write.  The group had the chance to go up to the nearest medium sized town, Hokitika, and watch The Hunger Games before it was out in the States.
  I had the chance to meet with Simon Cox.  He is also a structural Geologist in Wellington that is best known for his work in mapping a large portion of the Southern Alps.  This is an unbelievable feat.  It requires hiking up and down very steep and dangerous terrain.  My field camp this past summer gives me great appreciation for what Simon did in these mountains.  He is also the one aiding me in my sedimentary project for one of my classes back at OU.  My plan is to construct an outcrop log of an eroded bed along the Whataroa River, not to far from the drill site.  By doing this I'll describe how the grain size, shape, roundness, and composition changes vertically and horizontally.  What Simon Cox has asked me to do is to take a large sample of material from different areas of the outcrop about every half meter.  With these samples I will then pick out approximately 300 individual grains at random and sort them by rock types such as highly metamorphosed schist, medium metamorphosed schist, low metamorphosed schist, and greywacke.  This will provide us information on where the grains originated in proximity to the fault.  For example the Greywacke will have originated far up the Southern Alps close to the great divide whereas the highly metamorphosed schist would have originated relatively close to the Alpine Fault.  What can be tricky is the fact glaciers play a large part in sediment movements here and can mislead the untrained eye. It is very interesting geology and something very different than the geology I am used to looking at back in the states. 

On a side note, I have never seen as much rain as I have seen in the past 21 days.  This place is incredible.  It averages 6-8 meters a year!!!  To put that in perspective here are a few places that you can relate to on there average rainfall:

OKC = 3.6 inches/yr
Houston = 49 inches/yr
Seattle = 37 inches/yr
Amazon Rainforest = 100 inches/yr
Franz Josef, New Zealand (15 south of me) = 314 inches/yr

That is an incredible amount of rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!