I'll be combining two days into one blog post, mainly because these past two days were really more of half-days, where we didn't go into the field but we did do some stuff. The first half-day, May 5th, was a kind of relaxing day after our two constant days of going nonstop, though we did get to use our diamond core drill for the first time, and I also found out some interesting facts out about the XRF. The diamond core drill is used for taking rock cores, as the name suggests, and we hadn't used it prior to this trip. And I also found out some previously unknown functions about the XRF, the most notable of which was the GPS function, which allows the reading of position after we export the readings. Outside that, the day was a good break. May 6th saw a little bit more action though. I spent the first part of the day reading the XRF users guide from cover to cover, which was quite informative. I learned some new testing techniques for general in-situ samples as well as rock cores. The interesting part of the day was when we got wind of a "fossil guy" in town, that could potentially take us to a quarry. He is a freelance Paleontologist, and after meeting him and taking a tour of his shop, we set a time to meet the next day at his quarry to go on a dig. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, but I'm still loving Wyoming. The climate here is beautiful, which matches the landscape.
Today was a very full day. We started off the day heading about an hour out of town to go to a place called "Paleo Ranch" owned by the Zerbst family. After getting there, Hayden and I went to a site where a mummified Hadrosaur was found, and started to take XRF Readings and samples. I helped Hayden to get a strat column going, and after I marked down the length and composition of layers, I started taking XRF Readings. I didn't get to finish though because we didn't have time. Afterwards we met up with The Bone Man, and another half hour drive down what could barely be called roads, we arrived at his quarry. It was beautiful, there was a butte that overlooked the entire site, and the rolling hills that are so synonymous with Wyoming were around us on all sides. I took some readings directly off of some exposed Hadrosaur bones, and then helped Hayden and Steve take a core sample of a sandstone outcrop. After we were done, I saw that Scott was excavating what appeared to be a Hadrosaur metatarsal, so I went to help him with that until we left the quarry to come back to Lusk. It was around a 12 hour day for us, and I loved every second of it. Learning as much as I did, and as much as I am every day, it's such a privilege to be here.
Today was a very full day. We started off the day heading about an hour out of town to go to a place called "Paleo Ranch" owned by the Zerbst family. After getting there, Hayden and I went to a site where a mummified Hadrosaur was found, and started to take XRF Readings and samples. I helped Hayden to get a strat column going, and after I marked down the length and composition of layers, I started taking XRF Readings. I didn't get to finish though because we didn't have time. Afterwards we met up with The Bone Man, and another half hour drive down what could barely be called roads, we arrived at his quarry. It was beautiful, there was a butte that overlooked the entire site, and the rolling hills that are so synonymous with Wyoming were around us on all sides. I took some readings directly off of some exposed Hadrosaur bones, and then helped Hayden and Steve take a core sample of a sandstone outcrop. After we were done, I saw that Scott was excavating what appeared to be a Hadrosaur metatarsal, so I went to help him with that until we left the quarry to come back to Lusk. It was around a 12 hour day for us, and I loved every second of it. Learning as much as I did, and as much as I am every day, it's such a privilege to be here.
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