The Laurel and Hardy of geology.

We set out today full of hope, aware that a full day of work was ahead but also the light at the tunnel, once a dim shadow, now the thundering horn of an oncoming truck.

I left you last time after my first day completing soil sampling and things have only got more hectic from there. After completing a full day of soil sampling and going through the rigours learning the seemingly continually complex process. Me and my fellow Oulu geologist, Richard, were assigned a different task...

At this point I would like to introduce two new characters to my narrative. Before I did this, I first went around the apartment where I live, in my autistic manner to both draw attention to the fact I was writing another blog, and to ask what adjectives people would use to describe:

"The Prospectors"

The list is as follows: Experienced, Fit, and Original. 

My description is a little more verbose.  I knew immediately we were in for a good time as soon as they opened their mouth. A mixture of rough irish and Canadian the prospectors were basically from Newfoundland (or as close as makes no difference). With an air of confused shyness I had met on my previous trip to Canada they entered the room, standing awkwardly in the corner and sharing unintelligible chattering between the group. I knew that these two were the real deal. When asked for volunteers to join them on a few days excursion my hand couldn't have lifted higher and a day later I was sat merrily in their car on route to our first field trip. 

George and Wayne are the Laurel and Hardy; the Jay and Silent Bob; the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost; Abbott and Costello; Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant; Arnold and Devito and of course Timon and Pumba of the geology world. Not exactly geologists, not exactly miners, but a different breed. Field men. 

Geologists who have been doing this a while know a unique few who fit into this category: "the true field men (or woman) of the industry".They are usually old, have forgotten more than you know, filled with a wealth of knowledge and understanding of a lifetime of work, they generally have boundless energy that drives them to the field every day, skin made of leather, and are usually the nicest people you can meet. 

This is a good description of the new characters, Wayne: a 70 year old storm trooper, thin as a rake and has the uncanny ability to walk me under the table. Also George, a huge barrel of a man who chain smokes his way through a tens of km hiking in the swamps every day and swears worse than a sailor. Both wonderful human beings and both a pleasure to join in the field. 

Richard and I tried to keep up with their excursion, but the mismatch in our geology knowledge, and their exploration prospecting methods meant we were often left behind trying to catch up. The guys didn't seem to mind us tagging along and slowing them down however and even found our methods somewhat amusing. From the eyes of experience two relatively green geologists, fumbling with hammers and notepads desperately trying to identify each mineral in had specimen must have looked humorous. While the guys thundered into the forest throwing our way a stupendous variety of rocks from an area that I would have through inconceivable. We sat on the grass surrounded by mosquitos desperately trying to fill in various forms and pondering how on earth they were finding this stuff. 

Where they were discovering their rocks I have no idea they wandered around almost aimless but discovering more in an hour than I could in 6 weeks. I learnt a great deal from my time I had with them and a lovely evening discussing Finland, Canada, prospecting and of course, beer. I tried to get them to try sauna but in true Canadian fashion they declined, and too right too, its way to hot for that nonsense. 

The second day was very much the same but this time minus (don't read this bit mum) an outcrop that was a leg breaking paradise. The weather had turned a bit colder and the prospectors needed to do some exploration and it left me and Richard to do a bit of field mapping and meeting up with them later. This was a hard, but good day. 

Finally today I spent an excellent day in a stream. Another day of gold panning left me slightly warn like the mineral grains stretched out and separated into constituent parts. I am looking forward to a few days off. So its back to Oulu tomorrow with a 7 hour bus Journey. So plenty of time to read my book.

well this is it for today. Remember;

The 

Prospects 

Find

                YOU!  

The art of Soil

Chess boxing is defined as a hybrid fighting sport. It combines the traditional board game of  chess, involving the a cerebral cortex of the brain, and the physical contest of boxing. The competitors are requires to fight in alternating rounds of chess and boxing. 

Originally invented by the french comic book writer Enki Bilal in 1992, it has evolved into the championship sport chessboxing. It took until 2003 for the the Dutch fighter Lepe Rubingh to finally advance in the sport seen today. Lepe went on to win the first chess-boxing match with a thrilling 11 round spectacular when finally his opponent exceeded the chess time limit and Lepe went down as the worlds first chess boxing champion. 

From this early start the sport has grown into the powerhouse that we see today, european championships have arisen and household names such as: Nikolay Sazhin and Leonid Chernobaev have danced on the chessboard ring. 

The training for an expectant chessboxing champion is nothing short of torture. You need an Elo rating of 1600 and to have a record of at least 50 amateur bouts fought in boxing or another similar martial arts before you can even compete which narrows down the list of contenders to nothing more than the creme of the crop.

In this sport one has to be able to switch effortlessly between a full contact sport and a thinking sport. Round after round. Chessboxing requires you to not only master both sports but above all be able to withstand the constant switch between thinking and fighting.

Digging is also another sport that is taking the world by storm, led by none other than the Japanese. With the golden shovel up fro grabs, every year over 200 teams dig for the coveted prize.

Today I feel we have invented a new sport. Soil sampling. Combining the grueling physical punishment of both boxing and competitive hole digging, and the mental torture of chess. With the added addition of scorching heat and blood draining insects. 

Some people find joy in their sports, runners reach runners high, lifters often talk about the 'Punp' or high they feel after a particularly hard workout. I on the other had have invented "the sampling haze", an emotionless zen in which you complete tasks while the brain jacks into the 'neutral zone' where external stimuli such as: 'frustration of digging through more rock debris', and 'continuous form filling confusion' are muted into a dull roar that fills the ears. This white noise that lasts, like a coma, until you find yourself sitting back on the bus. 

Unfortunately, I was speaking to my girlfriend on the phone and accidentally referred my time here as a "Holiday".

So I must be enjoying it. 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

I suppose this isn't the best title into the third instalment of my blog but I feel today has been a day where we look over into the beyond. We will start work in ernest tomorrow and the waiting is the worst thing. I just want to begin. We have opened our eyes to the future but see nothing but the fall. Only clouds of uncertainty mist below us. The uncertainty of what is about to occur and crucially, what is beneath. 

"There isn't a way things should be. There's just what happens, and what we do"
-A Hat Full of Sky

But to be fair we/I have already jumped. There is now no turning back, the milk is spilt, the horses have bolted, the glass is in free-fall and now we just hope that there is some kitchen roll available, the horses will return and the glass will bounce. 

"One of the hardest lessons of young Sam’s life had been finding out that the people in charge weren’t in charge. It had been finding out that governments were not, on the whole, staffed by people who had a grip, and that plans were what people made instead of thinking.”

– Night Watch

Today we completed the training. I have listened to all sides and my choice has already been made. The talks have been talked the introductions have been introduced and now the time has come to get to work. I'm ready to go, whatever happens, I'm on the edge, waiting but I just want to get on with it, no matter what happens. Tomorrow is going to be. We will go to and get on with whatever it may bring. Digging, mosquitos, sweat toil and tears. But for now i'm just waiting for it to happen. 

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. 

-Terry Pratchett

I may find that its fantastic, I may love what will happen, or I may not. I may find that I will be unhappy to begin with but grow to find a crucial understanding and grudging respect for what has been decided. But I think what must always happen is that I must keep going That no matter tomorrow may bring. I will try my hardest to make it as good as I can be. I wont give up and we need to remember the world is still full, and beautiful and its great to be here.

With you, together.

“What was it they said about gods? They wouldn’t exist if there weren’t people to believe in them? And that applied to everything. Reality was what went on inside people’s heads.”

– Moving Pictures

Terry You beautiful bastard.

A Hatful of Golden Dreams.

I sit at the brook, crystal clear blue water bubbles merrily beneath my feet its cold and fresh to the touch and is deliciously refreshing after a day in the lapland heat. 

Birds fill the trees above me and their voices mixed with the sound of the stream accompany the silence with song. My eyes are fixed upon the iron pan in my hands. The soft sediment at the bottom swirling before me and occasionally, gold flecks glinting. 

Briefly I shake the pan to mix the sediment that is accumulating in the bottom and slowly, like a bear emerging after hibernation it begins to turn a bright yellow.  A deer momentarily enters the edge of the glen and watches silently unnoticed before fleeing back into the shade of the forest. 

My eyes do not leave my swirling gold pan. Later, much later, I look up, the sun is now a dull red, the fire I started a while ago for supper has dwindled to embers and now a soft smoke spirals above.  Stretching I carefully place the gold pan next to me and lean back smiling. Reaching down my fingers clasp a golden nugget which lies in the sediment and roll it gently between my fingertips. It is only a few millimeters across and almost worthless, but this nugget has family, and is joined by hundreds of others similar to itself in the remaining sediment. 

"My family will not starve", I think to myself.
For this winter at least we are secure. I smile savoring the thought of the journey home back south, back to my farm and back to my family. 

-Liam Clark 'An oral history of gold panning' 1801, Yukon Gold Rush

My gold panning experience was not like this. 

The day began for me, like so many others, with a harrowing underground expedition. 500m deep we fled from the day star to the depths of the earth. The light of our minivan the only  guide in our decent. The company field geologist, driving, happily chatted about structures, rocks and blasting, oblivious the bottomless ravines, haunted tunnels and cavernous halls shrouded in darkness that fled from our light as we sped past. While the van hurtled along the narrow passages and skirted the nameless deep I looked from the window and into the blackness and thought just how great my job is.

What person is paid to enter deep into a mine to complete exploration and research? To be given the opportunity to look deep into the heart of a rock structure. However today was different, our goal was simple: to collect a sample and then test it for gold. At level -40 we collected samples for later analysis and after a quick stop with a friendly driller who said a curt 

"Terve" then paid us absolutely no interest whatsoever. 




                                               surface.
                                          the 
                                       to 
                          back 
         headed 
We 






There was no crystal clear water. There was no brook and there was certainly no deer. But to me it was just as good. 

After finding a stagnant pool that hadn't evaporated we gathered knee deep in water filled with mosquito lave and desperately tried (as accurately as we could) to channel our inner grizzled 1800's forest man panning for gold.

After 10 minuets it became abundantly clear that I am in no way channeling any such person. After failing to complete the simple swirling and removing of larger stones I contented myself to picking the stones out with my fingers and watching the nice swirling patterns made in the silt. I have a theory, I believe that my inability to pan for gold is purely based on my INABILITY to grow a beard (see equation 1). Every grizzly forest man has a beard, therefore:

Beard + Man + Skill = Gold panner

No Beard + Man + Skill = Non gold panner

(Equation 1)

So like every good scientist I have formulated a plan:

Awesome PLAN Number 1: 

Aim: Become Grizzled Forest Man.

Plan: GROW A BEARD.

Over the next 2 months I am not going to shave. To save my job, fellow readers, I will no longer shave. This does remind me of a similar plan that was formulated in Newfoundland, but this plan is superior in one KEY aspect: 

Key Aspect 1: Its better.

So my gold planning was a slight failure. It wasn't quite the image of the gold panner at the top of the page and I wasn't very good at it but I still totally had fun. 

So tomorrow is a new day and I will leave you here.

The 

                PAN           
                                  IS
                                           LIFE!!

The Curious case of the cylindrical rock.

Sun Tzu once wrote: 

'To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy' 

and never has such a phrase been more apt description of todays events than this. Today everyone, I have become the rock. I have oozed over the minerals, flowed through the fractures, become the elements and lived the life of a fluid. I have looked through hand lenses picked up drill core, estimated content and finally seen GOLD.  

Today was the first day on the job and it was training, discussion and more training. Heading to work at 8am we ate breakfast with healthy anticipation of the day to come. The chatter was lively for such an early start and with the midnight sun blazing its eternal light we had all gotten very little sleep. 

Arriving at the Mine site we were greeted with a healthy dose of geology. 

"We are looking for gold here" they proclaimed and being in an area well known for its metal enrichment we are confident in our abilities to find it. 

However, as we came to realise we must first understand how gold the is formed, secondly we must know what to look for, and finally when we know what we need to look we will know what is really there.

As the day progressed and rusty gears in my head began to turn joining old lessons together with new understanding i began to view this like a Sherlock Holmes story:

Location: London, Bakers Street. Time: 2:30 pm      

It was a warm day, the wind blusted through the open window the sound of the street below muffled by the fluttering curtains. I sat, book in hand reading. Geologist Holmes, sat in the chair opposite, suddenly looked up. At that very present moment there was a loud ring at the bell, and I could hear Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, raising her voice in a wail of expostulation and dismay.

     "By heavens, Geologist Holmes," I said, half rising, "I believe the geographers are really after us."

     "No, it's not quite so bad as that. It is the Finnish force—the Geologists."


     As he spoke, there came a tremendous thereunder of heavily booted feet upon the stairs, a clatter of high voices, and in rushed a dozen dirty and ragged students. There was some show of discipline among them, despite their tumultuous entry, for they instantly gathered in a huddle and produced a rock with expectant faces. One of their number, one stood forward with an air of complete uncertainty which was very funny in such a disreputable little scarecrow presented it to me.

   "Help us! Geologist Sherlock" They cried in unison "we found this, its surely gold"

Despite the miscommunication I was curious so I took the supposed gold. And so it was! Heavily it glittered in the sunlight, huge golden crystals shimmering in the midday sun that poured though the window. Intertwined amongst the golden crystals a white almost translucent veining mingled with the gold a black matrix forming the background creating a mesmerizing pattern that lead the eyes in distraction.

   "Surely its true" I whispered, "A Quartz veined gold seam"   

He lent forward and with a wave of his thin fingers snatched the rock from my outstretched hand. Touching it with a pen he placed the rock in a bowl of clear liquid on the table stared for a few brief seconds and then turned away. 

  "Carbonate veined, ultramafic rock consisting of magnetite and some sulfides, completely worthless" he pronounced. 

His sharp curt words cut through the awed silence like a knife. The magic gone my hands dropped to my sides, my shock obvious.

  "You are from the lapland greenstone belt in Northern Finland. Truly you have not done your required reading" He continued, "Go away and bring me something more taxing next time"

The scrawny number shuffled away, geologist hammers clinking sadly as they tramped down the stairs. 

With barley a second glance he turned his back on the room. He plucked the rock from the liquid and held it up against the mirror on the wall.

“Your deductive reasoning has improved Watson" He said slowly. "Your observations were correct but you drew the wrong conclusion. You did not collect enough data, and therefore your inturpetation was wrong."

I was flabbergasted. I charged forward and snatched the small rock from his thin hands.

"See the yellow gold!" I shouted pointing, "see the white quartz. Surely this is a gold laden quartz vein" I tossed the rock back to him in defiance my chin raised determined to see him wrong. 

He stood upon a chair, and holding up the rock in his left hand and the small bowl of liquid in his right he curved his right arm over the rock and let a single drop rest upon the white surface.

“Good heavens!' I cried in amazement.

The rock had begun to bubble.

"Ha, you see it now. My eyes have been trained to examine rocks and not just their appearance. It is the first quality of a Geologist investigator that he should see through a disguise. 'You see' Watson, but you, like the other Geologists, do NOT see"

I took the rock again and held it with new eyes.

"The small bowl which you surely observed me place the sample into was not, what you first thought, 'water'. But a mild acid, which indicated to me the white mineral; which you assumed was quartz was in fact carbonate, which reacts with acid. Thus the bubbling."

"Even so" I mustered "gold is found with both with quartz and carbonate. How do you know it is worthless"

"You are most correct dear Watson, Gold is often found with Quartz but also with carbonates. So I needed more data. Observe:"

He held the sample to the light the gold glittering in the sun. Then I saw it as clear as day.

"Cubic" I whispered.

"Elementary my dear Watson. Gold rarely has sharp edges, being soft it easily becomes rounded. You were correct observing the distinctive yellow colour but the sharp cubic edges tell me another story. A sulfide that has lead many an inexperienced geologists astray" 

"Fools Gold" I exclaimed slumping into the nearest chair

"Precisely" he said returning to the floor and begining to pace the room.

"And the rest" I muttered defeated.

"Easy" he began. "The ultramafic rock is simple, a colour test it all it took. Is it dark or is it light" He looked from one hand to the other and closed his left hand "Dark. Observe" he turned to me and produced a small pen spinning it round he placed it upon the dark area of the rock. "Pull!" He commanded.

Pulling I felt a resistance.

"Feel that?" 

I nodded the affirmative.

"That is magnetism. I would obviously need a thin section to confirm but given the rest of the minerals It would be a safe bet to assume magnetite as the obvious choice. Which as we all know is magnetic. As for the rest, that was easy: the Salmiakki in the boys pocket assured me the boy was from Finland and the fact his coat was blazoned with RUPERT RESOURCES along the back told me he was from the Pahtavaara mine in the greenstone belt."

Watson and Holmes in "The Geological Man".

As Geologist Holmes has shown, the methods of deduction are really simple but knowing the way in which rocks have formed and what they look like can really help someone when identifying things in the field and what to look for when searching for gold. 

I will leave you now, the words of Geologist Holmes ringing in your ears and with a brief view of how geology is done.

PS: This was fun I hope your enjoying this, leave me some feedback and join me tomorrow:

The 
                            Geology 

                                                        Is

                                                                                    Getting

                                                                                                                REAL!!

Soil sampling, Boulder hunting and lots of alcohol.

Welcome to Liam '2.0' and the obscure ramblings of a person with frankly too much time on his hands. 

Today, fellow countrymen, I embark on a journey into the unknown! Well, not quite unknown. I know exactly what I am going to be doing. I know where im going to do it, and I even who im doing it with. But apart from the multitude of things I do know, I am going into the unknown. 

Image 1- Subject: Me, Location: University, Reason: Unknown.

I managed to get a job. 

Image 2- Subject: Business, Location: Business, Reason: Business.

That's right folks I am now gainfully employed as a geologist. 

My journey to this point can be summed up really in numbers: 9 years, 2 masters degrees, 2 other jobs, 2 counties,1 house and more red bull than a farm that combines both: cow rearing and recreational bull painting in "strictly one colour".

I finally have the dream job of every fledgling geologist: 

I am (As Howard shows below)an exploration geologist. 

                                  Image 3- Subject: Howard Davies (Unknown), Location: Yes, Reason: Exploration.

I have as before looked over the side of the nest, stretched my wings and swan-dived (Dove, Driven....) into this maiden flight of geology exploration.

But Hey! This time, for money!

I have in essence jumped once again from the nest. Cut the apron strings. Flipped the table. And many other leaving similes and verse. I now feel the breeze of destiny lifting me up towards my new career. This optimism, I feel, will (of course) be short lived. I have been here before, and I know through experience that, like every dream coming to fruition, reality is just waiting just around the next corner to smash me in the face with healthy dose of fear and disappointment, but for now, let me just savour this moment. 

                        Image 4- Subject: Life, Location: Reality, Reason: An exploration into the human condition.

Any even remotely interested person of my life knows this is not my first job as a geologist. However this job is different in two major aspects:

1) It is purely fieldwork

2) It is with a mining company 

This is quite an important distinction, especially for me. As you may, or may not know. I have been trying to make my way gainfully in the lad of Finn. Suomi: the land of a thousand lakes, and the midnight sun, the home of santa, snow, Cabin and Sauna. And to make matters harder I am trying to forge a career in geology. So to finally land a job here in Finland, doing what I have spent years trying to do is something I feel quite proud of. To do this and get one with a small mining company doing raw exploration (in a relatively old mine) to 'get into the grass routes' as it were is something I have only dreamed about. Behind my harsh exterior and calculated sarcasm I am actually quite excited about this opportunity.

                         Image 5- Subject: Frank, Location: MURCA!, Reason: 'Making it' (apparently).

However, "making it" here in Finland is especially difficult with:

a) the language barrier and 

b) the frankly disturbing difficulty to get any sort of work. 

Last year was especially difficult watching my friends head off for work while I wandered away abroad to find some internship. To not be doing what I wanted was particularly hard. But with (what Holger said): A bit of good luck and perseverance I managed this year to get a spot in a company that involves wandering around a mosquito infested swamp looking at rocks. And I cant wait.

To sum up the last few years I will tell you a story: I begin this story, as in any story. At the beginning: After finding my last job was nothing short of a nightmare I left in order to find newer and greener pastures. I fled from the crumbing palace of Edinburgh stealing into the night, hunted and alone. I traveled for a long time! Nursing my grief and my wounds. I rode with wolves, hunted along the night wall, rode the dusty wastes on the trade routes, haggling and begging for rides. I ate with sultans and dined with beggars and orphans. I rode with the great sea beasts and fought with street dogs. That is, until I left Stanstead airport and headed to my next great adventure here in Finland to begin a second masters degree. 

After a year of study in which I drank and swam and adventured and became a local I found myself sprinting headlong into the summer of 2016 with absolutely nothing to do. So, of course. I went to Denmark.

                             Image 6- Subject: Big Ol' Worm, Location: Dune , Reason: 'Liam': a Personal Story.

I completed a internship with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GUS) whereby completing my contractual agreement with myself that I was doing something worthwhile with my life. But, like most things it wasn't quite fulfilling or quite what I wanted to do. While being interesting and tasking fieldwork is where my heart lies. Anyone who read: 

Liam and Jonny's Excellent Adventures

( http://l-cfc.blogspot.fi/ )

knows my feelings on being abroad, in the field, and doing stuff like this. 

So here I am a summer later, sat on a train, using the free internet using the government subsidised free schooling and the state of the art, on time, cheep nationalised rail service. Swiftly heading the mosquito filled hellhole of the greenstone belt in Sodankylä. I have a feeling it will be  a damn sure will be nicer than any Trump lead, Tory fear mongering NHS selling... wait is this getting political.  

Lets take a break,

And this time, its serious. This time its in the field, looking at rocks. This time im doing job properly. Im working in a town called: Sodankylä which is north, very north. It is so north it is above (So the Finns will have believe) even Santa. So Let us look at the map below to assess this statement:

                                          Map 1- Subject: Sodankylä , Location: Finland , Reason: North.

Do you see that blue dot, that is me, right now, writing to you, winding my way to the north. 9:40 in the morning with a balmy 4 Degrees and a sun that is shining overhead. There are no clouds in the sky and a woman is snoring behind me. I feel a subtle trepidation but also excitement as I find the distance between me and the new start eaten away. I actually like you (probably) have no idea of the place im going so like any scientist, lets look at some statistics of the place I am going to be living:

                              Image 7- Subject: Sodankylä, Location: internet , Reason: Fear of the unknown.

Im going to be living in a place that is old, I will be in the horrifying minority of 'other' nationalities, and using a language bearly 3% can speak (maybe) I will be in the majority of males and nicely sitting in the lower end of the age range. Thank god im still young... ish. 

My employer patrons are the Canadian company rupert resources and they have asked me for my services to find them some gold. YES thats right folks im now LITERALLY a gold miner. I will be tromping through the Finnish north in search of that most overrated metal... gold.

                                Image 7- Subject: Rupert, Location: The netherelm , Reason: Correct hiring procedure.

My journey specifically to this place began while writing my masters thesis. After resigning myself to a summer of panic and self loathing I, like so many others, received that etherial call from the void. One of the kindly gods had looked down upon me and found me worthy. A short phone-call asking my availability, a little dance around the geology break room and stuttered replies of the affirmative nature including: 'Yes I do want a job' and 'Can I start immediately' led me to the beginning of the job a month later. Thus here I am, on the train and eagerly awaiting the beginning of the new adventure. So hang on to your hats ladies and gentlemen 

we're     

                       going        

                                      in                                                                              hot.

Come back next time when Ill take you through what i'm upto, and something about gold...