Monday 4 June 2012

Durango, Colorado

My work ethic came back today. Managed to drive from Manitou Springs, Colorado to Durango, Colorado, nearly 300 miles and collect my samples. As such I have little time for blogging today so just a quick update.

Today I sample the Ignacio Sandstone, an uppermost Cambrian to lowermost Ordovician age unit sitting on Proterozoic crystalline rocks. The exposure was terrible, the mosquitos were plentiful, there was a constant looming threat of a thunderstorm and the terrain was atrocious. Nothing really good to say other than it's done. Here's a photo of the contact between the sandstones and a weakly foliated diorite.


I had such hope for this sample location as the photos I'd found on Google showed a beautiful canyon with great exposures. Turns out they were the overlying Leadville formation carbonates, beautifully exposed in this canyon.



I'm camped beside a senior field school from Fort Hays State University in Kansas. Apparently the area is a geological treasure trove and they've been running the senior field school here for years. This field school is dry until the final day. How uncharacteristic of a geological field school. They invited me over for leftover dinner. Wieners and beans, haute cuisine for sure! The company was nice.

A narrow guage railway goes through the campsite. I think it only runs on the weekend. Here's the works vehicle going by.


The Land Rover is running okay today. Still missing at idle. In a fit of frustration with the problem today I dumped a pile of carb cleaner on the intake header which I suspected was leaking. The engine nearly stalled indicating an intake manifold leak which is excellent news as it is somewhat easily fixable. I and two other people had done this test before but obviously hadn't used enough cleaner. I may try to take care of that before heading to New Mexico. It's a long drive and I'd like to have it working perfectly.

2 comments:

  1. Working perfectly?!? Is that even possible? ;)
    Hope you get it fixed up and have a good drive to New Mexico.

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  2. Grover is how old? Seems to me it is doing ok, enjoy the drive.

    ReplyDelete