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Etendeka
Large Igneous Province In November 2009, I joined a large,
international group of geoscientists to the Etendeka volcanic province
of Namibia, following a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, which
honoured Kevin Burke and Lew Ashwal for their 80th and 60th birthday,
respectively. During this short, but amazing trip we collected
paleomagnetic samples of the 132 Ma old Etendeka Large Igneous
Province, which was erupted as enormous basalt lavas. Only a small
portion is found in Namibia (where you can still follow individual
lavas over tens of kilometers), the bulk is found at the other side of
the South Atlantic in Argentina, formed by the Parana volcanics. The
Etendeka Large Igneous Province formed during the earliest stages of
South Atlantic opening, and we tested whether the paleomagnetic poles
of Parana coincide with the Etendeka, as they should. This site shows
the team, the work, and the zoo we've been working in. The crew
Morgan Ganerød, Norwegian Geological Survey
(NGU), Trondheim, Norway
Trishya Owen-Smith, MSc student at the
University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, South-Africa
Cynthia Labails, NGU Trondheim, Norway
Lew Ashwal, Wits university, South Africa
Sue Webb, Wits University, South Africa
Everett, from the Geological Survey
of Namibia, Windhoek
Roy Miller, Geological Survey of Namibia,
Windhoek, the specialist on Namibian geology who showed us around and
explained what we saw.
Sergey Medvedev, Physics of Geological
Processes, University of Oslo, Norway, master of water affairs in the
field.
Trond Torsvik, PGP Oslo, Norway
Stephanie Werner, PGP Oslo, Norway
Tom Jordan, University of Southern California,
USA
Carmen Gaina, NGU Norway
...and me The activities
No paved roads in this region...on our way to
the camp
Or no road at all, and just cruising through
the scrubs
Crew deciding where to drill
Beautiful basaltic feeder dike (black wall),
crosscutting a Cretaceous dune field (reddish colour)
Main purpose was to collect paleomagnetic
samples of the lavas, which I am doing here...
Field lunch
Walking back to the cars after a day of
sampling in 40 degrees Celcius...
Morgan, getting on that
Great field outfit :)
Lew, helping Morgan out
Moving to the next offroad site...
With consequences...7 flat tires in 3 days
Site...
Trishya going at it
and some more...
And doing the admin
Local village
Amazing landscapes...
View from an average site
Wildlife
Africa's wildlife is fantastic, and Namibia was
no exception... Baboon with kid
Single elephant bull
Giraffe
The jackal...
Korhaan...they sound like frogs :)
Female Kudu
Male kudu
Mad Russian, chasing a giraffe (and creating a
stampede among zebras that lasted for 15 minutes)
Gemsbok, or Oryx
Oryces with calves
Ostriches
Pufadder, pretty poisonous fellow
Springbok
Steenbok
...and zebras. It was great fun sampling in the
zoo :)
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