"Bore"hole Surveying

For those uninitiated, who are wondering about the exciting, thrill-a-minute, action-packed life of a geophysicist working in the subarctic, I offer this photo. I suggest that the image portrays the drudgery of the hurry-up-and-wait life that accompanies borehole surveys. The large spool in the center is the kevlar-sheathed, three conductor, 1.2km long cable that we use to lower the probes down the 3 inch diameter hole (you can see the cable heading off diagonally up to the hole casing. The poor sap sitting in the chair is waiting for the receiver to finish collecting the data before lowering the probe 10 meters to the next station. It takes a couple of minutes to read the Z-component, and about 5 minutes or more for the XY. The average depth of holes in Raglan is probably 800 to 850 meters, and we usually survey half the length of the. Meaning that surveying a hole can take anywhere from 6 to 24 hours or more, depending on what happens to go wrong on a particular survey, and if the whole has to be read in more than one section because of risk of collapse. This type of survey has been aptly nicknamed "snorehole".

L'Hiver Est Arrivé À Raglan

Well, while Heidi was watching her sister get married on the beach near St. Lawrence, NL (Congrats Beth and Jeff!!!) I understand it was a little on the cool side. However, I ask you to note this picture taken by my helper and new chum, François. We were working yesterday, the 15th of September here in the subarctic, and it was also what we call "on the cool side". The weather trend continued today with more of the same. It actually gave me a rather cozy feeling, kind of like Christmas is around the corner, but I am sure this feeling will pass and I will tire of the wind and snow in short order. I guess I better enjoy it before my brain smartens up and realize I am on the tundra, 1600km from home, and I left my big logans at home....oops.

Who's got the ball?

Ashton may have the Chuck-It, but Maggie has the ball...

White Point

Nothing fancy, just us and the boys at White Point beach. Okay, I know Maggie's a girl. Sorry Mags.

My Nephews

My sister Daphne, her husband Russell and their two boys Spencer and Ashton all came to Newfoundland for a few weeks this summer. They came down Winterland way for a visit and we had a lot of fun hanging out, going to the beach and just visiting. I had never met Ashton before this summer and only met Spencer a couple of years ago. They are beautiful boys, and as you can see, we had no trouble becoming fast friends. I look forward to seeing them again really soon. Hopefully Crone will be doing some work out west in the near future!

Another Sunset!?!

I know sunsets can be kind of cliche, but I saw this one on the way out to the Crone workshop and snapped it. I just kind of liked it so decided to throw it up here on the blog. The mine headframe is in the shot, and I think that the pond is what we use as our water supply for the camp. This is the view from the parking area as you enter the camp.

Northern View

This photo is from a walk I took with Tom last week, but today was the same kind of dreary, foggy day- what Newfoundlanders call a "mauzy ol' day" (spelling is my own). So here is a picture of the inukshuk that overlooks our camp. The inukshuk is perfectly profiled on the ridge when you look out from the back of the camp. Donaldson Camp (the exploration camp that Xstrata operates as part of its mining activities here in Raglan) is visible just right of the inukshuk, and at the far right is the old mine headframe and the big yellow cylinder is the diesel tank we currently use, with other various buildings in between. The weather can remind one of Newfoundland sometimes, but you only need look around and you realize how far from home you are.

A photo of Neil

In a moment of vanity I thought people might want to see a picture of me, so here it is. I am waiting for Terry when we were laying a loop out in Cross Lake, which is about 50km from our camp. we drove part of the way and were picked up by helicopter and flown out there to lay a loop for a drill that would be surveyed a few days later. The spool of yellow wire is just visible at the left edge of the photo. This area was very hilly and rugged, markedly different than most of the other areas we work. This is the area where I photographed the purple flowers below.

Arctic Colours

Vibrant colours are rare up here in Raglan, other than say the bright yellow Crone receivers, the yellow Crone wire or the orange drill shacks. I found these beauties on a loop laying trip out to Cross Lake, a short helicopter ride from camp. They may be Alpine Phlox, and each flower head is only about a third the size of my pinkie fingernail. They were abundant out in the craggy hills of Cross Lake and certainly a noticeable and appreciated display! It's a shame they were just starting to wilt a little before I found them.

Arctic Panhandler

After setting a temperature record of 117° (that's 47.2° Celsius for non-Americans) I find myself back in Ralglan where today it is 15°C, quite reasonable for this place actually. When I got back to our drill the other day this little guy was sniffing around our transmitter gear. They love to eat our wire, particularly the black electrical tape on our splices. They'll dig down through several feet of snow for a chomp! This guy was looking for some snacks, I think the drillers like to share their lunch. He was very brave and followed me around so I tried to snap a shot. He was very cooperative, hamming it up for the camera. It's amazing how different he looks from his winter counterpart, you can see a picture of the winter version here on Tom's blog.