Thursday, March 05, 2009

Three photos from Chilean Patagonia


I was lucky to attend a few days ago a field conference in southern Chile, looking at deep-water rocks in an area that includes Torres del Paine National Park. It was good to be back in this place of unbloggable beauty. The conference was well organized (of course! - Brian was one of the conveners) and we were extremely lucky with the weather: no rain at all on the outcrops, beautiful sunshine most of the time. Although I have been to Chilean Patagonia three times before on various geological field trips and even did some field work there, I realized during this conference that it doesn't matter how many times you have seen some rocks, there is always a chance to rethink what you thought you have already settled in your mind (see blog title). It was also good to see that these field conferences are increasingly not just about the local geology: many if not most presentations and spontaneous discussions compare the local outcrop data with sedimentary systems from other basins, and try to think about how the always-too-small outcrops would look like in seismic sections and volumes.

Brian did not have time to take a lot of photos, so here are three shots (more here). As if anybody needed more shots of the Paine Grande and the Cuernos.

Conference participants examine the turbidites of the Punta Barrosa Formation



The Paine massif (Paine Grande and Cuernos), with Rio Serrano in the foreground



Strong winds on Paine Grande


Update - here is a Gigapan:



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[it is strongly recommended that you do launch the full screen viewer if you want to do justice to the Gigapan]

3 comments:

Ron Schott said...

Gorgeous! Spectacular!! I don't think its possible to have too many photos of this spectacular region. Please tell me you brought your GigaPan along, too!

Unknown said...

Thanks, Ron -- I did bring my Gigapan along, but didn't get to take many shots in Chile. On one hand because there wasn't much time during the conference; on the other hand because I left at home a critical piece of equipment -- the little metal plate that connects the tripod with the Gigapan unit. What can I say other than ^%$^%*#@.

I did shoot however a few promising gigapans in Rio de Janiero, on the way back from the conference.

Anonymous said...

zs ... glad you had a good time at conference, I think it was a success!

 
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