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What on EarthA Canadian Newsletter for the Earth SciencesVolume5. Number 1, December 2007 ISSN 1703-5104web version at: www.whatonearth.org

2 What on Earth – Winter 2007

Selenite crystals Naica Mine, MexicoCover photo: Ediacaran time 600 million years ago

What on Earth – Winter 2007 3

The Faculty of Science seized the‘spirit of why not’ byacknowledging the remarkable

achievements of its own alumni from thepast 50 years. The Distinguished Alumniaward will be an annual honour bestowedupon a science alumnus who has madesignificant career contributions to his/herfield. Also chosen to honour are 50outstanding alumni who have themselvesproven their merit to their peers andcommunity. The diverse group ofindividuals that were celebrated symbolizethe sheer excellence and incredible drive ofour graduates, proving that a science degreefrom UW can lead to greataccomplishments. Eight of the honorees aregraduates from the Earth andEnvironmental Sciences Department.

Bernadette Hughes ConantBSc Earth Sciences ’86, MSc Earth Sciences ’91 Waterloo, Ontario

As Executive Director of the CanadianWater Network (CWN), Ms Conant has influenced the direction andmission of this Centre of Excellence. She has played a key role in bringingtogether over 200 researchers from 37 academic institutions toidentify and address critical issues in the provision and protection of safe,clean water. Prior to joining the CWN, Ms Conant was involved ingroundwater issues in both Canada andthe USA for 17 years. Outside of herprofessional life, she has taken time tolead and organize a group of fellowEarth Sciences alumni to donate theirtime cooking and serving dinner to disadvantaged and/or homelessindividuals who face daily challenges ofpoverty and substance abuse. Throughher organization and perseverance thisgroup has served the communitymonthly since 2000, regularly feedingover 100 grateful individuals. Other volunteer hours are given to schoolcouncil, a children’s reading program,Groundwater Day at primary schools,and various activities at her parish. Inher personal and professional life, MsConant’s talent for inspiring people towork together and seizing opportunitieshas clearly contributed to her manysuccesses.

Marcel R. CoutuBSc Earth Sciences ’76 Calgary, Alberta

Mr Coutu has more than 25 years ofexperience in the resource and energy sector with a primary focus in corporatefinance. Prior to joining Canadian OilSands Limited in 2001 as President andCEO, he was Chief Financial Officer ofGulf Canada until its sale to Conoco.Preceding that position, he was SeniorVice President International and VicePresident Finance at TransCanadaPipeLines where he helped finance itsmainline expansion and internationalprojects. Mr Coutu worked many years inthe upstream sector for companies thatinclude Hudson’s Bay Oil & Gas andDome Petroleum, and has five years of experience in the investment bankingbusiness. He has completed the Instituteof Corporate Directors CorporateGovernance program and is accredited asa certified director under that program.Mr Coutu serves on the Board ofDirectors of Brookfield AssetManagement, Great-West Lifeco., UnitedWay of Calgary, and the Pension andCompensation Committee of the CalgaryStampede Board. He is Chairman of theBoard of Syncrude and chairs theSyncrude Joint Venture CEO andManagement Committees. He is alsoGovernor of the Canadian Association ofPetroleum Producers and a member of theCanadian Council of Chief Executives.


Alumni Celebration!Faculty of Science Alumni

WHAT ON EARTH

COPYRIGHT 2006 ISSN 1703-5104

Volume 5, Number 1. Winter 2007

Editors: Alan V. Morgan and Peter I. Russell

We encourage copying for teaching purposes.

Editorial and Subscription Assistant:Patty Foerster

What on Earth, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences,University of Waterloo,

200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON

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Anthony D. Daus MSc Earth Sciences ’84 Huntington Beach, California

Anthony D. "Tony" Daus, Presidentand Principal Hydrogeologist,Geomatrix is a 25-year environmentalindustry veteran. His career as ageologist and hydrogeologist includes:managing one of the largest soil andgroundwater investigation andremediation projects in Brazil;providing litigation and mediationsupport on environmental projectsinvolving soil, groundwater and surfacewater contamination; conducting multi-property industrial and commercial duediligence property assessments;evaluating and remediating fuelhydrocarbon spills and leaks; andmanaging soil, groundwater, andsurface water condition investigationslocally and overseas. He has served as areviewer for several technical journals,including Ground Water and Journal ofEnvironmental Science Health and is asought-after presenter in his field. MrDaus earned a BSc in Geology from theUniversity of Missouri. At thesuggestion of one of his undergraduateprofessors who encouraged him toexplore the up-and-comingenvironmental field in groundwater, heearned an MSc in Hydrogeology. Since1997 under Mr Daus’ guidance asPresident, Geomatrix has tripledrevenues to more than $90 millionwhile doubling its staff size and officelocations. Mr Daus is unique in that hecontinues to provide consulting servicesto his key clients while serving asPresident of the firm. He enjoysspending time with his family, flyfishing, camping, the symphony, andvolunteering as a Boy Scout leader.

Peter Gray, P Geo., QP (ESA)BSc Earth Sciences ’87Bright, Ontario

Mr Gray has more than 20 years of

hydrogeological and environmental

consulting experience with projects ranging

from small-scale local environmental

assessments to large-scale international

assignments. This work includes the

recently completed community-based

environmental assessments for CIDA and

World Vision in the countries of Sri Lanka,

Indonesia, India and Thailand following the

devastating tsunami in southwest Asia in

December 2004. He has contributed greatly

to the community over the last 20 years as a

champion of groundwater education and

protection, including working with the

Waterloo Wellington Children’s

Groundwater Festival as Chair, the

Children’s Water Education Council as

President, the Rotary Club of Kitchener, the

University of Waterloo Advisory Council,

Faculty of Environmental Studies Dean’s

Council, the Grand River Conservation

Authority Water Forum Organizing

Committee, Waterloo Wellington Secondary

School Science Fair, Technical Advisor for

various University of Waterloo graduate

studies projects, Director of the University

of Waterloo Museum Board and member of

the region’s former Groundwater Guardian

Affiliate Committee. Mr Gray’s project and

community service experience is

complemented by his corporate and

entrepreneurial spirit. He successfully

launched two environmental companies,

including the successful merger of his 12-

year-old company Frontline Environmental

Management Inc. with the leading KW-

based engineering firm, MTE Consultants,

Inc. in April, 2007, where he is the senior

hydrologist and holds the position of Vice

President.

Andrew W. Panko, PhDMSc Earth Sciences ’77Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Andrew Panko is a geoscientist(APGO) and successful entrepreneurwho has founded several environmentalservices and property developmentcompanies. After selling his firstbusiness, Arcturus Environmental Ltd.,he founded Forensic EnvironmentalServices Ltd. which he sold in 2002. Hethen established Brownfield RevolutionInc. Dr Panko is a founding partner ofAssociated Brownfields Inc., abrownfield development company thatpurchases, remediates and developscontaminated properties. He has apersonal interest in railways; he has co-authored several books, includingSteam in Niagara (1983), and hasreceived the Lifetime AchievementAward from the Canadian RailroadHistorical Association. More recentlyhe has been growing vinifera grapes onhis family farm in Niagara-on-the-Lake.Dr Panko is also active within hiscommunity as a member and pastpresident of the Rotary Club and severalconservation and historical groups. Heis a Life Member of the Thorold,Ontario volunteer firefighters. DrPanko is a past Chair of the Board ofNiagara Falls Hydro and the NiagaraFalls Chamber of Commerce, past Vice-Chair of the Brock University Board ofTrustees, is currently on the Board ofDirectors of Meridian Credit and Chairof the Board of Niagara RegionalBroadband Network.


James (Jim) ReimerBSc ’78 Earth Sciences,MSc Earth Sciences ’80Calgary, Alberta

Mr Reimer currently works asExecutive Vice-President with ResultEnergy Inc. in Calgary, Alberta. Withover 28 years of industry experience inhis portfolio, he has achieved asignificant track record of hydrocarbondiscovery and development of newexploration concepts. In the past, MrReimer has held several positions at thePresident and Vice-President levels ofboth large and small exploration andproduction companies. He has used thisexpertise to help mentor and mouldmany junior Canadian geologists.Additionally, he is the Past President ofthe Canadian Society of PetroleumGeologists and is currently themarketing chair for the CanadianNational Steering Committee -International Year of Planet Earth(2008). He has also participated innumerous industry and professionaladvisory boards, including the executivepolicy group of the CanadianAssociation of Petroleum Producers andthe British Columbia Oil and GasCommission. Mr Reimer was Chair ofthe first joint convention of theSocieties of Petroleum Geologists,Exploration Geophysicists, and WellLogging and he played a key role indeveloping the hydrogeology divisionfor the Canadian Society of PetroleumGeologists.

Stephen SchallerBSc Earth Sciences ’88St Lambert, Quebec

Stephen Schaller is a RADARSAT-1Mission Planner for the CanadianSpace Agency (CSA) in St. Hubert,Quebec. RADARSAT-1, Canada’s firstcommercial Earth observation satellite,was devloped by the CSA incooperation with Canadian provincialgovernments and the private sector.The images it collects are useful inmany fields, including agriculture,cartography, hydrology, forestry,oceanography, geology, ice and oceanmonitoring, arctic surveillance-detectingocean oil slicks and spills-andresponding to environmental disasters,all which require fast imaging fromspace. For the past 10 years, Mr Schallerhas participated in the planning andmanagement of satellite imageacquisitions as an On-Call Planner torespond to anomalies and major naturaldisasters. He has been able to apply hisknowledge of geography and remotesensing to help clients on the CanadianGovernment Order Desk plan and orderthe best imagery for their needs. He hasalso acted as the Emergency In-CallOfficer for the International Charter,Space and Major Disasters. This pastsummer has been an especially excitingtime for Mr Schaller as the CSAprepares to launch RADARSAT-2, asuperior successor to RADARSAT-1, inDecember, 2007, from a Soyuz vehiclebased in Russia's BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Edward A. SudickyMSc Earth Sciences ’79,PhD Earth Sciences ’83Waterloo, Ontario

Edward Sudicky is a Professor in theDepartment of Earth andEnvironmental Sciences at theUniversity of Waterloo whose researchareas of interest include themathematical modeling of groundwaterflow and contaminant transport,groundwater remediation andgroundwater-surface water interactions.He also holds the Canada ResearchChair (Tier I) in QuantitativeHydrogeology and is a highly citedresearcher who has been namedaFellow of the Royal Society of Canada,the Canadian Academy of Engineering,the Geological Society of America andthe American Geophysical Union. DrSudicky has been listed in the CanadianWho's Who and in Marquis Who'sWho in Science and Engineering. Hereceived the Geological Society ofAmerica's O.E. Meinzer Award in 1999and the Hydrology Award from theAmerican Geophysical Union in 2002.The National Groundwater Associationwill honour Dr Sudicky’s work this fall,presenting him with the prestigious M.King Hubbert Award. In addition to histeaching and research duties, DrSudicky is a consultant to privatecompanies. He has been invited tolecture internationally on numerousoccasions and was the Association ofGround Water Scientists and EngineersHenry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer in1994. He provides service to a numberof scientific societies and associationsand has acted as editor-in-chief andassociate editor of several scientificjournals.



As Earth scientists we are awarethat objects (sometimes really BIGobjects) have impacted Earth in

the past. As keen natural observers, oftenworking in pristine, non-light-polluted partsof our world we have a better than averagechance of seeing celestial objects flash acrossthe sky but few of us have had theopportunity to get up close and personalwith a recent impact site, However, this isexactly what happened last Fall in a remotepart of Peru near the border of Bolivia.

At 11:45 on the morning of September15th 2007 a meteorite landed about 5 km from the Bolivian – Peruvianborder near the village of Carancas inPeru. The site location is shown inFigure 1 at 16º 39’ 32” S; 69º 02’ 38”W and at an elevation of 3,824m. Theimpact created a moderately large craterabout 13 - 14m (~ 45 feet) in diameter.The rim of the crater is between oneand two metres in height and the crateris at least 4 m deep. The impact tookplace on the floodplain of a large riversystem. There were reports of peoplesmelling sulphur and stories of peoplebeing ill. Some have theorised that

noxious gases were released from themeteorite or that the impact releasedgases with arsenic from the water table.However, I think a simpler explanationmight be that hydrogen sulphide wasreleased from organic debris trapped inthe sediments around the impact site.Looking at the detailed images availableon Google Earth of the area west of theimpact site it appears that this is aregion that may have permafrost,and/or has been recently glaciated sincethere are a number of depressions thatresemble kettle holes or thermo-karstmelt holes. Michael Farmer, a meteoritecollector who visited the site suggestedthat the meteorite likely weighed about10 tons on impact. His site athttp://meteoriteguy.com/carancas.htmis interesting and has some excellentimages of the impact site.

Material recovered by Peruvianauthorities (see):www.ingemmet.gob.pe/paginas/pl01_quienes_somos.aspx?opcion=320 showthat the meteorite is a chondrite (stonymeteorite) with a composition of about50% pyroxene, 20% olivine and 10%feldspar. The remainder is made up of15% kamacite (a 90:10 alloy of iron

and nickel) and 5% troilite (an endmember of the iron sulphide mineral,pyrrhotite). The troilite end member israre in crustal rocks but is relativelycommon in meteorites. There were alsotraces of chromite and native copperpresent.

Specimens of the Carancas meteoriteare now being sold for about $ US10/gram. The full scientific results ofthe examination of this relativelyunusual meteorite have not yet beenreleased.

Alan V. Morgan

Things that go bump in the night

Figure 1: Location of the Carancas, Peru,impact site near the south end of Lake Titicaca.

Figure 2: The Carancas impact site (top) with afragment (lower left). Note that the “crust” is aresin coating used to bind the specimen forthin-sectioning. It is not an ablation rindfrequently found in meteorites. Thin sectionsillustrating the largely pyroxene/olivine natureof the chondrite are shown on the lower right.


Figure 1: Kenton’s Rock in the Peter RussellRock Garden

Kenton’s Rock Story

Figure 2: Kenton’s Rock loaded for shipping inWeyburn, Saskatchewan.

I started my life two billion years ago asmolten magma in an area wherevolcanoes formed along the edge of anexpanding ocean basin. Most of themagma in my chamber was released onthe seafloor, where it cooled formingbasalt pillow lava. I was lava that didnot make it to the seafloor. I cooled andsolidified in a vertical fracture to form amafic intrusion.

Figure 3: An expanding ocean basin

Figure 4: Pillow Lava

Other rocks originated in this oceanbasin, including sedimentary rocks thatformed when layers of mud, sand andgravel, deposited on the sea floorbetween periods of volcanic activity,were subsequently buried andhardened. Time passed and all theserocks were pushed deep under growingmountains where they weretransformed by heat and pressure intometamorphic rocks forming an areanow known as the Canadian Shield.

Figure 5: Growing mountain range

When I originally cooled andcrystallized to form basalt rock Iwas made up mostly of blackminerals. During metamorphismthe black minerals weretransformed into greenish chlorite.Areas composed of lava andsediments like mine form part ofthe Canadian Shield called“Greenstone Belts.” GreenstoneBelts contain mineral deposits. Gold

is one of the minerals searched for inmy type of rock. Gold is found in stresscracks filled with quartz veins. Watertraveling through the rock layers

dissolved minerals from thesurrounding rocks concentrating them.I, together with other igneous andsedimentary rocks, were squeezed,folded, and sheared again and again,deep in the earth. Stress cracks formedat different times, and were filled withwhite calcite veins.

Figure 6: Stress Cracks

Time passed, and the mountains wereeroded. Erosion took away a 20kilometre thick blanket of rocks andwashed them out to sea as fine sandand gravel. These sediments wereeventually buried deeper and deeperand began to form new sedimentaryrock. About 30 thousand years ago, thelast massive continental ice sheet of theIce Age moved across Saskatchewanand plucked me from the surroundingrocks near Flin Flon. As I wastransported in the ice to the Weyburnarea in southern Saskatchewan, I wasscratched in two directions leavingscars on my surface which indicate thatsomewhere along my journey thedirection of ice movement changed.When the ice melted, I fell to thesurface of the ground along with sandand other rocks, large and small, toform the glacial deposits which are nowthe site of the sand quarry from which Ibegan my final journey to Waterloo.


Kenton’s RockFran Haidl and Peter Russell


Remembering Kenton Carnegie,University of Waterloo GeologicalEngineering Student

Kenton Joel Carnegie, a third-yearUniversity of Waterloo GeologicalEngineering Student, was admired

as a leader, scholar and friend amongst hisclassmates. He was actively involvedwithin the school community as a memberof the Engineering Society and a classrepresentative for communications betweenprofessors and students, all whilemaintaining grades that far exceeded theclass average.

In November 2005, Kenton Carnegiedied tragically on a work termplacement in Northern Saskatchewan.In memory of their good friend Kenton,the Geological and Environmental-Civil

Engineering classes of 2007 are raisingfunds to purchase a memorial tocommemorate his life.

Kenton had an idea for his class whenthey graduated. Their gift to theUniversity of Waterloo would be a rockfor the Peter Russell Rock Garden,located near the B2 Green. Kenton’sclassmates want to make his dream areality, commemorating his wonderfullife. On behalf of and as a dedication toKenton, his classmates raised money topurchase a rock for the Peter RussellRock Garden.

Visit me in my new home and sit onme. Remember the interesting times Ihad over billions of years andcontemplate Kenton’s fascination withthe land, its formation and beauty.

Kenton was searching for uranium in arock called the Athabasca Sandstonewhen he was working in northernSaskatchewan.

Figure 7: Kenton Carnegie

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

3. Alumni Celebration - Facultyof Science Alumni

6. Things that go bump in thenight - Alan V. Morgan

8. Kenton’s Rock - Fran Haidl andPeter Russell

9. The Opening of the WaterlooGeoTrail; a Canadian contribu-tion to the International Yearof Planet Earth. - Alan V.Morgan

14. Matachewan Porphyry - BillPlavac and Peter Russell

15. A volcano of a different kind -Alan V. Morgan

18. IYPE - International Year ofPlanet Earth - G. Nowlan

19. Mineral Two on Mohrs’ Scale(or) some really BIG selenitecrystals. Alan V. Morgan

EDITORIAL

(see text), more museum visits and theFall Mineral Show and other events tothe end of term.

So this issue contains a smorgasbord ofadditional materials including a reporton the giant gypsum crystals of theNaica Mine in Mexico, a “small”meteorite impact in Peru, and arunaway Indonesian mud volcano.Also included is Kenton's Rock Storyabout a metabasalt brought to thecampus in memory of one of ourstudents killed by wol ves on his co-opterm in Saskatchewan together with abrief report on a Matachewanporphyry, a recent donation by theCentral Canadian Federation ofMineralogical Societies to the rockgarden. Finally another reminder that2008 is the International Year ofPlanet Earth!

Best wishes to all!

Alan Morgan

Peter and I feel considerable reliefthat this issue of What On Earth isfinally complete. This year has been

very busy for both of us dealing with the50th Anniversary for the University andthe 150th Anniversary of the founding ofWaterloo. This has meant extra work intrying to arrange events for both “townand gown”, starting with Peter EtrilSnyder’s painting of a huge muraldepicting Cretaceous dinosaurs. This wascompleted at one of the local malls withtownspeople and lots of childrenparticipating in dinosaur talks and petrock clinics. The formal unveiling of thepicture was at the university and coincidedwith a well-attended public lecture onAlberta dinosaurs by Phil Currie.

Later in the year we had celebrationsfor 50 distinguished alumni from theScience Faculty (mentioned in thetext); the celebration of Chris Barnes’honorary D.Sc. (also accompanied by a public lecture on the NEPTUNEProject). This was followed by theopening of the GeoTime Trail

The Geotime Trail is designed to bea 4.567 km long trail that willeventually make its way from a

common start and end point as a loop trailvery close to Columbia Street West inWaterloo. The distance of the Trailcorresponds to the current estimates of theage of the Earth at 4.567 billion years.Every metre along the trail represents onemillion years of geological time, and eachsingle millimetre represents 1,000 years.

Plans for the GeoTime Trail and theinitial “Talking Signs” were broughtforward to the City of Waterloo in 2001and the concept was subsequentlyenthusiastically endorsed by the City’sTrails Committee. The “Talking Signs”- signs with an audio track - werecompleted in 2002 (see below) inconjunction with an educationaloutreach project called the GeoscapeGrand River Project and were placed at two locations on the moraine (seeFigure 1).

The Talking SignsThe Waterloo Region lies within theGrand River basin in southern Ontario,and is part of a rapidly urbanisinglandscape(http://www.geoscapegrandriver.ca/about_geoscape.html). The City ofWaterloo together with Kitchener, withwhich it shares a common conurbationborder, are situated on the WaterlooMoraine that provided both cities withall of their water up to the late 1980s.Citizen and Environmental groups have


The Opening of the Waterloo GeoTimeTrail; a Canadian contribution to theInternational Year of Planet Earth.For further information contact: [email protected]://www.iypecanada.org/media/pages/media/iype_mediakit.pdf http://www.city.waterloo.on.ca/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=2106

Figure 1: Currently installed signs (2 - 1,300 million) marked in yellow completed in Phase 1. The “Talking Sign” positions are also indicated.Future urbanization on the Westside Lands (west of the central Forested Hills area) has prevented the completion of the trail loop to the west.An approximate route is indicated by orange dots, although the final trail may not take this route and will be longer than that indicated.


been trying to protect the west side of both cities from urban expansionsince this is now bordering on impacting the recharge areas of the localaquifers.

For this reason two audio signs were designed to educate the public on theimportance of the moraine and how Earth scientists look at the records ofpast environmental changes preserved in ice-block melt depressions.These were labelled “The Waterloo Moraine” and “Kettle Lakes”.

By activating a push button (left) a soundtrack (about 90 - 120 seconds)explains the signif-icance of the moraine, the late Quaternary history ofice retreat and the kettle lakes of the region.

Both of these signs have become incorporated into the general flow of theGeoTime Trail but are located slightly off the main pathway so as not toconfuse the geological order of the Trail.

The GeoTime Trail (Phase 1) The GeoTime Trail will be a closedloop covering a distance that can bewalked in 1 to 1.5 hours (a reasonabledistance for a healthy workout).Participants can walk either way alongthe Trail although it would be sensibleto walk from the origin of Earth towardthe present (i.e. clockwise) to see thegradual evolution of the planet asevents occurred. However, at this timeonly the last part of the trail is sign-posted. For this reason it would beappropriate to start the walk at the“Waterloo Moraine talking sign”(Figure 1), and walk toward the end ofthe Trail. As explained above the Trailwill be completed over the next fewyears as the Vista Hills developmenttakes place on the west side of theForested Hills. Funding for Phase 1 ofthe Trail was provided by the CanadianGeological Foundation and the City ofWaterloo.

The Opening of Phase 1 of theGeotime TrailThe Waterloo GeoTime Trail wasopened on Sunday, October 21, 2007.The weather was fantastic; - blue skies,not a cloud in sight, and warm at 23º C.

The crowd assembles just prior to the openingceremony. City dignitaries, members of thelocal universities and citizens from severalsurrounding communities gathered on theWestside of Waterloo. Waterloo is alsocelebrating its 150th Anniversary as well asbeing named as the World’s Top IntelligentCommunity in 2007.

The “official” ribbon cutting ceremony. (Fromleft to right; Brenda Halloran, Alan Morgan,David Johnston and Terry McMahon).

The opening was attended by well over200 people. Over 150 completed the 3.0km roundtrip walk from the ribboncutting area to the start of the trail. Theribbon cutting ceremony was conductedby Mayor Brenda Halloran representingthe City of Waterloo and the Universityby David Johnston (President), TerryMcMahon (Dean of Science) and AlanMorgan (Professor, Department ofEarth and Environmental Sciences).

Following the ribbon cutting a piper ledthe way to the first sign; - illustratingwhat happened at the time of formationof the geologically oldest rocks beneaththe region about 1.3 billion years ago.

Phase 1 of the GeoTime Trail hasresulted in ten signs that cover the last1,300 million years of geologic time.

This time frame represents the oldestrocks below the Waterloo Region.Unfortunately rock sequences are notexposed in Waterloo because the area iscovered in a thick sequence of glacial

sediments and there are multiple timebreaks in the stratigraphy of the region.However, rocks of Silurian age andolder are present in the subsurface andmany of the deeper water wells and oiland gas exploration wells in the regionhave penetrated rocks of Paleozoic ageand some have reached thePrecambrian “basement” some 850metres below the ground surface.

The third oldest time frame sign erected inPhase 1 illustrates how the region might haveappeared 600 million years ago. The signshows a time scale bar across the top with anoval circle in yellow that marks the position ofboth the time represented and the distance tothe end of the Trail. Additional “Science facts”are provided for that time frame and the logosof the supporting groups are in the bottomright.


City of Waterloo surveyor (and piper), FinleyMacLennan, leads the way at the opening ofthe GeoTime Trail. The local CTV station(CKCO) video crew joined over 150 participantsalong the GeoTime Trail to the first sign.


The unveiling of the first sign. (Image by AnneMorgan).

At the first sign Alan explained therationale of the Trail, where everymetre represents one million years andeach centimetre, 10,000 years. Localtelevision cameras recorded parts of theopening and the first 700 million yearsof the Trail with some interviews withUniversity of Waterloo President DavidJohnston and a student representingWATROX, the geological club at theuniversity. This was aired on Sundayevening (October 21, 2007) on the localCTV station. Following the explanationFinley MacLennan filled his lungs (andthe bagpipes) and led the crowd ontothe second sign.

The eighth sign, 600 metres from theend of the Trail illustrates events at 600million years ago during Ediacarantime. The front cover illustrationshows one of the panels showing oceanlife at that time.

At each of the following signs Alanexplained what was represented on thesigns and how this fitted into rocksequences that appear in southernOntario from the Niagara Escarpmentwest to the shore of Lake Huron.

The ten signs that illustrate thegeological story of the region are basedeither on local rocks that can be seen

nearby, for example at the Elora Gorgeor on the Niagara Escarpment, and timeframes that show features of geologicalinterest elsewhere in the world.Examples cited are from Australia,different parts of Western Canada andthe United States and from Europe.Parts of the GeoTime Trail that aresteeper are graded for wheelchair accessand these sections are hard surfaced

Devonian rocks, placed as retaining walls along the Trail are richly fossiliferous with corals, - bothsolitary and compound, stromatoporoids, brachiopods, gastropods and crinoid remains.

Top right) one of the illustrations showing what the Waterloo Region would have looked like in the Devonian Period 400 million years ago. (Lower left)Stromatoporoid showing mammalated surface. (Lower centre) Solitary horn corals. (Lower right) Spiriferid brachiopod. All these fossil images are from theretaining blocks along the Westside Trail and are from quarries in the Woodstock area, Ontario. They illustrate marine life in the Devonian Period.

and lined with fossiliferous rock slabsof Devonian age from just west ofWaterloo.

The last sign represents the QuaternaryPeriod, the time frame when humanityappeared and an explanation wasprovided that illustrated humanity’splace on the planet at this point ingeological time. Here Alan re-emphasised the time frames of the Trailwhere each millimetre represents 1,000years. The whole of human historyfrom the city states of Ur and Sumerare present in the last 5 mm of the Trailwhilst the earliest human communitiesdate back the last single centimetre of a4.5 kilometre trail. The Europeansettlement of the Waterloo Region tookplace 0.2 mm from the end of the Trail.

One of the principal objectives of theGeoTime Trail is to provide a learningtool for students of all ages to try torelate to the immensity of geologicaltime; - where geological periods startand end, when different biologicalorganisms appeared on Earth andwhen major catastrophic events tookplace and when (and how) economicmineral deposits such as the Sudburyimpact at 1.85 billion years werecreated. In this way students canmore easily relate to the place ofhumanity on Earth. For example, asmentioned above, all of human historyin terms of agriculture and urbansettlement takes place in the last 10cm of a trail that is almost 4.6 kmlong! The relationship of dinosaurs tohumans can also be clearly seen when

dinosaurs vanished 65 m from the endof the Trail.

The last sign on the GeoTime Trail isplaced in the last metre or so of theTrail and represents “modern” time.

National significanceThe Waterloo GeoTime Trail is the firstof this type in Canada and is one of theprojects outlined in the Canadiancontributions to the IUGS/UNESCO-sponsored International Year of PlanetEarth that will take place in 2008.Expressions of interest in adopting theconcept have been informally receivedfrom Edmonton, Montreal, Saskatoonand Halifax. Ultimately it is hoped that“GeoTime Trails” with as many as 40or more signs will be established in



EXTRACTION AND DELIVERY OFMATACHEWAN PORPHYRY TOUNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO BYTHE CCFMS PROJECT TEAMOn November 2, 2007, four members ofthe CCFMS and two local Matachewancontractors set out to extract severallarge boulders of Matachewan Porphyryfrom a site in the BannockburnTownship near Matachewan in theKirkland Lake area of Ontario.

The Matachewan Porphyry is made of pink to cream rectangular feldsparphenocrysts from .6 cm across to 2.5 cm ( 1/4 to 1 inch) floating in a dark grey to black country rock.

The Team arrived with backhoe, float,blasting equipment, diamond saw,Pionjar drill and small tools ready forany issue that might make extractiondifficult. The backhoe operator quicklywent to work and removed trees androcks that were in the way of successfulextraction of the specimens.

After several hours of workto clear a way for removalof the specimens, the firstlarge piece was successfullyremoved from the outcrop.The .90 m by .90 m by1.2m (4 ft by 4 ft by 3 ft)piece weighing severaltonnes was destined for theUniversity of Waterloo.Several hours later fourmore large pieces ofMatachewan Porphyrywere successfully removedfrom the outcrop andloaded onto a flatbed truckwith the backhoe. Theywere transported to thetown of Matachewan readyfor loading on November5,2007 on a transport truckheaded for Waterloo andPeterborough.

On November 9, 2007, theUniversity of Waterloospecimen was unloaded andplanted in the university’sRock Garden.

Members of the Teamwere:

CCFMS: Bill Plavac, Doug Dingeldein,Bob Beckett, John Calder

ON SITE: JP Boucher, GerardBernatchez

Matachewan Porphyritic DiabaseFormed during early Proterozoicvolcanism 2.45-2.47 Ga. This rock wasinjected into the Superior Provincecrust as part of the Matachewan dykeswarm. This dyke swarm is one of the

largest plume-generated radiating dykeswarms on Earth and covers over 300,000 km2. It consists of threesmaller swarms, which radiate fromthe Sudbury area.

To begin the process of dyke formationthe Canadian Shield were subjected tostresses as a mantle plume of moltenmagma 1000 km in diameter pushed upagainst the brittle crust causingradiating cracks to appear. Mantleplumes are formed as hot rock from the

many parts of Canada and perhapselsewhere in the world.

Future expansion of the GeoTimeTrailPhases 2 and 3 will see the developmentof the booth for the start and the endpoint of the 4.56 km loop trail togetherwith the creation of an additional 30signs and specific markers that willillustrate additional points in thehistory of Planet Earth. Phases 2 and 3will follow as the Trail is graduallyexpanded over the next few years. Aweb site is being created to furtherexplain the GeoTime Trail.

Matachewan PorphyryDonated to the Peter Russell Rock Garden by the CentralCanadian Federation of Mineralogical Societies in 2007

Bill Plavac and Peter Russell

Continued from page 13

mantle moved upwards, partly meltingwhen they reach shallow depths in theEarths crust. The plume pushed upagainst the crust centered north ofBarrie, Ontario, forming crackstrending northwest. These radiatingcracks filled with diabase and othervolcanic rocks from the reservoirsbelow.

Fractional CrystallizationThe magma in the reservoirs interactedwith rocks forming the magma chamberto produce rocks of different chemistry.As the magma cooled some mineralsstarted to crystallize. In this rock largefeldspars grew. This magma thenerupted and formed the porphyriticrocks such as our diabase. As the

crystals formed and were removed fromthe magma, the chemistry of the liquidchanged and smaller crystals grew. Thisprocess is called fractionalcrystallization.

The dykes on theMatachewan area areapproximately 20m wide andare about 700 to 800kilometres long. Dykesforming today on Icelandwith a width of one metremove along the fracture atabout one kilometre andhour. The Matachewan dykesmay have taken a month toflow along the entire length

of the swarm.

ReferencesFractional Crystallization

http://www.earth.northwestern.edu/people/seth/demos/FRAC/frac.html

As the lava flows into the fractures forming thedykes the lava cools against the surroundingrocks forming chilled margins. This example isfrom the Isle of Skye, Scotland.


Strange and catastrophic events takeplace on our world on a regular andongoing basis. Most of these are events,

especially the larger ones, are “naturalphenomena” caused by the shudders andburps of our planet, but sometimes thesecatastrophes are triggered by human activity.

Occasionally these causes are inadvertent— perhaps involving some unfortunateand perhaps un-thought of combination ofcircumstances that led to disaster. TheFrank Slide in Alberta might be one such

example. However, on other occasions thedisaster was created by humans “whoshould have known better”.

One of these, appearing in news itemsover the past few years, is the Indonesianmud volcano, nick-named “Lusi” nearSurabaya, in East Java. The “volcano”first erupted on May 29th 2006 after theIndonesian oil and gas exploration group,Lapindo Brantas, drilled an exploratorywell that was inadequately protected fromblow out. The results have been

spectacular and pose an ongoing andexpensive threat to the immediateneighborhood of the steaming vent.

Mud volcanoes are not unusual features.They occur in various parts of the worldand have been previously described inWat On Earth. The term is a catch-all,describing phenomena that range fromsmall-scale mud pots that bubble gasesand fine mud in volcanic regions (forexample, Iceland or Yellowstone; Fig. 1),to undersea methane vents from subsea

A Volcano of a Different KindAlan V. Morgan


clathrate deposits to onshore releases ofgases from hydrocarbon deposits, such asthose on the Aspheron Peninsula in theBaku region of Azerbaijan, the area of theworld’s first modern oil wells (Fig. 2).

Lusi (derived from the Indonesian namefor mud (Lumpur) and Sidoarjo (thesmall town in the province of Porong) isan example of the latter (Fig. 3).

What caused the disaster and could ithave been prevented?

It appears that Lapindo Brantas hadtargeted a gas horizon contained withinthe Kujong Formation carbonates. Thisunit is over-pressurised and the lowerdrill string that entered the formation at2,834m depth was not cased; a normal

procedure in areas of oil and gasexploration. At 5 a.m. on May 29th asmall blowout of water, gas and mudoccurred some 200 m southwest of thewell. The cause is assumed to be hydro-fracturing of the overlying units thatallowed the pressurized water, gas andmud to flow to the surface.

The physical results over the past 19months have been spectacular; theeconomic effect for the region devastating,and, for the local inhabitants, absolutelycatastrophic.

In September 2006 the flowing mud brokethrough an emergency dyke systemflooding paddy fields inundating almost2.5 square kilometres and displacing11,000 villagers from eight villages near

the vent. Two months later at least 11people were killed from a pipe-lineexplosion, likely caused by susbsidence inthe area. By February 2007 the mud flowshad covered 3.6 km2 and were up to 10mthick (Fig. 4). Four small villages hadbeen buried together with 25 factories, acemetery, 15 mosques and 18 schools, amajor toll road as well as smaller roadsand a railway line.

By the end of January 2007 the mudvolcano was producing between 7,000 and150,000 m3 of mud per day (some5,000m3/day in June; 25,000m3 in July;50,000m3 in August and 120,000m3/dayin September). Since that time geologistshave shown that the eruption was a man-made event and not connected to themajor 6.3 magnitude Yogyakarta

Figure 1: Water and mud pool in decomposing rhyolite, Kerlingarfjöll,Central Iceland.

Figure 2: A small methane bubble breaks the surface of a mud volcanoin Baku.

Figure 3: Lusi in 2006 showing the main vent, areas of inundation andtemporary dykes.(Wikipedia).

Figure 4: One of the small adjacent villages flooded by mud and water fromLusi. (Wikipedia).

earthquake that occurred some 300 kmaway two days before the blowout assuggested by company officials. LapindoBrantas was subsequently asked to payclose to US$277 million as compensationand over US$144 million in additionalcosts to seal the well.

Commencing on February 27th 2007 largeconcrete balls weighing about 70kg eachand chained in groups of 4 were droppedfrom a crane into the main vent in thehope that this would stop the flow ofmud. This effort was stopped on March31st.

By the end of March the mud volcano hadgrown to a height of 14m (46 feet), whilethe surrounding land had sunk about30cm from the start of the eruption. The

inundation zone had expanded to 6 km2.Efforts to channel the mud into a nearbyriver and from there to the sea wererelatively unsuccessful because of theviscosity of the mud.

In May 2007 engineers decided that a 15storey dam some 10m (33 feet) thick and120m in diameter would be built aroundthe volcano. The containment walls willconsist of two rings of thick steel pipesencased in concrete up to 48m (158 feet)high. The facility will have a waterextraction unit that will take the liquidcomponent via a chute to a nearby riverfor disposal while the more solid fractionwould remain to act as a sealing “plug”over the main vent area. The dam isexpected to take 8 months to complete

and a geology museum and a park will beadded.

The latest information shows the area ofinundation to be about 7km2 (Fig. 5) andprojected to go to 10km2. The clean-upcosts are expected to go to more thatUS$1 billion. There is a chance of majorsubsidence in the area and undoubtedlythere will be more to this story in years tocome.

Alan V. Morgan.


Figure 5: Ikonos satellite view showingLusi and surrounding area. The main Balitoll road can be seen broken by floodingin the centre of the image. Factory andhousing complexes (top) are in whitewhere a retaining dyke collapsed and mudhas started to dry out. Retaining dykesare shown and the vent area is beingcircled for a major dam wall.


InternationalYear of PlanetEarth 2007-2009IntroductionThe idea of an International Year of PlanetEarth (IYPE) was launched in 2000 at anIUGS Council meeting. Proclamation of anInternational Year was seen as a potentiallypowerful means of demonstrating how societycould benefit from the accumulated knowl-edge of the solid Earth as part of SystemEarth. Support was provided by UNESCO’sEarth Science Division, making it a joint ini-tiative by IUGS and UNESCO. After broadconsultation, it was decided in 2002 to seekproclamation of the International Year ofPlanet Earth by the General Assembly of theUN, with a view to providing the best possibleexposure to national governments.

On August 26, 2004, the joint Council ofIUGS and the International GeologicalCongress, together representing Earth sciencecommunities in 140 countries and regions,adopted a Declaration on the InternationalYear. This invited UNESCO’s Executive Boardto adopt an International Year of Planet Earth,considering that:the geosciences can contribute significantly toa safer, healthier and wealthier world;this potential contribution is seriously under-used by society and should be substantiallyincreased;Proclamation of an international year underthe aegis of UN member states would help theEarth sciences to make their full contributionto the sustainable stewardship of the planet.

Proclamation of 2008 as the InternationalYear of Planet Earth was effected at the UNGeneral Assembly in New York on 22December 2005. At least three years will beneeded to realize most of the extensive scienceand outreach plans, and the Year’s trienniumwill run from 2007 to 2009.

IYPE is an ambitious program of outreach andresearch activities designed to raise globalawareness of the vast (but often under-used)potential of Earth Sciences to improve qualityof life on the planet. The program envisages asignificantly expanded role for the EarthSciences in building a healthier, safer andwealthier society. The aim is encapsulated inthe Year’s tag line: “Earth Science for Society”.The program is based around ten scientificthemes: Groundwater, Hazards, Earth andHealth, Climate, Resources, Megacities,Ocean, Deep Earth, Soil – Earth’s Living Skin,and Earth and Life, with a strong emphasis onoutreach to ordinary citizens of the planet.More information can be obtained atwww.yearofplanetearth.org.

The Canadian National Committee andits PlansNational committees have been established in

more than sixty countries.The Canadian National Committee (CNC)was established in late 2006 under theChairmanship of John Boyd (seewww.iypecanada.org for a full listing). Itreleased its first brochure in time for the May2007 meetings of Canadian Earth science soci-eties and has recently released a new oneaimed at fund raising (this latter version isavailable as a download under “Media Kit” atthe national web site – see above).

The CNC has adopted a theme entitled:WHERE on Earth, WHERE in Canada inwhich WHERE stands for Water, Hazards,Energy, Resources and Environment. It willfocus its effort on increasing public awarenessof Earth Sciences in Canada. To that end,projects have been solicited from across thecountry and fund raising is currently inprogress to support the projects. About twentyproposals have been made including a newpopular book on the Geology of Canada calledFour Billion Years and Counting: Canada’sGeological Heritage (for more informationplease visit http://cfes-fcst.ca/fby/). The bookwill be a joint product of the CanadianFederation of Earth Sciences and a privatepublisher, yet to be identified. It will be pub-lished in late 2008. Other proposals include aweb site to give details to junior high and highschool students on Earth Science careers,Earth Science through music in the schools, anational lecture tour, a national contest onawareness of the importance of resources inour lives, workshops for teachers of EarthSciences, facts sheets on Earth Sciences aswell as several regional projects in differentparts of the country. One of these is theWaterloo GeoTime Trail mentioned elsewherein this issue.

Former Canadian astronaut, Dr. RobertaBondar is the Honorary Patron of IYPE inCanada.

Some Completed ProjectsA number of projects have already been com-pleted. Canadian IYPE was a co-sponsor of anew Canadian Broadcasting Corporation five-part television series called A GeologicJourney (www.cbc.ca/geologic).The series was shown inSeptember and October 2007 andan advertisement for IYPE wasshown twice during each airingof the shows.

A series of thirty-two fact sheetson Mineral and Energy resourceshas already been released on theGeological Association of Canadaweb site at:www.gac.ca/populargeoscience.These are available for freedownload and are a valuablesource of simple information onmany resources topics includingsuch things as gas hydrates, ura-nium, oil sands, gemstones, min-eral deposits and industrial

minerals. The fact sheets were put together bya team of authors based at the GeologicalSurvey of Canada in Calgary, with contribu-tions from specialists in many institutions.

A poster on the mineral and energy resourcesrequired to build and run a snowmobile hasbeen released by Mining Matters of theProspectors and Developers Association ofCanada in association with staff from theGeological Survey of Canada. This handyposter provides information on the mineralsrequired to build a snowmobile and where inCanada and elsewhere in the world they canbe found.

Another recent release is the Northern BritishColumbia Geological Landscapes HighwayMap a joint project of the B.C. GeologicalSurvey and the Geological Survey of Canada(B.C. Geological Survey, Geofile 2007-1; seealso www.geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca. This is a basicgeological map with descriptions of all the keygeological regions and a compendium of sixty-eight photographs of a variety of geologicallocalities along the highways of northernBritish Columbia. The map covers the areafrom Kitimat and Quesnel north to the borderwith the territories and includes the QueenCharlotte Islands.

A poster has been prepared for display at themany scientific meetings that take place in thelast quarter of the year.

Get Ready and Get InvolvedThe success of the year will depend on boththe accomplishments of the fund-raising cam-paign and the degree to which Canadian Earthscientists support the various IYPE ventures.If all goes well, it could be a banner year forEarth science that results in many productsthat will serve to enlighten Canadians formany years to come.

Godfrey Nowlan, Program Chair, IYPE

Figure 1: Roberta Bondar, honorary patron ofIYPE Canada and Alan Morgan at a meeting

at the University of Waterloo.

Mineral Two on Mohs’ Scale (or)Some really BIG Selenite Crystals

Figure 1: A Selenite (CaSO4.2H2O) crystal. Figure 2: Selenite crystals from central England.

Itrust that most people noticed thespectacular image on the inside cover ofthis issue of What On Earth. I must

admit that when I received this photographtogether with several others about a yearago from a friend in the United States myinitial reaction was … “Well, someone HASbeen busy with Photoshop!” However, alittle checking on the web revealed thatthese are genuine photographs and they tella very unusual tale of an interesting localityin Mexico.

Now I (like many of you) have foundindividual selenite crystals before. Infact selenite and its more massive andshiny siblings (gypsum and satin spar)were some of my favourite mineralfinds as a child growing up in thevicinity of sequences of Triassic marlsin South Wales. On my Saturdayafternoon walks back from the NationalMuseum of Wales in Cardiff, my coastalroute took me along the cliffs atPenarth where nodules of gypsum werefalling out of the face, and, if I wasreally lucky, I could find veins of SatinSpar. Later in my geological career Ifound even larger gypsum crystalsdeveloped in mudflows derived from

Jurassic and Tertiary shales in theMidlands and Eastern England(Figures 1 and 2) and finally saw somereally large crystals exhibited in Tuscon(Figure 3). However, all of them pale incomparison to the specimens found atthe Naica Mine in Chihuahua, Mexico.

The Naica mine is situated at 27° 50' N,105° 29' W; approximately 470 kmsouth of El Paso, Texas. Located incarbonate rocks the mine has beenexploited for galena, sphalerite andsilver within skarns in the Cretaceouslimestones of the region. Hightemperature (55ºC) calcium carbonate-and calcium sulphate-chargedgroundwater have been brought intothe limestone along two large faultsystems known as the Gibraltar andNaica Faults. The hydrothermal waters,likely emanating from, or passing near,regional magma bodies are responsiblefor the deposition of the calcite andgypsum minerals — selenite andanhydrite — as well as the economicore bodies.

The Naica Mine was first exploited in1794 by prospectors who discoveredsilver. By the late 1800s it was beingexamined as a source of lead and zincores and the mine was formally openedin 1900. The Mine was closed in 1922,reopened in 1935 and was taken overby the Penoles Group, the currentowners, in 1961. The Naica Mine’slarge gypsum and calcite crystals (TheCave of the Swords) have been knownsince 1910 (Foshag 1927) and anothersimilar occurrence at the Potosi Mine inSanta Eulalia, near Chihuahua, about100 km north of Naica, was discoveredin 1912 .

In 1910 selenite crystals between oneand two metres long were recordedfrom the Maravilla property (nowwithin the Naica Mine) and theadjacent Lepanto property at depths ofabout 120m. It was assumed by Foshag(1927) that the cavities that housed thecrystals were created by surface waterdissolution and also owe their origin tothe oxidation of sulphide ores. He wasnot able to resolve how the crystals thatare now found in air-filled cavities wereformed.


More recent and far deeper miningexploitation set the stage for the latestdiscoveries within the mine at the 300m(1,000 feet) level. In 1999 the PenolesGroup calculated that regional water levelshad been sufficiently lowered to allowpenetration of the Naica Fault. OnDecember 4th 1999 Juan and PedroSanchez were drilling a new tunnel thatbroke through into a steam-filled cavitythat houses the giant selenite blades in theCave of the Crystals (illustrated on theinside front cover). The crystals were trulyspectacular with grey white and

translucent forms more that 10m long andup to 2m in diameter. These are amongstthe largest crystals ever recorded. Thanksto the forethought of the mining engineer,Roberto Gonzales, action was swiftlytaken to minimize any damage to thisnatural wonder.

The “Cave of the Crystals” is nowprotected by an iron gate to preventvandalism and looting of the crystalsalthough the ambient conditions inside thecavern (60°C and 100% humidity) almostprovide a sufficient natural deterrent!

The cave has been visited by a number ofphotographers and cave explorationgroups and attempts are reportedly beingmade by the Penoles Group to open thecave to the public through installation ofelectrical lighting and air conditioning.Perhaps more on this later.

Reference: Foshag, W.F., 1927. TheSelenite Caves of Naica, Mexico. Amer.Min, V. 12, pp. 252 – 256.

Alan V. Morgan.

Figure 3: (Left) A group of Selenite “swords” about1 m long in the Tucson Desert Museum.

Figure 4: (Right) A person exploring the Naica Minewith giant crystals in foreground.

Publication agreement #40065122Return undeliverable CanadianAddresses to:

What on Earth,Department of Earth Sciences,University of Waterloo,200 University Avenue West,Waterloo, ONN2L 3G1

What on Earth – Winter 2007

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